Archive for the ‘Inflammation’ Category

Herbs & Wellness Podcast

https://cynthiathurlow.com/ep-300-herbs-wellness-dr-rawls-on-cellular-regeneration-healing/?  Go here for Podcast

Herbs & Wellness

Dr. Rawls on Cellular Regeneration & Healing

Sept. 30, 2023

I am honored to connect with Dr. Bill Rawls today! He is a distinguished figure in the healthcare field, having departed from conventional allopathic medicine to illuminate the profound potential of herbs in revitalizing health through the principles of cellular healing and regeneration.

With a foundation in classical obstetrics and gynecology and backed by scientific research, Dr. Rawls joins me today to furnish us with his actionable recommendations for optimal health and well-being.

In our conversation, Dr. Rawls dives into his background and explains the inherent limitations of the traditional allopathic model that has guided modern medicine for generations. We explore questions surrounding the alarming state of health in our society and examine the factors contributing to disease. We navigate the landscape of cellular biology, shining a light on the role of mitochondria and the impact of diet, environmental toxins, stress, and microbial pressures on our well-being. Dr. Rawls also unveils the distinctions that set herbs apart from pharmaceutical agents, and we journey through the realm of phytochemicals, the spectrum of herbal safety, and the health concerns around perimenopause, menopause, bone health, and sleep.

Dr. Rawls is a source of profound wisdom in the world of health and wellness, and his invaluable insights promise to empower us on the path to a healthier and more vibrant existence!

“Inflammation is a process of illness. It is not a cause of illness, and unless you are addressing the underlying causes of the inflammation, you are not going to make somebody well.”

– Dr. Bill Rawls

IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:

  • Why Dr. Rawls chose to go into obstetrics and gynecology
  • What prompted Dr. Rawls to redirect the focus of his work?
  • How Dr. Rawls has spent the past decade and a half figuring out what herbs were doing and what chronic illness is
  • The differences between acute medicine and functional medicine
  • How mitochondrial power and illness are intertwined
  • How stress factors impact cellular health
  • How does the safety and efficacy of a particular herb get determined?
  • What is an adaptogen?
  • The value of taking herbs for essential hypertension
  • The importance of bone health for women
  • The impact of sleep pressure on sleep
  • The importance of restoring natural sleep cycle

Connect with Cynthia Thurlow

Follow on Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn

Check out Cynthia’s website

Submit your questions to support@cynthiathurlow.com

Connect with Dr. Bill Rawls

On his website

Dr. Rawls at https://rawlsmd.com

Dr. Rawls’s book, The Cellular Wellness Solution

For more:

Category:

Detoxing, diet and nutrition, Gut Health, Herbs, Inflammation, Treatment

FREE: Ross Lyme Support Protocol

https://s3.amazonaws.com/hoth.bizango/assets/24360/Ross_Lyme_Support_Protocol.pdf  Protocol Here

The Ross Lyme Support Protocol

By Dr. Marty Ross

The Ross Lyme Support Protocol includes essential steps to begin and continue a chronic Lyme disease treatment. It is designed to:

● boost the immune system

● improve detoxification

● speed recovery

● kill the infection(s)

● protect and repair from the harmful effects of the infection(s) and the herbal or prescription antibiotics.

While the following Lyme disease treatment approach focuses on a limited number of areas, it may correct most of the problems, such as: low energy, pain, insomnia, brain, neurologic, and thinking problems (brain fog), and immune compromise and suppression.

Table of Key Supplements and Herbs in The Core Protocol

What’s New: Ross Protocol 3rd Edition

________________

For more:

Category:

Detoxing, Gut Health, Herbs, Inflammation, Lyme, Sleep, Supplements, Treatment

ACTION ALERT: FDA Trying to Ban CBD

https://www.paintreatmentdirectory.com/posts/the-fda-is-trying-to-ban-cbd-supplements

The FDA is Trying to Ban CBD Supplements

The FDA is Trying to Ban CBD Supplements

By: ANH-USA

Editor’s note: The following article and call to action about the FDA’s efforts to ban CBD supplements is being reprinted from the Alliance for Natural Health website. This is not the first time the FDA has tried banning natural treatments relied on by millions of Americans, but part of a long and corrupt history. The FDA has also been trying for several years to ban kratom, an herb being successfully used by millions of Americans to treat pain, opioid addiction and withdrawal, anxiety and more. Recently, the FDA has also taken action against homeopathy, a safe, natural system of medicine used worldwide since its development in 1810. The FDA has been trying to get stronger regulatory authority to take vitamins and other supplements off the market. It seems the FDA is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to protect the profits of the pharmaceutical industry instead of protecting the health of the public.

The FDA Misleads on CBD Safety

…providing further evidence that the agency is trying to engineer a ban on affordable CBD to protect drug industry profits. Action Alert!

As the evidence of CBD’s myriad health benefits continues to pile up, it increasingly looks to us like the FDA is preparing to issue a ban on CBD supplements. We must support bills in Congress that take the issue out of the FDA’s hands by allowing the sale of CBD in supplement form.

Lawmakers do appear to be taking this issue seriously. In addition to the bill introduced by Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA), another similar bill has just been introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) to allow the sale of CBD in supplements. Additionally, Congress is holding a hearing on July 27 during which members will formally scrutinize the impact of the FDA’s failure to develop a regulatory pathway for the sale of CBD in supplements and food. Let’s show the FDA the scale of our opposition to its unjustified plan and demonstrate the huge level of grassroots support for CBD supplements ahead of the hearing.

We want to make it crystal clear what we face if we don’t stop the FDA in its tracks. CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of over 100 natural compounds called cannabinoids found in a wide range of plants, most notably the hemp plant. The cells of our bodies are laced with cannabinoid receptors that form part of the endocannabinoid system that is essential to life and to robust health. We produce cannabinoids internally (endocannabinoids) and we also consume them in some foods (exocannabinoids). Most of these cannabinoids, including CBD, are not psychoactive – THC being an exception – but they all offer profound benefits. CBD is one of the most well researched non-psychoactive cannabinoids and it has an incredible array of health benefits, with evidence showing that has profound anti-inflammatory and immune modulating effects and can help with pain, anxiety, depression, certain cancers, and even heart health.

Let that sink in for a moment. The opioid epidemic is killing an astonishing number of Americans every year; rates of anxiety and depression are reaching new highs, particularly among young people; heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the US. CBD has been found to help with all of these conditions, but instead of working to make this compound more widely available as a supplement, which is the way it should be sold according to the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the FDA wants to stop all supplement sales of CBD. The FDA’s justification is the protection of the profits of one pharmaceutical company that has a CBD drug that will cost patients a stunning $32,500 per year. It will also mean citizens who have been benefiting from low-cost health support from CBD supplements since they became widely available a few years ago will have no further access to the supplements they have relied on. There is something deeply wrong with this picture.

How did we get here? For starters, the FDA says that CBD can’t be a supplement because it has approved a drug version of CBD called Epidiolex that is used to treat two rare forms of epileptic seizure, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) or Dravet syndrome, in children over 2 years. This ability for FDA to rule in favor of drug companies has to do with the FDA back-channel that we’ve written about many times before. In short, if a substance is studied as a drug (i.e. a drug company has made an Investigational New Drug application) before there is evidence it was sold as a supplement (i.e. evidenced by a supplement company’s New Dietary Ingredient notification), then the drug company can ask the FDA to ban the supplement form of that compound.

Yet, as pressure mounts from Congress and a variety of stakeholders to make CBD more widely available, the FDA has been reviewing scientific information on CBD. Earlier this year, the agency released a statement explaining that the “existing regulatory framework” for foods and supplements is not appropriate for CBD and that a new regulatory pathway is needed.

One of the main issues raised by the FDA is that of safety. The agency claims that CBD presents various safety concerns, specifically the potential for harm to the liver and the reproductive system and concerns for vulnerable populations such as children and pregnant women.

These views are articulated in a review article authored in part by FDA staff. To support the assertion that CBD can pose threats to the male reproductive system, the authors cite a 1981 animal study in which monkeys were administered 30, 100, or 300 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day (mg per kg bw/day) of CBD orally. But consider that 300 mg per kg bw/day for a human weighing 154 pounds would be 21,000 mg, or 21g, of CBD—far, far more than anyone would ever take as a supplement!

This is emblematic of a larger problem we’ve discussed before: the deeply flawed risk assessment models used by federal bureaucrats to prevent us from utilizing natural medicines to stay healthy. These types of models have been used by European regulators to set absurd limits on supplement dosages (known as tolerable upper limits, or ULs). ANH’s founder and Executive and Scientific Director, Robert Verkerk, PhD, has published several papers critiquing this approach that was originally developed by the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), pointing to a fundamental flaw: in trying to restrict vitamin or other micronutrient dosages in this way, regulators completely ignore the fact that risks vary greatly depending on the form and dose of a nutrient used, and for most populations you’ll find overlap in the doses that cause health benefits for the majority and risks for a few. So if you then create a law that aims to eliminate a potential risk for everyone, you actually deprive the vast majority access to the micronutrient and all the benefits it offers.

Bringing it back to CBD: the fact that the FDA is, in part, using a decades-old animal study in which an absurdly high CBD dose was used to demonstrate that CBD has safety concerns once again demonstrates that the federal approach to assessing risk and benefit is fundamentally broken. It’s based on a defunct toxicological model that should have no place in modern day food or supplement law-making. The agency is also not giving proper weight to the incredibly favorable safety record of CBD used as a supplement or the multitude of benefits we can get from using CBD as a supplement. Instead, the FDA has chosen to focus on old evidence of harm that was only found when absurdly high doses were taken experimentally. To us, it seems like the agency is simply grasping at any information it can to demonstrate harm so it can justify its proposed ban on CBD supplements. The driver? Nothing less than preventing competition for the pharmaceutical drug version of CBD, given its the drug companies that are the FDA’s principal paymasters.

And, indeed, the FDA’s view on CBD’s safety is not supported by experts in the industry and elsewhere. A 2020 meta-analysis looked at human trials to assess CBD efficacy and safety. The authors concluded that most studies reported no adverse events with acute administration of CBD and mild to moderate effects with chronic administration, with the most common side effects being tiredness, diarrhea and changes of appetite/weight. Again, these side effects must be weighed against the benefits of CBD use for combatting opioid misuse, heart disease, anxiety, and depression. Harvard Health Publishing, the publication of the Harvard Medical School, states simply that, for adults, “CBD appears to be very safe.”

We cannot allow the FDA to cater to the drug industry at the expense of public health.

Action Alert! Write to Congress in support of bills that allow the legal sale of CBD in supplements. Please send your message immediately.

The FDA has said that they will not be allowing CBD to be in food or supplements, explaining that the “existing regulatory framework” for foods and supplements are not appropriate for CBD. The agency denied three Citizens Petitions requesting the agency issue a regulation that would allow CBD to be sold as a supplement. Clearly the FDA is more interested in protecting Big Pharma profits than with promoting consumer access to a product that can benefit their health. We need Congress to take the issue out of the FDA’s hands to create a legal pathway for CBD supplements.

Write to Congress and tell them to support the Hemp and Hemp-Derived CBD Consumer Protection and Market Stabilization Act of 2023 and the Hemp Access and Consumer Safety Act to protect access to CBD supplements.

Sign the Petition Here

_________________

**Comment**

The FDA wants patients between a rock and a hard place.  On one hand they state extended antibiotics are not to be used for Lyme/MSIDS because they are unsafe, and then they also want to remove important supplements that help us, but when the agency is alerted to the fact doctors have never witnessed so many “vaccine”-related injuries and VAERS reports are higher than any other vaccine in its history, after the mRNA gene therapy injections……crickets.

Something doesn’t smell right.

If the FDA had their way we’d just all die already.

For more:

The FDA has a long & sordid history of attempting to ban anything it views as competition to its lucrative drugs & vaccines due to its vested interests with Big Pharma.

Category:

Activism, Herbs, Inflammation, Pain Management, Sleep, Supplements, Treatment

Study Says Opioids No Better Than Placebos For Back & Neck Pain

https://www.paintreatmentdirectory.com/posts/opioids-no-better-than-placebos-for-back-and-neck-pain-new-study-says

Opioids No Better Than Placebos For Back and Neck Pain, New Study Says

By: Cindy Perlin, LCSW

7/10/23

A new study just published in The Lancet, a highly respected mainstream journal, reported that patients with low back pain and neck pain who were prescribed opioids did no better than patients given a placebo. The randomized, controlled study of 347 patients found that there was no significant difference in pain scores between the two groups at six weeks. A year later, the placebo group had slightly lower pain scores,1.81 compared to 2.37 for the opioid group. The average age of participants in the study was 44.7 years and they all had lower back pain, neck pain or both for 12 weeks or less.

According to the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), 10-12% of those prescribed opioids develop an addiction. Despite the fact that over a million Americans have died of opioid overdoses to date, opioids continue to be widely prescribed as noted by the CDC. After peaking in 2012 at 81.3 prescriptions per 100 persons nationwide, the prescription opioid rate was 43.3 per 100 persons in 2020. However, some counties had rates that were nine times higher than that. This study indicates that many pain patients are being unnecessarily exposed to devastating and potentially fatal risks for absolutely no benefit.

I believe that the reason that opioids continue to be so widely prescribed despite the risks is that healthcare providers and patients have heard so often that “opioids are the best treatment we have for pain”. This statement has been repeated so often by pharmaceutical interests and their enablers despite the lack of evidence that most people believe it. Will this study be enough to change these beliefs? I doubt it.

Besides patients’ and healthcare providers’ frequently reinforced beliefs that “opioids are the best treatment we have for pain”, there are several other barriers that get in the way of change. These include:

Healthcare providers are not educated about safer and more effective alternatives.

One survey of medical school curriculum in the U.S. found that physicians were receiving less than two hours of education about pain during their four years of medical school. Post-graduate education is largely sponsored by the drug companies, who fund the medical journals through advertising, sponsor most of the continuing education courses and conferences that physicians attend and send sales reps to physicians’ offices to peddle their wares on an almost daily basis. There are no comparable platforms for educating physicians about alternatives to pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pain.

Insurance companies won’t pay for alternative treatments or severely underfund them.

They do not pay for acupuncture, biofeedback, massage, nutritional counseling or supplements, exercise programs, herbal treatments, light therapy or other proven pain treatments. They have not raised fees for chiropractors, mental health providers or physical therapists in over 40 years.

Government policy often blocks access to alternative treatments.

Marijuana is still federally illegal, making it inaccessible for many. The FDA has gone to great lengths to try to ban kratom, a very effective southeast Asian pain-relieving herb, and failing that, has done their best to demonize it. Several states have banned kratom. 

The FDA has also recently declared homeopathy illegal, classifying all remedies as unapproved drugs, despite significant evidence that homeopathy is safe and effective and a long tradition of its use being legal.

No federal or state laws require insurance coverage for most alternatives or adequate fees for the treatments, like physical therapy, psychotherapy and chiropractic, that are covered.

Sign My Petition to Require Insurance Companies to Pay for Alternative Treatments

The supply of alternative service providers cannot currently meet increased demand.

For instance, while the demand for chiropractic services has been increasing, the U.S. Small Business Administration reports that the five-year survival rate of chiropractic practices is only 48.9%. This is most likely due to low fees and excessive paperwork demands by insurance companies.

The physical therapy profession is currently hemorrhaging providers despite increasing demand, with over 22.000 physical therapists leaving the workforce in the last quarter of 2021 alone. Over 15,000 licensed clinical social workers left the workforce during the same time period in professions where there were already significant shortages.

There are already shortages of massage therapists and demand for acupuncturists is already increasing compared to supply. These shortages will be even more severe if insurance coverage is made available.

Find the Right Provider

The Placebo Effect and Chronic Pain

The placebo effect refers to the improvement in a patient’s condition, despite receiving a treatment with no active pharmacological properties, for example: a sugar pill. Research has consistently shown that when patients genuinely believe they are receiving an effective treatment, their bodies often respond accordingly, producing measurable improvements.

The power of placebos extends beyond a mere psychological response; it can lead to actual physiological changes in the body. Studies have shown that the placebo effect can trigger the release of endorphins (the body’s natural opioids), dopamine (the body’s natural mood elevators) and other neurotransmitters associated with pain relief and improved mood. This indicates that the mind possesses an innate ability to activate the body’s self-healing mechanisms.

Placebo-controlled clinical trials are now standard practice in drug development, enabling researchers to evaluate the true effectiveness of new medications, or in the case of the above-described study, older medications.

While placebos have the potential to produce positive outcomes, some have raised ethical concerns about their use. They claim that deceiving patients by prescribing placebos without their knowledge undermines the principle of informed consent. However, I would counter that by pointing out that prescribing potentially dangerous drugs without warning patients of the full range of risks or the fact that a safer alternative exists is a much higher order ethical violation.

Researchers are exploring ethical ways to use placebos. Some studies have shown that even if you tell patients they are getting a placebo for their condition, it still seems to have the desired effect.

Placebos and the Power of the Mind/Body Connection

Placebos are an indicator of the power of the mind-body connection to influence our well-being. The effectiveness of placebos in pain management has been observed for both acute and chronic pain. Placebos have shown significant analgesic effects in conditions such as migraines, osteoarthritis, and even post-surgical pain. They have been proven to reduce pain intensity, increase pain tolerance, and enhance overall well-being. Placebos have also been shown to reduce anxiety and depression and to improve sleep.

Want to try a placebo for yourself or a loved one? Here is a placebo you can order on Amazon:

Conclusion

Many safer treatments for back pain, neck pain and other types of pain exist and should be offered to patients instead of misinforming patients that “opioids are the best treatment we have for pain”. A “best” treatment doesn’t have the potential to kill people.

Cindy Perlin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, certified biofeedback practitioner, chronic pain survivor, the author of The Truth About Chronic Pain Treatments: The Best and Worst Strategies for Becoming Pain Free and the founder and CEO of the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory. She has been helping her clients in the Albany, NY area reach their health and wellness goals for over 30 years. She also provides virtual pain consults. See her provider profile HERE. 

For more:

BTW, in the effort of staying real: The Lancet and other journals have been caught numerous times publishing fraudulent studies and pushing politics rather than science:

Category:

diet and nutrition, Hemp Oil, Herbs, Inflammation, Pain Management, research, Supplements, Treatment

Can Microdoses of Psychedelics Effectively Treat Neuro-Lyme?

https://www.lymedisease.org/microdosing-psychedelics-lyme/

Can microdoses of psychedelics effectively treat neuro-Lyme?

Dr. Dan Kinderlehrer

By Daniel A Kinderlehrer, MD

Those of us dealing with Lyme disease are well aware that most symptoms reside in the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. And for many of us, the worst symptoms in the nervous system are neuropsychiatric. The severity of anxiety, panic attacks, depression, irritability and rage can be overwhelming.

Chronic tick-borne infections can also cause bipolar disease, addiction syndromes, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and psychosis.1-8 And of course, it is all compounded by impaired sleep, brain fog, fatigue and chronic pain, not to mention physician ignorance.

Neuroinflammation

It turns out that these mental health symptoms are primarily caused by inflammation from infection outside the nervous system.9

For example, kids with PANS—Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome—have infections in which antibodies to different microbes cross the blood brain barrier and attack the brain, resulting in severe mood and behavioral disturbances.10 A similar process occurs in adults with neuropsychiatric Lyme disease.11-13

There is increasing recognition that many mood disorders are linked to infections and autoimmune disorders, and the common link is neuroinflammation—brain on fire.14

It is no surprise that people with neuropsychiatric Lyme disease have elevated levels of inflammatory mediators including antineuronal antibodies, cytokines, chemokines and inflammatory lipoproteins.9  Think of neuropsychiatric Lyme disease as autoimmune inflammation of the brain. The primary legs of treatment are antimicrobials, psychotropic medications and anti-inflammatory agents. Ideally, an anti-inflammatory agent will decrease inflammation but not suppress immune function.

In March 2023, I published a report describing a patient with long standing Lyme disease, Babesia and Bartonella infections in which the primary symptoms were neuropsychiatric.15 He experienced anxiety with panic attacks, depression with suicidal ideation and sleeplessness.

These symptoms gradually came under control with appropriate treatment, but a change in his regimen resulted in a severe relapse. He could no longer tolerate even low dose antimicrobials without Herxheimer reactions, Zoloft was not helping and he could not tolerate Ativan for anxiety. In fact, any benzodiazepine increased his suicidality. That is when his daughter suggested he try microdosing.

A new approach: psychedelic microdosing

This is from the case study that I published:

After a 40-year prohibition in the US of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin, there has been renewed interest in their potential for therapeutic benefit. The preponderance of research in the past two decades has been in controlled clinical settings in which subjects are administered a single high dose of a hallucinogen while under the supervision of a therapist/guide. In 2018 the US Food and Drug Administration categorized psilocybin as ‘a breakthrough therapy’ in the treatment of depression, a designation the agency applies to drugs that in early trials demonstrate substantial improvement over existing treatments.16

There is compelling evidence that psilocybin has potential value in the treatment of some mental health conditions. Multiple studies have documented its effectiveness in patients with depression, anxiety syndromes, end of life anxiety, and suggested benefit in OCD and addiction disorders.17-23

Microdosing is the practice of consuming very low, sub-hallucinogenic doses of a psychedelic substance on a regular basis. The intention of microdosing is to offer similar benefits to full dose psychedelic therapy, but without perceptual distortions, the need for clinical oversight, or the risk of a bad trip.” 24

Microdosing has become increasingly popular. In one online microdosing forum that was begun in 2013, the number of subscribers rose to 40,000 in 2018 and 219,000 in October 2022.25 LSD and psilocybin continue to be listed as schedule I controlled substances, meaning legally they have no accepted therapeutic value. Nevertheless, possession of psilocybin has been decriminalized in many US cities and is on the ballot of many states to be legalized in clinical therapeutic settings; Oregon and Colorado have already done so.26

No longer suicidal

The subject of my case history began microdosing three times weekly at doses one-fiftieth of a typical hallucinogenic journey. Within two days he was no longer suicidal and within two weeks he felt well. He continues to microdose and feels well three years later.

No wonder they call psilocybin magic mushrooms. It is a potent stimulator of serotonin and may also have some influence on dopamine.27 But what may be more crucial is its anti-inflammatory action. It significantly inhibits pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukins IL-1b, and IL-6, and cyclooxygenase-2 concentrations in human macrophage cells.28-30

It turns out that most mental health disorders are caused by neuroinflammation. That’s right: most patients with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and even psychosis have inflammation in their brains driving their mood disorders.31

Neuroinflammation in these patients may be caused by undiagnosed tick-borne infections, but there are multiple other drivers of inflammation. Autoimmune diseases such as lupus, Sjögrens syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis are well documented causes of neuropsychiatric illness.32-37  Stress by itself can result in inflammatory conditions.38 People with childhood histories of adverse events such as physical or sexual abuse have an increased risk of autoimmune problems.39

Patients with PTSD—Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—don’t just have hypervigilance and anxiety disorders. They develop the same nervous, immune and endocrine system dysregulation as patients with persistent tick-borne infections and neuropsychiatric disease.40

The role of genetics

Meanwhile, genetics plays a significant role in the development of autoimmune conditions. Add to this epigenetic transmission that alters gene expression without changing the underlying DNA expression, and allows for trauma to be handed down from one generation to the next41—just ask children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

Microdosing psilocybin holds the potential to help patients suffering from these mental health issues. Numerous studies suggest that microdosing is effective in the treatment of anxiety and depression.42-46 Unfortunately, these studies are not controlled and are reliant on subject reporting—it is impossible to separate benefits from placebo effect. We clearly need better research on microdosing.

Presently Johns Hopkins University is recruiting for a study in which patients with PTLDS—Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome—are treated with full hallucinogenic doses of psilocybin under the supervision of a therapist/guide.47 These ‘journeys’ last four or more hours in controlled settings. I hope this research finds positive benefits of treatment, but full dose psilocybin treatment demands excessive resources that will never be available to most patients with Lyme.

Those of us with “Chronic Lyme” know that PTLDS is actually persistent infection with Borrelia burgdorferi complicated by the existence of co-infections resulting in systemic inflammation—it is an autoimmune illness.48 In a review of the physiological effects of psychedelics, the authors Caitlin Thompson and Attila Szabo “…propose that psychedelics hold the potential to attenuate or even resolve autoimmunity.”

The bottom line is that microdosed psilocybin may be an important adjunct to the treatment of mental illness. It is time that we find the resources to perform properly controlled double-blind investigations into the impact of microdosed psilocybin on patients with neuropsychiatric Lyme disease as well as those suffering from the ever-increasing numbers suffering from mental health disorders.

Click here to read the entire case report.

Dr. Daniel Kinderlehrer is an internal medicine physician in Denver, Colorado, with a practice devoted to treating patients with tick-borne illness. He is the author of  Recovery From Lyme Disease: The Integrative Medicine Guide to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Tick-Borne Illness.

References
  1. Bransfield RC. Neuropsychiatric Lyme Borreliosis: An Overview with a Focus on a Specialty Psychiatrist’s Clinical Practice. Healthcare (Basel). 2018 Aug 25;6(3):104. doi: 10.3390/healthcare6030104. PMID: 30149626; PMCID: PMC6165408.
  2. Bransfield RC. Lyme Disease, comorbid tick-borne diseases, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Psychiatr Times. 2007 Dec 1;24(14):59–61.
  3. Fallon BA, Nields JA, Burrascano JJ, et al. The neuropsychiatric manifestations of Lyme borreliosis. Psychiatr Q. 1992;63(1):95–117.
  4. Fallon BA, Nields JA. Lyme disease: a neuropsychiatric illness. Am J Psychiatry. 1994;151(11):1571–83. doi: 10.1007/BF01064684. PMID: 1438607.
  5. Fallon BA, Kochevar JM, Gaito A, Nields JA. The Underdiagnosis Of Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease in Children And Adults. Psychiatr Clin N Am. 1998;21(3):693–703. doi: 10.1016/s0193-953x(05)70032-0.
  6. Bransfield RC. Aggressiveness, violence, homicidality, homicide, and Lyme disease. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2018 Mar 9;14:693-713. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S155143. PMID: 29576731; PMCID: PMC5851570.
  7. Mattingley DW, Koola MM. Association of Lyme Disease and Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Type: Is it Inflammation Mediated? Indian J Psychol Med. 2015 Apr-Jun;37(2):243-6. doi: 10.4103/0253-7176.155660. PMID: 25969618; PMCID: PMC4418265.
  8. Greenberg R. Tick-borne infections and pediatric bipolar disorder.  Psychiatry Brain Res. 2015;22:11. doi: 10.1016/j.npbr.2015.12.025.
  9. Bransfield RC. The psychoimmunology of lyme/tick-borne diseases and its association with neuropsychiatric symptoms. Open Neurol J. 2012;6:88-93. doi: 10.2174/1874205X01206010088. Epub 2012 Oct 5. PMID: 23091569; PMCID: PMC3474947.
  10. Chang K, Frankovich J, Cooperstock M, et al; PANS Collaborative Consortium. Clinical evaluation of youth with pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS): recommendations from the 2013 PANS Consensus Conference. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2015 Feb;25(1):3-13. doi: 10.1089/cap.2014.0084. Epub 2014 Oct 17. PMID: 25325534; PMCID: PMC4340805.
  11. Coughlin JM, Yang T, Rebman AW, et al. Imaging glial activation in patients with post-treatment Lyme disease symptoms: a pilot study using [11C]DPA-713 PET. J Neuroinflammation. 2018 Dec 19;15(1):346.
  12. Chandra A, Wormser GP, Klempner MS, et al. Anti-neural antibody reactivity in patients with a history of Lyme borreliosis and persistent symptoms. Brain Behav Immun. 2010;24(6):1018–24.
  13. Fallon BA, Stobino B, Reim S, Stoner J, Cunningham MW. Anti-lysoganglioside and other anti-neuronal antibodies in post-treatment Lyme disease and erythema migrans after repeat infection. Brain Behav Immun. 2020;2:100015.
  14. Benros ME, Waltoft BL, Nordentoft M, et al. Autoimmune Diseases and Severe Infections as Risk Factors for Mood Disorders: A Nationwide Study. JAMA Psychiatry.2013;70(8):812–820. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.1111.
  15. Kinderlehrer DA. The Effectiveness of Microdosed Psilocybin in the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease: A Case Study. Int Med Case Rep J. 2023 Mar 3;16:109-115. doi: 10.2147/IMCRJ.S395342. PMID: 36896410; PMCID: PMC9990519.
  16. approval-priority-review/breakthrough-therapy (Accessed October 10, 2022)
  17. Davis AK, Barrett FS, May DG, et al. Effects of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy on Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 May 1;78(5):481-489. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.3285. Erratum in: JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 Feb 10;: PMID: 33146667; PMCID: PMC7643046.
  18. Moreno FA, Wiegand CB, Taitano EK, Delgado PL. Safety, tolerability, and efficacy of psilocybin in 9 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. J Clin Psychiatry. 2006 Nov;67(11):1735-40. doi: 10.4088/jcp.v67n1110. PMID: 17196053.
  19. Khan AJ, Bradley E, O’Donovan A, Woolley J. Psilocybin for Trauma-Related Disorders. Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2022;56:319-332. doi: 10.1007/7854_2022_366. PMID: 35711024.
  20. Bogadi M, Kaštelan S. A potential effect of psilocybin on anxiety in neurotic personality structures in adolescents. Croat Med J. 2021 Oct 31;62(5):528-530. doi: 10.3325/cmj.2021.62.528. PMID: 34730895; PMCID: PMC8596485.
  21. Yu CL, Yang FC, Yang SN, et al. Psilocybin for End-of-Life Anxiety Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Psychiatry Investig. 2021 Oct;18(10):958-967. doi: 10.30773/pi.2021.0209. Epub 2021 Oct 8. PMID: 34619818; PMCID: PMC8542741.
  22. Griffiths RR, Johnson MW, Carducci MA, et al. Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial. J Psychopharmacol. 2016 Dec;30(12):1181-1197. doi: 10.1177/0269881116675513. PMID: 27909165; PMCID: PMC5367557.
  23. Johnson MW, Garcia-Romeu A, Cosimano MP, Griffiths RR. Pilot study of the 5-HT2AR agonist psilocybin in the treatment of tobacco addiction. J Psychopharmacol. 2014;28(11):983-992. doi:1177/0269881114548296.
  24. Hutten NRPW, Mason NL, Dolder PC, Kuypers KPC. Motives and Side-Effects of Microdosing With Psychedelics Among Users. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2019 Jul 1;22(7):426-434. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyz029. PMID: 31152167; PMCID: PMC6600464.
  25. https://www.reddit.com/r/microdosing/ (Accessed October 10, 2022)
  26. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/07/15/more-states-may-legalize-psychedelic-mushrooms (Accessed October 10, 2022)
  27. Coppola M, Bevione F, Mondola R. Psilocybin for Treating Psychiatric Disorders: A Psychonaut Legend or a Promising Therapeutic Perspective? J Xenobiot. 2022 Feb 7;12(1):41-52. doi: 10.3390/jox12010004. PMID: 35225956; PMCID: PMC8883979.
  28. Nkadimeng SM, Steinmann CML, Eloff JN. Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Four Psilocybin-Containing Magic Mushroom Water Extracts in vitro on 15-Lipoxygenase Activity and on Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Cyclooxygenase-2 and Inflammatory Cytokines in Human U937 Macrophage Cells. J Inflamm Res. 2021 Aug 5;14:3729-3738. doi: 10.2147/JIR.S317182. PMID: 34385833; PMCID: PMC8352634.
  29. Kubera M, Maes M, Kenis G, et al. Effects of serotonin and serotonergic agonists and antagonists on the production of tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-6. Psychiatry Res. 2005 Apr 30;134(3):251-8. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2004.01.014. PMID: 15892984.
  30. Flanagan TW, Nichols CD. Psychedelics as anti-inflammatory agents. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2018 Aug;30(4):363-375. doi: 10.1080/09540261.2018.1481827. Epub 2018 Aug 13. PMID: 30102081.
  31. Yuan, N., Chen, Y., Xia, Y. et al.Inflammation-related biomarkers in major psychiatric disorders: a cross-disorder assessment of reproducibility and specificity in 43 meta-analyses. Transl Psychiatry9, 233 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-019-0570-y
  32. Shen CC, Yang AC, Kuo BI, Tsai SJ. Risk of Psychiatric Disorders Following Primary Sjögren Syndrome: A Nationwide Population-based Retrospective Cohort Study. J Rheumatol. 2015 Jul;42(7):1203-8. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.141361. Epub 2015 May 15. PMID: 25979721.
  33. Meszaros ZS, Perl A, Faraone SV. Psychiatric symptoms in systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review. J Clin Psychiatry. 2012 Jul;73(7):993-1001. doi: 10.4088/JCP.11r07425. Epub 2012 May 1. PMID: 22687742; PMCID: PMC9903299.
  34. Mura G, Bhat KM, Pisano A, Licci G, Carta M. Psychiatric symptoms and quality of life in systemic sclerosis. Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health. 2012;8:30-5. doi: 10.2174/1745017901208010030. Epub 2012 Apr 20. PMID: 22550545; PMCID: PMC3339425.
  35. Bernstein CN, Hitchon CA, Walld R, Bolton JM, Sareen J, Walker JR, Graff LA, Patten SB, Singer A, Lix LM, El-Gabalawy R, Katz A, Fisk JD, Marrie RA; CIHR Team in Defining the Burden and Managing the Effects of Psychiatric Comorbidity in Chronic Immunoinflammatory Disease. Increased Burden of Psychiatric Disorders in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2019 Jan 10;25(2):360-368. doi: 10.1093/ibd/izy235. PMID: 29986021; PMCID: PMC6391845.
  36. Lwin MN, Serhal L, Holroyd C, Edwards CJ. Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Impact of Mental Health on Disease: A Narrative Review. Rheumatol Ther. 2020 Sep;7(3):457-471. doi: 10.1007/s40744-020-00217-4. Epub 2020 Jun 13. PMID: 32535834; PMCID: PMC7410879.
  37. Silveira C, Guedes R, Maia D, Curral R, Coelho R. Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis: State of the Art. Psychiatry Investig. 2019 Dec;16(12):877-888. doi: 10.30773/pi.2019.0106. Epub 2019 Dec 9. PMID: 31805761; PMCID: PMC6933139.
  38. Calcia MA, Bonsall DR, Bloomfield PS, Selvaraj S, Barichello T, Howes OD. Stress and neuroinflammation: a systematic review of the effects of stress on microglia and the implications for mental illness. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2016 May;233(9):1637-50. doi: 10.1007/s00213-016-4218-9. Epub 2016 Feb 5. PMID: 26847047; PMCID: PMC4828495.
  39. Dube SR, Fairweather D, Pearson WS, Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Croft JB. Cumulative childhood stress and autoimmune diseases in adults. Psychosom Med. 2009 Feb;71(2):243-50. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181907888. Epub 2009 Feb 2. PMID: 19188532; PMCID: PMC3318917.
  40. Bransfield RC. Adverse Childhood Events, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Infectious Encephalopathies and Immune-Mediated Disease. Healthcare (Basel). 2022 Jun 17;10(6):1127. doi: 10.3390/healthcare10061127. PMID: 35742178; PMCID: PMC9222834.
  41. Yehuda R, Lehrner A. Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: putative role of epigenetic mechanisms. World Psychiatry. 2018 Oct;17(3):243-257. doi: 10.1002/wps.20568. PMID: 30192087; PMCID: PMC6127768.
  42. Rootman JM, Kryskow P, Harvey K, et al. Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers. Sci Rep. 2021 Nov 18;11(1):22479. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01811-4. PMID: 34795334; PMCID: PMC8602275.
  43. Lea T, Amada N, Jungaberle, H. Psychedelic microdosing: A subreddit analysis. Psychoactive Drugs. 2020;52:101-112. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 02791072.2019.1683260.
  44. Lea T, Amada N, Jungaberle H, et al. Perceived outcomes of psychedelic microdosing as self-managed therapies for mental and substance use disorders. Psychopharmacology. 2020;237:1521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05477-0.
  45. FadimanThe psychedelic explorer’s guide: Safe, therapeutic, and sacred journeys.  Simon and Schuster, New York, 2021.
  46. Johnstad PG. Powerful substances in tiny amounts: an interview study of psychedelic microdosing. Nordic Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2018; 35(1):39–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1455072517753339
  47. https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05305105 (Accessed June 30, 2023)
  48. Yehudina Y, Trypilka S. Lyme Borreliosis as a Trigger for Autoimmune Disease. Cureus. 2021 Oct 10;13(10):e18648. doi: 10.7759/cureus.18648. PMID: 34786243; PMCID: PMC8578812.
  49. Thompson C, Szabo A. Psychedelics as a novel approach to treating autoimmune conditions. Immunol Lett. 2020 Dec;228:45-54. doi: 10.1016/j.imlet.2020.10.001. Epub 2020 Oct 7. PMID: 33035575.

Category:

Inflammation, Lyme, Psychological Aspects, research, Sleep, Treatment