HOW TO USE THIS BOOK AND WHO IT IS FOR

In the spring of 2009, I was the 217th person ever to be diagnosed with anti-NMDA-receptor immune encephalitis. Just a year later that figure had doubled. Now the number is in the thousands. Yet Dr. Bailey, considered one of the best neurologists in the country, had never heard of it. When we live in a time when the rate of misdiagnoses has shown no improvement since the 1930s, the lesson here is that it’s important to always get a second opinion. . . . While he may be an excellent doctor in many respects, Dr. Bailey is also, in some ways, a perfect example of what is wrong with medicine. I was just a number to him (and if he saw thirty-five patients a day, as he told me, that means I was one of a very large number). He is a by-product of a defective system that forces neurologists to spend five minutes with X number of patients a day to maintain their bottom line. It’s a bad system. Dr. Bailey is not the exception to the rule. He is the rule.

SUSANNAH CAHALAN,
BRAIN ON FIRE: MY MONTH OF MADNESS

I did as much research as I could and I took ownership of this illness, because if you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?

KAREN DUFFY,
 MODEL PATIENT: MY LIFE AS AN
INCURABLE WISE-ASS

Illness and death are not optional. Patients have a right to determine how they approach them.

MARCIA ANGELL, M.D.

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed.

MARCEL PROUST

My first published exploration of Lyme disease and its coinfections occurred with the appearance of Healing Lyme (Raven Press) in 2005. In the years since that early work my increasing exposure to this group of emerging diseases, and the people who suffer from them, has significantly deepened my understanding of both Lyme and its coinfections. In consequence, mid-2013 saw the publication of an in-depth look at two crucial Lyme coinfections: mycoplasma and bartonella (Healing Arts Press). With the publication of this volume on babesia, ehrlichia, and anaplasma the five major coinfectious organisms of Lyme now have their own in-depth analysis and natural treatment protocols. (There are other, less common coinfections that may become more common in the future; Rocky Mountain spotted fever and various chlamydias are also [sometimes] spread by ticks.)

As with the earlier book on mycoplasma and bartonella, this book is meant to be used by specific groups of people, i.e., those who are suffering from a difficult-to-treat Babesia spp., Ehrlichia spp., or Anaplasma spp. infection, and/or clinicians who themselves treat those who are infected with any of these organisms.

IF YOU ARE INFECTED WITH BABESIA, EHRLICHIA, OR ANAPLASMA

This book is designed to help you understand the infectious organisms as well as some of the approaches that can be used to treat the diseases and the symptoms they cause.

Please understand that some of the book is fairly technical. That is for the clinicians (or for you if you want to delve that deeply into it). You can skip the really technical bits if you want. They are not necessary in order for you to treat either of these conditions effectively. However, I do think, if you are up for it, you will find the overview chapters on these infections useful. I have found that once someone understands what the bacteria do in the body, it tends to lessen the fear that these diseases engender. Understanding what the organisms do during infection also makes it easier to understand the treatment regimens I recommend, i.e., just why they help to turn the conditions around. Still, that being said, the deeper technical look at the cytokine cascade and the minutiae of what the organisms do in the body are not really necessary if you just want a cursory overview of the diseases and how to treat them.

This book also explores just how widespread these kinds of infections are. And, as usual, the real figures are very different than those indicated by Centers for Disease Control (CDC)—generally by a factor of anywhere from 100 to 1,000. During research for the previous coinfection book (Bartonella and Mycoplasma spp.) I found that scores of research articles, easily located in peer-reviewed journals, continually reported mycoplasma and bartonella infections to be very common throughout the world. In fact it turns out that between one-tenth and one-third of the United States population (as an example) is asymptomatically infected with at least one of those organisms. Babesia, Ehrlichia, and Anaplasma infections are apparently less widespread but research still finds them to be far more common than the CDC reports. Technological medical treatment for these latter three conditions is often difficult and, as with Lyme, bartonella, and mycoplasma, many physicians don’t understand how to treat or diagnose them very well. Thus, as an aid to physicians and their patients, in addition to natural protocols, this book also examines which antibiotics (and tests) research has found useful (and which ones are not).

Again, this book contains an extensive look at the natural protocols that are effective for each of the diseases. Please note: These protocols are designed to be used along with antibiotics if you wish to do so. I don’t think you necessarily have to give up either pharmaceuticals or natural medicines to find health. However, if you have tried antibiotics and they have failed to help you, the protocols in this book can be used by themselves to treat all three infections.

Also, a note: The herbs and supplements in this book are not the only ones in the world that will help. Please use the protocols outlined herein only as a starting place, a guideline. Add anything that you feel will help you and delete anything that you feel is not useful. Microorganisms, when they enter a human body, find a very unique ecosystem in that particular person. Thus the disease is always slightly different every time it occurs. That means that a pharmaceutical or herb that works for one person may not work or work as well for another. There is no one-size-fits-all treatment for these particular organisms.

Again . . . there is no one-size-fits-all treatment for Lyme or any of its coinfections.

Anyone who says there is, is either trying to sell you something or doesn’t really understand this group of infectious organisms. There is no one way to health such that in all times and in all places and with all people it will always work. Life, and disease, and the journey to wellness are much more complex and sophisticated than that. So, trust your own feeling sense and pay attention to what your body is telling you. You are the best judge of whether something is working for you or not, whether you need to add something else or not, whether you are getting better . . . or not.

Now, a comment on dosages: I will often suggest a range of dosages for the herbs and supplements that can help these conditions. If you have a very healthy immune system, you will probably need smaller doses; if your immune system is severely depleted, you may need to use larger doses. If you are very sensitive to outside substances, as some people with Lyme and these coinfections are, then you might need to use very tiny doses, that is, from one to five drops of tincture at a time. (This is true for about 1 percent of the people with these infections.) I have seen six-foot-five, 280-pound men be unable to take more than five drops of a tincture and a tiny, 95-pound woman need a tablespoon at a time. Dosages need to be adjusted for each person’s individual ecology.

Again . . . dosages need to be adjusted for each person’s individual ecology.

And . . . please be conscious of how you respond to the medicines you are taking. If something disagrees with you, if you feel something is not right in how you are responding to a medicine, stop taking it. Remember: you will always know yourself better than any outside physician. And, just a tiny rant here . . .

Tiny Rant

People Get Sick, Not Stupid

I have been told by a number of clinicians, both herbal and medical, that the majority of people with Lyme and/or its coinfections are too uneducated to understand this series of books, that they are not intelligent enough to determine which herbs to use and which herbs not to use (and, in fact, that many herbs should be discussed or dispensed only by properly trained and credentialed herbalists—and yes, they mean that most community herbalists and all those who are ill should not), that people with this group of diseases cannot in fact be trusted to be in charge of their own health and journey to wellness, and that I am remiss, even foolish (i.e., stupid, silly, idiotic, witless, brainless, vacuous, mindless, unintelligent, thoughtless, half-baked, harebrained, imprudent, incautious, injudicious, unwise), in supporting members of the Lyme community in their self-empowerment. My feelings about that kind of thinking (and the people who promulgate it—you know who you are and yes, I still know where you live) can be captured in a number of common one-syllable words normally not used in polite company. (Please insert your own favorites here.)

Thus, while it can help to have a sophisticated clinician to aid in the journey to welless, it is not always necessary. Further, the truth is, for many people, finding such a person is sometimes impossible, hence taking charge of their own journey to wellness is the only option. That is most likely why the Lyme community is as potently informed as they are (much to the dismay of many physicians and paternalistic medical herbalists and naturopaths).

I do not agree with those clinicians who think you are too stupid to orchestrate your own journey to wellness, that you are too unintelligent or uneducated to understand these books, that you should not be allowed to engage in your own healing without some licensed person overseeing your regimen. In fact, I disagree with that kind of condescending attitude quite strongly. If you do feel you need a health professional to help you, then by all means find one. If you do not feel that you need someone, or that your past efforts with professionals have been unsatisfactory, then again, trust yourself to find what works for you and what does not. In fact, even if you do work with a health professional, I highly recommend that you trust yourself to determine what you are willing to take as medicine and what you are not, to determine for yourself if something is working or if it is not, to engage in self-determination on your journey to wellness. Or as Paul Krugman once put it . . .

When everyone—tout le monde, as Tom Wolfe used to put it, meaning a relative handful of people, but everyone who supposedly matters—is saying something it takes a real effort to step outside and say, wait a minute, how do we know that? It’s especially hard if you spend your time hanging out with other Very Serious People. . . . This is what you need to know: important people have no special monopoly on wisdom; and in times like these, when the usual rules . . . don’t apply, they are often deeply foolish, because the power of conventional wisdom prevents them from talking sense about a deeply unconventional situation. (Krugman, 2010)

IF YOU ARE A CLINICIAN

I have gone into these organisms in depth so that you can begin to understand just how complex their actions in the body are. It is my hope that Western herbal medicine can begin to emerge as a highly sophisticated form of healing, one understood to be highly sophisticated, and one that can deal with the kinds of complexities that are now commonly found in emerging infections. To that end I have introduced the idea of thinking about the synergies that exist between coinfections as well as the concept of examining the kind of cytokine cascades bacteria create during infection. Cytokines are messenger molecules that act as intercellular mediators during the body’s immune responses. Each stealth pathogen, during infection, releases certain cytokines to facilitate its infection of the body and, further, to stimulate the breakdown of specific tissues to gain nutrients. Each pathogen decreases the activity of certain parts of the human immune system (interfering with an effective immune response) and activates others (stimulating inflammation and cellular breakdown). So while some parts of the immune system become less functional, others become overactive. The overactivity comes from an organism-initiated cascade (think “domino effect”) of inflammatory cytokines. Each stealth pathogen creates a different kind of cascade; that is, they stimulate certain kinds of inflammation in the body through using the body’s immune response for their own ends. This is why infection with these organisms often mimics an autoimmune disease dynamic. This is important to understand when designing any kind of elegant, interventive treatment strategy. If you know what is happening in the body you don’t have to guess what to do—you know what to do.

And while I don’t go into it in any depth in this book, the idea of the complex synergies that exist between herbal medicines is crucial, as is the understanding of herbal synergists. These concepts are developed in more depth in the revised and expanded second edition of my book Herbal Antibiotics (Storey Publishing, 2012). If you wish to look deeper into plant synergists and herbal synergies, I think you will find that book useful. As well, time and space limitations made the inclusion of in-depth monographs on many of these herbs impossible to include in this volume. I have developed in-depth monographs on many of these herbs elsewhere . . . the only ones included in this book are those not included in other books I have written. If you would like to see them they can be found in Healing Lyme, Herbal Antibiotics (second edition), Herbal Antivirals, and Healing Lyme Disease Coinfections: Complementary and Holistic Treatments for Bartonella and Mycoplasma. (For specifics, see chapter 9.)

Please note that along with Babesia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Bartonella, and Mycoplasma there are a number of other coinfections that are sometimes encountered, generally with less frequency (at least for now). One, tick-borne encephalitis or TBE, is dealt with in some depth in Herbal Antivirals. Others such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever will be covered in the revised edition of Healing Lyme, due out, hopefully, not too long after this book.

HOW I ARRIVED AT THE HERBAL PROTOCOLS IN THIS BOOK

The protocols in this book were developed by exploring the dynamics of the diseases themselves, their impacts in people, the experience of clinicians treating them, protocols that those with the diseases have successfully used, many hundreds of journal papers, a look at the plants’ history of usage around the world for treating these and similar conditions, and my own experience with plant medicines over a nearly 30-year period. But please note . . .

The plants herein are just guidelines. The protocols themselves are just guidelines. The dosages are just guidelines. Again: there is no one-size-fits-all way to treat these diseases. The intent of this book is to give those who wish one an understanding of the diseases so that they can be treated more effectively and with greater sophistication. This is just a beginning, a starting place so we no longer have to grope along in the dark.

Feel free to alter, add, delete, innovate, think outside the box, argue, insist, and never settle for less than being healthy in the way that you understand it.

And remember: all plants are useful as medicinals.

Again, all plants are useful as medicinals.

The secret, as always, is in the dose, the timing, and the combination that is used. Just because a plant is not mentioned in this book does not mean it is not useful.

One of the things I have learned from the ill people I have worked with since 1986 (especially those in the Lyme community) is that when a lot of people with a lot of motivation begin looking around themselves, searching for answers, they come up with some truly amazing things. If you lock people in a room with only four ways out, someone will find a fifth way out. Always.

Trust yourself, and remember, only you know what health is for you.