posted
Good Morning all! I got my results of my first Bowen and it's 1:64...my llmd says he doesn't treat that and is going to do another western blot to Igenex. Do some LLMD's treat at this level? Also he said my mycoplasma test is positive and was very high. i was previously treated for this which he found strange. Also, he said that my fibrinogen was high and that I have inflammation... So can anyone help me unerstand this a little more??
Posts: 15 | From Arizona temporarily, WI is home. | Registered: Jun 2005
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ArtistDi
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 2297
posted
1:64?....that denotes that you are above mid-range for lyme testing. I had a test score of 1:32 and I have a wide variety of neuro symptoms. Are you seeing a real llmd? Mycoplasma is often a co- infection with lyme.
Your score, according to the Bowen standards would indicate Lyme.
Posts: 1567 | From Hatfield, MA, USA | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Yes I am seeing a LLMD and he is part is the IlADS too. So I am not sure what the problem is!
Posts: 15 | From Arizona temporarily, WI is home. | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I am thinking the fibrinogen thing may mean hypercoagulation, which can be caused by infection. "Thick" blood, in other words. Ditto inflammation.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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SForsgren
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7686
posted
My Bowen was only a 1:32 and my LLMD still said that was noteworthy. Igenex tests were also used and I was highly positive for co-infections though equivocal with positive specific bands for Lyme.
The test is debated, but it is still useful. I would wait to see what your IGenex tests show but ensure that you are doing coinfection testing as well.
I agree with Lou that it sounds like hypercoagulation is an issue and I would ask your doc about treatment plans for that as well.
-------------------- Be well, Scott Posts: 4617 | From San Jose, CA | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I think it's important to take a moment and remember what the serial dilution really tells you and why the # has nothing to do with how ill you are.
The serial dilution measures spirochetes in the blood, not the burrowed bacteria in the muscles, tissues and tendons etc. The sickest member of our group has a serial dilution of 1:2. This is because he is so late stage lyme that the bacteria is seriously imbedded.
My serial dilution was 1:16 as was my husbands. I've been very sick for years (until treatment) whereas he has taken care of me and was asymptomatic.
My LLMD has highly recommended the Natokinase SandiB mentions; his opinion was that it is the only natural blood thinner out there.
SForgsen, do you have a link to research the product you mentioned? It would only come up in German! LOL. Maybe you have a distributor that we can read their literature? I'm always for learning!
Posts: 982 | From Florida | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
I was 1:128 with Bowen but am currently able to work. Some are 1:2 and debilitated.
The Bowen test is 100%. If you have bb in your blood you test positive. They send you a picture. Period. I and others have posted the patent. Once you understand how the test works you won't doubt it.
However, the titer level has nothing to do with the effect bb is having on you.
If I were a treating physician, I would treat based on ANY positive Bowen test, especially in conjuction with clinical symptoms.
my .02
Posts: 294 | From nevada | Registered: Sep 2005
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SForsgren
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7686
posted
I agree 100% that the dilution is not an indication of the severity of illness.
As for Rechts-Regulat, I am going both on information from Dr. K mentioned on his site at www.neuraltherapy.com, the experience of several others that have taken it, and my own experience in seeing my blood before and during use.
I realize though that most of the information so far is in German. My understanding is that it is in the process of being translated now.
-------------------- Be well, Scott Posts: 4617 | From San Jose, CA | Registered: Jul 2005
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JimBoB
Unregistered
posted
Has anyone got any REAL CURRENT info on Bowen Labs and their testing?
My duc says he wants to have the most current info before he decides IF he is going to send a test of me to them.
posted
In case you all have not read the post I put on another thread, it looks like I won't be able to get the Bowen test like I wanted to, as people in th "know" over at Marshfield Clinic about 65 miles west of me, said it is a Hoax. That their test is not accurate because it always comes back positive. There is NO reasoning with them from what I can see. Never mind it is the only test for Lyme with a US patent.
At least I now have some abx coming, though not from them to be sure. On my own On all this, I guess.
posted
What in the heck is a Bowen test? Is that similar to the ANA?
Posts: 331 | From virginia | Registered: Nov 2005
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Ann-OH
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2020
posted
Here is the description from the website.
Note: The test is still a study that has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, which is probably why places like the Mayo and Marshfield clinics will not touch it. And - being patented is not an endorsement of the product, it is just a way to protect it.
This may help to differentiate the carriers from the patients with serious disease by comparing persistence of fluorescing structures.
In this part of the test, whole blood is diluted and fluorescent antibody added.
The solution containing the antigen is progressively diluted down until a count of the antigen in that particular blood sample remains.
Bowen Research has found the Bb antigen in whole blood, breast milk, urine, placental tissue, semen, eye fluid, teeth, foot nodules, shoulder fluid, spinal fluid, finger joint fluid, and African dust.
Findings are documented with digital photography using Darkfield microscopy. The Bowen Lab receives blood specimens for Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) from all of the United States.
In addition, the Bowen Lab receives blood from doctors ordering the test from Canada, Brazil, Denmark, Scotland, The Netherlands, Ireland, England, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and the Canary Islands.
The recent database numbers for those tested is approximately 11,000-12,000.
According to a recent poll of patients, clinically diagnosed with Lyme disease, whose physicians had ordered the Bowen Q-RiBb test, 100% of those patients tested with the Bowen reported their tests were positive for Bb.
Outside critics of the test believe the Bowen has ``too many positives''. Not so if you consider that the people taking the Bowen Q-RiBb test could be `clinically diagnosed' with Lyme just by evaluating their symptoms.
Most had received negative or equivocal test results with the other Lyme tests ordered by their physicians.
When negative or equivocal test results are interpreted by their physicians, it is determined that it is unlikely that their patients are infected with the Lyme bacteria.
Physicians are hesitant to `clinically' diagnose Lyme based on the symptoms alone. Patients pro-actively seeking an answer to their continued symptoms and suffering eventually learn about the Bowen Q-RiBb test.
A positive result with the Bowen test helps these people finally get a proper diagnosis and get properly treated for Lyme disease and co-infections.
The Bowen Q-RiBb test just recently received US Patent approval. [end quote]
I have read pretty much everything there is out there right NOW on the BOWEN test.
I personally am all for it. IT is the stupid jerks in the medical profession around the upper midest here and even more so in the Northwest that are so DOWN on anything that WE as Lyme victims have going for us.
WISH i have become an MD instead of a DM or insted of becoming a Photographer. I probably would be a LLMD now, winning awards in THAT instead of photography and cars. I SURE wouldn't be sitting on my thumbs listening to all the CRAP about Bowen and Lyme in general.
posted
Ann-Oh, Your comment about patents led to research I should have already done.
Learning that the patent has nothing to do with verifying the claims of the product makes a big difference in how I'll view everything advertising its patent. Especially when it's related to health.
Thanks.
Posts: 61 | From Florida, USA | Registered: Aug 2005
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