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Low Dose Immunotherapy
Anyone heard of low dose immunotherapy for treating lyme and co-infections? Specialty Natural Medicine in WA state offers this treatment for lyme. A detailed description is on their website. It's supposed to divert your immune system away from the bacteria. The thinking is that your body's immune response to the bacteria is what is causing your symptoms and that it is fighting a losing battle. It's a new treatment they say it has great success. It's pretty much the opposite of how we have been fighting the disease. However, I'm leary of essentially turning off my immune system towards the bacteria. Anyone try this with success?
Interesting discussion here ...
is there any reliable test data available that confirms whether the treatments in question (1) kill the bacteria or (2) only suppresses the invaders.
In LymeWorld and its long-standing controversy over whether Lyme is eradicated or merely suppressed, I would again opt for eradication rather than suppression, and how the treatment(s) truly act is of critical importance.
Lyme bacteria are related closely to the bacteria that cause syphilis (so I read) and have not seen that view challenged. Why not kill off a Lyme infection just as one would with syphilis?
is there any reliable test data available that confirms whether the treatments in question (1) kill the bacteria or (2) only suppresses the invaders.
In LymeWorld and its long-standing controversy over whether Lyme is eradicated or merely suppressed, I would again opt for eradication rather than suppression, and how the treatment(s) truly act is of critical importance.
Lyme bacteria are related closely to the bacteria that cause syphilis (so I read) and have not seen that view challenged. Why not kill off a Lyme infection just as one would with syphilis?
I just had my first LDI injection back on the 23rd (7 days ago). Pain levels aren't great, but fatigue has noticeably diminished.
From what I understood the injection doesn't suppress the immune system but directs it. It's basically a Lyme antigen. (It has been years since my basic pathology course, I could be remembering this wrong, but...) Antigens show your immune system what bacteria/virus/mold/etc. should be killed. It's my understanding that it isn't suppressing the immune system just telling it what to destroy in your body. If you're having autoimmune responses this helps your body to stop hitting itself.
I guess a good analogy would be that if your immune response were police officers then antigens would be the arrest warrants detailing who the bad guys are.
From what I understood the injection doesn't suppress the immune system but directs it. It's basically a Lyme antigen. (It has been years since my basic pathology course, I could be remembering this wrong, but...) Antigens show your immune system what bacteria/virus/mold/etc. should be killed. It's my understanding that it isn't suppressing the immune system just telling it what to destroy in your body. If you're having autoimmune responses this helps your body to stop hitting itself.
I guess a good analogy would be that if your immune response were police officers then antigens would be the arrest warrants detailing who the bad guys are.
I live in NY just above the Bronx and would like to find a doc who does LDI....or a naturopath who would work with Dr. Vincent. I think finding the correct starting dose is critical and would prefer a doc who is know kinesiology (well) and could assist with this. I'm calling Dr. Ty's office tomorrow to see if they have names of docs he has trained but I wanted to send this out to others to see what they know. I can't get a consult with Dr. Ty until January 26th!
I have done some reading and research, and you have nailed the central issue: LDI does not do anything to treat the bacterial infection; rather, it "adjusts" the immune system so the immune system no longer reacts to the bacteria and therefore many of the symptoms may (or possibly may not) go away. It has great potential to make people feel better, but it does not do anything to get rid of any of the bacteria.
So, the patient may feel better with lessened symptoms, but the bacteria have been given a free pass as the immune system no longer reacts to them. They will continue to do damage to the body, although the patient will have no symptoms, or at least milder symptoms.
I understand the concept of taking LDI as used for ramping down allergic reactions (which are overreaction of the immune system to the allergens) and applying it to Lyme symptoms. However, the definition of successful treatment of Lyme with LDI then transforms to become the elimination of symptoms instead of the elimination of the bacterial infection.
Seems it ultimately boils down to the question of whether one just wants the symptoms gone, or whether one wants the bacteria gone? With LDI the symptoms can be gone but the bacteria continues to drill away and colonize the body. It will be interesting long term to see if the LDI treatments stand up to time; even with no symptoms, the spirochetes will continue to damage the body so at some point will the continuing damage finally overcome the immune symptom suppression and will the symptoms return with more force? Or will the immune system stay asleep and the patient remains symptom-free and feeling good but the body continues to get sicker and sicker from the on-going bacterial infection? Time will tell.
Personally, knowing the bits I know about Lyme spirochetes and co-infections, I want the bacteria eliminated from my body. As the bacteria are being killed, my symptoms are getting much better (even with the herxing!), so I am hopeful that when the bacteria are gone the symptoms will also be gone. I believe in addressing the cause, not masking the symptoms.
So, the patient may feel better with lessened symptoms, but the bacteria have been given a free pass as the immune system no longer reacts to them. They will continue to do damage to the body, although the patient will have no symptoms, or at least milder symptoms.
I understand the concept of taking LDI as used for ramping down allergic reactions (which are overreaction of the immune system to the allergens) and applying it to Lyme symptoms. However, the definition of successful treatment of Lyme with LDI then transforms to become the elimination of symptoms instead of the elimination of the bacterial infection.
Seems it ultimately boils down to the question of whether one just wants the symptoms gone, or whether one wants the bacteria gone? With LDI the symptoms can be gone but the bacteria continues to drill away and colonize the body. It will be interesting long term to see if the LDI treatments stand up to time; even with no symptoms, the spirochetes will continue to damage the body so at some point will the continuing damage finally overcome the immune symptom suppression and will the symptoms return with more force? Or will the immune system stay asleep and the patient remains symptom-free and feeling good but the body continues to get sicker and sicker from the on-going bacterial infection? Time will tell.
Personally, knowing the bits I know about Lyme spirochetes and co-infections, I want the bacteria eliminated from my body. As the bacteria are being killed, my symptoms are getting much better (even with the herxing!), so I am hopeful that when the bacteria are gone the symptoms will also be gone. I believe in addressing the cause, not masking the symptoms.
I listened to part of a lecture given by Ty Vincent. I understand the concept but even if my immune was much stronger I don't understand how it kills the lyme and co's already hiding all over my body.
My thought after reading your posts is that although this may be a new application of LDI, it does not seem to be a cutting edge treatment to eliminate Bb. It could, however, be an effective way to reduce the symptoms in people who, for whatever reason, cannot eradicate the bacteria.
Since Bb is not one of the bacteria that is part of the body's normal ecosystem, I personally do not want to settle for eliminating the symptoms; I want to get rid of the invader. If for some reason I can't oust it, then (and only then) I would settle for alleviating the symptoms.
Allergies can be an overactive auto-immune response; a bacterial infection is not. This bacteria is not a symbiotic parasite or an idle hitchhiker, it's an active invader, hiding behind its shape-changing and biofilm protection to drill its way deeper into varied tissues, bones, and nervous system. Bb has evolved to evade the immune system of whatever host it's in; it changes the protein composition of its surface depending on what type of critter (humans included) will be its next host, so as to increase its survival by better avoiding detection by the immune system of the host.
True that some people are infected with Bb and have not progressed from infection to disease. Then again, Typhoid Mary never got the disease, but she certainly was host to the virus!
The CDC would officially like everyone to believe that chronic Lyme is nothing more than the immune system failing to recognize the bacteria is gone. That could be true if the bacteria was, in fact, gone. But for many of us, the bacteria is not gone; it's hiding where our immune system cannot find it. In a nutshell, this is the Great Lyme Divide in current medicine. The LLMDs believe the bacteria is not gone; it's hiding and camouflaged. So they treat it that way.
While it's an interesting theory and I will research it more when I have time, I am sticking with my LLMD who is working to kill the bacteria. My problem is not that my immune system is overreacting, it is that I have been invaded by a very nasty spirochete. I want the bacteria, not just some symptoms, gone!
Since Bb is not one of the bacteria that is part of the body's normal ecosystem, I personally do not want to settle for eliminating the symptoms; I want to get rid of the invader. If for some reason I can't oust it, then (and only then) I would settle for alleviating the symptoms.
Allergies can be an overactive auto-immune response; a bacterial infection is not. This bacteria is not a symbiotic parasite or an idle hitchhiker, it's an active invader, hiding behind its shape-changing and biofilm protection to drill its way deeper into varied tissues, bones, and nervous system. Bb has evolved to evade the immune system of whatever host it's in; it changes the protein composition of its surface depending on what type of critter (humans included) will be its next host, so as to increase its survival by better avoiding detection by the immune system of the host.
True that some people are infected with Bb and have not progressed from infection to disease. Then again, Typhoid Mary never got the disease, but she certainly was host to the virus!
The CDC would officially like everyone to believe that chronic Lyme is nothing more than the immune system failing to recognize the bacteria is gone. That could be true if the bacteria was, in fact, gone. But for many of us, the bacteria is not gone; it's hiding where our immune system cannot find it. In a nutshell, this is the Great Lyme Divide in current medicine. The LLMDs believe the bacteria is not gone; it's hiding and camouflaged. So they treat it that way.
While it's an interesting theory and I will research it more when I have time, I am sticking with my LLMD who is working to kill the bacteria. My problem is not that my immune system is overreacting, it is that I have been invaded by a very nasty spirochete. I want the bacteria, not just some symptoms, gone!
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