This is a post about my recovery from Lyme’s disease. If you are a regular visitor, you may have read a previous post describing my struggle with Lyme’s disease (borrelia burgdorferi).
I am now realizing that I have probably been infected with some sort of tick-borne issue for longer than I thought. I say this because actually over the past 5 years or so, I have been noticing a very slow, but steady decline in my hand-eye-coordination and in mental clarity. It definitely started before I was officially diagnosed with LD. And now I think I have finally put a stop to that said decline (thank goodness!).
Go back and read my previous posts about Lyme’s for further information. I will be describing what I am doing now and just briefly brushing on what happened in the past.
So what is different now than 6 to 12 months ago (you might ask)?
I am still taking (in low doses) the Lyme’s specific homeopathics – which I think do a great job of slowing and halting the LD progression, I’m not sure if it erradicates the Lyme’s by itself. Rather I would suggest adding in immune boosting herbs like astragalus and andrographis (*** see warning below).
For about the past 2 to 3 months I have been taking the Cat’s Claw bark powder, the Eleuthero tincture (ginseng) and the Japanese Knotweed root powder – these are the main herbs in the Buhner herbal Lyme’s protocol.
In the past month, I have added in 4 things, which means I don’t know exactly what is making me feel so much better… but I am just happy to have more energy and less inflammation!!
Here is what I have added in the past few weeks:
- I am taking an herbal anti-inflammatory blend – it has some knotweed (resveratrol), some turmeric, some green tea phenols, etc. This is probably going to help reduce inflammation in the body – but by itself, this will not treat Lyme’s (btw).
- I have started taking Andrographis. I am taking doses in the amount recommended by Buhner – meaning I started out taking 1 tablet every 4-6 hours (400 mg) for a week or two. I did not have any reactions. And now I have built up to taking 800 mg every 4-6 hours meaning I take 2400 mg of it daily. Andrographis is rapidly excreted by the kidneys – Buhner mentions that in just 4 hours, 80% of the herb is excreted, meaning we have to take it often. I might up my dose to 1200 mg every 4-6 hours soon. Will keep you posted. Andrographis is a known immune booster (and this is most of the battle against tick-borne disease infection). In fact, a number of Northern European countries recommend their citizens take this herb in the winter.
In addition to the above two supplements, I also got an acupuncture session a couple weeks ago which focused on my extraordinary meridians. These are a mystery to me (look them up but make sure it is a good resource) – but I noticed myself feeling better about 3 – 5 days after this treatment, so I have to mention it. The meridian that got worked on for me had to do with the Jing Qi and it ran up the inside of my legs, she also put needles in my neck (near the SCM) and on the inside edges of my inner cannulas (first time ever having needles so close to my eyes!).
Finally, what I did not mention in my previous post about going up to Pittsburgh…
I had a dream a few months ago – maybe back in January or February that doing a certain Buddhist Dharma protector practice would lead to my feeling better. It is a rare practice – it is rare I think for anyone to do this specific practice on its own (rather you hear about this Dharmapala lumped in with the others). But I have been doing it since returning from Pittsburgh a week ago. I think this is an efficacious practice for me. I was also told that this particular wisdom being was associated with healing – that nomads in Tibet request lamas and monks to do the practice when their Yaks get sick and start dying. I wish I could say more about this, but I think you have to have the karmic connections (ten drel) to benefit from these types of practices.
In the meantime, if you are desperate, you could look up Green Tara mantras and chant along with them, or Chenrezig or Medicine Buddha mantras. Better yet though, find a Tibetan lama who you trust and ask their advice about a healing yidam (deity) practice for you, if you want.
Whatever is causing my health and vitality to return, I am grateful. Having spent the past four to five years watching my energy slowly sap away and my inflammation slowly creep up and up, I am very happy to be coming out the other side. Which, in the realm of Lyme’s disease is often difficult to do.
I am still taking it slow. No need to shock my system! But I have the energy to give multiple bodywork treatments in a day or to go for a 10 mile bike ride or to have several activities in a day without being worn out or irritable. So far so good!
Thank you for reading!
~km
*** a little word about andrographis: about 3% of the population is allergic to this herb, which manifests primarily as rashes and skin issues. Most of the time this allergy is not serious. However, due to this risk, always start out taking a small dose and work your way up after a week or two to make certain you are not in that small percentage of people.
Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation 