Dear Stephen,
I tested positive for lyme from Igenex. I think I’ve had it for about 11 or 12 years. I spent some time living in the South Pacific (US Peace Corps). A year after returning back to the States, I started getting gastro symptoms. A year after that, I dropped a lot of weight – 30lbs in a couple of months (my diet was the same). Then I got super sick – fatigue, weakness, brain fog, achiness. I did a stool purge test, because everybody thought I got a parasite, amoeba or something from being overseas. The test showed that I had no beneficial bacteria and elevated bad bacteria. They did a scan and said that my villi in intestine was blunted/flat. Saliva tests show extremely low cortisol levels for adrenals. Low thyroid – slightly high TSH, low T4 and lower T3. Igenex tests showed that I was positive for lyme, their main doctor said that I definitely had it. I have been on your core protocol (took break from andrographis because of hives, now only 1 a day) along with eleuthero, liver support herbs, probiotics, etc. I have a couple of questions: 1) Is it possible that I did get something funky overseas and it made lyme surface? Also, 2) In what you’ve seen with clients in the past, should I be more aggressive with thyroid and adrenal therapy or will clearing lyme fix them both? 3) Can killing lyme cause liver enzymes to be elevated? Thanks and peace.
Stephen’s response:
1) Not sure whether it is possible you got something overseas that made lyme surface.
2) I think that adrenal/thyroid support is indicated. The protocol I’ve mentioned previously, available from
Dry Creek Herb Farm, for chronic fatigue (hep C mix without the primary liver herbs) will help both adrenals and thyroid. My book
Vital Man has a lot of that, unfortunately it is out of print and copies on Amazon are in the $50 range. Not sure it is worth that much frankly but if you find a cheaper one, it does have good protocols in it for that sort of thing.
3) I do hear from a few people with lyme from time to time that their liver enzymes are elevated. In general the two should not be related, unless there are spirochetes in the liver and that may be the case for some people. It may also be that there is a corresponding liver disease. I would suggest that you consider the use of STANDARDIZED milk thistle, 1200 mg daily. (The chronic fatigue mix from Dry Creek Herb Farm will also help liver enzyme levels).
Stephen
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Stephen Harrod Buhner was an Earth poet and an award-winning author of twenty-four books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine including the acclaimed book Healing Lyme: Natural Healing & Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis & Its Co-infections.
Stephen came from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, was his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.
Stephen’s work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman’s Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America. Stephen lectured yearly throughout the United States on herbal medicine, the sacredness of plants, the intelligence of Nature, and the states of mind necessary for successful habitation of Earth.
He was a tireless advocate for the reincorporation of the exploratory artist, independent scholar, amateur naturalist, and citizen scientist in American society – especially as a counterweight to the influence of corporate science and technology.
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