Week Five Summary: Starting Antibiotics

I was finally diagnosed with neuroborreliosis (late stage Lyme disease) a few weeks ago, after at least sixteen years of infection, and four and a half years of total debilitation. I was prescribed strong antibiotics (500mg of cefuroxime twice a day), which I finally started taking last week. I'd held off from taking them in order to figure the right fly agaric tincture dosage, but it seems now that this is much more variable than I had realised.

It took a few days of the antibiotics before I realised that I was mentally and physically deteriorating. Unfortunately with Lyme disease, insight often goes out of the window. There have been times when I've declared how much better I'm feeling, only to find out later that I'd just temporarily lost what little insight I do have. So much of Lyme disease is trying to cope with a substantially diminished mental and physical arsenal. You can have all the will in the world though, and it doesn't make a huge amount of difference. It really is like a fairytale enchantment.

The antibiotics kill off more borrelia bacteria, which creates more neurotoxins, which find their way to your brain and clog up the neurones in the brain stem. This is what leads to symptoms such as chronic fatigue and dementia.

By the weekend I decided to try 3 drops of the fly agaric tincture in every cup of tea I drank. Not very scientific, but easy to remember. It really helped. I got some good exercise both days, and was able to cope with everything I had to do.

Yesterday I went back to 3 drops times a day, and was so exhausted by the evening that I pretty much couldn't even think. A good night's sleep though, and I'm feeling better again this morning. I'll stick to 3 drops in every cup of tea for a while, especially with Christmas and the extra energy needed for that.

I did manage to publish an app for the first time since about March, when I started treating the Lyme disease, and the neurotoxins must have started really building up. So I'm incredibly grateful to the fly agaric for giving me this level of improvement.

It's scary being back in the dusty void of Lyme disease dementia. It took some courage to start on the antibiotics, as I knew that there was a chance everything would go foggy and I'd end up a zombie again. When I first took antibiotics for the Lyme, back in February/March when I presented with an erythema migrans rash, the dementia hit me like a cattle stun gun, and hasn't really cleared since. At least with the fly agaric tincture, I stand a chance of bringing myself out of it to some degree by increasing the dose.

On the forum I frequent, some people are doing essentially the same thing with nicotine patches. Nicotine acts the same way as the muscarine in the fly agaric, stimulating the acetylcholine receptors in the brain stem so that messages can get through. It seems that with that also, dosage is a very individual thing.

The image in this post is of the borrelia bacteria, borrowed from textbook of bacteriology.

Week Four Summary

I've now been taking very small amounts of fly agaric mushroom daily for four weeks, in an experiment to see if and how it might relieve some of the symptoms of my chronic Lyme disease (neuroborreliosis). This post will summarise the whole first month, as well as Week Four.

The first two weeks I was eating small pieces of frozen mushroom, around the size of my last little finger bone. Once the tincture was ready I moved over to that, finally settling on a dose of 1-3 drops 3 times a day. This is usually 3 drops when I get up, 3 drops late morning and 3 more drops late afternoon.

The mushroom has had an amazing effect on me over the last month. My chronic fatigue, poor cognition and dementia are so much improved, I really feel like myself again. I can walk for miles, read and evaluate what I've read, keep up with conversations and enjoy being with people again. It really has been nothing short of miraculous.

Even during Week Four, my physical and mental faculties have continued to improve. I'm now reading five books at a time, devouring the information contained within them, remembering every word. A month ago I couldn't read at all, as I didn't have the cognition to figure out what was being said, or the memory to build meaning. Yesterday I ran for a few hundred yards. During most of the summer I couldn't walk even 50 metres.

Before I became disabled and my life fell apart (four and a half years ago), I worked as a computing lecturer. For the first time since then, I feel I'm not far off being able to lecture again. In the last couple of weeks I've picked up my work developing mobile phone apps, which I'd had to stop in early summer, as my brain just wasn't functioning.

There is no mystery to how this works. As I understand it (albeit perhaps incorrectly) the borrelia bacteria produce neurotoxins that congregate in the brain stem. There they block signals in the acetylcholine receptors, causing symptoms such as chronic fatigue and dementia. The muscarine in the fly agaric enables the signals to get across, overcoming the blocking effect of the neurotoxins. Hey presto, you can think, walk and live again.

I'm not claiming that fly agaric is a cure for Lyme disease or any other condition. But it certainly seems to have huge value in treating the worst symptoms. I've read that it also has anti-microbial properties, so perhaps using it longterm might reveal further benefits. Right now, you would have to prise it out of my cold dead hands to get it off me.

Yesterday I started on heavy duty antibiotics, which seems to be the only treatment that can seriously reduce the amount of borrelia bacteria infesting someone with Lyme disease. I shall continue to take the fly agaric though, to counteract the worst symptoms, and see what it can do. If I do stop taking it for a day, I do start to go back to being a zombie again. The plan is to have one day off a week though, to monitor remaining Lyme symptoms without the influence of the fly agaric.

How Fly Agaric Tincture is Used in Germany (Possibly)

Here is a list of how fly agaric tincture is possibly used in Germany, according to herbalterra.com and Google Translate. Some crazy mistranslations may have occurred but I've just left them in. It's also possible that it's just homeopathic doses they're talking about. Please say if you can clarify any of this.

• Communicative disorders of the spinal cord, epilepsy, chorea, tics, alcohol, alcoholic delirium, psychosis in infectious disease with a strong movement, walking, depression, dull headache in the forehead, an exciting area of ​​the nasal bone, unilateral headache, feeling of icy cold in the head, the high sensitivity of the scalp, dizziness, inappropriate behavior with a laugh, increased tone in his voice, singing, and the desire to mate, delusional speech cuddle with a reluctance to answer questions, seizures of different origin, paralysis, multiple sclerosis;
• Angina with stinging and burning pain in my heart, just in the left arm, palpitations, cardiac arrhythmias, the white-finger tips of the ears and nose, followed by hyperemia, angioneurosis limbs;
• Increased flow of saliva, bitter saliva, ulceration of the mucous membranes of the mouth, tongue, toothache, bad breath, attacks of a strong hunger, especially in the evening hours, burping air and food, nausea, vomiting immediately after eating, weight and crampy abdominal pain, bloating abdominal gas with a garlic smell, constipation with it extremely difficult to discharge from a chair, dizenteriepodobny diarrhea, especially in children, burning in the anus, scanty urine mixed with thick mucus, fever;
• Itching and irritation in the nose, sneezing, using a liquid discharge from the nose, an increased sense of smell, nosebleeds;
• Cramping painful cough, especially if the patient is nervous or just fall asleep with little expectoration, hemoptysis, briefly, Shortness of breath with the need to take a deep breath, sweating in the chest at night, laryngotracheitis, to take pulmonary tuberculosis. Diabetes. Outside the tumor, running sores, tuberculosis, skin, eczema, atopic dermatitis, diathesis. Redness, swelling, burning, itching of the skin, very itchy skin rashes millet, redness and cracks on the lips, blisters on the upper lip;
• The feeling of fatigue in the neck, back, especially when sitting or lying down, pain in the back muscles, universal joint damage: the left arm and right leg and vice versa, the crackling of the joints, rheumatism, lumbago, sciatica, low energy, mental and physical fatigue, feeling of weakness in the limbs, while sufficient strength in them, trembling limbs, cramps in large fingers, numbness, a feeling of power, ice needles, crawling, burning, increased sensitivity to cold in the extremities, painful cold;
• Increased libido with flaccidity of the penis, weakness and sweating after having sex, impotence, premature, painful menstruation with sensation of uterine prolapse, a strong napiranie at the bottom, irritating bleach the skin, sexual arousal, itching and burning sensation in the breast nipple, genital itching and irritation, painful menstruation, heavy climax;
• Diseases of the eye, vitreous opacities and lens, black flies before his eyes, itching, burning, lower vision, increased sensitivity at the touch of age, blepharospasm (spasmodic contraction of the eyelids), blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelid), conjunctivitis, myopia (nearsightedness) , diplopia (double vision), twitching of the eyelids and eyeballs, asthenopia (eye fatigue sets in quickly during the visual work), Qatar file;
• Pain in the ears, sharp pain along the Eustachian tube, iperemiyu and swelling of the ears, as if perfrigeration, itchy ears.

Advice for an Imaginary Test Subject

Of course, for legal and safety reasons I can't recommend anyone try taking fly agaric tincture, especially without medical supervision. But if someone were to decide to try taking small amounts of fly agaric tincture to see if it might help alleviate symptoms of Lyme disease such as dementia and chronic fatigue, my advice would run something like this...

THE TINCTURE

• The tincture is really strong. It will affect you in ways that other tinctures don't.
• Taking a higher dose of the tincture won't do you more good, or make you feel better than small doses. Small doses work best.
• If you have physical pain somewhere, you can rub a few drops into the skin where the pain is (back etc). I'm not sure whether you should include these drops in your daily total. It's possible that active chemicals are absorbed through the skin.
• You may notice something white floating in the tincture. I think it's the mushroom spore, which is so tiny it gets through the coffee filter. It won't do you any harm. It can't grow inside you.

TAKING THE TINCTURE

• Take 1-3 drops 3 times a day (early morning, late morning, late afternoon). Probably best to start with 1 drop first day, 2 drops second day etc. Be really careful about going higher than 3 drops at a time. Even 3 may be too many for some people.
• Take the drops under your tongue or in a cup of tea or however you like.
• You can manage your energy levels by overlapping the times when you take the drops.
• Take a day off the drops a week. This way you can still monitor your symptoms. The tincture may alleviate your symptoms, but the infection is still there in the background. Even if you're feeling much better, you still need to address the underlying infection.

RESULTS OF TAKING THE TINCTURE

• The effects of the drops last 4-6 hours, although some benefits do seem to go over to the next day.
• You may suddenly find you have huge amounts of mental and physical energy for the first time in years. Be careful to pace yourself and remember to stop and stretch regularly.
• If you take much more than 3 drops at a time, you may "trip" a bit. These effects are likely to be sleepiness, mild euphoria, blurred vision and micropsia/macropsia (things suddenly seeming much bigger or smaller than they actually are). You may not notice that this is happening to you, as your insight may also be affected. Ask someone to keep an eye on you, or put up signs to remind yourself that this may happen. You are best just keeping to very small doses. Larger ones won't give a greater benefit.

SAFETY

• The dose may be quite particular to each individual. Whilst you're working out the right dose for you, don't drive or operate machinery.
• Treat your bottle of fly agaric tincture as poison. Label it accordingly and keep out of reach of children. And curious teenagers!
• As with any psycho-active substance, there's a very small chance of psychosis from taking the fly agaric tincture. If this happens, stop taking the tincture and everything should go back to normal. If it doesn't, tell a medical professional that you have been taking fly agaric tincture to stimulate your muscarinic receptors because of your Lyme disease. They will give you something to counteract this.
• Take milk thistle in some form. This is the antidote to fly agaric tincture and will help protect your liver. The tincture will still work just as well.

Tradition of Using Fly Agaric Medicinally

Here are the only mentions I've been able to find on the net of using fly agaric in small medicinal doses. Mind, Google would have only returned sites written in English. If you are aware of any others, please add them in comments.

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The Koryaks use this mushroom in a variety of ways, including administering it to their old people to insure their sleep at night and their energy during the day. Tatiana, the Even shaman, uses this mushroom externally as a poultice to treat patient wounds, as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic, and internally (by herself) as a device to allow her to visit the spirit world to seek, for example, the cure for an illness (physical, mental, or spiritual), or the place where a successful hunt could occur.

The fly-agaric mushroom is gathered by the young and middle-aged Koryaks in the summer and early fall and dried for use during the winter months primarily by the elderly.

from nemf.org

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Three small fresh pieces of mukhomor good for sore throat and cancer. Preparation for arthritis: Place several young A Muscaria into an airtight container. Put container into a cool dark place (like a basement) until liquid comes out of mushrooms. Take a mushroom in hand, squeeze out moisture and place the pulp on arthritis. Bandage overnight. Mushroom body can be replaced in liquid and will last a long time.

from erowid.org

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Sometimes dried mushrooms were soaked in distilled Bilberry juice - obviously a fairly modern method since distillation only arrived in Siberia in the 1500. Occasionally they were mixed with the juice of Willow-Herb. No research is known to have investigated the possible synergistic action of this combination. Medicinally it was used for 'psychophysical fatigue' and for bites of venomous snakes. (Saar, 1991) It was also applied externally to treat joint ailments (Moskalenko, 1987). In Afghanistan a fly agaric smoking mixture known as tshashm baskon ('eye opener') is used for psychosis (Mochtar & Geerken, 1979). In Western medicine Fly Agaric serves as a well known homeopathic remedy, used for tics, epilepsy and depression, and in conjunction with homeopathic Mandrake tincture, is used to treat Parkinson disease. (Villers & Thümen 1893, Waldschmidt 1992).

from sacredearth.com

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Amanita muscaria has an alternative health application, giving its inclusion into the magical mushrooms arena of interest. Fly agaric remains closely linked with the neurological functioning of the human body in alternative medicine. Amanita muscaria as a mushroom has uses in treating varying nervous disorders. These disorders originate within a neurological capacity and include such illnesses as dementia, continual dizziness, and Parkinson’s disease. Other uses for this magical mushroom as an alternative medicine has enabled sufferers from nervous tics, depression and epilepsy to feel significant less adverse symptoms with the use of the fly agaric as a medicine.. The mushroom primarily focuses on cerebral treatments. This revels the mushroom has a chemical ability to effect a persons neurotic state of wellbeing.

from HubPages.com

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It is given in homeopathic doses against scabies and psoriasis.

Used only in homeopathic doses (Agaricus muscarius) for neurological problems characterized by involuntary movements.

from medical-explorer.com

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* Chronic fatigue and ageing *
Fly agaric is still used in Siberia and Russia especially by elder people to reduce fatigue, to give more strength and to raise the spirit. They mostly make a tea, boiling either dried or fresh cap of mushroom in water for some time. They add honey to the tea and drink it by small portions.

It is also considered that Amanita muscaria heal illnesses, connected with aging – sclerosis, insomnia, angiospasm etc.

* Tumor, low immunity and skin diseases *
Some people believe that fly agaric has antitumor and immunostimulating properties. For these purposes it can be used both inward and outwardly.

Besides making a tea, Russian people also make an extract, infusing fresh cups with alcohol. They take it inward in 0.5-1 teaspoon daily, as well as apply on skin to heal eczema, swellings, allergic dermatitis and other skin diseases.

* Rheumatism and joints diseases *
People believe that applying a compress with fly agaric extract helps to relieve a pain in bones and joints.

from helium.com

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It's 2-3 drops of tincture on the spine, when sciatica hits. Relief is pretty much instant.

from henriette's herbal

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In case of psychophysical fatigue the fungus was administered internally (see M. Saar, 19901. intoxication by viper bite called for its external application.

from Fungi in Khanti Folk Medicine

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Following the prescription of Fly Agaric almost all of the patients exhibited increased motivation, improved mood and improved mental and physical well-being. Here again it is the doseage that determines that something is not a poison.

from clanpheryllt

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Looking beyond the net for information, perhaps we can turn to the less rational archive of myth and fairy tales. It's possible that knowledge has been encoded in these.

For example, I recently found out that a folk name for fly agaric is "raven's bread". And who are the only two ravens that most people could name? Huginn and Muninn, literally Thought and Memory, who sat on Odin's shoulders and whispered in his ears when he needed to know something.

This struck me as being perhaps more than coincidence, since improving thought and memory are two of the main benefits of eating raven's bread in small raven-like quantities, medicinally.

Week Three Summary (Getting the Dosage Right)

Week 3 has been good. I've continued to be active both physically and mentally, and have had no insomnia. In fact my confidence has been such that I've broken a little from the no alcohol, no dairy and no gluten diet I've been on since February.

The only trouble I've had is getting the tincture dosage right, and this has definitely affected my perception here and there.

The fly agaric tincture has matured now, after sitting in the sun for 10-14 days covered in vodka. So this week I stopped eating small pieces of frozen cooked mushroom and started on the tincture. The changeover hasn't been as easy as I'd expected. The tincture is much stronger than I thought.

I'm currently taking various other tinctures to help with the symptoms and cause of Lyme disease - Banderol, Cumanda, Milk Thistle, St John's Wort and Sarsparilla. I'm also on a month-long anti-parasitic regime of tinctures of Wormwood, Clove and Black Walnut Hull. The dosage for these tinctures is generally around 10 drops 3 times a day, so I decided to start with that amount of fly agaric. That proved to be a mistake.

I was taking way too much fly agaric tincture. I was actually getting some of the effects typical of "vision questing" with it, without intending to. I didn't realise this, as the overall effect can be quite similar to Lyme symptoms (drowsiness, blurry vision, a sense of timelessness, distancing or separateness from what is generally considered to be reality, a lack of insight into some things, a little macropsia/micropsia - things becoming big or small).

I've never taken fly agaric for any purpose other than in these very small quantities for treating the Lyme symptoms these last few weeks, so I didn't know what it would be like to take it in larger quantities. It wasn't scary or anything (it removes fear anyway, one of the reasons why warriors such as berserkers would go into battle on small amounts!), but it must have altered my perceptions to some degree, as I simply wasn't aware that I was taking too much.

In other words, I don't think you can rely on your perception to get the dosage right. I think it's better to go with the numbers, and keep the dosage really small. Just enough to oil the processes of thought, memory and movement. Like oiling a squeaky door or a machine with moving parts, just a drop here and there.

A gentleman on the Lyme forum I frequent is also taking fly agaric tincture for Lyme, given him by a qualified herbalist. He has been on the tincture for a few weeks now, and has found that 2 drops 3 times a day works best for him. I'm going to follow his advice this week, and stick to that. I've also decided to take one day off from it a week. To this end I took none today, and had plenty of energy and felt bright mentally all day.

Finishing the Tincture

1. The chopped mushrooms have been soaking in vodka for 10-14 days now, so it's time to strain them and complete the tincture. The colour in the jar doesn't really show here, but it's a beautiful golden red.

It's been sitting in the sun for this time, as this is the advice for most tinctures, but it may well be that it would be better in the dark. I really don't know. The liquid is really clear though and smells good too.

2. The contents of the jar need straining first. I've borrowed my boyfriend's muslin cloth that he uses for wine making, but an old pair of tights would probably work just as well.

I've just left this to strain for an hour. I'm not sure whether to squeeze the mushrooms and get every last little drip out of them. I just let them drain with the first couple of batches, then put the mushrooms in the composter. But now the harvesting season's at an end and there's a finite supply, I've given these ones a good squeeze.

I'm going to save the squeezed mushrooms to try and cultivate the mycelium. More on that in a later post, fingers crossed!

3. I then run the liquid through a coffee filter. As you can see in the image of the completed jar (below), there is some white stuff that accumulates at the top of the jar. I think that this is the mushroom spore, which is definitely white, and small enough to get through the coffee filter.

The liquid itself is a gorgeous reddy golden amber colour.

Mushroom spore shell is made of the hardest yet lightest natural substance we know of. People such as Terence McKenna have posited that it's light enough for the spore to be blown anywhere on the planet, even into the upper atmosphere.

It is then hard enough to survive being sucked through the atmosphere and can be blown across the empty vast distances of space, perhaps eventually being sucked into another planet's gravitational pull, and forming a new colony in an alien land.

4. The tincture is then decanted into bottles. It's a good idea to label these to show what they contain, and with a warning that the contents are poisonous (if taken in excess).

I bought some stickers from eBay for this, some nice shiny fly agarics to show the contents, and some skulls to warn poison. The skulls however are from Nightmare Before Christmas, and look unbelievably cute. Best to keep out of reach of children. And teenagers.