In the last episode, Heather shared her personal journey from the depths of Lyme despair to triumph and regaining her health. This episode, we’re going into the details of what she did, what she now advises Lyme patients do as a medical professional, and the best tips for overcoming Lyme.

Hear from this highly trained and experienced Physician Assistant as she shares why antibiotics aren’t always the answer, the biggest challenges often overlooked in treating Lyme, and her most recommended treatments, techniques, supplements, and health products. This show is a must for anyone suffering from Lyme or chronic illness.

This is the story of healing from Lyme Disease with Heather Lowery – Part 2.

Enjoy the show!

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Connect with Heather

Watch Heather’s Story: on YouTube
More on Heather: www.NYCIM.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xqVbHuJkQMu0026t=3s

The Transcript

Caspar Szulc: 00:19
Hey everybody. Caspar Szulc here with this part two episode on Lyme disease. Last week we shared Heather’s story of battling and ultimately defeating Lyme disease. It was a really honest take and a transparent look at how greatly Lyme disease and the journey to regain health from it can impact an individual. Lyme disease is one of the most complex conditions to treat today. It’s multifactorial, multi-systemic, hard to diagnose, usually involves lots of co-infections, normally includes things like toxicity as well as emotional and energetic disturbances and requires a high level of personalization and prioritization to successfully eradicate and restore one’s health. Simply put, most of medicine is not equipped to deal with Lyme.

That’s why we’re having Heather on again, but this time, not to tell her story as a patient, but as a medical professional. She’s in that unique place of now providing specialized care as a well-trained physician assistant at the same clinic that helped her heal our own New York Center for Innovative Medicine. We’ll dive into our best medical advice, the pattern she now sees in patients that she saw in herself and important information. Anyone with Lyme disease should know how to ultimately overcome this mysterious and complex illness. This is the story of healing from Lyme with Heather Lowery, Part Two.

So last time you were here in the hot seat, you gave an amazing story about everything that you went through, your story of Lyme, conquering it, the whole journey of it, and you’re on the other side of it. Now you’re helping patients going through it. But why do you think that Lyme disease is such a difficult disease to treat?

Heather Lowery: 02:11
You know, I think…I mean, first off it’s incredibly hard to diagnose. So there’s one problem, but as far as treating it goes outside of an acute infection in a more chronic phase anything that’s a couple of months to a year or more that someone’s been suffering with it. It’s never just Lyme it’s Lyme and then some, unfortunately, Lyme disease. So Lyme is a spirochete bacteria, so it’s shaped like a corkscrew. It is a very stealthy disease or bacteria. So whenever it infects you it has a way of basically, it doesn’t just hang out in the bloodstream, it infects your white blood cells and it drives itself into your connective tissue. It can hide from your immune system. So very stealthy, but, and not only that, it actually, I think kind of one of the biggest things is that it wrecks your terrain.

So your terrain being your extracellular environment. So it makes it really unhealthy and toxic. And whenever that happens, it kind of gives ground for other things to grow other bad bugs, other opportunistic infections and it shuts down your immune system. So it just kind of overtime shuts down your immune system. But then on top of that, there’s all these other, you know virulent bacteria and whatnot, that kind of overgrowth. So you’re not just dealing with Lyme, you’re dealing with Lyme, and you know, a sluggish lymphatic system, and a lowered immune system and candida overgrowth and co-infections that people sometimes get whenever they have Lyme disease like Bartonella, Babesia. So I feel like it’s never like I said, it’s never just lime, it’s lime plus everything else that goes along with it. So it’s, it’s complicated to treat. And not only that, we haven’t even touched on the emotional/spiritual side of that because with people who have been sick for a really long time you know, it’s not just the infection, it’s the emotional trauma that comes with that, the poor mindset and the emotional issues that affect how your body functions. So it’s, it’s challenging to treat because it’s not just Lyme, it’s, it’s the whole picture.

Caspar Szulc: 04:19
It’s always Lyme plus, and it’s always personalized the plus. And it’s never just plus one, right? It’s a party. This isn’t a wedding invitation. This is a guest list. And that is what makes it so difficult. But at the same time, we’re, we’re normally talking about a lot of co-infections. So you would think that, and you know, it’s, it’s reasonable to say that antibiotic treatment would work in a sense. What is the problem with antibiotic treatments in so much that some patients that go through it do not get better?

Heather Lowery: 04:56
So there’s, there’s always a time and a place for antibiotics and I definitely believe that antibiotics, the way that they work, most of the time they’re best used in an acute setting with fast-growing bacteria. So with Lyme, Lyme is actually very slow-growing. So that’s, that’s one problem. But Lyme can also kind of like going back to it being stealthy, it can hide from the antibiotics. So Lyme can take on different shapes. So Lyme being the Borrelia, it can go from a spirochete form to a sphere form and then hide in the connective tissue. And then when the antibiotics are gone, boom, it’s back out doing its thing, wrecking your, wrecking your system, and inviting friends. So it’s, it’s hard to treat with antibiotics because of that. But also, I mean it, and so a lot of Lyme literate doctors now are kind of getting into, okay, well we’ll throw different antibiotics at, at this person and do it longterm.

Which I understand that mindset for sure. And in some patients that probably helps them, no doubt. But the problem there is that, I mean 70 to 80% of your immune system lives in your gut and that is highly influenced by the microbiome. So, those bugs that you have living in your gut, when you’re taking an antibiotic, you’re not just, it’s not just like a tailored treatment to that bad bug. It’s, it doesn’t care. It’s unbiased. It goes in, it just wrecks shop on everything. So it’s killing the good stuff. It’s killing the bad stuff. So longterm antibiotics is not just killing Lyme, but it’s also killing your good bugs and therefore damaging your immune system. And you know, to top it off antibiotics can be kind of toxic and they’re hard on, some of them are hard on the liver, others are hard on the kidneys

And so if you have a toxic patient with a lowered immune system coming in, getting treated with heavy antibiotics for long term, you are further increasing their, their toxicity load or their toxins, whatever damaging their immune system. And then are you, are you killing the Lyme? We don’t know. Maybe you’re just kind of like pushing it away and it’s going to come out later. So antibiotics, I think in an acute setting there’s, there’s reason to maybe give it and if you catch it at the right time, which is the very small window of opportunity to treat Lyme with antibiotics. But if you can do that, that’s fine. But it’s, once it moves past that phase, which it often does and it’s hard, it’s not always the best option.

Caspar Szulc: 07:21
And I’ve heard doctors use this analogy that antibiotics are like atom bombs they just are indiscriminate. They blow everything up in your insides basically in your stomach and then these colonies and what’s left afterward are usually the pests. Now usually after an atom bomb, there’s some sort of quiet afterward, right? It’s, it’s a burden area burden and it’s just scorched earth in a sense. And, and I know a lot of patients say, Hey, I took it and I felt better because everything just kind of calmed down. But what comes after the that settles is usually you have an infestation of like cockroaches, rats, and things like that. After they survive that. And I’ve heard the doctor say those are the co-infections, the Borrelia, and others, they come out and now it’s worse than ever.

Heather Lowery: 08:14
Exactly, those survivors are awful. They’re there to live and thrive and they will do whatever it takes to take over.

Caspar Szulc: 08:21
And like you said, they’re bringing the guest list with them and now others come in. And I think that’s why a lot of patients ride the roller coaster. I know you mentioned that in the first time we spoke was that it is like up and down and you took the antibiotic was a little better, but then you came crashing down after that because that’s what happened. You kind of cleared out house a little bit and it’s quiet for a second, but then they’re like, Hey, it’s time to party now and you’re worse off now you have no defenses.

Heather Lowery: 08:46
Exactly. And such a huge part of that is just your terrain in general. So if you have if you’re really acidic and you have a lot of toxins and sludge and bad stuff kind of hanging out in your environment, after you kill off a bunch of bugs, well the bad ones are going to overgrow because they thrive in that environment. You know that you have an acidic environment with all these toxins. They’re like, great, this is awesome. Let’s, let’s overgrow. So you get the overgrowth of the bad stuff and then yeah, you feel bad again.

Caspar Szulc: 09:14
So we know that dropping these atom bombs special on something that’s chronic that’s been there such as you know Borrelia also being a tough one to battle with antibiotics is probably not the best-case scenario here. And that using a little bit more targeted and personalized approach is, and of course when you’re talking about personalization, you can’t tell everyone, well you have to do this, this and this and you’ll get better. But for everyone listening, what are some of the patterns you’ve noticed now on the clinical side of things that patients go through? Meaning are most of them, you mentioned toxicity and emotional. What are the patterns you’re seeing in the treatment protocols that show up that are personalized again and there is no one size fits all here? But what have you seen?

Heather Lowery: 10:00
You know, I feel like, with the majority of Lyme patients that come in, myself included it…I mean one of the biggest issues is like you said, is kind of detoxing them and cleaning up the environment. So they come in with a very high, high level of toxicity in their connective tissue due to chronic infection due to emotional stress due to chronic use of antibiotics, that kind of thing. So usually that’s kind of one of the biggest things first is to basically go in and do some spring cleaning in the house. Because, I mean, you can, you can go into a house and kill roaches all day long, but if you don’t clean it up like they’re going to keep coming back and you’re going to have a really hard time getting rid of them. So I think that that is a really big thing.

It’s just an overall toxicity problem. But, unfortunately, other than the Lyme, most chronic Lyme patients have at least one or two and then some co-infections. So you’re looking at Bartonella, Mycoplasma, Babesia, that kind of thing. So we see that a lot. And then usually, I mean, there’s, there’s a, a good amount of heavy metal toxicity too. That’s, I mean that’s, that’s a problem with a whole host of our patients. But definitely with Lyme patients, which is another issue in and of itself. The emotional component is huge. And I think that that’s a component that a lot of practitioners like we don’t know how to address it. You don’t know where to start cause we’re not really taught that in I, at least in the PA school we were like, “Oh, there’s a problem? Go see your psych, go see your whatever.” We don’t really learn much about the profound impact that your emotions have on your body, but even down to like a cellular level, the way that your cells vibrate. So most Lyme patients have a high toxic load, lots of co-infections tons of emotional stress. And really something interesting that I’ve noticed in the younger generation because we get a lot of like 20 somethings that come in with Lyme is they have a loss of purpose too. Cause they’ve been sick for so long and, and have just kind of had to take a step back from life and don’t really, I mean they’re just, they’re, their sickness is their identity. So those things are there. But I mean other than that, a lot of you know, gut dysfunction and, and things of that nature. So…

Caspar Szulc: 12:24
So of course there is an important part here which is detoxification. And not all detoxification is the same. Of course, people kind of lump that together as “infrared sauna, you mean?” No, not just that. Of course. Right, right. Celery juice is great, which is great. Yes. We’re not knocking that at all. But nevertheless, there is a detoxification component. With any detoxification, especially if you’re going through a heavy detoxification. There is a possibility for Herx reaction. And a lot of patients don’t know too much about that or are ill-informed about that. Could you go into a little bit, especially when if you’re speaking to a patient that has experienced some symptoms or doesn’t know what a Herxheimer reaction is, can you go into that a little bit?

Heather Lowery: 13:11
Yeah, for sure. So I think that in that the word Herxheimer reaction, I feel like that gets thrown around a lot in particularly in the alternative medicine and integrative world. And I remember using that phrase all the time at my first job, I worked at an alternative medicine clinic and I blamed everything on that. “Oh, I gave you a Diflucan to help your yeast overgrowth and oh, you’re feeling terrible. It’s, it’s die-off. It’s Herx. Yeah, you’re going to be fine. So I really, I think I was just naive because I had maybe one lesson on that in PA school, ‘Oh, Herx,’ and I don’t remember. You know, it was probably on my board exam or something. But anyway, a true Herxheimer reaction is actually life-threatening. I mean, you’re talking, so it can make, it can put you into a SIRS.

So a systemic inflammatory response syndrome that can literally kill you and put you in the hospital, you become hypotensive. It’s something that you see in the ER that we see in the ER in septic patients. So basically a Herxheimer reaction is it was originally coined, I think due to patients who were being treated for syphilis. I think that’s what it was. But it’s when you give a heavy dose of antibiotics to a patient who has whatever, infection, syphilis, Lyme disease, and you kill all of those, those bacteria, will those bacteria release toxins and they explode essentially. And so you’ve got dead bacteria, debris, toxins, all of these things floating around. Well if you, sometimes that can overload the system and your body, your immune system is like what the heck is going on?

And it starts doing damage to your organs and they start shutting down and then you can die. So it’s a very, very serious, serious thing. So you know, and you do have to be careful in treating people who have a very serious infection, just dumping antibiotics, not even just antibiotics, even natural treatment at them because you don’t want to do that to them obviously. And so I think the key there is detoxification. Cleaning house before you treat whatever infection there is so that you don’t throw them into a Herxheimer reaction. They don’t feel absolutely terrible. Cause if you don’t get the lymphatic system functioning well again, get the guts functioning decently well. Again, get the liver up and going, get, have the kidneys flushing well if those things aren’t working well and then you just kill a bunch of bugs bad stuff happens.

But so most of the time I think when, when patients come here and they have say we give them an antimicrobial to help with Lyme and they feel poorly afterward, that’s not a true Herxheimer reaction because you’re not hypotensive in an ER. But it is a more of a like you do have some extra toxins floating around. And so it’s kind of a detox thing where your body needs to get rid of all of that stuff, but it’s just getting a little backed up. It’s not the end of the world. It’s, it’s okay, but it’s not, it’s not a Herx.

Caspar Szulc: 16:07
Right. And thank you for clearing that up because I used to toss that word around too. You got a little bit of headache fatigue – its Herx. No need to worry about it. But I was schooled also into understanding it’s a very serious condition, right? And that’s not what you’re experiencing if you’re symptomatic after a little bit of a detox regimen, that’s natural almost. And again, I understand in Europe the doctors look for that. They say, Oh, it’s working, we’re getting some, some effects, right? You want to cause and effect. And when you’re removing things out, again, there’s some pain in the change of it. It’s like changing a diet. If you’re eating very poorly and go straight into only greens, you may have some abdominal discomfort at first, even though that’s healthy for you, the change is so sudden that you’re not used to it.

Caspar Szulc: 16:55
Right? And things are actually starting to work properly in some ways, but it’s still a change and you’re experiencing those changing parts to it. We went over that part and the detox and then why we talk about this personalization of antimicrobials. And I do know that allowed the patients that go through these personalized treatments and comprehensive treatments, whether here or elsewhere, a lot of times they do quite successful in the beginning, they see some results and there always an up and down and they’ll be told that they have now eliminated a majority, if not all of the infections and Borrelia itself. Why is it that in most cases that’s not the end of the treatment? Can you go into that? Cause a lot of people I know say, yeah, I’m Lyme-free, start clapping, start drinking champagne. And do not go through what is the finish line? And then the party guests list gets back.

Heather Lowery: 17:57
And then you’ve got another party going on that you don’t want. The wrong kind of party. You know, that is a question that I probably annoyingly asked this clinic five million times whenever I was a patient. So killing Lyme, while it is challenging to treat, we do have success at treating Lyme. But that is just a very small portion, and in my personal opinion is kind of the easier part of all of this. The true healing and actually becoming symptom-free, that that’s where the real work begins, I would say. So just because you go in and you kill a bunch of bugs and whatnot that doesn’t mean that like say your, we’ll do the house analogy since I’m, since I’m on that, and I’ve said that about 5 million times, so you go in there’s been bugs, it’s been infested.

“So killing Lyme, while it is challenging to treat, we do have success at treating Lyme. But that is just a very small portion, and in my personal opinion is kind of the easier part of all of this. The true healing and actually becoming symptom-free, that that’s where the real work begins.”

You kill all those bugs and you’re like, Oh great, we’re, we’re going to sweep them out and whatnot and that’s awesome, but there’s going to be damage to the house. You know, you’re going to have to go in and repair the windows or you know, paint or whatever it may be in order to kind of get it back to where it was. So there’s a regeneration phase of healing. And really that’s when people start to feel better is when they’ve, they’ve killed the lime and now it’s time to regenerate. And what that looks like is one time you have to be patient. It takes time to heal. And especially when it comes to your brain and your joints, your joints in particular, they don’t get good blood supply. So they’re going to take a long time to heal. If you’re older, it’s going to take a lot more time to regenerate.

And there’s things that we can do to help speed that process up. No doubt. But people are still symptomatic even though they don’t have the line because they still have damage to their body. And there’s also a really big psycho-emotional component to that as well. So if you think you’re sick and you still think like you’re, you’re unwell, then you will be unwell. You can literally think yourself well or think yourself sick. So I think that that plays a really big role and in my opinion, that is the most challenging as a patient. And as, as, as a practitioner, the psycho emotional healing portion of Lyme or whatever chronic disease you have that is challenging and hard and it takes time. But we try and, or at least I’ve tried and kind of pound it into patients that you do have to be patient and you have to be you have to have some grit and you’re going to have to keep doing the work and keep, keep changing your thoughts and eating well and taking care of yourself because you’re regenerating now and your immune system is still a little shaky.

It’s been sick for, your body’s been sick for a long time. It’s going to take time to heal. I mean, even I think in, this could be wrong. I can’t, I think that this is right, but I mean, say that you, you have pneumonia, you’re not, you can’t have, you can’t go under anesthesia for a couple of months just because your lungs are still healing. So if you’ve had a complete body infection, then why don’t we give ourselves time to heal from that and get back to normal before anything else. So yeah, it’s, it’s hard. You don’t feel, you don’t always, some people do, some people walk out and go, man, I feel like a million bucks. This is great, thank you so much. And they’re great and I’m so happy for those patients. But that is by and large, not the majority.

Caspar Szulc: 21:13
Right. And I think a part of that also is the responsibility switches even heavier at that point. Right? Because it’s on you to do, when you get an antimicrobial, as you sit there, of course, you got to abide by a certain health regimen and the diet plan and all of that. And you can’t be doing certain things. But when it comes to that next part of rebuilding, a lot of the responsibility lies on the patient. Correct. And it is going to be challenging and it’s going to change you. I know one of the things you said through the healing process was that you changed yourself, your mentality, everything needs to change. And that takes time too. It’s not just about these biochemical things and rebuilding on the physical sense. But it’s also actually changing, finding purpose again. All of these things that are part of it that can extend for a long time. Is there any one area that you would say patients that is the downfall, bottleneck, the biggest challenge for patients, for Lyme patients going through treatment? Is it the change in emotions? Is it the purpose? Is it de victimizing? Is it getting off the boards or is it all of it?

Heather Lowery: 22:24
It’s, it’s kind of all of it, but all of that to me falls in the category of like the psycho-emotional slash spiritual side of things, hands down. That to me, that’s always, it always kind of comes back to that. The patients who I see do really well they lose the victim mentality and they kind of take ownership of like, this is my body, this is my health, I can do this. And, and they find spiritual healing or emotional healing and they, they excel and they do awesome. I think we, and I, I say this like saying that I was very guilty of this. I literally swam in a pool of self-pity for a really, really long time. But I think as patients, we tend to look at doctors and go fix me. You fix me. What are you doing?

I’m still not better like fix me when really we should go, okay, what do I, can you help guide me as to what I need to do to heal myself? And really that’s what this center is all about, which I love is it’s, we’re not, I mean, do we kill Lyme? To an extent, yes. But really we’re just ramping up your immune system and you’re doing it. Your body’s killing Lyme. Your body is healing itself. So I think as patients we need to switch it, like you said, and kind of go, all right, this is, I can do this. I have the power to heal. My body has everything that it needs in order to heal. They’re coaching me, they’re coaching me and going to be a good athlete and like, I can do this. So, but the victimization thing is that is huge and I think that you can kind of get stuck in that. And if you do, then it is incredibly hard to heal.

“The patients who I see do really well they lose the victim mentality and they kind of take ownership of like, this is my body, this is my health, I can do this. And, and they find spiritual healing or emotional healing and they, they excel and they do awesome.”

Caspar Szulc: 24:00
Are there any therapies that you credited more so that you look at here that you just see patients improve on drastically that aren’t as available elsewhere?

Heather Lowery: 24:11
Oh, for sure. Some of the, like the neuro-emotional technique where you know, you basically are on a very superficial level just releasing emotions, trapped emotions that you have that are kind of hindering how your cells are working in particular organs. That’s a really, really cool one that I don’t think everybody does and what’s what, I mean, other clinics might do it, but the way that we figure out, okay, where, where is this emotion? At what age did you have it is through the blood test that, that Dr. Szulc invented. So through that blood test we can kind of figure out at what age what emotion, where’s the issue, and then help you release that. Which is huge. I mean, I, sometimes you can figure that out through muscle testings and things like that, but it’s just, it’s nice to kind of have a very precise diagnosis or whatnot.

So we have that. And then the biofeedback, biofeedback is huge and there’s different forms of biofeedback. But I think that that is something that’s really cool. And then there’s a lot of kind of energy treatments like the crystal bed that we use. I don’t know that I would call it a spiritual treatment, but it’s working on all of your chakras and kind of bringing the flow of energy into balance more or less. But we have a lot of cool treatments like that ACMOS included where you are working on the, the, where everything starts, which is energy, the way that cells are vibrating the, the vital force of your cells. The management and and you know, saving savings accounts of energy that you have. Like that’s what all of those therapies are working on. And I think that that that’s something that we have here that not everybody has and some people might have it, but I think doing it in the correct order is also huge. Which is important.

Caspar Szulc: 26:08
I know that Lyme is one of those diseases that that truly abides by a vicious disease cycle. Meaning if you can’t address all the facets that are allowing it to persist, then you will not have true healing and true resolution of symptoms and of the disease itself. So when you look at a disease cycle, a vicious disease cycle, it’s really the three sides of it. It’s, it’s the body/biochemical, the mental cycle/emotional, you can say PNEI and HPA axis. All of that falls into it. And then it is your spiritual side, which is more consciousness information, membrane imp membrane, which Bruce Lipton gets into. But if you just address one, you’ll see some result. But the other two don’t. And they just cascade back and they just all go in the circle. So it is critical if you’re listening to address all three at once and not go one. And also know which one. Sometimes it’s this one first and that one, but it’s happening at the same time.

Heather Lowery: 27:09
I was going to say that addressing all of them is incredibly important, but definitely the order. Sometimes patients need the emotional stuff first. Most of the time that comes later. But sometimes they need help with, with energy first and then they need to detox and then they do the emotional stuff. So it’s definitely you have to address all of them and you have to do it in the right order.

Caspar Szulc: 27:29
Right. What are some tips or recommendations that you give outside of even just medical treatment when you’re seeing a patient and they’re struggling and they come in here with Lyme, they’re starting. Is there anything that you kind of hone in on to sort of say, Hey just do this. It’ll be okay. Or any, any piece of advice that you’d give to people in general?

Heather Lowery: 27:50
Well, definitely depends on the patient and what they’re going through. But I think one thing that I tell patients, cause I told myself this a lot and like I had this reel positive things going through my head, but sometimes patients get so discouraged and I remember this feeling cause you get better and you’re like, gosh, this is it. Like I’m going to run a half marathon and I’m getting back out in life and I’m, this is behind me and now we can finally have that party that I’ve been wanting. And then they dip. And those old symptoms that they’ve had creep back up, maybe not in full force, but even just like the little, the tinge of it being there is terrifying. And mentally that takes you to a really dark place because you’re like, Oh, it’s back. None of this worked.

I am still sick and I’m never going to get well. And you just kind of give all of these like used words that I don’t like to use. Like never and always. And so you get stuck. So, but the good news is, is that you come out of it again. So what I tell patients is the road to healing, it’s definitely not linear. It’s going to be filled with ups and downs. But with time your threshold will change. So like say you’re going like this, it kind of does this and I probably said this last time and you kind of come up. So when you dip down you have to remember, and my mom always told me that she was like, you got there once you get there again. And so that’s what, that’s what I’d tell them to tell themselves.

Heather Lowery: 29:16
You know, I got there once, I’ll get there again, got there once, I’ll get there again and it’ll be even better. So that’s one thing that I definitely say. And then 2, I think when you have symptoms come up, as hard as it is, you cannot dwell on them and think about them because then that issue grows truly. I mean, even on like a quantum physics level, but that’s a different topic. So you can go, Oh, my knee is hurting again. That stinks. That’s unfortunate. But it will get better. And now I’m going to go about my day. So not dwelling on whatever issue it is. That’s a really big, really big thing. Trying to find joy in some way in your day, do something that brings you sparks joy as a, what’s her name? Yeah, exactly that what you said that good. I was going to say Marie Kondo, like a true, true Texan Marie Kondo, sparks joy. But yeah, do something that sparks joy or brings you some type of happiness or whatnot. And those are, those are a few things that I say and that’s really on like just kind of mentally gearing up and toughening up and getting through things.

Caspar Szulc: 30:35
Great advice and sparking joy is all that and everyone should tidy up anyway and get their declutter. Are there any though, techniques that you advise people to practice at home to tap into what you’re talking about a little bit to stay positive? It’s one thing to catch yourself in a negative thought pattern and try, but sometimes people need a little bit more, they need a little bit like a technique, whether that is EFT or some other sort of pieces. But is there something you found yourself or that you recommend to other patients? Techniques they can be practicing at home so that they don’t fall into victimization, all these other things that are very easy and kind of and get out of that.

Heather Lowery: 31:19
There are a number of them. You know, even something as simple as meditating, that’s something that I started to do for sure. And that just kinda at least helped calm my brain down and not just get flustered with all of these thoughts and emotions that I was having. There’s actually a device that I really like if you if you’re trying to learn how to meditate called Muse. Muse is really cool. So I initially did that and kind of dipped my feet and learning how to meditate. But then I did a lot of breathing techniques and there’s so many. I can probably give you info, we can link it or something like that.

Caspar Szulc: 31:59
Well give me like three even or one or two.

Heather Lowery: 32:01
What I, I don’t even know that I like could tell you the names of them, but I just practiced for five to 10 minutes maybe whenever I was struggling I would breathe in for say six seconds, hold it for three, and then out for at least eight. I always tried to breathe out longer. Exactly. And when you’re doing that too, I read one time about somebody kind of picturing as you’re breathing in light and healing is coming in and you picture it going to all of your cells and then you hold it for a second, just kind of let it resonate and then you breathe out like black dust, like getting rid of toxins. So as silly as that sounds, it’s actually extremely beneficial. So there’s that. And then doing some other practices like Ho’oponopono which is we, I could probably talk about that for a long time, but just kind of if there was a situation or a person or an issue going on that really bothered me, that I still do that.

Literally, I’m on my way home from work sometimes. Right? if you just see me sitting there going, I forgive you. Please forgive me. Thank you so much. I love you, blah, blah blah. Anyway, so that practice is actually healing, not even just for you, but for whoever you’re doing it towards even if it’s somebody you liked, but you got frustrated. The Ho’oponopono is, is a practice that I use actually, even now. But started using whenever I was sick. And then I’m trying to think of other things that I did. I mean, this isn’t like a practice that I did at home. All of those are free and easy and you can do actually the emotional freedom technique. I went through a season where I did that a lot, which was, yeah, the tapping, which helped a lot.

So those are them. And then something that I did that wasn’t at home just because I lived in Texas and the clinic was here and I couldn’t fly up all the time to do biofeedback, that biofeedback kept popping up on my evaluation like that you would really benefit from that. So basically just changing the way I interpret certain stressful things to where they don’t stress me out as much, but I actually did something called LENS, the low energy neurofeedback system, so it’s not as like interactive as the biofeedback. But it definitely helps kind of bring, if you looked at my EEG before and after my brainwaves were much better, but it helped kind of get my brain functioning back where it needed to and it really helped with emotional issues and sleep to be honest. So those are little tidbits of things that I did on my own. That really helped.

Caspar Szulc: 34:33
Everyone’s different, of course. And that’s the whole thing. You pick it up. And I think just starting a ritual routine and start simple. People are trying find these most advanced little things and like and, and time it out precisely. It’s just when you wake up, you know meditate. Even if for a few minutes, even if it’s just sitting there and breathing and out and everything. Start there. Research a little bit more and take it there because there are so many things you can be doing outside of the medical office to help you out. And I think that’s a big part of it is some people just go into the medical office, say this is my only treatment for the day. And then just go about stressing, staying in that negative thought process. You know, as soon as the symptom comes up, just harboring on it and that will not help you. That’s diminishing every treatment. And so I think that’s, that’s great advice. Keep it simple. Go with your own thing and just do it right. Just go in.

Heather Lowery: 35:29
Choose, just choose one thing. I mean I didn’t do all of those things at once. I remember being, I would get easily overwhelmed like I feel like a lot of sick do and like how I’m supposed to take all these supplements and do this and that and you want me to eat this way and not eat that. And so I really had to kind of had to keep things simple cause my brain just couldn’t handle it. So I think the first thing that I ever did was when I fell asleep at night, I meant to say this is, I would, I was trying to really be grateful for any changes that I saw and for the life that I had. So I would say, okay, every night as I’m falling asleep, I’m going to go over five things I’m thankful for. Even if I’m pissed while I do it for this house and this comfortable bed as I lay here in my knee braces. Just kidding. I’m sure God or the universe, whatever you believe was like, that’s sort of helping but not really. But doing, choosing one thing to start and usually, I mean by and large, less is more. Yeah. So don’t do 5 million different things. Choose something, one or two, whatever. And do those. Less is more, like you said, keep it simple.

Caspar Szulc: 36:34
Yeah. Sticking on that less is more. Are there any supplements now that you’re done and personalized, and of course healing goes on forever really, but are there any supplements, products, or anything that you continue to use to this day that you found to be beneficial and just kind of more universal in helping you out?

Heather Lowery: 36:52
Yes. Something that I, I don’t, I probably do this a couple of times a week, but not even every day. Is something as simple as oil pulling. I really like it. I do it. I take some minerals, put the oil in and I swish it around for awhile and I finished getting ready and I spit out, brush my teeth and I’m good. So that’s doing a lot of different things. For one, it’s cleaning my teeth and it’s a natural teeth whitener, which is fantastic. But it’s also stimulating your lymphatic system, kind of awakening your autonomic nervous system. It’s a way to detox and it’s cheap and great. So that is something that I love as far as supplements go. I don’t take many.

Caspar Szulc: 37:37
Which is probably a good thing. Because I think people think you know that, that you need to use supplements all the time. Supplements are to supplement your nutrition if you’re not getting something or if you’re stressed under certain situations and in an environment that recalls for it. That’s where supplements come into play. And I think people find it strange when you talk to a medical expert or someone in the know and they’re like, I don’t really take supplements, but that’s a good thing. You shouldn’t need them unless there is something that is impacting you.

Heather Lowery: 38:05
Definitely. Well and I always thought it was funny in my, in a different practice when in conventional medicine we’d be like, great here comes in this patient with a bag of medicine and they set it on the table and we have to look through the five different 5 million different medications they’re on. But really alternative medicine can be the same thing cause instead of prescriptions they come in and they’re like, here’s my 5 million supplements and that’s just doing this, this, this and this. And you’re like, you are supplementing yourself to death. So I think as far as go, I mean a good probiotic. I do do that. And I pretty much just because of having stress at work and whatnot and using my brain a lot, I usually take magnesium and selenium just drops liquid and then what else do I take?

Heather Lowery: 38:53
That’s kind of it. Except I do take Nadovim and I’m not even just saying that. Of course I do because actually that is, I know you’re welcome and you can, you can tip me later for that. But that is of all things, honestly, that’s the one supplement that I, that I take that I go, wow, I noticed a difference with that. And just because you don’t notice a difference with a supplement I mean, I think the probiotic helps my gut function and whatnot, but it doesn’t mean it’s not doing something. But with that actually notice. So definitely if I’m didn’t get a great night of sleep, I take it in the morning or if I’m stressed, I take it in the morning and afternoon. So those are, those are like my mainstays. And then if I’m under a lot of stress and I can kind of feel myself not doing hot, then I’ll do a homeopathic remedy to help with my lymphatic system, just cause especially females when we get stressed, that shuts down.

So I’ll do that and then I sometimes will test myself for stuff to see if I need it. But that’s, that’s kind of it. Products though. My kind of one of my favorite products is that Tilys device [now YouMatrix] that you put on your phone just to protect you from the electromagnetic radiation that’s coming off of your phone. I think that that’s an awesome device just because I’ve tested it before, how does my phone test after I put it on? Oh, it tests really well. So I like that and I like that it lasts a long time and it’s not, it doesn’t break the bank. Outside of that, I try and keep it simple. Right.

Caspar Szulc: 40:22
Which is always advice I think everyone should take into it. Simplicity is key to a lot of these things don’t overcomplicate it. I really find it interesting. Your supplement regimen, the supplements you are using are basically based on the human’s body inability to get out of certain situations. So even the NAD depletion, right. It’s just you can’t really, there’s, there’s no way around that. Meaning electromagnetic or general toxicity all depletes it at an exponential rate. And even the probiotics, we can’t get away that our food supply has totally changed. It’s not what it used to be. Organic isn’t even organic anymore. Sometimes you don’t know what’s what and there are so many additives that is going to start to change your flora and add to dysbiosis. So those are kind of the pieces you can’t get away unless you lived in a cave I always say.

Caspar Szulc: 41:12
So those are supplements that, that to me sort of make sense that I go those sentiments. That’s the ones I usually turn to on a daily basis. And I think most people can turn to those. But outside of that, I think is really about knowing your body. Correct. Trying to understand it.I would say, because I’ve spoken to a lot of Lyme patients, you can’t push too hard. Even when you’re done in years out, like we said, it’s always a healing process. If you could get to a hundred percent that’s great, but a lot of times you won’t. It’s, it’s after a war again. And that’s kind of what you went through. Is it ever truly the same? You know, you still have these world war II lingering effects all this time later. And it’s the same for the human body. It’s not to say that you won’t be feeling great. But I think you have to be more in tune with your body and, and kind of self adjust and correct. As soon as things start to go a little bit off. Do you agree with that? Do you find yourself always kind of a little bit looking and trying to tune in a little bit more?

Heather Lowery: 42:16
Oh definitely. And I will say that at first, especially the first year I had to do that way more. Just cause my your immune system typically during the first years just still kind of trying to figure itself out. So the first year I had to do that more and now, I mean, it gets easier and easier because I feel like I keep reaching new levels of healing, which is great. I mean I’m healthy and fine, but yeah, I would say now even I’m much more in tune with my body and kind of know, just having been sick when, when things are starting to be sluggish and when I need to give myself a little extra TLC. So, yeah, definitely. And with Lyme patients in particular, yeah. If you’ve had an infection for 20 years, you can’t expect to have a couple of antimicrobials and detoxifying and wham, bam, you’re a spring chicken again.

It doesn’t work like that. We can get you to feeling great. But the healing is gonna..it’s a process and it’s a journey. It is a journey. So be patient with yourself and definitely you need to know when, “Oh, I probably need to get some more sleep or maybe I need to cut down on the wine”, or… Speaking for myself. Just kidding. But yeah, you do. You have to know when to tune in and make little tweaks here and there and make sure everything’s still good.

Caspar Szulc: 43:41
And that’s the thing. We’re speaking about Lyme disease, but I will say Lyme disease is just one of so many other diseases, right? It’s not that we only look at Lyme disease and say that I think all diseases are complex this day and age. I think they’re multifactorial. Lyme just happens to be a great, great interpretation of all that is going on with, with dysfunction and disease. But anyone going through any sort of ailment, it’s one of the biggest things is listen to your body, right? Adjust and rest when you need to. Don’t burn the midnight oil. Keep it simple. Right. And address things in the way they come to you. So it’s really about all of these things and it goes way beyond Lyme disease for sure. Are there any parting words you’d like to leave with anyone going through anything chronic or Lyme or anything that you could bestow some wisdom upon?

Heather Lowery: 44:41
You know, I think I meant to say this earlier. I’ll say two things. The first one, I feel like if you have been in the alternative medicine world for a while as a patient, you freak out about diet. You’re like, tell me exactly what I need to eat. Am I keto? Am I paleo? Am I vegan? Am I vegetarian? Am I whatever it may be? So cause I feel like I get asked this question a lot, so I will toss this out there. I think that when, when patients are going through the detox process for say however long it is, six to eight weeks, something like that, even if it’s just oral supplementation, it is more important to be strict on avoiding too much meat and really avoiding meat in general and dairy products and things like that.

Because it will make your GI tract sluggish. It’s hard on your pancreas, it’s hard on your actually kind of makes your lymphatic system sluggish, all of the above. And you need all that move in and shaking so that things can get out. But after you’ve come out of that people still think, well I need to be vegan all the time. But you…it’s just diet is such an interesting thing for even when I listen to podcasts now, everybody’s like so convinced that their ways it. But I think that, I think it was Michael Polen that said that said this beautifully and I think that this would be my words of advice for Lyme patients or whatever patient out there that is like, what in the world am I supposed to eat? And he says eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Simple. So eat real food. Don’t eat too much cause it’s hard on your gut. It’s hard on your liver, your pancreas, all of the above and mostly plants.

Caspar Szulc: 46:17
That’s great advice. I mean and you know, it echoes what we tell people of course, is that eat food, not products. Products are things on shelves and boxes that have multiple ingredients. Food Doesn’t have ingredients. It is the ingredient. Right.

Heather Lowery: 46:33
Exactly. Not cookies like your dad. That’s not food.

Caspar Szulc: 46:38
And you know, put quality first. I will say like what’s your diet? It’s quality. And enjoy it. Right. Stop. Stop feeling so guilty.

Heather Lowery: 46:47
Even if you’re having a bowl of ice cream. You need to picture that bowl healing your body.

Caspar Szulc: 46:51
Absolutely. And I’ll do you so much better than being negative about the celery juice you’re having?

Heather Lowery: 46:57
Exactly. That is so salty.

Caspar Szulc: 46:59
Yes. I know. I know. I’m going to get all the Medical Medium people pissed off. No, I love the celery juice. I think it’s genius. It’s just when you put such a focus and stress into it sometimes and it is like I need to get this done and I’m in a rush and chugging your celery juice, that’s not good. Even though it’s a good thing for you, it’s not good how you’re doing it. And that’s a big part.

Heather Lowery: 47:21
I think the Medical Medium would agree with that statement. So you’re not, you’re not wrong.

Caspar Szulc: 47:24
We’ll have him on next week, so.

Heather Lowery: 47:25
Okay, perfect. I’d love to meet him. I read the book. Love it.

Caspar Szulc: 47:28
Let’s do it. Well Heather, thank you so much. That was great. I mean we heard your story first and it definitely touched hearts. I think and it was really, really you know, pulling it for a lot of people going through any sort of pain in a chronic and now here you are just sharing the medical knowledge to help people out and take actions themselves. So thank you so much.

Heather Lowery: 47:51
You’re welcome. My pleasure. And I will leave it with whoever is sick out there. The one thing that I would say is don’t lose hope ever cause there’s always hope for healing and always hope for getting better. Always hope.

Caspar Szulc: 48:02
Hope is the answer.

Heather Lowery: 48:03
It is.

Caspar Szulc: 48:04
Whether it’s Coronavirus, Crohn’s or Lyme disease, people are always looking for that one thing that will cure them. But as Heather showed us on this episode, there is no one thing, there is no protocol and there is no cure. Everything we need to combat line as is with most conditions is already within us. But most of us will require some highly specific and comprehensive help. There’s so much you can be doing as a Lyme patient or a patient of any complex or chronic condition that can improve your chances at recovery and guide yourself back to health. But it takes work and it takes time. Nevertheless, I’m a firm believer that the work Heather, the entire team at NYCIM as well as many other pioneering medical practices are doing, are showing us the way to help many others finally heal from Lyme. If you’re struggling with Lyme and related protocols, feel free to reach out to myself or Heather through social media handle is @innovativemedicine or visit innovativemedicine.com and drop us a line through the contact page there. Till next time, stay happy and healthy and continue writing your own healing story.