Magnesium is one of the most important minerals that you can take when you have chronic Lyme disease.

However, lately in forums it has been blasted as a crucial component of the biofilms that protect colonies of spirochetes from being destroyed by antibiotics and our immune systems.

Which one is true.

First I will tell you my own experience, which I think many of you will relate to.

I have suffered from frequent migraines since I was very young, and when I finally crashed having ignored so many warnings through the course of my equine pursuits and free weight training  “…no pain, no gain!”  I actually thought I was building strength by ignoring all the symptoms until finally I crashed in 2006.

Initially my migraines flared unbearably which added to the long list of pain which had me drugged up and under the covers literally, often barely crawling to the toilet to vomit – if you’ve suffered from migraines, you know what I mean.

Well, when I first stumbled on Dr. Burrascano’s “Treatment Guidelines” I read that magnesium is one of his required supplements.  I didn’t really think about it but over four months I started taking Himalayan Salt, Coral Calcium and mega-doses of Magnesium (1000 mg +) – all of which have magnesium.

Between terrible herxes and intense pain from noises (even whispers) and light (I had to cover all my windows in shades to block out all light – wear sunglasases indoor and put a heavy jacket, towel or blanket over my head when my mother drove me anywhere), I really didn’t think about my migraines – in fact it just dawned on me one day that I hadn’t had a migraine in weeks.

I began to monitor the supplements in a different way and really never figured it out until a very respectable doctor told me that “…all migraines are caused by a lack of magnesium unless otherwise proven.”

Soon afterwards, I had to take a fasting test – with no supplements – and I had a raging migraine worse than ever!

Then after I started the magnesium again, my migraine faded away.

Now, Dr. Burrascano says, “Magnesium supplementation is very helpful for the tremors, twitches, cramps, muscle soreness, heart skips
and weakness. It may also help in energy level and cognition.”

And the Office of Dietary Supplements say, “…Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body and is essential to good health. Approximately 50% of total body magnesium is found in bone. The other half is found predominantly inside cells of body tissues and organs. Only 1% of magnesium is found in blood, but the body works very hard to keep blood levels of magnesium constant.

Magnesium is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady, supports a healthy immune system, and keeps bones strong. Magnesium also helps regulate blood sugar levels, promotes normal blood pressure, and is known to be involved in energy metabolism and protein synthesis. There is an increased interest in the role of magnesium in preventing and managing disorders such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Dietary magnesium is absorbed in the small intestines. Magnesium is excreted through the kidneys.

The aspect of magnesium that have many of us with chronic Lyme disease fearful of taking it is that the biofilms that protect Lyme (and other pathogens or diseases) are built by grabbing magnesium out of the blood stream.  The magnesium is a key component to the structure of the biofilm.

After extensive research, my belief (although I am not a licensed medical practitioner) are that the potential negative effects of magnesium can be countered by Lumbrokinase and Nattokinase Plus (which includes Serrapeptase also) which are targeted to destroy biofilms and become even more effective when taken together.

Please send comments if you have experience with magnesium and/or biofilm busters.

Has anyone heard of Lumbrokinase?  Well, if you haven’t, lumbrokinase is a group of six, novel proteolytic enzymes derived from the earthworm Lumbricus Rubellus, and it is slowly establishing itself as possibly the best and brightest new treatment for chronic Lyme sufferer.

I say “new treatment” because it is new information for me – generously supplied by a fellow “Lymie” Ted Patterson who has tried it and “feels better than he has in years”.  The more I researched this enzyme, the more excited I have become.

First, lumbrokinase has been used successfully in China’s four top hospitals in nerve and infectious diseases since 1995 without any harmful side effects.  Initially used for the potent ability to dissolve blood clots and vein thrombosis, it was soon discovered to improve the quality of blood in a number of ways that are still being discovered.

According to Allery Research Group,  medical reports from leading researchers and doctors have further discovered the power of lumbrokinase to not only dissolve clots which obviously helps protect against heart disease and strokes, but also:

• to lower fibrinogen levels in cancer patients, which is strongly associated in scientific studies with better outcomes, less metastasis, and slower growth of tumors;
• to offer antiplatelet, anti-thrombotic and self-destructive cellular activity, remarkably regulating hypercoagulation; and most importantly for us,
  
• to dissolve bacterial biofilms present in chronic infections in conditions like autism and Lyme disease, allowing antimicrobials and anti-bacterials as well as our own immune system to work effectively and quickly to destroy the colonies that hide behind the biofilms.

Biofilms have been recently discovered as one of the key biological roadblocks to curing many chronic diseases, especially (for our purposes) Lyme disease. It is a remarkable breakthrough, and it ultimately could have a huge effect on Lyme disease sufferers and possibly their life insurance quotes and policies because of a longer life expectancy among those infected.

Peta Cohen, M.S., R.D.,  is the founder of Total Life Center in Northern New Jersey, and has a Masters Degree in Clinical Nutrition, was recently interviewed by Allergy Research Group (read entire interview here), and offers these insights into biofilms:

“I do a tremendous amount of testing and assessing the children through urine and fecal analysis. What got me so interested in nattokinase and lumbrokinase was the concept of what a biofilm infection actually is. If you do a medline search on biofilms and platelet aggregation, fibrinogen, and fibrin, boom, it’s there right in your face.

“Bacteria build biofilms by first aggregating together, and then rapidly weaving this protective web or matrix around them.  They build a polymeric matrix. It’s a sticky, gluey, mucus-y goop and it’s got fibrin in it to give it an intact structure. The bacteria recruit fibrinogen to create fibrin as part of that matrix. At that point they can shed their outer membrane, which has the proteins that serve as antigens and as a target of the missile of the immune system. They’re very protected. They’re very crafty in creating a way to survive and procreate and hide from the immune system.”

In neurological Lyme disease, the biofilm is believed to be constructed of actual bits and pieces of our myelin sheath which covers and protects our actual nerves that make up our central nervous system.  So when the immune system calls for killer cells to destroy the invaders, our immune system can actually attack our central nervous system trying to break through the biofilm and destroy the infection which they cannot do.

So, as lumbrokinase dissolves this biofilm, we have hope that our killer cells, or in more critical cases where the immune system is no longer working effectively, antibiotics (pharmaceutical or herbal) will be able to destroy the infection and return us to health!

See product here.

Look for Part Two on “nattokinase”, and please comment if you have any experience to relate regarding lumbrokinase.

To read excerpts from LLD’s who are using lumbrokinase successfully, read:

Two Doctors Use Lumbrokinase to Help Conquer Lyme Disease