CCSVI information + “VIP” hormone supplementation

Hi everyone,

I thought I would share the following email I got from a friend on CCSVI, a blood flow disorder to the brain that many people are finding relief after treating (people who suffer from a broad range of problems, including Lyme and MS). Another colleague noted, though, that results from the treatment of CCSVI appear to be short lived, so personally I don’t think the treatment is ready for prime time, yet. Anyway, very interesting discussion.  If you want to learn more, here it is on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_cerebrospinal_venous_insufficiency

Also, the below email conversation has some other useful info about hormone treatments and Shoemaker neurotoxin treatments.

____________

Email #1:

Hey Bryan,   I had the treatment in the beginning of Nov. last year and it was a real leap forward.  My legs became much stronger, I started doing some light hiking almost every day, my balance improved(didn’t realize how wobbly i was), and I felt better mentally, including less mental fatigue.  Also I was able to handle twice the antimicrobials as before.  Unfortunately over the last few months all of those old symptoms returned again.  I wish I knew why it happened.  I heard a stat among MS patients that 43% suffer a restenosis within two years of the procedure.  I was hoping that since I have mostly eliminated my infections(per muscle testing results) that maybe I wouldn’t have a relapse.  Guess I was wrong.  I’m considering having it done again sometime this year and hopefully it sticks, because I dont know if it’s good to have the veins stretched out too many times.  There is also the option of stents but i’m not sure I want to go my whole life with stents in my neck either. Particularly because stents are designed for arteries, not veins, and so they dont tend to work as well. 

I did recently experience some improvement from following some of Dr. Shoemakers stuff.   Basically he’s discovered that many people with a biotoxin illness develop hypothalamic dysfunction.  The hypothalamus produces two important hormones, VIP and MSH which control inflammation in the body.  If the hypo has been damaged from something like lyme it cant produce enough of these hormones resulting in runaway inflammation in the body from sometimes just teeny amounts of toxin or infection.  I jumped through all the appropriate hoops, got prescribed some VIP nasal spray from Dr. Klinghardt, and within fifteen minutes of my first spray i could feel new blood rushing into my head, my hands became warm, felt better, etc..  then I herxed for a few days, and since have been tolerating treatment better than before.  Im still dealing with these frustrating cognitive issues, but adding VIP spray has moved me one step closer to wellness.

Now i’m following a biotoxin removal protocol by Patricia Kane Phd www.patriciakane.net which is focused on loading with high doses of Omega 6’s and 3’s at a 4:1 ratio and taking large doses of phosphatidylCholine for repairing and rebuilding cell membranes, as well as getting the cells to dump their accumulated toxins.  I dont know if its going to make me feel better yet but these two weeks i’ve been on the protocol i’ve been releasing a ton of toxins.  So that can only be good.  

Never in my wildest imagination did I think there could be this many different pieces to our puzzle. 

Email #2:

VIP stands for Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide.  As far as I know only one pharmacy has it, Hopkinton Drug http://www.rxandhealth.com/    Here’s Shoemaker’s new website that he’s still building out http://www.survivingmold.com/  He speaks about almost everything in reference to mold, but you can replace the word Mold with Lyme because they’re both biotoxins that trigger the same inflammatory cascade.  If you look at this link http://www.survivingmold.com/treatment/step-by-step  you will see all the steps Shoemaker says need to be addressed before VIP is used.  I dont think its very relevant to your case because you’re doing so well and most of your inflammatory biomarkers are probably in range.  I guess if any of these biomarkers are far out of the ‘normal’ range the VIP wont work, and in some cases can even make you worse.  The usual dose of the VIP is four sprays into the nose a day, alternating nostrils.  Some people scale back on the dose over the course of a few months, some people go off it completely after a few months, and some people stay at the full dose.  Basically use as needed.  The only information about the VIP spray I have is that it’s strength is 500MCG/ML  You know how different we all are but for some people in the mold community VIP spray has been a life saver. I suspect some of the veteran lyme patients have mostly eliminated their infections and are dealing with a dysfunctional hypothalamus that makes them feel like they have a raging lyme infection when really its a raging inflammatory response to a few lingering bugs and toxins. 

Shoemaker also mentions MARCoNS(multiple antibiotic resistant coagulase negative staph) which is showing up in the sinuses of nearly all chronic biotoxin sufferers.  That might be something worth looking into as well.  Because of the sinuses proximity to the hypothalamus and pituitary a sinus staph constantly poisons those glands with biotoxins.  Shoemaker uses a pharmaceutical called BEG nasal spray to eliminate it but many people develop an allergic reaction to it and so there’s a natural remedy that’s been a great alternative called Nasal Wash from www.supergoodstuff.com 

Have you addressed parasites? When you say the infections seem to keep coming back it makes me wonder if they could be living inside some parasites. I know MMS is helpful against parasites, and there are many other parasite treatments available but Dr. Klinghardt believes that to properly eliminate parasites we need to go on some strong anti-parasitics like Alinia, Albendazol, Ivermectin, etc..    Klinghardt also recently said that he’s finding if he first treats for parasites the rest of the lyme treatment goes much more quickly.  I guess Ivermectin can be obtained over the counter as a treatment for horses lol  Might be helpful to know.