Lyme Borrelia-induced Hyper-ammonemia
Dr. David Jernigan, D.C., D.N.M.
For almost a century it has been understood that a healthy body is slightly alkaline at a pH of 7.4. Great cures have been achieved and the healing protocols of some of the most celebrated physicians and healers are based upon medicines and diets that strive to create a more alkaline environment within the body. However too much of a good thing, such as being too alkaline, is equally harmful.
Innumerable books and articles have touted what seemed to be a universal law that if one had a chronic or degenerative illness that the person would be labeled “acidic.” This idea would be supported by litmus testing of the saliva and urine, both of which might be acidic.
It was quite by accident, as is the case with most healing revelations, that I discovered that virtually every Lyme disease patient, MS, CFIDS, ALS, Parkinson’s, Autistic, and so many other Lyme-related illnesses were suffering from the neurotoxin, ammonia. The importance of this new discovery is that ammonia is very alkaline at a pH of 10 and is debatably the direct or indirect cause of virtually every symptom.
Many of these people were acidic according to Litmus analysis of their saliva and urine, but according to Direct Resonance Testing (DRT) they all had peculiar and very predictable localized accumulations of ammonia in their liver, heart, teeth, and brain. The exception to this is ALS patients who I discovered, and has subsequently been confirmed by other doctors, have a unique mixed infection that creates excessive accumulations of ammonia throughout the entire body.
I discovered that Borrelia burgdorferi, one of the primary causative agents in Lyme disease, actually release or cause the accumulation of ammonia as their primary neurotoxin. The ammonia accumulates in the brain tissues, some of which is converted to glutamine, by way of the glutamine synthetase pathways, leading to localized swelling of astrocytes (brain cells). This ammonia-induced glutamine accumulation may cause dysfunction of astrocytes that leads to impairment of vascular reactivity other than through a decrease in arginine availability for NOS leading to increased production of nitric oxide (Toshiki 2000).
It has been reported that many neurological problems are caused by either congenital or acquired hyper-ammonemia (Albrecht 1998).
All of the ammonia-related pathological changes predispose these individuals to cerebral allergies. These cerebral allergies are actually hypersensitivity reactions due to alterations in the blood brain barrier creating Leaky Brain Syndrome, a term I coined for when the blood brain barrier subsequently allowing larger than normal molecules, such as common dietary amino acids, to pass through to the brain. The over-alkalinity of the brain, as well as the Leaky Brain Syndrome from the bacterial-induced ammonia cause damage to neurotransmitter receptors and function is impaired and possibly the most common symptom – altered brain energy metabolism leading to cognitive brain dysfunctions, the total fatigue of the mind when forced to read, talk, or think for extended periods.
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Dr. David Jernigan, D.C., D.N.M.
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