Managing Herxheimer Reactions

Q:  Is there a way to decrease the chance of a  Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction when planning to take antimicrobial drugs or herbs?

Dr Cowden’s Answer:  Nutramedix Burbur 8 drops plus Nutramedix Pinella 8 drops in 1/4 cup of water every 15 minutes for 1 hour then 4 times daily for a few days before starting the bug killers often helps prevent a Herxheimer. After starting the antimicrobials, the doses could be repeated every 15 minutes for 1-2 hours if Herxheimer occurs.  Lying on your back pretending to pedal a bicycle in the air off and on for 10 minutes will drain the lymphatics. Dairy products & wheat/gluten-grain products clog the lymphatics, so should be avoided.

Detoxification: Safe, Inexpensive, Effective

Q:  Dr. Cowden, how can someone safely & inexpensively detoxify?  

Dr Cowden's Answer:  If a person is having less than 3 bowel movements per day, they are constipated, by definition,and also bowel toxic.  If the bowel is toxic, all other organs will become toxic.  Except for patients with G6PD-deficiency, I recommend non-corn-derived ascorbic acid (such as Cardiovascular Research Tapioca C) taken 2-3 times per day after meals, gradually increasing the dose to bowel tolerance. When the bowels get loose, I add a tablespoon of psyllium powder or slippery elm powder with each dose of Vitamin C.  The goal is 3 large soft bowel movements per day. 

Toxins are carried away from the tissues via the lymphatics. To clear toxins from the lymphatics, the patient would lay on their bed on their back, flex both hips 90 degrees, then start pretending to pedal an imaginary bicycle in the air (extending their ankles with each motion of their foot toward the foot of the bed & flexing their ankles with every motion toward the head of the bed). They pedal until they tire, then put their legs both down for a brief rest, then resume pedaling, then rest again when tired, then resume pedaling again, etc. (for a total time of 10 minutes each bedtime).

To detoxify the kidneys, liver, lymphatics & ground matrix, there must be sufficient hydration. An adult should drink 2 ounces of purified water or spring water every 15 minutes every waking hour (except no water or other liquids from 20 minutes before each meal until 40 minutes after each meal so as to be able to digest food optimally). 

Nutramedix.com makes 3 remedies to aid detox of kidneys, liver, lymphatics & ground matrix. They are Burbur Detox, Parsley Detox & Trace Minerals Relax/Detox and are all interchangeable. They can be rotated to decrease the chance of developing allergies to any one of them.

For heavy metal detox, I recommend 2 capsules daily of Nutramedix Zeolite if the patient has mercury amalgams in their teeth.  I recommend 2 capsules daily of Nutramedix Zeolite-HP if the patient does not have mercury amalgams in their teeth.

Far-infrared sauna, starting at 110 degrees F and 20 minutes and gradually building to 145 degrees F and 45 minutes, every other day can help mobilize metals & various other toxins out of the body, mostly thru the skin.  If one puts a tablespoon of oil (walnut oil, almond oil or macadamia nut oil) in the mouth to swish it around in the mouth continuously for the last 3-5 minutes in the sauna, before spitting out the oil & jumping into a luke-warm shower with a good glycerin soap, more toxins will be removed in fewer days.  The oil swish&spit can also be done for 3-5 minutes each AM before getting out of bed (pour the tablespoon of oil into a small glass & keep it at the bedside all night).

All of the above can usually be done safely in an empiric fashion.

Many of these techniques & principles used by me & other integrative medicine doctors to help patients get well, when allopathic medicine fails, are described in video courses on the website for the Academy (www.acimconnect.com)

Cowden Support Program (CSP) - water consumption

Q:  In the Cowden Support Program, it says that the patient must drink 3 litres of water per day (I guess this also may be including herbal tea, fresh vegetable/fruit juices and sparkling water as well as normal tap-water). Everybody seems to have problems with this amount. Is the 3 litres including the liquid that is in their food or is it on top of that? Also a problem is that in England an alternative practitioner has been charged for recommending her patient to drink 3 litres per day, her patient got a brain damage from this. So I really need some more clarification on this.

Dr Cowden's Answer:  I would like to see all of the details on the patient in England who reportedly got “brain damage” from drinking only 3 liters of water per day.  I have spoken to dozens of other integrative practitioners who recommend 3 quarts or 3 liters per day of water for their average-sized adult patients & none of them have seen adverse reactions in their patients with that volume of daily water except in patients who already had heart failure or kidney failure or possibly in patients who drank 3 liters of distilled or reverse-osmosis water daily for a protracted time without taking replacement minerals. 

     In India there are reportedly many practitioners who recommend a water fast where their adult patients drink one gallon (4 liters) of mineralized spring water on the first day, 2 gallons on the second day, 3 gallons on the third day and 4 gallons on the fourth day (which is the last day) without adverse effects.  I did, however see a patient many years ago who was a psychogenic water drinker and who drank 5 gallons of distilled water in one day, developed hyponatremia & status epilepticus & died from the seizures (that’s almost 20 liters of distilled water, rather than 3 liters). 

     I advise against drinking distilled water or reverse osmosis water (unless sufficient minerals are added back into the water first).  Drinking 2-3 ounces (60-90ml) of mineralized water every 10-15 minutes during all waking hours causes most of the water to go into the cells, hydrate the cells, mobilize toxins out of the cells & ultimately mobilize toxins out of the body (mostly through urine & feces).  Drinking larger volumes of water at longer intervals (even though it might be the same total water volume consumed in 24 hours) causes more washing of minerals out through the kidneys & less toxin removal.

     Black tea, green tea, coffee, sodas & alcoholic drinks are not hydrating.  Alcohol is a diuretic. Caffeine (in coffee, sodas & even in the regular tea-leaf) is a diuretic.  Theobromine in the regular tea-leaf is also a diuretic.  Most herbal teas, though, are hydrating.  Vegetable juice is hydrating.  Fruit juice, when consumed by someone who does not spill sugars into their urine, is hydrating (but otherwise will act like a diuretic). Likewise, when too much sugar is added to herbal teas, they can be dehydrating rather than hydrating; therefore, the best choice of sweetners for herbal teas would be Nutramedix Stevia.

     Most chronically-ill patients have tissue acidity.  Sparkling water contains carbon dioxide, which is converted by chemical reaction in the water into carbonic acid, which further worsens the tissue acidity. Therefore, I discourage patients from drinking sparkling (carbonated) water unless they know, from measuring their saliva pH prior to meals, that their saliva pH is greater than 7.0.

   Many of these techniques & principles used by me & other integrative medicine doctors to help patients get well, when allopathic medicine fails, are described in video courses on the website for the Academy (www.acimconnect.com)