Is this a herx?

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles but hope you're starting to get better. Anything involving the heart is always frightening.

At this stage I think pretty much anything can be caused by a herx or, more likely, a flare-up. If it's a herx, then the symptoms would hopefully resolve when you stop treating. But if it's a flare-up, it becomes more complicated.

I don't have a good answer for you, but I've also had periodic heart issues related to my tickborne infections, including just yesterday, and so far they've always resolved eventually.

sounds like herx to me also Blazer

i have had pretty wild CBC results on the very odd occasions i happened to have a routine CBC done when i was in the middle of one - things like one or other white blood cell type way outside range.
on that occasion my herx was caused by herbs also - but i suspect ABX can so a similar thing
i don't think its that unusual - it seems to settle down again as the herx subsides

sida and houttuynia both caused pretty strong herx reactions for me
sida seems about the most potent in terms of herx generated - and i would feel it within a day at 15 drops a day or more initially
but i was able to build up gradually over time - while staying under the intolerable herx threshold - (timescale was approx. 12 months) and now take approx. 180 drops a day

i did have some arrhythmias etc during this ramp up phase - but the herbs definitely helped move me forward

the doses for houttuynia are higher - and i found the herx crept up on me over time more - taking a week or so to peak - again i built up over time starting from below the dose needed to cause herx - and now take around 13ml a day (Note - 1ml is approx. 40 drops from a dropper )

these are around the max long term doses suggested by Buhner

my starting doses were approx. 1/20th of target dose

bye the way - all my heart tests came back more or less normal - despite my acute heart attack type symptoms
-EKG
-CAT Angiogram
-Echocardiogram
-all the blood tests - troponin etc

i suspect the cause is cardiac microvascular dysfunction - driven by infections that damage the microvasculature - and are also themselves associated with heart issues ( lyme and bartonella in my case).

CMD is found to be the cause of around 30% of angina cases - cases where there are no structural or electrical anomalies appearing on scans etc
its not a well understood phenomenon - but we can assume with reasonable confidence that infectious triggers and the immune system is involved
mine flares whenever inflammation goes up from antimicrobial treatment

i hope its of some help to you

all the best!

FWIW, I also experienced pretty strong herxes with houttuynia.

Garzie, your thoughts on the cause of heart issues are intriguing if somewhat disturbing. Interestingly, among the many supplements I've tried simple hydrolyzed marine collagen has been helping the most recently. I take 10 grams per day.

hi thanks for all the answers they have been very helpful!

it really was reasuring to find that you, garzie, have had elevated wbc in the past from herxes aswell.

to answer the questions:
i take ginseng for energy purposes yes. boron is for inflammatory support. there was a study in phoenix rising that it can be useful to combat excess inflammation.

btw: i have supected bart but sida acuta and houttouynia are pretty good antimicrobials also more or less hitting chlamydia aswell i believe. not sure abt lyme but i tend to believe my issues currently come from chlamydia pneumonae and chlamydia trachomoatis....
lyme antibiotics have never worked for me besides doxycycline and minocycline thats why i have falsly turned my back on antimicrobial treatment. now i am more or less back, finding out that my lyme test may be a false positive (that can happen with elisa) and i actually have other bugs like chlamydia and maybe even bartonella....

hope that explains more

BlazerGermany said...
i tend to believe my issues currently come from chlamydia pneumonae and chlamydia trachomoatis....

Why do you think so?

I tested positive for chlamydia pneumonae, but the doctor who ordered the test didn't explain the significance and I haven't encountered much information about it. The LLMD who treated me for 2 years was aware of the result but never once mentioned it, and he's one of the better known ones.