Lymie24,
I am a registered nurse and certified health coach recently diagnosed with Lyme & Co (bartonella) and am seriously considering Biologix at this time. I have done extensive research into the INPT process and Biologix center, including the clinical trial you referenced in your initial post. I'd like to share with you and others reading this my take on it and what I understand about
INPT as a subset to a complete therapy program. To be clear, I've only recently been diagnosed in January with symptoms that began in August last year, and Bartonella positive as of February. I am not 'desperate' for quick and easy solutions (though it would be nice) but do want to look at all treatment options, then after learning everything I can, make an informed decision. I have an infectious disease apmt in April and an LLMD apmt in May.
Admittedly, over the years as a nurse, I've seen first hand the repeated shortcomings of allopathic medicine and the overuse of antibiotics. Am I against it? Yes and no. My age is a factor, for one. I've already finished a course of Doxycycline for Lyme, which didn't work, as I had expected. But at 61, I'm not really sure I want to subject myself to the gut-damaging effects that many months or years on antibiotics will do to my system. Thus, yes, I comment here with eyes wide
open and admit my thoughts are accompanied with a 'bias,' if you will, just as I 'caught wind' of your bias against chiropractors. ;) Having said that, what can we say about
allopatic medicine and the advances made to help people with Lyme & Co? I'd say that, as both someone within 'the system' and also looking from the outside in, there is much yet to be desired.
First, you referenced the study as 'word salad.' Yet something that might appear as gibberish to one person is entirely understandable to another. I, personally, had no trouble reading and understanding the trial or their process (though with the brain fog from the Doxy it was slow reading). Of course, I do agree that any study, conducted on such a small scale, must be scrutinized and considered carefully, and you or anyone else are right to do so. Certainly, it would be great if more studies like this would be done. Unfortunately, there are no other studies done because it is such a new and emerging field. Because the idea of phage therapy is so new to many of us, I'm not surprised the concept may be difficult to understand for some and certainly do not blame you. Thus, anyone who chooses this mode of therapy must move forward only after careful consideration (just as we would with allopathic choices, such as ID or LLMD) and/or keep our finger on the pulse for newer, updated information in this field before moving forward, knowing that it, too, may or may not be effective for our healing.
Since first reading the INPT trial, I've learned that today literally billions of dollars are being invested by corporations to build phage laboratories all over the world. Why? Several reasons. For one, biologics (homonym of Biologix but having no relation to the Clinic or therapeutic applications of the Clinic) are a class of medications to treat disorders like Chron's Colitis, such as Humira, and are created using phage technology! Also, phages have already been shown to work where antibiotics fail. After spending several weeks reading every last thing about
Lyme, I thought, "Antibiotics for months or years? Has nothing better been created to successfully treat Lyme?" Then I asked myself, " If I could come up with something better, what would it be?" And the answer was instantly revealed to me. Phage therapy! Why? Because I had just read a story one week earlier how a woman's husband, with a stomach abscess, was saved with phages after all antibiotics failed. It was only when I started researching Lyme and Phage therapy that I found Biologix Center. After an entire week on their site and learning everything I could, here's how I look at their INPT (induced native phage therapy).
First, Biologix does not claim to completely eliminate Lyme with their phage therapy. They simply stated the follow-up lab results of 26 people who used the INPT therapy, which reflected no phages in the samples tested. Does this mean it is eliminated? Only time will tell. Of course, it would be nice if they would update their trial to have the same people retest after 6 months, 12 months, etc., up to 5 years post therapy, including a follow-up report of whether or not anyone had a return of clinical symptoms. There are other questions that need to be asked about
this INPT process, but to add them here would make for an even longer post.
Second, Biologix states not a few times on their site that, even though the 'bug' may be gone, the damage to the body may take months or years to heal, if at all. They liken it to a home invaded with termites. Even if the termites are eliminated, there is still damage within the structure. This may account for those who say they did not get better post therapy. I've heard the same exact thing with those undergoing antibiotic therapy as well as herbals. Based on what I've read about
antibiotics, even after finishing the expected 6-month + course, my neurological symptoms can take up to one year to recover (or I may not recover at all) and I may end up with prolonged symptoms. Therefore, whether I go allopathic, functional, herbal, Rife or energy medicine, none of these modalities guarantee I will have complete success. Biologix can, however, allow you to have phage testing pre- and post therapy to see if the phages are present. Even allopathic doctors do not typically test antibodies post treatment, but rely on clinical symptoms instead.
Third, this 'so-called lab' in Belgium is run by the former director of clinical trials at the Pasteur Institute. Incidentally, they also have a lab in Nevada. If you'd really like to understand how their phage testing is done, feel free to go to their site where they have videos posted by Dr. T himself explaining the process. Personally, I feel that phage testing is the next greatest thing yet be discovered by the masses and hope it becomes mainstream for testing Lyme & Co in the near future! As you know, Lyme is not easy to visualize in the blood, leaving many labs to rely on looking at antibodies, and we all know how ineffective they can be, often returning false negative or positive results. Phages, however, do exist in blood samples. Thus, no phages = no bacteria, eliminating the guesswork of whether or not the disease is there. This is because without the Lyme bacteria, the phages cannot live. Even if the phages could invade a different bacteria type, they would need to be able to hijack the bacteria's DNA in order to replicate themselves, which they cannot do. Therefore, if all bacteria are killed, the phages themselves die within days.
Finally, no one area of health care is perfect. Allopathic medicine continues to face challenges because it is broken down into 'systems' and 'specialties,' and does not take the whole person and their internal biome into consideration. Biologix claims they do. Functional/Integrative medicine does better, and I am grateful we have that available, but we haven't arrived yet. Energy medicine is not well understood by many, but it does work. Cell phones didn't exist mainstream before the 1980's, but once people saw how beneficial they were, they loved them. I think it will be the same for energy medicine, like what is offered by companies such as Biologix and the Institute for Restorative Health. I personally feel they are ahead of their time and am excited to see what the next decade will bring in this field for healing those of us that suffer greatly with this insidious disease.
Post Edited (Jewelbug) : 3/7/2022 7:18:08 PM (GMT-7)