Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America Part 7.

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Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America

Part 7 - The Final Chapter
It has now been 2 years since I began my personal journey with Lyme Disease and 20 months since I wrote the first of the "Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America" series in the Coltons Point Times.
Many people including friends strongly opposed my commitment to seeking out a natural cure for a disease the medical community virtually ignores, a disease that is sweeping the sleeping nation.

The path was far more difficult and painful than I expected in that the practitioners in the various alternative medicine disciplines knew little more than the traditional medical people about the disease, yet they were far advanced in testing potential treatments and cures.


Here in America the entire drug approval system and federal regulation favors the pharmaceutical giants to the extent of making it nearly impossible to get US approval for new drugs including natural compounds from small business or health practitioners.


So here was my personal case history. Lyme Disease markers were found in my system 24 months ago. By June of 2010 I was unable to function physically with numb hands and arms, aching joints, and an inability to balance when I tried to walk. In October and November of 2010 over 100 gallons of propane leaked into my house from the propane tank just outside the kitchen window. It killed my 240 pound Irish Wolfhound and nearly killed me.

I did not discover the propane leak until late December.

By November my only treatment for Lyme was natural and required 15,000 mg of vitamin C and 15,000 mg of salt every day. My nutritionist, Michael Guidry of Alexandria, Virginia, was guiding me through a series of natural treatments and procedures that seemed to be having a positive effect.

At the same time I was going to my Chinese doctor, Dr. Shi-hua Wu in Chinatown, Washington, D.C., who provided a custom herbal tea (24 different herbs) and acupuncture. Dr. Wu is a well known teacher and master of Eastern Chinese medicine, he is a master herbologist, and has performed acupuncture for 55 years since leaving China.



My sudden turn for the worse, unbeknownst to me, was the propane poisoning.
My brothers from Kentucky, sensing I was far sicker than I admitted, came to Maryland and literally carried me to the SUV for a mad dash to Lexington, Kentucky. There waited Dr, Debbie Alsheimer, a practitioner of functional health. I had no clue what that meant. Yet in my condition and pain anything would have been better.

She used a combination of bio-feedback, identifying nutritional deficiencies, physical therapy and exercises, and plain old intuition to give me a program to attack the many treacherous tentacles of Lyme.

Because of my inability to exercise, let alone even walk, I found out that between January of 2011 and October of 2011 I also pinched five nerves in my neck to shoulder region, nerves that controlled things like the blood and oxygen flow to the brain and caused false readings from my sensory preceptors. Doesn't that sound academic?

It means my senses went haywire. When my hands touched something hot it felt frigid. Large areas of my torso would suddenly become hot, or cold, for no reason. I could pick up a scalding hot pan on the stove and not feel the heat.


By October of 2011, on another of my trips to Kentucky for treatment and analysis, a chiropractor who specializes in nerves, Dr. Mark Miller, found the five pinched nerves and started releasing them. This will take a few months but I am well on the way to full recovery.

Today, after recent blood tests and physical exams by western doctors, I am free of any Lyme, there is no permanent nerve damage, no traces of the gas poisoning are left in my blood, and a program of traction, physical exercise, very limited dietary supplement and will power has me well on the way to full recovery.

Through it all I remained true to my goal of seeking only a natural cure for the disease.

Why me? I mean why should I get well when millions of people are painfully and often permanently suffering from the little understood Lyme Disease pandemic that is sweeping our nation?

I can't say but this much I know. What I have learned from the hundreds or maybe thousands of readers of my stories is that people need to know there is hope and there is help to conquer the disease.

So many people emailed me after reading the story telling me of the tragedy of the treatments and lack of results they achieved in their own battles against Lyme. Even when a massive dose of antibodies did finally overcome the bacteria of Lyme we are yet to know the consequences of such a massive jolt on our immune system.


Over the years many forms of treatment actually wind up hurting us like how antibodies destroy our immune system, how chemotherapy treatment will destroy your organs and the long term consequences of massive radiation from cat scans, MRI and excessive x rays.
I had a team throughout it all consisting of Michael Guidry, a nutritionist from Alexandria, Virginia; Dr. Shi-hua Wu, Eastern (Chinese) doctor, herbologist and acupuncturist from Chinatown, Washington, D.C.; Dr. Debbie Alsheimer, a functional health expert from Lexington, Kentucky; and Dr. Mark Miller, a chiropractor who knows nerves from Winchester, Kentucky, just outside Lexington.
On the mystical side I had LaKotahasie Frazier, a powerful Native Medicine Woman, healer and teacher, we call her Lakota. Her Indian name is Buffalo Woman Comes Running and Lakota is of Abanaki, French and Lakotah descent.



I have long been a believer in Eastern Chinese medicine and Native medicine and prayers as a result of my friendship with the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Medicine Wheels, sweat lodges and other Native ceremonies, like the Chinese practices, have been used for thousands of years to heal.
Of course there were others not of this dimension like Jesus and the Holy Mother Mary, endless sources of hope through faith and prayer. Never underestimate the power of faith and prayer in life and healing.
In addition to the aforementioned there was one other thing unusual about my quest. It was the use of an ancient Chinese herb used for thousands of years to heal. Recently it was discovered this natural compound could do what the federal health authorities acknowledge has never been achieved in Western Medicine, provide a mechanism that results in the destruction of drug resistant cells in people.
Information from the company behind this natural compound will be released in the immediate future and a way for all Lyme victims to get immediate access to this compound through a clinical trial will be announced.
Ironically, virtually all those members of my team and the natural treatments and herbs they used to heal me ARE NOT ALLOWED OR COVERED under conventional health insurance programs or Medicare in the USA although they are allowed in the rest of the world.
If our politicians are serious about health care reform they will allow such time tested practices and herbs and redirect our health care system to heal the body, not just treat an illness or injury.
If you know anyone suffering from Lyme Disease please let them know about this series of stories and that an announcement is imminent about a natural way to overcome the disease with no harmful side effects. Many suffer, a number have died, and we are all living in a sea of confusion about Lyme. I hope I have helped people get through the maze and I want people to know there is real hope.
As Harry Chapin immortalized in words through the magic of music, we are all just travelers on the road to Kingdom Come. We need not be victims as well.

Finally, I have created a blog containing the complete Lyme Disease series of seven articles I wrote so you can read them in one place. The link is

http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/ /

and please share this link with anyone who might benefit from the series.


Back to Lyme Index:
http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America - Part 6.


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(First published December 21, 2010)
Where can the truth be found?

It has been eight months since I was first diagnosed with "possible" Lyme disease. My last report in June discussed how the conditions had settled in with swollen joints, numb hands, odd behavior from my neurology system and frustration finding the truth about the bacteria.

As for the treatment, nothing seemed to be doing anything more than keeping me from getting worse so I then turned to the Eastern and ancient medical treatments and I found a 76 year old Chinese Doctor who has been practicing traditional Chinese medicine for over 55 years.


Dr. Shi-hua Wu, CMD, OMD is a professor of Traditional Chinese medicine, a US licensed Acupuncturist & Herbologist and a Clinical Consultant in Acupuncture & Herbology, quite a list of credentials for the diminutive doctor from China who works out of Chinatown in Washington, DC.

According to the professionals who came to my rescue in late November, Dr. Wu probably saved my life because unbeknownst to me, at the time I found him after several months of no progress in getting better, the weakness throughout my body was causing my organs to begin failing. That was in late September.

The numb hands led to nerve problems and two areas of pinched nerves in my spine which started after I got the disease and left me with occasional problems standing, walking and climbing steps. By October it had been months since I was in public and I had no intention of being seen as I looked like a drunken sailor trying to walk and I didn't even drink.


Dr. Wu formulated an extra-ordinary herbal tea for my condition using 24-28 Chinese herbs and requiring me to follow a full page of preparation instructions taking several hours to make a weeks supply. He also began twice a week acupuncture at his Chinatown office. He would study my condition each visit and put in 35-65 needles depending on what he found. He also gave me some other herbs to take daily.

If you know ancient Chinese medicine, to over simplify it, the intent is to restore your body to full functioning by bringing your body into balance. With a history of 2000 to 3000 years, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has formed a unique system to diagnose and cure illness. The TCM approach is fundamentally different from that of Western medicine. In TCM, the understanding of the human body is based on the holistic understanding of the universe as described in Daoism, and the treatment of illness is based primarily on the diagnosis and differentiation of syndromes.


The TCM approach treats zang--fu organs as the core of the human body. Tissue and organs are connected through a network of channels and blood vessels inside human body. Qi (or Chi) acts as some kind of carrier of information that is expressed externally through jingluo system. Pathologically, a dysfunction of the zang-fu organs may be reflected on the body surface through the network, and meanwhile, diseases of body surface tissues may also affect their related zang or fu organs. Affected zang or fu organs may also influence each other through internal connections. Traditional Chinese medicine treatment starts with the analysis of the entire system, then focuses on the correction of pathological changes through readjusting the functions of the zang-fu organs.

Evaluation of a syndrome not only includes the cause, mechanism, location, and nature of the disease, but also the confrontation between the pathogenic factor and body resistance. Treatment is not based only on the symptoms, but differentiation of syndromes. Therefore, those with an identical disease may be treated in different ways, and on the other hand, different diseases may result in the same syndrome and are treated in similar ways.

The clinical diagnosis and treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine are mainly based on the yin-yang and five elements theories. These theories apply the phenomena and laws of nature to the study of the physiological activities and pathological changes of the human body and its interrelationships. The typical TCM therapies include acupuncture, herbal medicine, and qigong exercises. With acupuncture, treatment is accomplished by stimulating certain areas of the external body. Herbal medicine acts on zang-fu organs internally, while qigong tries to restore the orderly information flow inside the network through the regulation of Qi. These therapies appear very different in approach yet they all share the same underlying sets of assumptions and insights in the nature of the human body and its place in the universe. Some scientists describe the treatment of diseases through herbal medication, acupuncture, and qigong as an "information therapy".


The work performed by Dr. Wu became far more important as October rolled around and there were strange environmental factors that came into play. A persistent but undetected propane leak filtered into my house over several months and the silent gas, which cannot be smelled, poisoned me. At the same time a year of extreme rain had left the area filled with mold from the standing water and the fact the Potomac River was running at extremely high tides since early spring. Yet another complication for my weakened state.


Then there was the torrid heat wave starting when I got sick last May and extending through the entire summer meaning constant air conditioning in a closed in house that was contaminated by leaking propane and mold spores. Add to that the tragic death of my 250 pound Irish Wolfhound after two weeks of infection whose cause has never been identified, an infection so powerful it caused a 107 degree fever and stopped my dog from being able to stand in spite of the best treatment possible from his vet. After nearly two weeks in which I had to treat him, move him and feed him by trying to shove his massive weight around as I was too weak to lift him, he died in my arms.

By that time I was unable to even stand from the sheer exhaustion and dual emotions of fighting my own serious health problems while trying to save my best friend and protector. When he died it was the lowest point I can remember in my life. Though Dr. Wu was keeping me alive, the new environmental issues and death of Coolin magnified everything that was going wrong.


Sensing my rapidly weakening condition just before Thanksgiving my brothers came out from Kentucky and took me back for extensive treatment that would finally help me turn the corner and start healing. Once in Lexington and under the care of Debbie Alsheimer, a functional medicine practitioner and founder of Prospect Health Solutions.


It is the belief of people like Debbie that diet, nutrition and exposure to environmental toxins play a central role in the function of the body because they may predispose your body to illness, provoke symptoms and modulate the activity of biochemical mediators. What does that mean? Here is my lay person interpretation of what Dr. Debbie does after spending three weeks under her intensive care.

She uses a very sophisticated bio-feedback machine with the ability to analyze 10,000 frequencies in the cells of your body. It is based on earlier work of Nikola Tesla and Royal Rife in using electrical frequencies to destroy invasive cells in our bodies and bring our bodies back into balance. Her work involves the extraordinary combination of Eastern Traditional Chinese Medicine with Chinese herbology, acupuncture, Western Medicine and Intuitive analysis.


The result is a microbiologic analysis of the cell structure identifying cells and organs that are damaged or corrupted and then developing a protocol to return your body to balance. Sickness or disease resulting from abnormal cell activity caused by bacteria, virus, fungi or parasites is her passion and specialty and there is none more mysterious than the Borrelia bacteria found in Lyme.


Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are microscopic, unicellular, and cell-cluster organisms. This includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes. Viruses and prions, though not strictly classed as living organisms, are also studied. Microbiology typically includes the study of the immune system, or Immunology. Generally, immune systems interact with pathogenic microbes; these two disciplines often intersect which is why many colleges offer a paired degree such as "Microbiology and Immunology". Microbiology is a broad term which includes virology, mycology, parasitology, bacteriology and other branches. A microbiologist is a specialist in microbiology and these other topics.


Previous articles I have written on the subject have detailed the difficulty of Western Medicine in identifying Lyme, the common misdiagnoses of Lyme as one of the 100 or so diseases it can mimic, and the failure to recognize and destroy the parasites that protect the Lyme bacteria from antibodies. I have also written about the incredible explosion of drug resistant cells now attacking our bodies as a result of the failure of our immune systems to operate properly due to the inability of Western Medicine to protect us.

The very nature of life in America requires a broad based approach to the diagnoses and treatment of diseases, especially in light of the proliferation of drug resistant illnesses rapidly affecting Americans. Add to that the severe environmental deviations we may encounter including physical location, exposure to air and water pollution, long term effects of fertilizers and pesticides on food supply, radiation exposure from television, cell phones, cell towers, computers, x rays, MRI, Cat scans, and excessive prescriptions for antibodies and vaccination protocols.



That still leaves the biggest sin of all - our personal health in America - our lack of proper diet and healthy eating. Every one of these factors contributes to the destruction of our immune system and it would be nearly impossible to find someone with a fully functioning immune system. Because of the over-prescription of antibodies and other drugs our bodies have developed a resistance to traditional Western medical treatment for diseases and these drug resistant cells that evolve are the greatest danger yet to successful health treatment and health maintenance.


People like Debbie Alsheimer understand the changing nature of our microbiology and the need to attack the problem from multiple disciplines using the best of Eastern Chinese medicine and acupuncture along with ancient herbs and Western Medicine techniques if we are to have a chance to rebuild our immune systems and be healthy again.

As a result of her efforts and that of Dr. Wu I am finally reversing the trend and recovering. Both found that Lyme was not the only problem I had in spite of my relatively good health before I got sick. It had been 26 years since I last saw or needed a doctor.


The remnant nerve problems and some parasite presence are the last of the Lyme issues to resolve and both are being treated with Chinese herbs, acupuncture and physical therapy. My goal is to be completely free of Lyme and other problems detected within four months, to have restored my immune system to be much stronger than before I got sick, and to be back on the golf course by spring.



If you are a victim of Lyme, or have fallen sick from some unidentified disease or "bug", you should contact Debbie or Dr. Wu for help. Of course if you were really smart you would contact them before you get sick. Both have the ability to read signs of impending problems in your body before they are detectable by conventional medical exams. You can reach them at the following.


Dr. Shi-hua Wu
Phone (202) 789-5466




Debbie Alsheimer
Phone (502) 290-9070
Email http://www.prospecthealthsolutions.com

Finally, I have created a blog containing the complete Lyme Disease series of seven articles I wrote so you can read them in one place. The link is

http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/ /

and please share this link with anyone who might benefit from the series.
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Monday, December 20, 2010

Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America - Part 5.

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(First published June 11, 2010)

Why the American medical system has failed us!


Contrary to what most traditional media will report, America does not have the best health care system in the world. Our modern "Western" health care system is based on the simple philosophy of Wall Street, where the money comes from to fuel the health care industry.


The code, philosophy and investment model of Wall Street is; "It must meet the return on investment model for profitability." The goal of Wall Street is to get the maximum return on investment.


Not a bad code for money changers. But that same code that pushed Wall Street to become the main financial source for the health care industry by taking companies public starting in the 1940's is stopping the health care industry from meeting the number one goal of the Hippocratic Code.


"May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help."


The "joy of healing", a most noble calling and one that puts doctors at odds with the corporations of the massive health care industry. From the pharmaceutical companies to hospitals, clinics and insurance companies in the industry, healing is inconsistent with a "maximum return on investment".


Therein lies the fault and tragedy of the Western health care system, specifically here in America. In order for health care companies to get investment houses like Goldman Sachs to manage their trading they must get the maximum return on investment and healing people does not achieve it, treatment does.


The cash flow loved by Wall Street and the investors in health care companies comes from treatment of people with their patented drugs or diagnostic tools for the longest time possible. The longer you stay sick the more they will do to help you. Conversely, if you stay healthy you will not benefit from the health care system.


Before we can ever get our health care system working for us we must first educate ourselves. Long before America existed people were getting health care treatment. In China herbal medicine goes back thousands of years and Indigenous people have also practiced it for thousands of years.


While some medical breakthroughs have brought about significant advancement, especially in the diagnostic side of health care and surgical techniques, it is our addiction to modern medicine and constant diagnostic analysis, because that is what the doctors are taught and that is what the health insurance companies will pay for, that has made healing bad for business.



As a result, most of the thousands of years of healing through natural herbs, remedies and techniques by the Chinese and Indigenous peoples has been lost and is not part of our modern health care system. I cannot emphasize enough the tragedy of this change because the ancient way was always meant to heal people, protect them from disease, make them aware of their personal responsibilities toward their health, and make them a participant in the spiritual healing of their soul to help the physical healing of their body.


Today we have been brainwashed into delegating all control over your health, body and lifestyle to those companies financed by Wall Street and those government agencies whose leaders (presidents and congress) are influenced by campaign cash from those companies and Wall Street.


The people have lost their voice in health care, and the ancient cures have been ruled unprofitable by the powers that be on Wall Street and in our nation's Capitol.


No where is this more apparent than in the diagnosing and treatment of Lyme disease.


To understand this first let us look at antibiotics.


An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. Antibiotics are one class of antimicrobials, a larger group which also includes anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitic drugs. Antibiotics are chemicals produced by or derived from microorganisms meaning parasites or germs such as bacteria and fungi.


They do not help the immune system but temporarily replace a function of the immune system if used properly to attack a bacteria. Over use of antibiotics, meaning more than a few days or that they are prescribed to often will weaken whatever part of the immune system they try to help.


Since antibiotics, by definition, are substances or compounds that kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria, it's good to keep two things in mind. First, antibiotics destroy not only bad bacteria but also good ones. Second, antibiotics are only effective against bacteria, not viruses or parasites.


A key discoveries in recent Lyme research done worldwide is that the Lyme bacteria is common to hundreds of other illnesses, and that there is evidence that Lyme disease is not just a bacteria but also a parasite. This means Lyme can be misdiagnosed as hundreds of other diseases, and that to truly wipe out your Lyme disease you must treat the bacteria and parasites.


The Western medicine approach to Lyme disease, when it is correctly identified which may be a very small percent of the time, is a very high dose of antibiotics. This does not effect the parasites which can protect the Lyme bacteria from antibodies. Thus more and more people have reoccurring cases of Lyme and normally each time it gets more severe. Make no mistake, Lyme can kill you. If you have taken antibodies and it comes back it has not been successfully treated.



Each time you take antibodies you are putting more and more germs, parasites or whatever is in the antibody into your body, each time you are potentially damaging your immune system, and each time you are destroying good bacteria your body needs to protect you.


Since antibodies were just discovered in 1929 with the discovery of penicillin from fungi, there have been tens of thousands rushed to market. Yet mankind existed for thousands of years previously with no antibiotics. Lyme was not even discovered until 1975. As antibodies and vaccinations have become more and more common in Western medicine drug resistant cells, more cancer and many drug resistant diseases have been recognized.


Common sense tells us that Lyme must have existed for years or centuries before something triggered it in our bodies. The only logical conclusion is that the destruction of our immune system since the 1940's through the expanded use of antibodies and more recently body scans, MRI, CAT, Mammograms, X rays and other diagnostic tools, with their radiation emissions, have triggered the worldwide outbreak.


Since all the ancient cures are not recognized by Western medicine, we have lost our ability to treat the disease and cannot even successfully identify it. The Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, has many ways of hiding from a battery of tests by mimicking other diseases and no tests are done for Lyme parasites, parasitic nematomorph.


If you had symptoms like those found in Lyme and began treatment with natural herbs immediately you would not go through the massive confusion, misdiagnoses and lack of adequate treatment for the Lyme. In addition, even if you did not have Lyme but one of the other diseases mimicked by Lyme the treatment would not be harmful because the natural treatments will strengthen your immune system at a minimum, and be may even be effective in treating your actual disease since there is similar bacteria.


I am using three distinct natural treatments. First is Samento, an herbal extract from the Peru rain forest that has been used for 2,000 years to protect the Indigenous people of the rain forest. A second is from ancient Chinese medicine called Dragon's Blood, again natural and again in use for over 2,000 years. The third is intensive doses of salt and vitamin c intended to boost the immune system while making your body an unsuitable host for the Lyme bacteria and parasite.


None of these will be prescribed by your doctor because they are from Eastern and Indigenous medicines and cultures, not pharmaceutical companies. The fact more and more people are being healed with these techniques while more and more people being treated with antibodies are not getting cured because it keeps coming back should open your eyes.


A Plea for Help


I am asking your help in spreading the word about these treatments and hope you will send the links to all my articles to anyone and everyone with Lyme, interested in Lyme, or even being treated for the hundreds of diseases that Lyme can mimic. You can see these lists in Part 1 of the series.


So far many emails have been received from people suffering Lyme disease and I am asking that they all keep in touch with me to compare notes on the natural alternatives and their impact. I will continue to update you with reports on my treatment and condition.


You have a chance to demonstrate for the world to see that our health should not depend on spending $14,000 a year for health insurance to diagnose and treat us but on the ancient wisdom and remedies that kept people healthy an a nominal cost.


Those of you wishing to write my private email can contact me at
ivyonoak@yahoo.com
and let me know your status with Lyme, your current treatment and if you are interested in learning more about the natural treatments I am taking.


I have no financial interest in any company involved in my treatment or supplying the natural herbs and extracts and only want to empower you to take charge of your body, health and life. No one can know the degree you are suffering without experiencing the many ways it attacks your body. The effect on me is far more extensive than what other victims described to me so I appreciate what you are experiencing.


At the same time we need to get the federal government to make meaningful progress toward true health reform by embracing the ancient Eastern and Indigenous herbs, remedies and techniques intended to heal and strengthen, not addict the patient to lifelong treatment.

Back to Lyme Index:
http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/
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Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America - Part 4.

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(First published June 2, 2010)

Treatment with non-western medicine - What is the result?


It has now been three and a half weeks since I was diagnosed with the Lyme disease indicators and about four weeks since the symptoms, late stage, first appeared.


After years of research and monitoring alternative health techniques, when the disease was confirmed I was prepared with a treatment strategy. It was based on a few assumptions I want to review.


I would take no treatment that damaged my immune system.


I would limit treatment to natural products.


I would use three protocols for treatment each of which would help rebuild my immune system.


I would take no antibiotics or pain killer in order to be able to feel the effects.


I would attack both the bacteria and parasites with natural treatment.


I would report the truth on what I experienced to the readers.


Once I was tested using multiple techniques including blood testing and the Lyme markers were confirmed I was already experiencing late stage Lyme symptoms which indicated the disease had been present for some time in my body. As noted in an earlier article, none of the early stage symptoms were present.



In my case I woke up one morning feeling as if I twisted my lower back. By the next morning my arms were completely numb from the elbows through the hands. It felt as if I was frozen in those areas including all fingers. While I had use of my arms and hands, I could feel nothing. Other than the frozen feeling, like frostbite if you are from the Midwest, there were no other nerve conditions like shaking, loss of control, nervous twitch, etc.


In addition the twisted lower back now felt like a severe pinched nerve and when I walked I got vertigo. Also it felt like a severe pinched nerve between my shoulder blades which seemed to be causing the frozen arms. In the next few days my muscles became victim to parasite attack, severe pain in both upper arms, inability to lift my arms above my head, swollen joints throughout my body which seemed to trigger the vertigo, and fatigue after walking short distances.



Mind you I was in excellent shape the week before I got it and had been in excellent shape since 1984 when I suffered a physical injury. Also I had been bitten by ticks many times over the past seven years with no effect and no red rings around the bites. Our Southern Maryland riverfront location is almost like a swamp with high humidity and a warm, wet climate.


As for the treatments I chose, there were a few things I kept in mind. First I knew Lyme disease is the most under-detected disease in existence. Probably 40% of victims have the telltale red rings around a tick bite. Up to 60% of the cases go undetected or are misdiagnosed by western medicine as Lyme can mimic the exact symptoms of numerous major diseases.



Lyme Borreliosis causes, mimics, is manifested as, is misdiagnosed as, or is a contributing factor to more than 300 conditions, such as:


Acute coronary syndrome
Acute Meningitis
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
Alzheimer's Disease
Bell's Palsy
Bipolar Disorder
Brain Tumor
Brown recluse spider bite
Cardiac Disease
Coronary aneurysm
Depression
Epilepsy
Fetal death
Fibromyalgia
Hepatitis
Infectious Mononucleosis
Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis
Lymphoma
Multiple Sclerosis
Peripheral Facial Palsy
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Sudden Infant Death (SIDS)
Tourette's Syndrome
Vertigo


Beyond concerns over these issues I was also aware that new research indicates the Lyme bacteria works in tandem with parasites in your body that are not affected by the standard western treatment of massive doses of antibiotics. For this reason many people will seem to recover from the antibiotics but in time the disease keeps returning often more virulent each time.



I have personally talked to and heard from patients with over 10 years of treatment with antibiotics and no sign the disease will ever go away. Also local support groups have advised me that long term members have died from the failure of the antibiotics to stop the disease. Early research indicates the parasites can actually form cocoons around the Lyme bacteria and protect it from antibiotics.


I adopted a treatment plan calling for three distinct lines of attack. I would start using pure salt vitamin C to attack the parasites. Before the days of purified salt, in which additives such as aluminum, silica and iodine are added to the processed salt, Americans used to eat 4-5 times as much raw salt. Apparently this had a major impact on keeping bacteria and parasites from residing in our systems and causing damage. As health officials told us to cut way back on salt, and the pure salt was replaced with the processed table salt now in use, and more and more vaccinations have been given to us, we have effectively destroyed much of our immune system.



My treatment began taking Celtic sea salt, a pure salt with high mineral content, along with the Vitamin C made with berry extract. I took 5 grams of each four times a day, for a total of 15 grams a day. This is about 4 tablespoons of salt a day and 12 vitamin C capsules of about 1000 mg each. It was split into three daily treatments.


Both of these treatments require far beyond the recommended daily intake but they were necessary to launch an attack against both the bacteria and parasites. The goal is to make the body an unsuitable host for the bacteria and parasites. Substantial quantities of water must be consumed to offset the impact of the salt and keep the liver and digestion system working normally.




After a week of this treatment I added Samento, a unique variety of Cat's Claw from the Peru rainforest that has tested up to 100 times stronger than traditional Cat's Claw. Over the course of several days I built up my intake to 12-15 drops three times a day. There were no problems with the taste and the drops just had to be added to pure water and allowed to sit for a minute before taking.


Samento, so new to America that there is no body of US approved tests, yet so old as it has been used by South American Indians for over 2,000 years, is one of the rainforest wonder drugs that seems to work on almost everything. Samento, in liquid extract form, has foreign clinical trials that show stunning success in treating Lyme disease and many other illnesses mimicked by Lyme.


By the end of my second week now with the dual treatment I noticed that the frozen hands began to change and within a few days three of the fingers on each hand regained all feeling. Now only the thumb and first forefinger are numb.



In my 3rd week of treatment I added the last of my three protocols which was another ancient herb called Dragon's Blood. This was used by the Chinese in ancient China and the Druids in ancient Celtic days and features resins and other extracts. Again slowly building my intake to allow my body to adjust I reached 12 drops per treatment three times a day by the end of the third week.


Dragon's Blood has been co-opted by wizards, magicians, witch doctors and VooDoo practitioners over the centuries but throughout it's long history it has been another of the wonder drugs. I must warn you this is about the worst tasting extract you will ever taste, worse even than the cod liver oil I drank as a kid. Back then the treatment was s ad you wanted to stay well. After trying several ways to take this stuff I finally stumbled on a gem. When I mixed the 12 drops of Dragon Blood with one ounce of root beer it eliminated the nasty taste completely. Guess I should add root beer to my list of wonder drugs.




As I enter my 4th week of treatment my nutritionist advisor is devising a protocol combining the three treatments to allow me to better schedule them during the day and to keep them separate to allow maximum impact on my body. Within days of starting the Dragon's Blood my aching joints started improving and I was able to walk up and down steps normally.


Just today I could do my morning walk with my dog of one mile without feeling vertigo toward the end of the walk. Also I was able to raise my arms above my head for the first time in four weeks without major pain. During the entire time I have tried to exercise my body to keep the muscles as close to being toned as possible although the pain limits the amount of exercise. Still I know it is important to keep exercising, especially the fingers, hands and arms which were numb, to make sure no permanent nerve damage is sustained.


I am now on full dosage of all three treatments and will keep you posted as I continue the road to recovery. It is sometimes painful, but the pain also tells me how the treatment is affecting my body. With the several improvements I have already noticed I am confident something is working to help me and I do feel stronger in terms of fighting off fatigue and exhaustion.




Please let me know what your experiences are concerning Lyme disease or the many diseases it can mimic. You can write to me through the Coltons Point Times or send the info to my direct email at ivyonoak@yahoo.com as I believe there is much new information we can share with the public as we all join forces to fight this most secret of all pandemics.

Back to Lyme Index:
http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/
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Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America - Part 3.

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(First published May 20, 2010)

Attacked by Lyme disease - When you become the Victim!


Before I get into the moment I knew something was terribly wrong, let me give you a brief overview of my background. From the time I was a kid growing up in Iowa I loved the outdoors, farms, ranches, camping out, hiking and playing in the woods. Being outside was the highlight of the day.


Then came Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and even camping out on family vacations. I was at peace outdoors. In high school and college I was a jock and among my passions was golf, so much so that I even worked at golf courses when I wasn't playing, yet more exposure to the outdoors.


Once I made it through early childhood I was a healthy kid suffering only injuries related to sports and being a kid. Only once in my life since I was a kid was I hospitalized, back in 1964 when I had an emergency appendectomy at the University of Arizona.


Since then I was only at an emergency room twice, for observation for exhaustion in the 1970's, and for straining my lower lumbar in the early 1980's when I landscaped my yard with 36 tons of Belgian block. For most of my life I have owned dogs, a carrier of ticks.



I continued to play golf, softball and basketball well into the 1980's and golf forever until today. Living in Iowa, Nebraska, California, Virginia, New Jersey, Kentucky and Maryland I always liked the outdoors, spent hours creating a natural landscape where ever I lived, and enjoying the sun. All of which exposed me to more and more ticks.


Medically, I started following the teaching of the traditional Hopi Indians in 1964 when I first visited their reservation in Arizona and spent much time ever since visiting and studying this unique nation of original Americans. By the 1980's I got to know an old Chinese herbalist in NYC's Chinatown and added this discipline to what I learned from the Hopi medicine people and elders.



I stopped taking vaccinations long ago, stopped taking antibiotics and pain killers, because of what I learned about how we are destroying our immune systems. Over the years my diet became rather good and my health was fine and I have not needed the service of a doctor in over 26 years. Fact is I never had a health insurance claim during that time though some jobs provided comprehensive health coverage.


I paid very close attention to my body and how it reacted to food, liquids, and life, meaning mastering stress in my life, and I had some very stressful jobs. To a nutritionist I had bad eating habits because I only ate once a day. To western medicine I had horrible sleeping habits as I never seemed to need more than about 3 hours sleep a night. Once I went to a sleep clinic but they could find no harmful effect from the lack of sleep.




This was how I functioned for 63 years until about four weeks ago.


The first signs of trouble. One morning in late April of this year I woke up and felt like I had twisted my hips during sleep and pinched a nerve. The pain was severe and I took it easy through the day. The next morning I woke up and felt the pinched nerve had caused a second pinched nerve at the base of my neck just between the shoulders. Within 48 hours I could barely move my arms, shoulders, lower back and legs from the severe pain.


In other words, there were none of the early detection signs of Lyme disease but several of the late stage or chronic stage signs of Lyme disease. This spring I had encountered ticks working on the yard and I had removed ticks from my dog almost every day. But there was no redness from any bites and they had never bothered me before.


My previous exposure to friends with Lyme disease and intense study I had made of it caused me to consider the possibility I might have it as I could barely walk within 48 hours. Then both hands went numb, as if frozen, and I lost all sense of touch from my wrists down. It felt like my hands were frozen, and I knew that feeling from winter blizzards on the Great Plains. No pain, just numbness.


By the third day I was still forcing myself, at great pain, to walk my dog for one mile early each morning but I noticed motor problems. When I first awoke I experienced extreme vertigo and when I tried to walk I felt my brain signals to my leg muscles were being interrupted and had a great deal of difficulty walking anything close to normal.



Fact was, probably because I have some background in theater and television production, I reminded myself at times of the Scarecrow character from the Wizard of Oz. My brain could not get my legs to do what I wanted. It was a disconnected feeling like when the Scarecrow tried to walk or dance. Once I started forcing myself to walk I became like the Tin Man and was very stiff and disjointed.


By the third day I felt little pain unless I moved but when I did move I became exhausted easily. The frozen feeling remained in my hands but my temperature remained normal and other people said my hands did not feel cold.


I began to think it might be Lyme disease except I had skipped all the early stage signs from the redness of a tick bite to fever, flu like symptoms, exhaustion, headaches, and other symptoms. If I had it I was exhibiting what I knew to be late stage symptoms which seemed quite strange to me.


Within a few days I was in for testing and though all my body measurements were normal, I had a serious problem because I could barely walk. Lab tests of blood and saliva indicated two markers for Lyme disease and from that moment on I focused on what to do next.



Because of the unexpected appearance of Lyme in my system I focused on the late stage symptoms and knew every thing I was experiencing fit the disease. Of course it also fit some of the many diseases I have discussed earlier as it mimics up to 300 infections. Caution about drawing a conclusion was eliminated when the testing showed the two Lyme markers.


As I said earlier, long ago I gave up antibiotics and pain killers because of the damage they do to our immune system. Other than providing short term relief from the bacteria, I had my doubts about the long term value of treatment with drugs anyway.



I was committed to finding the best treatment using natural products that built up the immune system rather than destroying it like antibodies can do. Because of the seemingly advanced stage of the disease, which I could not explain at the time, and the danger that a failure to address the problems quickly might leave me with permanent damage, I focused on two possible paths of treatment.


One was a new treatment I learned about in the past year that can be found at http://www.lymephotos.com based on the research by a Lyme disease victim who exhausted all conventional treatments over a 13 year period with no improvement in wiping out the disease. His research identified a heretofore unknown aspect to Lyme disease, that the bacteria seemed to work with a variety of parasites in your body. If both the bacteria and parasites were not treated together you might never fully recover from the disease.


After all his years of trial and error only one treatment seemed to attack both the bacteria and parasites and that was a combination of pure sea salt and Vitamin C taken in large quantities that attacked both bacteria and parasites by restoring your immune system. The instruction was to work up to 1 gram of salt and 1 gram of Vitamin C for every 10 pounds of body weight up to a maximum of 18 grams of each per day. Since I weighed slightly over 200 pounds I had to consume the 18 gram maximum at full strength.


I turned to my nutritionist and he said the best form of unprocessed salt, without any additives like aluminum, silica or iodine, was Celtic salt because it retained the most natural minerals. I was to take 18 grams per day, slightly more than three tablespoons per day.




For Vitamin C at the high levels required he recommended BIO-C which provides the Vitamin C through a proprietary blend of fruits, herbs, sprouts, and extracts whose diversity would be more amenable to the body at such high levels. I would need to take about 10 capsules a day.


However, because I was at the advanced stage I decided I also wanted to use another natural compound that also had recently achieved remarkable results in treating Lyme. Because the clinical work was done in Equator it was not recognized by the US which raises all sorts of questions about just how bad the CDC and FDA want to attack the problem.


Using Cat's Claw, a vine that grows in the Peru rainforest, there have been stunning results supplementing your damaged immune system. Cats Claw (Uncaria tomentosa) is a South American vine that works its way up the jungle canopy using sharp thorns on its stems. Many varieties of this plant are harvested by the Ashaninka people of central Peru, but there is one variety in particular called Samento that they value above all the rest.


This incredible plant, which has been used medicinally for more than 2,000 years by the indigenous people of the region, is now the subject of intensive investigation by scientists all around the world. Clinical evidence has shown that Samento is of great benefit for inflammatory and auto-immune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and asthma. The plant is also showing great promise as a breakthrough treatment for Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome and other degenerative illnesses. In addition, it is an ideal herb for strengthening the immune system.


I ordered Samento through the Internet and as soon as it arrives I will be using it along with the salt and Vitamin C treatment already underway. So there you have it, the two types of natural treatment I am using and intend to use to attack the advanced stage of the disease. The combination attacks all the flaws I found in current treatment of Lyme disease from the failure to recognize the parasites to the use of antibiotics which destroys the immune system, the very thing that could have protected us from the bacteria in the first place.


After my first week on the salt and Vitamin C the feeling has returned to two fingers on each hand though the freezing cold sensation still remains. I have noticed a slight improvement in the nerves in my lower back as walking has become somewhat easier but I expect the Samento to attack the inflamed nerves much more aggressively when I start it next week.


The nerves at the base of my neck have relaxed a bit as well and the shoulders have loosened up although it is expected there will be some problems when the parasites, which are being driven out of the body by the salt and Vitamin C, start counter-attacking before they will be forced to flee. Right now the muscles in my upper arms are sore for no reason other than a parasite attack.



Much of the feeling of vertigo has gone although when I walk the morning mile by the end my fatigue level is such that I can feel the vertigo start to return. Too much continuous walking or too much continuous sitting seems to have the same impact.


There is no problem with my diet and digestion though I am trying to eat fresh and balanced foods and to eat at least two meals a day. Sleep is normal without pain. Throughout the whole ordeal I have felt no headaches, had no problem keeping my mind functioning normally, and do not feel any fatigue as long as I do not engage in excessive physical activity.


The big problems are the pain in the arm muscles which is constant, difficulty standing initially, and the numb fingers. When I pick things up I cannot feel pressure so I drop them often. Don't use the good china. And when I type the lack of feeling results in hitting a lot of double letters which I try to catch in edits so I apologize for any mistakes in the text. Finally, the lack of feeling is so complete that you can touch hot things and not know it or have the shower way too hot for the rest of your body. You just have to be careful.


The salt saturation in my body has resulted in some interesting changes, almost as if you are spending a lot of time swimming in the salty ocean. Dead skin peels off faster, your complexion clears up, and you have the feeling of salt in your eyes as if swimming.

Back to Lyme Index:
http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com/
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