Posted 3/4/2012 12:28 PM (GMT -5)
Well, there is no simple answer to your question, because different circumstances can cause me to experience the shaking chills.
When I was getting them all the time (1983-1996), dietary modification helped the most. I had to stop eating meat, eggs & milk products. But I still had the shaking chills/nausea episodes, just not as often and they weren't as severe.
In 1996, I had a treatment through the NAET method of allergy treatment to a mixture of amino acids. That night, I had a horrendous episode of shaking chills - the worst I'd ever had. But after that, it was a long time before I had another episode.
Since that time, I have experienced the shaking chills as part of an allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), and I think the common denominator to all is sensitivity to sulfites (and sulfur amino acids). I also think it is partly due to adrenal exhaustion, from years of being ill and not getting adequate nutrition or medical help (from all the non-Lyme-Literate MD's).
I'm sure Lyme plays some role in this also - I know Lyme has weakened my immune system, played havoc with my adrenal glands, increased the chances of me developing allergies to all sorts of things, and may have activated or made worse the genomic variants that cause my sulfite sensitivity.
Also, I had gallbladder problems (unknown until 1999) and after surgery to remove my gallbladder, 14 years of near-constant nausea was suddenly gone. My gallbladder was severely inflammed and full of huge stones, and I felt soooo much better after it was out that I don't miss it one bit.
So like I said, there isn't really a simple answer, but rather I think the chills are just part of what my body does when it can't handle what's going on anymore ... allergic reaction, food intolerance, or otherwise ... and I'm positive Lyme (and/or coinfections) is involved somehow in it all, too.
I've read that Babesia can sometimes cause severe chaking chills with fever, did you have a fever with your shaking chills? I never did, but I'm just curious.