That’s a difficult question. As you probably know, Benicar reduces inflammation but also increases VDR activity and bacterial die-off. It’s easy for the palliative effects to be eclipsed by immunopathology. If your taking antibiotics, work with your doctor to lower or stop your antibiotics. If you’re not taking antibiotics, work with doc to lower or stop that medication.

If your pain is still intolerable after stopping the Benicar, then you’ll have to ask your doctor for other help. Of course, we strongly discourage the use of steroids and immunosuppressive medications, but if your pain is intolerable, I can’t count them out as an option for you.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Amy

If one finds that the Benicar is not reducing the inflammation, what medication would you suggest taking if any? I need to take something for Th1 inflammation in my TMJ joint.

Thanks,
Ian

I would also be leary of ARAVA. I’m glad you’re looking into the Marshall Protocol, but be aware if you do the treatment you must follow the guidelines carefully. One of these guidelines is that you avoid other treatments such as phage therapy.

I think there are at least several doctors who work with MP patients located in Washington state. You’ll have to ask at CureMyTh1.org. If none of the doctors on the list are taking new patients, you may want to convince your current doctor or a new doctor. See this Knowledge Base article for more:
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:starting:physician:finding

Also, have a look here:
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:patients

Best,
Amy

I’m glad that you have started the MP!

The itchiness in your skin could be IP. There are hoards of bacteria in the skin. For example, this study sequenced just the bacteria in the skin on the hands of 51 subjects. The researchers found that 332,000 genetically distinct bacteria belonging to 4,742 different species on their hands.

http://bacteriality.com/2008/11/15/handshakes/
Other researchers are now working on similar studies to detect bacteria in other areas of the skin. So it’s quite common for patients on the MP to kill bacteria in the skin and generate IP in the form of itchiness, burning etc. I had periods where my skin was extremely itchy during my first years on the MP and it seemed to be IP in my case as the itching has greatly improved.

Many people report vivid dreams once they begin the MP. Again, my own dreams became much more vivid after starting the MP. In fact, before the MP I barely remember dreaming at all (my sleep was terrible!). Then I started to have dreams in which people from my distant past returned…people who I hadn’t remembered for years. Even Dr. Marshall has spoken about having vivid dreams while on the MP.

In fact, it was actually a paper about ARBs (like Olmesartan) causing vivid dreams in patients administered the medications that prompted Dr. Marshall to start looking into the immnomodulatory actions of ARBs.

So both the itching and vivid dreams are very common among people who start the MP. I’d view them as a sign that, in your case, the treatment seems to be working as expected.

Take care,

Amy

Thank you,
Regards, Ian

This article was great but raised some questions in my mind. I’ve been on the MP for 30 months because of my Lyme disease. I am seeing some positive results slower than expected. For example, my fatigue is as bad today as it was 10 years ago. I went for a walk in the park last night and it felt like I was walking in a foot of water with each step. I remember the exact same feeling 10 years ago when I was walking through a different park when I first got sick. Many MP members are able to eliminate their thyroid medication while I am not even close. If I do I’ll be so fatigued I won’t be able to get out of bed in the morning. The interesting thing is that I rarely get a cold or flu and feel my immune system is fairly strong.

In this article you mentioned variable factors of how a patient will respond to the MP include:

-Patients prior exposure to the antibiotics
-strength (weakness) of the patients own immune system
-species of bacteria present
- concomitant health problems – e.g. kidney failure
-concomitant infections – e.g. fungal, viral
- medications being taken by the patient.

Prior to starting MP I was on large doses of antibiotics from 2002-2006, I did feel herxing but not to the extent I felt on the MP

Here is my question – My Dr. referred me to a kidney specialist this month who did quite a bit of tests. He saw my creatine level was low amongst other things and feels my kidneys are only working at 60% productivity. Do you feel my kidneys are in any way an inhibitor of why I’m not progressing as quickly as I should be? Do you have any thoughts as to whether or not having low kidney production should be a major concern of mine and will this problem eventually correct itself on the MP?

Another side question I have is do you feel that I can still pass my infection on to my children through pathagons during intimacy? My apolgies, I’m having some braing fog today and my writing skills are not up to par. Thank you in advance! JC

In my humble opinion, “whoa” is indeed the correct sentiment! I got to say, you are taking lots of drugs. You and your doctors are doing everything in your power to completely to turn off your immune response.

If you’re game, we have lots more you can read. Amy has lots of great articles here on Bacteriality, but we also have another resource, the Marshall Protocol Knowledge Base, which may better answer some of your specific questions. Keep in mind that the KB is a work in progress.

So, here is the KB article which links out to articles describing many of the treatments you’re taking:
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:othertreatments

And here are some articles on all those lovely drugs you are taking:
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:patients:assessing_literature:palliative
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:othertreatments:antitnf
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:othertreatments:antibacterials:doxycycline
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:othertreatments:corticosteroids

One of the articles I don’t have written is on Cortef.

Here’s the article on working with a physician:
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:starting:physician

You may want to read the article written on stress and the section, “War – A Crucible for Disease”:
http://mpkb.org/doku.php/home:social:stress#war_a_crucible_for_chronic_disease

There’s lots more stuff here. Snoop around and see what you can find. Check back in and let us know if you have quesitons, or, faster/better service go to CureMyTh1.org, an online site where we discuss the MP.

Hope this helps, and thank you for serving.

Best,
Paul

You wrote exactly what I needed to read. Until now I’ve ignored your Porto speech because I thought it was only about women’s health and so would not apply to men.

Given the range of anti-microbial peptides’ production restored by the protocol it seems likely that, as long as an individual is responding to the treatment, the bacteria responsible for an individual’s disease conditions would be destroyed. It’s unfortunate that this destruction results in an exasperation of symptoms. For a seriously infected patient like myself, this could result in a life-threatening situation such as intestinal blockage. For patients like me it’s like having to go through a wall of fire to get through to the garden of Eden – a real test of one’s determination.

Ken