posted
I have been off abx for about a year now and am doing pretty well. I have a four point approach.
Oxygen - using Mhbot Heat - Steam sauna salt & C Diet - no sugar, low low carb, no nightshades.
I have an offer on the table that would take me from seal level to high into the mountains. I'm afraid that my Mhbot would not work, and in addition, the low oxygen environement of high altitude would allow lyme to spread like wildfire.
Any lymies on this board living 6000 + feet or higher? How is your body doing? Have you found effective treatments at this altitude. Anybody move from low altitude to high altitude?
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Noodlydoo
Posts: 261 | From Washington | Registered: Oct 2002
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timaca
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6911
posted
I live at 7000 ft. I began lyme treatment in April, and now, after 5 months on IVs I am seeing good improvement. I can't tell you if things would have been different had I lived at sea level.
I do know that whether you live at sea level or at 7,000 feet you should not get a steroid shot! I was FINE until I got one of those! (It apparently set off latent lyme in me! )
Posts: 2872 | From above 7,000 ft in a pine forest | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
I lived in bozeman montana at 5000 feet and became markedly worse. I didn't know I had lyme then but I went from been sick to bedridden.
Every time a storm came in I was in so much pain I couldn't get out of bed. Also there though there are a lot of storms. And the humidity is an ave of 15%, and my body does poorly with cold.
So it might not have been just the altitude.
I'm back at sea level now and storms only make my joints ache (as they did before).
Posts: 207 | From san francisco, ca | Registered: Mar 2005
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WildCondor
Unregistered
posted
Sounds like a nice place to move. Remember that your body will adjust to the new altitude over time once you move there. I lived up in the mountains of Colorado for 3 years and high altitude had no impact on the worsening of my Lyme. Mild Hyperbaric does not work for Lyme regardless of what altitude you are at, sea level or the mountains. It may help immune function, but it is not capable of going to the depth and pressure that a monoplace chamber can. Are you treating your Lyme disease with anything? Good luck with the move!
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posted
consult an hbot doc or the place in maryland on mhbot, altitude, pressures, and what, if anything and how, altitude might effect the functioning of your chamber, and what you can do, or compensate if, for example, altitude negates acheivement of need pressure.
Posts: 2708 | Registered: Feb 2005
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I am new to this board and your topic line caught my eye. I have recently been diagnosed with neurologic lyme and have begun my treatment.
I too have wondered if high altitude has an affect on lyme disease. I grew up in New England at near sea level and started having my symptoms in 2000. (originally diagnosed with MS but that's a whole other story... I had a round rash but no-one would listen to me)
I moved out to Flagstaff, Arizona (which is at approx. 7,000 ft) in 2002 for a couple of years and while I lived out there I had absolutely NO symptoms whatsoever. I was even pregnant for 9 of those months and I always felt great!
I moved back to the East Coast and 7 or 8 months after I came home I can hardly walk. My joints have swelled up, my legs and ankles are very stiff and most of my other 'weird' symptoms are back- along with a few new ones.
Maybe it was the fresh, clean, dry mountain air that made me feel so great but I know how I felt before I moved to AZ and how I feel now. If I had the means I would move back to the mountains in a heartbeat.
Could be a coincidence with timing (maybe lyme can go into remission?) but that's been my experience. Not sure if this helps, but thought I would add my 2 cents.
Posts: 21 | From Connecticut | Registered: Nov 2005
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oxygenbabe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5831
posted
noodly....didn't you ask this question last year or did somebody else...
anyway, my old hyperbaric doc, who is now a friend, and whose family has lyme, moved from New England to Sedona and then Santa Fe and I don't think they're any worse off for it.
I noticed altitude really bothering me but I think it's the babesia--which already compromises your red blood cells. However I do think over time you'd adjust.
At first however, the dive you're getting in the portable chamber won't work as well. I did use the portable chambers when I spent a couple weeks in Santa Fe two summers ago, and they certainly helped, but it wasn't nearly as good as sea level. Reason being: my body is used to living at sea level with the PSI there, I think its someting like 14 or 15? Then the chamber adds in another 4 or 5 PSI. So you're at about 19 or 20.
YOu go to 7000 feet, my recollection is the PSI is 11. So a chamnber dive will be about 15 or 16, which is really very close to the pressure you had at sea level.
I'd assume over time your body adjusts and the chamber starts working well again. Then again, if I were you I'd call Dr. Stoller in Santa Fe, his center has a regular multichamber AND a mild chamber, and my recollection is that they did adjust the multichamber pressures for altitude? Maybe he will know.
Posts: 2276 | From united states | Registered: Jun 2004
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Marnie
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 773
posted
Years ago...we talked about going into CAVES to heal arthritis...radon therapy! People do this in Montana.
Opposite "direction", but your post caught my attention.
Microaerophile Low O2 requirement and tolerance: Microaerophiles are microorganisms which are unable to grow when oxygen concentrations reach those found in air (20%) but nevertheless whose growth requires the presence of some oxygen (e.g., 2 to 10%). "Microaerophiles appear to grow best in the presence of a small amount of free oxygen. They grow below the surface of the medium in a culture tube at the level where oxygen availability matches their needs." (p. 147, Black, 1986) The enzyme nitrogenase is poisoned by normal atmospheric oxygen levels thus rendering nitrogen fixation nonoperative. Nitrogen fixing bacteria have a consequent growth preference for lower than normal atmospheric levels of oxygen. Examples: Borrelia burgdorferi Helicobacter pylori Lactobacillus spp. (can also be a facultative anaerobe) Treponema pallidum (can also be an anaerobe)
posted
When my grandmother was alive, she lived in Waynesville, NC. That altitude isn't even 3000 ft. I would have significantly more pain going there.
I drove her home once and was feeling well enough to drive from Ohio to NC. Once I started going up the mountains in Knoxville, the pain started so badly I had to take painkillers even though I was driving. It was safer for me to take the painkillers than it was to drive in the level of pain I was having.
Prior to Lyme, I never had a problem visiting her. Since she's not there anymore, I haven't been since I've been well, but I have driven over those same mountains near Knoxville with no problems whatsoever. For me it was specific to having Lyme.
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