Wohoo is right! I’m so glad you are feeling even better than before.

JC - While Ken’s wife was bitten by a tick, the pathogens that cause chronic disease can be transmitted from person to person, particularly among people in close contact

BUT, since you are on the MP, you don’t have to worry nearly as much about spreading your bacteria to your partner. Any bacteria that you might have transmitted before starting the MP are now probably killed by your antibiotics before they can leave your body.

For example, both my boyfriend and I are on the MP. We have very different symptoms. We’ve been together for three years now, but neither one of us is showing any sign that we have developed the other person’s symptoms.

This article, if you haven’t read it, goes into the spread of bacteria among family members in greater detail. Particularly of interest would be the last section, “The Marshall Protocol can stop the spread of L-form bacteria among family members”

http://bacteriality.com/2007/10/31/family/

Best,

Amy

PS I’d still use condoms as an extra precaution

In my wife’s case, she too hiked a nature trail on Vancouver Island and like me, was bitten by a tick (as was my son). She remembers the circular rash shortly after her hike. Interestingly, we all took about nine years for symptoms to enter third stage (neuro) and become severe.

So, to your point, it appears that a tick did it to my wife, in our case. I am not qualified to tell you what to do but I would take very seriously the possibility of transmitting the microbe to a sexual partner and take precautions (condom). Giving this affliction to someone you love is unthinkable.

I wish I could say more but I am not an expert so I suggest you search for more information.

As a side note: Another member of our hiking group gave birth to an autistic child shortly after our hike. This supports the theory of the microbes passing through the placental barrier. Indeed, half of all the people I hiked that trail with have been diagnosed with Lyme or are showing clear signs of infection. Tragically, only a few are in treatment. The denial of our “health” “care” system continues.

Best of luck to you, JC. I applaud your conscientiousness.

Ken

P.S.: As a general update: I entered Phase 3 four months ago. After a month or so, I had another long, but this time, fairly mild herx, for about two months. About a week ago, I again suddenly rebounded and I am now doing better than ever before for the past 7 years.

My symptoms have lesseneed to the point where they are now more like mere “discomfort.” I never DREAMED I could have this quality of life. Woo-hoo!

Question - Do you feel you might have passed the Lyme Disease on to your wife or does she remember being bitten by a tick? Im currently in a relationship and the last thing I was to do is pass on my previous mysery on to my girl. Thanks! JC

Please change

“I consider the low-dose bactericidal meds of the MP to be an even stealthier counterattack”

to

“I consider the low-dose BACTERIOSTATIC meds of the MP to be an even stealthier counterattack”

I’m sure you all would have realized the booboo anyway..!
Ken

The issue you raise is one I have been mulling over for a while. There seems to be a school of thought that the MP is most appropriate after the “big guns” of IV have been tried. I see nothing in the science, nor in my experience, to indicate that that is the right choice.

I am not a doctor but in my experience, I would go for the MP right away if I had to do this over again.

I noticed on the high-dose regimen that I always did best on the bacteriostatic antibiotics anyway, and that is the class used in the MP. On the other hand, note that the bactericidal beta-lactams such as rocephin are actually used to CREATE L-forms in the lab! These bugs are stealthy, and I consider the low-dose bactericidal meds of the MP to be an even stealthier counterattack! “Low and slow” is the way to go. Not triggering the bug’s defenses makes perfect sense to me, and the phase of the disease one is in makes no difference.

I never felt significantly better with three months of IV (rocephin/ceftriaxone), and it is my impression as I watch some Lyme forums, that other chronic sufferers rarely do much better on IV either. And oh yeah, I relapsed after the IV, which also seems to be quite common. All that precious time and money down the drain.

It may be coincidence, but while I was on the IV I suddenly got sciatica, and then shingles and then two kidney stones. Maybe that’s a triple coincidence, and maybe they were good signs, but I doubt it! Rocephin certainly is hard on the gall bladder and I know of one Lymie who had to have theirs removed. It is my observation that some people are on IV for a year or more, still without significant improvement, or with a relapse following.

As to the CSF lumbar puncture… well there’s another reason to go for the MP! They had an intern do mine and it took six attempts. My spine still “cracks” seven years later. I realize now it was not needed, but I didn’t know any better.

Almost everyone I know who has been on minocycline (even non-MPers) reports dramatic improvement in brain function. And as Woody Allen said “My brain - that’s my second-favorite organ!”. (BTW, the other favorite organ is much improved as well, which was never the case for me on high dose treatment. Hey, we’re all adults here. This dramatically showed me the positive effect of the MP on hormone balance, again validating the whole approach.)

To repeat, I am not a doctor and I am not giving you medical advice. These are merely my considered opinions based on my experience and my understanding of the MP science.

I wish you the very best, Kat.
Ken

This is Amy. Hopefully Ken will write you back soon with some input.

In the meantime, he did say the following in his interview:

“Since I did experience immunopathology on the high-dose antibiotics, I think they did help me lower my bacterial load, but it was only by switching to the MP that I was able to consistently and thoroughly clean out the tremendous amount of L-form bacteria I harbored. All in all, my progress was very unsteady on the high-dose antibiotics and if I had to do everything again, I would definitely start the MP from the get-go.”

So I’m pretty sure he will tell you to start the MP rather than high-dose antibiotics as soon as possible. I’m glad you have everything lined up to start the MP! An official diagnosis of PTLDS doesn’t really matter. If you have been bedridden for the past three years, there is no doubt that your are infected with many species of the chronic pathogens that cause inflammatory disease and that they MP will allow you to effectively kill them.

Good luck!

Amy

It’s time to heal ourselves and tell those who will listen. The suffering is incalculable - and unnecessary.

As Dr Marshall wrote, “I have a life to live and a world to change.” Whatever part I can play, I will.

Philip, my friend, you talk of testing. The most reliable test is a therapeutic probe using the MP. Combined with a rash in particular and a couple dozen symptoms, it’s often a slam dunk.

Ken

I have alerted several friends on Vancouver Island NOT to hike the West Coast Trail.

I would like to add though, that as we are starting better understand the pathogenesis of chronic disease, there is a substantial overlap between all forms of inflammatory disease and the pathogens that cause different symptoms.

Each chronic disease - fibromyalgia, CFS, lupus, Lyme, sarcoidosis etc. are not caused by one single species of pathogen, but instead by a wide array of different pathogens.

Here’s an excerpt from a speech I am currently writing about the MP:

“Modern medicine’s understanding of the body as a series of discrete systems blinds the profession to the nature of bacterial infections, which care nothing of such categories. Is it merely a coincidence that some sarcoidosis patients have dyslexia, some fibromyalgia patients have gastrointestinal problems, some CFS patients also have arthritis? When we pause to think about this reality it becomes all too clear that chronically ill patients are suffering from system wide dysfunction which is best explained by infection.

This analogy essentially applies to most diseases of “unknown cause” which the medical community has labeled with an array of different names, but, in reality, all result from the same pathogenesis - namely infection with different species of Th1 pathogens (L-form and biofilm bacteria). Once the immune system is weakened by these bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa can also thrive.

It’s important to understand that every person’s symptoms results from a large mix of Th1 pathogens, each of which cause different symptoms.

Take, for example, bacterial biofilms. A single biofilm may contain up to 30, 50, 60 different species of bacteria inside and there are probably millions of biofilm communities in people with inflammatory disease. This means that Robert Koch’s postulates which state that only one type of pathogen can cause one type of disease are clearly outdated.

The Marshall pathogenesis makes it clear that each person’s symptoms arise from the unique mix of pathogens they collect over a lifetime, meaning that no two people are alike. Surely this explains why most people who end up at the doctor’s office have symptoms that could be attributed to multiple conditions. What name you give these symptoms doesn’t really matter.

The fact that some conditions are not currently diagnosed as illness doesn’t matter either. What we’re looking at here is nothing less then a Th1 spectrum disorder.

So people with Lyme disease are suffering from infection with multiple chronic pathogens. The reason they get diagnosed with Lyme disease is that one of the bacterial species they harbor is Borrelia, which can be detected on a lab test. Of course, there are certain symptoms now associated with Lyme disease and those symptoms can also prompt a diagnosis of Lyme.

When it boils down to it though, a diagnosis matters less these days because since all chronic diseases have the same underlying pathogenesis and they can all be treated by the Marshall Protocol.

At least that’s the MP perspective.

I have noted that people who are diagnosed with Lyme generally have very severe symptoms and thus probably very high and diverse bacterial loads. So I’m very gald to hear that you and your wife are looking into the MP so that you can begin to reverse the symptoms of what truly is a terrible disease.

Best,

Amy