EP 17

[00:00:00] Welcome to Planet Spoonie, the podcast for lymies and spoonies healing themselves and the world. In this compassionate and collective space, we explore traditional nutrition, herbal medicine, and nature connection as tools for empowerment when living with chronic lyme and chronic illness. These are the same tools that helped me rediscover the magic, wisdom, and innate healing capacity of my own body and the body of the Earth, even while living with chronic illness in the time of the climate crisis.

[00:00:30] I'm your host, Kelsey the Herbalist. Let's dig in. Today we are going to talk about 12 different tools that you can use to survive your next Herx. You might think of this as your Herx toolkit. I know very personally just how terrible it is to go through a Herx reaction and that's why I wanted to share these tools with you because when you are in that much pain and you are in that much suffering, you will pretty much do anything to make it stop or to relieve the burden of all of the symptoms that kind of Herx reaction.

[00:01:05] If you have a chronic lyme, or even acute lyme, or you know someone who has lyme disease, or Borreliosis, or the many other tick borne infections that we can acquire, then you know what a Herx reaction is. But for those who don't listen, let's just review once again what a Herx reaction is. So Herx reactions is the short name for a Jarisch Herxheimer reaction.

[00:01:29] It is essentially what happens when you have this really deeply embedded infection in the body, and then you introduce an antimicrobial that might be a pharmaceutical antibiotic, or it might be an herbal. And either way, this can trigger a Herx reaction. What happens is essentially this antimicrobial therapy Kills the bacteria that are causing the infection and when that happens, the bacterial cells essentially rupture and they release all of the toxins, for lack of a better term, endotoxins.

[00:02:06] The toxins, that are released by this bacteria into the body within the body. These base, this basically happens. This then triggers the immune system, which triggers a whole nother level of inflammation and inflammatory compounds. That whole complimentary cascade kind of lights up. We get just a enormous amount of inflammation in the body as a result.

[00:02:30] And all of the symptoms that a person normally experiences with their condition of lyme, aka Borreliosis, will all come out to play at once and much worse than normal, and they may even experience new symptoms, and these can be very severe. So that's essentially what a herx is. It's essentially as these microbes are killed, like all of the bad symptoms that a person gets from this disease because of these microbes and how the immune system reacts to these microbes, they all come out all at once at the same time, way more severe than normal.

[00:03:04] And it is a very unpleasant, painful, miserable experience. And they can be actually quite extreme and even dangerous. And this is where the medical community is currently split because as I'm sure most of chronic lyme disease is, one of those conditions that is somehow controversial.

[00:03:23] There are still clinicians who don't acknowledge it as a legitimate illness, in the wave of the COVID 19 pandemic the medical community at large is coming around much more to the idea of these chronic latent infections. So there is still that camp, but there are far less people in that camp now than there used to be, though there are definitely still many practitioners out there who deny it.

[00:03:45] And we'll deny it if patients come see them. But then, the camp of people who actually work with lyme, so physicians and other healthcare providers who actually work with lyme, are split into two camps with regards to treatment. And one camp is essentially for using antimicrobial therapy.

[00:04:05] to elicit a HERX reaction and instructs the patients that basically they need to just push through these HERX reactions. That is one camp. I am not in that camp. The other camp of healthcare practitioners, and I say this as someone who has been through it, so I feel very well informed in this regard, but of course this is just, my professional opinion.

[00:04:27] is that, this other camp essentially says we don't want you to herx because herxing can be dangerous. It's an indicator that treatment is working, that this antimicrobial therapy is effective and the infections you have are responsive to this. However, we don't want to cause a herx because we don't want to cause that much inflammation in the body because that can cause damage of its own.

[00:04:49] And essentially. Potentially cause new problems, potentially cause long term damage, and potentially also create very dangerous situations. And there are definitely case reports of this in the medical literature. So we don't need to go too into that, but I'm very much in that camp, which if follow along or have.

[00:05:06] seen any of my content up to this point, you probably already know that about me, that I do not believe that you have to Herx to heal. I think, healing itself is very much an ongoing process and journey, especially with chronic conditions, but I do not believe in pushing people into Herxes or forcing them into Herxes.

[00:05:24] I think that is really not very safe. And I really think that you can recover from these chronic infections and have, a whole new quality of life by, and treat the infections with antimicrobials without herxing. Because yeah, like I said, I just don't think we need to trigger that much inflammation or that big of an immune response and I don't want to cause new problems.

[00:05:49] So I think, I'm very much on the side of playing this low and slow and really supporting the body in being able to address this infection as well as it can on its own with the gentle support of whatever Antimicrobials feel appropriate between you and your health care provider You know of a period over a period of time really cultivating healthy terrain cultivating a healthy body Versus just this go hard and fast and push people into these like potentially very inflammatory Herx reactions.

[00:06:27] However, because you do need to treat the condition and We all go through antimicrobial therapy of some kind or another. Herxes do occasionally happen. Now, I am of the camp of practitioners that says, we don't really want a Herx reaction to go on for more than one to three days.

[00:06:45] Whatever we're doing, we need to back off and, slow down. However, Herx's do still happen, but it's, just a normal part of the treatment and especially when you're changing up your antimicrobial therapy, which you often do have to rotate and change things because these are very intelligent microbes that have been around for a very long time.

[00:07:07] So when we change our medication again, whether that's pharmaceutical and or herbal and or, some other kind of integrative approach like ozone. then we can have Herx reactions. That is the point of this episode. This episode is all about the 12 tools that are going to help you survive your next Herx.

[00:07:26] So now that we've prefaced that, what a Herx reaction is, why we want to avoid it and how to help us get through it when they're happening, so that we can ideally come out on the other side relatively quickly and not have this prolonged. So of course, You want to work with whoever your health care provider is to address the antimicrobial causing the herpes, and you guys need to establish that boundary of understanding maybe when something is a little bit too strong, causing too much inflammation in the body, versus when you might be able to ride a mild symptom out for a day or two.

[00:08:01] Again, this is like every episode, not medical advice. This is purely educational and really meant for you to take home, to learn more and to try things for yourself and to talk to your own care team about. So without further ado, here are the 12 tools that will help you survive your next Herx.

[00:08:22] Okay, so now that we know that a HERX is caused by endotoxins and inflammatory compounds released by the immune system, we can understand that one of the core components to working with chronic lyme and co infections is ensuring that all the eliminatory pathways of the body are open and flowing so that these compounds can be excreted and eliminated from the body without causing further issue or being reabsorbed.

[00:08:49] So this is why you will often hear chronic lyme patients report that they feel better after sweating, deep breathing, or using the restroom. It's because they are getting this stuff out of their body. And that is why you will hear some, and that is why what we'll explain to you, like the underlying nature and philosophy.

[00:09:10] behind a lot of these tools. A lot of these tools goals is basically to reduce this inflammation, to get these compounds out of the body, and to really just calm everything down and calm the nervous system down. Okay, so the very first one is drinking plenty of water. So drink tons of water, make sure you are adequately hydrated, just keep everything moving, keep everything flushing out while you're in this state.

[00:09:40] You don't want hydration to be further causing you problems or discomfort when you are in the Herx reaction. So ensure you're drinking enough water because that will also help you with some of these elimination processes. Ideally, you're drinking either clean, filtered water or spring water, and of course you can always add things to this water.

[00:10:04] I highly recommend adding electrolytes of some kind, like an unrefined salt complex, and you can also add a lemon or lime, which will be alkalizing in the body. That's number one, drink plenty of water, drink plenty of clean water. Number two is earthing. So with all of these, including earthing, some people can herx to literally simple things like drinking enough water or earthing or, really any kind of approach that is very much something that Folks in the lyme community experience is Herx reactions to just like getting healthy So just I will preface this with that, but so just pay attention if you're really sensitive Personally and for a lot of other lyme folks I know for clients that I have talked to who have implemented this Earthing is a huge support during Herx reactions.

[00:11:01] I know from first hand experience it was a huge support with chronic pain when I was in a Herx reaction because that pain is just so escalated to where your skin hurts, your joint hurts, everything hurts, and For me, earthing would always take me on the pain scale down like just one or two notches which doesn't sound like a lot But you know if you're in a lot of pain one notch less of pain is actually a huge deal When I am you know on a normal every day, I don't really I can't really feel it when I'm earthing I don't necessarily feel that connection all the time But when I have gone through Herx's, I always can feel immediate relief when I'm earthing.

[00:11:41] So I highly recommend trying earthing. As I explained in a previous episode, earthing is really helpful because it's anti inflammatory, it helps replenish antioxidant stores in the body by donating electrons freely and, has so many other benefits. So I highly recommend earthing. That's number two.

[00:12:01] Number three is triglutathione. Glutathione is an awesome supplement. It is the main antioxidant used in the body and it is really powerful. It can be really helpful because it is an anti inflammatory simply by nature of being an antioxidant. The body uses it for so many different processes and it can help neutralize some of these oxidative inflammatory chemicals that are just like circulating through the body when we're in a Herx reaction.

[00:12:30] Glutathione also is really helpful for detoxification, so it's a two pronged support in that way. So that's number three. Try a glutathione supplement. Number four is trying binders. Binders can be really helpful. Binders are not something that you take like every day, all the time. But when you are in a Herx reaction, they can be helpful because they help bind up some of those inflammatory compounds that, again, are just circulating through the body.

[00:12:57] A few common binders you can find out there. Clay and charcoal are probably the biggest ones. You want to make sure that you are buying activated charcoal and clay that is intended to be ingested. So there's plenty of supplements out there that you can find. And if you have a healthcare practitioner, I highly recommend talking to them about any of their favorite brands or suppliers.

[00:13:18] But you can pretty much find charcoal capsules at any old grocery store or health food store. Zeolite is also another really great binder that you can try. The one thing to watch out here with binders is that they can be constipating because they bind up so much stuff it can end up kind of making people who are prone to constipation constipated.

[00:13:40] And that's obviously not something that we want when we are going through a Herx reaction. We don't want anything to be plugged up. We want everything open and flowing. So Pay attention. If you try clay or charcoal and you find it's too constipating, that's when I really recommend using zeolite. Because I have yet to have anyone have that reaction with zeolite.

[00:14:01] So number five is a castor oil pack. Castor oil pack is another really great kind of folk home remedy that is very affordable and cheap. All you need is a wool or cotton flannel and castor oil. And you can keep your soaked castor oil flannel piece in like a baggie and just keep re adding castor oil to it and essentially use that as a pack.

[00:14:26] So you will soak your little flannel or cotton piece in castor oil and then you lay that over different parts of your body. So I would really recommend trying it over like your liver. or your colon and bowels because those are areas that need detox support to open up and keep things moving. It can be really helpful for that.

[00:14:46] But many people also use to like them really anywhere that you have stagnation in the body over lymph nodes or painful or stiff joints. This is a really affordable and easy and cheap one that you can try at home. Number six is breathwork. So breathwork is just Something that can be so calming and regulating for our nervous system.

[00:15:08] But again, if we're really thinking about these eliminatory pathways in the body, the lungs are one of those major eliminatory pathways. So breathwork can be really helpful because it helps shift our nervous system into a parasympathetic state, meaning a rest and digest dominant state. And it can also help us to just breathe and release.

[00:15:28] Some of this inflammation through breathwork. Number seven is just clean and simple eating. When you are going through a Herx reaction, like a lot of people really don't have much of an appetite at all during Herx reactions. And this is largely because the body is dealing with so much inflammation and toxicity that it really doesn't want to take in anything else.

[00:15:50] But obviously you need to eat, so it's really recommended to eat clean and simple things that you might eat when you were sick. So like chicken and vegetable soup, warm, cooked, light foods, nothing too heavy bone broth is really wonderful, and you might also want to add simple juices, lots of herbal teas pureed kind of vegetable soups, really just like simple, easy.

[00:16:17] Basic things that just have the most basic possible ingredients in them. So like bone or veg, bone broth or veggie broth, some vegetables, simmer it, puree it, or have it chunky, whatever. You may have a small little side of sauerkraut. You maybe have some chamomile or mint or ginger tea with your meal, that, that sort of thing.

[00:16:38] That will be really easy and simple to digest and help. Also decrease inflammation in the body, really fuel your body with some good food and not be too overwhelming. Number eight is sweating. This one definitely gets a lot of hype. You probably have heard about all the different ways to sweat and all the benefits for sweating.

[00:16:58] Of course, the skin is one of our other major eliminatory pathways. People like to debate these different eliminatory pathways and what each of them are really saying, but we won't get too much into that here. But sweating is a really important one, so exercise to whatever level that you can tolerate.

[00:17:17] Hursting is probably not a time you're going to be doing a whole lot of exercising. A gentle walk or some sun salutations, whatever works for you. But I wouldn't really do anything too strenuous during a Herx reaction, even if you feel like you can. More relevant probably during a Herx is doing sauna.

[00:17:35] If you can tolerate that, a lot of people cannot tolerate the heat with POTS and dysautonomia. So definitely be aware if you're someone who can handle the heat of a sauna, but sweating in the sauna is awesome. Epsom salt bath or any kind of other bath. You could do a clay bath, a tea bath any kind of bath that helps get you sweating.

[00:17:54] I just love Epsom salt baths because who doesn't love all that magnesium, but any kind of bath that you can sit in a warm body of water to help you sweat as well. Sometimes people with POTS and orthostatic intolerance can tolerate that a little bit better. So sweating with baths, that's another huge one.

[00:18:11] So number nine is another And this one is colon cleansing. This is one that a lot of people get turned off by and can't wrap their heads around. It sounds really far out there, for those who have been through HERX reactions and have experienced this for themselves, they know that this tool works and it's extremely effective.

[00:18:33] Otherwise, no one would be doing it. But colon cleansing has been around for a very long time. So it's definitely something that you can try for yourself and employ and is definitely one of the core tools that I utilize to help people. tolerate antimicrobials with chronic lyme because a lot of folks cannot tolerate any level of antimicrobials without Herxing until they implement some level of colon cleansing in place.

[00:19:00] Colon cleansing basically means doing either an at home enema or going and having colon hydrotherapy professionally done. An enema is much easier because all it takes is like hot water in a bag or a bucket with the hose. In your own home, in your own bathroom, once you buy the kit, it's free and you can do it for free forever in the comfort of your own home.

[00:19:22] So enemas are a really great tool. If you're not comfortable doing it at home, choline hydrotherapy is another amazing tool, but that's something that you have to go out and pay for with a professional. but it can be very helpful and just bring an enormous amount of relief. So don't kick it until you try it.

[00:19:37] Number 10 is juicing. I love juicing. If you follow me on Instagram, I love juicing. Juicing is just another really great kind of cleansing practice. Juices don't really count as meals, but because we're really extracting such a concentrated amount of nutrition from the veggies and fruits and herbs that we put into our juices without the fiber.

[00:20:00] It's just a super concentrated amount of these really powerful antioxidant, anti inflammatory cleansing, promoting, compounds that we find in plants, all of just these wonderful phytonutrients. So juicing is something that often brings people a lot of relief, especially when they're herxing and they begin to crave juices.

[00:20:23] So like I said, with number seven, with the clean and simple eating, you don't want to get too fancy with your juicing. When you're in the middle of a herx, I recommend something really light and easy like a basic green juice with, maybe green apple and celery and cucumber. And you can or cannot add greens up to you, maybe some lemon and ginger and if it's too cool for you, some people, the cucumber is way too cooling.

[00:20:48] I know for me, that is definitely the case in the winter time. So you can just skip the cucumber, but I highly recommend getting started with a basic juice like that. And trying juicing while you're Herxing because Even if all you have is a blender and you just strain it through a towel to get some of that pulp out juicing can be powerfully relieving and you will be surprised at how much you start craving fresh juices.

[00:21:11] Okay, so the next one is, again, a little bit of a trendy one, but fasting. Fasting can be profoundly helpful for people with chronic lyme and co infections, especially when implemented during a Herx reaction, because like I have said, the body is just dealing with an influx of so many toxins. inflammatory and cytotoxic compounds that really just ignite all of these deeply uncomfortable and painful symptoms that we're experiencing.

[00:21:39] So fasting can be really helpful for this because instead of loading the body with more stuff to deal with, we're just giving it the space to basically go into autophagy to go into detox mode and to cleanse and get rid of all this stuff in the body. And so fasting can be really helpful for that.

[00:21:58] And with fasting, like with antimicrobial therapy, it's very important to pair that with cleansing practices, like drinking enough water, doing colon cleansing sweating, because we want to make sure that what the body is purging, the body is able to actually eliminate and get rid of and get out of the body.

[00:22:15] So fasting is another great one to try. With all of these, I really recommend talking to your health care practitioner, because of course this is meant to be educational, not medical advice, but fasting especially can be really tricky. It is not for everyone. Especially for women, for some people can really impact their metabolism and hormones and not great ways.

[00:22:36] For some people, it can lead to disordered eating or trigger a history of disordered eating. So I think fasting is something that we Don't want to be super callous about, but really follow our intuition around and not get super strict about but more really learning to tap into listening to our body's needs, especially when you're in a Herx.

[00:22:58] If your body is asking for the space to try some fasting, this is the time to do it. And you can still consume things like. water, herbal tea, bone broth, veggie broth, veggie juices, these really light foods. That might be how you fast. There's so many different ways to try it.

[00:23:15] Totally get help from a practitioner if you can, but that is number 11. That's fasting. So there's lots of ways to do that. And the number 12, the last one is incorporating different types of herbs. So we have a couple of classes of herbs that I want to go over and I'm counting all of this as 12 because 12 is just all about bringing in herbal medicine.

[00:23:39] So the first group of herbs that we might want to be thinking about is anti inflammatory antioxidant herbs, right? These are the herbs that are really going to help with these profoundly high levels of inflammation and bring them down. Now there's a ton out there. I'm not going to go and list them all.

[00:23:57] And there are many that are very well known for this, but they are also antimicrobial, which can make the work, the Herx worse. So some really gentle ones that you probably have access to, or hopefully have access to would be like ginger or turmeric. Like ginger and turmeric are both. profoundly anti inflammatory.

[00:24:16] They're really generally safe. You can get them at the grocery store in the produce section or in a bulk herb section or the tea section if you have that. And so those are two really great ones. Cannabis is also an amazing anti inflammatory herb, especially for people going through a Herx reaction.

[00:24:33] It can keep you from experiencing pretty profound levels of illness and discomfort. and help you get through this yeah, profoundly painful experience. So cannabis can also be really helpful and also in addition to being anti inflammatory has some immune modulating properties, which leads us into the next category, which is immune modulating herbs.

[00:24:54] So immune modulating herbs, this is another one that, ideally an herbalist would be there to help you to navigate the nuance of this. There are some basic ones, you know that are available at like the grocery store for everyone to try Cannabis is not available for everyone to try but just know that it is immune modulatory But another big one is echinacea.

[00:25:16] There are you know, there's some hype and different stuff about echinacea out there But just know you know, echinacea is a really wonderful immune tonifying and supportive herb that can really help support and stoke immunity A couple, there's several other ones. Astragalus is another really good one to get to know largely because you can just cook it into your veggie and bone broth and soup stocks at home, which is really lovely.

[00:25:43] A lot of people feel like that's easy and doable. Same thing with reishi. Reishi mushroom. And then in this category as well, you can also kind of you could also include analgesics as well. Anything that's really strong pain relieving herb. So I would say, turmeric, ginger, cannabis, those all kind of apply there.

[00:26:02] Chamomile, surprisingly, can also be really helpful for pain relief. California poppy is another lovely herb that can be really helpful for chronic pain relief. And these are all, and I'm really trying to focus on herbs that I know most health food stores carry tinctures or capsules of in their supplement section.

[00:26:20] So hopefully you can find all of these. And then the last kind of category of herbs to think about for our Herx toolkit is. Herbs that support detoxification. There, I've made up a category of herbs that are the agogs. Agogs is like the suffix of many different herbal actions, right? We have, for example, lymphagogs that help promote lymph flow.

[00:26:42] We have xylagogs that help promote saliva flow or salivation, right? Which is the first step of digestion. That's important. We have then we also have things like diaphoretics that promote sweating, diuretics that help promote urination, bitters that help promote the excretion of gastric juices in the digestive system, hepatics that help promote liver function laxatives and anything that helps promote bowel movements.

[00:27:08] So there's lots of different herbs that kind of help promote different levels of like excretion and elimination within the body and out of the body. And so these are all just important to think about. And of course, cause this encompasses so many different categories of herbs, right? This would be, this could be a whole episode in and of itself is going through the different herbs of all these categories and what they do, but just know that's.

[00:27:34] kind of an area of herbalism that is also really important to think about. So thinking about how can I incorporate just like really safe everyday herbs into my life, maybe into my food and my meals, or maybe into my supplement routine to promote and help my body detoxify and eliminate and digest and just keep everything flowing.

[00:27:56] help me sweat, right? So like with the diaphoretic example, anise hyssop also called hummingbird mint or agastache funiculum, that's a wonderful diaphoretic, right? It helps promote sweating. And, or elderflower is another one. So if you're doing like a sauna practice, for example, you might decide to drink a cup of anise hyssop tea before you get into the sauna and you'll find you'll sweat a whole lot more.

[00:28:22] Or, you might want to take triphala, which is a really ancient Ayurvedic blend that helps promote daily bowel movements, like very effectively. You might start taking bitters with all your meals to really ensure that your body is releasing all those gastric juices and enzymes that are needed.

[00:28:42] to break down and digest your meals so that then, your body can carry them right on out. You might take aloe vera gel every day in your smoothie or blend it into your juice as a way of just like promoting bowel movements and the excretion that way. And then, of course, the big one that kind of everyone knows about, but because it really works, is milk thistle.

[00:29:06] milk thistle is awesome support for the liver who is working very hard when we're going through a Herx reaction. Milk thistle, oftentimes I would say my clients feel a pretty immediate difference when they incorporate milk thistle into their routine. And while I don't do this with every herb in this particular situation, I would highly.

[00:29:26] encourage you to look for a standardized milk thistle supplement. So this means that it will say that it is standardized to a certain silamarin content on the bottle and the ingredients. And I think that's really important in this situation because when we have someone going through a HERX, we know that essentially they're not able to eliminate all these endotoxins and inflammatory compounds and that's why we really want to have this powerful herb coming in and supporting the liver and supporting detox to get everything out of the body.

[00:30:00] So those are your 12 tools. I meant for this to be quick, a quick run through, and I hope that it was. I hope I didn't go into too much detail for you because this, like this quick dozen tools to incorporate when you are going through a Herx, you will be amazed at how helpful they are. And there is nothing that I want more for you from this podcast and from my work than to get.

[00:30:27] Deep, profound, immediate, and effective relief from the suffering and symptoms you are experiencing of chronic lyme. So I highly encourage you to check these out. These things are really simple. Drinking water, laying on an earthing blanket Doing a castor oil pack, going to the bathroom, taking a sweaty bath these are not too radical, these are pretty, pretty basic low hanging fruit, and I know there's a lot in here.

[00:30:59] So I know even though I know that these true, these tools will truly help you to feel more resourced and supported the next time you're going through a Herx or a flare up. I also know that there are a million and one recommendations out there. Especially for people with chronic lyme, and sometimes it just feels like you are throwing spaghetti at the wall, like trying all the supplements, all the herbs, all the things, and still sick, and still not seeing any results, or any, getting the support that you need, so if you really want it.

[00:31:30] One on one support that is tailored to fit you and to fit your needs and to actually help you achieve results and start feeling better and start kicking this infection in the booty, then just know that I have openings available at the time of this recording. I am here for you. I am happy to talk with you.

[00:31:50] Book a free Q and A chat with me and we can talk through what's going on for you. So just know that's always an option and I have more openings and offerings coming up all the time. So definitely sign up for the newsletter as well. If you want to stay tuned about any upcoming classes, workshops, or other offerings that I have available because.

[00:32:13] I know what that's I know what it's like to throw spaghetti at the wall, and I don't want that for you. I want you to walk away from this episode feeling like you have an awesome toolkit of new tools that you can approach and pull out anytime that you are herxing or going through a flare up. And if you need more, just know that I'm here.

[00:32:30] I am here. There is no pressure, and I am not going anywhere. Our bodies are a direct reflection of the ecosystems we inhabit. And I know that just like this earth, our bodies know how to heal. This is what it means to be a Spoonie living on a Spoonie planet. The journey to healing is a mutualistic endeavor, and I am so grateful that you're here walking the path with me.