Eliminating neurotoxins from the body is of utmost importance in Lyme disease. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I treat detoxification as though it should be an afterthought. I don’t take it as seriously as I should, because I tend to forget that, in the absence of adequate support from supplements, the body often can’t cope with the toxins generated by killing pathogens, as well as the metals and other articificial garbage that gets stuck to its cell receptor sites.
You can kill all the bugs you want, displace all the mercury you wish and without toxin binders to help remove these from the body, you won’t heal. Plain and simple.
It’s not that the body isn’t capable of removing them, but it needs a little help. There’s just too much junk in our environment for the body to be able to do it on its own anymore. And we Lyme disease sufferers are at a disadvantage because we have more toxins than the average Contaminated Charlie, and because borrelia has wrecked our immune systems.
Still, praise God that just as there are zillions of toxins in our bodies, there are zillions of solutions found in nature for helping us to get rid of them. Below I enumerate a few of these.
First, in previous posts I have mentioned chlorella, cilantro, DMSA, PCA-rx and DMPS for heavy metal chelation. Remember that DMSA and DMPS, while effective heavy metal chelators, have side effects, because they are powerful synthetic drugs, and unnatural to the body. Chlorella, while effective as a toxin binder, is less than perfect as a toxin mobilizer, and therefore requires the help of cilantro if you mean to use it for removing toxins from the brain and from the intracellular space, that is, the inside of, cells. Cilantro should never be used by itself, as it mobilizes more toxins than it can carry out of the body, and therefore, the possibility for their re-distribution in the body is high. Be careful for using cilantro for heavy metal chelation, because, while it is a pro at pulling metals from the brain and intracellular spaces, it needs help in carrying these out of the body. Chlorella can help it to do its job.
Chlorella, in addition to being effective for heavy metal chelation, is good at binding with other neurotoxins, such as those generated by borrelia when it kicks the bucket. But sometimes, it’s not enough, and a stronger toxin binder, such as cholestyramine or Cholestopure, is required, and especially for Lyme disease sufferers who have detoxification problems. As a sidenote, I am finding that detoxification problems are more common in Lyme disease than I previously imagined. One of my practitioners, a biochemist and immunologist, believes that up to 75% of Lyme disease sufferers are missing vital detoxification enzymes. How is this possible? Well, the answer isn’t solely genetic. Detoxification enzymes are destroyed by heavy metals and other neurotoxins, which then compromises the elimination of these toxins from the body!
In addition to the aforementioned, certain nutrients are capable of helping to bind, gag and carry neurotoxins out of the body. Pinella, activated charcoal, french green clay, apple pectin, zeolite, parsley, burber and homeopathic drainage remedies are some of these.
Glutathione also binds with toxins, and is vital for the liver’s detoxification processes.
Finally, repairing damage in the brain caused by neurotoxins can be accomplished with the help of Vitamin B-6, Vitamin C, Lysine, Phos-Chol, acetyl-L-carnitine, choline, DMAE and Vitamin B 5, which all contribute to the manufacture of acetylcholine, which is a major brain neurotransmitter. Mucuna bean powder increases dopamine levels, another neurotransmitter destroyed by Lyme disease. Lithium orotate protects against neurotoxin damage, and serotonin precursors, such as 5-HTP supplements and foods containing tryptophan, such as oatmeal, almonds and turkey, can help to replace serotonin, a third neurotransmitter depleted in Lyme disease.