Detox

Most people with Lyme have issues with toxins, and the ability to get rid of them.  Toxins that need to be addressed include heavy metals like aluminum, mercury and lead, acetaldehyde and gliotoxin (byproducts of candida overgrowth), mold, and dead spirochetes from Lyme treatment.  This is a probably a short list, but it covers the bulk of what is fairly typical.

How do you know you have toxins built up?  We did the Nutreval test from Genova Diagnostics and a hair mineral analysis from Doctor's Data.  Between these two, we were able to see that John had lead (despite no exposure to lead paint) and uranium (not sure where this came from.. I speculate drinking the city water supply down stream from 3M but it's just a wild guess).  His mercury came back normal, but he also doesn't have any cavities.  Side note: if you have cavities, you might want to look into getting the mercury back out of your mouth.  Research for yourself - there's a pretty big movement in the health communities of people trying to get their mercury amalgams removed for health reasons. 

We also learned that John's detox pathways weren't strong because his glutathione levels were low.  Glutathione is an antioxidant important to preventing damage on a cellular level.  Glutathione helps counter free radicals, helps the metabolism of iron, helps DNA synthesis and repair, and has roles in cellular life cycle up until a cell's death.

There are some products we have used pretty regularly. Most are in the picture. 

1) Pekana Big Three detox kit.  It's a German homeopathic remedy that supports detoxification of the liver, kidney and lymphatic systems.  First time we used this, John's skin was a funky shade of green. But we stuck with it, and he felt much better after using it.  In the photo, these are labeled at Renelix, Itires, and apo-Hepat.  They taste pretty bitter, and at times, we have put them into gel caps to ease the burning sensation.  They are 28% alcohol by volume, which causes the burning.

2) Sun Chlorella.  They are green little pills that taste like something from the sea.  Chlorella has a variety of uses, everything from preventing cancer to increasing white blood cell counts, to protecting the body from metal toxicity to slowing the aging process.  We take it an hour away from everything else, and use it for general detox.  His LLMD has him take 4-6/day.

3) Tri-fortify liposomal glutathione.  I explained what it does already, but why this brand?  First, liposomal varieties are more efficiently used by the body.  Second, other brands like Reid-sorb are absolutely nasty tasting, and doesn't even smell semi-pleasant.  Tri-fortify watermelon flavored is where it's at if you're going to take glutathione.  It's not cheap by any means at $95/bottle, but it's worth it.

4) Detoxamin.  It's not pictured. It's a suppository that is good for absorbing heavy metals.  We use it once a week max.  Maybe not fun for kids, but effective.