Struggling with Lyme, is Buhner protocol the answer?

Hello everyone,

I have been feeling pretty miserable with what I believe to be chronic Lyme for over a year now. I am 22 years old, and for the first 20 years of my life I never had any real medical issues or allergies. I was rarely in a doctors office other than for annual check ups. I ate anything I wanted and never felt any negative side effects. I don't recall ever being bit by a tick or developing a rash, but in hindsight about two years ago is when Lyme-like symptoms first showed up.

I began to feel like I was in a constant state of brain fog and having constipation issues. I tried removing gluten from my diet and it helped, so at first I chalked all of my issues up to stemming from a gluten intolerance. However, as time went on I began noticing intolerances to more foods and increasing symptoms. I tried to change my diet, but being a college student along with not understanding which foods were really fueling my symptoms, I was not being very strict and was also still drinking alcohol regularly. about a year ago is when my immune system really crashed and lyme took over. After a week on vacation spending a lot of time in the sun and drinking alcohol I got really dehydrated and started having heart palpitations and trouble breathing. After going to the hospital and getting an IV, I was sent on my way and figured I would recover in a couple days.

This is where my typical lyme story starts. The heart palpitations and shortness of breath/air hunger continued. I felt constant weakness and fatigue along with chronic brain fog. The constipation and food sensitivities were at an all time high. I began bouncing from doctor to doctor, having my general practitioner, cardiologists, gastros, endocrinologists, etc. run all kinds of tests with everything coming back normal. Eventually, i was referred to an LLMD who had me tested by igenex. My results were as follows:

18 kDa +
23-25 kDa IND
58 kDa ++
83-93 kDa IND
and everything else negative

I'm not really sure what that means or how to interpret it, but from what I understood from my doctor it was not a positive test, but possible that I do have lyme. Based on the testing and my symptoms, he began treating me for a tick borne illness and prescribed 2 different antibiotics. I was hoping I had finally found my answer, but after two months on the antibiotics I felt like they were just tearing up my gut flora and not helping me at all. My food intolerances were at an all time high, to the point that any sugar at all, even from fruit would give me chills and numb hands and feet. After not feeling any better and seeing some other doctors who strongly disagreed with my long term antibiotic treatment, I decided to stop taking them.

At this point, my main symptoms are constant brain fog and fatigue/weakness, food sensitivities, and constipation. A wide variety of other symptoms come and go, varying in severity. My memory is worsened, I struggle to hold conversations and process information, my balance and coordination is off, and just speaking in general takes more effort. I wake up stiff and sore in the morning and my legs feel heavy throughout the day. I get chills and involuntary muscle twitching. I have trouble falling asleep at night and staying asleep through the night. Heart palpitations and shortness of breath still occur, especially when I eat something that bothers me. Any alcohol, sugar, grains, dairy, nuts and seeds, nightshades, and starches intensify my symptoms.

Currently, I'm strictly following a diet consisting of eggs, meat, and veggies. My typical day is an omelette with onion and spinach for breakfast, bone broth soup with chicken and veggies for lunch, and some kind of protein with roasted veggies for dinner. I recently began trying to treat lyme herbally, following Buhner's protocol of Cat's claw, Japanese knotweed, and andrographis from green dragon botanicals. I just recently got up to the full dosages so it is difficult to say whether or not it is helping.

I guess my first question is does it sound like I have Lyme? I'm pretty confident that Lyme is the issue but am also open to the possibility that this is some kind of autoimmune problem.

Also, has anyone successfully recovered using Buhner's protocol? Im taking the capsules from green dragon botanicals with every meal, is there a better approach?

I'm really at a loss here. I'm at the point where I struggle just to function daily at work, and my social life is completely non existent. I've stopped bothering with doctors because every time I go they run a bunch of tests, tell me everything is normal and refer me to the next doctor. I'm hoping sticking to my strict diet and using the herbal approach helps me, but any advice or input anyone can lend would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome dgriff6350 and it certainly sounds like all of my beginning lyme symptoms.

As for your test results, there is a thread called New To Lyme? Start Here that has an explanation of each band on the Western Blot Igenex test. You can also use this site: www.reocities.com/HotSprings/Oasis/6455/western-blot.txt

Using those charts you can see you have a couple bands (specific for Bb) that are IND - indeterminate. That is what I call a weak positive. And lyme diagnosis is based on symptoms, so your llmd has determined that you do have lyme if he is treating you.

When you take antibiotics, you are absolutely right in that they do destroy gut flora and it is recommended that a probiotic be taken to avoid damage. Sometimes doctors forget to tell us that. And another thing they neglect to tell us is about detoxing. Killing lyme can cause toxins to gather in our organs. On top of that we are already dealing with our every day toxins. This can be a huge overload on us trying to get them out of our body. Detox is how we do this. www.tiredoflyme.com/detox-methods.html This article explains it so much better than I can.


As for Buhner's protocol, I am a huge fan of his. I did Buhner's and my lyme is in remission. It did not happen in a couple of months, it took me some time and lots of herbs and patience. I bought his book and just started taking his herbs in the order in his protocol. I had to make adjustments because I found I was allergic to a couple of his herbs, but I dealt with it. I also could take more of some herbs than his recommended max dose, but on some herbs, I had to take a lot less than his max dose.

Doing Buhner's I did tinctures. I could start out a lot lower and slowly move up with the tinctures. I not only did Buhners, but I also did 2 Beyond Balance products also. I detoxed a lot. I ate very healthy. I stayed away from stress and I really devoted taking care of me over most everything. My housework, cooking and laundry were always behind.

Oh and my social life went kaput. I didn't want to go be with people. It was too hard to keep up with the conversations and most of the social situations were with alcohol and with me being sober I found drinking people to be super stupid.

You can heal. I am glad you have a llmd. That is awesome. Hang in there and ask questions as often as you like. We were in your shoes once and can so relate.

dgriff, Welcome to our forum. I am so glad that you are asking questions. You will find a lot of knowledgable people on this site.

I agree with Psilo, no one answer to treatment is right for everyone. Because each of our bodies reacts differently to the Lyme and co-infections it will often take a unique combination of herbs, antibiotics, or both. Do your research and when in doubt ask questions as you are doing. You will likely try several different things before finally finding the answer.

I am doing Buhner's protocol, at least until I can see my LLMD at the end of the month. Then I will take whatever information I receive from her and combine it with my knowledge as well as bounce it off of the many minds at work here and make a decision.

For me, I use the tinctures. It is so much easier because I can start any new herbs slowly as PeteZa said and also I take a lot of supplements so with tinctures I can just put them all in the same glass in a little juice and down it and not have to add in another pill! The protocol has helped to lessen a lot of my symptoms and I do feel hopeful using it.

Detoxing is so important in this journey. It can help with the brain fog as well as ease a lot of the other symptoms that can get worse when your body is trying to get rid of toxins. Traveler gave you a good site for detox methods.

Know that you have a lot of friends here. You will likely find that there is not a lot of knowledge in the mainstream medical community as well as among your friends and family. You will want to do your best to educate them but then let it go and do what you have to do to get well.

God Bless!

Thank you for the responses. I appreciate the information, advice, and kind words. I definitely need to look into detoxing methods further, as I have not focused on that much to this point. Thanks again and I will definitely reach out with any more questions.

Heat may kill lyme but for me, it was very detrimental.

I have always been a hot shower gal. I mean I would get out of the shower the my skin was red.

With lyme I noticed that those hot showers made me dizzy. I came close to passing out before I figured out that it was the hot water making me so ill.

So, be careful with that heat. I honestly think I could have really hurt myself if I had of passed out in the shower from the heat.

Low and slow goes for everything with lyme - including detoxing.