Co-Infections and a Good Report
Quacking Ducks, Patterns, and Connecting Dots
One thing leads to another…..
As I reported in my November newsletter, in regard to acupuncture, I am still doing pretty darn good, except for some rinse and repeat GI issues which really bit me around the first week in December. This also happened to me last year as I was recovering from another round of Covid. Dr. Wilson had mentioned the possibility of parasite problems when I saw him last summer, but he also said he did not want me to pursue taking care of this possibility until I was doing better. Now that I have been doing much better, it was time to go down that road. Fortunately (for me), an acquaintance of ours had recently gone through some parasite problems which may have been related to a trip to Mexico. Unfortunately (for her), none of the doctors she saw were able to find anything wrong with her, so she saw someone who does things differently than most other doctors do, and to keep a long story short, I made an appointment with this alternative care person and had some simple, but different, testing done which pointed to a struggling thyroid, mineral imbalances, and Lyme Disease which surprised me because I’ve never tested positive for Lyme (serologically) and my last TSH and T4 results looked fabulous on paper. But as some of you may already know, Wilson’s thyroid is real, Lyme bacteria can be serologically evasive, and diagnosing illness (and treatment) used to involve more hypothesizing, critical thinking, dot connecting, trial and error, etc., etc., etc.
I was a bit shocked by my test results because while I have had a few ticks on me since moving to an area where there are lots more of them, I have never gotten sick right after having a tick bite or had the tale tell bull’s eye rash. However, there was this neurological Lyme-ish similarity that got me thinking about ducks-
Most of my symptoms after this latest round of covid in July were neurological, the fatigue was terrible as usual, and the mental/emotional funk was extra horrific….
Acupuncture for the Win! - by Stephanie Schaible (substack.com)
and the investigating began. I’ve learned that there are ways (other than a tick bite) that these pesky bacterial time bombs can be transmitted and ways in which they are able to hide in the body and suppress the immune system and that many people with chronic Lyme have noticed similarities between their chronic Lyme symptoms and their Long-Covid symptoms and that their Covid infections (think things that cause stress) have brought their Lyme infection out of remission and that their Long-Covid symptoms improved by doing the things that they usually did to calm their chronic Lyme symptoms. My understanding is that Long-Covid feels a lot like chronic Lyme and that it may be helpful to treat Long Covid and chronic Lyme similarly. I will be sharing my notes (with paid subscribers) on Lyme and Long-Covid treatment overlap and the personalized treatment plan that I have been on for the past 5 weeks at the end of this newsletter.
For those of you who may be interested, here are some more resources to look at. It’s my understanding that Carolina Holistic Medicine offers telemedicine appointments (in all 50 states).
Horowitz Lyme questionnaire – Do you have Lyme?
5 Factors That Inhibit Your Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) – Metabolic Healing
Vitamins and Minerals Impact the Success and Speed of Lyme Protocols - Restorative Health Solutions
Lessons from Long Haul Lyme & Long Haul COVID | Johns Hopkins Rheumatology (youtube.com)
Managing Chronic Lyme and Long COVID with Dr. JP Saleeby
Long-haul COVID and Persistent Lyme: Is There a Silver Lining? - YouTube
In other news, dad received the results of his latest scan today which is January 17, 2024, and he is still cancer free and doing great. He recovered from Covid (back in November) with some help from the hydroxychloroquine that he was given after he did not tolerate Ivermectin very well. We were a bit worried about him because the Covid hit his lungs pretty hard. Covid is pretty good at hitting weak spots in our bodies and dad’s bladder tubule cancer did metastasize to his lungs, but his lungs cleared up, and he recovered pretty quickly after he took the hydroxychloroquine. Praise God!
I’ve managed to remain well in spite of Covid, the flu, a stomach bug, and that strange respiratory virus with a persistent cough all currently circulating. A few days after Christmas, I started feeling like I may have been exposed to something, but I took the homeopathic anti-viral that was mentioned here, Acupuncture for the Win! - by Stephanie Schaible (substack.com), and within a few days, whatever that was, was long gone.
It’s January and instead of setting exercise and weight loss goals and fast-forwarding things to Spring, I’ve been replacing the Christmas lights with fairy lights and candles while reading and enjoying Slow Seasons by Rosie Steer. Rosie has helped me nurture slowness. Having a chronic illness has forced me to slow down, but it has also taught me how to be ok with slowing down. I’ve learned to love the slow season of winter and doing things that align with it. Rosie has some great ideas in her book, but simply looking back to things I used to enjoy and did in my youth, that were distinctively seasonal, is another place I’ve gone for good ideas. I have also found that living within a more traditional, liturgical, church calendar also helps me with this because the traditional church calendar is still connected to nature, agriculture, and the change of seasons in many ways.
The past few days have brought unusual amounts of snow and cold temps. to our little corner of the world, but I managed to get out and enjoy the stillness of the familiar falling snow which is something I haven’t really done since leaving a colder winter climate behind. I even found myself making snow angels, and as others are busying themselves with indoor seed starting, I have decided to scale that back and do much less indoor seed starting this month than I did at this time last year. If the weather cooperates, I may do some modified outdoor winter seed sowing that doesn’t involve me filling milk jugs with dirt. Time marches on too quickly, and I just don’t find myself wanting to rush to or through things anymore.
I hope that you find what I have shared here to be helpful and that those of you who are looking for answers and healing, find it.
Best Wishes,
Stephanie
*Leaving Death in the Dust is a newsletter and is not a replacement for professional, regulated, medical, healthcare. This is informational and educational. Some of us in this community may have worked in the healthcare system, but we are not your medical provider and whatever you find here is not the establishment of a professional medical relationship or medical advice. **That is an MT behind my name not an MD.
Bonus content:
Bioenergetic Testing is the testing that I had done. The following information is from the article, What is Bioenergetic Testing | Health Blog | CBH Energetics.
Bioenergetic testing is a holistic method of approaching health and energetic wellbeing. Using non-invasive testing, scans can help to identify resonating stress in relation to imbalances in organs and nutrition, food sensitivities, emotions, toxins, hormone imbalances, and more…..The body is composed of different types of energy, and this energy flows in pathways throughout the body. Health practitioners have been aware of this for centuries and have used acupuncture and several other therapies that improve the flow of energy in the body.
After consulting with other doctors, Dr. Voll found that in some cases, energy flow could be restored through certain lifestyle changes such as diet, supplements, homeopathy, and exercise. That was the beginning of how bioenergetic medicine and testing began, and how it became a common practice today……….
Today, psychologists, holistic health professionals, chiropractors, and individuals use bioenergetic scans and therapy to create personalized care plans or to understand their clients’ and patients’ health at a deeper level.Bioenergetic testing can scan for:
Hormonal imbalances
Environmental sensitivities
Nutritional deficiencies
Gluten sensitivities
Thyroid stress
Energetic patterns of toxins like mold, bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, chemicals, and parasites
And more
The cost of the scan was less than $100 and took about an hour to complete. I was then given a 5-week food elimination list, dietary advice, and several homeopathic, herbal, and vitamin supplements to take which were based on my test results. I also purchased a fermented juice made from beets and cabbage to drink to help my gut microbiome and boost my vitamin K. All of these things are meant to support my liver, thyroid, digestive system, and mineral balance. I was also instructed to drink half of my body weight (in ounces) of alkaline water daily and to take digestive enzymes with every meal. My personalized protocol also included a parasite cleanse (Energique Artemisiacom) and Cat’s Claw (herbal) to address the bacteria (Lyme) and any other microbial thing that may have been lurking in my body. I was also told that keeping the Cat’s Claw around to begin taking at the onset of any viral/Lyme symptoms might be helpful and to return for a follow up scan in 6 weeks. I am at week 5 and so far, things are going well with all of this.
Helpful Long-Covid/Lyme Overlap Information (these are my notes which are from the video): Long-haul COVID and Persistent Lyme: Is There a Silver Lining?
I am not Covid vaccinated and do not intend to be. However, there are some good things to do to prevent hyper-inflammatory covid vaccine reactions to spike and PEG that were mentioned. As was stated in the video, vaccines are generally to be AVOIDED with Lyme because they have aluminum, thimerosal, and other things in them that over stimulate the immune system. This info. can be found at around the 49-minute mark, 51-minute mark, and 53-minute mark of the video if you are interested in that.
There are 3 mechanisms mentioned (3 different inflammatory pathways) which are mentioned at around the 50-minute mark as well as how to block them in order to prepare for vaccination and that can be applied to active Covid infection that many Lyme patients are already familiar with-
1. NAC, Glutathione, and Alpha Lipoic Acid.
2. Turmeric/Curcumin, Broccoli Seed Extract/Sulforaphane Glucosinolates, Green Tea Extract, Resveratrol.
3. Melatonin.
Other anti-inflammatories to be considered include-
NSAIDS and Histamine Blockers & Mast Cell Stabilizers such as Benadryl, Zyrtec, Pepcid, Vitamin C, Quercetin, Luteolin.
This article goes into the effectiveness of glutathione which is becoming more readily available via IV and injection through your local wellness spas and clinics.
Additional Resources-
You Can Get Better
Why Can’t I Get Better: Lyme and Chronic Disease, Dr. Richard Horowitz (lymedisease.org)
Additional thoughts-
If Babesia suppresses the ability to clear other parasites, are multiple parasites responsible for the chronic illness seen with Lyme?
Lyme disease patients often report that they feel worse and that their symptoms flare up when they come down with viral infections.
With more info coming out about the potential long-term consequences of vaccines in general and Covid vaccines specifically, I have a question-
Should people with autoimmune disease (or who have it in their family history), or people who have chronic infections like Lyme, be having a more thoughtful discussion with a health provider before having vaccines put into their bodies?
From- COVID-19 Vaccination and the Development of Autoimmune Diseases - PMC (nih.gov)
…the development of autoimmune diseases has been reported in vaccines against human papillomavirus, influenza, and hepatitis B.
And those autoimmune diseases associated with covid vaccines include-
vaccine -induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), autoimmune liver disease, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Graves' disease, IgA nephropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, IgG4 disease, and adult-onset Still's disease.
Other potential vaccine adverse effects, in addition to autoimmunity include-
…potential profound disturbances in regulatory control of protein synthesis and cancer surveillance. These disturbances potentially have a causal link to neurodegenerative disease, myocarditis, immune thrombocytopenia, Bell's palsy, liver disease, impaired adaptive immunity, impaired DNA damage response and tumorigenesis.