The Reality of Neurological Lyme
Episode 155
In honor of Lyme Awareness month, this week on Integrative Wellness Radio, we bring you a dedicated episode for those who have Lyme Disease. Dr. Nicole sheds light on how neurological Lyme can affect us and why this specific type of Lyme is difficult to properly identify with the limited testing that is commonly available. Listen to the whole episode to learn more! Interested in learning more about Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole’s courses, memberships, or private work? Learn more at Integrative You . Have a quick question, Would you like to schedule a call, or just want to say hi? Text us at 732.913.0009. Our mission to innovate humans & Healthcare does NOT start and stop with us! This is why we are also dedicated to helping other practitioners in evolving healthcare too! If you are a healthcare leader and are looking to up-level your clinical + business excellence Learn more about our course membership: Limitless Healthprenuer and start boldly disrupting this industry! Noteworthy Time Stamps: 02:35 improper treatment implies Improper diagnosis 6:53 Dr. Nicole’s personal story with Lyme 11:33 How Lyme was discovered after syphilis 21:10 Case study of a patient 24:20 Myths about Neurological Lyme 35:35 Lyme lives in your connective tissue 38:49 Looking for Neurological Lyme 49:01 Oxygen & Glucose are your brain fuel 1:01:00 It’s not about killing the Lyme
Topics: lyme, neurological, disease, understanding, nicole, testing, brain, limitations
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## The Reality of Neurological Lyme
- Neurological Lyme disease can manifest with a wide range of symptoms that are frequently misdiagnosed or dismissed.
- Current diagnostic tests for Lyme disease often fail to detect neurological involvement accurately.
- Understanding the inflammatory pathways and energy needs of the brain is crucial for addressing neurological Lyme.
- A holistic approach focusing on supporting the body's natural defenses and optimizing cellular function is essential for managing neurological Lyme.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine to learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey.
We are back. **Unknown:** We are back with our next episode about Lyme this month in honor of Lyme Disease Awareness Month.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I've been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. Nick and Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine to learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on my own. Hi, everyone. We are back.
**Unknown:** We are back with our next episode about Lyme this month in honor of Lyme Disease Awareness Month. Today, I definitely wanted to, you know, be here with you guys and give you as much quality information as possible when it comes to Lyme disease and how it can affect us neurologically. So tonight, uh, what we're really talking about is we're piggybacking off of what we talked about last week, and last week was really setting the foundation of all of the things that are not necessarily always being discussed in reference to Lyme and being, you know, that more so being in relation to the different testing that is available, the limitations with the testing, in addition to the limitations with the conventional treatment protocols. So today it's really talking a little bit more about neurological Lyme and the many, many faces of neurological Lyme.
**Unknown:** So I'm gonna be sharing some really interesting case studies with you because neurological Lyme, first of all, is extremely, extremely difficult to be diagnosed properly, and in addition to that, it is-- it's looking like many other neurological conditions that people are getting diagnosed with, such as depression, anxiety, vertigo, uh, and it can be even as significant as Alzheimer's, dementia, ALS, multiple sclerosis. So these are some of the things that we're gonna be understanding a bit better as we go tonight is how and why do things manifest the way they do. Why can one infection look so different in so many different people? So before we get into the nitty-gritty of understanding that, um, you know, some of the major things that I'm gonna reiterate is really understanding again the limitations with the testing that exists for Lyme altogether, let alone neurological Lyme.
**Unknown:** Also understanding that you don't know what you don't know when it comes to where your body is at. It's very, very difficult to know what type of treatment modalities are best for you when you don't even actually have the right diagnosis. And again, understanding some of the diagnostics that exist for Lyme and then what is really the gold standard now-nowadays that's gonna give you the most accurate information in the shortest amount of time. And then the other big one is really understanding all of the myths around Lyme.
**Unknown:** You know, one of the myths that we're gonna talk about today is just the basic concept that Lyme only comes from a tick. There are so many different avenues of exposure that we're gonna discuss that will probably blow your mind. Because of the approach that we take, w- I don't... You know, I call myself an integrative practitioner, but I'm Lyme literate based off of the training that I've done, but do I only work with Lyme patients?
**Unknown:** No. And primarily that's because when it comes down to understanding the root cause and understanding the foundation of what's going on with the patient, it's not about the diagnosis, it's not about the pathology. Sometimes it's act- honestly not even about the symptoms. It's about understanding the big picture of how it all pieces together and what is the one or two foundational problems that are causing the umbrella of symptoms because that's usually what it is, is there is one or two primary things that are creating this snowball effect that's causing the majority of the symptoms that we deal with on a day-to-day basis.
**Unknown:** So for myself, um, unfortunately, I remember feeling very guilty about, um, my story, and it was primarily because I didn't really have a story. I didn't get into this industry because I was super sick and nobody could help me, and then eventually an integrative functional doctor, you know, got me back to health. I was actually the opposite. So for me, I had a lot of these symptoms that I pretty much classified as my normal.
**Unknown:** Uh, the brain fog was my normal. Having to read, you know, a page while I was in school three or four times to comprehend it was my normal. Uh, headaches were my normal. Really terrible periods were my normal.
**Unknown:** Occasional stomach aches when I ate out or ate too much was my normal. So there were so many things that I just equated to being my normal, and they all happened slowly over time. But what's really interesting is that eventually I started having heart palpitations when I was... I guess I was in high school is when it started.
**Unknown:** Got worse when I was into college, and then it got to the point that I was actually fainting. So all of this gradually over time, nobody could necessarily tell me what was going on with me, so it became my normal. It was like learn how to navigate around it. Don't drink too much coffee.
**Unknown:** Don't go for a really intense run right before your period because those were all triggers for me. And how many of you can relate to that is like you know your triggers, and you avoid them to keep, you know, your body at bay or keep your symptoms balanced out. So what's interesting is that, um, after I got into this field and I learned, you know, about this whole concept of Lyme and I started understanding it more, it actually turned out that I had Lyme.That was affecting my pericardium. It was affecting my heart.
**Unknown:** And this was a huge culprit as to why the electrical system of my heart wasn't working properly, and this was one of the reasons why I was having these heart palpitations. So the thing to kind of take away from this is that I didn't have heart palpitations all day, every day. These were things that were coming and going, and they were coming and going based off of triggers. And so when you're dealing with this Lyme infection, it is not that it is always active and always causing problems.
**Unknown:** It will ebb and flow based off of your body always trying to keep or get back to what you call homeostasis, which is to pretty much keep you healthy. So this is-- was very eye-opening for me because I wasn't this tell-tale Lyme patient. I didn't have joint pain. I wasn't debilitated.
**Unknown:** I wasn't bedridden. I was really just having a lot of cardiovascular complications. That was a big part of how that infection was affecting my body. So every single person's body is going to be affected quite differently when you're dealing with this.
**Unknown:** Because this is information that you have not heard before. I'm not going to be giving you information about, you know, your-- the magical supplement that you need to take for Lyme or the magical dietary cure. This is real life information about real people that I see every single day, and you will be fascinated as to these different people that are dealing with Lyme that all look so freaking different. Um, also that means that their treatment protocols all look extremely, extremely different.
**Unknown:** It's about you and your body. It is not about the cookie cutter protocol. Gonna love all the air quotes I'm doing today. Um, but first and foremost is I really want you guys to understand that if you've been on this journey for a long time when it comes to the Lyme, it is not your fault that you haven't been able to find the right doctor.
**Unknown:** It is not your fault that you haven't been able to get better. It is not your fault that you haven't figured out what diet is best for you. It is not your fault that the antibiotics didn't work. It is not your fault that the functional medicine doctor didn't give you the master supplement protocol.
**Unknown:** It's not your fault because there is so much information, there is so much conflicting information, there is so much overwhelming information that is out there, and it is really, really difficult for you to know what you need. And it's really difficult to know those things if you have not had the right testing and if you have not been asked better questions. Because at the end of the day, what your body needs is going to be different than someone else who has Lyme. So as we talk more tonight, you're going to understand more about this.
**Unknown:** But a foundational thing that I think is really, really important to understand about why you may not have been able to achieve all of your health goals just yet is that when we're talking about medicine, I think what we realize is most of us are seeking out the expert. So when you have Lyme, you're usually seeking out the Lyme expert. And my personal opinion is that seeking out the expert or always working with specialists is actually what has put a huge wrench in how healthcare is being done. And what I mean by that is when we're talking just about the very beginning stages of having all of these different symptoms, everything from fatigue to the joint pain to inflammation, gut problems, you're going to a gastroenterologist, you're going to a rheumatologist.
**Unknown:** You know, you might even be going to a psychiatrist because you're also having anxiety. But very, very low on the totem pole is when you're actually going to go to an infectious disease doctor. Because the only time we really go to an infectious disease doctor is if we have a chronic infection that keeps coming back that nobody knows what's going on, or we have chronic diarrhea that nobody knows what's going on. So when we talk about infectious disease doctor, which usually leaves out the opportunity to understand is it infection or is it toxicity causing the majority of the symptoms that we're dealing with.
**Unknown:** So the separating out of our systems and thinking that every single organ system is operating separately is actually pretty silly. And that kind of brings me to the second point is basic physiology. So ninety to ninety-five percent of your serotonin is made in your gut. So if you're dealing with a depression problem, but then you're also dealing with a irritable bowel syndrome, and we're maybe treating the depression with an antidepressant, but your IBS is not bad enough to be treated.
**Unknown:** It's just like, "Oh, you know, just be careful with your diet. Don't eat too much." Then we could easily be treating the wrong symptom because it's really a symptom, and the root is what's going on in the gut. So physiology pretty much shows us that everything is connected and everything is constantly in communication with each other. So why did we decide to separate out all of the organ systems and have specialists in the organ systems?
**Unknown:** And none of these, uh, specialists actually communicate with each other. So really at the end of the day, this is one of the biggest reasons why we cannot find the root cause as to what is going on with our system. So here's where it gets good. So when we are talking about Lyme, um, so first of all, one of the most advanced type of infections that has been known for a very long time is actually classified as syphilis.
**Unknown:** So syphilis is pretty interesting because everybody thinks it's sexually transmitted, by the way. It's not just sexually transmitted. But when they originally discovered syphilis, they found that this specific organism had twenty-three genes. So twenty-three genes as a microorganism means that this is an organism that is actually very evolved.
**Unknown:** It's very advanced.So then they discovered Lyme, and Lyme was actually found to have thirty-two genes. So this is, oh, nine more genes than Lyme. So really what this means is that these are organisms that are both in the spirochete family, by the way, that are extremely evolved. They actually know how to move through your body, figure out where there's vulnerable tissue, and then make that vulnerable tissue its new home.
**Unknown:** Secondary to that, it is always putting itself in an opportune environment to make its way to the next life cycle. So h-hold on to your seats. So when we're talking about men that deal with prostate issues, this could be anything from prostatitis, uh, benign, uh, prostatic hypertrophy, which is enlargement of the prostate, or even up to prostate cancer. One of my personal mentors said that every prostate case is associated with Lyme bacteria.
**Unknown:** And I was kind of confused when he said this, and I was like, "Is that even possible?" And then he continued to discuss how Lyme, as such an evolved organism, will put itself into the prostate because then when there is sexual arousal, the Lyme will move down the ejaculatory duct in order to put itself in the opportune environment to infect the next host, AKA infect the woman. So I'm kind of like, "Holy crap, that can't even be true." And when it came to me with different types of prostate issues, that information was a hundred percent correct. So the point of me telling you this is that when we're talking about Lyme, Lyme is a very interesting advanced organism that makes its way into the body, it burrows itself, and it hides, which is why it is so difficult to find it in the blood because it usually doesn't live in the blood, it lives in connective tissue. In addition to that, they've actually even found different species of Lyme that have up to eight hundred genes.
**Unknown:** So the thing you have to know about this is nothing in nature has eight hundred genes. So they speculate that there has been manipulation to some of these Lyme bacterias that potentially were supposed to be used for germ warfare. So they don't really know, but that is a speculation. But in addition to that, regardless of this more advanced Lyme with the eight hundred genes or the Lyme with the thirty-two genes, it actually has been known to survive against hydrochloric acid, which is the primary acid in your gut that is supposed to protect you.
**Unknown:** But in addition to that, it also can, um, subside past six hundred degrees Fahrenheit. So guys, think about this, venison, deer meat. Where is Lyme always being talked about coming from? Deer ticks.
**Unknown:** So if a deer tick carries Lyme, doesn't it make sense that a deer would have Lyme in its tissues? And then you cook the deer meat and, you know, maybe on a grill you're getting past six hundred degrees Fahrenheit, but chances are you could easily be exposed to Lyme by the consumption of venison. So for all of your hunters out there, be cautious. So one of the things that I mentioned last week that I wanted to talk more about in this specific, uh, episode is I wanted to explore more of this idea of something called retroviruses.
**Unknown:** So for those of you that are listening, or for those of you that are listening on behalf of someone else because you know someone with Lyme that has not been able to get better despite their efforts. So what I want you to understand about this is sometimes they haven't had the right approach, and then sometimes this is due to something called retroviruses. So with retroviruses, the thing that you have to understand about it is that retroviruses are immunosuppressive viruses. So one of the most well-known retroviruses is HIV.
**Unknown:** Not all retroviruses are HIV, but a type of retrovirus is HIV. So HIV, as we all know, is extremely immunosuppressive to the point that it is potentially fatal. So retroviruses have been part of our DNA for thousands of years. So the thing about this is you may be thinking, "Well, why would I have a retrovirus in my DNA that is only harmful to my immune system?" Because that is definitely what I thought when I learned about this.
**Unknown:** But the thing about it is that these retroviruses only activate in the most opportune times. So as an example, for females, when you get pregnant, your embryo, your baby is going to have your DNA as well as your spouse's DNA. So that DNA coming together, it would make sense that your body would think that that is a foreign object or a foreign invader. So your immune system would be inclined to attack a foreign invader.
**Unknown:** But there is a retrovirus that activates in the placenta that shuts down any possibility for an immune reaction against the embryo. Pretty freaking cool, right? So the thing that you have to understand about these retroviruses is, yes, they are part of our DNA, but they only activate when they need to in the case of, of serving a beneficial purpose to the body.But what they're finding is that due to all of the toxicity and all of these different chemicals we're being s- exposed to and all of these different stressors we're dealing with on a day-to-day, that we are actually, um, starting to have these retroviruses activate, um, without necessarily having a purpose to reactivate or activate. So what this means for you is if you are someone who is dealing with some type of infection like Lyme and you cannot recover, there is a strong possibility that you might be dealing with some type of immunosuppression that is not allowing you to heal.
**Unknown:** And one of the most common things you can see in your blood work is an extremely elevated TGF-beta one. So for those of you that have been in this world for a long time trying to figure out what the heck is going on with you, you may have had this test run because one of the reasons why I personally used to run the TGF beta one is it was associated with mold toxicity. And the longer I practice, I realize that it's not just about mold. The TGF beta one is really just an overactivation of, of the immune system which is causing cell death.
**Unknown:** So the thing that I want you to understand about this is that if you have been told you have mold toxicity because of this number, that is not always accurate. This number can mean a lot of different things, and one of those things is retroviral. So the other thing too is that you might be having a major, major, major sensitivity to caffeine, which is classified as a purenergic food. If you are having a major sensitivity to coffee or caffeine, this might be another sign that you're dealing with this retrovirus.
**Unknown:** So what's very interesting too is that people that I've worked with that have had retroviral infections have ended up coming through my doors on immunosuppressant drugs because they've been diagnosed with lupus or scleroderma, et cetera. So I want you to know that when you're on an immunosuppressive drug, it shuts down your immune response. So if you have less inflammation in your body, then that means you're gonna feel better. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have an overactive immune system.
**Unknown:** It just means you have a boatload of inflammation. So don't be fooled by saying there's no possible way that I have a retroviral infection because I'm on an immunosuppressant and it makes me feel better. You could easily be fooled by that because most people that are dealing with enough inflammation that they are benefiting from an immunosuppressive drug, most of those people are immunosuppressed to begin with. So talking about neurological Lyme, this was a really, really interesting scenario that came through my door.
**Unknown:** So first of all, the patient did not know that they had Lyme. What they did know was they had massive sinus issues most of their life. So when she came in, uh, one of the technologies that I used initially in her initial exam was called, uh, the bioresonance. So as I was running the bioresonance, she was having a tunnel-- ton of things coming up dental-wise, and as I got into looking at it further, she was coming up with something called periostitis in the top of her jawbone.
**Unknown:** So the thing that you guys wanna understand about dental and how this all plays a role is, first of all, there are holistic dentists out there that will swab your gums and put it under a microscope and show you spirochete infections. So number two is that if you have ever had a tooth pulled, including your wisdom teeth, if it was not pulled properly, you could easily pool bacteria in where that tooth was once. So this particular person had her wisdom teeth removed many, many years ago, had sinus issues, um, kind of always attributed to just bacterial, took antibiotics, helped a little bit, but she was on antibiotics probably every two months or so. So with the findings, it was coming up as periostitis.
**Unknown:** Periostitis is usually a spirochete infection. So we ran her blood work, and it turned out that she ended up having active Lyme disease in addition to having, um, autoimmune markers in the brain. So the thing that I want you to understand about this is that the Lyme can start in your teeth. It can start in your gums, work its way into the jaw, which can then get into the sinuses, which can then move through the vascular system into the brain, which will not necessarily always come up on even a spinal tap or an MRI.
**Unknown:** But what I did find was that she was having various autoimmune markers that were not allowing her to produce certain neurotransmitters, one of them being GABA. GABA is what calms you down and prevents anxiety. So this was a person that had these spirochetes get into her neurological system, but she was, uh, going to work every day, taking care of a family, but just had terrible, terrible sinus issues and headaches. So this is something that you need to understand is that this just left untouched can easily progress into a bigger problem down the line.
**Unknown:** So if you're already dealing with memory loss, so if you're dealing with massive brain fog, if you're dealing with really bad depression, bipolar, different types of mood disorders, it's time to get your brain looked at. It's time to get your teeth looked at. It's time to get your lymph nodes looked at. It's time to get your vascular system looked at because all of these things are important for how well your brain is working.So some of the big things about Lyme that is not well understood that are complete myths is that first of all, Lyme only comes from a tick, which is not the case, we're gonna talk more about it.
**Unknown:** That a blood test is good enough to diagnose Lyme. Another myth is that Lyme is the only part of the puzzle. How many people are sick for so long and finally someone's like, "Oh, you have Lyme", and then they just are now defined as a Lyme patient, but nobody's looking at is there mold? Is there parasites?
**Unknown:** Is there neurological issues? You know, is there, is there inflammation? Is there anything else? The other thing too is emotions.
**Unknown:** That emotions have nothing to do with the onset of Lyme. I will tell you right now, most people that I work with have had Lyme in their system for a long time, and it took one catalyst to bring it to the surface, and a lot of times that catalyst is a loss of a loved one, that catalyst is a divorce, that catalyst is some type of PTSD. So emotions play a significant role in not just the onset, but also the persistence of why a person is not getting better. Also, probably the biggest myth of them all is that it's just about killing your Lyme, and that antibiotics are the most effective way to do that.
**Unknown:** So that is gonna be a big part of understanding this, and especially in neurological Lyme. If you think that you're gonna just take an antibiotic with neurological Lyme and it's gonna cure you, that is not gonna happen because your antibiotic, most of them are can't even get into the blood, get through the blood brain barrier anyway. So first and foremost, how do you get Lyme? This is the question of the day every day in my practice.
**Unknown:** So I am sorry to do this to all of you. This is not my intention for you to live in fear, but it is important for you to understand that it is not just about ticks. So if you live in a city or you don't go into the woods or you don't like deer or whatever , you still can get exposed. I had Lyme in my system.
**Unknown:** I grew up in Newark, New Jersey. Like, I grew up in a concrete jungle. I did not go into the woods, I did not play with deer, I did not have dogs. I didn't have any of that.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to Lyme, it could be... You could have exposure through any vector. Any vector is a biting insect. That could be a flea, a mosquito, it could be lice, it could be spiders, and ticks of course.
**Unknown:** In addition to that, it can also be passed from mom to baby in the womb or through breastfeeding. In addition to that, eating venison, your good old deer meat. Again, for those of you that are just joining now, if a deer tick causes Lyme, wouldn't it make sense that a deer has the Lyme in them, and we are going and eating it? So that is another exposure.
**Unknown:** The other thing too is sexual transmission. For those of you that have been listening the whole time, I talked about the prostate in men. Inflamed prostate sometimes is associated with Lyme being in the prostate that moves along the ejaculatory duct in the event that there is intercourse, and it does that in order to infect the woman. And then last but not least, probably the most, um, uh, mind-blowing is going to be that a bull's eye rash is your second infection.
**Unknown:** So for those of you that got bit, got the rash, and you suspect that that was the first time that it ever happened, that is your second infection with a slightly different strain. So Lyme is way more common than most people realize, but I will tell you this. You could have Lyme in your system and it could easily not be active, but it takes compounding factors for it to become active and problematic. So we had a patient, um, she had an onset of seizures at sixteen years old.
**Unknown:** So this patient, um, she went to her prom. She did like every other high school kid do- does, and she went out and partied. Um, she was not a partier, but she went and she had drinks and then, um, there was a big sleepover and in the morning she had her first seizure. Did a variety of different tests, blood tests, et cetera.
**Unknown:** Everything came back normal. Continued to see a neurologist and everything continued to come up normal. So it wasn't honestly until years later that the puzzle was put together, and the puzzle was essentially that this person had Lyme in their system. They were born with it because it turned out we were treating the mom as well, and that the mom had it in her system as well.
**Unknown:** So it was in the system, not necessarily creating many issues. The other piece to this puzzle is pancreas. This is a child who had massive hypoglycemia issues, very low blood sugar. Go figure, this child also loved sugar, grew up on tons of cereal, cakes, pastries, cannolis, Italian family, pasta, all of that.
**Unknown:** So overall, blood sugar stability plays an extremely, extremely important role in the neurological system. So how this pieces together is that this person had unstable blood sugar, which was creating stress on the neurological system. Then there was Lyme kind of brewing in the background. Then it was-15 years old started the HPV vaccine.
**Unknown:** All, all three rounds were done. The last round was done one week prior to the first seizure. Listen, I'm not sitting here saying that the seizure cau- or the seizure was caused by the vaccine. The point of me telling you this is that the vaccine for this specific person was the straw that broke the camel's back.
**Unknown:** There-- Whatever was going on in that kid's body at that time, the immune system couldn't handle the, the vaccine. So what happened was this activated the Lyme, it ended up in the neurological system. A night of drinking and eating crap was a complete spike and crash of the blood sugar. The blood sugar was so low in the morning that the brain went haywire and caused a seizure.
**Unknown:** So this was my sister, and this was something that we were just had to deal with for a really long time. I'm gonna get upset. Because we didn't know what was wrong with her. And I'm very fortunate for what I do because we were able to piece the puzzle together later down the line.
**Unknown:** And, you know, she's been seizure-free for over two years now. So this is just something that I know a lot of people are dealing with and have no answers. And watching a seizure is probably one of the most horrific things that I've ever seen. And we've worked with many, many kids that have had seizures moving forward, and it is amazing to see these kids transform, and it is amazing to get-- see them get their lives back.
**Unknown:** So I want you guys to, you know, that you're here and listening is that seizures don't happen for no reason. They happen for a variety of different reasons. It was just specifically for this person, it was Lyme brewing in the background for most of her life, and it just took a sequence of events that allowed this to become a bigger problem. So it's very, very important to know that there is always, always, always a root cause.
**Unknown:** So myth number two is you've had the best testing for your neurological system, and you've had the best testing for your Lyme. So number one is that one of the things that was never necessarily evaluated for my sister was nobody checked her for infections. Nobody checked her blood sugar. Nobody looked at her pancreas.
**Unknown:** Nobody looked at autoimmune markers. Nobody looked to see if she had a gluten sensitivity. Nobody looked at any of those things. They were doing EEGs, EEGs, EEGs.
**Unknown:** They were doing overnight EEGs. And honestly, there are qEEGs that exist, quantitative EEGs. These are EEGs that map every lobe hemisphere of the brain. They tell you the brain waves.
**Unknown:** They tell you what's overactive, what's underactive, what's communicating with each other, what's not communicating with each other. And we're still using the Stone Age EEGs. EEGs are like abnormal or normal. There's no in between, there's no specificity, there's no, "This lobe is working, this lobe isn't." There's none of that.
**Unknown:** So when you're talking about neurological Lyme, yes, it's diagnosing the Lyme, but it's also you can go through a killing spree, and you can go through a protocol to detox and to get the Lyme out of your body and, and to get the parasites out and get mold out and get all those things out. But what about the repair of your neurological system? The repair of your neurological system, especially if you've had a series of seizures, if you've had facial paralysis, if you've had Bell's palsy, if you've had any of these things, that means your brain is very compromised, and it most likely has to-- had to create new pathways. It's had to rewire to adapt to the stress.
**Unknown:** So this is about using modalities like neurofeedback. This is about using modalities like physical therapy or what we call neurological chiropractic, where we use a, a brain entrainment device, and we do this to connect your brain back to your body. This is something we do with stroke patients as well. So there are so many modalities that can repair the neurological system after you work on the inflammation and the infections and the autoimmune and the toxicity.
**Unknown:** It's all about strategy, and it's all about timing. So the blood test conversation is, "I've had a blood test. They've done so many blood tests on me, and they told me Lyme isn't part of the puzzle. I don't have Lyme." Well, first of all, the Lyme antibody test through Quest and LabCorp is garbage.
**Unknown:** Number two, Lyme Western Blot is still not very good. One of the better tests is called IGeneX. But the thing about IGeneX is it's still a blood test. And if those of you that have been listening the whole time, Lyme does not live in your blood.
**Unknown:** It lives in your connective tissue where it hides. So two things. Number one is that if you have been bit by a tick, and you have a bull's eye, you need to wait anywhere between eight to twelve weeks post bite bull's eye rash before you would get an accurate reading on the blood test. Number one.
**Unknown:** Number two is that if you're going to do any type of blood test, technically you need to provoke the Lyme to get a better reading. So one of the ways you could do that is take antibiotics, which I don't personally advise taking antibiotics when you don't really know if you need them. But the other thing that you can do is what Dr. Ruggiero and Dr.
**Unknown:** Klinghardt created called the RK protocol. So the RK protocolis taking an infrared light as well as what we use as the sound wave device. And you use the infrared and the sound wave over different lymphatic chains. Lymphatic chains is all the different chains of your immune system.
**Unknown:** So you go over these different areas and pretty much what you're doing is you're pushing the infection out of its hiding places. So best case scenario is after doing the RK protocol, you do a DNA PCR urine test by DNA connections. This is at this point, the gold standard for how to diagnose Lyme properly. So the RK protocol is extremely necessary to do if you're going to do the DNA urine test.
**Unknown:** So this is really fascinating. I threw this in here just mainly for fun. But when we talk about how we get exposed to the Lyme through ticks, ticks are so freaking advanced and smart. But number one, like I always would be in the woods like mountain biking.
**Unknown:** And I'd always wonder like, how the hell does a tick know where you are? Like, how does it, how does it find you? Like, how does it land on you? So one of the ways is because when you exhale carbon dioxide, it can actually target the exhaled carbon dioxide.
**Unknown:** So that's how they get on you in the first place. Number two is then the saliva of the tick actually glues into you, which is why they're so hard to pull off. But the craziest part is that as they then bite, they secrete a very specific hormone that will stop the inflammatory process so that you don't get itchy. So that's why you always get home later, you get in the shower or you're rubbing your head and you're like, oh my God, a tick.
**Unknown:** Because it actually shut down your immune response that would have made you irritated or itchy to then obviously pull it off. So then, you know, outside of that, when it bites and then the saliva sticks into you, that's actually how it's going to transmit the Borrelia into your system. So just, it's such an interesting transmission because these ticks are designed literally to be able to be a vector for all of these different types of infections, Lyme being one. So looking for neurological Lyme.
**Unknown:** So this is probably the most interesting thing because when you're dealing with a pretty advanced neurological issue, maybe you're dealing with chronic seizures that are happening every hour. Maybe you're dealing with the potential for multiple sclerosis. Maybe you've just been diagnosed with ALS. Maybe you've been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's.
**Unknown:** So if it gets to the point that you actually are recommended to do a spinal tap, one of the interesting things that I've learned over time is that when you pull the cerebral spinal fluid from a spinal tap, what is happening is that the technician or the analyst is looking for the spirochetes. That's what the squiggly things look like. So spirochetes look like little squiggly worms. But the thing is, is that when a spirochete is in contact, or I should say the Lyme is in contact with the cerebral spinal fluid, it is never in the spirochete form.
**Unknown:** It is always in the form of something called a bleb. So the thing about this is that very common when someone is analyzing the cerebral spinal fluid, they are always looking for the spirochete. So if you're looking for the spirochete, it is always going to come up negative for neurological Lyme. And this is a huge problem with us understanding is Lyme playing a role in someone's neurological condition?
**Unknown:** Because there is a huge possibility that that is a big, big piece of the puzzle. But in addition to that, don't get me wrong, I've worked with many people that have had Lyme in their neurological system in addition to viruses like herpes simplex and coxsackie virus. So these are different things that also can be living with the Lyme, creating massive, massive stress on the neurological system. So this kind of piggybacks off of things I've already said.
**Unknown:** When it comes to neurological Lyme, it's not just about looking at this as an infection and saying we need to kill, kill, kill, kill, kill or detox, detox, detox. This is also about really being able to support the neurological system in the proper way. So the brain detoxes at night. So your brain will shrink by 40% when you sleep.
**Unknown:** Everyone's does, not just you, not just me. So the brain shrinks by 40% when you sleep. And the reason why it does that is because it allows for the veins and the cerebral spinal fluid to drain, to clear out anything that is harmful or toxic to the brain. But the thing is, is that you have to have a healthy cardiovascular system for this to work, number one.
**Unknown:** You also have to have a properly functioning lymphatic system, which I will explain more of. And you also have to have good neck alignment and not necessarily tons of scar tissue in your neck from different types of surgeries or injuries. You also have to have proper drainage that is happening in your sinuses, in your ears, et cetera. And guess where it all dumps?
**Unknown:** It all dumps into the tonsils and the adenoids. So how many of us are missing those?So pretty much what happens is then all of those toxins go directly into all of these lymph nodes, and then you have this vicious cycle because your lymph nodes here they sit right next to the vein or the arteries that go up and then the veins that drain out. So if you have a bunch of gunked up lymph nodes and swollen glands, and you're like, "Oh, this hurts all the time. Why is this swollen?" What that means is somebody put their foot on the hose.
**Unknown:** So that means you're not getting proper drainage away from the brain. So if you end up having neurological Lyme, and you're just trying to go in and kill, kill, kill, and nobody is actually helping you with improving the venous drainage, the lymphatic system, the alignment of your neck, if there's scar tissue. If nobody's helping you with that, you're not gonna get better. This is why we have an integrated practice, because we hit roadblock after roadblock after roadblock with our patients, and then we realize how important everything is.
**Unknown:** And I feel very fortunate that we have chiropractors in our office because that physical work of working structurally, working on the muscles, working on the joints, working on the ligaments, the tendons, like that is so transformative when you're trying to help people detox. Detox is not just about drinking smoothies and taking a bunch of liver-based supplements. You all have detox pathways everywhere. You have lymph nodes from the top of your head to your toes.
**Unknown:** Sometimes your detox needs to happen by helping to get your lymph moving and also helping to get your veins draining and get your arteries pumping blood to places. So it's extremely important to understand all of these different pieces of the puzzle. But for those of you that have been with me this whole time, I will give you a little, uh, tip that will help your brain drain tonight is if you lift your headboard by three to four inches, just your headboard. Yes, your bed will be on a bit of an incline, just a tiny bit, you barely will notice.
**Unknown:** Put a couple of books underneath the post of your headboard, elevate it anywhere between three to four inches, and I promise you, you will sleep so much freaking better, and if you wake up with low-grade headaches, you probably won't wake up with a low-grade headache. If you snore, have tons of sinus issues, you probably won't have that either. So try it. It is the cheapest, easiest thing that you can do for your brain to help it.
**Unknown:** So on that note, um, had a patient, uh, recently she came to see me. She, uh, was diagnosed with MS. My opening statement to her was, "I don't think you have MS." And she was like, "What?" And I was like, "I know, I know. Bold statement." But I was like, "Let me explain why." So two pieces of the puzzle or three pieces of the puzzle.
**Unknown:** So number one, she had Lyme in her system, so that was one stressor. But her bigger stressors was actually the fact that her pancreas was practically shutting down. Her pancreas was super close to the development of what we call type one diabetes, which is massive insulin resistance. So let me just keep this simple for you guys.
**Unknown:** So no, you have to lift your bed. Paulette. Um, so the pancreas regulates blood sugar. So the frontal lobe of your brain, where, first of all, most of your neurotransmitters are made, your serotonin and your dopamine, the frontal lobe of your brain is extremely, extremely sensitive to your, um, blood sugar stability.
**Unknown:** This is not about having high blood sugar like pre-diabetic, diabetic. This is also problematic if you have low blood sugar, if you're hypoglycemic. So it's about balanced blood sugar. So this woman was dealing with very imbalanced blood sugar, so she actually had a stomach infection that I think was in her system for like twenty years.
**Unknown:** She had a infection in her stomach called H. pylori. Your stomach literally has valves that are connected to your pancreas. Your indigestion, you know, your reflux, then that can start to affect your pancreas.
**Unknown:** So then that starts to affect your pancreas, and then your pancreas stops making insulin. So insulin is what allows your cells and your brain to use the sugar, use the glucose, 'cause glucose is technically fuel for us. So if you have no insulin, you can't use your glucose, so it just floats around and it causes a boatload of inflammation, and guess what it does? It causes atherosclerosis, and it causes plaques in your cardiovascular system.
**Unknown:** So guess what, guys? It's not cholesterol, it's sugar that is causing heart disease and atherosclerosis and plaquing and all of those things. It's not freaking cholesterol. I'm so tired of them putting bad stuff out there in the media about cholesterol and telling people they shouldn't eat eggs.
**Unknown:** It is like the biggest BS in the world. But one thing is, it's like we cut out all these fats, but we still have the heart disease. But guess what's in everything that we eat? Sugar.
**Unknown:** Sugar is in everything. We try to be healthier, and we try to go and get like a coconut milk latte from Starbucks. So I used to drink my mint vanilla lattes, and then I was like, "Crap, this is really bad for me." So then I switched to my no sugar coconut milk latte. Then I made myself a coconut milk latte at home, and I'm like, "Hmm, this tastes different." Next time I was at Starbucks, I asked them to see the milk, and there was thirty-five grams of sugar.
**Unknown:** So there's a lot of sugar just in the coconut milk at Starbucks, and we think we're doing something better by not getting, you know, the extra sweetener in there. So when it comes to blood sugar being unstable and a bunch of sugar floating around in your blood-Because either your diet is bad or your pancreas is pissed or both, that is going to then cause massive circulatory issues. So now you have a double whammy. We have abnormal blood sugar, which is totally screwing up the frontal lobe, and then we start to have plaquing in the cardiovascular system, which is not allowing blood flow to get to the brain, which means we don't have enough oxygen to the brain.
**Unknown:** Oxygen and glucose are the two things your brain needs the most of. So if you don't have those two things working for you, you could easily have brain degeneration, myelin degeneration, which then we call MS. So the point of me telling you this is that when we are talking about Lyme being neurological, it's usually not just Lyme hanging out, and that's the end of the story. There is compounding factors that are causing this.
**Unknown:** So another thing too is if you're having cardiovascular problems to your brain, then chances are you probably have headaches or migraines or maybe you just attribute it to sinus pressure. If you're having blood sugar instability, especially the hypoglycemic people, you wake up in the morning, you're not really hungry. If anything, you're like, "Ugh, can't eat." You have coffee. It suppresses your appetite, but you need the coffee because it opens up your brain.
**Unknown:** It makes you, it makes you be able to think. So then you have your appetite suppressed, then it gets to lunch. You're like, "I'm starving." So then you grab for, like, a sandwich, a pizza or, like, a wrap. You need something with carbs.
**Unknown:** Then you get to middle of the day, "Ugh, crash. Need more coffee." Then you get to dinner. You're starving. You're eating your cheese and crackers as you're prepping your dinner.
**Unknown:** Then you eat dinner, then you want something sweet. So I say that to my patients, and they have their mouth dropped. They're like, "Did you just tell me my biography?" I'm like, "Trust me, I've been there. I know what it's like." So having low blood sugar is not a good thing 'cause it means every time you eat, you spike, and then you plummet.
**Unknown:** So another side note too is when we're dealing with Lyme, um, I know that a lot of people, you know, they struggle with, they struggle with their symptoms because when they first start having symptoms, you know, everyone is generally really concerned like, "What's going on?" And then it gets to the point that it's going on for so long, and they're not necessarily getting better or not necessarily getting answers. And people around them start to be like, you know, "Are you dramatic? Are you making this up? Is this in your head?
**Unknown:** Is it really that bad?" And they don't... They just can't relate to the symptoms. But I will tell you is that when women and children have worse symptoms in relation to Lyme, it's actually not because of hormones, and it's not because of age. It's not because of any of that.
**Unknown:** It actually has to do with blood. So women and children tend to have less blood. Um, they actually have, it's tw- three point two five liters of blood versus a male who has five point five. And then women also tend to carry fewer, um, oxygen-bearing red blood cells, and that has a lot to do with menstrual cycle, losing iron as well as losing red blood cells.
**Unknown:** So the constituents and the abundance of blood has everything to do with how symptomatic you are. So don't let anybody sit there and tell you that it's in your head because it's not. Another thing too is if you're running really low with your body temperature, this is potentially because Lyme has hijacked your, um, metabolism. Um, and this has a lot to do with, again, Lyme is very smart.
**Unknown:** It's very evolved. So it hijacks your metabolism. It drops your temperature. For every point two degrees that it drops, your pathogens will double, so your Lyme will double.
**Unknown:** So if you are freezing all the time, you need to get your butt into an infrared sauna and start burning some stuff off. Um, and then the same thing goes if you're heating up at night. Women call it hot flashes. "Oh, am I perimenopausal?" I'm like, "You're 30.
**Unknown:** You're not perimenopausal." So heating up at night is a sign that your body is inducing a low-grade fever in order to fight off infections. So another big thing too is when we're talking about Lyme, we often think that it's the only part of the puzzle. But what I find really interesting is when we're talking about neurological Lyme, very often I find that there is, uh, co-infections. One of them is called bartonella.
**Unknown:** Bartonella, I put a picture here because bartonella leaves marks on the body that look like a cat scratched you. That's why it's called cat scratch fever. It's not because a cat scratched you, and that's how you got infected. It actually leaves marks on the body that look like a cat scratch.
**Unknown:** Also, it can look like stretch marks. So when you have a young female who has had zero fluctuations in her weight and she has stretch marks, but bartonella has a tendency to create a lot of neurological inflammation. So it's very important to be able to have the right diagnosis to decipher, is this bartonella or is this actual borrelia, which is the Lyme that is affecting the neurological system? So the other thing too, this is always the most fascinating for people, is when it comes to the emotional side of the puzzle.
**Unknown:** So when we are talking about Lyme, we are often talking about a lot of joint discomfort, and this is even in people that are dealing with the neurological Lyme. So when you're dealing with the joint discomfort, there is very, very specific things to consider when we are talking about joints. So number one is when we wanna talk about an emotional connection. So let me give you an example of this.
**Unknown:** So I had a patient who came in, and she ended up having active Lyme come up in her, in her blood work. But, um, one of the things that is very associated with Lyme is, uh, connective tissue disorders like lupus or scleroderma.So I had a patient who ended up having lupus in her right hand. So the lupus in her right hand. So why would that happen?
**Unknown:** Like, how does that make any sense that if she has Lyme showing up in her system, why would she only have this autoimmune condition specifically coming up in the right hand? So I asked her and I said, "Is there something that you're holding onto in relation to a male figure in your life?" And she just looked at me like, "What the hell? How would you even know that?" And she's like, "Yeah. I'm having a lot of issues with my, my dad right now." There was this very specific falling out and, um, I'm holding on to, you know, some of the words that were said that were really hurtful.
**Unknown:** And that was literally one of the pieces of the puzzle that was a big culprit as to the manifestation of the lupus. So then we did some work with her to actually work through, um, that emotional piece, and she was able to resolve things with her dad. When I retested her, the lupus was completely gone. So again, this is the crazy things that I see on a day-to-day basis is that lupus is not a definitive.
**Unknown:** Lupus is not systemic. It's not affecting every single part of your body. It can easily be affecting one area that is tied to something that is completely off of your radar. So when it comes to another person that I worked with, she was actually, um, dealing with Lyme as well.
**Unknown:** She had scleroderma in her, um, I think it was her right foot as well. When you're talking about the foot, that's a lot of, you know, are you-- what is holding you back from moving forward? And this had a lot to do with an ex-husband. Um, really bad divorce, was, you know, really apprehensive about moving forward because they had a daughter, and she wanted to make sure that he was still in her life.
**Unknown:** So there's so many interesting things that come up that the emotions can trigger. But if you're not asking better questions, this is something that is not discussed, and you just go on detoxing, detoxing, treating Lyme, treating Lyme, killing, killing, killing, and you don't get better because there is a piece of the puzzle that is not being addressed. So the, the big one here. So this is all about antibiotics.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to the antibiotics, there is a new, you know, discussion happening about what we now call post-Lyme syndrome. So the reason why post-Lyme syndrome exists is because what they were finding is anywhere between four, eight or even twelve weeks after, uh, treatment of antibiotics, that symptoms started to come back and potentially symptoms would get worse or new symptoms would arise. What they have realized now through better testing and better research is that the different antibiotics that are administered, so doxycycline being the most common, is that when you administer antibiotics in the event that there is Lyme in the body, that all of the spirochetes that are present in the body, they appear to eradicate. They appear to go away when you're on antibiotics.
**Unknown:** But what they didn't realize is that instead of them being killed or eradicated, it's actually that the spirochetes change form. They change from the little corkscrew shaped worm to what we call a round body cyst. The round body cyst is this little round like tapioca pearl, but the, the outer coating is like a shell, and the shell protects it from the antibiotic. So what they find is that people feel better on their antibiotics because the round body cyst form of Lyme is not symptomatic.
**Unknown:** But because you pissed it off, it actually will double or even quadruple depending on the antibiotic that you use. So then you get off of your antibiotic and four, eight, even twelve weeks later, all of those round body cysts that have more than doubled now start to revert back into the spirochete, and now you have a boatload of problems all over again. So going a different route, if you are gonna do antibiotics, you need to do that in conjunction with other things that will be supportive to your body. I have worked with people that were on antibiotics for seven, eight, the longest I think was eighteen years.
**Unknown:** There's no reason for anybody to be on anything for more than six months if it's actually working. So for you to be on it for years upon years and expect a different result, it's not gonna happen. So this really brings me to the last point, which it's not just about killing the Lyme. It is about supporting the body's ability to get it out of the body.
**Unknown:** I had a woman who came to me that was on antibiotics for seven years. She was so fatigued. She had such bad brain fog. She could barely keep her eyes open in our session.
**Unknown:** And when I started doing analysis on her, I realized that her lymphatic system was extremely compromised. Her spleen was compromised. Her tonsils were extremely enlarged. So what happened was, is that over the course of the seven years of antibiotics, she successfully killed a good amount of that organism amongst other types of organisms that were in her body.
**Unknown:** But all the dead organisms were l-- stuck living in her lymph nodes and her spleen and her appendix. So she was really puffy, tons of inflammation, chronic fatigue, couldn't lose weight, joint achiness.And it's because she literally had-- there was like dead carcasses sitting in her body giving off massive and massive amounts of toxins. So it's extremely important for you to understand it's not just about killing the Lyme, it's about supporting all of the avenues to get it out, supporting the lymphatic system, supporting the spleen, supporting the liver, supporting the gut, supporting the kidneys. Every single one of those avenues needs to be su-supported to be successful.
**Unknown:** So if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm here to tell you, you don't know what you don't know. So overall, when you're talking about these different infections, you're talking about co-infections, you're talking about emotional layers. There-- it is impossible for you to know what is going on in your body and what is the root cause until you do better testing. So the point is, is it's stop accepting this new normal, and what I mean by this is that we get diagnosed with the Lyme, and we almost are relieved because we're like, "Holy crap, finally somebody knows what's causing all these symptoms." But then we go, you know, the, the course of treatment again, most of the time antibiotics, and we feel mediocre, and we just accept that as our new normal, and we just are like, "Well, this is it for me.
**Unknown:** At least I'm not debilitated anymore. At least I can get out of bed. At least I, you know, I can walk." And it's not about that. It's about knowing that you can fully recover once you know the bigger picture as to what is going on.
**Unknown:** So if you haven't gathered this yet, is neurological Lyme, Lyme disease as a whole is very rarely is this looking like the textbook definition of Lyme, joint pain, achiness, et cetera. This is-- this can have so many different faces, and especially when it comes to the neurological piece. This could be seizures, it could be brain fog, it could be memory loss, it could be Alzheimer's, it could be ALS, it could be so many different neurological conditions. So if your, if your body and your situation does not look like a textbook, then you shouldn't be treated like a textbook.
**Unknown:** And this is where, you know, it comes to looking beyond the antibiotic approach and either using something complementary to it or choosing a different route altogether. So overall, you know, when it comes to this whole concept about conventional, which we are all programmed to know as the, the primary source of healthcare, and unfortunately, most people don't seek out anything beyond that until things go wrong or we're falling flat with answers. So there's this world of functional medicine, and functional medicine is using better testing to get better information. But unfortunately, functional medicine is using limited tools.
**Unknown:** It's using a lot of dietary recommendations and supplementation. So I've moved into this realm of integrative medicine primarily because it's not just about that. It's about, yes, diet is a piece of the puzzle. Yes, supplements are a piece of the puzzle.
**Unknown:** Yes, medications are a piece of the puzzle. But it's also about detox. It's about your emotional health. It's about your stress levels.
**Unknown:** It's about your neurological system. It's about your physical body, your lymph nodes. It's about all of those different things. Every single one of those avenues has to be considered, and all of those need to be considered in your treatment protocol because that is the way that you're going to get better results in a shorter amount of time.
**Unknown:** So I really, really appreciate you guys being here. Um, this is definitely one of my absolute favorite things to do. But, um, I just want to let you guys know that, you know, I do this to really be able to give you information that you're not hearing from other places, and this really is more of an educational experience. But when you're able to figure out what is going on with your body and what your body needs, that's when this becomes a breakthrough experience because it's just, you know, I think the most fascinating and fun thing that I do every day is just being able to have people sit there and be like, "Holy crap, that makes so much sense.
**Unknown:** Like, I've never been able to understand my health the way that you just explained it." And that's really what gets me super excited and, you know, it's truly, you know, what I, I love to do every day. And, and then obviously being able to see people heal when they've suffered for so long is just the absolute best. So, um, so I really hope you guys enjoyed this. Um, definitely check out our website if you're looking for any additional information or if you want to, um, set up one of our strategy calls with our client care team.
**Unknown:** So I hope you guys have a wonderful night, and I'll see you next week. Be a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com. All night, no sleep 'cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. Wide awake, that's okay.
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Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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