LymeNet Flash: Herx/Flare Control Methods

This is topic Herx/Flare Control Methods in forum Medical Questions at LymeNet Flash.

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Posted by duramater (Member # 6480) on :

I'll be starting Abx soon, and like a few other people here, the entire time that I am on Abx, it is one big nightmare. I just keep getting weaker the entire time, so I thought I would collect useful tricks/supplements/general voodoo that has worked for you to control, alleviate, or reduce the symptoms you experience when you are on Abx.

Some call this a herx, others a flare, others just misery. Hey, call it Bob for all I care, just thought I would stock up on things THAT WORKED for you for your symptom flares while on Abx. Man, I hope SOMETHING worked for SOMEBODY...

Thanks.
~DM

Posted by EZ-E (Member # 6436) on :

To me, a flare up is way worse, than a herx. If I start feeling like I'm having one....I Eat a 5mg Valium(diazepam), or more if ya need it. I need to lose weight, but when I diet, I get sicker. Not sure how to diet w/o getting worse. Anybody know?

Posted by hwlatin (Member # 4123) on :

Lyme loves to live in fat cells when you diet the fat cells decline and forces the Lyme out. Hence the increase in symptoms. People always asked me if I felt better as I was losing the weight, I always told them not really in many ways I felt worse.

It is hard for people to really understand. I lost 200 lbs, most put on by this crazy disease. In some ways you need to have manageable weight loss and a good detox plan to get through it.

Posted by EZ-E (Member # 6436) on :

Thanks HW. Would you mind sharing your whole system, diet, detox, & all?

Posted by minoucat (Member # 5175) on :

DM, it's really simple. All you need is a live chicken, a few black candles, and the eyelashes of a 5-legged frog....

I dunno what to tell you. I tried pretty much everything, from coffee enemas to detox to epsom salts baths. Often the thing that would alleviate a herx one time wouldn't particularly help the next time; I never figured it out.

One thing that really did make me feel better, albeit for short periods of time, was the paraffin foot bath. I have no explanation, but I'd feel better all over after I soaked my feetsies. I got a very basic paraffin bath on sale for about $20, and I use a mixture of peppermint oil, canning parafin and mineral oil rather than the very expensive spa parafin.

Esgic really worked well for me for pain control. Sleeping helped a lot -- when I finally caved and started taking temazepam, I realized how much sleep deprivation had exacerbated my misery and depression.

Detox tea (gallons) helped, I think; also psyllium and bentonite clay for gut detox; also liver flushes--I started doing them regularly when I was taking Mepron, and I noticed a big improvement the next day.

Just recently I took a 2-day oral abx break after 10 days of tinidazole misery. Now that I've started back on it, I'm having a much easier time. So now I'm a proponent of backing off the abx if things get too awful.

Very gentle massage helped during the first few months of mepron treatment, when my legs really hurt. Nothing helped with that headache, though.

I think the steam sauna helps, but when I'm feeling herxy I don't stay in it very long -- just long enough to work up a little sweat and start feeling weak(10 min or less). The first couple of weeks I used it I felt worse; then I started feeling a lot better. When I feel good, I can stay in it 20 minutes or more. My husband, who is achier than I am, says it really helps his muscle and joint pain.

Since the time I did a really serious yeast treatment, I haven't had a truly terrible herx (although I've had some pretty unpleasant ones. Just not the "I'd-shoot-myself-if-I-could-see-straight-enough" kind). I'm no longer on the strict yeast control diet, although I still take tons of probiotic and don't eat a lot of sugar etc.

EZ-Z, my husband just lost 15 pounds over about 3 months (I hate men). He also felt nauseated as he lost weight; now that he's lost most of what he needed too and is holding relatively steady, the nausea is gone. So it might be that toxins stored in fat were released, which is part of the whole Shoemaker theory.

Posted by EZ-E (Member # 6436) on :

Thanks Cat.....:-).... I'm off to the river in search of a 5 legged frog...oh yeah, this is the desert, we don't have rivers..:-)
Your hubby use low fat diet?

Posted by duramater (Member # 6480) on :

Thanks Minou!

Perhaps my little nephews can rustle me up said frog... something near Chernobyl perhaps?

Anyway, for me, its all about weakness. What I call "core weakness" in which it feels as if I've got not a single functioning mitochondria. Happens with every antibiotic they put me on. Each day gets a little worse until I'm so near death that the docs pull the drugs. Nice, eh?

So, I'll try just about anything. But not the fat thingee! I've lost about 30 pounds through all this and I barely weigh 100lbs now with wet clothes? (Don't you all weigh yourselves with wet clothes?) Couldn't find a fat cell on me if you tried....

So far, the regular doc, the LLMD (by phone) guy, and the internal med/alternative MD (just met yesterday) have all recommended steroids (low dose, alt day schedule) to deal with this. I'm not opposed to that at all, but I just want to stuff my bag full of tricks in the hope of alleviating the impending weakness/lack of mitochondria....

Perhaps when the board is working properly again, more folks will chime in...

In the meantime, boil, boil, toil, & trouble....

Posted by robi (Member # 5547) on :

Acupuncture has done the most for me as far as pain relief.

robi

Posted by beachcomber (Member # 5320) on :

Oh, Duramater, I would think twice before taking the steroids. Before being properly diagnosed I had some steroid injections and a steroid IV drip. I truly felt wonderful while on them and was working out like a madwoman. But, as soon as I stopped and the eefects wore off my symptoms would get worse.

JMHO, but I think the steroids are a temporary fix and probably not helpful in your healing journey.

Also, my heart raced and my BP was extremely high while on steroids. Don't know if that was coincidental.

Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :

Detox baths have made the worse days better.
Also in the last couple months, my voodoo doctor told me to drink distilled water only when I'm detoxing heavily.

A gallon and a half a day. Distilled water gives the toxins a way out of the body. It helped me tremendously.

Pam