New ides to Help Reduce the HERX reactions?

KeepHope, make sure your doctor knows what you are experiencing.  His/her advice should be the first thing to follow.

Herxes are caused from toxins created when the bacteria are killed.  It is important to do things to detoxify.  Some things that can help to detox are exercising, saunas, detox baths, and taking supplements like Milk Thistle, Chitosan, Questran, or Parsley.  Ask your doctor about adding these to your protocol.

I believe some doctors recommend drinking Alka-Seltzer during a herx.  Drinking water with lemon may help some.

Hi KeepHope,

I am so sorry to read that herxing caught you so badly!!

If I remember right, somebody here said activated carbonl was kind of "last exit" when herxing got too much, I do not remember who wrote about it but I think it was one of the veterans, maybe gracie`s mom; I will check if I find it again. I hope you get some relief quickly without being forced to stop your therapy!! dorit

My LLMD recommends Quercetin to help reduce inflammation. He explained it very well - only I went brain dead a minute later so I can't tell you what the heck he said, but you might look it up.

Thank you for that link. It was very helpful. The LLMD told me quercetin reduces cytokins which are inflammatory. That was in the link you posted. Your bodies natural inflammatory reaction to all the toxins (as well as the toxins themselves) can make your symptoms much worse.

I remember seeing on the Envita site that lyme leaves it's antigen (described as it's "foot print") on your cells and then your immune system attacks your own body. The lyme bacteria change protein "overcoats" to remain invisable to your immune system - so much of the pain experienced is an inflammatory response of our bodies against our own tissue etc.

The site you gave also points out that an overgrowth of yeast can cause all the symptoms associated with lyme so you need to be careful about that. THe primary ingredient in the herbal compound given to me by the LLMD is grapefruit seed extract. I think it is a good idea to quit abx for a few weeks now an then to attack the yeast problem and get it under control. You probably know when you have it, there is a white coating on your tongue. When I have it really bad, my tongue turns greenish.

I think you can search drug interaction and drug/herbal interactions and find sites where you can list everything and it tells you if something cannot be taken with something else. It is very common that grapefruit cannot be used with many drugs.

What symptoms are you having? Are you using the generic cholestyramine- it comes in a tub and I found increasing to 3 times per day helped. The packets of cholestyramine have artificial sweetners and colors and they are often not well tolerated/as effective. Also a supplement Pectasol (Douglas) works a bit like a natural cholestyramine. It was expensive but I think it helped me. Also Pinella (nutramedix) helped me with brain fog/symptoms. I found high doses of melatonin really helpful for insomnia (12-15 mg at bedtime), I took and still take this with L-tryptophan 2000 mg (call Swanson's- they have good prices for tryptophan. hope this helps

Buhner the herbalist recommends Sarsaparilla (smilax) to help with herxes. It has anti-inflammatory properties and is somewhat anti-Lyme as well.

Some people recommend Cell Food. I am going to get mine in the mail tomorrow! I hope it helps.