Igenex or Fry Laboratories Testing?

Hi,

Sorry I haven't been on in a while. It's been over 3 years now and I'm still dealing with chronic fatigue from Lyme. In addition to the fatigue I've been getting frequent swollen glands, have heat intolerance, and many food sensitivities. These are symptoms that were not present before I had Lyme. I would like to get another test done to see if I still have active Lyme and am debating whether or not to use Igenex or this new company I looked up called Fry Laboratories. I heard that Fry Laboratories is more extensive testing. Please let me know your opinions.

Thanks,

ACF612

Hi ACF612 -

I'm sorry you are struggling right now. I have experienced the chronic fatigue and the other symptoms you mention as others here have so I think we can probably help with some answers.

First, unless you're referencing general digestive issues, I think you probably have leaky gut, which is the primary reason people develop food sensitivities. There are a couple of possible reasons people develop leaky gut - damage to the mucosal lining allows fecal matter, toxins, food particles to seep through the damage and enter the blood stream. When the immune system comes upon this debris, it identifies the food it finds as foreign and starts to react to it, thus creating sensitivities to what you're eating.

Yeast/fungal overgrowth can cause this damage, it's understood that gluten sensitivities can also create this damage, glycophosate and other GI irritants.

So, it might be a good idea to look into leaky gut and try to pinpoint what might have created it and start on the process of correcting and healing your GI first and foremost. Since nearly all of our treatment is taken orally, it needs to be digested and this requires a healthy GI. 70% of our immune system also lies within our GI and Lyme tx can't heal us w/out the support of our immune system. So, untreated GI damage has multiple consequences.

Chronic fatigue can be caused by numerous issues, leaky gut/GI distress, an overwhelmed immune system can certainly cause it, adrenal fatigue or endocrine/hormonal imbalances (thyroid) can cause it, a high viral load can cause it, and some level of all or some of these conditions combined can certainly cause it. So you might need to make some progress in a few different areas to address the fatigue.

And this might require some testing. Might be easier to make suggestions if you share more of what you do and don't know about your health systems, prior testing, etc.

Heat intolerance could be an endocrine/hormonal issue, yeast does NOT like a high body temp, nor does Lyme.

And swollen glands are a little better clue - as they can be the result of a high viral load or a bart or bart-like infection that likes to hang out in lymphs.

It's not at all unusual to relapse from Lyme & Co, but you probably knew that.

Regarding testing, I think Fry Labs is good for bart testing - it found something bart-like for me. And I think IGeneX is probably your best bet for Lyme testing.

Some LLMDs are now using DNA Connexions urine test - it covers more Lyme & Babs strains and coinfections a little more broadly. You don't need an MD order - costs appx $500. But as you probably know, most of the other tests for coinfections really aren't that much more reliable than the WB.

Have you ever filled out Jernigan's sx questionaire? Might help you pinpoint what could be a dominant infection:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3673749&g=3673789#m3673789

I hope you are able to find a good Lyme specialist to partner with - and maybe you can start with a solid detox protocol while you're healing your gut a bit in the meantime.

Hope this is helpful -

-p

Post Edited (Pirouette) : 5/10/2017 10:04:38 PM (GMT-6)

@Pirouette Thank you for the reply. I do believe that I have leaky gut, but I've tried all sorts of clean eating and detox and had no results, so I'm not sure what to do next. I haven't looked into a yeast or fungal overgrowth problem, so I should get tested. I'm probably going to get the Fry Laboratory test and see if anything comes up with that.

Pirouette said...
Hi ACF612 -

I'm sorry you are struggling right now. I have experienced the chronic fatigue and the other symptoms you mention as others here have so I think we can probably help with some answers.

First, unless you're referencing general digestive issues, I think you probably have leaky gut, which is the primary reason people develop food sensitivities. There are a couple of possible reasons people develop leaky gut - damage to the mucosal lining allows fecal matter, toxins, food particles to seep through the damage and enter the blood stream. When the immune system comes upon this debris, it identifies the food it finds as foreign and starts to react to it, thus creating sensitivities to what you're eating.

Yeast/fungal overgrowth can cause this damage, it's understood that gluten sensitivities can also create this damage, glycophosate and other GI irritants.

So, it might be a good idea to look into leaky gut and try to pinpoint what might have created it and start on the process of correcting and healing your GI first and foremost. Since nearly all of our treatment is taken orally, it needs to be digested and this requires a healthy GI. 70% of our immune system also lies within our GI and Lyme tx can't heal us w/out the support of our immune system. So, untreated GI damage has multiple consequences.

Chronic fatigue can be caused by numerous issues, leaky gut/GI distress, an overwhelmed immune system can certainly cause it, adrenal fatigue or endocrine/hormonal imbalances (thyroid) can cause it, a high viral load can cause it, and some level of all or some of these conditions combined can certainly cause it. So you might need to make some progress in a few different areas to address the fatigue.

And this might require some testing. Might be easier to make suggestions if you share more of what you do and don't know about your health systems, prior testing, etc.

Heat intolerance could be an endocrine/hormonal issue, yeast does NOT like a high body temp, nor does Lyme.

And swollen glands are a little better clue - as they can be the result of a high viral load or a bart or bart-like infection that likes to hang out in lymphs.

It's not at all unusual to relapse from Lyme & Co, but you probably knew that.

Regarding testing, I think Fry Labs is good for bart testing - it found something bart-like for me. And I think IGeneX is probably your best bet for Lyme testing.

Some LLMDs are now using DNA Connexions urine test - it covers more Lyme & Babs strains and coinfections a little more broadly. You don't need an MD order - costs appx $500. But as you probably know, most of the other tests for coinfections really aren't that much more reliable than the WB.

Have you ever filled out Jernigan's sx questionaire? Might help you pinpoint what could be a dominant infection:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3673749&g=3673789#m3673789

I hope you are able to find a good Lyme specialist to partner with - and maybe you can start with a solid detox protocol while you're healing your gut a bit in the meantime.

Hope this is helpful -

-p

I would agree with TrialbyLyme. While I do believe that this doctor is doing a lot of really great and superior work on some things, he has a tendency to ignore Lyme. I can't say that all those that have been told by this doctor really do have Lyme and not Protomyxzoa Rheumatica, ir does seem odd that he claims to be the only one that can treat that infection, has published no papers on this, and yet nearly all Lyme patients he tests has that instead of Lyme.

Just something to be aware of, and to make sure that you do your own research as well.

ChickenArise said...
I give the nod to Fry Labs. Next generation DNA sequencing is what they use and this is needed for all the funky mixed DNA organisms that have been turning up.

Yes!

I've always had Igenix testing but just got retested with fry for coinfections as they never turn up on Igenix.