Testimonials for using minerals for CFIDS-Lyme

People may wonder ‘where is the evidence?’ If these mineral treatments such as Salt/C are so important for CFIDS and Lyme and related illnesses like FM, then why don’t we know about this? Well, there are anecdotal reports of success.

The owners of the LymePhotos.com site have gotten well from Salt/C, and their testimonies are on that site. The moderator of the Yahoo LymeStrategies group, Marc Fett, got well from Salt/C after going the usual route of trying ‘everything under the sun’ and he claims to be completely well and on a low maintenance dose of Salt/C. He customized the protocol a bit, adding a few items, which probably contributed to his recovery, and Marc was able to return to work after about 3 months. You must purchase access to his ‘e-book’ style web page to get his exact protocol, but the group discusses the protocol, it is mostly there in the LymeStrategies list. Marc probably is the most knowledgeable non-medical person around on the Salt/C protocol. And I haven’t found many medical folks who understand the issues better.

There have been a number of testimonials in that group from people who have had dramatic improvements on Salt/C, a few believe they are on the road to recovery, but the site is recent, starting in November 2004. There are thousands of messages on that site now and dozens, and maybe a hundred positive testimonials. There is no tracking of how many people try it and quit, so the stats are unknown. In my own case, I tried salt/C about a year ago based strictly on the LymeStrategies site, and I gave up after a month because of the back and kidney pain I experienced. But I tried it again in December 2004, and this time I decided that I would find the salt/c serving that worked for me, and did not try to target the levels that worked for Nancy (owner of LymePhotos). And this time it worked much better, I have been able to manage the protocol better and manage the back/kidney pain by adjusting the dose and targeting lower serving levels. And the protocol has restored some important functions, such as having energy to work much of the day again. But I am not completely recovered like Marc and Nancy. However, I haven’t braved the full dose yet either, I’m going slow. Nancy was sick for 13 years and took several years to recover fully on salt/c.

A recent paper by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt describes his successful use of salt/c for the first three months of a Lyme treatment protocol. Dr. Klinghardt's goal for the salt/c is parasite eradication. He believes he sees evidence that it helps his patients. The paper is here.

The Blasi protocol also uses minerals, but for FM. I have been monitoring the Yahoo Blasi group and have read a lot of positive testimonials, but a lot of people don’t get immediate effects and some get a bad healing crisis, and some quit. Also, I have heard from some people on other groups that they got worse on the Blasi protocol, even after prolonged use. My own ‘hunch’ is that the mineral mix of the Blasi protocol contains too much potassium for people with late-stage adrenal exhaustion or genetic adrenal weaknesses (I have read that those people need to be careful of potassium because of adrenal issue). I tried a ‘home-made’ Blasi mix (not hard to do), and it definitely did something, but I got bad tinnitus from it and some strange head sensations. Still, I felt better that day than usual, so I think it probably is a credible treatment for some people. A study is in progress by the company that sells the Recuperat-Ion product that Blasi used, perhaps that will reveal the contraindications better.

Clearly there is a key mineral depletion issue with CFIDS, and these protocols seem to be addressing that. But also, I believe there is some grass-roots evidence that people need specific and perhaps individualized mineral treatments. Nearly everyone who tries Salt/C seems to benefit to some level. I have yet to hear of a story of someone getting worse and staying worse, only healing crisis types of responses that passes. And even people with Blood Pressure issues notice eventual BP improvement after a period of worsening.

Mineral treatment is a very interesting direction, and I believe will eventually be explained and will become an important part of a long-term CFIDS solution.