why (or how) does this infection cause pannic attacks and anxiety?
it just baffles me that a bacteria can do this.... I've been feeling 'off' for the past few days now it's so not me...
TIA, xtine
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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Whoa . . . simple question and a very complex answer.
I am sorry but I can't explain it as I am so very tired. But did not want your post sitting with no replies.
This could have many interrelated reasons.
Lyme is a very toxic condition. Give anyone poison and anxiety will likely occur - it can be part of the toxin's effect on the liver and brain &/or the adrenal "flight or fight" reaction.
NMDA receptors become high (magnesium helps calm and detoxify by the way).
oh. .. I hope you are not eating or drinking anything with MSG or aspartame ( nutrasweet). Any of that can cause panic all by itself as they are excitotoxins.
" Borrelia, Nields, Fallon " (Jenifer Nields, Brian Fallon)
They have written about this.
Take care. this will get better.
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[ 11. February 2008, 12:58 AM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posted by xtine (Member # 13928) on :
Thanks Keebler,
That helped reading those articles.
I'm just trying to understand how this is affecting me so I can think about it more logically thus overriding my nonsense emotions.
I'm very careful with my diet and find that i can't eat anything with gulten, dairy or sugar. I eat mostly unprocessed foods and also find that salt increases panic.
Overall, my panic attacks have gotten better.... perhaps because I now know what I'm dealing with or my brain is somehow getting use to it.
Thanks again! Christine
Posted by Visual Afterimage Man (Member # 10435) on :
Christine,
Anxiety and panic took hold of me very early. I was in your position a few years back. I had no idea why I was feeling this way. I was afraid I was losing my mind!!
The anxiety and panic improved while I was treating the Lyme. When I took a break from treating lyme to go after coinfections, my panic and anxiety returned.
Don't know why it happens, but it is very common amongst us lymies.
Posted by MusicMan (Member # 11966) on :
Hello
Yes, I also suffer from the dreaded anxiety attacks.
I get them every day and have been for about three years now, I hate them!
Actually since I switched to Zith and Amantadine the attacks are worse! But so is everything else so that probably means the fight is on! Cool!
I take Klonopin for mine but it's the lowest dose they make and I cut that in half almost every day, although some days I end up taking the other half, I still start with a half.
Hang in there, I know how bad they get.
Steve
Posted by treepatrol (Member # 4117) on :
It messes with adrenal glands fight or flight
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
Aside from what others have said, another reason can be blood sugars. Blood sugars can be problematic in lyme patients and a condition called reactive hypoglycemia is not unusual. It can cause anxiety.
Anyone with lyme should cut out refined sugar and eat a fairly low carbohydrate diet.
Terry
Posted by MusicMan (Member # 11966) on :
Hi
That's interesting about the blood sugars thing.
I get that quite often, shakes, hunger and weakness mostly and I eat right away when it happens and it goes away.
Nice article in the link.
Steve
Posted by aklnwlf (Member # 5960) on :
Hi there,
I have alot of anxiety issues too. Some is from a magnesium deficiency that almost all Lymies have. Lyme loves that Magnesium so make sure you take Magnesium supplements.
I'm currently taking NOW brand Magnesium & Calcium reverse 1:2 ration with Zinc one tablet 2 times a day.
The Mag comes from Oxide, Aspartate, Taurinate, Glycinate and Citrate.
If I don't take it my anxiety and sleeplessness ramps way up.
Also I have Bart which causes alot of anxiety/panic issues.
Hope this helps.
Posted by tailz (Member # 10014) on :
I think my anxiety is an offshoot of the cell phone/wireless boom. Perhaps I can feel the movement of the bacteria lining up with my neighbors' cell phones?
`Cross Currents' by Dr. Robert Becker - page 72.
In 1975, Professor Richard Blakemore, also of Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, became intrigued by the strange behavior of some bacteria he was studying. Blakemore noticed that the bacteria always clustered at the north side of their culture dish.
Even if he turned the dish so that they were at the south end and left it overnight, the next morning the bacteria were back at the north side.
While such ``magnetotrophic'' bacteria had been described before, no one had ever done what Blakemore did next: he looked at them under the electron microscope. What he found was astonishing.
Each bacterium contained a chain of tiny magnets! The magnets were actually crystals of the naturally magnetic mineral magnetite, the original lodestone of preliterate peoples. Somehow, the bacteria absorbed the soluble components from the water and put them together in their bodies as the insoluble crystalline chain.
Later studies showed that this arrangement was of value to these bacteria, which lived in the mud on the bottom of shallow bays and marshes. If they were moved by the tide or by storm waves, their magnetic chains were large enough (in comparison to their body size) to physically turn their bodies so that they pointed down at an angle corresponding to the direction of magnetic north.
All the bacteria had to do was swim in that direction, and sooner or later they would be back in the mud. This was an interesting mechanism, but it did not contain any sophisticated information transfer. The bacteria did not ``know'' that north was the way to swim; they just did so. However, these observations opened up a much more interesting series of investigations.
Posted by tailz (Member # 10014) on :
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