Chronic Muscle Spasms

Hi dpd,

1. How do you know you are beating the Borrelia? Is it based on symptoms or CD-57 or some other test?

2. Have you ever had a yeast flare up while taking herbal anti-biotics or following the non-scrip-abx route?

I tried Cat's Claw and it gave me a horrible yeast flare? I really lost a lot of ground and had to take a lot of Diflucan to control it. I have no idea why that happened.

Pace
Hi Pace,

Good q's pace.

Sorry I haven't responded to your email yet. I've been pretty busy preparing for a thanksgiving trip and germany.

>> 1. How do you know you are beating the Borrelia? Is it based on symptoms or CD-57 or some other test?

Well, i feel that i generally know what bb dieoff feels like, and i feel that i for the most part know what bb activity feels like. Fortunately, I feel that BOTH sets of symptoms have improved dramatically, even while i'm taking more than 10 antimicrobials.

For instance, i've had chronic muscle spasms since the very beginning of my crash in feb 99. Within a year or so i found that i could manage the spasms with magnesium, but it took CONSTANT supplementation. For years i wondered what the deal was, and nothing improved the situation.. i simply had to take magnesium constantly.

During the spring of '94 i found out that chronic muscle spasms are very common with lyme. This is ONE of the major red flags that pointed at lyme, combined with a history of many tick bites and bell's palsy.

To sum up, i have indeed noticed that i can go much longer periods of time without increases in muscle spasms. I've gone from noticing problems within 24 hours mg-free to perhaps a week now. However, if i do a week now, i found that it took quite a few days of mg supplementation for the spasms to calm down.

So, at least i've made progress here.

I'm also much less dependent on parasites herbs. Much like the mg dependence, for years i found that if i quit my parasites herbs my giardia symptoms would flare within a couple days. Now i can go a week or more.

Finally, i'm finding that I adapt to new borrelia antimicrobials MUCH more quickly. Two years ago new meds would generate months of severe dieoff. Recently I've added new ones, had intense dieoff initially, but this lasted for a few weeks.

I'm also feeling much more stable, not only mg and parasite herb dependence, but in many ways. I basically NEVER get debilitating brain fog any more. During the 2002-2004 zone when I reasonably productive at work and hiking a lot, I'd succumb to days with totallly debilitating brain fog. I dreaded the possibility of this happening at bad times at work, which did indeed happen on occasion.

I can't remember the last time i had this type of brain fog. I don't think it's happened since by 6 month s/c herx.

Regarding the improvement in the CD-57, my doctors associate this with decreased bb activity. HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LEAVES OPEN THE POSSIBILITY THAT MY BB IS LARGELY ENCYSTED. You'll find that in many cases when folks think they're cured from lyme, they go off the abx and relapse within weeks. This is likely due to the fact that they had a heavy load of low-active bb cysts, which returned to spirochete form when the abx were stopped.

Fortunately, it looks like s/c does NOT force the spirochetes into cyst form, as going off the herbs (or abx presumably) while remaining on s/c will generate lyme dieoff. Therefore, I've taken the approach of using bb herbs/cs/ole for 25 days out of 28, while remaining on the s/c the entire time. This encourages the cysts to become ketes, and the s/c subseqeuntly zaps them.

Obviously, it's still pretty hard to tell how much permanent progress on bb i've made. it will take more time to tell. Basically, my llmd uses the combination of CD-57 combined with an extended period of time symptom-free to guage the cure. I certainly am NOT symptom-free yet.

>> 2. Have you ever had a yeast flare up while taking herbal anti-biotics or following the non-scrip-abx route?

NOPE, this is the beauty. I've not taken ANY herb consistently that caused this, such as oil of oregano.
Even 9 caps of sea gate OLE, plus 8 dropper fulls of gaia brand OLE tincture, has NOT appeared to damage my flora or increased fungal flares.

On the contray, i'm for the first time showing an increased ability to handle antifungals and my tongue remains reasonably clear. Adding coral calcium goes a long way at keeping the tongue nice and clear.

>> I tried Cat's Claw and it gave me a horrible yeast flare? I really lost a lot of ground and had to take a lot of Diflucan to control it. I have no idea why that happened.

That's very interesting. Samento (TAO-free cat's claw) hasn't caused a bit of a problem for me regarding candida flares. Recall that eat quarts of homemade 24 hour probiotic yogurt a week, so this has helped protect against candida. Still, I don't get the sense that samento would have ever caused a problem.

Pace
hey :)

just thought i'd note too pace that although i don't have confirmed lyme (and obviously haven't treated specifically for it), i have experienced similar signposts to the ones dpd mentioned.

his mag and parasite herb dependence rang familiar... i used to have to rely on dozens of supps/meds to control symptoms. now i don't need anything (though i do supp nutrients occasionally) which tells me i have eliminated a lot of infection (whatever all it may be)

shari