Herx a "fabricated term"?

I just found this and wondered if anyone would like to comment.

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/heal2.php

Sorry, but I don't agree with this theory.

Our daughter had an increase in bartonella symptoms as a result of using abx and herbs that address bartonella. These symptoms were similar to the ones she was having before antibiotic treatment, i.e that were produced by the body attacking the bacteria and the inflammatory endotoxins produced by the resulting die-off.

These included:
- shin/long bone pain - produced by bartonella infection in the marrow
- Pick-like skull pain - again bone infection

She had these symptoms both before treatment and during treatment. Symptoms would initially increase with a change of abx or an increase of dosage, but would then resolve over the following days/weeks that it took her to detox. Symptoms would then remain at a low level until the next protocol change. If she was indeed being poisoned by the abx I would imagine symptoms would not resolve with detoxing.

These symptoms also seemed very specific to the type of infection (bone and endothelial tissue) that bartonella is known for. As her bartonella titers decreased so did the bartonella-specific pain.

I'm not saying inflammation isn't involved, but I believe that bacterial endotoxins are producing the specific inflammatory cyokine cascades that cause mobilization of the immune system, and thus the specific pain.

This list (from the article):
•nausea
•vomiting
•diarrhoea (diarrhea)
•stomach pain
•drowsiness, dizziness or weakness
•fever and chills (shivering)
•loss of appetite
•headache or irritability
•difficulty swallowing
•producing more saliva than normal
•skin rash
•double or blurred vision
•seizures (fits)
•coma (in severe cases).

was never part of our daughter's herx symptom list.

I totally disagree with that webpage. If her postings were accurate

1) Why would I have herx reactions to antibiotics in lyme treatment, but before lyme AND after lyme I had NO reaction to....

I'm off abx since November last year and on a modified Cowdenprotocol.
I am herxing as bad as I was on abx. Samento made me stay in bed for 2 weeks.
Houttuynia tea made me experience a herx I will never forget, and I'm used to very intense herxing.

The herxing is not just something I feel, it shows in my blood: prostaglandines through the roof, high sedimentation, high creatinine, high gamma globuline, extremely high IL-6 and IL-8 (I'm forgetting some, sorry).
I feel like herxing and the lab results just confirm it.

This is exactly what I told the assistent of that stupid doctor I had to see this week. She said I didn't have Lyme, and that was my answer. She was suddenly very quiet...

Rowingmom,

This stupid doctor was the one who treated me when I was admitted at hospital a few weeks ago, not my LLMD. It was the last time I saw her (I hope), I have another follow-up appointment with her assistent, but I'm thinking about cancelling it.

I can't really tell which abx worked the best for bartonella.

For the first 9 months or so she was taking biaxin/rifampin, A-L, A-Bart and various supplements. Withdrawl of abx resulted in relapse within a month each time.

Then our LLMD switched to mino/azith/plaquinel/malarone, A-L and A-Bart for several months and then added pulsed tindamax. We ended up pulsing that whole group of abx (3 days on, 4 days off) for 4 months. At the end of these 4 months our daughter was no longer having herx reactions at the beginning of the pulses, so we weaned abx.

Testing at this point showed that bart IgG titers had decreased from >180 to 60. Most symptoms were significantly improved.

After all of those abx though, I was still able to induce a significant bartonella herx with A-Bart, so infection was obviously still present.

I decided myself to continue with Buhner's bartonella protocol which we used for 8 months. At that time I added cryptolepis (for protozoan infections) to the mix and found significant improvement in executive function and cognition. Our daughter continues to improve with 1/2 recommended dosages of Buhner's herbs. I have a feeling that we may have been able to treat solely with herbs, but unfortunately I was not of that mindset when we started out.

I am afraid it's not a case of what worked best. You have to throw everything you can at these infections, as well as supporting nutrition and detox (magnesium, MTHFR etc). These may be as important as, if not more so than simply killing the bacteria.

The views on the website regarding The Herxheimer Reaction are ignorant and typical of why reading health-related things on the internet should be done with caution ..

Everyone becomes an expert

I will say this: one of the most profound detox/herx type reactions I have ever had occurred just last week - I was NOT using herbs and I was NOT using antibiotics ...... I had begin Tapping Therapy, which, when I began, seemed innocuous enough - even a bit ridiculous ... But the poisoned, nauseous avalanche that followed, complete with one of the biggest nightsweats I have ever experienced, slapped me into reality ...

Tango, tell me more abou that tapping