saraeli said...
Hi, good people of the forum,
Recently I watched a presentation by a doctor who believes that Lyme can be acute, chronic, or (eventually, possibly) autoimmune. (The doctor is very public about treating Lyme and has published books about it, so I would think that I could include his name without violating forum guidelines? But not positive.) I have heard elsewhere that Lyme makes a person more prone to other known autoimmune disorders, True but the notion of Lyme itself becoming an autoimmune disorder is sticking with me, and I'm hoping to wrap my head around it a bit better with the help of other on this forum who either have autoimmune Lyme or have read about it.
My understanding is that when the immune system first sees an invader, it mounts a strong response, and if the initial response isn't strong enough, then the invaders mutate Mutate is not necessarily correct term, relocate is better. slightly over time to evade the immune system's antibodies, which then become confusedNot confused but they attack a similar chemical structure which may or may not be foreign. I feel it often is foreign. and attack healthy tissue, especially in areas with previous immune system activity (injuries, infections, etc.). We know that Lyme is very crafty, both in terms of changing its form to evade treatment and antibodies (cell wall-deficient, cysts, biofilms) and in terms of mutating slightly over time (the DNA ConneXions test tests for mutations).
So how do we know whether our Lyme infection has turned autoimmune? This doctor said that people who react poorly to immune-boosting treatment may have an autoimmune form of Lyme. I disagreeHe talked about ways to assess treatment plateaus, herxes, detoxification needs, and reactions to the treatment itself (MCAS, side effects, allergies) to differentiate them from an autoimmune response, but honestly that part felt muddled, and I am hoping someone can advise me about how to tell the difference. He said treatments that "don't utilize your immune system," like rife and pharmaceutical antibiotics, All treatments utilize our immune response, just different aspects. Detoxification is part of our immune system, it's just not humoral or innate.are the best options for autoimmune Lyme, and people tend to react best to those if they have autoimmune issues. People who react poorly to many of the Buhner herbs, vitamin C, echinacea, elderberry, etc. - things that increase your immune response - may have autoimmune LymeIt is difficult for me to make that assumption.. I react poorly to all of the above, so now I'm pondering my reactions, trying to remember how they differ, if at all....
I'd feel pretty annoyed if all this time tying to bolster my immune response had been keeping me sick!
Interested in what others have to say about this.
I have a saying that some may not agree with but it is based on my observations over the years. It is "Just because we don't see something doesn't mean it is not there." That simply means we have pathogens that science hasn't even identified as being pathogens. We often look at Lyme with a narrow focus on Borrelia. Borrelia causes a lot of changes to occur in our body and yet we continually focus on the Borrelia. It is the other things and changes that make Borrelia so bad.