Just what do we mean by "detox", anyway?

I can't really answer your questions, but am just curious since you say you have impaired detox ability - have you tried sweating, ie workout or sauna if you can handle it?
It really helps me detox, and I love it. I have a rebounder and use sauna regularly (back when I was very ill I could barely handle 5-10min of sauna, and didn't have the strength to jump on a rebounder). Any physicial activity is good, just walking is great.
If you take niacin(B3) half an hour before the sauna you'll sweat even more.

Eating healthy, with lots of greens also naturally helps you detox.

You're right, the term "detox" is something that people use a lot in the Lyme world to mean many different things, and they're all things we feel strongly about, and we say it constantly! We often use it as a synonym for salvation from a herx, from a flare, or from the ineffectiveness of a treatment. Many of the posts of advice on forums can be summarized with the word "detox." And then of course you see it in mainstream contexts, too, like in ads for skin products or weight loss programs and other things that are toxic in their own ways!

I think your subcategories are useful. I prefer precision, and defining our terms, and trying to get to the bottom of what is needed. Are we soothing cytokines, mobilizing toxins and microbes, taking a break from making our body process things, removing toxic substances, supporting or organs while they do their jobs? And yes, some folks even use the word to mean killing pathogens, which I find especially confusing. My bioresonance device calls all its rife-like settings "detox codes" which drives me a little nuts. My LLMD is a fan of adding supplements for everything, and he piles on the "detox" supplements, when sometimes what my body needs is to give my organs a break from the 45 supplements I'm taking!

My list of detox things to try (OMG so many lists...) is also very long. Let me know if you want to trade lists and overwhelm ourselves further.

From my experience...diet, sauna, exercise, and occasional fasting has helped me FAR more than any supplement or vitamin ever could. I get toxic real fast if I'm not incorporating those things into my life daily.

Just wondering, what made them say you are detoxing too much? I've never heard of such a thing unless you're herxing.

No idea what made the person say I am detoxing too much... except that they'd asked what all I'm on for detox, and I guess my list seemed a little long to them (but still less than saraeli's 45 - unless that number was rhetorical? )

My belief that I have a detox problem comes from the fact that I will herx on 1 drop of Byron White Formulas. Not horrible herxes, but still. I started with A-L on advice of my LLMD, but taking it every day got to be too much as the herxes got worse. I heard BW say in a talk that you should be on three formulas, one from each category (treatment, detox, and restorative), so I switched to Detox-1 to try and better prepare my body for going back on the A-L. Still had the herxes, so took another break for a few days, and a day or two after I started back on it (Detox-1) I had a vasovagal syncope which was scary. Eventually I got some A-Inflam (from the third category) and tried it very tentatively, like not even every day, but have been too chicken to really get going with it. I did start to have the same herxes on it though - headache and a sort of swimmy-headed feeling, plus extra brain fog.

LLMD says herxing on one drop means I must have a very heavy load. So I figure I must have a hard time detoxing. That's really my only evidence though, so now I'm questioning even that. I haven't had reactions like that to any of the "support" stuff I've tried. On the other hand BWF is the only thing so far to have a really noticeable effect, so I'm reluctant to drop it completely (there's also the $$$ I spent on it!). The FNP I'm seeing next week uses Cowden which is even more expensive.

Haven't tried sweating, and rebounding sounds like way too much motion for me right now, lol. Plus the air hunger makes exercise scary. A few times I have woken up in a sweat but not sure how that factors in. I used to take brief walks daily but stopped due to tick paranoia (we live in the sticks), and then it got cold & I got out of the habit. I was planning to get some permethrin-treated pants and try walking again in the spring. Right now I'm just trying to leave some windows open and get a little fresh air, and just do what little walking I'd have to do anyway to get through the business of the day.

I might try an Epsom foot bath and see how that goes. Honestly I'm kind of paranoid now, afraid I'll go too far, especially when you hear about some people being unable to tolerate even that. On the other hand, I did try coffee enema a few times and didn't notice much difference in how I felt. It certainly didn't make me worse. I'd like to try sauna, craniosacral and lymphatic massage too. It's been easy to put those off because they cost money... usually a lot more than just one more supplement or two.

Honestly, the coffee enemas were such a hassle to do that I'd have to feel A LOT better from them to be motivated to continue them. Yes I'm lazy.

Dude, I finally watched that Bryan Walsh interview last night. I'd checked out the link before that and thought "meh"... only a 10 day program, for mostly healthy people, etc... but the interview turned me around before the end. If you ever do the program, I'd love to hear what you think of it. Already I've got some new ideas to put into place - first, start sweating (gonna try infrared sauna soon... doesn't seem wise to try to work up a sweat in February what with the air hunger). He had some really interesting things to say about supplements too. Based on what he said I'm dropping most of my "detox support" supplements for now but continuing with NAC. So in a way, the person on the other forum may have been right - maybe I've been doing too much of the earlier phases but not enough elimination especially sweating.

Honestly, any program that will let me get OFF of some supplements instead of continuing to add more, is pretty dang tempting. Especially interesting was how he said some things like milk thistle or curcumin will aid detox in one organ, but inhibit it in another. At the very least it's a good reason not to stay on certain things indefinitely. It sure would be nice if he could put this all into a book I could buy for $20, rather than a $129 program. But that's still quite a bit lower than some other programs out there.

I was all geared up to try an Epsom salt foot bath tonight because it kind of sounds like a way to eliminate stuff by sweating through the feet, if that makes any sense. But after reading another thread here I'm chickening out again.

(Also, LOL at Dr. "crazy eyes" Mercola. I wasn't sure what you meant at first, until about 30 seconds in when he gets excited about something and suddenly I was looking at that Heaven's Gate weirdo.)

I watched the Dr. Walsh detox video (thanks for the link!). Very interesting. The detox approach resonates with me. I can't afford to buy the program at this time but am going to add some of the recommendations and see how it feels. I have a homemade sauna (Dr. Wilson - red heat lamps) and hadn't thought to use it after exercise but it makes sense. On "bad" days I am not able to tolerate more than 10 minutes in the sauna without feeling wiped out and the same with exercise, but for me there is a huge correlation between fatigue and sleep, no surprise.

I haven't waded through the whole article on detoxification protocols yet but it looks really thorough. Thanks Dude and Walking for posting these.

Re: detoxing too fast. Traveler (prior forum Moderator) mentioned it a lot.

She stated that if you pull too many toxins out of the tissues...too fast...your blood stream will get flooded and your herx may increase...instead of decrease...