Re: Barb: low complement and infections

[Guest guest]

But borrelia uses factor H to bind complement...otherwise we'd

effectively kill it (anybody would)...how do you measure c3 and c4

anyway?

Also how would we know if it was downregulated by an infection--as

opposed to genetic?

TIA

> > > Barb

> > > You really sound like someone that was born suffering mild

> symptoms

> > > of inflammation ilness till you grew up and got it to full

blown

> > > status. Did your mother suffer some form of inflammatory

ilness?

> or

> > > where you born late in her life?

> > > I tend to think leaving childbirth to later years carries all

the

> > > risks of undiagnosed infections retarding the full development

> and

> > > health of a child.Unfortuantely things in the autoimmune

> deaprtment

> > > often don't manifest until later in life.

> > >

> > >

> > >

[Guest guest]

I have low C3 and Lyme also.

- Kate D.

On Sunday, August 7, 2005, at 05:20 PM, tansyap wrote:

> Hi Barb

>

> You and I both have low C3 and C4. Deficiencies in the complement

> system, according to the very basic info I have read, will affect

> resistance to bacterial infections; it is less important in viral

> infections. Could it be inherited low levels of the various

> complements make us, and others with low levels in parts of their

> complement system, more prone to these bacterial infections.

>

> Low C3 and C4 are often implicated in auto immune disease as well, so

> perhaps there's a double whammy at play here.

>

> Cheers, Tansy

[Guest guest]

Thanks Kate

I brought this up with the doctor who Dx my borreliosis/lyme earlier

this year because most of the lyme literature quotes high C3 and C4,

for the reason Jill explained on another reply. Yet there are quite a

few of us who are testing low.

So either the C3 and C4 are being depleted which helps to confirm

ongoing bacterial infections, or if we already had low complements 3

and/or 4 it would make us less able to fight off the borrelia and

other bacterial infections.

Cheers, Tansy

>

> > Hi Barb

> >

> > You and I both have low C3 and C4. Deficiencies in the complement

> > system, according to the very basic info I have read, will affect

> > resistance to bacterial infections; it is less important in viral

> > infections. Could it be inherited low levels of the various

> > complements make us, and others with low levels in parts of their

> > complement system, more prone to these bacterial infections.

> >

> > Low C3 and C4 are often implicated in auto immune disease as

well, so

> > perhaps there's a double whammy at play here.

> >

> > Cheers, Tansy

[Guest guest]

> >

> > > Hi Barb

> > >

> > > You and I both have low C3 and C4. Deficiencies in the

complement

> > > system, according to the very basic info I have read, will

affect

> > > resistance to bacterial infections; it is less important in

viral

> > > infections. Could it be inherited low levels of the various

> > > complements make us, and others with low levels in parts of

their

> > > complement system, more prone to these bacterial infections.

> > >

> > > Low C3 and C4 are often implicated in auto immune disease as

> well, so

> > > perhaps there's a double whammy at play here.

> > >

> > > Cheers, Tansy