Lyme disease was virtually unknown outside of the New England states when the first case entered my office in the mid-1990’s. I knew what the standard medical pathology textbooks taught us as student doctors, that it was from a tick bite and could cause a bulls-eye rash and joint inflammation, but did not know much beyond that basic information. I joined the fight to help one family, who had one of the first diagnosed cases in the state of Kansas. They were given 4-weeks of Doxycyline and proclaimed cured, even though all of their symptoms had gotten worse. Little did I know it would be a baptism by fire that would span my entire career!
The question rapidly became, ‘If they are “cured” then why are they so sick and what do I need to do to get their quality of life back?’ Fast forward almost 25 years, and many thousands of patients later, that remains the challenge, although we are dramatically more advanced in our knowledge of not only the disease, but how to work with the body to conquer it.
The world is quite a different place regarding Lyme disease awareness than it was when I wrote the first book on the natural treatment of those suffering with LD and ultimately presented my research at the 1999 International Tick-borne Diseases Conference in New York City. Nobody knew much about it back then, as few people were aware that it was a truly global illness of such huge proportions that left many doctors wondering who doesn’t have the bacteria in them already.
I remember in the 90’s spending a lot of money on a booth at a large health fair in Austin, Texas. I was so proud of the graphics of ticks and their barbed mouths and the color educational brochures neatly stacked on the table in front of the booth. Although the conference was well attended by several thousand attendees, people would just walk by, often commenting that they don’t have Lyme disease or that Lyme is only contracted in Connecticut.
What was most shocking in those early years was the completely vicious attack that mainstream medicine and their attack dog attorneys and organizations brought against anyone claiming to have LD outside of New England, and especially anyone striving to help people with LD with alternative methods.
That very first family that came to me for help, insisted that I figure out a way to fix whatever was wrong in their bodies, through innovative testing I had just invented, Biospectral Emission Sequence Testing (BES), enabled me to cut through the sparse literature and make my own discoveries about people with post-treatment LD.
First, I discovered that none of the available natural immune boosters, colostrum, botanical anti-microbials and other supplements of that time would work for my patients. I kept ordering more supplements that might work, only to have them fail to do anything.
One interesting thing I discovered was that many of my patients would come in having taken various brands of colostrum and soon after would manifest all the same symptoms of my classic LD patients. When these people called the colostrum companies they were told that their new symptoms were just from the colostrum stimulating their immune system, a logical, but in my opinion incomplete response, especially when considering what I ultimately discovered.
I used BRS to test their colostrum supplements and was shocked to find Borrelia frequencies. Could their colostrum be contaminated by infected dairy cows, I wondered. I sent unlabelled samples of four different colostrums from four different companies to my good colleague and friend, Lida Mattman, PhD. who had one of the few labs that could culture the Borrelia of LD. The report came back positive for Lyme Borrelia in three of the four samples! Dr. Mattman sent me pictures of the bacteria in the colostrum that she took through her microscope.
In veterinary research I found online, which has since been removed, it was determined that approximately 90% of all domesticated animals were found to be infected with Lyme Borrelia bacteria. The article went on to say that they were able to find live Borrelia in all body fluids, including colostrum. So colostrum became another supplement that I couldn’t use safely on my patients.
Ultimately for that very first family, I developed a plant-based formula using BRS to simulate multiple strains of Borrelia and all of the coinfections, and then used BRS to determine what a person’s body would need in order for their body to bring this over-population of bacteria under control. I called that original formula Borrelogen, but it was hand-made for that family and I just wrote the name on a bottle for them with all the herbs I had used listed.
The great news was that it worked! Finally, after months of researching and trying different things, their health improved significantly. As I tweaked the formula over many months in order to improve it, their health was restored for good. That was over 20 years ago!
That family told everyone they could online and over the phone until my clinic phone wouldn’t stop ringing with people wanting to purchase Borrelogen.
I honestly never set out to be the “Lyme guy.” I was just wanting to help this first family who came to me. At different stages of my career I seriously considered not accepting anymore people who even think they might have LD., due to the horrible attacks I have had to endure, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend myself. Of course, I am not alone in that attack. Many of the pioneers in the industry were and still are being systematically targeted for persecution.
It didn’t seem to matter that we focused only on restoring the body’s ability to function optimally and from there the disease could fall away. Even Borrelogen has nothing that is directly antibacterial in its formula, but was formulated more like a botanical software program that once installed into the body, seemed to allow the body to control these bacteria.
The research I presented at the 1999 International Tick-borne Diseases conference conclusively showed huge, never before seen numbers of dead Lyme bacteria showing up in urine testing. One might think the world of medicine would cheer, but that was never to be the case. You see, if the mainstream doctors gave you an antibiotic and you felt worse it meant that it was working and you were experiencing die-off. If you were given a natural remedy, such as Borrelogen and you felt worse, it meant you were likely allergic to the remedy or it was toxic. Sad but true, the research proved nothing in their minds. I came from the wrong schools, had the wrong degree, and no natural remedy could out perform the tried and true science of antibiotics.
On that same trip to New York, I was already pursuing the next logical step in helping people with LD, determining how to help the body deal with the toxins and die-off, whether they took antibiotics or natural supplements. I figured that if I had the best natural remedy to get the body to do its own killing of these bacteria, AND I could figure out the best way to eliminate or reduce die-off symptoms, then I would have the perfect system!
Through lots of research, hard work, and prayer, I discovered that ammonia was one of the primary toxins causing many of the symptoms from LD and its die-off. Once again, with ammonia as my target, I used my innovation, BRS, to find and develop a new botanical formula with the primary herb, Silphium laciniatum plant, harvested green at the peak of its life cycle to capture its unique medicinal qualities.
I called this formula NeuroAntitox and soon proved its results with clinical testing, such as Functional Acuity Contrast Testing, the gold standard of documenting the presence of toxins in the brain and documenting the gradual improvement with correct treatments. Upon reviewing the stack of before and after tests, the inventor of the FACT test, Arthur Ginsberg, PhD., proclaimed that I had discovered the most significant formula to date for the remove of neurotoxins. You would think with these results that the world would beat a path to your door, but it was looked at as just another formula in a now booming industry of high-tech nutritional companies.
I settled back into being satisfied with helping those people who found my clinic, and I have now helped over ten thousand people over the last 24+ years. I wager to say, I was one of the first to enter the arena of LD, from the natural side, and I am still learning new ways to heal people faster and better. I have continued to develop more effective formulas and deeper ways to test and treat people. I have now written numerous papers and four books on the natural treatment of people with Lyme Disease, yet I feel I could write a fifth with all I have discovered and learned since the latest book.
The internet is full of doctors proclaiming to know how to beat LD. Everyone is an “expert,” although from what I can tell, the vast majority are following whatever popular “cookie-cutter” protocol is being sold to them at the big conferences. Experience and innovation and being able to tailor the most ideal treatments for each patient’s unique body and situation is what has made the difference for the many thousands of people who have had success with my testing and treatment systems at the Biologix Center for Optimum Health.
Over the years, my peers and many of our patients have referred to us as the “Mayo Clinic of Biological Medicine,” due to our standard of care and innovation, and most of all…results.
I chuckle to myself when I meet young, bright-eyed doctors at conferences who basically proclaim they are masters of LD treatment after treating a dozen or more cases or even a hundred cases. I and my doctors have cumulative experience from literally many hundreds of thousands of office visits, people who put their lives or the lives of their loved ones in our hands, all of which over-rides the ego and arrogance of youthful ambition. It is with humility and skill that we must approach each case, knowing we are only the facilitators, not the doers.
It is good to see many more doctors in the industry to help the huge number of people out there suffering from LD. However, this is not a business that lends itself well to doctor-ego, but over many years of wins and failures, beats the ego out of you, leaving the doctor humble to his limitations, techniques, and skill. It is sad to me that there are doctors who would rather tear down other doctors to make themselves look better, or for financial gain.
In the end, the journey to find significance in my life through innovating new and better ways to help people heal has been and still is extremely fulfilling.
I would encourage you to know that you can heal from this illness! There is a solution for every person’s poor health, but it requires having the tools to determine what the root issues are.