In my last blog I mentioned the importance of healing the immune system as a means of halting the inflammatory response that can become so devastating, and is responsible for most if not all of the symptoms of Lyme disease.

I believe the most important immune system organ and the foundation of a healthy body is the colon. This is where I begin therapy.

What does one’s colon have to do with the myriad of complaints common to Lyme patients like joint pain, headache, fatigue, muscle pain, brain fog, etc?

They are all manifestations of the same underlying inflammatory process yet affecting different organs.

The colon is lined by what is called the G.A.L.T. (Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue) which is a major player in a well-functioning immune system. When the tissue is stressed it can have far reaching effects on the body.

So how does the colon get stressed?

The colon is the body’s interface with the world on both an emotional and physical level. Therefore it is the organ most affected by the world, in terms of diet and toxic overload.

The average American diet of processed food, sugars, and inflammatory-type foods like white flour, corn and dairy are common culprits. Being so prevalent in our diet they create food sensitivities which perpetuate an immune response in the colon. This immune response then plays havoc with the colon’s environment.

The colon is the foundation by which good health is built. It is a very complex ecosystem, composed mostly of various strains of good bacteria and some yeast. When the colon is stressed either by diet, medications, or toxicity it results in an imbalance in the ecosystem and a resulting dysbiosis occurs.

This dysbiosis is a decrease in the good bacteria and an overgrowth of harmful bacteria, yeast, microscopic parasites and sometimes virus which sets up an inflammatory reaction in the walls of the colon leading to a condition where microscopic holes develop in the colon walls called “leaky gut”.

Leaky gut reduces the colon’s ability to completely break down the food we eat. Partially digested food passes through these microscopic holes in the colon walls, which the immune system targets as “foreign” and immediately begins to react to the partially digested foods and eventually to cause ever increasing food sensitivities to multiple foods.

This further inflames the body, which in turn increases the inflammatory reaction in the colon creating a vicious cycle of inflammation…bacterial overgrowth…food sensitivities…inflammation. It is the inflammation which leads to and/or adds to the symptoms of Lyme disease.

How does one diagnose and ultimately restore a healthy colon environment?

Regarding the diagnosis, there are several specialty labs that do a comprehensive stool analysis which gives vital information regarding the environment of one’s colon. One is Genova Diagnostics and another is Diagnos-Techs. The Diagnos-Tech test is cheaper and I feel gives more pertinent information.

The critical treatment to stop this vicious cycle and restore good health is a combination of diet, re-inoculation of the colon with good flora, and a comprehensive approach to detoxification. These topics will continue to be discussed in future blogs.

Please feel free to contribute your experience, either success or failure, with the impact of colon inflammation and/or detoxification.

Until next month,

Dr. Patrick Mulcahy

After years of being categorized as “hypochondriacs” or “mentally ill” due to debilitating symptoms continuing to harass those who suffer with Lyme disease for years after “successful treatment”, a study from the University of California at Davis has released test results that show evidence of “hidden bacteria” after lab tests showed no evidence of Lyme. Additionally it was found that certain proteins continued to be manufactured by the hidden germs which continue to cause Lyme symptoms!

Read the article here:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_8956433

For more information on treatments for Lyme disease, go to:

http://www.LymeDiseaseResource.com/treatment.html

With warm weather on its way, be prepared to watch as a myriad of health problems crop up across the country.

Especially vulnerable are active people (adults and children), and even more for those who regularly consume alcohol.

Watch for lethargy, depression, dizziness, weakness, feeling faint, passing out suddenly without obvious cause, headaches from mild to severe, fibromyalgia (which means body pain), a general malaise accompanied with mild to severe fatigue that doesn’t seem to go away.

Do these symptoms describe you or anyone you know during hot weather months?

For such a complex array of symptoms, the solution is amazingly simple.

Salt and water.

Before you throw down this article, hear me out.

The body requires sodium to help maintain the proper levels of hydration in your body. This hydration level is critical to your well-being which is why the body sends such nagging and painful warnings.

Did you know that our bodies composition is almost exactly like seawater? What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of seawater?

Salt and water again.

The FDA recommends 3 grams of salt per day as a minimum. However, the real problem occurs with all of the medical warnings against salt. There is a long list of health problems that arise from too much salt, so how can it be possible that we need MORE salt?

First, it must be understood that in our fast-food, packaged meals world, most often the salt that is used to season the food is basic industrial sodium chloride. Sodium Chloride is a harmful chemical indeed, but it is what you will find in most salt shakers across America, and indeed, in most homes.

There are some brave souls who have marched away from convention and have switched to using sea salt in their food.

Sea Salt is a vast improvement over pure sodium chloride, with many minerals still intact. However, due to vast pollution in our oceans, and toxic rain falling through a polluted air space to damage salt flats, there is only one truly pure source of salt, and that is salt mined out of the ground from ancient deposits.

Himalayan Salt is perhaps the finest selection of mineral salt in the world due to the high altitude of the Himalayans which protects the water source that feeds the great mineral salt beds.

Let’s look at the effect of massive doses of Himalayan salt on human health.

For hundreds of years, the Hunza’s, have lived in and around the Himalayans, and they are widely recognized as the longest lived people in the world. But not only are they old, they are relatively healthy too.

It is fascinating to learn that they routinely put a chunk of mineral salt in their tea each day (and they truly love their tea drinking 10 to 20 cups per day). The salt and pure water are to be found everywhere in their environment, and everything they eat and drink are full of the health giving minerals found in their beautiful pink crystal salt.

Here are some of the recognized health benefits of Himalayan salt:

• regulates the water content throughout your body
• normalizes blood-pressure (raising low pressure and reducing high pressure)
• balances excess acidity from your cells, particularly brain cells
• balances your blood sugar levels and helps reduce your aging rate
• generates hydroelectric energy in your cells
• helps with food absorption in your intestinal tract
• regulates your sleep – it’s a natural hypnotic
• helps clear mucus and phlegm from your lungs
• acts as a strong antihistamine and helps clear up sinus congestion
• helps prevent muscle cramps
• helps prevent osteoporosis by firming bone structure
• maintains libido
• prevents varicose and spider veins on your legs and thighs
• stabilizes irregular heartbeats
• destroys a wide range of potentially harmful microbes, bacteria, protozoan, and parasites.

What’s in it?

Unlike other salts, Himalayan salt contains all of the 84 elements of which the human body is comprised. The following ten elements are essential to our health in the following way:

Sodium: Essential to digestion and metabolism, regulates body fluids, nerve and muscular functions.

Chloride: Essential component of human body fluids.

Calcium: Needed for bone mineralization.

Magnesium: Dissipates sodium excess, forms and hardens bones, ensures mental development and sharpens intelligence, promotes assimilation of carbohydrates, assures metabolism of vitamin C and calcium, retards the aging process and dissolves kidney stones.

Sulfur: Controls energy transfer in tissue, bone and cartilage cells, essential for protein compounds.

Silicon: Needed in carbon metabolism and for skin and hair balance.

Iodine: Vital for energy production and mental development, ensures production of thyroid hormones, needed for strong auto-defense mechanism (lymphatic system).

Bromine: In magnesium bromide form, a nervous system regulator and restorer, vital for pituitary hormonal function.

Vandium: Of greater value for tooth bone calcification than fluorine, tones cardiac and nervous systems, reduces cholesterol, regulates phospholipids in blood, a catalyst for the oxidation of many biological substances.

Phosphorus: Essential for biochemical synthesis and nerve cell functions related to the brain, constituent of phosphoproteins, nucleoproteins and phospholipids.

The additional 74 trace elements in Himalayan crystal salt are:

hydrogen, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluoride, , aluminum, scandium, titanium,, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, gallium, germanium, arsenic, selenium, rubidium, strontium, yttrium, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, ruthenium, rhodium palladium, silver, cadmium, indium, tin, antimony, tellurium, cesium, barium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, rhenium, osmium, iridium, platinum, gold, mercury, thallium, lead, bismuth, polonium, astatine, francium, radium, actinium, thorium, protactinium, uranium, neptunium and plutonium.

Back to the “summer blues”.

The summer sun steals our body fluid in many ways, sweating is only one.

You may not even be aware of how much body fluid you lose each day, but for the most part it is the extent of how you are feeling physically that is a sure guide to your hydration.

You should also be aware that alcohol dehydrates your body even more than the sun. The well-known hang-over is nothing more than a warning message from your body that it needs hydration – good hydration.

Dehydration causes all of the symptoms that were mentioned at the beginning of this article, and even more than those. So it is important to be aware of keeping your body fully hydrated at all times and there are several ways to do that.

Drink plenty of distilled or spring water.

Don’t drink soda’s or fancy electrolyte drinks that can cause even more problems than they cure (besides being a waste of money).

Use Himalayan salt in all your cooking.

For athletes, add Himalayan salt capsules to augment the extra fluids you use in your pursuit.

For the best selection of edible Himalayan salt – including capsules, go to www.Miracle-Salt.com.

Remember that the FDA recommends a minimum of 3 grams per day (1/4 tsp is equivalent to one gram), however depending on where you live and how active you are, you may need to take double that amount.

You will notice increased energy along with a gradual diminishing of other dehydration symptoms.

Why dread the summer fatigue?

Use Himalayan salt for you and your families health and well-being.

Did you know that between 350 - 400 people die each year from Heat Stroke? In especially hot years that number has risen over to 1700 deaths according to the National Center for Health Statistics!

Especially vulnerable are active people (adults and children), and even more for those who regularly consume alcohol.

What to watch for: lethargy, depression, dizziness, weakness, feeling faint, passing out suddenly without obvious cause, headaches from mild to severe, a general malaise or overall body pain accompanied with mild to severe fatigue that doesn’t seem to go away.

Do these symptoms describe you or anyone you know during hot weather months?

For such a complex array of symptoms, the solution is amazingly simple: Salt and plenty of water.

Before you throw down this article, hear me out.

The body requires sodium to help maintain the proper levels of hydration in your body. Keeping your body hydrated is critical to your well-being, which is why the body sends such nagging and painful warnings when it is dehydrated.

Did you know that our body’s composition is almost exactly the same as seawater? What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the ocean?

Most likely, it is salt and water!

The FDA recommends 3 grams of salt per day as a minimum. However, the medical establishment says to stay away from too much salt. There is a long list of health problems that arise from too much salt, so how can it be possible that we need MORE salt?

First, we must understand where these medical warnings about salt intake come from. In our society of fast-food and pre-packaged meals, the salt used to season and preserve the food is industrial sodium chloride. Sodium chloride by itself is a harmful chemical, but it is what you will find in most salt shakers across America. Salt in its natural state contains beneficial minerals. However, since most salt is mined for industrial purposes and requires no minerals for that use, the salt producers sell off the remaining salt as sodium chloride.

There are some brave souls who have marched away from convention and have switched to using sea salt in their food.

Sea Salt is a vast improvement over pure sodium chloride, with many minerals still intact. However, due to vast pollution in our oceans, the most pure and best source of salt is mined from the ancient salt deposits.

Himalayan Salt is perhaps the finest selection of mineral salt in the world due to the high altitude of the Himalayans, which protects the water source feeding the great mineral salt beds.

Let’s look at the effect of massive doses of Himalayan salt on human health.

For hundreds of years, the indigenous people of the Himalayans have been widely recognized as the longest living people in the world. But not only do they live a long time, they are healthy, as well.

It is fascinating to learn that they routinely put a chunk of mineral salt in their tea each day (and they truly love their tea, drinking 10 to 20 cups per day). The salt and pure water are the cornerstone of everything they eat and drink. They benefit from the health-giving minerals found in their amazing crystal salt.

Here are some of the recognized health benefits of Himalayan salt:

• It regulates the water content throughout your body.
• It normalizes blood-pressure (raising low pressure and reducing high pressure).
• It balances excess acidity from your cells, particularly brain cells.
• It balances your blood sugar levels and helps reduce your aging rate.
• It generates hydroelectric energy in your cells.
• It helps with food absorption in your intestinal tract.
• It regulates your sleep - it’s a natural hypnotic.
• It helps clear mucus and phlegm from your lungs.
• It acts as a strong antihistamine and helps clear up sinus congestion.
• It helps prevent muscle cramps.
• It helps prevent osteoporosis by firming bone structure.
• It helps maintain libido.
• It prevents varicose and spider veins on your legs and thighs.
• It stabilizes irregular heartbeats.
• It destroys a wide range of potentially harmful microbes, bacteria, protozoa and parasites.

What’s in it?

Unlike other salts, Himalayan salt contains all of the 84 elements of which the human body is comprised.

The following ten elements are essential to our health in the following way:

Sodium: Essential to digestion and metabolism, regulates body fluids, nerve and muscular functions.

Chloride: Essential component of human body fluids.

Calcium: Needed for bone mineralization.

Magnesium: Dissipates sodium excess, forms and hardens bones, ensures mental development and sharpens intelligence, promotes assimilation of carbohydrates, assures metabolism of vitamin C and calcium, retards the aging process and dissolves kidney stones.

Sulfur: Controls energy transfer in tissue, bone and cartilage cells, essential for protein compounds.

Silicon: Needed in carbon metabolism and for skin and hair balance.

Iodine: Vital for energy production and mental development, ensures production of thyroid hormones, needed for strong auto-defense mechanism (lymphatic system).

Bromine: In magnesium bromide form, a nervous system regulator and restorer, vital for pituitary hormonal function.

Vandium: Of greater value for tooth bone calcification than fluorine, tones cardiac and nervous systems, reduces cholesterol, regulates phospholipids in blood, a catalyst for the oxidation of many biological substances.

Phosphorus: Essential for biochemical synthesis and nerve cell functions related to the brain, constituent of phosphor-proteins, nucleoproteins and phospholipids.

Additionally there are 74 trace elements in Himalayan crystal.

How it relates to summer heat.

The summer sun steals our body’s hydration in many ways, sweating is only one way. You may not even be aware of how much water you lose each day. The rule of thumb is that if you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated.

You should also be aware that alcohol and coffee dehydrate your body even more than the sun. The well-known hang-over is nothing more than a warning message from your body that it needs water - beneficial hydration (not soda).

Dehydration causes the list of symptoms that were mentioned at the beginning of this article and more. So it is important to be aware of keeping your body fully hydrated at all times. Here are a few tips to do so.

Drink plenty of distilled or spring water.

Don’t drink soda or fancy electrolyte drinks that can cause even more problems than they cure.

Use Himalayan salt in all of your cooking and to season your food.

For athletes, instead of calorie-laden electrolyte drinks, add Himalayan salt capsules taken with plenty of water to keep your body properly hydrated during intense or prolonged exercise.

For the best selection of edible Himalayan salt - including capsules, go to http://www.Miracle-Salt.com.

You will notice increased energy, and those dehydration symptoms will disappear.

Why dread the summer fatigue?

Use Himalayan mineral salt and drink large quantities of water to protect you from the health hazards of the summer heat!

My name is Patrick Mulcahy and I am an Osteopathic Family Practice physician practicing in Kennebunk, ME. My practice focuses on treating chronic medical conditions and I’ve been working with Lyme patients for the last several years.

As an initial topic for the Lyme discussion group I would like to address the frequently asked question by most patients with chronic Lyme Disease, “Can I ever recover from Lyme or will it be something I’ll be living with the rest of my life?”

My answer to that is a resounding yes, it is possible to recover from Lyme and be able to lead a symptom free life. However, to achieve this end result I have found that most of my patients need to adjust their approach to Lyme. What I mean by that is to not focus your intent on killing the bacteria or parasite but rather on healing your body.

One statement that I can make with 100% certainty is the only way anyone will become and remain symptom free of Lyme or any chronic illness for that matter is to establish a healthy immune system capable of defending the body against the onslaught of biological and chemical stressors. Lyme is a very adaptive organism capable of infiltrating and hiding deep in bodily structures and only with a functioning immune system can it be managed at that deep level.

Now that I’ve made that statement, I feel a comprehensive Lyme treatment is one that addresses both attacking the Borrelia and co-infections as well as supporting th body’s immune system to gain control and complete the job. So how does one achieve the end result of a healthy, efficient, well-functioning immune system?

This I feel is the true challenge to both the Lyme physician and more importantly the Lyme patient. The answer to this question is detailed and will be a large focus of my ongoing advice to the Lyme group. Briefly however I feel the single most important factor which prevents people from healing and stresses the body in general is the overwhelming amount of toxic burden one is exposed to resulting in toxic overload.

This toxic overload taxes the defense system, taxes the natural systems of elimination and results in a state of chronic inflammation and eventually a weakened immune system. It also provides growth medium in which Borrelia and other organisms can flourish. What are the symptoms of chronic fatigue-inflammation, daily headache, irritable bowel, muscle aches, joint pain, brain fog, skin rash, insomnia, phantom pain, buzzing ears, vision changes, anxiety, irritability and the multitude of other bizarre symptoms characteristic of Lyme infection.

I feel a comprehensive approach to Lyme is one that focuses both on reducing bacterial overload, including antibiotics, Vitamin C/Sea Salt, Rife machine, etc. as well as healing the body and the immune system, through diet, detoxification, lifestyle, herbal supplements, etc. In the coming weeks I will expand on these subjects in addition to answering questions you may have.

Wishing you the best of health,

Dr. Mulcahy

These statements are not to diagnose or treat any disease. This information does not take the place of an exam by a physician.

If we lived in a perfect world, there would be no sickness or disease.

Why?

Our body has the amazing ability to cleanse itself of toxins and impurities through its miraculous filtration system.

This complex machine we were born with has the ability to last a long time (given the proper care) or it can break down completely (from poor nutrition and neglect).

Of course it is not a perfect world, but there are things we can do to support and promote optimum health. Diet and nutrition are two essential things we can do for our health. However, when the word, “diet” is mentioned, it is automatically followed with thoughts of “hunger,” “giving up favorite foods,” and “depriving oneself.”

Yet, we are all on diets – whether we plan to be on a diet or not.

The things we put in our body will determine how we look and feel.

So, if we want to feel great and look even better, we need to take charge!

We need reliable information about how to support our health, rather than wearing it down. We need new ideas, access to the best nutritional products, healthy remedies and suggestions for longevity.

This is a place to begin.

Please join us by sharing information, resources and suggestions about healthy living in the twenty-first century.