Unexpected partial cure for Lyme disease? ALCOHOL

I feel like I should've added.., herxing and or consumption of alcohol can really put your liver in toxic overload. Taking something like milk thistle is always a good idea

There's another effect at work, alcohol has to be in concentrations of over 60% to kill bacteria, at which point it will damage the gut.

I felt really bad when I had two alcohol drinks once - I don’t think it was a herx and I don’t think I benefited from it.

A second time - the waitress got my friend ‘s and my drink order mixed up and I realized half way through when I was feeling incredibly bad.
And she had ordered a double. I had ordered a virgin drink.

Alcohol is not a cure or treatment for Lyme disease. At best it will worsen the Candida most of us also suffer from. Need I remind you it turns to sugar which literally feeds Lyme. Oh and it won't do any favors for your liver which is already overwhelmed with toxins if you're actively killing things.

No.

I've always wondered about the "tincture effect" of alcohol, as opening the pathway to the BBB. I'm absolutely sure there is some valid medical literature on it. I would imagine it has an effect on the molecules as well as the interaction at the organic level of enzymes and such. Potentiation and dosage is what one should be particular about, I would be interested in learning more about it, I'm open minded at least that there may be a therapeutic amount possible.

But alcohol is such a strong (and potentially damaging) drug by itself, and mixing it with other things be they herbal or some disastrous contraindication...well that is a major caveat, and I've also wondered if high-proof liquor disinfects the blood, I'm still not quite sure if it does. And while LLMDs seem to staunchly say to avoid alcohol, some may be less strict and acknowledge some short-lived quality of life or other (see tincture effect above) benefit.

I think a more well known LLMD Dr. so-and-so mentioned that many Lymies self-medicate cheaply with this available-on-every-street-corner legal drug when the anxiety and panic from within and beyond get to be too much.

I've experienced raw herxing as well as rebounding poorly from a hangover, and they are both about at the same sort of living hell, alcohol is not such a great refuge at the other side of it.

But I will keep an open mind and sympathetic ear as many of us are just looking for relief it seems (I would be the less strict doctor probably).

As everyone will have their caveats, I really don't blame those of us that self-treat and self-medicate in these ways...

but I'm not telling you to drink whiskey and get surgery like one of those old cowboy movies. (!)

And my last comment is that alcohol is a "dirty" drug, just like caffeine, both legal, but both have weighty side effects on systems of the body. Just my opinion.

Hmmm.. some good posts, I particularly like the one that states "I don't know of any Lyme patient that has become a drug addict".. that's impressive. I'm curious as to what country and it state you live in and wether or not these 'patients' in deed actually have Lyme disease. In my home states of Massachusetts and NH nearly every person I know with Lyme have become dependent on opiates from the debilitating arthritis like pain or some form of benzo from the debilitating anxiety.. hmm.. well maybe it's a case of 'these drugs are PERSCRIBED TO ME soo technically I am NOT AN ADDICT'.. yup I used to use that one when I was taking meds lol. ANYWAYS,.. I'm well aware that everyone's 'Lyme experience' is different but for the people that have been to hell and back in every way imaginable, lost their world to Lyme, lost their minds to Lyme, lost themselves, DESPITE EVERY EFFORT, every cure, every treatment.. well I think 'these people' probably have a more opened mind about things which I think is extremely important to medical science. I mean really, Lyme wouldn't be the problem it is now if people were more open minded.. hell, a lot of Drs still don't even believe in 'chronic Lyme' or that it can be the cause of severe mental disorders. Personally I think this mentality of 'I know everything' is crippling our ability to learn, understand and evolve. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting people with Lyme disease take up alcoholism 😂. But fact is, i herxed like hell the 3 times I drank (mainly vodka) since taking tumeric + bosweila. ONLY AFTER I started taking the two religiously and yes I do know the difference between a hangover and a herx (they both really suck tho 😏). More importantly is the weight that has been lifted off my brain since. .. I can function now and that's more than I could say before hand, I've gone weeks and weeks now without a anxiety attack, I have ZERO anxiety. Might not seem like a big deal to most people but I assure you IT IS! 22 years of Lyme disease, 10 of it being THE DEFINITION of hell and I'm finally feeling 'okay' after HERXING like hell those 3 times. I'm sure most people think the boatloads of antibiotics, the colloidal water, the potentially organ damaging herbs I was given for YEARS was a MUCH BETTER IDEA! 🤣😂🤣 anyways I guess my point is that we really DONT know as much as we think we do. Especially when it comes to things as complex as the human body, let alone the human body with an EXTREMELY WELL EVOLVED bacteria present. Science isn't written in stone.. it's a lot of educated guess work and trade offs of lesser evils. There's no 'magic pill' or 'magic cure' for any ailment, despite what people may think.. it is all harmful, and it is all toxic. There's just a good amount of 'ignorant bliss' when it comes to most people and the 'cures' for their ailments. But hey people believe what they want to believe, it's everyone's right and not for me to question. But to knock potentially pertinent information that could possibly help a lot of people because "it's bad" (which is merely opinion) seems just a bit ****ed up to me. 😮 😂. Okay I guess I'm done ranting/rambling crap nobody's gonna understand anyways. 🤣 darn it's kind of exhausting writing books lol

I was always deliriously scared of opiates. I knew if I got hooked on those it would potentially become an even bigger problem than my original health issues from lyme/coinfections. Plus given the chronic nature of my pain I knew that opiates were a dead-end and could only help for a period of time before effectiveness wore off. I did think benzos could help me but was too worried about dependence so I avoided them. I was very tempted though by the benzos, the anxiety I'd get when air hunger and headaches became crippling was overwhelming...

These drugs help a lot of patients to some degree, but if one can avoid them that is the ideal. I also knew if I started taking those type of meds it would likely be a lot harder to get my problems taken seriously by the medical community (I had considered these meds before I knew I had lyme and had no clue what was going on, just wanted symptom relief).

Kanz, so glad to hear you found a unique protocol that helped you.

I thought Horrowitz mentioned alcohol intolerance was one of the top (possibly #1) specific symptom of Lyme Disease.

I know for me I used to be able to drink (and drink heavily) in college and after college, but all of a sudden it became such that if I had only 1 or 2 beers I wouldn't feel buzzed and would immediately feel terrible (feel hot, air hunger, nauseas, feel like lying down on cold floor, terrible headache).

After talking to other Lyme patients at my treatment center, most of them told me they had the same issue. I had theorized that since alcohol is essential a poison and my immune system is essentially overloaded that it was having a hard time removing the poison more so than someone healthy. (I'm not sure if this was potentially due to gluten or something, as I think I tolerated alcoholic ciders a bit better)

Am I the only one who suddenly couldn't tolerate alcohol after Lyme (or slightly before the big Lyme onset)?

SoMuchFun said...
Excessive alcohol also negatively impacts oxygen levels in the body. Fighting a nasty chronic infection and creating a low oxygen environment does not sound like a good idea.

The effect could be similar to a very low dose chemotherapy. It's not fighting, but "trying to live" with a very nasty chronic polymicrobial infection.