Third Follow-Up Appointment with Dr. D June 2012

A few days ago I got a newsletter from Scott of Better Health Guy. He always has great information but the one link that was of most interest to me was to his bullet points from the Physician's Round Table 2012. All the information from these conferences is just fascinating and as usual, I am most impressed with the information presented by Dr. Klinghardt. He is such a brilliant man and I am excited that I will hopefully still get to see him in September this year. He is leaving CMC and opening his own practice with 4 other NDs from CMC, but they will try to give priority to patients who already had an appointment set up with him at.

What also stood out to me in the Physician's Round Table was Dr. Fry's work and findings regarding a protozoa called Protomyxzoa Rheumatica (or FL1953). Rather than repeating what Dr. Fry presented, here are a few bullet points from the Physician's Round Table that really stood out to me.

• Protozoans love lipids (fats).  The McDougall diet is used as part of treatment.  Doxycycline and tetracyclines may target the fatty acid synthesis machinery.
• Toxoplasmosis is also dependent on fats.
• Protomyxzoa grows 100 times faster with fats than without.
• There is a reduction in relative biofilms with the McDougall diet.
• In some people where they had seen the organism and biofilms, they could not find the organism after being on the McDougall diet.  Unfortunately, after starting to eat higher fat content, the microbe was again present and visible.
• They did a test in people with Protomyxzoa using a 12.5 day water fast and levels of Protomyxzoa dropped to undetectable.  Within 2 days of eating again, it was back.
• Protomyxzoa is found in CFS, Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Crohn’s, MS, Parkinson’s, ALS, Autism, Scleroderma, and others.
• Protomyxzoa is Public Enemy #1.
• Protomyxzoa loves fat.  It is complex.  It is drug-resistant.

I love fat, crave it actually, and quite often we crave what the critters in our gut like and thrive on. I feel better when I fast and then go downhill when I start eating again. I eat a high fat diet. In addition, my health really started to decline after I got bitten by a butt load of mosquitoes during a trip to Cozumel in 2008. Considering all this I decided to schedule an appointment with Dr. D to see if she felt it was worth it to get tested for this parasite. It's a blood test done by Fry Labs and costs a "mere" $399! There were also a few other things I wanted to discuss.

So below is what I asked her and her responses. Keep in mind that I can't write as fast as she talks and I may have gotten some of this slightly wrong. But here is what I got.

1. Could FL1953 be an issue for me and is it worth it to run the test?
   
   They assume that every patient has it and treat accordingly. She herself has talked to Dr. Fry about this and so has Dr. Klinghardt. When they first discussed it Dr. Klinghardt was very much into putting their patients on an ultra low fat diet as suggested but they all went downhill and felt horrible. The body needs fat to make hormones [I already knew this and was concerned about it]  and I would most likely gain weight due to hormone deficiencies and also because a low fat diet leads to a high carb diet. Eating a high carb diet can make you gain weight especially since my blood sugar already runs high on a low carb diet.
   
   They have other/more effective ways of breaking up biofilm with enzymes, clay, and cistus tea and addressing the parasite like with Tri-Quench and Allicin in an inhaler [I already do this] and retention enemas with freeze dried garlic and artemisinin [I do this as well].
   
   She said she is more than happy to order the blood test for me but didn't think it was necessary.
    
2. I had noticed my vitamin D3 was down to 55 this last time and asked how much I should be using
   
   4,000 to 6,000 IU daily.
    
3. Could KPU be cause of bloating/distention?
   
   It's possible but she mentioned Claritin again and said to try it daily for at least a week to see if it makes a difference.
    
4. I asked if Cryotherapy really is as effective as I have been hearing.
   
   She said that hot cold therapy can be effective always starting with warm first, then using cold for no more than 30 seconds like in the shower. However, she said she has not seen enough research by people she trusts to be convinced that longer cold therapy is effective or good for chronically ill people.
    
5. I asked about making an appointment with Dr. Klinghardt at the new location since I had already had one set up for September at CMC.
   
   Dr. D gave me a link where I could send an email to let them know that I was an established patient at CMC and was scheduled to see Dr. K in September. She said established patients will be given priority but Dr. K will only be in the US for 15 days in September. She said they will try their best to schedule me during that time. They will first be in a temporary location while their new/permanent location is being built. [I did not ask her the exact location of those two places.]

So now I am torn about what to do. I want to trust the process and believe that I am on the right path, at the same time I would like to know for sure whether I have this parasite or not. The question is, would I change anything if I do have it? Would I try a low fat diet just to see if I do ok on it? I am not sure what I would to be honest and the $399 for the test would be a lot of food or supplements!