Lyme disease and co-infections

Heavy metal detox on Chronic Lyme Disease Summit – starts Monday

April 3, 2016 By Trudy Scott 4 Comments

Just a quick reminder that the Chronic Lyme Disease Summit starts tomorrow Monday April 4^th and runs through April 11^th.

Here are the speakers for day 1. And you can register here:
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16reg/trudyscottcn

Dr. Jay Davidson is the fabulous host of the summit and he covers Heavy Metal Detoxification and Lyme Disease and why he is so passionate about this topic and getting the message out there. He shares the story of his wife’s Lyme disease and how she didn’t have the classic bulls eye rash and how they didn’t even find a tick. It was when his wife gave birth to their daughter that she got really sick and almost died.

He shares the role heavy metals (lead, mercury and aluminum) play and where they are found:

High fructose corn syrup contains mercury
Contact lenses cleaners in the 80s or even early 90s contained thimerosal
Red lipstick contains lead
And many more sources of these metals!

Dr. Davidson goes into great depth into heavy metal chelation in this interview:

I’m not really a big fan of the cilantro and the chlorella. Even though those are talked about a lot in the heavy metal world. It seems as if those stir things up more than they actually are able to pull things out.

For instance, when you’re looking at studies with chlorella and cilantro a lot of the studies will be in vitro or they’re looking at the chlorella binding to mercury, or the cilantro binding to mercury in a petri dish. But I think it’s a whole different set of circumstances in the science world. And you look at in vivo of in the body, being able to grab onto it in the body and pull it out.

He shares that he is a fan of glutathione:

I know there’s definitely a lot of disagreement in this world of “Well, should we raise glutathione or shouldn’t we? Are we causing other issues?” But I really love glutathione because glutathione is one of those things that helps to neutralize mercury in the body

Dr. Davidson goes into great depth on heavy metal detox and the hard lessons he has learned. It is an intense interview full of very specific information (probably the most detailed heavy metal interview I’ve listened to!) He ends with this connection to Lyme disease:

I don’t know if anybody can ever truly get well from Lyme disease if there’s mercury and lead in the body if you’re not detoxing that. Because essentially what happened with my wife is as we started detoxing the mercury and lead, which she was also high levels of mercury and lead in her body, toxic levels of it, it started releasing the biofilm, which allowed her body and her immune system to say “Hey, there’s bugs underneath these blankets of biofilms.”

Signing up for the event is worth it just for this interview!

And a reminder that the price increases once the summit starts so make your purchase now if you are wanting to keep this valuable information for your learning library
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16order/trudyscottcn/

Enjoy!

Chronic Lyme Disease Summit – anxiety, pyroluria & more

March 21, 2016 By Trudy Scott 6 Comments

The Chronic Lyme Disease Summit runs from April 4th to 11th so I’m sharing some additional information for you.

The response to this summit, hosted by Dr. Jay Davidson, is out of this world already. Lyme disease is much more talked about than most realize and more people are affected by Lyme disease each year than breast cancer!

Many people with chronic Lyme disease have chronic anxiety too and the focus of my interview is how to use targeted individual amino acids GABA and tryptophan to top up low levels of GABA and serotonin while the Lyme is being addressed.

This gives Lyme sufferers resolution from much of the anxiety (if not all) right away and they don’t need to resort to meds like benzodiazepines or anti-depressants (like the women in the study below). There is also a big connection between Lyme disease and pyroluria and I cover this too.

Here is one study that shows that Lyme-anxiety is very real and that panic attacks may actually be trigged by the Lyme disease:

A paper published in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice in 2000: Panic attacks may reveal previously unsuspected chronic disseminated lyme disease

describes the histories of three patients with panic-like episodes that turned out to be related to underlying, previously unsuspected tick-borne diseases.

Each woman experienced symptoms that are not usual in panic disorder but are typical of neurological Lyme disease, including exquisite sensitivity to light, touch, and sounds, joint pain often in combination with cognitive changes including mental fogginess and loss of recent memory, and some degree of bizarre, shifting, and often excruciating neurological pain. Because these symptoms are atypical of primary panic disorder, they were very helpful in alerting the clinician to suspect an underlying physical illness.

In each case, the results of testing revealed positive hallmarks of disseminated Lyme and other tick-borne diseases [ including Lyme borreliosis caused by the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, babesiosis, and ehrlichiosis.] Since beginning treatment with intensive doses of appropriate antimicrobial medications for their tick-borne infections, all three patients have become free of panic attacks.

Treatment of their infections by a specialist in Lyme disease allowed one of the women to discontinue anti-anxiety medication completely and another to reduce the dose of medication to occasional use only. The third patient is no longer anxious but her depression is resolving more slowly despite the ongoing use of an antidepressant. Two of the patients have also needed ongoing medication for pain and other symptoms of late-stage, neurological Lyme disease

One of my favorite presentations at the 2015 IMMH/Integrative Medicine for Mental Health conference was Dr. Suruchi Chandra’s Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease talk. She shared that:

Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the United States. It can remain dormant for years and then later mimic a number of psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety disorders, mood disturbances, psychosis, and autism-like behaviors. It can be further complicated by the presence of co-infections.

Tune in to the summit to hear more about Lyme and anxiety and the amino acids GABA and tryptophan (and the Lyme-pyroluria connection).

(Please note: I’m not a Lyme disease expert – people seek me out for help with their anxiety and many of them also happen to have Lyme disease. The information we covered in the interview is very powerful for anxiety whether or not Lyme disease is a factor.)

Here are a selection of the many excellent Lyme interviews you’ll hear:

Dr. Jay Davidson, DC, PScD: Heavy Metal Detox and Lyme Disease
Connie Strasheim: Lyme Disease and Cancer
Jack Tips, PhD, CCN: The Gut Microbiome and Lyme disease
Shayne Morris, PhD: Biofilm, Bugs and Bacteriophage
Bradley Bush, ND: A Lab Test that Actually Works for Detecting Lyme Disease

When you register you get access to 3 talks right away – mine is one of the 3 talks! You can register here:
https://qt247.isrefer.com/go/LYME16reg/trudyscottcn

GABA helps with Lyme anxiety (while addressing the underlying disease)

January 22, 2016 By Trudy Scott 42 Comments

GABA is a calming amino acid that helps to reduce anxiety and panic attacks in individuals with low GABA levels and helps to address the anxiety that many individuals experience when they have Lyme disease.

At the recent IMMH/Integrative Medicine for Mental Health conference Dr. Suruchi Chandra presented on Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease and shared that:

Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the United States. It can remain dormant for years and then later mimic a number of psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety disorders, mood disturbances, psychosis, and autism-like behaviors. It can be further complicated by the presence of co-infections.

Last month I shared a post called GABA, the calming amino acid: expert opinions and Tricia Soderstrom, creator of the blog Abounding in Hope with Lyme shared it with her online Lyme community with this comment:

Lyme anxiety is real! We’ve used GABA with great success.

Read on to learn about her daughter’s symptoms and which GABA product helped; how Tricia continued to search and discover the psychiatric and pyroluria connection; and then her discovery of GABA, 5-HTP, theanine and tryptophan. You can also read how GABA also helped Tricia with her Lyme-induced anxiety (and her advocacy work). You’ll also find additional resources if you need guidance using amino acids like tryptophan/5-HTP and GABA/theanine.

Her daughter’s symptoms and which GABA product helped

Tricia shared further when I asked what had helped:

We’ve used Source Naturals GABA Calm sublinguals with good results. I learned about GABA helping anxiety and because I was treating my young daughter I purchased this because it was easy for her to take.

Lyme, Bartonella and Babesia are all known to cause anxiety and other psychological disorders ranging from mild to very severe. My daughter had it very severely but thankfully is much better now that we’ve treated the tick-borne diseases.

She also shared this excellent article by Pamela Weintraub as a resource: High Anxiety (Neurological Lyme Disease, Part Three)

I asked Tricia if I could share some of her daughter’s Lyme story and how GABA (and other nutrients) had helped with her anxiety while they were treating the Lyme disease. She kindly agreed and here are some excerpts from her blog post: How A Tick Bite Changed My Daughter – Part 2 Using Supplements To Nourish The Brain

When my third daughter turned 7 we had no idea that our whole lives were beginning to turn upside down by severe anxiety and OCD.

As that year progressed I noticed my …daughter incessantly washing her hands, pooling saliva in her mouth, clenching her fists until the skin around her knuckles turned bright white and repeating motions. Her eyes were wider than normal and she became very fearful of things that never bothered her before.

At the same time, she was complaining of deep hip pain, pain in her feet, very bad headaches, motion sickness, nausea, heart palpitations and other symptoms….

Her anxiety grew, her obsessions controlled her and she was incapable of thinking rationally during these episodes. With age her episodes became more frequent and more severe.

Tricia continued to search and discovered the psychiatric and pyroluria connection

Tricia diligently searched for solutions for the Lyme disease that was impacting her daughter and herself. As Tricia learned more, she discovered the psychiatric connection to Lyme and they worked without success, with various doctors, having her daughter try antibiotic treatments and anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications.

Still searching, she discovered Dr. Klinghart teaching about pyroluria and started adjusting her daughter’s diet and adding various nutrients: magnesium, fish oil, trace minerals, vitamin D, evening primrose oil, vitamin B6 and zinc (the latter three are key for pyroluria).

Tricia’s discovery of GABA, 5-HTP, theanine and tryptophan

Tricia then came across some of the amazing interviews I did with various experts on season 1 of the Anxiety Summit and it further consolidated what she had already discovered. She shares this:

What I learned was astounding and it was very similar to what [Dr. Kinghart] taught but I began to also learn about GABA, 5-HTP, L-Theanine, and L-Tryptophan.

To my daughter’s routine I added Source Naturals GABA Calm sublingual, Nature’s Way 5-HTP, Nature’s Way L-Theanine/ Green Tea sublingal, and Source Natural’s Melatonin.

At first we used GABA or L-Theanine whenever she would have a panic attack or her OCD was too much to deal with. After awhile I just had her take it first thing in the morning, mid-day and then again in the evenings when her symptoms would be at their worst.

The amino acids and brain nutrients were ONE part of the solution, together with dietary changes, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and homeopathy. As Tricia says:

These supplements did not cure my daughter but they helped her get off the prescription drugs and they helped both of us during our most trying times

This is why I love using targeted individual amino acids such as GABA. They give you immediate relief from anxiety and panic attacks while you are dealing with bigger underlying issues such as Lyme disease. Adding other nutrients (like zinc, magnesium, vitamin B6 etc) address nutritional deficiencies that the Lyme disease may be causing.

Keep in mind that Tricia’s daughter did well with Source Natural GABA Calm but there are many other excellent GABA products that can be beneficial too.

Tricia’s daughter has given her the go ahead to share her story and she is now doing so well!

My daughter is now a beautiful 15 year old, looking forward to her 16th birthday and getting her driver’s license.

She is the brave one to allow me to expose how this illness completely changed her and controlled her. At one point she was embarrassed about it but now she really wants to help others.

What an encouraging, heartwarming and inspiring story!

Both Tricia and her daughter are very brave and I appreciate having the opportunity to share their story with you. I encourage you to read the whole story here on her blog.

GABA also helped Tricia with her Lyme-induced anxiety (and her advocacy work)

Tricia also experienced Lyme-induced anxiety and she too found benefits with GABA. You can read more about her episodes of fear, panic attacks, fear of going outside and withdrawing from social situations on this blog post: Where Does Your Fear Come From And What Are You Doing About It? (Our Journey With Neurological Lyme)

Here is a little more about Tricia: She is a mom of 4 and wife of 26 years to Scott. She was living a busy and active life as an outdoorsy homeschool mom, when chronic Lyme disease side-lined her and her entire family. She has spent the past 8 years recovering, advocating and caring for her family and researching tick-borne diseases. Tricia continues to homeschool her youngest two children and blogs about her life as a Christian homeschool mom with chronic Lyme, while homeschooling her children who also have chronic Lyme. She is passionate about educating others about tick-borne disease, and how to prevent, recognize and get the proper treatment. You can read more about her and her Lyme resources here. And you can find Tricia on Facebook here AboundinginHopewithLyme

Additional resources when you are new to using tryptophan or GABA and other amino acids as supplements

We use the symptoms questionnaire to figure out if low serotonin or low GABA or other neurotransmitter imbalances may be an issue for you.

If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings. I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the practitioner/health team you or your loved one is working with.

There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control (this is covered in an entire chapter too), sugar cravings, anxiety and mood issues. The importance of quality animal protein and healthy fats is also covered.

The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs.

If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support. Another option is the budget-friendly GABA QuickStart Homestudy Program.

If you need serotonin support, the Serotonin QuickStart Program is a good place to get help. This is also a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance on using tryptophan and 5-HTP safely, and community support during 5 LIVE Q&A calls. You can sign up to be notified when the next live launch of this program is happening.

If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.

Wrapping up and your feedback

I’d love to hear if you have used GABA (or one of the other amino acids) to help with your anxiety while undergoing treatment for Lyme disease.

Dr. Klinghart discusses the connection between Lyme disease and pyroluria. I’d also love to hear if you have Lyme disease and also have pyroluria? You can do the pyroluria questionnaire here.

I’d love to hear if you have used GABA (or one of the other amino acids) to help with your anxiety while undergoing treatment for Lyme disease.

Dr. Klinghart discusses the connection between Lyme disease and pyroluria. I’d also love to hear if you have Lyme disease and also have pyroluria? You can do the pyroluria questionnaire here.

Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease by Dr. Suruchi Chandra

September 25, 2015 By Trudy Scott 28 Comments

One of my favorite presentations at the recent IMMH/Integrative Medicine for Mental Health conference was Dr. Suruchi Chandra’s Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease talk.

Here is the description of her presentation:

“Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease and Associated Co-infections: Clinical Presentations, Diagnostic Challenges, and Treatment Options”

Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the United States. It can remain dormant for years and then later mimic a number of psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety disorders, mood disturbances, psychosis, and autism-like behaviors. It can be further complicated by the presence of co-infections. Both the diagnosis and treatment of these infections in the chronic stage can be challenging. We will review both standard treatment recommendations and integrative and holistic approaches, including dietary changes, herbal medicines, and nutritional supplements.

Dr. Chandra started by sharing the late stage neuropsychiatric symptoms of Lyme disease:

Depression
Mood swings
Anxiety, panic attacks, OCD
Psychosis
Violent behaviors and irritability
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Fibromyalgia
ADHD and autism like behaviors
Seizures
Sleep disorders

Here are some of the many very interesting facts she shared:

Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the USA (and it doesn’t seem to be only an issue in the USA)
Not everyone recalls a tick bite or bulls-eye rash
Lyme disease is not only isolated to the Northeast – a year ago a Stanford study found the bacterium Borrelia miyamotoi, as well as burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, in ticks they sampled throughout the San Francisco Bay area
Lyme disease may be due to tick borne complex i.e. it is hypothesized that there are multiple co-infections
Purple rashes that look like stretch marks are common with Bartonella
There can be maternal-fetal transmission of the disease
The involvement of the gut is under-rated with Lyme disease and cognitive decline is a big issue
Lyme and co-infections affects serotonin levels, due to IDO being increased
Low zinc (and high copper) and low manganese levels are often factors

Dr. Chandra is very unique in that she uses no antibiotics, “provokes” before testing and has some very interesting herbal protocols (many that are used with malaria). She stated that Lyme disease is worth treating even if there are no symptoms, simply because of the higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

She uses a wonderfully integrative approach with her patients who have chronic tick borne diseases:

integrative-approach-chronic-tick-borne-illnesses

Here is the last slide of her presentation: Consider Lyme disease and the associated co-infections when there is any severe or atypical psychiatric disease, and use a holistic and individualized approach.

Chandra-conclusion

Excellent presentation! This really is the top integrative mental health conference to attend!

Here are a few of my other favorite presentations include:

Julie Matthews’ talk on “Oxalates, Phenols, and FODMAPs: Food Substances and Diets that Impact Mental Health Conditions”
James Greenblatt’s talk “New Information on Nutritional Lithium for ADHD, Mood Disorders and Prevention of Cognitive Decline”
Andrea Gruszecki’s talk on “The Effects of Stress on the Gut-Brain Microbiome”
Dr Kurt Woeller’s talk on “Oxytocin and Cholesterol – Their Interactions and Effects on Mental Health and Autism Spectrum Disorders”

I’ll share some highlights from these in a future blog post.

All the presentations were recorded and I’ll let you know when the recordings are available for purchase. These presentations are not to be missed.

Please share what you know about Lyme disease or if you have been diagnosed with one of the co-infections. Feel free to ask questions too.