Well, to be honest, as absurd as it sounds, that is what a lot of people with Lyme are forced into... Diagnosing and treating ourselves. This is institutional failure on all levels. Your priority right now is to get well so you can get back to helping others ASAP.
But during this journey you can't help but be exposed to some horrible truths about
our governments, and the science and medical industries. I perked up a little bit when you mentioned you were an MD. We desperately need those on the "inside" to understand what is happening with regard to Lyme & co. Otherwise, without first-hand knowledge it is mostly unbelievable.
You'll find that detoxing is a beautiful thing, not really all that complicated if you keep it in balance with your antimicrobials efforts. And soon, there will be few 'alternative' things that sound weird! There is still a lot I don't understands but it's awesome to learn about
interesting things. You get very brave and become quite an adventurer once the medical industry fails you... And there are many herbs that are simply superior to pharmaceuticals---at least anything I can get my hands on--like liver and kidney support. I have the labs to prove it.
You are asking the right questions - safety. Many of these herbs are quite powerful and you could have an unknown natural sensitivity to them---just like pharmaceuticals. I hate to say this but that is one risk with the Vital Plan combo you just bought. With the grouped ingredients, if you DO have a sensitivity to something, you won't know what is causing it. All you can do is try it out very carefully. I have had completely benign experiences with some herbal antimicrobials tincture combo solutions (for Lyme) even at high doses, and have had severe reactions to one for bartonella even at low doses, which sent me to the ER (not because it was dangerous or because I had allergies to it---it was too strong, stirred up too much of the infection too fast for my body to handle). And everyone reacts differently.
I think that can happen with pharmaceuticals, too, but it's not understood well. For instance, a few years ago I suffer end chronic sinusitis and bronchitis and saw 8-9 different MDs, none of whom bothered to culture me and all kept prescribing abx + steroids. I wasn't aware I had Lyme & co at the time so not only did my sinusitis & bronchitis become much worse, my immune system took a dive ( thx to the steroids) and I got VERY ill.
After several rounds of antibiotics over the course of abt 13 months I (not the MDs I was paying) figured out I had a fungal infection that was now much much worse and systemic due to all the abx. 1 hr after my first dose of Diflucan, I had a fainting episode. Now, if you look in the Rx literature, you're warned to stop taking if something like this happens. I was too sick to read anything and too sick to care. And thx to my horrible lamelymebrain memory, I forgot to tell MD and I kept taking the antifungal w/out any further issue.
What I'm convinced happened was--significant yeast/fungus die off, which releases mycotoxins throughout the body--wherever the y/f are -- and it hit the bloodstream and therefore the heart all at once--too much, too fast to be appropriately metabolized and detoxed. BAM! Heart reacts. But if I had followed the directions, I would still have a massive y/f problem.
One great advantage of the herbs is you can often control your dosing, which allows you to start with very low doses, which helps you gauge your reactions and maintain a counterbalanced level of detoxing.
Tiredoflyme.com has some good detoxing protocols. And members here have excellent suggestions. I'd just try to cover all the bases:
- skin is our largest detox organ so it's beneficial to use it---sweating (exercise, sauna), soaks;
- circulatory & lymph system (again-exercise, dry brushing)
- digestion - regularity has never been more important to eliminate toxic buildup - many of us are on binders that help with regularity AND detox. OTC binders like charcoal/bentonite clay are good but the best is PURE cholestyramine.
- brain -due to the now scientifically proven brain-gut connection, much of our GI detoxing helps with brain detox. But many of us have also had good experiences with two key herbals that help detox and reduce "psycho-neuro" symptoms - pinella and burbur.
The alkalining you're doing is good w/ lemon water, it's believed that alka seltzer gold helps oxygenate blood.
Some of us find out we are not good detoxers due to DNA mutations. And/or we also have problems with methylation. MTHFR.net is a great site to explain this--I think you'll find it interesting. If that is something you think is worth investigating - skip the blood tests - there are better and cheaper ways of finding out your mutations. Lots of good discussions here about
it.
Since antibacterials kill both good and bad bacteria you'll want to be on a solid probiotic to help replenish the good, which keeps the microbiome in balance and prevents yeast/fungal overgrowth. Take at least 100 billion fresh, multi strained high quality probiotics/day. Garden of Life brand has 34+ strains - the highest I've seen. You'll also want to be on antifungals to prevent y/f overgrowth. There are MANY effective natural remedies - just limit them to two at a time and rotate them out every couple of wks to prevent resistance buildup. Alternatively, you could prescribe yourself PURE Ntstatin powder--here is more info on it toward the bottom of this post:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=1606610&g=3644275#m3644275My neuro shared that many of our lymee sx are from inflammation the microbes and our immune responses cause. So it's important to address that - Japanese knotweed is very popular.
Let us know how the tests turn out! Don't be surprised if they are falsely negative. Studies have shown the Bb microbe can turn off the immune response and cause serrinegativity and also evade the immune system by leaving the blood stream. Most turn out that way. Some people have had luck with taking olive leaf extract 4-5 weeks before testing to provoke a more accurate immune response since these are serology tests.
Hope this is helpful -
-p
Post Edited (Pirouette) : 6/25/2016 6:58:36 AM (GMT-6)