Interesting viewpoint

I have an MD who worked in mainstream medicine for years, but after years of just handing out prescriptions to cover up symptoms, he figured out that there had to be a better way. This man is like no other doctor I have even met. I have been around the medical field for years. He respect his patients, their own "knowingness" about what is going on with their bodies, etc. He goes out of his way to become trained in a new area if a patient presents with something he feels he doesn't know enough about. Since finding out about my Lyme, he has read all of the guidelines, a number of books and is counting down the days to the ILADS Lyme conference in Toronto. All because ONE patient presented with Lyme. I could not see him for 6 months and he would notice if I lost 5 pounds, cut my hair, etc. He really cares.

Anyhow, he has a theory we're putting to the test. He believes that when you contract Lyme, it can trigger other disease responses in the body. So you can go through your antibiotic treatments and if you don't get better it's because other things have turned on in the body and need to be addressed. The Lyme itself can be essentially wiped out, but the residual diseases it creates when it triggers the bodies immune system and kicks it into hyper drive then have to be addressed as well.

I had a lesion in my brain which was slowly growing, as well as chronic inflammation in the mastoid bone behind my left ear, and in the bones by my upper sinuses. After 5 months of antibiotics, the lesion is gone, but NO change has been effected in the bones from the abx. He believes that this inflammation is not caused by the Lyme directly, but rather it is an allergic response triggered by a weakened immune system due to the Lyme. In other words, we have killed the Lyme, but now I am left with a body having extreme allergic reactions due to initial Lyme infection, so now we have to turn that mechanism off.

Knowing what I know about the body, having both a naturopathic and a "mainstream" background of training in college and clinical experience, this makes sense to me. So, I am working with him to see if this theory works. Now instead of taking any more antibiotics, one by one we are going to address the responses which have been triggered and try and shut them back off. This will be done mostly on a cellular level with varying degrees of nutrients, some detoxing and a little use of Western medicine when needed. If you're interested in what we are doing, I will keep you posted. If it works, I think I am going to go to work with him (I would actually be able to work again), help with treatments for other Lyme patients, help with the research and write a book with him and other professionals on it. I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly am keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

Walkingafineline.
It sounds like you have found a wonderful doctor!! Congrats! It is so encouraging to hear of docs who really will learn more to better serve their patients!! And that fact that you will be able to not only go back to work, but be able to work with this doc - WOW!! That's huge!!!! Congrats!!! It must be quite exciting!! Anytime a regular Western Medicine doc turn into a Holistic Doc makes it seem like enough reason to throw a big party!!! In Holistic Medicine the point is to take good care of the whole body, while at the same time addressing the infections (or whatever is going on). My Acu doc is adamant about having 'supportive care'. Like addressing my thyroid, adrenal, intestinal, liver/gall bladder and any other issues as well as going after my TBI's. She believes it is essential to healing.

Unfortunately though, the others are right - this is not a new idea. It is fairly well known that Lyme triggers an inflammatory nightmare. Trying to get it to turn off is the challenge - form what I understand.

I wold be interested to follow your results as you go through this treatment to see how well his choices of nutrients helps you! I would also love to know if he can figure out the right combo of nutrients with other patients as well.

Very interesting!!! Thanks for sharing and best of luck on your new endeavor!!

Yeah, I know it's not a new theory, but he's trying to approach it a little differently. There is some doctor who discovered some blood test that is supposed to be able to help you hone in on where the greatest concentration of disease is in the body. It does this at a cellular level, but I am not sure of how yet. I am trying to learn more details about it. My doc works with this guy. He used this test as part of his research in determining how to effectively reverse type II diabetes. His research has been published on the subject and he does it all without using any drugs. He's had a rather excellent success rate in the area. I figure it's worth a shot to work with him on it and see where it goes. The worst that will happen is nothing.

Big Pharma controls the insurance companies, and Big Pharma pays a lot of money for political lobbyists. They don't care about what the doctors say. They care about their profits. When some drug company can develop drugs to "treat" or "prevent" Lyme and can patent it to make loads of money, then the insurance companies will eventually cover those particular treatments which are the ones the FDA will approve and more measures to make alternative treatments impossible to receive will be put in place. Of course, those FDA approved drugs will have side effects like suicide, liver failure and the likes, but that's what they'll tell us we have to take. The system is broken. Very broken. Doctors won't fix it. We have to fix it by somehow re-establishing a government by the people and for the people, not one that operates for money. My opinion, of course, based on my own observations.

Post Edited (walkingafineline) : 8/18/2011 2:08:02 PM (GMT-6)