Grounding Again

If there's one good thing to come out of my recent knee injury (read about this injury HERE), it would have to be that I've rediscovered grounding.

"Grounding" (also known as earthing) was something I used to do ALL the time before I was diagnosed with Lyme; in fact, I used to sleep on a grounding pillow case all night. 

However, after Lyme, for whatever reason, I had difficulty tolerating the grounding. In fact, saying I had 'difficulty' is a bit of an understatement. It would make me dizzy, shaky and lightheaded as anything. Was it a herx? No idea. All I know is that something that used to be so good for me suddenly seemed so bad. It was like Lyme knew earthing was good for me and punished me when I tried doing it. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Lyme seems to have an intelligence to it. It knows when you're doing something that will help you and will punish you for it. In fact, it knows EVERYTHING that's going on. It even knows we're talking about it right now. Ssshhhh. Only whispers from here on in, okay?

(Whispering) Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering: What is grounding?

Grounding/earthing is the process of connecting your bare feet (having socks on is ok) to the earth or a grounding mat that you can purchase online. This simply means placing your feet flat against the earth (or mat) or walking on the earth barefooted. The earth has a negative electron charge to it and this negative charge helps neutralize a harmful, inflammatory positive charge in our bodies that has gradually developed over time due to things like illnesses, cleaning/hygiene toxins, EMF pollution, air/food/water pollution etc.

Now, grounding isn't a revolutionary concept. It's only "a thing" now because it needs to be. What I mean is that, hundreds of years ago, we all "earthed" all the time, only we didn't really know it because we all walked around either barefooted or with non-rubber-soled footwear that still conducted the earth's negative charge into our bodies (like moccasins, for example). By nature, we're all *supposed* to be more connected to the earth. In today's modern world, however, we all mostly wear rubber-soled sneakers or shoes whenever we're outdoors. Rubber, as most of us know, obstructs our bodies' conductivity; this is why electrical wires are insulated with rubber or why we take cover in cars with rubber tires during electrical storms. It's nice to be protected from harmful electricity but when we wear rubber soles all the time we never receive the healing negative electrons from the earth. For this reason, the human race has never been so disconnected from the earth as we are today.

Exacerbating this disconnection problem is the fact that we've also never been more positively-charged than we are in these modern times. The technological revolution that has brought us cell phones, computers, tablets, Hi-def TVs, wireless Internet etc. has given rise to an influx of EMF pollution. Add in other modern-day pollutants like fluoride in water, GMOs or additives in foods, heavy metals in cooking wear/cosmetic products/vaccines, antibiotics/other medications, and we've never had so many toxins in our bodies. Numerous toxins give birth to numerous free radicals, which deplete our bodies of electrons. The more free radicals we have, the more electrons we lose and the more positive in charge we become. Indeed, it's actually a very negative thing that we've become so damn positive!

So if we've never been so disconnected from the earth due to footwear and we've also never been so positively charged due to the pollutants of the modern world, then we basically all of a sudden find ourselves faced with an epic electron crisis where we're all in desperate need of negatively-charged electrons. I suppose we could call it an electron epidemic. The entire human race is starving for negative vibes. We just don't know it.

For Lymeys, our body is in an even greater state of electron desperation because of the havoc Lyme has wreaked on our bodies. Whether it's because of viral problems, parasite problems, heavy metal problems, candida problems, coinfection problems or the Lyme spirochetes themselves, electron-eating free radicals are more than aplenty in our bodies and grounding may be key in helping to neutralize our charge.

As for me, I was very worried that I would never tolerate grounding ever again since I had so much difficulty tolerating even a liiittle bit. All it took was just 15 minutes on my grounding mat to make me feel very woozy and even a little dizzy, shaky etc. 

However, with my knee injured, I was determined to try again because I knew that grounding promoted healing, lowered cortisol levels and, thus, helped reduce inflammation (source). I needed to have more patience with the process. Maybe I needed to build myself up, little by little (as is the case with everything else when you're a Lymey) and this way I would eventually tolerate the grounding.

So I did just that. I started out very slow. All I could tolerate was 15 minutes at a time and that's what I did. Then, after several days, I tried 20 minutes. And, then, after several more days -- maybe a week -- I eventually tried 30 minutes...

Soaking in some negative vibes.

One night, I forgot I was even on the grounding pad and I spent a good 45 minutes on it. I kind of freaked when this happened because I thought I would feel sick from being on the pad so long. But I didn't even feel that woozy after. I was back, baby. I was able to tolerate the earthing again. Whatever herxing that may have taken place, that herxing was now over.

As I write this, I at least do 30 minutes of grounding a day, but I often do two 30 minute sessions a day, so an hour total. That's a decent amount of grounding, enough to make a significant difference with the charge in my body.

Overall, grounding again has made me feel stronger, more relaxed, more harmonized, more "in control" of my body and more normal. However, I must admit it has not resolved my knee issue. The knee dilemma may have to be solved another way but maybe this has all happened for a reason, so I could rediscover grounding and get the negative electrons that my body so desperately needed, especially from so much Lyme damage.

Here are some other key benefits of grounding (according to an article I found): 

Reducing chronic pain

Improving sleep

Increasing energy

Lowering stress and promoting calmness by reducing stress hormones

Normalizing biological rhythms, including circadian rhythm

Normalizing blood pressure and blood flow

Relieving muscle tension and headache

Speeds healing

Reduces jet lag

Protects body from EMFs

Helps recover from athletic injury

Reduces snoring

Helps support adrenal health


Sources

https://www.purposefairy.com/81302/the-amazing-science-behind-earthing/

https://wellnessmama.com/5600/earthing-grounding/


For Further Reading

EARTHING: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever! by Clinton Ober, Dr. Stephen T. Sinatra M.D., Martin Zucker, Gaetan Chevalier

Crisis of Faith

I would be remiss if I didn't mention a recent battle that has run parallel with my Lyme and fluoroquinolone toxicity struggles. I haven't yet mentioned this battle because I didn't think it had anything to do with Lyme or being "floxed" but I now think that there must be some connection. The battle I speak of is with...

Basal Cell Carcinomas.

I started seeing a dermatologist back in August, I still see the same one now and I don't necessarily see myself stopping in the very-near-future. A couple -- or maybe a few -- of these basal cells were present prior to me getting ill in the summer of 2017, but these red spots seemed to get worse after getting Lyme and several others seemed to pop up post-Lyme. Is there a connection? Or just coincidence?

Right now, I'm starting to think there's a connection because the timing seems too synchronous. Perhaps a magnesium deficiency is to blame since magnesium is integral to having healthy skin (read about magnesium deficiencies HERE). Or, perhaps, an excess of heavy metals is to blame, which are known to seep through the skin and cause problems (read about heavy metal toxicity HERE). Or, perhaps, a stressed immune system is to blame; my immune system spent so much energy fighting Lyme and parasites and viruses and heavy metals -- not to mention the fact that it was suppressed by steroids immediately after the Levaquin disaster -- that skin cancer may have seized opportunity and came out to play.

Anyway, biopsying and treating the skin cancers has been less than...um...fun. Part of the problem is that, for many of the basal cells, I have no choice but to remove them via surgery, which leaves scars, because the alternative option is to use a chemo cream but, because I'm now overly sensitive to chemicals, I do not want to use the chemo cream (my LLMD also recommended against doing so). I mean, can you blame me? Levaquin was a chemo drug (read about my disastrous experience taking Levaquin HERE). Do I really want to use another chemo drug? Not that the cream would be as strong as Levaquin (at least, I don't think it would be) but I still feel it would cause me problems, even though it's used topically.

So, right now, I'm starting to look like some angry old man put cigarettes and/or cigars out all over my body. Okay, it's not THAT bad...yet...but it may be getting to that point.

As far as the basals on my face and neck go, I must remove them via a special surgery called "MOHS." This is partially a good thing and partially a bad thing. It's good because I don't have to worry about using the chemo cream or having them removed by regular surgery that leaves a cigarette-burn-looking scar. It's bad because it's REALLY friggin' difficult finding a Mohs surgeon that takes my insurance. 

If I haven't made it obvious yet in these articles, I don't have good health insurance. I had to get on the phone for several hours, calling different places: surgeon offices, my insurance company, my primary care provider etc. Just when I thought I found somebody, I was let down. My insurance company would say this surgeon took my insurance; I would call them and they would say no, they didn't. My PCP would tell me another surgeon took my insurance. Nope, they didn't. I would log onto my insurance company website and get the names of several surgeons who took my insurance. Nope, none of them did. It seemed like a wild goose chase.

Finally, after maybe dozens of phone calls, I determined Mass General Hospital took my insurance and I set up an appointment for a consultation. I would've let out a deep exhale...EXCEPT...there was another problem: my knee. The back of my knee. It was still bothering me (see the end of my last blog) and walking in Boston, to and from Mass General, would be significantly more difficult. I had no idea what was wrong (and still have no idea as of writing this), whether it was torn cartilage or meniscus, tendonitis, arthritis or something else. This was very frustrating because the timing was awful. Just a couple weeks earlier, I was walking greater distances than I had been since I was sick. The walk to Mass General would have been no problemo but now it was a BIG problemo and it added to my stress.

Flash-forward a couple weeks later and my knee started feeling better; in fact, I would say it felt about half better and I thought it would only improve more as time went on. I thought the trek into Mass General would be no big deal and consequently (and, as it turns out, foolishly) I started amping up my walking a bit more. The most amped of these walks took place two days before my consultation in Boston. After this walk, my knee flared up all over again. I thought I was screwed and I was pissed at myself for walking too much. Why didn't I just take it easy? At least until the appointment was over? Now it would be much greater a challenge getting into Boston for the freggen appointment.

Waiting for the Blue Line.

I went online and literally mapped my commuting route into Boston, down to the very last step. Parking at MGH was supposedly a major pain in the butt cheeks so I knew public transportation was my best option. I found that I could take the commuter train into Back Bay Station, then take the Orange Line subway to State Street and transfer to the Blue Line, which took me to the Bowdoin stop that was only a four-minute walk from the building my appointment was at. This meant all the walking involved would be the four-minute walk, in addition to some minimal walking inside train and subway stations. Oh, and it would be round trip. Could I do it?

I wasn't sure.

Ultimately, I had my dad come along for the appointment. This way, he could help me out if the walking was too much for my angry knee. Of course, I felt like a dingbat taking my dad with me for the appointment. I'm sure the secretary at MGH was, like, "Why the F does this 36-year-old man have his dad here with him for his appointment?" I wanted to answer, "Because I'm a Lymey Bastard and I hurt my knee and I sometimes need help doing really simple shit!" But I knew I couldn't just yell this out.

In the end, I made it to and from the appointment ok. My knee bothered me a little bit but it miraculously felt better as the day went on. The weather was on the warm side and I think that, for whatever reason, the knee joint feels better when it's warmer and slightly more humid as opposed to very cold and dry winter air. Does this mean it's arthritis? No idea. I'm not a doctor.

So I guess my worry was ultimately unnecessary but, still, I mean, my God! At a certain point, you start to wonder, how much more of all this can I take before I lose it completely? What are the limits of my sanity? How could things have become so bad? Is this all worth it? Am I better off dead? Seems like a total disaster. Total nightmare. Nothing is easy. Lyme = lack of physical ability = lack of ability to make sufficient money = lack of good health insurance = huge-ass hassle for a person who doesn't feel great to begin with. It seems like just when you think things couldn't get any worse (and maybe, just maybe, things are starting to get/look better), they do get worse and your capacity to withstand misfortune keeps getting tested further and further. The question is, when will this all end? When will things turn around? Will they ever??

If this whole "Lyme experience" is good for nothing else, it certainly makes you think about the misfortunate people out there, how they're always out there and you should never forget them. You can easily become one of these misfortunates yourself and you would want people to think about you and not be forgotten or ignored. That's part of the golden rule, I think. Do and think unto others.

Also, this experience humbles you in ways that you never ever could imagine. When you find yourself mapping out a trip into Boston down to the very last step because you can only take a limited, finite amount of steps...well, that humbles a man who, just a year and a half ago, was zipping through Boston on his feet at about 20 miles per hour (see ONE LAST HURRAH WITH DADDY blog). No matter what my future holds, whether I get much better, fully better, back to normal or what-have-you, one thing I will NEVER do again is take my body and my health for granted. Fuck no, I will not do that. I almost feel like everybody should go through the experience of having to map out a trip to a much-needed doctor's appointment down to the very last freakin' step and experience the fear of maybe, just maybe, not having enough steps in you to make it there. People need to feel the stress and frustration of being so physically limited. People also need to feel the embarrassment of needing to depend on somebody for assistance (in my case, my dad). That's the kind of shit that will put perspective into your eyes.

Lastly, this experience could be one gigantic test of faith. I've been tested before but not quite to this extent. If this is a test of faith, it's an epic one and really, really, really (and also really) difficult. In fact, I don't think it's ever been so difficult for me to hold the faith. I've never been so close to losing it completely and I've never been so close to entering a state of deep and total despair. I'm not quite there yet, but, damn, I've never been so close.

The Magic of Magnesium

I couldn't believe that it didn't hit me before.

I had been taking Magnesium L-Threonate (Swanson brand, 670mg) for the past year or so. My doctor "prescribed" it to me back in September 2017, shortly after I finished with my four weeks of Doxycycline. I took as much as I could tolerate, or as much as my GI tract could tolerate hee hee, which was actually just half the dose: three. I took three capsules for almost nine months.

I was not concerned about taking half the dose. For some reason, I never really took magnesium seriously as a vitamin or mineral or whatever the heck it is. I thought it was less important than most of my other vitamins. In fact, I thought it was the least important of all my supplements.

It turns out I was wrong. Very wrong.

I did not come to this realization until very recently. See, about a month ago, I posted a question about Levaquin in Facebook's Lyme Support Group. Somebody made it known to me that there was a "floxie" Facebook group where I could possibly find better answers to the question. I had no idea what "floxie" even meant but it turns out it's an actual term for a person who has suffered from fluoroquinolone toxicity, whether it be from Levaquin, Cipro or Avelox (read about my experience taking Levaquin HERE). There are currently thousands of "floxies" in the Facebook group. That's a big problem. Why these fluroquinolone drugs are still on the market is way beyond anybody's comprehension. I think it's criminal. Many other people out there agree with me.

I've recently come to the conclusion that, as much as I don't want to admit it, I think I've been dealing with a Double- Whopper here this whole time. What I mean is, if Lyme is a Whopper, being a "Floxed Lymey" is a Double-Whopper with extra cheese. Maybe with a large fries and large Coke, too. Mmm. I'm getting hungry.

Anyway, somebody in the floxed group mentioned that Levaquin and other fluoroquinolones are notorious for leaving you with a fierce magnesium deficiency. I had never really heard this before; well, maybe I had, but I don't think it ever registered in my Lymey brain that it was something important to take note of. Again, I didn't take magnesium seriously. "I have a magnesium problem? Well, that may be so but I've got bigger problems than that, babay! Are you kidding me? Magnesium?! Next time, tell me something that matters one ounce of a darn!"

However, this time around, something 'clicked' inside me and I figured it was time to maybe, just maybe, look up the symptoms of a magnesium deficiency. 

What I found was EXTREMELY interesting.

First of all, much to my ignorance, magnesium is incredibly important. It's responsible for cell growth and reproduction, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory processes and also hundreds of metabolic processes in our body (source). The problem is that magnesium is becoming increasingly depleted in the earth's soil due to intensive farming and is therefore increasingly unavailable in our daily foods (source). Modern medicines like painkillers and anti-depressants, along with modern vices like caffeine and alcohol, further deplete magnesium. So whether you're sick or perfectly healthy, it's very difficult to possess sufficient magnesium in today's modern world. This means a magnesium deficiency is much more common than you might think.

Now, according to an article by University Health News Daily, the following symptoms are signs of a magnesium deficiency:

Fatigue
Decreased tolerance for exercise
Muscle weakness
Muscle tension, pain, cramps, spasms, or twitches
Headaches and migraines
Irritability
Nervousness
Dizziness
Depression
High blood pressure
High C-reactive protein levels (a marker of chronic inflammation) 
Chronic bacterial or fungal infections
Chest pain

Note: more magnesium deficiency symptoms are listed at the end of this article.

To sum it up briefly, pretty much every symptom listed above is what I have experienced (for about the past year and a half), especially after physical activity and exercise. Remember that drunk, foggy feeling I felt in Trader Joe's after that long walk (read my WINK blog)? That's a sign of a magnesium deficiency. Or the dizziness and confusion? Magnesium deficiency. Or how about the extreme depression or the agitation I experience after exercise? Magnesium deficiency. Most of my problems can literally be explained by one thing and one thing only: magnesium deficiency.

Not helping matters, a magnesium deficiency can also be linked with Lyme itself. The Lyme spirochetes depend on magnesium to complete its life cycle (source) so Lyme eats away at magnesium like that Wimpy cartoon guy eats away at hamburgers.  

Furthermore, the antibiotics used to treat Lyme (Doxycycline) deplete magnesium to a greater degree (source). This means that, by the time you're done treating Lyme, your magnesium deficiency could be very significant. Add floxing from a fluoroquinolone on top of this and your magnesium deficiency could be on the level of severe.

The moral of this story? Magnesium is no fregging joke and a lack of this magical mineral may, in fact, be what-many-people mistake for chronic Lyme disease. Imagine if all this time we thought we still had Lyme but it was really just a fierce magnesium deficiency?! 

It's possible but, as I've written in previous blogs, there are a slew of other factors that could contribute to a false sense of chronic Lyme (parasites, heavy metals, coinfections, reactivated viruses, etc.) or...you also could, in fact, have chronic Lyme. It's so hard for us to know but what's important is that we are aware of these other potential problems that manifest post-Lyme.

As for me, I now take my full dose of magnesium and I can tolerate it, too. What I didn't realize (for a while) is that I was taking the wrong kind of Magnesium L-Threonate. I was taking the Swanson brand (670mg), which is good stuff, but, for some reason, I could only handle so much before I had to run to the bathroom every few minutes. I eventually came to the realization that I should have been taking SOURCE NATURAL "Magtein" (Magnesium L-Threonate 667mg). I tolerate this stuff so much better and I'm currently able to take six capsules a day, though, every once in a while, my GI tract gets borderline overactive. My tolerance level is probably right at the five or six area but, so far, I've been able to handle six pretty well.

It's only been a week since I officially started taking my proper magnesium dose but I have, indeed, noticed a change in my mood. Less depression. Less agitation. I'm more "chill", for lack of a better word. It will be interesting to see if I will continue to see positive changes as time progresses.

As I write this, my interest has also been peaked in magnesium oil, which I had never even heard of before until just a couple days ago. See, over the weekend, I tried to "jog" a bit during my daily walk. My plan (as mentioned in my previous Thanksgiving blog) was to jog from one telephone pole to the next and do this twice during the walk. The first jog went ok, though I felt a bit dizzy and disorientated afterwards, almost like my brain had a tough time balancing itself or coordinating (typical signs of a magnesium deficiency, by the way). After the second jog, however, the back of my knee felt sore, like a muscle was pulled or a tendon.

I'm paranoid about tendon issues because Levaquin is notorious for causing tendon damage. However, Lyme can also cause the inflammation. In fact, I asked the people in my Lyme support group whether they experienced anything like this and somebody said, yes, and they had never taken a fluoroquinolone. Oddly, I would prefer (and be somewhat relieved) if this was all Lyme (and not Levaquin) related.

Anyway, my current concern is that I made so much progress with the walking but now, with this injury, I may go backwards and eventually be right back where I started, having to walk shorter distances, and then increase the distance little by little, etc. It's kind of like that Sisyphus guy who rolls a boulder up a hill but then the boulder decides to be an asshole, rolls backwards down the hill and Sisyphus has to start at the bottom again. I'm sure everybody fighting Lyme and/or fluoroquinolone toxicity feels like Sisyphus. I'm sure we all feel like Syphilis, too.

But perhaps this knee injury is "meant to be" so that I can look into magnesium oil and further discover the magic of the underrated mineral. See, magnesium oil is supposed to be a more direct and efficient way to supply magnesium to weak muscles. Muscle weakness is a hallmark sign of a magnesium deficiency; this is because the magnesium in your body gets so depleted that your body resorts to breaking down muscle tissue to supply the demand (source). So, if your muscles have sufficient magnesium, the tissue can rebuild itself and, over time, everything feels stronger!

O the magic of Magnesium!

I guess it turns out that this month, December, is the month of magnesium. I'll tells ya: if you had heard me this past week, all that came out of my mouth was the word "magnesium". It's like I was preaching the good news of magnesium. Maybe I'll end up on a street corner someday freaking people out as I try to spread "magnesium awareness". "Pardon me, ma'am, do you have a moment today to hear about the wonders of magnesium? No? Ok." And then I would mutter "chicken" under my breath as she walked away; you know, like the scientologists do when they harass you in the streets.

...

Other symptoms of a magnesium deficiency (according to an article on the HEALTH MATRIX website entitled "Magnesium: The Spark of Life"):

Panic attacks
Asthma
Blood clots
Detoxification (of toxic substances, especially heavy metals like aluminum and lead)
Diabetes
Chronic fatigue
Heart Disease
Chest pain
Insomnia
Kidney disease
Migraine
Musculoskeletal conditions (from fibromyalgia to eye twitches to chronic neck/eye pain)
Nerve problems (including muscle spasms and cramps, along with central nervous issues like vertigo and confusion)
Osteoporosis (magnesium helps with calcium absorption)
Tooth decay


Sources: 

https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/pain/low-magnesium-symptoms-are-these-a-clue-to-the-cause-of-your-health-problem/?fbclid=IwAR1igk3Ut9XRpK_-neWels5vEdUuRHTtWf6B4ZoGgCj71mWFmd4YUeb8QeM

https://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/magnesium-deficiency-lyme-disease/2016/07/11/id/738173/

http://lymeinfo.net/magnesium.html

http://health-matrix.net/2011/01/04/magnesium-the-spark-of-life/?fbclid=IwAR3q8cF_WTxTShTovKJsx-BIGMlCl1gKR1OFAnUZzlG8YShTDf0QMjPaglU

https://www.thecandidadiet.com/candida-magnesium-deficiency/?fbclid=IwAR2qfZguINnM3-lWFRDvVQ9et9v3dlEn_hXYxoZDQKEhCLT_oWLKgcze7CQ

Thanksgiving 2018

It's Thanksgiving 2018. I have some things to be thankful for...

First of all, I've been able to do waaay more physical activity, especially compared to last Thanksgiving. In fact, last year, I still felt sick on pretty much a constant basis. At least now I don't really feel sick anymore, even though I still have a lot more recovery to do. I'm walking around feeling pretty good.

In the upcoming months, I want to try integrating some light jogging into my walks. I figure I'll walk around the block like I usually do, only (at first) add about five seconds of jogging into the walk, maybe from one telephone pole to the next. If that goes ok, I'll add another five seconds. And then another. Once I'm comfortable with three sets of five-second jogging, I'll probably stick with that for a while before I build up to more. The key is to get my body used to jogging again: my muscles, my lungs, my stamina, etc.

As I write this, I'm reminded of the Bruce Lee story DRAGON. It's a biopic movie that I watched when I first got sick in July 2017. Bruce's back gets broken in a fight that takes place halfway through the movie. Bruce thinks he'll never fight or even walk again. He's practically paralyzed. After a pep-talk from his wife, he takes the recovery one small step at a time and he's able to overcome the seemingly impossible. Am I comparing myself to Bruce Lee right now? Maybe.

I guess what I'm wondering is...can I pull this off? I mean, is my full recovery in my own hands? 

If I wisely take the necessary steps, I do think I can get to where I want to be, back to my former self -- well, not just who I was -- but an even better version of that person. It's not going to happen tomorrow. It will take much more work and persistence and, yes, a lot of divine guidance as well. But it's also going to take method, like I'm my own physical trainer. There is a calculated, step-by-step process to this recovery, kind of like I'm an architect and I'm plotting every single detail of reconstructing a building that was destroyed by an earthquake or hurricane. I can't just wave a magic wand and wa-lah, I have a new and improved body. I must be patient and methodical with the reconstruction of myself. If I do this, I can win. Hopefully.

Heavy Metal Problems

The time had come to see my doctor again. My LLMD, that is. Lyme-literate doctor. Not my Primary Care Physician. You get it. Speaking of my PCP, though...

I'd just recently had an appointment with him at the beginning of October and it went well, not that we really did much of anything except check blood pressure and maybe weigh me, but we DID check my liver levels and I was happy to discover that my enzymes were back to normal. This was a good sign, I thought. Because I was worried my liver was screwed up in a major way. In fact, back in January, my PCP had suggested I get an ultrasound to check on the liver. I did not get the ultrasound, not because I didn't think I needed one, but because I didn't want to know if something was wrong (ignorance is bliss). Instead, I decided to just wait several months and then check on the liver enzymes again, which I did and, as I mentioned before, they were fine. Sorry to repeat myself.

Where was I?

Oh yes. The LLMD.

Although my liver enzymes were back to normal, at least according to the recent blood report, this didn't mean I was all back to normal. And I wasn't. I was still having problems, one of the biggest of which was (still) with exercise and physical activity. I must say that my tolerance for physical activity was improving, slowly but surely, on almost a daily basis, but, still...too much activity led to bad things. The dizziness and drunk feeling continued to be an issue (read about this in my WINK blog), but also anger and depression would often come maybe an hour or two after the exercise. Overall, I felt toxic after physical activity; poisoned even. When my liver enzymes were off, I thought that maybe a weak liver was to blame, that I wasn't detoxing properly during exercise. But now that the enzymes were normal, I didn't really know what to think. If my liver was healthy, then what the hell was the problem?

Well, this was the main question I posed when I went and saw my LLMD. I said (and I paraphrase), "What gives, doc? My liver is apparently back to normal, but I still feel poisoned after I do too much exercise and/or physical activity. I still can't walk more than about a half a mile or so at a time--maybe three quarters of a mile--but that's starting to push it."

My doctor seemed surprised to hear this.

Then I said, "Is it possible that I still have an excess of neurotoxins in my body from the Lyme die-off, and they all get squeezed out of my muscles and lymph when I exercise, then they seep into the bloodstream, travel up to my brain, and this explains the poisoned feeling?"

My doctor rubbed his chin in deep thought.

"I'm not so sure about that," he said, "But it IS very possible that heavy metals are to blame."

And he wasn't talking about Slayer, Megadeth or Iron Maiden.

It wasn't the first I'd heard of heavy metals. In doing Lyme research and talking on Lyme Facebook support groups and such, I had heard about heavy metals on countless occasions. I knew that a heavy metal issue was a problem that came along with Lyme. I just didn't know how.

So I had to look it up...

First of all, I wanted to learn what, exactly, heavy metals were. According to what I found on the web, the most common heavy metals are mercury, cadmium, arsenic, lead, copper, silver and aluminum. WE ALL apparently have these metals in our body, usually in very small and manageable amounts, because we're constantly exposed to them in our environment. Common sources of these metals are water (that contains the heavy metal lead and also contains fluoride, which is not a metal, but is a toxin that increases our bodies' uptake of aluminum, which is a metal (source)), vaccines (mercury), dental fillings (mercury), aluminum cookware/cans (aluminum), cigarette smoke (cadmium), antacids (aluminum), antiperspirants (aluminum), fish (mercury), paints (lead), fertilizers (arsenic), car/truck exhaust (aluminum), gasoline (lead) and even sometimes rice (arsenic).

When we're healthy, we're able to ingest these heavy metals and process/excrete them no problemo, or at least with not much of a problemo. However, when we have a disease like Lyme compromising our immune system, a buildup of heavy metals can easily occur. According to an article I found on the web, this buildup is called a "bioaccumulation", which is when you begin to "absorb a substance at a rate faster than your body can metabolize and excrete the substance" (source). A normal body is able to process and excrete the metals quicker than they're entering the body but Lyme hinders the metabolization of these heavy metals and, before you know it, you find yourself head-banging to a fierce heavy metal issue. 

Complicating things further, an excess of heavy metals in your system helps form biofilms that block the immune system from fighting off Lyme. A biofilm is a thick, mucusy shield of bacteria that Lyme spirochetes ultimately create (if they're not killed soon after infecting their host) to protect themselves from the immune system and antibiotics. Heavy metals help to make these biofilms strong and difficult to penetrate. 

In fact, "chronic" Lyme is essentially defined by the presence of these heavy-metal biofilms that make Lyme spirochetes so difficult to kill. You can't kill the Lyme until you destroy the biofilms, but how do you destroy the biofilms? Good question; I thought you'd ask that. According to one article I found, you can do it through natural means, like enzymes (Serrapeptase, Lumbrokinase, Nattokinase) or through conventional drugs (Tindamax) (source).

However, you must be careful about destroying the biofilm (in fact, some experts like renowned Lyme specialist Stephen Buhner argue it's not even a wise thing to do). Because once the biofilm is destroyed, everything that was used to construct the biofilm now gets released into your body, the most intense of which are all the heavy metals. So you suddenly find yourself with a major heavy metals issue after the breaking of a biofilm, not to mention the fact that you must now also deal with the bacteria that created the biofilm to begin with: i.e. Lyme. Yikes! Just when you thought things couldn't get any more complicated, right?

Anyway, after reading all this, I started to think, hmmm, this whole "breaking of the biofilm" phenomenon sounds a lot like how I felt after I took the drug Levaquin where it felt as though a bomb had detonated in my body (read about my Levaquin experience in my blog LEVAQUIN WITH A TWIST OF LYME). Did the Levaquin that I took three weeks prior to being diagnosed with Lyme break open a biofilm within me and this is why it felt like all hell had broken loose in my body after just two pills of the powerful drug? 

Some amateur forums on the web have suggested that this is possible but there doesn't seem to be any professional corroboration that I can find. There are also forums on Facebook where people have suggested that Levaquin can definitely activate dormant Lyme but nobody really knows how, exactly, whether it's via breaking the biofilm or some other way. However, one person in the Facebook group speculated that, since Levaquin and other fluoroquinolones destroy cells in our bodies (because they're literally cell-destroying chemotherapy drugs (source)), wouldn't it make sense that whatever bacteria or viruses or parasites or, yes, heavy metals that lie latent within these cells get released into the body once they are destroyed?

Who knows: maybe Levaquin is to blame for opening up this entire Pandora's box and all I had pre-Levaquin was a nasty, lingering flu virus while the Lyme existed as nothing more than a stealth microbe causing minimal problems. I guess blaming Levaquin for unleashing Lyme and/or heavy metals into my body is just another theory to add to the pile of theories that make my head spin on almost a daily basis. Why did I get sick...how did I get sick...was it the Levaquin...Lyme...something else? Yeesh.

As far as the heavy metals go, at this point, it doesn't really matter HOW I got a heavy metal issue. The point is that I have a heavy metal issue and now the question is how the hell do I get rid of these fiends?

Well, my LLMD "prescribed" activated charcoal for me, which is a binding agent. I discussed binders in a previous blog but it's basically a detoxing agent that binds itself to toxins like heavy metals and pulls them out of your body. Charcoal is a powder. You put it in water, drink, it binds to toxins and then the bound toxins go to the colon where you eventually excrete everything when you pay tribute to the toilet god.

My LLMD also "prescribed" zinc, NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine) and taurine to assist with the removal of the metals. The zinc helps with the detoxification of metals and the NAC is another chelator that binds to the heavy metals (much like charcoal) and gradually removes them from the body over a slow amount of time. While all that is happening, the taurine fortifies the body's cells and further protects them from "free radical oxidative stress," which is a fancy way of saying "protects cells from destructive heavy metals".

Nothing like a nice, tall 
glass of activated charcoal.

As of the writing of this, the zinc, NAC and taurine seem to be going well but the charcoal is still a work in progress. Sorry for the TMI but charcoal can apparently make you mucho constipated if you take too much of it. Plus, I've noticed that my temperament has become even more unstable since I started dabbling with the charcoal. In fact, I've had a few episodes where I've gotten so agitated that I've gotten into my car and screamed "Fuck!" over and over again, at least five or six times. I know that sounds crazy, and it is, but I think the charcoal has stirred up the metals in my system (mercury, for example, has been known to make people insane in the membrane). I was hoping it would be easier eliminating the metals from my system but that doesn't seem to be the case. Perhaps taking the zinc, NAC and taurine is all I can handle for right now and, over time, they will slowly (and GENTLY) eliminate the metals from my body. Maybe that's the best I can do right now.

We shall see.

Sources

https://www.tiredoflyme.com/biofilm.html

https://trinahammack.com/lyme-disease-heavy-metal-toxicity/

http://whatislyme.com/heavy-metals/

https://drjaydavidson.com/heavy-metals-shield-lyme/

http://lymewarrior.us/heavy-metals-lyme-disease

http://www.ppt-health.com/biofilms-fibrin-and-cysts/heavy-metals-in-biofilms/

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/10/15/fda-allows-chemo-drugs-prescribed-antibiotics/

https://www.dailymedicaldiscoveries.com/become-superman-resisting-heavy-metals/