I've long been interested in the work of Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker who is an expert on biotoxin illnesses. You can learn more about his work on my Mold page. I have been fortunate to write several articles with Dr. Shoemaker on his biotoxin theories.
Dr. Shoemaker promotes the use of HLA testing to help determine which people may be Lyme or mold biotoxin susceptible. He is also a proponent of the use of the C4a test as a marker of illness (and more recently TGF-b1). Why do some of us get ill when bitten by a tick and others do not? HLA may be a key here. Why do some of us have terrible Herxheimer reactions and others do not? HLA may also be a key here. About 24% of the population has an HLA type that would result in a biotoxin illness after they acquire Lyme disease. Both the infection and the biotoxins must be addressed.
I recently decided to run my C4a and other biotoxin labs to see where things stood. My C4a was still elevated even though I have been feeling pretty good for awhile now and have been off of all antibiotics for 20 months (except for one short course for nasal staph - also part of the Shoemaker protocol). I also had an elevated TGF-b1. It was time to revisit treatment with a focus on biotoxins.
Earlier in the year, I did the Cholestyramine (CSM) and Actos protocol. I took CSM for about six weeks. I also treated my positive MARCoNS nasal staph culture per the Shoemaker protocol. Afterwards, C4a, TGF-b1 all dropped well within the normal ranges. I will retest these again in the near future to see if they have risen again or if they continue to remain normal.
I do think that there is often an overlooking of the need to detoxify and address biotoxins that are circulating within us and too much of a focus on solely killing microbes. Both are often needed.
Below is a video where Dr. Shoemaker talks about Lyme disease.
