Re: Jerry- abx/the brain, etc

June 22, 2005

Hi Jerry:

You have made several points (as you have in the past) that fits

nicely with either my observations of sick animals, my own illness,

and my observations of an apparent dependance on antibiotics (after

long term use).

We have discussed this before - but I'm glad you brought it up

again:

JERRY WROTE:

As I have said before, my own opinion is that the inappropriate brain

functioning is actually an inherited, pre-conditioned " hibernation

response " as a result of the immune system discovering a infection.

BARB replies:

If we observ our animals - domestic or wild - this is exactly what

they do. They iiediately hunger down, lick their wounds and sleep.

What do we humans do? Quite the opposite.

JERRY WROTE:

The above discussion of antibiotics reveals the ways in which for some

folks abx's may interfere with the brain's inappropriate functioning,

and relieve some patients of most of those symptoms associated with

the 'hibernation response'.

BARB REPLIES:

From my own observations with abx, and in discussions with others,

I also think there is an adaptive or compensatory (brain) mechanism

that occurs after some specific time on many abx, that for lack of a

better word the abx becomes 'addictive' , therefore causing adverse

symptoms when one quits them 'cold turkey'. And some of us may be

more suseptible than others to certain abx.

And for others, there may be more specific effects with brain

chemistry as in my case with Doxycycline. Within 5 weeks of use,

although obviously effective on my Lyme , it also started to give

me nightmares, these progressed to night terrors in the classical

sense, then progress to what I call Daymares (others may call it

waking hallucinations) which were preceeded by a few seconds of

extreem sleepiness (almost like narcolepsy), which I think was a

change in brain wave.

It was at this point I decided I needed to go off the Doxy, and

found to my surprise (and thru trial and error) I had to WEAN off

the stuff, or I experienced a myriad of symptoms (but symptoms of

what?) if I stopped cold turkey.

JERRY WROTE:

The above discussion of antibiotics reveals the ways in which for some

folks abx's may interfere with the brain's inappropriate functioning,

and relieve some patients of most of those symptoms associated with

the 'hibernation response'. The curative, final solution for most of

us will be to follow Tony and Barb's lead of finding out what

infections we are saddled with and the best way to eliminate them

while using nutritional and lifestyle strategies designed to help

overcome any likely genetic defects and/or results of long term

illness (like the dreaded couchpotatoatosis).

BARB REPLIES:

My theory is that our own genetic make up (which can possibly be

broken down into tissue type groupings) will determine how each group

will present when challenged with a paticular pathogen or subsequent

group of pathogens riding on the coat-tails of the primary.

The genetic make up of the P450 system will determine how we react

to the drugs (and drug combo's) that use this metabolic pathway.

I look at it like guerilla war. Good intelligence and judicious use

of weapons. I don't like a carpet bombing approach.

Barb

wrote:

As I have said before, my own opinion is that the inappropriate brain

functioning is actually an inherited, pre-conditioned " hibernation

response " as a result of the immune system discovering a infection.

Like the 'fight or flight' stress response. Almost all of

our ancestors lived in small family or tribal units, and I see the

'hibernation response' as a survival strategy for both the group (high

priority) and the individual (low priority). The families that had the

best chance of survival were those who's members, when sick with a

contagion, isolated themselves from the rest of the group.

The very symptoms that we are burdened with;

light sensitive with muscle weakness and pain, fatigue, no appetite or

sex drive...

These 'pains' are the enforcers of isolation, the protectors of group

survival. We should not be amazed at just how debilitating these

symptoms are, they are the result of many generations of our families

surviving the plagues and other ravages of living in an environment

full of creatures that like to make us their home.

The difference between then and now is that now we are saddled with

these symptoms chronically, whereas our ancestors either got well or

died within weeks. And as the years wind on, we accumulate more

symptoms that are not part of the 'hibernation response', but picked

up as a result of inactivity and compromised immunity.

To make a long story short, when I see a brain scan that shows

hypoperfusion of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, I see that as

evidence of an infection produced inflammatory immune response, with a

good chance that there is a genetic flaw acting as a catalyst to keep

one's brain in what today (thanks to abx, there are very few life

threatening contagions around) is an inappropriate feedback loop.