Archive for the ‘Treatment’ Category

Lyme Disease & the Pursuit of a Clinical Cure

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2023.1183344/full

REVIEW article

Front. Med., 24 May 2023
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Pathogenesis and Therapy
Volume 10 – 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2023.1183344

Lyme disease and the pursuit of a clinical cure

Heather Adkison and Monica E. Embers*
  • Division of Immunology, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Tulane University Health Sciences, Covington, LA, United States

Lyme disease, caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common vector-borne illness in the United States. Many aspects of the disease are still topics of controversy within the scientific and medical communities. One particular point of debate is the etiology behind antibiotic treatment failure of a significant portion (10–30%) of Lyme disease patients. The condition in which patients with Lyme disease continue to experience a variety of symptoms months to years after the recommended antibiotic treatment is most recently referred to in the literature as post treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) or just simply post treatment Lyme disease (PTLD). The most commonly proposed mechanisms behind treatment failure include host autoimmune responses, long-term sequelae from the initial Borrelia infection, and persistence of the spirochete. The aims of this review will focus on the in vitro, in vivo, and clinical evidence that either validates or challenges these mechanisms, particularly with regard to the role of the immune response in disease and resolution of the infection. Next generation treatments and research into identifying biomarkers to predict treatment responses and outcomes for Lyme disease patients are also discussed. It is essential that definitions and guidelines for Lyme disease evolve with the research to translate diagnostic and therapeutic advances to patient care.

_________________

Translation:  TIME FOR CHANGE!

Thankfully the study authors point out the following:
  • Without intervention, Bb establishes a persistent/chronic infection in both its reservoir and non-reservoir hosts.  
  • Controversy regarding chronic infection revolves around whether Bb can persist after antibiotics and whether they are capable of causing the symptoms patients experience.
  • There are many bacterial species associated with persistent infections in humans including: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and B. burgdorferi (109).
  • Bacterial tolerance is different from resistance in that bacteria are not actively growing in the presence of the antibiotic and there is no heritable genetic change in the persistent bacteria’s genome (110, 111).
  • The stress response and other mechanisms allow bacteria, including Borrelia, to survive lethal conditions such as limited nutrients, extreme pH levels, and the presence of certain antibiotics.
  • Drug-induced bacterial persisters show a biphasic killing curve and the regrown persister cells have the same minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) to the administered antibiotic as the original population but a higher minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) (112).
  • Several independent studies have demonstrated that Bb can form drug-tolerant persister cell in vitro.
  • In vivo studies of Bb antibiotic persistence often use different parameters that can make comparisons between two or more studies difficult.
  • It is likely that lack of consensus of definitions and diagnosis lead to the treatment controversy.
  • Despite treatment controversy, a biostatistical review of the literature found that retreatment of LD with antibiotics may be beneficial in certain cases (163).
  • Since research for PTLD revolves around autoimmunity, immune-mediated factors, and/or persistent infection, most drugs fit into one of three categories: immune therapies, pathogen specific inhibitors, or antibiotics.
  • Studies screening drug libraries have revealed:
    • disulfiram has demonstrated borreliacidal activity both in vitro and in vivo (174–176)
    • vancomycin may have efficacy against stationary Bb based upon cultures and evaluation in SCID mice (177)
    • hygromycin A has shown efficacy against Bb, without disturbing the gut microbiome like so many broad-spectrum antibiotics, in vitro and in an in vivo mouse assay, but it’s use in preventing persistent infections was not determined (178)
    • drug combinations such as daptomycin or artemisinin, cefoperazone, and doxycycline as well as the combination sulfachlorpyridazine, daptomycin, and doxycycline have shown evidence of in vitro activity against Bb persisters and round bodied forms (117, 172). Azlocillin and cefotaxime are effective in in vitro killing against Bb persisters induced by doxycycline, which appear to be more tolerant to other antibiotics (179).
    • daptomycin or daunomycin, doxycycline, and cefuroxime have had success in sterilizing in vitro Bb biofilm-like microcolonies (180, 181).
    • dapsone, used in treatment of leprosy, has had success when combined with other antibiotics in killing biofilm-like Bb (182), and dapsone has had positive effects in a small PTLD and co-infection clinical study (183).
    • oregano, cinnamon bark, clove, and various flowers, grasses, and berries, as well as natural compounds such as those found in bee venom and its component melittin have demonstrated potential in vitro growth inhibition against Bb and its various forms (184–188) but need further research to determine the safety and efficacy of, and the composition and activity of the exact compounds found.
  • Curative treatment during early LD stages is a key to solving the current PTLD public health problem.
  • It is likely that more than one mechanism is involved in antibiotic treatment failure that leads to PTLD.
  • The current treatment guidelines are dependent upon the immune system’s ability to clear persistent spirochetes and conditional to the surviving spirochetes being non-viable and not enough to sustain a prolonged immune response.
  • In order to make PTLD a thing of the past, personalized medicine is required as well as the need to evolve and progress with scientific discoveries and innovations.  

Category:

Herbs, Lyme, research, 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

Diagnosing Lyme Disease: Dr. Klinghardt

https://www.bitchute.com/video/IcgYf2AZGfyu/  Video Here (Approx. 1 hour 30 min)

Diagnosing Lyme Disease

Interview with Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt

First published April 2022

For more:

Category:

Lyme, Testing, Ticks, Treatment

COVID Shots: Pretty Much Bad News All Around: Definitive Proof They Are Causing Death

**UPDATE**

Please watch this insightful and informative 10 minute interview with Dr. Peter McCullough, cardiologist and author of the study below in which he delineates the data from autopsies performed on those who got the COVID shot showing definitive proof the shots are causing death.

https://thevaccinereaction.org/2023/07/meta-review-of-autopsies-finds-link-between-covid-shots-and-death/

Meta Review of Autopsies Finds Link Between COVID Shots and Death

by Barbara Cáceres

Published July 9, 2023

autopsy

An independent meta review of autopsies on people who died after COVID-19 vaccination, published as a preprint in The Lancet online on July 5, 2023, found that 74 percent of the deaths were causally related to the shots. The review included 44 published papers that contained 325 autopsy cases and one necropsy case. According to one of the study’s co-authors, cardiologist Peter McCullough, MD, MPH of the Wellness Company, the review is the “final retort” to, “you cannot prove the vaccine caused the death.”1

Other co-authors of the study include doctors from Alberta (Canada) Health Services, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Yale University School of Public Health and the Wellness Company, as well as a former senior COVID pandemic advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).1

The most implicated organ system in COVID vaccine-associated death was the cardiovascular system (53 percent), followed by the hematological (blood) system (17 percent), the respiratory system (8 percent) and multiple organ systems (7 percent). The mean time from vaccination to death was 14.3 days, with most deaths occurring within a week from last administration of a shot.1

Most of the deaths occurred among individuals who received Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty COVID shot (41 percent), followed by Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac (37 percent), AstraZeneca/Oxford University’s Vaxzevria (13 percent), Moderna/NIAID’s Spikevax (7 percent), Johnson & Johnson/Janssen’s Ad26.COV2.S (1 percent) and Sinopharm’s BBIBP-CorV (1 percent).1

Call for Research to Explain Mechanisms of Deaths Occurring After COVID Shots

The study’s authors suggest there is a high likelihood of a causal link between COVID shots and the deaths that occurred soon afterward in most cases and that “further urgent investigation is required aimed at confirming our results and further elucidating the mechanisms underlying the described fatal outcomes with the goal of risk mitigation for the large numbers of individuals who have taken one or more COVID-19 vaccines.”1

More than 70 percent of the population of United States is considered to have been “fully vaccinated” for COVID. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the shots for anyone over six months old. The agency also recommends COVID shots for pregnant women.2 3

Dr. McCullough stated:

Going forward in response to sudden unexplained deaths reported in the press, it is reasonable to conclude the cause of death is a fatal covid-19 vaccine injury until proven otherwise. Proof the decedent is unvaccinated or an alternative diagnosis is now required for the vaccine to be exonerated. In the absence of this information, medical examiners, coroners, physicians, and government officials should attribute the death to COVID-19 vaccination.4

Sudden Removal of Study by The Lancet ‘Smacks of Raw Censorship’

The preprint of the study was removed from The Lancet less than 24 hours after it was published—prior to the initiation of an anticipated peer review. It was removed with the sole explanation that “the study’s conclusions are not supported by the study methodology.” Dr. McCullough said that the study was removed “after large volume download” from The Lancet’s preprint server.4

Will Jones of The Daily Sceptic wrote:

Without further detail from the Preprints with the Lancet staff who removed the paper it is hard to know what substance the claim that the conclusions are not supported by the methodology really has. A number of the authors of the paper are at the top of their fields so it is hard to imagine that the methodology of their review was really so poor that it warranted removal at initial screening rather than being subject to full critical appraisal. It smacks instead of raw censorship of a paper that failed to toe the official line.5 

Study Methodology is ‘Sound’

Clare Craig, BM, BCh, FRCPath, a diagnostic pathologist and co-chair of the HART (Health Advisory & Recovery Team) pandemic advisory group in the United Kingdom, noted:

It is important that attempts are made to quantify the risk of harm and censorship of these attempts, rather than open scientific critique, does nothing to help reassure people.

The VAERS system [of vaccine adverse event reporting] is designed to alert to potential harms without necessarily being the best way of measuring the extent of those harms. Quantifying the impact of deaths can be done by looking at overall mortality rates in a country, but that is an imperfect system with dubious accuracy.

The alternative approach of auditing deaths through autopsy is sound.5

References

1 Hulscher N, Alexander P et.al. A Systematic Review of Autopsy Findings in Deaths After Covid-19 Vaccination. (available at SSRN) July 5, 2023
2 What’s the nation’s progress on vaccinations? USAFacts.org May 10, 2023.
3 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 Vaccines for People Who Would Like to Have a Baby July 14, 2022.
4 McCullough P. COVID-19 Vaccine is the Culprit in Majority Found Dead after Injection. Substack July 5, 2023.
5 Jones W. Lancet Study on Covid Vaccine Autopsies Finds 74% Were Caused by Vaccine—Journal Removes Study Within 24 Hours. The Daily Sceptic July 6, 2023.

______________

**Comment**

The above article only corroborates the current VAERS tally, but ‘the powers that be’ simply don’t care.  Vaers only has about a 1% capture rate so the numbers are horrifically low:

Between Dec. 14, 2020 and June 30, 2023 the following were reported to VAERS:
  • 1,537,131 adverse events
  • 202,684 hospitalizations
  • 66,476 permanent disabilities
  • 37,592 life threatening reactions
  • 35,267 deaths
  • 1,264 birth defects
  • 4,739 fetal deaths
Adverse reactions and deaths after the COVID shots continue to mount.

Fauci, aka Dr. Evil, told the government to tell people not to do autopsies.  Now, finally, a pre-print is attempting to answer the question of why the “vaccinated” are dying within 15 days of COVID infection.  According to Dr. Denis Rancourt, the clot shots have caused the death of 13 million people globally which equates to 1 death for every 2,000 injections.  They are also producing “cancer without tumors,” due to the Spike Protein inducing the Warburg Effect in cells, causing them to overproduce proteins, “clogging” the cell, which in turn causes cancer.

https://thevaccinereaction.org/2023/07/one-in-three-pfizer-vaccine-shots-may-have-been-a-placebo/  Go Here for Video

One In Three Pfizer Vaccine Shots May Have Been A Placebo

by Kim Iversen

Published July 11, 2023

There’s new evidence that many of the batches of the Pfizer [COVID-19] vaccine administered to the public, up to the 30 percent, were placebos. And even worse, the evidence points to regulators knowing about it and willingly administering them. Now, either they were actively experimenting on the public or they were covering up for the fact that the vaccines came with numerous side effects.

Study Here:  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13998

The study shows that a small percentage of injection batches are responsible for nearly 71% of adverse events.

Lead researcher Dr. Vibeke Manniche states,

“4.2% of the batches are associated with almost 71% of the reported side effects. You would usually expect that if the batches were the same quality…You would expect more or less the same amount of side effects…This is a huge difference between the batches…Why did something change along the way?”

The data only shows results from the Danish vaccine roll out but similar shifts in protocol occurred globally. Why was the vaccine required to be kept at extreme cold temperatures initially and then not? Then there’s the other nasty flies in the ointment of Green Monkey DNA, graphene, and many, many other toxic substances and contaminants, as well as known mRNA instability, which as it turns out probably saved lives.

This article by John Leake, who has vast experience as a crime investigator, details the evil logic of corrupting the process of quality-control by corrupting those at the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Germany since they are responsible for all testing of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID “vaccine.” The German BioNTech company appears to have a cozy, fraudulent relationship with the German government since Germany is a founding member of the EU.  In evidence of fraud, the institute knew in advance that it wasn’t necessary to perform quality-control tests on the 32.1% of the batches associated with nearly zero side effects.

_______________

As you read the following article, please remember that there are now nearly 100 studies proving the effectiveness of ivermectin for COVID, but ‘the powers that be’ continue to censor this information despite remarkable recoveries of the sickest patients.

The FDA makes sure to post a picture of a horse to push their idea that the drug is a only a “horse de-wormer,” when it is used regularly and safely for decades in humans in Africa for river blindness. Predictably, the parts of Africa using the drug regularly haven’t seen COVID cases, but all sanity and logic have disappeared in the COVID era.  The narrative of a magic-bullet COVID injection must be pushed at all costs despite being controlled by the DOD and described as “counter measures,” and ordered as “prototypes,” clearly proving this is NOT a vaccine.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/05/ivermectin-ban-ended-by-australian-regulator-amid-warning-it-should-not-be-used-as-covid-treatment

Ivermectin ban ended by Australian regulator amid warning it should not be used as Covid treatment

The TGA banned off-label prescriptions when floods of people sought out the drug in the mistaken belief it would treat Covid-19.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has ended a ban on off-label prescriptions of anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, nearly two years after floods of people attempted to procure the drug in the mistaken belief it would treat Covid-19.

The TGA announced on Wednesday it would remove the ban for off-label prescriptions of the drug from 1 June. Off-label prescriptions had been limited to specialists such as dermatologists, gastroenterologists and infectious disease specialists since September 2021.

The decision was made due to what the TGA said was “sufficient evidence that the safety risks to individuals and public health is low” in the “current health climate”.

The high rates of vaccination against Covid-19 in Australia and high hybrid immunity meant that use of the drug by people was “unlikely to now compromise public health” including the risk of potential shortages of the drug for its stated use for treating river blindness, threadworm of the intestines, and scabies.  (See link for article)

Category:

Activism, research, Treatment, vaccines, Viruses

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