You are correct in saying Borrelia burgdoreri is not your only infectious problem. It is one of many pathogens your body works to eliminate. What you have to do is find the happy medium in killing pathogens. Your question is basically "What do I do?" I can't speak of what you should do but I can tell you what I would do. The first thing I would do is to evaluate what I ate in an attempt to reduce inflammation. That would help reduce some of your pain. I chose the name Polyamine on this forum because of their importance in our lives, especially someone like us who are having problems. If you research polyamines, you will see that they are biogenic amines that have a multitude of roles in our body. One such function is to initiate the cytokine cascade. Our immune system responds to LPS detection by causing extracellular transit of the polyamines. As this happens more and more due to chronic infection, the quinolinic acid levels increase and our natural feedback loop that determines polyamine metabolism is altered due to lowered pH. This can prevent intracellular transit back into the cells and when combined with already elevated nitric oxide levels, the pain from inflammation can be heightened. A reduction of nitrogen intake can reduce polyamine production and when combined with a more alkaline diet, histamine formation is reduced, ammonia formation is reduced, and most importantly, adverse sequelae are reduced. Reducing protein intake reduces your nitrogen load, reduces an overabundance of gram negative anaerobes like Bilophila wadsworthia that increase ammonia production and absorption, and reduces your methylation pathway. Knowing the genetics of your methylation pathway can be beneficial because Lyme Disease often causes epigenetic shifts that can contribute to poor health.
In a nutshell, animal protein is not your friend. You will still need essential amino acids so limited amounts of protein will still need to be ingested once or twice a week depending on activity level. Exercising increases the blood flow to the extracellular matrix which increases pathogen exposure to our immune response and a greater pathogen reduction. This comes at a cost as you have seen. I don't feel it is in anyone's best interest to try to eliminate all of their pathogens at once and would only treat one at a time. Since babesiosis reduces immune response, I like to try going after it first. I have little confidence in Malarone and prefer Mepron with Azithromycin. At least 4 months would be required and drinking green tea with herbal agents like cryptolepis and artemisia is beneficial. You will most likely be low on simple amino acids like glycine and proline. Supplementing them often helps with insomnia.
The polyamine conversion problem often leads to a reduction in polyvalent cations in the body as they are attached to the DNA/RNA/cAMP complexes that the polyamines are bound. Manganese is often low because of Borrelia but selenium, chromium, molybdenum, magnesium, copper, and even zinc can be low. Supplementing with the correct amount of these transition metals can help correct underlying issues in biological functioning as they are substrates for many reactions in the body. This is why eating is important. You must increase the nutrients that help you function but also attempt to reduce the nutrients that help the pathogens function. It starts with protein but if you have biofilm producers, fat is also an issue. Most pathogens thrive from iron intake so a balance of iron intake must be found. Many people in our situation have fungal overgrowth from Candida albicans and not enough Saccharomyces strains. There is a lot to this infectious disease stuff.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate it.
First question, despite all of my terrible joint pain, the worse and most troublesome symptoms is skin pain and sensitivity. I barely can put on a shirt and showers are horrid. What would be causing this, do you have any idea? It it baronella? It is unbearably uncomfortable.
So our immune system causes extracellular transit of the polyamines as a means to fight infection? In the case of Quinolinic acid, which can be detrimental if elevated is this also the bodies way of fighting off infection? Would not low nitric oxide levels create a welcoming environment for the spirochete. Isn't it necessary to increase nitric acid to prevent the suppression of the immune response, which would be associated with increased risk of malignancy. Monocytes and macrophages are mediated by nitric oxide and without them working effectively, Lyme can reproduce more effectively. I want to erradicate Lyme, Babesia and Bartonella but I do not want to hurt myself in the process. I know that die-off releases nuerotoxins like ammonia, so eating an alkaline diet like you said is vital. What foods and/or supplements are good for raising PH?
Also, antibiotics suppress the immune system and can deplete vital nutrients (b-vitamins, mag., calcium, Vitamin K) so can't Lyme, so wouldn't this lead to similar problems? And even when spirochete load is lessened, wouldn't relapse occur? How can we stop relapse and can we walk around with Lyme and these infections asymptotically, without them causing dementia and detrimental problems down the road?
So here is what I currently have at home (Asterisked Supplements are what I'm currently taking). Any input on adding things would help greatly. I'm unsure on what I should take and what's appropriate, especially for replenishing vitamins/minerals from antibiotic nutrient depletion as well as balancing out Th1 and TH2. I don't want to overstimulate my immune system but I defiantly don't want to suppress it either. I'm just not looking to cause more of a hormonal imbalance, I want to fix this.
_______________________________________________
Monolaurin (Lauricidin); CAUSES MAJOR HERX and mental problems. Worse than any antibiotic herx. Have a whole tub of it, afraid to use.
*Probiotics; One single strain called Bouliardi or something like that and another probiotic with various other strains. Two times daily.
*I try to juice veggies and a small amount of fruits, everyday.
Whole food B-complex; have yet to use.
Inositol; use to take for OCD tendencies. Helped a lot, had to super-load it. Anti-nutrient at high dosages, so I stopped. Made me feel worse in the end.
*R-Alpha Lipoic Acid; might suppress the immune system, idk
Rhodiola Rosea; greatly reduced my fatigue but caused severe anxiety.
*Reishi mushrooms: I cycle this. I heard it has anti-androgen properties which I don't like. But it bumps up natural killer cells and is all around good for you.
*Turmeric/curcumin w/ Boswellia supplement: Helps with arthritis but wouldn't these herbs cause a TH2 dominance making it much harder for immune system to fight off pathogens?
*Cowden Protocol (Enula and Semento); Enula prescribed by my LLMD for Babesia and Semento for Lyme, not sure about how effective they are.
Zinc Bisglycinate; only used a handful of times helped with motivation and fatigue.
Olive Leaf Extract; Used for awhile, supposedly good for infections. Stopped for some reason.
Milk Thistle; took for a very long time but stopped because I read that it interacts with antibiotics. Now I'm not really taking anything for my liver though!
GABA; worsened my depressed feelings. No need for it.
Lemon Balm; Messed up my thyroid. No need for it.
Magnesium Citrate: use to use it all the time, not sure about which brand I should get. Always worried about heavy metals and contaminants. Interacts with antibiotics.
Magnesium Malate: same thing, but I do take it from time to time.
RNA supplement: Chiropractor give it to me for free, most likely a worthless supplement.
Real Mushrooms Cordyceps: Helps tremendounsly with fatigue but worsens my anxiety like Rhodiola. Puts me in weird head-space. Not currently taking anymore.
Collagen support: Has a ton of collagen rebuilding amino acids and stuff. Every time I take this supplement, despite what it says about rebuilding collagen I experience SEVERE joint pain.
Vitamin D3: I have low levels. Use to be 49 now its 37. Not sure if supplementing D3 is counterproductive. I think I should take it though.
CREATINE: I remember taking only vitamin D3 and Creatine back in December and I didn't feel like I even had infections. I was exercising but creatine gave me motivation to exercise and I was never intolerant of it. However, stopped taking cause of kidneys.
________________________________________________
Supplements that I'm interested in.
Organic Whey.
Glycine; like you said for insomnia.
Vitamin K
Vitamin C/ Lemon and salt protocol
________________________________________________
Zithromax 500mg
Malarone twice daily
Minocycline 50mg twice daily
IV Rocephin 2g a/day with aticgall for gallbladder.
Edited by birthdaysuit, 22 August 2016 - 05:07 PM.