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Meg Mangin R.N.
Research Team
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Posted: Wed Dec 7th, 2005 11:49 |
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Is there a right pace for the most effective healing on the Marshall Protocol?
Most folks with Th1 inflammation have been ill a long time and many are very eager to get well. But the recovery process cannot be hurried because it requires killing the CWD bacteria that are the underlying cause of chronic inflammatory diseases.
The goal of the Marshall Protocol (MP) is to kill the intracellular bacteria in a safe way, that is sustainable, both mentally and physically for the length of what is usually a treatment of several years. No matter how eager you are to get well, it is rarely a good idea to try to push the process.
Killing the bacteria causes immunopathology symptoms that usually provide a good guide for the pace of treatment. All the MP guidelines caution not to increase the antibiotics too quickly or do anything else that might cause the immune system to kill too many bacteria in a short period of time because this could result in tissue damage as well as intolerable symptoms.
Finding the optimal and safest pace to succeed with the Marshall Protocol is a matter of trial and error. There are times when increasing antibiotics, for example, dampens the immune system response. And there is a disadvantage in being too cautious and going too slow since bacteria could repopulate tissues already cleared by one antibiotic.
Trying to speed up the MP has disadvantages:
-It could lead to intolerable immunopathology (this could even send you to the ER, setting your progress back as you recover from this episode)
-It may wear you down so much, physically or mentally, that you become discouraged
-In phase one, it could result in a failure to kill all the bacteria susceptible to minocycline alone.
Leave a margin
Don’t push yourself close to the edge of “intolerable.” If you are driving yourself with dosage increases or a new antibiotic to have symptoms near the edge of being intolerable, and a dose/new antibiotic suddenly “kicks in,” it could make symptoms quite difficult to handle. Always leave yourself some leeway for safety.
Here are some suggestions to help you be one of the steady ones that makes it to the finish line and gets well in the safest and smoothest manner, without getting side tracked and delayed:
1. Give new antibiotics 2 weeks to 'kick in' before you increase the dose.
2. Stay at each dose level at least three times. A dose may “kick in” suddenly and unexpectedly after several times at the same dose.
3. If still experiencing intolerable symptoms at any time during the interval, stay at the dose longer.
4. Don't make changes if symptoms are stable when you have plans that you don't want to have to cancel or when you have some other factor that will be debilitating (like extra stress, activity, an infection or difficult menses etc.).
5. If in doubt, always choose the more cautious action.
6. Try a break from the MP to help you determine what symptoms are disease baseline (pre-MP) and what are immunopathology. Note: Some folks do NOT feel better with a short break and need the antibiotic/s to keep symptoms manageable. See How to take a break from the MP.
The exception to the rule
Folks with ALS, unlike chronic Th1 diseases, have a fast progressing illness and need to push the envelope of immunopathology to kill bacteria as quickly as possible.
For specific suggestion to reduce or increase immunopathology see:
How To Manage Immunopathology
How to adjust MP meds
personal tool kit to manage immune system reactions
How to assess symptoms
When to increase antibiotics
Alternating the ramping schedule
What to do when immunopathology (immune system reaction) is too strong.
When to take low-dose, high-frequency minocycline
Factors that contribute to immunopathology
Related FAQs:
How To Identify Immunopathology (Herx)
The Importance of Reducing 25-D
Members' experiences with the need to go a a slow pace
-It is hard for some of us to pace ourselves and go slowly. Many of us are used to pushing ourselves to the limit and have learned to be tough and almost obsessive in order to make it in our lives. We have had to overcome punishing levels of symptoms in order to make it under the burden of these illnesses. However, for the Marshall Protocol, remember, discretion is the better part of valor. Don’t treat your body too harshly, the illness has done that too much already. The fable of the tortoise and the hare really does apply here, the slow and steady ones are better able to make it to the finish line. ~Joyce Waterhouse, Ph.D.
-Sitting on the sidelines watching as the game goes by is what you get for speeding.
Morris W. Milnes (says he is now reformed  )
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Put up in a place where it's easy to see
The cryptic admonishment "TTT."
When you feel how depressingly slowly you climb,
It's well to remember that Things Take Time.
-- Piet Hein
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The goal must be tolerable, not a meds measurement.
 not a race, not a race,
slow, slow, slow the pace
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 a l l t h e t i m e i n t h e w o r l d
Last edited on Thu Nov 1st, 2007 07:30 by Meg Mangin R.N.
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