Good afternoon, everyone! I'm posting again because I've read some pretty interesting articles about
the benits of using Benicar to stop, or slow down the inflammatory progession of lyme. In my explanation, I'm gonna get a little techncal, so please bear with me!
O.K., here goes! I found an interesting article written by Dr. Scott Taylor (who is a lyme sufferer himself) on the pathogenesis of lyme, and how it causes a self-perpetuating inflammatory disease. In fact, the article goes on to state " .... the molecular component of the pathogen .... are the bacterial lipoproteins (BLPS) which are found within the outer surface proteins of the borrelia cell membrane." BLPs are fat-soluable toxins and are often a structural part of the borrelia cell membrane and are very potent immunomodulators even in small amounts. Thus, a few borrelia can produce enough BLPs to initiate significant disease. It goes on to explain that BLPs trigger many harmful responses in tisses and organ symtems of the human body and produce symptoms such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, neurological signs, psychiatric disorders, immunologic dysfunctions, and endocrine deficiencies. Bottom line, they can make you really, really sick!
Dr. Scott further explains that it is his opinion that the inflammation triggered by the fat-soluable BLPs toxins is responsible for most, if not all symptoms of borreliosis. So, the innate immune system and the acquired immune system are strongly triggered by the presence of the borrelia BLPs. Wow, what a statement and it actually makes sense to me!
Following that logic, he states that the build up of these BLPs toxins also cause channelopathy, which lead to a dysfunction of signals along neurons, muscles and cells making them easily excitable, but not able to discharge correctly. This can attribute to numerous symptoms such as anxiety, paresthesias, and tremors that many lyme disease patients have. When borrelia is killed (such as with abx) the BLP's are released from then and patients experience a nerx reaction, which in severe cases this response can be quite acute.
The article I reference above then lead to Dr. Scott's explanation why he thinks Benicar, an angiotensin receptor blocker, could, or can be a "medical miracle for those suffering with chronic borreliosis. Please bear with me one more time while I go through the reasons for his conclusion:
So, BLP's activates the innate immune system through what are called Toll-like receptors (TLR). Many cell types throughout the body carry the TLR receptors and these receptors are able to recognize patterns unique to microbioal pathogens (lyme). The body uses TLRs to detect the presence of many microbial pathogens, not just lyme. The TLRs that are most likely involved in lyme are TLR 2, 6 and 1, but TLR 2 likely plays the major role. Dr. Scott says research proves that when BLPs activate the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) this stimulates the gene expression for inflammatory cytokines. Thus, why lyme is know as an inflammatory disease!
Dr. Scott studies with Dr. Trevor Marshall who has written many articles on possible treatments for lyme and associated diseases. Some of which, to be honest, I found a little "out there". However, when Dr. Marshall was trying to develop a new treatement protocol for another inflammatory disease, which can be triggered by lyme, he discovered that using an Angiotensin Receptor Blocker, such as BENICAR, the inflammatory cascade is interrupted in lyme patients. Dr. Marshall and Dr. Scott believe that the discovery that during the pathogenesis of lyme the BLPs trigger inflammation via TLR signaling the expression for inflammatory cytokines. When the inflammatory cascade goes chronic, it eventually goes into the self-perpetuating cycle which produces disease symptoms. They believe their research has provided the model for the pathogenesis, and also the therapeutic approach that will break the perpetual cycle of inflammatory!
I'm so sorry that I felt I needed to get very technical with my explanation, but could this really be the "medical miracle" for putting the breaks on the inflammatory cascade so well known by lyme patients? Even Dr. Burrascano talks about the "inflammatory cascade" in his guidelines, and attributes "chronic lyme" symptoms to this problem.
Thus, if you block this process by using an angiotensin receptor blockage like BENICAR, the perpetual cycle of inflammation can be broken and maybe, just maybe the symptoms will resolve! Am I crazy, but for some reason this makes sense to me!!
Please, please forgive me for this "book", but I'd really like any and all opinions or feedback you have on this possible treatment. Have any of you ever heard of this? Has anyone ever tried it? BTW, neither doctor suggests stopping antibiotics, only supplementing with BENICAR.
Thanks for your patience with me - best wishes, prayers and hugs to all!