Just wondering how many people develop Hepatitis after having lyme?
Thanks, Roy
Posted by Pinelady (Member # 18524) on :
I thought I did have Hep. I asked my doc a couple of years ago to check. Cos whites of eyes were yellowish. He said no. How accurate those tests are I am not sure.
Posted by steve1906 (Member # 16206) on :
What did the doctor say was causing the yelloish in your eyes? Our eyes don't turn yellow unless there is something wrong????
Posted by Pinelady (Member # 18524) on :
He said they looked fine to him. I just shook my head and went on as usual.
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- Some types of hepatitis can take years - or even decades - to really show up on tests. -
Posted by steve1906 (Member # 16206) on :
Keebler or anyone, If you think you have hepatitis and it might not show up on blood test for years what should someone do????
Thanks....
Posted by Allie (Member # 10778) on :
Hepatitis A, B and C are viruses. You can get tested for them using antibody/antigen/RNA DNA tests. Some are more contagious than others (B is easier to get than C I think).
Some people are exposed and clear the viruses (leaving behind the antibody) but sometimes the virus becomes chronic and can make you sick through time.
I think there are vaccines for A and B.
The tests are good for these viruses, at least B and C.
However, I think "hepatitis" is also a general term too, referring to certain types of liver inflammation.
I have a feeling this inflammation is what you are wondering about.
I can't help there, though...
Good luck!
Allie
Posted by Allie (Member # 10778) on :
Oh, and I know B and C are relatively hard to get -- like you won't get them at the grocery store. Bodily fluids are usually exchanged.
I think hep A is easier to get. You might be able to get hep A from drinking dirty water, mostly in low income/developing countries.
That's my understanding anyway.
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- It's Hep C that can be very slow growing in some circumstances, according to Zhang, author of a book below. I attended a seminar where he had explained this.
Hepatitis can result from many different kinds of infections; some types are damage not from infection but from medicines, exposure to other substances . . . of just the roll of the dice with a dysfunctional liver.
If from infection (such as a slow growing hep C, it would be good to know). But there are other kinds of hepatitis that can be acquired from alcohol, chemical exposure, drugs, including prescription drugs. There are other liver disorders that can also lead to hepatitis. There is also a non-alcoholic type.
This books and site would be of interest. If you had concerns about your liver, both of the authors below would be of help.
Of course, most good LLMD also demand on good liver support supplements and excellent self-care (which includes absolutely no alcohol at all at any time during lyme/TBD treatment). It's also best to avoid as many other non-essential drugs as possible.
The second author below was first primarily treating liver disease before he learned of the problems lyme was causing and he researched and expanded, still, he always keeps in mind the health of his patients' livers. Well, they both do, it's just that you'll see more specific links for the second one.
NAC is a great liver support, along with Milk Thistle. Both are different in their actions so it's good to combine them (unless a LLMD says to stay off when on a particular drug, etc.)
The antibiotic protocol used to treat Cpn (Chlamydia pneumonia) is similar to that of lyme and puts a strain on the liver. NAC is a REQUIRED first step to the Cpn protocol. Here's why.
. . . "Surprisingly, the only anti-chlamydial agent that did not cause hepatitis in some patients was NAC. In fact, NAC is recognized as being protective.
. . .
My conclusion is that NAC should be the first agent in an anti-chlamydial regimen and should be a constant part of the therapy for this protective effect, not to mention it's effect against elementary bodies.
A patient-tailored N-acetylcysteine protocol for acute acetaminophen intoxication.
Tsai CL, Chang WT, Weng TI, Fang CC, Walson PD.
Department of Emergency Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
BACKGROUND: Hepatotoxicity as a result of acetaminophen(APAP) intoxication has become an important problem, but early intervention with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is effective in preventing hepatic injury.
[ 02-10-2010, 05:12 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
About NAC, if combined with other things, it may be very good. There are differing thoughts. GiGi has posted some notes to consider:
GiGi writes on NAC's danger (sorry, I did not save the link):
I will give you an exact copy of my notes on NAC as spoken by Dr. K. at a Conference several years ago to a large group of medical professionals:
"NAC is suicide. It is an amino acid -- a sulfhydril group containing amino acid that binds mercury where it finds it and drags it to wherever it goes; the redistribution problem is maybe more pronouned with N-acetyl cysteine than with any other thing."
He does have a way of saying what he thinks. I have heard it told exactly like that by another MD/researcher from Europe. And I have heard the same every year since.
This is an agent that should only be used (as some others) in the late detox phase. And only with the guidance of a professional.
I have posted about the problem with taking NAC many times. Please read some of my posts.
I learned this during my healing journey from Dr.K. several years ago
Several studies have shown that all the sulfhydryl-containing amino acids can redistritute mercury to other body compartments.
Following the law of osmosis, we separate the body into two parts:
1. the brain 2. the rest of the body
They are separated by the blood brain barrier. If you have a lot of mercury in the lower part of the body, it may cause very, very few symptoms. If you have a tiny amount of mercury in the brain, it causes a hugh amount of pathology.
What happens when you swallow N-acetyl cystine, it first contacts the gut mucosa which is loaded with mercury. It picks up the mercury there and then it kind of goes through the lymphatic system and the immune system and picks up more mercury in the endothelium; but the brain sends a message that it needs cysteine for functioning, so the cysteine then drags it in its tail. It's used as a shuttling agent. It drags with it the mercury back into the brain.
Only if all the areas besides the brain have been cleared of heavy metals is NAC safe to use. None of the agents are bad if given at the right time, in the right sequence, together with the right co-factors and in the absence of things that disturb the process. Your doctor should know how if he/she is familiar with heavy metal detoxification.
- Be sure to avoid acetaminophen as it can be very dangerous for the liver, especially in someone who already has liver stress (like anyone with lyme). The other OTC pain meds have also had problems in other ways. Ibuprofen can be hard on kidneys and NSAIDS can cause ulcers.
By going after the cause of the pain, many OTC products can be avoided. Magnesium, Fish Oil, Turmeric (or the stronger Curcumin) and Corydalis are just some safe methods of calming pain but, in the long run, nothing is as effective as treating infection if that is the cause - or treating nutritional deficiencies or life-style imbalance (sleep is vital to our comfort level).
Hands on work with massage, etc. is also good. Gentle exercise as well. Meditation helps some but I find a combination approach necessary.
I lived on acetaminophen for a solid 1/4 of my life for decades, to help counteract extremely severe menstrual pain. I had no idea that I was taking something that was dangerous to my liver, to my future. I knew of no other choices then. They had been hidden away from the general public.
So, that is just one reason why I'm such an advocate to us learning about safer ways to treat pain.
I also saw my mother die a horrible and torturous death due to her doctors' not having a clue about options for her. Her liver failed and they still gave her Tylenol #3 as the only pain med. Not only did it not work as her body could not process codeine, but her liver was being further damaged with the Tylenol.
I've learned a lot since that time in 1984 but it seems the medical field has not. Still, we can learn more and we are the ones ultimately in charge of our bodies.
FDA Group Issues Cautions on Acetaminophen . . . .
By DAN CHILDS and LAUREN COX - ABC News Medical Unit May 28, 2009--
Excerpt:
. . . "It's not the mixing of the two; I never misused anything," he said. "I took Tylenol as recommended for three days. By Monday night, my liver was failing. By the time I reached the hospital I was near death.''
Today, Benedi, now 53, is still living with the transplanted liver he received 16 years ago. Three years ago he required a kidney transplant as well -- a result of the damage that his organs sustained from the anti-rejection drugs he had to take after his liver transplant. And now this transplanted kidney may be failing as well.
. . . Even though Tylenol most likely does not cause serious liver damage in recommended doses, it can cause elevations of liver enzymes in the blood suggesting injury to the liver.
In a study of 145 healthy subjects who were randomized to receive placebo or 4 grams of Tylenol daily for two weeks, subjects in the placebo group experienced no elevations of ALT, a liver enzyme, but 33%-44% of the subjects in the Tylenol group had ALT elevations greater than three times the upper limits of normal.
The highest ALT elevation was greater than 500 which is approximately 10 times the upper limit of normal. All enzyme elevations returned to normal after stopping Tylenol.
Thus, recommended doses of Tylenol given to healthy subjects for two weeks can cause mild to moderate reversible liver injury. . . .
Normal acetaminophen dosage can trigger liver failure in alcoholics
HOUSTON -- (February 10, 2006) --
It only takes a few pain pills to do life-threatening damage to your liver if you drink too much alcohol, say liver experts at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston . . . .
. . . "These people may have lesser ability to detoxify acetaminophen and a greater likelihood of producing toxic byproducts even if they take acetaminophen for the right indications and do not exceed the maximum recommended doses," said Vierling, also professor of medicine and surgery at BCM.
. . . . ============-
Regarding the above article, here's what is of concern to me:
Lyme toxins damage a patient's liver and decreases the liver's ability to detoxify. Therefore, it would be likely that lyme patients are also at greater risk for damage from even normal doses of acetaminophen.
Add to that other drugs necessary to fight infection but also require a lot of the liver detox system and that could accentuate damage.
I include this as so many lyme patients have damage to their ears in one way or another. And, anything that it toxic to the ears is not going to be very kind to the liver, to say the least.
Liver support and protection will often also protect the ears (such as NAC but I'm not sure he gets into that as while I've read many of his articles, I've never been able to afford the book - though it has just now become reasonably priced).
You can look inside this book and read customer reviews through Amazon:
Topic: NATURAL SLEEP - Links to articles & supplements
==============
Love your Liver. -
[ 02-10-2010, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- Sorry for this being out of order. It's still all a work in progress for me to organize it (and my life).
The books I linked above were about lyme with an emphasis on liver safety. While there are many books on the market, I'll just focus on those by lyme literate authors so, by the same two as above, here are their books about Hepatitis C (you can consult their web sites above for more recent work or questions):
You can look inside the book and read customer reviews through Amazon:
- One last note. Every bit as important as hepatitis, many lyme patients with liver damage and infection stress often have problems with the Cytochrome P-450 liver detox pathway.
More here about that and some of the classifications of both genetic and acquired (or secondary) porphyria - a metabolic insufficiency of the liver to produce the exact type and required amount of specific enzymes, leading to a dangerous excess in porphyrin levels:
And, what else can you do to be kind to your liver? Even if you are not chemically sensitive, get rid of as many chemicals in your house as possible: artificially scented products; toxic glues, etc.