Archive for the ‘Herbs’ Category

The Gut-Lyme Connection (And How to Fix Both Naturally)

https://www.uprootinglyme.com/gut-lyme-connection/

The Gut-Lyme Connection (and how to fix both naturally)

By

Creating gut health is one of the two foundational pillars of holistic Lyme treatment.  It goes hand in hand with detoxification, the other pillar of successful holistic treatment.  Without these two systems working at the highest level possible, recovering from Lyme (or other complex chronic) disease will be slow-going to say the least.

Yet together, when functioning optimally, these two systems create the conditions inside the body that empower it to fight off infections and heal.

Once these aspects of treatment are fully in place, you are far better equipped to handle antimicrobial regimens and successfully implement other aspects of treatment that will propel your healing forward.

The Gut is the Center of Health & Healing Power

In many ways, the gut is central to the health of the entire being.  In Lyme and other multi-infection disease syndromes, it is also a crucial battleground where the struggle between the Lyme and our immune system is fought.

Chronic Lyme is intimately related to the following 4 issues:

  1. Weakened immunity
  2. Diminished cellular function
  3. Systemic infection
  4. Toxicity

Gut health impacts all of these.  The degree to which a person’s gut is functioning optimally impacts all of these conditions either positively or negatively.

Gut-Associated Lymphoid Tissue

The gut houses the GALT, or Gut-Associated Lymphoid tissue which comprises approximately 80% of the immune system and 70% of lymphocytes, including those all-important Natural Killer cells, so it is home to our primary line of defense against infection.

This fact really speaks to how much the GI tract functions to keep harmful elements from entering into the body, and why it’s so devastating when these tissues are compromised.

What makes the difference between a quiet daily co-existence with bacteria, fungi, viruses and rogue cells – versus the explosion of full-blown disease – is your immune system, and by association, gut health.

Nutrient Transformation & Absorption

The gut is responsible for nutrient transformation and absorption so  that the entire body may receive nourishment and building blocks for physical strength, energy, cellular fuel, and tissue repair.

In the face of Lyme-Borreliosis and other infections, the body needs the support of high-level nutrition.  It needs to be able to effectively make use of what is being ingested so that the cells have the resources to function properly, clean house and repair.  This requires a healthy functioning gut!

The Gut is our 2nd (or 3rd) Brain

Following the heart and the brain, the gut is highly innervated by the nervous system.  It is compromised by a tense or inflamed nervous system, and strengthened by a peaceful, flowing nervous system.  The gut-brain axis is a 2-way street, therefore psychological or other nervous system stress has a major impact on GI function and motility.

Meanwhile, the microbiota and gut function heavily impacts mood and cognition because, to give just 1 of many examples, 95% of serotonin is produced in the gut.

The gut microbiome has systemic effects and is involved in regulation of the heart, liver, brain, prostate, kidney, lung, pancreas, and inflammation.  Changes in the gut microbiome have been implicated in diseases from obesity to infections to cancer.

Restoration of a healthy gut microbiome is another aspect of whole body health.

The Gut & Emotions

From the traditional Chinese perspective, the gut is the center of our personal universe.  It is governed by the Spleen (an organ readily damaged by Babesia and Bartonella), and directly relates to our ability to think, absorb nutrients, discern what we should let in versus what we should keep out (on all levels of our being), and our ability to create energy, among other things.

The gut is the seat of all feeling. It is where many aspects of being are interwoven – the microbiome, the digestive system, immune function, the nervous system, the emotional body and the mental body.

Poor Gut Health + Lyme Disease = Downward Spiral

The GI system can become an ongoing source of inflammation, perpetual dysbiosis, and weakness that extends out to all other parts and systems of the body.

It is very common among modern people that the GI tract is a place of stagnation, fermentation, bacterial overgrowth, and becomes an enormous source of toxicity and inflammation.

Add a diet that contributes further to inflammation (high carb, high sugar and/or high in inflammatory fats), and it’s easy to see how the disease-causing bacteria quickly gain an upper hand within our bodies.

Ultimately we can see that the gut is both a major source of – and a foremost solution for – inflammation in tick-borne disease. 

Furthermore, the gut is a dynamic organ – it can be damaged and it can be healed!

5-Part Plan to Heal GI Weakness & Heal Chronic Lyme

  •  Utilize supplements to restore gut functionality & ease symptoms. 

Digestive symptoms are uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing at best, and completely debilitating at worst.  Bloating, gas or constipation, can make one’s entire being feel blocked and sluggish. Chronic diarrhea can inhibit a person’s ability to leave home or attend meetings without concern that they will have an accident if they can’t get to the bathroom in a hurry.  Nausea, vomiting, and stomach pains can make eating a good diet virtually impossible.

There are some good natural stop-gap measures for GI symptoms such as betaine HCl, pancreatic enzymes, bile salts, and soothing herbs that serve to both support proper functioning and alleviate symptoms until the deeper causes of dysfunction are fully dealth with.

  • Move stagnant food and waste matter.  

Stagnation of food, waste, mucus and gas inside the GI tract is very common, and it is what creates an ideal breeding ground for pathogenic bacteria.  Food and waste stagnation leads to lots of uncomfortable symptoms and the progression of GI diseases.

Clearing stagnation also allows gut healing treatments to work better, so you don’t want to skip this step.  Examples of ways to do this include regular colonics or enemas, the use of herbal laxatives, laxative foods, supplements such as magnesium, and consuming less solid food overall.

  • Address malabsorption and nutrient deficiencies.

When your digestive system is weak, you don’t digest and break down your food well.  This leads to mal-absorption of nutrients, which in turn leads to a weakening of the entire body, including the vital and sense organs, the muscles and joints, immune system, hormones, and all the tissues and cells. The body can’t operate properly without the enzymes, nutrients, and building blocks that it has to acquire from food.

Addressing know nutrient deficiencies with supplementation is important, as is juicing and utilizing superfoods in your diet in easy to absorb forms (think liquid food!) to help replace what is lacking.

  • Eliminate all food allergens and sensitivities.

When your food is not fully digested and broken down in the small intestine or if it is triggering an immune response,  proteins from undigested food can pass into the colon and cause irritation and inflammation. This irritation and inflammation can cause pain, spasm, mucus in the stool, and diarrhea.  Over time this compromises the delicate lining of the small and large intestine, which is only 1 cell thick.

As the gut membrane is compromised and breaks open in places, toxic waste and other inflammatory particles can seep into the bloodstream and massively increase the level of inflammation in the body. This is why the gut can be a major source of inflammation that accelerates degeneration and disease processes including Lyme, and also increases pain levels throughout the body.

In order to heal gut problems + Lyme disease, it is very important to eliminate all allergenic foods, at least until the final stages of healing when some foods can be re-introduced and improved tolerance and digestibility is likely.

  •  Eliminate infections and correct dysbiosis.  

This is about both getting the microbiome back into a healthy proportion where the health-promoting and neutral bacteria are dominant over the potentially pathogenic microbes.

We start with treating active infections that are wreaking havoc in the gut and system as a whole, such as yeast, parasites, Lyme, CMV and more.

These protocols need to be targeted to the specific organisms that are known or suspected to be plaguing the body.  We utilize a multi-pronged anti-microbial approach that includes herbs such as Chinese scutellaria, olive leaf and black walnut hull; liposomal essential oils such as oregano, clove and fennel, and biofilm-busters to eradicate these infections.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/12/16/the-root-of-autoimmune-disease-can-be-found-in-the-gut/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/12/28/what-are-the-pros-of-probiotics/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/12/26/settle-your-stomach-with-digestive-health-supplements/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/04/the-importance-of-gut-health-to-healing-from-chronic-illnesses-podcast-dr-jill-carnahan/

Category:

diet and nutrition, Gut Health, Herbs, Lyme, Supplements, Treatment

Latest Look at Lyme – Dr. Waters

latest look at Lyme july 2018Paper Here

Written by Dr. Robert Waters, https://www.watersbiomed.com

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Waters’ 8 pronged approach to treating Lyme/MSIDS:  https://www.watersbiomed.com/integrative-approach-to-lyme-disease.html  All of which are discussed in the paper above.

He also discusses typical deficiencies patients have and the importance of supplementation to boost the body’s ability to fight for itself.

For Doctor Waters’ presentation:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/04/18/dr-waters-presentation/

You can also watch videos, read published papers, and read newsletter on various topics.

Category:

diet and nutrition, Gut Health, Herbs, Inflammation, Lyme, research, Treatment

How Do I Prevent Getting the Influenza?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-do-i-prevent-getting-influenza-darin-ingels-nd-faaem-fmaps/

How do I prevent getting the Influenza?

Darin Ingels, ND, FAAEM, FMAPS

It’s January and the people who have been visiting my practice, the last couple weeks, have symptoms related to a cold or Influenza. Its flu season, it’s definitely in full force, and I’m hearing it from people who are local as well as people who live around the country. I want to give you my top tips for treating the flu, because if you’ve ever had the flu it’s absolutely miserable. Your body hurts, your head hurts, you’re tired, you just don’t want to get out of bed. It’s a virus typically caused by different forms of influenza virus; I think this year it’s influenza A. It tends to alternate years between influenza A and influenza B, this year seems to be influenza A.

We know from the research on the influenza vaccine, it’s not very effective this year.

Even if you got the shot, there’s a good possibility if you get exposure, that you might actually develop symptoms.

Oscillococcinum for the Flu

One of my favorite remedies for dealing with flu is a homeopathic remedy called Oscillococcinum It’s really long, it comes in a big wide box, and you can find it in most health food stores such as Whole Foods, or your local health food source. It comes in a big wide box, and there’s several tubes in it.

Basically you take one tube under your tongue. They’re little sugar pellets, they actually taste good. Even for kids will take it. And you can give a dose every couple of hours, and it really helps mitigate the flu symptoms. It’s not going to necessarily get rid of it 100%, but definitely can help reduce the fever, stop some of the body pain, and just help get it through a little bit faster.

Oscillococcinum is safe for adults and children. You can find it at pretty much any health food store, and it’s not super expensive either. I recommend you keep taking it until you get to a point where you start to feel better. There are lots and lots of other homeopathic remedies that are indicated for flu, and if that’s something you choose to pursue I would recommend you work with a homeopathy that really understands the individual remedies, to give you something that’s very specific for you or your child. Oscillococcinum is definitely at the top of my list.

Elderberry for the Flu

Elderberry is an herb, and actually it’s a berry so it tastes good. Again, kids will take it. It typically comes as a syrup. Be aware that a lot of elderberry syrup actually comes in a base of honey. If you have a child under the age of two, be careful. You don’t want to give honey to children under the age of two because of the risk of Botulism.

No alt text provided for this image

I personally have never ever seen that, but it’s one of those warnings that goes out there, so please be careful.

They do make elderberry syrup that isn’t in a honey base, but a lot of the commercial products are, so just be mindful of that. And again, for children you can give anywhere from a half a teaspoon to a full teaspoon every couple of hours. Again, it’s not toxic, it’s safe, and it really helps.

It’s a natural antiviral, and since we’re dealing with a virus this is just another way to shorten the course of flu.

Wet Sock Treatment for Colds and Flu

I actually wrote an article on it in one of my previous blogs. It’s one of these things that sounds honestly very strange. And when I first heard about it, I thought it was kind of kooky. Having used it on numerous patients over the last 20 years; for some people it works really well.

It involves getting some cotton socks, put them in cool water, ring them out. Put them on your feet, and then get some big wool socks, put them over the top of that, and then go to bed. When you wake up in the morning those socks are going to be bone dry, and often it helps drop the fever, people report that their body pain feels better. This is an old naturopathic therapy. It’s something we’ve used for years, and for some people it works really well.

The trick is just do it before bedtime, and in the morning people often do feel better. You can do it each night, or you can do it during the day. It’s just overnight you’re not moving around. Walking around with wet socks probably wouldn’t be very comfortable. This is a very inexpensive, easy thing to do.

Herbs for the Flu

There are a lot of herbs that are really helpful in treating viruses. Influenza is a virus, so we use herbs like:

  • Andrographis
  • Echinacea
  • Lomatium

I think the challenge with herbs, particularly with kids, is that some of them are kind of bitter, they don’t taste great. If you can get them in, it does help shorten the course. Certainly as an adult, they make a lot of these as encapsulated products, so as long as you can keep things down. A lot of people when they get the flu, they’re nauseous, they’re vomiting, they don’t want to keep anything down, so that’s always the challenge with flu is how can we just get things in the body? But if you can stomach it and if your child can stomach it, they sell these herbal preparations at most health food stores.

I am a big fan of Andrographis, particularly for adults. It comes as an encapsulated product, I’ve used it for just any kind of upper respiratory virus, I’ve used it for flu, and clinically I find it works pretty well.

For kids I like a product called Lomatium Isolate, it’s made by a company called Eclectic Institute. It comes as a little bottle, and then you just use drop doses, you can mix in a little bit of water or juice. Lomatium is a very potent antiviral, so it works really well.

Vitamin D for the Influenza

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Vitamin D is actually a hormone, it’s not a vitamin. I find that a lot of people tend to be vitamin D deficient, particularly in the Wintertime because you get most of your vitamin D from being out in the sun. And even here in sunny California, it’s actually been pretty cool, so a lot of people are indoors. And when they are outdoors, they have a jacket, they’re covered, they’re not really getting that skin exposure to raise their vitamin D levels.

Supplemental vitamin D can be very beneficial. For children this time of year, up to 2,000 IU’s is very safe. And for adults, anywhere from five to 10,000 IU’s a day is safe. Make sure you take vitamin D with a little bit of food just to help improve the absorption. Vitamin D is a hormone, actually is an immune modulator. It does actually help boost your immune system, so just adding that extra vitamin D can definitely make a difference.

You can use some of these things, particular the botanicals as a preventive measure. Certainly if anyone in the house has the flu, make sure everybody’s washing their hands, it’s very important. This is very easy to pass, so the more you wash your hands, it just reduces that risk of passing it from one person to the next. I hope these tips help.

Darin Ingels, ND, FAAEM, FMAPS

PS: Are you having unexplained symptoms like fatigue and muscle soreness? Concerned you may have Lyme disease? Take the Lyme Solution Quiz! Make meals to support and boost your immune system! Download my recipe book, “Immune-Boosting Recipes” at NO COST!

 

 

Category:

Herbs, Treatment

Evaluation of Natural & Botanical Medicines For Activity Against Growing and Non-Growing Forms of B. Burgdorferi (In Vitro)

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00006/full

Front. Med., 21 February 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2020.00006

Evaluation of Natural and Botanical Medicines for Activity Against Growing and Non-growing Forms of B. burgdorferi

Jie Feng1†, Jacob Leone2, Sunjya Schweig3* and Ying Zhang1*
  • 1Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
  • 2FOCUS Health Group, Naturopathic, Novato, CA, United States
  • 3California Center for Functional Medicine, Kensington, CA, United States

Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the US and Europe. Although the current recommended Lyme antibiotic treatment is effective for the majority of Lyme disease patients, about 10–20% of patients continue to suffer from persisting symptoms. There have been various anecdotal reports on the use of herbal extracts for treating patients with persisting symptoms with varying degree of improvements. However, it is unclear whether the effect of the herb products is due to their direct antimicrobial activity or their effect on host immune system.

In the present study, we investigated the antimicrobial effects of 12 commonly used botanical medicines and three other natural antimicrobial agents for potential anti-Borrelia burgdorferi activity in vitro. Among them, 7 natural product extracts at 1% were found to have good activity against the stationary phase B. burgdorferi culture compared to the control antibiotics doxycycline and cefuroxime. These active botanicals include

  • Cryptolepis sanguinolenta,
  • Juglans nigra (Black walnut),
  • Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed),
  • Artemisia annua (Sweet wormwood),
  • Uncaria tomentosa (Cat’s claw),
  • Cistus incanus, and
  • Scutellaria baicalensis (Chinese skullcap).

In contrast, Stevia rebaudiana, Andrographis paniculata, Grapefruit seed extract, colloidal silver, monolaurin, and antimicrobial peptide LL37 had little or no activity against stationary phase B. burgdorferi. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of Artemisia annua, Juglans nigra, and Uncaria tomentosa were quite high for growing B. burgdorferi, despite their strong activity against the non-growing stationary phase B. burgdorferi.

On the other hand, the top two active herbs, Cryptolepis sanguinolenta and Polygonum cuspidatum, showed strong activity against both growing B. burgdorferi (MIC = 0.03–0.06% and 0.25–0.5%, respectively) and non-growing stationary phase B. burgdorferi.

In subculture studies, only 1% Cryptolepis sanguinolenta extract caused complete eradication, while doxycycline and cefuroxime and other active herbs could not eradicate B. burgdorferi stationary phase cells as many spirochetes were visible after 21-day subculture.

Further studies are needed to identify the active constituents of the effective botanicals and evaluate their combinations for more effective eradication of B. burgdorferi in vitro and in vivo. The implications of these findings for improving treatment of persistent Lyme disease are discussed.

_________________

**Comment**

Please remember this is in vitro and has not been studied in the human body.

They now say Stevia, Andrographis, Grapefruit seed extract, colloidal silver, monolaurin, and antimicrobial peptide LL37 didn’t do diddly.

And they keep stating that 10-20% go onto suffer with symptoms when that number is completely inaccurate and far too low:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/25/medical-stalemate-what-causes-continuing-symptoms-after-lyme-treatment/

Excerpt:

10-20% of Lyme disease patients who are promptly diagnosed and treated with an antibiotic within the first few weeks of infection, still end up with chronic disease. This is PTLDS.

30-40% of Lyme disease patients who have been infected for weeks to months before getting diagnosed, and THEN treated with an antibiotic, still end up with a chronic disease. This subgroup has no specific label but it has been referred to as “chronic Lyme disease,” or CLD.

60% OF LYME PATIENTS END UP WITH CHRONIC SYMPTOMS

Category:

Herbs, Lyme, research, Treatment, Uncategorized

Free Lyme Treatment Masterclass – Tues. Feb 18th 4pm EST – Greg Lee

Free Masterclass on Tuesday Feb 18th at 4pm EST where Greg Lee will present Lyme disease case studies!

Click here to register for the Tuesday February 18th 4pm EST Masterclass II: https://lnkd.in/euRfF-e

He’ll be covering the microparticle essential oils, treatments, and other remedies that helped debilitated patients overcome stubborn Lyme inflammatory and toxic pain symptoms, calm anxiety, and replenish vital energy.

He’s creating this as a part of a training course for medical providers who want to get faster results in their Lyme patient’s pain, fatigue, and brain fog.

The Essential Oil Masterclass II Lyme Case Studies is free, of course.

Just to be clear…

This isn’t a webinar…

And not a typical Facebook Live…

And it’s not a boring ‘lecture.’

Thanks,

Greg

P.S. If you missed the first masterclass, you can see the replay by clicking here too: https://lnkd.in/eQgyEUA

Category:

Activism, Herbs, Treatment