Tips for a Slow Detoxer?

Hi, folks.

In the long process of Lyme treatment, I have read occasionally about people whose bodies are especially slow to detox. They have stronger herxes that don't move through very fast. Detoxing methods all make them feel worse. (These people often have MTHFR variations, but 40% of people have some sort of MTHFR variation, so there's much more to it than that.) If anyone is like this or knows anyone like this, then please advise me. It's deeply frustrating to consider a treatment that makes others herx for a day but puts me in bed for two weeks. Each LLMD I have seen claims to understand when I say I am extra sensitive to things ("Oh sure, a lot of my chronic Lyme patients are severely compromised...") but then when I try a single drop of an herb and my system goes haywire for week, they shake their heads and tell me I'm the worst they've seen. Anyone else like this??

I feel like I'm doing everything right. I minimize exposure to pathogens. I take care of my mental health and stress levels. I drink filtered water, eat healthy fats, fermented foods, everything organic and unprocessed. High-quality supportive herbs and supplements (but not so many that they overload my liver). Daily stretching and movement, even when I'm in bed for months at a time and I have to do the movement lying down. HEPA air purifier and vacuum cleaner, full-spectrum light, castille soap and coconut oils as my only toiletry items, genuinely non-toxic house cleaners and detergents and furniture materials, minimized EMF exposure. Lymphatic massage and dry brushing and Epsom salt baths and acupuncture and craniosacral therapy. This is normal for me, and has been for years.

When I try a new treatment, I herx badly. I titrate all doses to start small - a sliver of a tablet, a single drop of a liquid, etc. But I herx debilitatingly, usually gastroparesis and too dizzy to make it to the bathroom without help, in bed for weeks with a migraine, and a grab bag of other scary symptoms including heart swelling. By the time I am well enough to do the treatment again, my practitioners usually advise me to try something "gentler" or "detox more." Any detox remedy except for lemon water and Alka-Seltzer Gold makes the herx symptoms worse; I understand that's because they are pushing things out, which is the goal, but it's difficult to stand when my body has already shut down. Does anyone have suggestions for detox methods that somehow don't make you feel worse? Things that provide relief??

I currently take turmeric, ashwagandha, BesBio HerX homeopathic drops, glutathione, methylated B complex, digestive enzymes, probiotics, vitamin D, liposomal vitamin C, AS-G, and magnesium. And I listed the other things I do for detox in the second paragraph.

Please let me know what you suggest. For a treatment to be effective, I suspect that I have to find a way to survive it more often than twice per month!

Thank you to anyone who has read this. Sending healing vibes all around!
Sara (Lyme, ME, POTS, HPA axis dysfunction....)

Have you looked into MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome)? Could be an angle worth looking into, I had similar problems with herxing and found that combo antihistamines helped leading me to think there was a component related to immune hypersensitivity to the pathogens' toxins/die-off in my case. Seems that many of us who have major issues with herxing fall somewhere along the spectrum of immune hypersensitivity (may be part of the reason some of us get so sick). Sometimes these issues are related to detox issues, but sometimes it is also combo'd with immune hypersensitivity leading to a double-whammy.

Lonnie Marcum wrote a good article on MCAS a while back: https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-sci-mcas-agony/

Mold and metals might be two other avenues to explore as well.

I consider myself a slow detoxer and very sensitive to everything. I have multiple allergies,and in spite of taking Magnesium and Vit D I still seem deficient in both. Low Vitamin D and magnesium contribute to all kinds of autoimmune issues. I asked my naturopath about it and he just said take more. He has never diagnosed me with adrenal fatigue but my kinesiologist believes that is the reason behind everything. So lately I have started reading about it, and I think I have to take it more seriously.
Maybe you should look into having your adrenals tested.

Have you tried fasting?
Do you feel worse after eating?
Do you feel fine in the morning but around mid-afternoon?
Is it easier for you to take medications in the morning -- so they work during the day, ... or is it easier for you to take them at night, and sleep through it, and not take them during the day?

I would try fasting. At a minimum only eat one meal a day, so a 18-20 hour fast. If you can, 24 hours or 36 hours. You can build up, get to 72 hours or a week. With water, or tea. When nothing worked for me, this was the only thing that did. I "cheated" and ate a hard boiled egg or tablespoon of peanut butter, or physillian husk fiber with water. Lots of water.

I would do the fasting and drink herbal tea. I would buy loose leaf herbs. Cloves, teasel, chai in two steel tea holders boiled and put in thermos, and I drink it throughout the day. You say that any herbs or medicine causes you to have a herx. You could lower the dosage to zero (just drink pure hot water if you must, even ZERO ) but pouring some hot water into the tea cup to dilute the strength. You do this with fasting and then break the fast with one meal a day.

It is also important that when you do feel good enough, to move around. Walk on a threadmill or bicycle, or 20-40 minute walk, on days that you can. Or even stretching.

Spirulina tablets (a few dozen) and Psyillian Husk Fiber with Pro-biotics are my go-to for detox, with epson salt showers.

You want to get a baseline for the minimum allowable herbs you can take (even if it just barely watered down tea) vs what herx you can tolerate, vs fasting with JUST water for so many days... Then continue to take that protocol until the herbs "do nothing" and increase the dosage until it brings you back to that spot. For example I was on 1 Oil of Oregano pill per day, but it was to much. So I switched to every other day. Eventually it stopped working, so I took it every day. Then that stopped, so now I take 2 in the morning and 2 at night which definitely is working for me.

It'll eventually stop working, and I'll switch to something else, then that will stop working, and I switch back to whatever previously stopped working -- and that will start up again.

But yeah fasting worked when nothing else did. That, with stopping everything, and then trying one-by-one the ones I could tolerate.

I'm not sure about fermented food you might want to stop that.
You also probably have a lot of mold you can't find or figure out.

ashwagandha: this was bad for me until I started to feel 90% better
glutathione: this made me sick also, until I switched to NAC which is a pre-cursor

again stop everything, fast, drink watered down tea, build a baseline, process of elimination, slowly switch and rotate, kill mold

How does exercise affect you? I had a hard time with treatments. Baths and sauna made things much worse. Light to moderate exercise along with rebounding was a game changer for me.

I'm sorry you are going through this. I firmly believe there is a proper way to healing for everyone. I pray you find yours.

Glutathione liposomal has soy in it just in case people are allergic. Friend learned that the hard way.

Have you tried NAC. It is a game changer!!! Im
also highly sensitive...

Hi, Annie and caramelkisses!

I posted this in 2019, so it's a very old post, and I'm not having issues anymore, but thanks for the replies! I'm sure others who search for this topic will be grateful to have the ideas you posted.

I found that I was able to resolve the mast cell activation syndrome and dysautonomia that were causing my symptoms and sensitivities using limbic system retraining (DNRS at that time), supplements (mainly curcumin and quercetin), and a low-histamine diet. Within three months of that post, I had read Neil Nathan's book Toxic, had reframed my treatment approach, and had gone from literally bedridden to 85% better reliably, where I have remained since.

the best detox without a doubt and cheapest too... is broccoli sprouts to open nrf2 gene detox pathway.

I tried the broccoli sprouts and had a herx after taking. Burdock root as well. Just to mention for those that herx from everything.

💯💝🦋 so glad you are bettet!!@