Lyme toxins the primary cause of your symptoms!

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, April, 2007 by David A. Jernigan

When considering toxins, it must be recognized that toxins are poisonous substances that are irritating and sometimes permanently damaging to the tissues of the body. Toxins of any type must be avoided and eliminated at all costs. In this article, we will be going exhaustively through the primary types of toxins that I guarantee that you have: microbial toxins and environmental toxins. Microbial toxins, like the neurotoxins of Lyme disease, require a different and more targeted treatment approach than do the more common environmental toxins. Fifty percent of the health restoration every Lyme sufferer seeks will come from effectively eliminating the toxins and reducing the sources of the toxins, i.e., bacteria and toxic lifestyle products. The other 50% of healing will revolve around restoring structure and function and optimal coherence within the body, mind, and spirit.

Research and clinical studies have determined that there are neuro-toxins released by the Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) spirochete [Klinghardt 2002]. Neurotoxins are nerve poisons. These toxins, according to research, are the cause of most, if not all, the symptoms of Lyme disease. It is also believed that tissue damage is not caused by Lyme bacteria directly; in other words, the bacteria are not "eating" your tissues. It is the accumulation of Bb toxins in your body that is most likely responsible for the symptoms experienced by Lyme sufferers.

In the scheme of facilitating healing in the body, mind, and spirit, toxins are poison in the body. In that the body, mind, and spirit are all interconnected and interdependent, if the body is poisoned, then the mind and spirit must necessarily be poisoned as well. These toxins are a major interference to your body's ability to heal itself.

An astonishing new finding was released by John Travis in Science News (July 2003;164). Travis reported that research performed by John F. Prescott found that certain antibiotics, such as the fluoroquinolones, the class of antibiotics that includes the name-brands and generic brands of Levaquin[R], Cipro[R], Tequin[R], and Avelox[R], actually are known to trigger a type of virus called bacteriophages (viruses that can infect bacteria) to change the genetic sequencing of the bacteria, causing the bacterium they have infected to start producing toxins. These viruses can act as genetic delivery vans, invading bacteria, such as spirochetes, often lying dormant, until activated by a change in the host (your body's) environment. Once activated, these viruses insert their toxin-generating genes into the bacterial chromosomes. These viruses can turn basically harmless bacterium into killers through this genetic sequencing of toxins (Travis 2003).

So now we see that not only are these toxins released through bacteria die-off and not only can antibiotics actually increase the production of the toxins, but these viruses can cause the bacteria to rupture, spilling their toxins into the body (Waldor 2004).

When a doctor uses an antibiotic and kills some Lyme spirochetes, there is a resultant Jarish-Herxheimer (Herx) reaction--i.e., a worsening of the patient's symptoms in response to the increased release of bacterial die-off toxins. The toxins are dumped into the bloodstream and circulated throughout the body, until they can either be eliminated by the body or lodged in areas of weakened tissues. As neurotoxins, they are preferentially taken up by nerve tissue. These lodged toxins are one reason why symptoms can persist even after the actual Bb infection is gone, because the toxins can remain as an irritant in the tissues for years.

In truth, a severe Herxheimer reaction is a sign of poor elimination pathway drainage, poor organ support, and poor treatment by your doctor. The bodies of most chronic Lyme sufferers are toxic dumps to start with, therefore, if a doctor does not get the pathways of elimination open and working, the body grows even more toxic as the bacteria begin to die and their toxins dump. Many doctors think good treatment is indicated by the fact that you feel like crap, i.e., worse than usual, which they feel confirms that they have selected an effective antibiotic. Most of my chronically ill patients cannot afford to feel worse just from the treatment. The person with Lyme disease has already suffered enough; they don't need to go through a "herx" just to prove they have Lyme disease.

One of the more popular herbal remedies on the market causes such a severe herx that it is advised that only one drop be taken. Because of my previous Lyme disease books, I have spoken to hundreds of people from all over the world who have taken natural products and/or pharmaceuticals and now not only have their old symptoms but many new symptoms as well. Remember, no matter what you decide to take, whether the resulting herx is a true bacterial die-off or is a direct toxic effect of the remedy/medication, these toxins must be given just as high a priority as the actual infection. Chronic Lyme sufferers do not have adequate detoxification mechanisms to detoxify these Bb toxins.