Hi I am not considering stopping abx but wondering what alternatives measures others rely on as support?
I'm just interested in what helps most people (disregarding Dr b's list of supplements that most of us are on).
Please name the most helpful adjunctive therapies for you...here are mine currently.
1. 'NTFactor Energy' for mitochondrial damage 2. Essential oil baths, lavender or blends. 3. Vitamin c for adrenals
thanks Emma
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
The most dramatic improvement for my arthritis was change of diet. Went from completely disabled to functional in two weeks and slowly progressing with a 2 steps forward 1 back kind of progress since then.
2nd most important: Found a new doctor who is building up my liver, adrenals, kidneys in preparation of chelation of heavy metals and killing systemic yeast. He wants to improve my elimination system before tackling these two things. He has had me on enzymes, amino acids, mega vitamin c, IVs of lipostabil, glutathione and DHEA(DHEA is not IV). About a month ago he advised me to get the urine ph strips and monitor my acidity with each morning's urine.
Once I did this, I was shocked to see how often I am acidic even though I am eating alkaline. I started supplementing my diet with supergreens pills (2 at night) and fresh carrot & spinach juice. On the days I was acidic, my joint pain was high and on the days I was alkaline, it was low.
Since getting more consistently alkaline, I have enjoyed steady progress and since 7/2/06, I have been enjoying basically painfree days with only some minor stiffness in a couple of fingers. I'm back to doing everything I did prior to 8/05 and hope this is not a temporary improvement.
Posted by robi (Member # 5547) on :
Acupuncture ..... on going with a good acupuncturist ....... you may have to try several.
Posted by Andie333 (Member # 7370) on :
Acupuncture would head my list, too. My acupuncturist is trained in Chinese medicine, so I've had a lot of Chinese herbs and teas, which I also think have been helpful.
Essential oils (there's one formulated specifically for Lyme) and foot detox pads.
Andie
Posted by Aniek (Member # 5374) on :
Yoga. Which I couldn't actually do without medication (Flexeril and sometimes Vicodin). But together, the meds and the yoga control my muscle pain and I'm determined the yoga just makes me healthier and calmer.
Posted by farah (Member # 8496) on :
Essential oils Niacin N-Acetyl Cysteine Yunan Baiyao Serraflazyme Celery seed extract Andrographis Heat Stretching/yoga/qigong
Posted by luvdogs (Member # 9507) on :
- Heat - sometimes - but sometimes makes worse. Good for pain issues for me.
-omega3, eventing primrose, grape seed extract, EmergenC Lite, glucosamine, magnesium and Calcium... and others from time to time
-excercise daily - small amounts, low grade cardio (good for me, not everybody)
-homeopathics for certain sx like sinus, vertigo, arnica for pain
- Acupuncture - I am an acupuncturist and treat myself or exchange with others for all the tendon/muscle/joint problems. Great also for anxiety, insomnia, neuro (numbing, twitching whatever). It provides almost immediate relief for most of these symptoms - sometimes it won't will feel better until the next day.
- Chinese herbs - great for a lot of the side issues e.g. sinus problems, viruses etc... Use them in all instances instead of modern decongestants etc as they wack out my Lyme. In past I was able to get on potent "cold" abx-like formula to get me off of abx. Haven't tried that since... when things get real bad I need the tried and tested - no messing around. I need antibiotics at those times.
Problem with Chinese herbs is that many Lyme patients cannot take a lot of the tonifying herbs that help many people, because it seems that many of them will feed the Lyme and trigger bad reactions. This applies to certain chinese sleep formulas, nourishing formulas, calming formulas, "blood-building" formulas. But only certain of these formulas. Some of them are just fine and work great.
Make sure your acupuncturist knows that we have to start at low dosages and to watch for negative reactions and we have to be careful about "tonifying" (your acupuncturist will understand this). In Chinese medicine, first we have to clear and then tonify. Clearing applies to an excess - which is an exterior pathogen, or an excess heat (which Lyme is). Difficult because many Lyme px are very deficient and so the inclination would be to "tonify" them.
But don't get me wrong - chinese herbs can be so helpful and I don't know how I would survive without them. They just have to be the right ones, and we have to approach with caution. Like somebody said, it might take a while to find the right acupuncturist. But when you do, I think it will make a world of difference Posted by TheCrimeOfLyme (Member # 4019) on :
change of diet chiropractor homeopathic remedies trigger point therapy ( got rid of 3 years chronic shoulder pain in ONE session- no lie) sauna essential oils ART and all that it encompasses muscle testing various herbs visualization therapy liver flushes
Call me a nut, but Im better.
Posted by mceline (Member # 9235) on :
Luvs2ride....can you elaborate on how/what you did to change your diet?
Posted by TexasChaos (Member # 7465) on :
If y'all would be interested, I can try to write this up as an anonymous online survey (like the one for Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding I am conducting at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=275602353389)
Then the survey program helps analyze the answers and even calculates percentages and such. If y'all are interested, let me know, because I would sure love to see a lot of people's answers on this and see if there are any patterns.
One site that I use is http://www.remedyfind.com/ You can look up treatments which have been rated as the most effective for specific health conditions / concerns.
Posted by brentb (Member # 6899) on :
I wouldn't be alive today without my Colloidal silver. I'd throw in other natural abx such as oil of oregano, ascorbic acid and honey. See a naturopath if you can find one.
Diet-Try to eat only REAL foods (meat,veggies,fruit,nuts)
Posted by suki444 (Member # 4261) on :
Thanks for all the replies, v interesting.
Luvs2ride...the alkaline diet sounds good...how do you know you are just eating alkaline though? Is there a diet sheet somewhere online?
Andie333- I do use the blend of oils for Lyme thanks.
CrimeOfLyme - no problem with your suggestions, makes sense to me.
Will have to look up some of the therapies mentioned -though acupuncture seems to come up a lot.
BW Emma
Posted by gwenb (Member # 7217) on :
1. Diet - low carb/alkaline - try to follow the specific carbohydrate diet. 2. Magnesium - essential 3. Exercise 4. Essential fatty acids 5. Digestive enzymes 6. Homeopathic 7. Herbs - based on energy testing - they have been AMAZING 8. L-carnitine 9. Probiotics 10. No drinking, no coffee, no asparatame, no diet coke
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