This email was sent to me as a comment to my last post. There are some very good points in it. Also, XXXX turned out to finally get a positive Lyme test from Igenix.

Hey Pat,

I ran across your web page surfing the net. I'm a 50 year old lyme sufferer who ultimately realized supplementing anything I can into the normal range helps me feel more normal. The search for the magic bullet (Shoemaker's VIP ect.) has always been a dead end. I think you gave Shoemaker's patient very sound advice.

I had amalgam problems without knowing it when I was bitten by a tick in 2003. I got the lyme rash didn't know what it was and went untreated for 12 months. By the time I received a diagnosis, I'd been told by several ID docs that I couldn't have lyme because my Western Blot was negative and I lived in "safe" state North Carolina. Ahh wrong. I was aggressively treated, improved with IM penicillin and IV zithromax. I did the cholestyramine protocol which helped a lot yet I still wasn't normal. After doing some research I realized a had reverse T3 that was sky high and a heavy metals problem. I supplemented with cortisol and florinef for my shot adrenals. I did Andy Cutler's protocol of low dose chelators with much improvement. Taking zinc and using supplements to dissolve biofilms is critically important and why many have chelated endlessly without significant improvement.

Dr. Shoemaker objects to anyone adding an outside treatment to his biotoxin based therapies. I think that may help him as a researcher but is not in the best interests of his patients. He is on video saying never to take a steroid (cortef) and never to treat reverse t3. That is lousy advice. I'm not surprised he is unwilling to engage in a discussion of heavy metal toxicity.

My remaining digestive issues/leaky gut have improved with low dose naltrexone. Getting the mercury out is the only way to get rid of the fungi. As my body has been telling me for the last 5 years, you chelate the mercury that stirs up the candida. The copper your body needs to control it is present but not bioavailable. You must supplement with vitamin C (not take more copper!) as this assists the body in utilizing the copper that is already there. In the early stages of chelation when the candida is at its worst, use of the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) is very helpful as is Candex (an enzyme formula for dissolving systemic yeast).

If you think you have lyme but aren't sure, test your CD-57 (Stricker NK Panel) with Labcorp. If over 100, you likely aren't suffering from lyme. A lot of people in New England have read so much about lyme they just assume they have it.