Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome back to Integrative lyme Solutions with Dr. Karl Feldt.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: I am so excited about the show that we have ahead of us.
[00:00:08] Speaker C: We have some phenomenal information that could save lives.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: You're gonna need to tune in to what's going on today. The information is jam packed, so don't step away.
Hello. Thank you so much for joining Integrative lyme Solutions with Dr. Karlfeld. I am your host, Dr. Michael Karl Fe Belt. I've been in clinical practice since 1987. I've seen pretty much everything under the sun, worked with so many different Lyme patients, and I know what a devastating disease this is. That's why I'm doing this podcast to make sure that you are armed with the information that you need in order to be able to be successful in your struggle with Lyme. We'll be featuring authors, doctors, professors, and also people like yourself that have gone through the journey that you're going through, that have been where you've been and is now on the other side. And they get to tell their victorious story as to how they battle Lyme so that you can implement that in your life as well.
Be sure to like us and write a review on whichever platform that you're listening on. What that does is it enables other people to see us more so that they have access to this information as well. So I'm so excited that you're tuning in and get ready for this upcoming show. It is going to be amazing. Well, I have the absolute pleasure of having Dr. Ebony Cornish with me today. Thank you so much for spending some time with me.
[00:01:49] Speaker D: Thank you for this invitation. I'm very excited.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Well, so you are actually part of the Amen Clinic. You're one of the associate medical director. Assistant medical directors, yes.
[00:02:03] Speaker D: So I serve as associate medical director at Amen Clinic with other colleagues and actually functional medicine provider, so helping direct our functional medicine program simultaneously.
And I serve as a treasurer of ilad. So it's kind of like I married the best of both worlds. Kind of like looking at brain health and Lyme and functional medicine, you know, kind of all in one. Made it like a happy marriage, so to speak.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: I love it. And for people that are not familiar with Amen Clinic, you know what, what does Amen Clinic specialize in?
[00:02:40] Speaker D: So Amen Clinic, which was founded by Dr. Daniel Amen, who is a psychiatrist, what we do, it's over 50 psychiatrists around the country where we have over 10 clinics where we specialize in spec scan brain imaging. Okay. So that's a 3D image of your brain where we can look at inflammation, other neurological imbalances, kind of looking at overall brain health, mental health disturbances.
And from over 2, 250,000 images, we're able to develop different algorithms that are exciting, that can give a diagnosis to a patient by understanding the root cause of their neuroinflammatory condition. Because that's one of the things I love about what I do, is that we know that brain health is mental health.
So you won't know until you look. So that's kind of the thing I'm very passionate about, is understanding what the brain not only is doing, but what the brain looks like. And it's appropriate for numerous conditions. So that's what our clinic. And so we have a combination of psychiatrist.
I'm a functional medicine provider. So we have other physicians who specialize in functional medicine and collaborate with our psychiatrist. We also have naturopaths at our different clinics around the country. So it's just a holistic approach at brain health.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. I mean, SPECT scan, to me, I mean, they're so fascinating to take a look and see. You know, you see brains, we have traumas, we have inflammation, We. And just kind of see how it modulates and depending on where. Where the trauma. So the inflammation is located in the brain. Yeah. Obviously that creates those different patterns. So how, in regards to Lyme, I mean, do. Does, you know, the SPEC scan, do they play a role in that? Can that. Because obviously, with Lyme, you have a lot of neurological changes that can happen. And can you see that on a SPECT scan?
[00:04:49] Speaker D: So the SPECT scan is a great tool because it lets me know what questions I need to ask. Right.
So what we do is we look at this image and we'll say, okay, this person may have changes in blood flow or may have areas of the brain that are working too hard, or maybe there's damage. But then on top of that, we might see a layer that's consistent with what we call toxicity. It's this appearance whereby when you get the scan, you have, like, a tracer material. So it's like, it's not. It's similar contrast, but it's way less toxic. And that tracer material, we're able to visually look at the image and see what areas are having the most activity in blood flow. Now, in Lyme disease, in patients just with complex chronic illnesses, there are patterns of what we call scalloping. So you'll look at a normal brain, and then you'll look at a Toxic brain. And you'll see these areas where there are changes in what we call perfusion or blood flow. Or maybe there are areas of the brain that aren't as active as they should be, especially in the back of the brain, which is called the cerebellum. Now in med school we talked about cerebellum as a little brain, but now we know cerebellum is responsible for so much more. And I even look at it as the powerhouse of the brain, executive function, not just position, sense and coordination, but it sends signals throughout the cerebrum. So we see changes in activity and blood flow there. And we might see at the top of the brain patterns that I mentioned earlier of toxicity, which looks like scalloping. And so it'll be an obvious, like, whoa, this is not normal. And so that's why we call it neural inflammation, because you'll have these patterns. And when you see the, both the tracer material, the amount of activity and the blood flow, you put chronic complex illnesses, including tick borne diseases on your differential diagnosis. So it's never like, oh yeah, this is a Lyme brain per se. Because I got started working with medical director, former medical director at Amen clinics out in Virginia where I am, and their daughter had very severe depression and anxiety.
And that brain scan was not consistent with the Amen clinic patterns of anxiety, depression, traumatic brain injury. And sure enough, it was toxic and it was vector borne diseases. So it just kind of tells me what I need to better explore and it tells me if the brain is unhealthy or not.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So essentially, just to clarify, you can't really say that this is a brain that's Lyme, but it will give you then kind of indication that, you know, with this pattern, you know, I would like to look further to test for, you know, like vector borne illness or, you know, what, what else may be. So to really kind of see why, why are we dealing with this neuropsychiatric or neuroinflammatory type of disease?
[00:08:07] Speaker D: Correct. So it'll, for example, what we would say is, the questions I now need to answer is why is your brain inflamed? Why do we have this inflammatory picture? And we know there are numerous causes for inflammation. So as we're talking about like vector borne diseases, but you also think of mold toxicity, we also think of histamine imbalances, heavy metals, all of those things that can cause someone's brain to be inflamed. You have to put that on your differential diagnosis and do the digging and and more importantly, you may look at a brain scan of someone. Because I see patients who've been treated like probably like you by tons of doctors on tons of meds. May there be antibiotics, herbal been treated for these vector borne diseases 5, 10 years. And then you want to say, okay, you're still having neurological changes, is this still inflammatory or not? And that's when you might find, oh wait, you didn't tell me you had a traumatic brain injury. Or wait, you have, because I had one patient, they had frontotemporal dementia and I was like, wait, that's not Lyme, that's something else. You know, so it tells me what else is missing at the same time. But you know, it give, it's very rewarding when you can really say I understand what's happening actually in the brain. Because so many Lyme patients get falsely negative MRIs, or they get CT scans and they've come to, all these doctors say oh my brain imaging is always normal, whereby looking at this, you really get a good assessment if that's true or not.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean it's almost like a function test of the brain when you look at it.
I'm sure that the listeners are asking, well, how would I get a SPECT scan and what would be the best way to go about it? Because to me that would be really intriguing.
[00:10:01] Speaker C: Hello, dear listeners, this is Dr. Michael Karfeld, your host of integrative Lyme solutions. Today I'm excited to share an exclusive opportunity from the Karlfeld center where we blend healing power of nature with groundbreaking therapies to combat Lyme disease and its associated challenges.
At the Karlfeld center, we're not just fighting Lyme, we're revolutionizing the way it's treated with cutting edge therapies like photodynamic therapy, full body ozone IV therapy, silver IVs, brain rebalancing, autonomic response testing link, laser energetic detoxification and more. We aim to eradicate Lyme. Our approach is comprehensive, supporting your body's immune system, detoxification processes, hormonal balance and mitochondrial health, ensuring a holistic path to recovery. Understanding Lyme disease and its impact is complex, which is why we're offering a free 15 minute discovery call with one of our Lyme literate naturopathic doctors. This call is your first step towards understanding how we can personalize your healing journey, focusing on you as a whole person, not just your symptoms. Our team, led by myself, Dr. Michael Karlfields, is here to guide you through your recovery with the most advanced diagnostic tools, individualized Treatment plans and supportive therapies designed to restore your health and vitality. Whether you're facing Lyme disease head on or seeking preventative strategies, we're committed to your wellness. Take the first step towards reclaiming your health. Visit us at thecarlfulthcenter.com or call us at 208-338-8902 to schedule your free discovery call. At the Karlfield center, we believe in healing naturally, effectively and holistically. Thank you for tuning in to integrative lyme solution with Dr. Karlfeld. Remember, true health is not just the absence of disease and it's achieving the abundance of vitality. Let's discover yours together.
[00:12:01] Speaker D: Yes. So as I alluded to earlier, we have numerous clinics around the country. We have clinics in Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, New York, where I'm located, which is Washington D.C. we have three in California, Dallas, we have Arizona, Washington, Illinois. So we're all around. So all people would need to do is go to our website, www.AmazonClinic.com and look for a clinic close to where they are. Now we do have different strategies, right, because some patients are seeking help for neuropsychiatric symptoms and they wanna say hey, what, what, what do I really have? Is that neuropsychiatric diagnoses. But what we also offer are patients who might suffer from chronic complex illnesses. They're not necessarily worried as much about their mood but, but they have those questions we're discussing, like why is my brain, despite going through all this treatment, not optimally functioning? And that's what we call a neuro inflammatory brain scan, which is where something where I would read the scan as a functional medicine doctor, not as a psychiatrist, but more medically focused and say okay, this is what might be missing and this is what we should do about it and let's optimize brain healing. And, and we also have intensive programs at Amen Clinic whereby there's a two week program, let's say, you know, we have programs all around the country where people get really ill. They want that two week intensive getting treatment every day, getting their brain looked at, you know, getting IVs, whatever might be needed to get them back to wellness. Those are other services we offer. And then just validation of just any type of neuropsychiatric disorder can also be shown on SPECT scan as well. But it's really easy. You know, I'm also on social media, so is all the numerous psychiatrists from our clinic, but it's really that easy. You know, you call, you say hey, this is what I need help for. I have tick borne diseases, I want a neuroinflammatory scan or you know, whatever your interest is and that image can be of value.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: That's phenomenal. And so when, let's say we're dealing with a tick borne disease or tick borne vector and how would we dealing with neuroinflammatory, Are there certain co infections or are there certain ones that tend to be more the culprit than others? If somebody's dealing with that neuroinflammatory type of picture, not really just a joint ache, but really kind of that, that hard time to focus, anxiety, depression are there what, where, what kind of co infection should people look for?
[00:14:59] Speaker D: So when the literature, what the literature shows is what we traditionally think of Lyme, Borrelia burdorferi, that's the one that's published by numerous psychiatrists on its associated neuropsychiatric manifest of tick borne diseases. Right.
However, what we are learning, and this is a lot of anecdotal data as well from patients is that not only are we thinking about, you know, Borrelia, but we should be incorporating Bartonella in that picture because Bartonella is another vector borne co infection that can be transmitted by the tick, but also the deer tick, but also by cat scratch. And that can also cause patients who have these unrelenting symptoms of depression or rage or anxiety. And then you think of the tick borne parasite babesiosis which was fascinating because when I first started collaborating with Amen clinic about what 2010 or 11, that was my first neuropsychiatric patient, they actually had babesiosis and they had this anxiety that they just could not control. I mean this person had been on, you can give them all the Ativan and all the anti you wanted, all the antidepressants.
You can't treat vector board disease with a psych med. Sorry. So you think about that. And then one of my favorite, because I do have favorites that I treat that many people don't think about is the parasite Toxoplasmosis gondii. Because a lot of those patients are diagnosed at schizophrenic, they're diagnosed as bipolar.
And then you do that workup and you find out that they are positive for that as well. And then it gets kind of tricky is because okay, we think of that organism from cats, you know, cat litter boxes or food or poor food handling or cows or pork. And then they had a study that showed it was also transmitted by vector tics and I was like, oh, man, now I gotta put that on my list as well.
So those are definitely. You need to be thinking, especially if you're someone. I don't care what it is. If it's cognitive or depression or anxiety or rage or irritability, man, it's not all in your head. You have to be thinking if your patients are getting all these drugs. Like, I know we used to send doctors out or patients out our office. Hey, we don't know what's wrong. Go get on some Lexapro. You gotta look, you gotta look. You know, there's something going on if those other meds aren't working.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Yeah, there's always a driver. I mean, you don't get depression because of you're wanting to be depressed. You know, there's always something behind it, and you gotta look under the hood and see what are the drivers.
So when you are then having a patient like this, because obviously this is a big deal, people, they can't focus. I had patients that can't even remember the name of their brother that obviously they lived with their whole life and didn't even know the name of the town that they were born in and didn't know how to get back from the gas station that they've been driving from since they were kids. So when you have a patient like that in front of you, you do the SPECT scan and what. What is kind of the process in order to be able to identify, you know, what to do next.
[00:18:39] Speaker D: So not only, you know, do we use the spec scan, imaging. Right. We're still. I'm still a detective, so I have. It's much bigger than just one thing. So I'm never going to tell a person, hey, you have cognitive impairment. Let's only do your brain image. Because once I get that image back, I have to think about the big picture. Okay. What's going on with this person's hormones? So I've done testing. What's their metabolic status? I've done testing for glucose and cortisol and their adrenals. What's their gut like? Because I'm very fascinated about the gut and the brain connection, so that I'm doing my digging with their diet with their gut, ruling out things like leaky gut, which also can affect the brain. And then I'm thinking about other toxins as well. Because you have to think about it. Once it gets to the brain, it's not just one thing, you know, and when you get so debilitated, you usually have a laundry list. My patients call, call it all the things, right. But then I have on top, the cherry on top is the picture where now I have, okay, these are their imbalances. Because it's not just about killing or diagnosing. It's about the fundamental baseline of human medicine. You know, just understanding the toxins, the hormones, the gut, the immunity and then the bugs. But then when you get the brain on top of that, it's like, oh, wait and tell me you had a concussion and you had five car accidents or you played football. I mean, I say that every day. Because a damaged brain, no matter what kind of trauma is involved, is a brain that's more susceptible to chronic illness. And it's going to be weaker and it's going to, you're going to be more prone to more severe neurological imbalances if that brain is already at a weakened state. State. So that's why I'm looking more at anatomy, to see how the brain is functioning in general and the status of the brain.
So I never have protocols.
Everything is an individually based thing. You might come in and your mom might come in with something else and you might think, hey, we have the same problem and you have completely different programs. But like I said, you have to look at all those different risk factors, factors in order to know how to optimize the brain and brain rebuilding.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's the thing. There's no, nothing that works in isolation in the body. I mean, everything is correlated. You know, your, your, your brain is so impacted by exactly what you're saying. Your gut, your immune system, you know, the inflammatory components there. Is it hyperactive, is it hypoactive? You know, all your hormonal systems, you know, your thyroid is stimulating enough to bring energy in there. And then we have, you know, something's called the blood brain barrier. That's supposed to be that protective shield around the brain and it's supposed to keep all these things out of it. So why, how are these things able to get into the brain impacting the brain when we're supposed to have this protective layer?
[00:21:51] Speaker D: Yes. So you know, the brain, even though we do have neuroplasticity and we know that the brain can heal itself, we also know that that blood brain barrier is very permeable and we know that byproducts of things can leak through because we used to think the brain was so sterile. Right. But now we're learning more about the microbiome of the brain. You know, their own form of these organisms that live there, the gut brain access connection, those microbes that Send signals to the central nervous system. We're also doing learning testing where you look at, you know, autoimmune encephalitis. So those infections that can produce toxins that also cross the blood brain barrier or can disrupt your immune cells in the brain, cause autoimmunity. And those are diseases like pandas, autoimmune neuropsychiatric symptoms where the immune system become of the. In the brain, the immune cells become dysfunctional and start attacking your own neurons. So that's all because of things that, you know, have crossed into this once. What we thought a sterile environment caused the immunity to the immune cells to be disrupted. And like I look at it like a hair trigger. You have all these byproducts of toxic organisms that have the ability to cause more inflammation. And that's where the problems come from.
So the brain is not as much of a safe haven as we once thought. You know, we're learning more and more every day.
So that's what I always tell patients that, look, you gotta take care of. You have to have overall whole wellness. If we're talking about brain health as well, because these things in our system do cross the blood brain barrier. And once it does, once that happens, I always say leaky gut is leaky brain. You know, those things can happen. We want to be careful because it's even harder to treat at that point in time.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Yeah, and yeah, what you just said, you know, leaky gut is leaky brain. And it's so important, you know, that that gut brain connection to really work on healing your gut. And then the amazing impact that it has to really strengthening that, that blood brain barrier so that you can then protect it from these heavy metals and the chemicals to move in, just because the vascularity is so much stronger just by working on your gut. I mean, I know it doesn't make any sense, but it's phenomenal how working on something distal to the brain can have a direct impact to.
[00:24:40] Speaker D: Oh, it makes 100% sense. It's all, it makes all the sense.
And you know, and the way I always explain is because I make it easy. Your gut and your brain are connected by the longest nerve in your body, your vagus nerve. And 80% of your immune cells are in your gut. And also those neurotransmitters, because I focus on brain health and neuropsychiatric manifestations is one of the focus.
Those serotonin, those receptors that keep you happy, dopamine, serotonin, a lot of them are also found in the gut. So if you know, like even in allopathic medicine, I don't know, when I was in school, they would say, hey, irritable bowel antidepressant, that'll treat it, you know. Well how, what does that do? Well, it helps those receptors that are in your gut and that's why it's leading to help, because it's stabilizing both the brain and the gut simultaneously because they are connected and you can't treat one without the other. It's like a telephone tree between those two organs. If you love your gut, you got to love your brain. And so many patients who have had these chronic complex illnesses like vector borne diseases, how many antibiotics or gut damaging medications have they been on? How disruptive is their whole entire microbiome of these good and bad pathogens? So of course that's going to play into your neuro inflammation.
So it's all connected. It's all connected. Gut health, infection immunity and brain health. You can't talk about one without talking about the other. It's all one.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: And how do you navigate? Yeah, because antibiotics obviously when you deal with Lyme, that is a big tool for a lot of, lot of Lyme literate doctors out there.
How do you in your mind navigate? Are you somebody that really like going after with antibiotic and then try to figure it out to heal after or do you try to go a little bit more gentle with herbs first and see if you can create momentum that way? Or how do you, what is your favorite?
[00:26:54] Speaker D: So I my favorite, I even take it a step back is stabilization.
I like to make sure I'm modulating someone's immune system before I even start digging into these bugs. So first things first is understanding what the brain is doing because I find so many of my patients, even when they just get Lyme, oh, I'm so tired. Oh, I'm this. And then I look at their brain scan, I'm like wait, you need a sleep study.
You may have sleep apnea. And I find that sleep and neuroendocrine support are like key. It's like you can't, it's like the ghost space. You gotta start there when you're treating someone with any type of complex illness. Because I can throw all the herbals, antibiotics kill all the vector borne disease in the world. But if someone's not sleeping and their hormones are imbalanced or they have leaky gut, no matter what I give them, it's not going to be as successful. Right. So I think that's a big mistake. A lot of times People don't do that. And another thing when I look at brain imaging is that I can find if someone has autonomic nervous system problems. People may have heard things like the limbic system, where people are in that fight or flight, and that can lead to something called the cell danger response. And like I said, when people come, I rarely get a person who just got diagnosed. You've been diagnosed and you've been treated or you've been dismissed. And this is long standing. And so at that point in time, a lot of patients are in that heightened fight or flight. I can look on their brain scan and say, oh, wait, their basal ganglia or their thalamus and their limbic system is hyperactive.
So I have a feeling once I start even going to try to kill these really stealthy organisms, they're gonna have a bad outcome, they're gonna hurt, they're gonna stop treatment, they're not gonna be able to tolerate. I'm gonna have to have take baby steps. They might have histamine reactions or mast cell because they're in this constant fight or flight. And that might need to be addressed early on. Right? So making sure sleeping, making sure hormones, making sure we understand what's going on in that limbic system. And those are key things that you can do from the beginning, and you can even do it simultaneously with treatment of infections. So now once I have an idea of that, I got buy in for the patient to make sure their diet, their lifestyle is optimal. I know if their brain is in fight or flight constantly or not. I know that they're sleeping or at least giving them skills to help them with sleep, then it depends on that patient. Now, it's not all about just kill antibiotics, gift and curse. You know, some patients, like my patients, who might have multiple sclerosis symptoms or be in that ALS presentation, or maybe severe kids with pans and pandas, those cases that are more serious, that can't just be treated only with one modality. They might need a combination of one stabilization and treating, maybe with formal antibiotic medication and herbals. Or you may have some people whose guts are abused and they can't tolerate not one bit of antibiotics. So as long as you have that stable foundation for that patient, you go and do a more herbal approach, because herbal plants are beautiful. Pharmaceuticals are derivatives for plants.
So I think that depending on that patient, you can have a person who does really great, which is stabilizing their foundation and getting them sleeping, getting their hormones, getting their gut, getting their lifestyle optimal, getting their immune system to Wake up and do what it needs to do. That's why some patients may have shorter clinical courses and then you have others. And it depends on the severity of the symptom and how much neuroinflammation is happening. But it's a lot of work, you know, you gotta. You gotta look at it individual. So I never give one stop when I'm training doctors because I'm a fellow in I lads. I never say, this is it. You know, this is the only way. You really have to base it on the person. Because genes matter.
Everything matters. The brain matters because one person may not respond well. And I mean, I'm sure you've been in that situation where you had the best protocol for a patient. They call you the next day. I stopped it all because I was hurting. I was having a toxic reaction, or I think I had a side effect. I couldn't do it. And then you're like, oh, man, I just made you start all this stuff and you couldn't tolerate it. So that's why I like to kind of set that foundation or that person who shows up. Never forget, patient of mine came with a bag full of, like, a beach bag full of all these supplements. And I'm like, who did that? And they're like, you. I was like, oh, I was so embarrassed. I was like, I did. Because as we get so excited, like, okay, we got this problem. We're gonna give you this supplement, this supplement. Then you end up with a closet of supplements that you couldn't take. So that's why I said, now my. My whole plan is whole body medicine, immune modulation stabilization and treatment of infections. I know that was a long answer, but I mean, there is no one stop shop here.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: And that's the thing is they kind of recognize that these. These pathogens, they live in a terrain, and the terrain is your body, and they behave differently in different types of terrain. So if we shift the environment that they exist within, they shift behavior. And frequently, you know, if it is a terrain that calms them down, then you may not be very symptomatic. And the body may then be able to kind of handle these infections without having to go and kill them all.
[00:32:51] Speaker D: Exactly. Because I always tell patients it's a war. Yes, we do want to suppress and kill, but we also want to modulate. You know, we have to put that as a priority. We have to build the body up, you know, as simultaneously and talk to me.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: So with. You talked about sleep, and obviously we talked a lot about the neuroinflammatory and neuropsychiatric and all of that.
Talk to me a little bit about drainage and the glymphatic system and how important is that in this whole process?
[00:33:26] Speaker D: Yes, I think it's extremely important.
And I even start, let's start by just tying it into the brain because what I find is a lot of my patients with Lyme, the and tick, other vector borne diseases, they have issues with kind of draining fluid from the csf. They get blockages there and they may need things like cranial sacral massages or something called atlas orthogonal that strains out the neck to just kind of open up those, those pathways and help those lymph cells in the brain. So that's something that I do to help filter. I also make sure that we're living in a society, in a household that is low inflammatory in general. So I'm giving you the lymph node support, like I might do homeopathic remedies or herbals to make sure we're draining, we're draining the lymph nodes. I make sure you're on some sort of liver support. And all of this doesn't have to be medication. You know, broccoli root extract like sulforaphane, that's some of my favorite things. Tudica for the liver, cruciferous vegetables, optimizing water, doing saunas, doing Epsom salt baths like those eat lemon water if you don't have histamine issues. Those easy breezy things that can get a person to drain and detox. And we make it really glamorous and sexy. Oh yeah, we have to give you all these different detox supplements, medications, et cetera. But if I get the person's body to start working, if I get them sweating, if I get them off the toxic foods that block, you know, and they aren't helping to filter, if I give them the right support of things that will help open up those pathways, you know, because we know a lot of times people get blockage, they might have methylation problems or they may have liver detox and that's a whole different conversation we can have. But I can try to give them that right support there, even from nutritional strategies, then that goes a long way. And then of course we do have the supplement support like the NAC, glutathione antioxidants, you know, IVs, etc. But I really make sure I focus on the cheap, easy methods which are the lifestyle components that can help someone start opening up those pathways and making sure we remove the things that are Clogging them in the first place.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And kind of going back, I mean, to the sleep component, people don't realize that actually the brain, it's almost gets squeezed while you're sleeping to kind of clean out all that kind of toxic lymphatic junk so you can get rid of that while you're sleeping. And that's, that's why it's so important. Like you were talking about maybe you need to do sleep study or that's a. Sleep hygiene is so crucial for that drainage from the head because obviously the nerves are not going to be that happy if it's just a lot of toxic stuff up there. They're going to be inflamed and irritated. And so if you really optimize that component, then we're that much further ahead.
[00:36:49] Speaker D: Yeah. And it's such a challenging part, you know, because sleep can be disrupted for so many reasons. Like we talked about the apnea. But as we know, a lot of our patients are in such chronic pain and that might interrupt their sleep. So making sure they're on the right anti inflammatory protocol, they may have stress hormones like cortisol that are really high at night and then you have to calm that down because that's overstimulating them. You know, that's adrenal dysfunction. So we have to make sure you're on the right support there, the right adaptogens to calm that cortisol response. They may also have. We know that parasites, parasites are usually more active in the evening. So that might be something, not just vector borne parasites, but gut and helmets. And you know, thinking about that, because that can be another trigger that's causing that insomnia.
And then I see a lot of patients post menopausal perimenopausal, low progesterone. Right.
Imbalances in estrogen and stabilizing those sex hormones can also help sleep. And then of course the untreated apnea, I mean that's like red flag 11911. It's like, okay, we're actively killing brain cells nightly because of a lack of oxygen.
So how am I going to rebuild and heal? We have to treat that. So it's just like the little things that you know, and even throw in their thyroid. It's those little things you have to always think about when you're treating these complex vector borne diseases. Because that can make a huge difference in someone who's being treated for 10, 12 years and being clinically stuck versus someone who might still be a complicated case but have an Easier journey to remission.
[00:38:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that.
I love how you're so well rounded, how you're hitting everything from. I mean, it's exactly that. You can't just kind of. People think I got lime and I just want to kill. Yeah, it is so much more than that. Yeah. So I love that.
How are you monitoring progress in regards to.
Obviously symptomatically, but what's your favorite way to kind of monitor progress and make sure that you're achieving your goals?
[00:39:12] Speaker D: So, of course, as you alluded to symptoms, I use kind of like the INSIDS questionnaire, which are like questions that you answer at every question at every appointment, and you can rate your symptoms from 0 to 3. So that's kind of like a standard metric. I watch for symptom scores to see how they're doing over time, and I use the summation of those numbers to track them. All right, that's one. Also clinical, looking at changes in vitals or weight or physical examinations. And then the testing. Now we know for Vector Borne Diseases, the testing with LabCorp and Quest, you know, that's what the CDC considers standard of care can be falsely negative in some cases.
But fortunately we have the development of newer tools that I incorporate that can let me give me a better understanding of if there is possibly an active current infection or not. So I use labs like Galaxy and T Labs to look at that and see if the pathogen is still there.
The coolest thing that I learned about Vector borne diseases was its relationship with autoimmunity. I had so many patients who got misdiagnosed with lupus and mixed connective tissue and rheumatoid arthritis and had these really high, you know, ANA inflammatory markers and autoimmune markers. But yet when we got the infection and the chronic illness in better control, the ANA went away. It was now normal. Those antibodies resolved. So that's another sign like, hey, we're going in the right direction. And then, you know, with my patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms, I'm always measuring it on their supportive medication.
How much antidepressant does this person now need? How are they still on their antipsychotic meds? Are they still on all their sleep drugs? The more that I can take them off those supportive meds get lets me understand that we're going in the right direction because the body is brilliant and it can heal itself. So those are kind of the metrics. I do the standard standardized metrics. I do the clinical tools, but I also use laboratory and not just infectious, but I'M looking at all the different labs that can be affected, especially inflammatory markers, to let me know that, hey, I'm going in the right direction here.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I love it. Well, Dr. Cornish, is there anything else that you like to really, that you feel is important for our audience to know in regards to. Because the neuroinflammatory is such a big piece of.
Is there anything else that you feel would be really important for them to know?
[00:42:01] Speaker D: You know, understanding that you're not alone and it's not all in your head. Okay.
Neuroinflammation is a symptom, but it's not just psychiatric. You need to know sometimes when it's neurologic, it needs to be treated intensively. That's why I have my neuro intensive program. It's just one of the many things I do in my practice because some patients need that aggressive, you know, treatment. I also know that it's really great if you look, knowing what your brain looks like, because I'll tell you time and time again, patients who may have tons of testing that's positive for vector borne diseases, tons of symptoms, and then the SPECT scan shows me that something else might be going on and I need to worry about brain rehabilitation, not just underlying inflammatory process.
And just keep the faith. You know, there are tons of doctors who do what I do. Ilads.org International Lyme and associated Diseases Society. They're a group of over 500 doctors from all across the world that treat chronic, complex illnesses. We know that this takes a spiritual, a mental and a physical journey, especially when we're dealing with something as precious as our brain. And just keep fighting and get the answers you need. Don't get dismissed. You know, it's as simple as that. Don't accept that because the brain can heal and you can just keep trying and know that there are doctors out here that treat patients like you.
[00:43:42] Speaker B: Well, I love it. Well, thank you so much for what you're doing, Dr. Cornish, and thank you so much for spending this time with me.
You're, you're, you're, you're driving this field and in so many different ways. And, and so thank you so much.
[00:43:57] Speaker D: And thank you for this opportunity. You know, if anyone wants to reach out, I'll have, I'll leave all my contact information, but just everyone just stay prayerful. You know, keep your spirits up and know that people here listening to podcasts like this, you can get some of the help you might need.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:44:24] Speaker A: The information this podcast is for educational purposes only. And it's not designed to diagnose or treat any disease. I hope this podcast impacted you as it did me. Please subscribe so that you can be notified when new episodes are released. There are some excellent shows coming up that you do do not want to miss. If you're enjoying these podcasts, please take a moment to write a review. And please don't keep this information to yourself. Share them with your family and friends. You never know what piece of information that will transform their lives. For past episodes and powerful information on how to conquer lyme, go to integrativelimesolutions.com and an additional powerful resource, limestream.com for Lyme support and group discussions. Join Lyme Conquerors Mentoring Lyme warriors on Facebook.
If you'd like to know more about the cutting edge integrative Lyme therapies my center offers, please visit thecarlfieldcenter.com thank you for spending this time with us and I hope to see you at our next episode of Integrative lyme Solutions with Dr. Karl Feld.
[00:45:32] Speaker D: Sam.
