Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - The Lyme Disease Episode | Dr. Bill Rawls, MD

Starting point is 00:00:00 In your Lyme disease journey and you're a doctor, what did the traditional medical establishment miss when it came to your Lyme journey? There's very good evidence that long-term antipodic therapy is more destructive than it is helpful. How many people are walking around with Lyme disease and don't even know it? Most people who get bitten by a tick don't get sick. These bacteria can enter your cells and go into a dormant or quiescent state. They can stay that way a long time. disease is a condition that affects millions. Yet its true impact often remains misunderstood, and the path to recovery can be long and elusive. Today's guest, Dr. Bill Rawls knows firsthand

Starting point is 00:01:05 the devastation of chronic Lyme disease. After being struck by a health crisis that left him debilitated, Dr. Rawls found that modern medicine had little to offer in terms of lasting solutions. This personal battle propelled him to explore alternative healing methods, which ultimately restored his health and reshaped his approach to medicine. I thought this episode would good to do because May is Lyme disease awareness month. Dr. Rawls's journey from patient to advocate has led him to becoming a pioneer in the field of cellular wellness using holistic therapies and herbal treatments to fight Lyme disease and other chronic conditions. In this episode, we dive into the complexities of Lyme disease, the limitations of conventional treatments, and how holistic

Starting point is 00:01:44 remedies can offer hope and healing for those suffering from chronic illness. Watch this episode on Culture Apothecary Spotify or Real Alex Clark on YouTube. You can also follow the show on Instagram at Culture Apothecary or me at Real Alex Clark. And don't forget to join the Kutzervitus Facebook group for fans of the show. Please welcome Dr. Bill Rawls to Culture Apothecary. You're a doctor who specializes in Lyme disease and you also had Lyme disease. So what can you tell us about that? All ticks carry hundreds of different bacteria. And every time you get bitten by a tick, you're picking up some of those things. And we don't even know what most of them do. But here's deal. Most people who get bitten by a tick don't get sick. Even though you do pick up bacteria,

Starting point is 00:02:33 I didn't. I didn't get sick until later in life when I was under a lot of stress, but I probably picked up the microbes of bacteria when I was a kid playing in the woods. 95% of the people that I've connected with that relate or identify with chronic Lyme disease, don't remember getting sick around the time of a tick bite, and a good portion of them don't even remember a tick bite. But they tested later positive for the bacteria. So these things are very stealthy, right? So we know a lot about the things that make us very sick, very acutely.

Starting point is 00:03:12 We know more about Ebola virus than we do about chronic Lyme disease or Lyme disease in general. So we pick these things up. They don't make us sick. that's not their goal. All they want to do is establish a presence. I mean, you think about it. The purpose of a microbe is to they need a host to get resources, nutrients, food, and a platform to spread to other hosts. So if they make you deathly ill, you're not going to go out and get bitten by more ticks or whatever you need to do to spread that illness. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. Okay.

Starting point is 00:03:47 So they have really sophisticated ways of entering our body, bypassing the immune system, burying in our tissues and actually burying inside our cells. And that's the key to understanding these illnesses is these bacteria can enter your cells and go into a dormant or quiescent state. And they can stay that way a long time. Well, you said something really interesting before we got started, which kind of made me think, you know, there might be somebody who saw the title of this episode or is listening right now. Like, I don't know if I'm going to keep listening because I don't have Lyme disease. So I don't know why this episode would pertain to me.

Starting point is 00:04:21 Why is Lyme disease so crucial for everyone to know about? Because it's not just Lyme disease, right? So from the time you're born, you start picking things up. Put things in your mouth. You get bitten by a cat or a dog or a hamster. You could pick up Bartonella doing that. Everybody pick up Epstein borovirus. Scores of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, yeast, we can pick these things up.

Starting point is 00:04:48 And there's very good evidence. I mean, this is what I've been studying for the past 20 years is all the things that we can pick up without knowing it that can end up dormant inside of our tissues. And we're fine. We're good. You have them. Everybody in this room has them.

Starting point is 00:05:06 But then if your body is stressed, you're eating a bad diet. Me, taking night call for 20 years every second to third night and not sleeping and not eating like I should and just running stress. And all these different stress factors that are coming at us from so many directions in our modern world, these things catch up with us.

Starting point is 00:05:30 And these things that are dormant start reactivating. And they start breaking down those cells and start invading other cells. That's what illness is. That's what chronic Lyme disease is, but there's very good evidence that it's what most chronic illnesses are. Okay. Multiple sclerosis,

Starting point is 00:05:48 Most people test positive for, or a lot of people test positive for Borrelli, the Lyme bacteria, but also chlamydia and mycoplasmas and Epstein-Barr and all these things that we have become to associate with chloronic lime. You see it showing up in other places too. How many people are walking around with Lyme disease and don't even know it? Oh, that's hard to know. Because if something is dormant inside your cells or inside your tissues, you're not going to test positive for it. The only way for us to know is something that we don't typically do, which is take really deep tissue biopsies or chop people up and look in their tissues, look inside their cells. And if we did that, everybody in a tick-brine area like New England, I think we'd find a good portion of the population have some of these microbes buried in their tissues.

Starting point is 00:06:39 What exactly is Lyme disease? How debilitating is it? And what are the symptoms? Typical symptoms of Lyme disease. So what Lyme disease is technically what Lyme disease, how we've defined it, is an infection with a bacteria called Borrelia. There are actually 21 different species of Borrelia worldwide. Borrelia has been found from the tropics all the way to the Arctic Circle. It's really common. So it's virtually in every environment. Around here in Phoenix, where it's so dry, not many ticks. You have to worry about right. rattlesnakes more than you do ticks. But in a lot of environments around the world, you find this bacteria inside ticks. But ticks carry a lot of different things. So technically, Lyme disease is

Starting point is 00:07:27 in infection with that bacteria. And typically the early symptoms, like if somebody does get symptomatic, now what I'm finding is a lot of people don't get symptomatic. Or it's very mild. They think, I had a mild flu for a couple of days. So that's it. And they don't really get anything. But you have fever, malaise, muscle aches, joint aches. You can have heart symptoms. But, you know, I didn't have any of those things in the beginning. It was later when I was under this stress. And it got worse and worse and worse. And then then when someone identifies with chronic Lyme, which, by the way, isn't even recognized as a diagnosis by the conventional medical community. In your Lyme disease journey,

Starting point is 00:08:14 and you're a doctor, what did the traditional medical establishment miss when it came to your Lyme journey? They don't really have any tools to treat it. I mean, it's frustrating for them because, you know, if you look at the CDC recommendation, which I think is a very reasonable thing to do, if you are bitten by a tick and you develop symptoms, fever, malaise, muscle aches, etc., then you should receive 21 days of of antibiotics. According to the conventional medical community, that should cure you. Though we know that 20% of people that are treated with antibiotics get sick later.

Starting point is 00:08:56 So that in itself says, well, even the antibiotics aren't eradicating the bacteria. They're not eradicating the bacteria and they're wiping out your gut microbiome, which is probably making you sicker in other ways. Well, you've got a short window there. You've got a short window of about 10 or 20 days that you're not going to wreck your gut if you take antibiotics. So short-term use of antibiotics is a reasonable thing to do. But I always tell people, don't stop there. Think about taking some herbal therapy too, which is, we'll get to that. That idea of acute Lyme disease is frustrating for a lot of people because, you know, doctors really

Starting point is 00:09:33 don't understand it and they don't have good tools to treat it. But then so you get bitten by a tick, you pick up this bacteria, you don't get sick or you don't really notice it, and then you get sick six months, six years later, and you test positive for the bacteria, and then you develop all these crazy symptoms. I mean, insomnia, I had heart issues, neurological issues, and a lot of people have same symptoms that they might have with MS. I had pretty severe cardiac manifestations, but also, you know, burning feed and just these odd what we call paristhes, just weird tingling throughout my body, and just felt like I was a wreck, you know? I mean, I got up every day feeling like I had a really bad flu every day of my life. Let's talk about pancakes because I'm not about to choke down another

Starting point is 00:10:36 sad bowl of overnight oats like a squirrel on Prozac. Taylor Duke's Wellness, organic protein pancake mix is here to save us from breakfast despair. These pancakes are fluffy, delicious, absolutely loaded also with 28 grams of protein per serving. That is crazy. 28 grams. You're going to feel like you could storm a castle afterward. No gluten, no dairy, no soy, just organic real food that doesn't taste like cardboard punishment. You can also use it to make waffles. And let's talk ingredients.

Starting point is 00:11:03 Pea protein, almond protein, banana powder. This is the kind of breakfast that makes you feel like you've got your life together. Like you recycle, like you sleep eight hours a night. It's clean fuel that doesn't make you crash an hour later. into existential dread. Go to Taylorduckswellness.com. Use code Alex Clark for 10% off. That's Alex Clark for 10% off

Starting point is 00:11:22 at Taylordukes Wellness.com. All right, let me ask you this. Have you ever wanted that voluminous, beechy, wavy hair without having to actually wash it? I was definitely stuck in the I need to wash my hair every other day routine. But then I discovered Primely Pure's natural dry shampoo and it is the best new product I have added to my routine.

Starting point is 00:11:43 Not only does it add texture and volume, but it also refreshes my second third, and yes, sometimes fourth day hair without any of the heavy toxic chemicals that you find in most dry shampoos. Fremily Pure uses organic clays that absorb excess oil, while the essential oils help to balance your scalp and keep your hair smelling fresh and clean and beautiful. It's basically like a spa treatment for your hair. Oh, and it comes in two shades, dark and light locks because, let's be real, nobody wants white powdery marks in their hair, and I'm a dark hair girly, so I get it. I use it to extend my hairstyle for a couple of days, and it has become my secret weapon.

Starting point is 00:12:15 If you're thinking about switching to cleaner non-toxic skin care, check out the thousands of five-star reviews on primallypure.com from customers just like you. Once you're ready to make some swaps, use code Alex Clark. You will get 15% off any primally pure purchase. That's primallypure.com. Code Alex Clark at checkout for 15% off your order.

Starting point is 00:12:34 A lot of people I know with Lyme, they end up going to like multiple different doctors for years trying to treat different symptoms. And it seems like it just takes, years it takes forever to get a diagnosis. Why is that? Because the whole concept of diagnosis and chronic illness is flawed. When you look at that idea of diagnosis, all right, what we're doing with a diagnosis is determining what's wrong in the body and how we can administer therapy to treat that. Where we do really well in conventional medicine is acute intervention. You break your

Starting point is 00:13:15 leg, you have a blocked artery in your heart, you have acute infection, then we have what you need to get it fixed. Single problem, specific therapy. It works just fine, right? When you look into chronic illness, though, it's not one thing going wrong. It's everything going wrong in the body. So instead of looking at for causes of what that might be, or treating one thing specifically, we start putting out fires everywhere with treating with drugs. And when you look at that idea of chronic Lyme disease, there's very good evidence that long-term antibiotic therapy is more destructive than it is helpful. But when you think about it, I mean, think about your body if you had just kind of peppered with dormant microbes in your tissues and they were reactivating, so you still have dormant microbes

Starting point is 00:14:11 and they're growing slowly. Antibiotics just aren't a good solution for that problem. So here's the deal. Antibiotics are single chemical agents that work really well for fast-growing bacteria. So if you develop a pneumococcal pneumonia, you've got pneumoccal bacteria invading your lung in one spot, those bacteria are turning over very, very rapidly. So the average turnover rate of pneumococcal bacteria in that pneumonia is every 20 minutes.

Starting point is 00:14:47 Jeez. Really fast. So somebody can get very sick, very fast. So within that 10-day window of antibiotics, you can hit them really hard and you're not going to wreck the gut before you kill these fast-growing bacteria. Borrelia, the Lyme bacteria, it turns over an average, so its doubling time is 12. to 24 hours, and that's in its active state, not in its dormant state. So it's not surprising. Antibiotics just don't work that well for that bacteria. So to control this chronic thing, where you've got it all through your tissues and your immune system is doing odd things

Starting point is 00:15:26 and your whole body is being controlled by the microbes, it's like, you know, you turn your body over to the microbes, your body becomes basically a food source for the microbes. They're growing. breaking your body down and shifting your internal environment from healthy cells to food-free or microbes. It's going to take a long time. It's going to take months or years to control that. So if you do it with antibiotics, you're going to absolutely wreck the gut. And that's what happens. So conventional doctors, it's like, well, if I don't have any tools to fix something, I don't really want to know about that thing, right? Right. So that's kind of how it is. So it's not even considered a diagnosis.

Starting point is 00:16:14 What is the best testing for Lyme? Talking to the patient. Asking some questions. Look, you know, I did first phase of my career in OBGYN for 20 years. And the second phase has been just this journey of really understanding illness and coming to a very, very different place. and I don't think about diagnosis and chronic illness in the same way. And I went through a phase of functional medicine that I was doing lots and lots and lots of testing, testing, testing, testing, testing, testing, testing, testing. What I found is a lot of testing isn't that accurate. And if I sat down and talked to someone and really pieced together all the reasons why they were ill,

Starting point is 00:16:59 I didn't need a lot of testing. So it's really helping people understand. And I use a formula for that that I'd be glad to share, but it really gets down to the crux of what illness is and what wellness is. Yeah, what's the formula. So your body is completely made of cells. Everything that happens in your body, whether it's your heart beating, whether it's thyroid hormone being produced, everything that happens is done by cells. So every single one of your cells is like a little microscopic biological machine. So it's a self-contained unit. Now, all of our cells are working together. They're all dependent, and that's what hormones are doing.

Starting point is 00:17:46 That's what all these hormones and chemical messengers is cells talking to one another, coordinating their functions. But every cell is independent. So every cell needs very specific things to be healthy. And if your cells are healthy, you're healthy. It's as simple as that. So you think about it, it's pretty logical. So every cell in your body needs the right nutrients.

Starting point is 00:18:12 So that's one, five things. So your cells need nutrients. Different cells, it's like your heart burns mainly fat. Your brain needs carbohydrates for a quick burn. Your thyroid needs iodine to produce thyroid hormone. But if you're eating a whole food diet, whole food is whole cells, you're getting all the things that you need for your cells to function. Yeah. Number two, cells need a clean environment.

Starting point is 00:18:39 Think of all the chemicals and everything that we're exposed to in our environment today. And radiation and everything else. All of these things are toxic to our cells. So any chemicals that are foreign basically gum up the machinery of our cells, a little microscopic machinery. They don't work as well. So it's like throwing sand in the machinery of your cell. It still works, but it has to work harder and it burns out faster. So that's number two.

Starting point is 00:19:09 Cells need downtime. So our cells work hard and one of the most remarkable things about our cells is they can repair themselves. Is that sleep? Sleep. Everybody needs eight hours. So if you're running on an average of six and a half hours, which is what most Americans are doing, you start your next day with a deficit that your cells haven't recovered from the day before. So you need downtime during the day and a good eight hours of sleep at night for your cells to function normally.

Starting point is 00:19:43 If they're not getting that, they're not keeping up. They're not repairing so your cells are working at a deficit. Your cells are stressed. Four, your cells need good flow. So our cells, think about our tissues. Our tissues are really tight. Our muscle tissue, organ tissue, all the cells are compacted very tightly. So nutrients and oxygen have to get in those spaces.

Starting point is 00:20:10 So you leak plasma from your bloodstream and it flows between the cells. So it not only brings nutrients and oxygen, but it also washes away debris and congestion and it helps their cells purge those toxic substances they're getting rid. of. So you're not moving. You're not getting good blood flow. So that's the most important part of exercise is getting out and making blood flow. And that pushes it through the lymphatics, clears up that space. So if you're not getting exercise, if you're not moving, you're getting congestion and that builds up and that threatens the health of your cells. And number five, protection from microbes.

Starting point is 00:20:57 Microbes are our arch-enemy. Microbes have to eat. Everything living is food for something else. We're food for microbes. I mean, they're a greatest threat. And that can be an acute infection. So, like, if we get something, something that really makes us sick

Starting point is 00:21:12 is because we don't have built-in immunity to it. Like, Ebola virus is really bad because nobody's ever been exposed to it. We have no built-in immunity. When in-iners are, it basically ravages all the cells of our body. When you look at all the other things, most of the things that were exposed to through human history, we've been exposed to them over and over and over again.

Starting point is 00:21:36 I mean, ticks have been biting humans since the beginning of humans. And Borrelia has been with them, along with Reketia and anaplasma and a whole bunch of other stuff too. Right. So we have natural built-in immunity to these things, but again, they're very stealthy. So they get through our system, they find ways that they can survive and wait it out. Why doesn't the CDC acknowledge chronic Lyme? Because they don't have anything to fix it.

Starting point is 00:22:05 Could Lyme disease be the cause of tons of mystery illnesses that doctors can't explain? Yes, of course. You know, this whole, you know, getting back to that idea of diagnosis, you know, you break your leg, you want to know where it's broken so you can go and fix that. So when you've got chronic illness and everything and the body is breaking down, we don't have any things specific that we can target. So, you know, we've talked about the causes of disease. So when you look at causes of any chronic illness, it's on that list of five.

Starting point is 00:22:39 And it's never one thing. It's typically all of those things. So I don't think when you look at any kind of chronic situation, chronic Lyme or ill mess or any other, it's not just one microbe, it's a lot of things that are reactivating in the body because they have an opportunity. It's really whatever you've picked up. That concept of diagnosis and chronic illness really gets complicated because, you know, the purpose of a diagnosis is to lead to therapy. Have a broken leg. The diagnosis defines the therapy and the solution. You know, it's going to fix that broken leg. Right. When you get into chronic illness, though, we're not fix it.

Starting point is 00:23:20 the causes. We ignore the causes because that's complicated because that's behavioral modification. And, you know, I've got five minutes to talk to this patient. I don't have time to talk to them about diet and what toxins they're exposed to and all of this. We don't have time for that. We have time to order lab test and write a prescription. So when you look at chronic illnesses, prescriptions are designed to block symptoms or other manifestations. but they're not doing anything to block cellular stress. They're not doing anything to understand and restore cellular stress. So what healing is is the ability of yourselves to recover from stress.

Starting point is 00:24:03 And they're very good at it if you take the stress off. Drugs don't take the stress off. So people end up in a state of chronic managed illness and they don't get well. 60% of the American population are defined as having a chronic illness. That's the CDC. Define 60% of the American population is chronically ill. We spend more on health care than any country on Earth. And we're some of the most unhealthy people on Earth.

Starting point is 00:24:32 Exactly. Because we are treating the symptoms instead of addressing the causes. Yes. Yes. And it's as simple as that. Okay. I've cracked the code on the fastest, healthiest meal that you can make with things that you probably already have. Ready?

Starting point is 00:24:50 Mossa chips. Grass fed ground beef. A little shredded cheese, maybe some peppers, black beans, green onions, boom. Protein nachos in the oven, five minutes. That's dinner, and it's shockingly good. Because here's the thing. Masa chips are the only tortilla chips that I'll use. They're made with just three ingredients.

Starting point is 00:25:07 Organic, niximalized corn, grass-fed beef tallow, and Redmond sea salt. No seed oils, no preservatives, no weird fake flavors. Nxtimalization is an ancient method of preparing corn that boost digestibility and minerals. And it's how traditional cultures made their tortillas for thousands of. of years. And you add in beef tallow, well, that's one of the most nutrient-dense fats on the planet. And you've got chips that are as healthy as they are crunchy. And yeah, they actually taste a lot better than the seed oil stuff. Go to masahchips.com and use code real Alex Clark for 20% off your first purchase. That's masahchips.com with code real Alex Clark for 20% off

Starting point is 00:25:40 your first order. Let's be real. Most of us are playing guessing games with our health. We buy random supplements, follow TikTok advice, and hope for the best. I was that person. Until I found Jevity. They're all about proactive, health optimization and they make it so simple. Step one, they send a phlebotomist right to your house. Yep, got my blood drawn on my couch. And then you get a full consultation and a health plan based on over 90 biomarkers tested, not just the 20 that your regular doctor might check. We're talking real data, hormones, inflammation, metabolism, all of it. And then they ship your personalized supplements, just exactly what you need, nothing more, peptides and any prescriptions right to your door.

Starting point is 00:26:20 ongoing blood work every six months keeps your plan working to make sure that you're improving it's $129 a month for access to a full health team ready whenever you have a question deep diagnostics and the best supplements that i've ever tried that are exactly what i needed skip the wait list and get 20% off your first month with code alex at gogevity.com that's gogevity.com g-e-v-i-com code alex for 20% off Can Lyme disease be passed down genetically from one generation to the next? Or can it be passed down even from mom during pregnancy or breastfeeding? It's possible. But like I said, they specialize in ticks, all right?

Starting point is 00:27:04 Microbes are opportunist. They're going to do whatever they can to survive. And spreading from host to host is what they do. So if they can do that in utero or sexually, they may. if it works for them. So yes, it can happen, but it's not that common. I think a big problem with where we are with chronic Lyme disease or chronic illness is that we always are looking for one specific thing that's making people sick. And we've found that there are a lot of co-infections with Lyme disease. And the list of co-infections gets longer and longer.

Starting point is 00:27:49 So it's more of the fact that we all pick up things throughout our lifetime that can become dormant in our tissues. And then when we're stressed, these things can reactivate. How they reactivate depends on your genetic makeup. So we talked about the difference between MS and Lyme disease, right? So a lot of people with Lyme disease have MS-like symptoms, neurologic impairment. They have found that demyelination, which is the process of MS, occurs in Lyme disease. Borrelli has been associated that. So it comes from the bacteria scavenging the myelin off of the nerve, which is kind of like,

Starting point is 00:28:34 it's like the plastic on a copper wire. And if you scavenge that protection, then our nerve short out. And that's what causes the symptoms. Well, they found that in Lyme disease. They found Borrelli in MS. So why do some people get MS? And that study that I was reviewing suggested that it's genetic factors. People that progressed MS have genetic factors that make them more susceptible.

Starting point is 00:29:01 Do you believe that's true? Yeah. I think what genetics does isn't necessarily make us sick. You know, they're very few. It loads the gun and our environment pulls the trigger. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's, I always say it.

Starting point is 00:29:15 It's the hand that life deals you, and it's how you play that hand. Right. So it's how your genetics basically defined how you tolerate certain risk factors. What are some symptoms of Lyme disease in kids? Very similar, but it can cause behavioral modifications, a lot of other kinds of things. And, you know, it's never just Borrelia. And part of it in kids, I mean, I do worry about our kids just because they're exposed to so much stuff in the food and the food itself. And, you know, so I think they're more vulnerable

Starting point is 00:29:51 than they used to be. Why do most Lyme disease treatments fail and how is your approach just radically different? Like, how is the chronic Lyme disease controversy holding back millions of people from healing? Yeah, I think the big deal is you've got the conventional medical community that's saying, yeah, it doesn't really exist. And people get labeled with fibromyalgia or whatever. You know, I kind of oscillated between fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue for years before I actually defined that I was carrying these bacteria and started understanding things. That's why I don't really think about diagnosis the same way as I used to. But it's so the first thing I've, you know, it's like, okay, I've got this bacteria.

Starting point is 00:30:37 I can take antibiotics. I can get well. And I did that round after round of antibiotics and just got sicker. and sicker. And just realizing that that wasn't the right solution. And I was very fortunate that, you know, I was a small town doctor. I had to stop practicing obstetrics, which is what I'd been doing for 20 years. And I created a, you know, a small primary care practice so I didn't have to take call. But I was attached to that practice. I couldn't leave town. I couldn't just and really didn't have the finances to go and pursue, you know, therapies that could cost $100,000, which is really

Starting point is 00:31:18 common. Because if you're in a small town and you, you as the doctor are sick and dealing with some kind of chronic disease, like, yeah, like you can't tell and who's going to replace you, this little town needs you, you're the only doctor probably. Well, it was a big enough town, though, it was a hospital. They were other doctors. But it was, but still, you know, it was my livelihood and I couldn't just quit. I couldn't declare disability. And I couldn't really tell people what was going on. That's a weird thing about Lyme is, you know, a lot of people find that you don't really look sick. So what's the matter with you? Why can't you do what you were doing before? My previous partners just didn't understand it. I didn't understand it. Did you lose

Starting point is 00:32:00 personal relationships because of the disease? Oh, yeah. Wow. Oh my gosh. That's so sad. My wife stuck with me. That's good. That's good. You found some natural remedies that were able to help the Lyme more than the antibiotics ever did. What were they? There was a book published. This was about 2005. And there was a book published called Healing Lime by a guy named Stephen Boehner. And, you know, I looked at everything. I'd looked at crazy stuff. And by then I was really trying to figure it out. I was, I had become certified in holistic medicine. And so I was really open-minded to anything beyond conventional because conventional obviously wasn't the solution. I was aware patients used herbal therapy. I was aware of that, but really didn't give it much credit, you know. And I read about this protocol, and it's like, I'm desperate. And I'm going to give this a try.

Starting point is 00:33:02 And what did they say to do for a natural remedy to Lyme disease? Well, it was using herbs in really high-grade extracts, herbs that you wouldn't find like at a Whole Foods or a natural food store. I've come to know them now and they're much more mainstream. Okay, so what are the herbs? At that time, it was Japanese knotweed, cat's claw, Chinese skull cap, angi graphis, wishi, coriceps. And that's kind of the core of my protocols today.

Starting point is 00:33:33 other herbs too, but it was really high doses and high concentrations. I mean, I was taking handfuls of capsules two or three times a day. My wife thought I really lost it. And so when you have Lyme disease and you're doing these natural remedies, do you have to keep up with that then forever? Like, are you still having to do all these supplements or are you okay to go without them now? Nope. That's the thing. Yeah, that's the thing. And that's a big, message that I have. So I did the herbs and within six months, and, you know, and really going into it, it was like, I'm going to try this. I don't have high expectations that it's going to help me. If it actually is killing the bacteria, then it's probably going to wreck my gut just like

Starting point is 00:34:23 antibiotics, but I started getting better. And it didn't wreck my gut, which was really cool. I was kind of back and forth that I would get like 70% better and I'd run out of herbs. And it's kind of like, okay, well, this is good enough. If I can live with this, because, you know, I was worried that I was going to die, you know. Yeah. Then I would have some stress and be back to square one and I'd start all the herbs again. And this went on for several years. And I had really, I had very severe heart issues, which really concerned me at the time.

Starting point is 00:34:58 You know, that's handed up with a cardiac cath and all kinds of evaluation. Oh, my words. My vessels were clear, and it's like, we don't understand why your heart is skipping every second to third beat. Here, take some drugs and see if you can stop that, and I couldn't tolerate the drugs. It took about three to four years before those symptoms completely resolved, right? So healing takes time. What healing is is the ability of cells to recover from stress. So our heart cells, they don't get to rest all night.

Starting point is 00:35:31 They have to keep beating. They have to rest in between beats. So our heart cells are very vulnerable. As long as our brain cells, our brain just doesn't really ever stop. So nerve cells, heart cells take a long time to heal. The amazing thing was it did. And that was just remarkable in itself. But I found that every time I stop the herbs, I would start relapsing.

Starting point is 00:35:57 So you're still on them? I've been taking herbs now for 20 years. Wow. Not at the levels, you know? I mean, I take a pretty good healthy dose about once a day. And I've enjoyed some of the best health in the past decade that I've enjoyed in my whole life. Okay. Japanese not weed.

Starting point is 00:36:17 Sentiments that I had in my 30s. Amazing. My knees are great. I mean, I just finished hiking. probably over three days, we hike 20 or so miles up in the canyons. And how old are you now? In Tucson? 68. Okay.

Starting point is 00:36:35 That's great. And yeah, some of them still kite surfing and, you know, paddleboarding, all kinds of stuff. Okay, so what are the top three things that everybody should do to protect themselves from Lyme this summer? Being vigilant about ticks is really, really smart. You know, protective clothing. I don't use the chemicals. I just don't like the idea of putting chemicals on my body. So I use essential oil preparations.

Starting point is 00:37:03 What essential oil is good for ticks? There are a lot of them. Essential oils in general, basically they're the plants insect repellent. But it's, so there are a lot of good products out there. I use one called Murphy's Naturals. And I used to wear full clothing and all of that sort of thing. But I've gotten so I'm back to high. hiking just in shorts again because I'm just really sensitive to not being brushed. You know,

Starting point is 00:37:31 I like wide trails and things and I'm constantly checking myself and I can feel a tick on my skin where I'm just, you know, years ago I wouldn't pay attention to that. Now I'm really vigilant. You're like hypervigilant. Yeah. But that's another reason for hiking out here and where it's really dry. There aren't any ticks. Can Lyme disease damage DNA and accelerate aging? Well, yes, it can. It damages cells, right? So your body is made of cells. We talked about that. Here's aging in a nutshell. Through your lifetime, through your childhood, you are building cells. So by the time you get to age 20, you have five to ten times more cells in your body than you need to survive. And how about we haven't really done the science to look at how much a factor is that in someone's total? a lifetime. But how many cells you accumulate during childhood? How good your diet and health are during your childhood. Up until the age 20 is really important. So after that point, when you hit peak adulthood, you stop building. And there you start losing cells. So your cells are burning out

Starting point is 00:38:42 their mitochondria and losing energy. So for the rest of your lifetime, you lose cells. cell count is really, really important. So when you look at your cells, they're losing mitochondria, they're losing energy. So most professional athletes are retired by the age of 40 because they've burned through half of their residual cells and all their cells have an energy deficit compared to when they were 20. Half again by the time you had to age 80. So if your cells are stressed, they're working.

Starting point is 00:39:17 working harder and they're burning out faster. So if you're eating a bad diet and not getting sleep and not getting exercise and exposed to toxic substances and have reactivation of microbes, which we all have a little bit of that to a certain degree throughout your lifetime, then you're burning cells faster. And so that affects your ultimate lifespan. And it's really as simple as that. It's all about cells. Any aspect of any topic on health and illness can be described by cells. What is the freakiest thing you've learned about Lyme disease that would shock people? The freakiest thing, I think, is just that I think it's a lot more widespread.

Starting point is 00:40:03 I think there are connections to it that are bigger, and there's so many people out there that just feel totally helpless, you know. They are not getting a straight answer from both the conventional community, or their Lyme community, you know, people are getting pushed into situations where they feel like their only way they can get their health back is by doing these really extravagant therapies. I mean, I've talked to so many people that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Oh, yeah. On Lyme therapy, and I didn't spend much anything.

Starting point is 00:40:38 What do you think is the future of Lyme disease treatment? Well, you know, I hope we're building that, you know. So part of the herbal thing is that your whole body's on fire. And if you throw a bunch of herbs in there, you know, part of what I learned in my journey and with helping people all these years is that it's just you're almost intensifying the fire inside when you just dump a lot of herbs in. Now, I did pretty well with it. I have a high pain tolerance. I persevered with it. But one thing that I've been creating, I found that instead of seeing patients in a practice building protocols and programs for people is really helpful. So thinking about that cellular thing again, you know, if you can imagine every cells throughout

Starting point is 00:41:28 your body are in distress. Well, when cells are in distress, they let your brain know about it. Like if you cut your finger, cells that are injured, release chemicals that, send a message to your brain that you've had an injury. So think about cells that's happening throughout your body. Your brain is bombarded with these distress signals that send us into that overactive fight or flight response. And that keeps us from sleeping.

Starting point is 00:41:58 It slows our gut down. It just messes up everything. And that makes it harder for you to take the herbs in the therapies that can get you well. So we've started a protocol that for the first couple of months, we're really working on calming that sympathetic overactivity, that fight or flight, using herbs like aschaganda and calming herbs to bring people down at the same time starting off lower doses of herbs that are well tolerated to start reducing that microbe load. And then once you do that, then you can start working on the gut. You know, everybody thinks that gut problems, digestive dysfunction,

Starting point is 00:42:39 is mainly diet. And it's actually mainly stress. So when you're stressed, when your brain it has in that fight-or-flight response, right? When you're running from a tiger, digesting food isn't a priority. Overactive fight-or-flight shut your gut down, slow motility. If you're not moving, everything gets backed up into your liver. So you get bad liver, gallbladder symptoms, reflux, indigestion. Small bowel bacterial overgrowth occurs because of slow motility.

Starting point is 00:43:15 You don't move. You have food in there. You don't move. The bacteria overgrowth. And they started damaging the intestinal wall and you get leaky gut and food sensitivities and all that. You have to address that sympathetic overactivity first. Once you do that, then the second phase that we do is moving into restoring gut function. get people on a healthier diet, start getting their body detoxifying.

Starting point is 00:43:43 It's ready by then. And then the third phase, we move into those stronger antimicrobial herbs when their body is really prepared for it. So I landed in Miami a few hours before hotel check-in and thought, you know what, I'll just hang by the pool, no big deal. Well, big mistake. I stayed out too long at peak sun, and by the time my room was ready, I looked like a lobster. Luckily, I had active skin repair hydrogel in my bag, and I started applying immediately. That burn calmed down fast and within days it faded into a tan instead of peeling like usual. This isn't some trendy burn cream. It's made with HOCI, a molecule that your white blood cells naturally produce to promote healing. It's sting-free, totally non-toxic and smells like nothing.

Starting point is 00:44:29 No sticky residue, no chemical scent, just fast, clean healing. Most wound care products are outdated, messy, harsh, and even toxic. But active skin repair uses medical grade science to work with your body. It's safe for all ages, even pregnant in nursing women, and comes in spray or gel, depending on what you prefer. Use code Alex for a discount and head to ActiveSkinrepair.com. That's code Alex at ActiveSkinrepair.com. Don't travel without it. I used to think good sleep was about a melatonin gummy and a blackout curtain.

Starting point is 00:44:59 Turns out it was my sheet sabotaging me. I was waking up hot, tangled, and honestly, just irritated. So then I switched to cozy Earth's bamboo sheet set, and everything changed. I didn't even know that sheets could feel this way. Smooth, soft, and so breathable. It's like sleeping under a cloud that regulate your body temperature. They're made from 100% premium viscos from bamboo, and somehow they get even softer with every wash.

Starting point is 00:45:23 I've never looked forward to bedtime more. And the best part, Cozy Earth gives you a 100-night sleep trial in a 10-year warranty. I mean, who does that? Visit CozyEarth.com and use code Alex for up to 40% off your order. It's CozyEarth.com with code Alex for up to 40% off. A better year starts with better sleep. Wrap yourself in cozy earth. Ladies, imagine this, walking into a room with thousands of bold, faith-filled women who

Starting point is 00:45:51 actually get you. That's what the Young Women's Leadership Summit is all about. It's happening June 13th through 15th at the stunning Gaylord Resort in Dallas. You're going to hear from people like me, Ginny Urich, Riley Gaines, and Brett Cooper, all while building real sisterhood. Bring your mom, your sister, or just come solo. You're going to leave with a community. Get 25% off your ticket at YWLS-2020.com with code Alex. See you in Texas. Is your practice primarily just focused on Lyme disease now? It doesn't matter whether you're talking about Lyme disease, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune, really anything.

Starting point is 00:46:29 It's all cellular stress. It's all involved those five things. You know, I've been able to find a microfactor in virtually everything. Cancer is you to name it. You're going to find a microfactor. in virtually every chronic illness. And where are you at, North Carolina? Yes.

Starting point is 00:46:46 Where for people that want to see you? Best way is just for us online. Okay. So you're doing virtual appointments? I do more structuring these programs. So, you know, for a long time, well, I did a practice for years. And I found that the more I talk to people, the better I could help people. So I started doing just online consults.

Starting point is 00:47:08 Okay. And typically in a consult, it would last like an hour. an hour and a half, just carrying people, sometimes starting back at their childhood, piecing together why they got ill. Yeah. It's really important. What we do in conventional medicine is we define how people are ill, and we treat the how instead of the why.

Starting point is 00:47:29 And understanding why people get ill is so remarkably important, and that can take a lot of time. It's really intense. I could only do, like, a few consults a day. Oh, I'm sure. I was talking to people all over the world. I wasn't managing medication, so it was more like a high-level health coaching call. So what I've been working on in the past several years is how can I do that for a much larger group of people?

Starting point is 00:47:56 Because this one-on-one with just a few people at a time. So a year ago, we started building a community within something called Mighty Networks that we're building out this really robust education system that basically I'm carrying people through that process. And they're with us for six months. We go through those different steps. And it's just robust education, videos of me, group sessions, answering questions that people have, and peace, helping them to piece together the why. of the illness. Do you call the community slimy-limey? Pretty close. Okay, Dr. Bill. So, okay, random question only because I was told, like, you have to ask him about this. My audience knows

Starting point is 00:48:51 I have Hashimoto's, and allegedly you have the most unique Hashimoto's take in all of the medical community. So what is it? I have theories that we do have microbes present in our cells. This is more theory. It's hard to find the absolute evidence for the thyroid gland, but I still think that we do have microbes there that reactivate. And when you look at autoimmune, I mean, you think about it. So your cells are stressed. They have, you know, some of the cells have microbes.

Starting point is 00:49:29 They start reactivating. They start breaking down those cells and invading other cells where your immune system sees that and goes, we can't have that. And it starts attacking the cells when the microbes are coming from. So I think it's really hard to explain autoimmunity if you don't have that. So if you can imagine, you know, your cells in your body are stressed, that's worked your thyroid cells too hard. That's caused reactivation of microbes.

Starting point is 00:49:58 So your immune system starts attacking your thyroid cells, making the problem even worse. Right. So the problem is an overall cellular stress problem. And when we look at thyroid or adrenal fatigue, it's all cellular stress that's driving those problems. Oh, my gosh, fascinating. So it's a little bit different way of thinking about it than I think most people do. What is the website or social media that people can go to if they want to learn more about Lyme from you? Our main website, just for information, is RawlsmD.com.

Starting point is 00:50:30 and if they put rawsmd.com slash resources, it'll have some special information for them. So I ask every guest at the end of the episode if you could offer one remedy to heal a sick culture. It could be physically, emotionally, or spiritually, what would it be? Live more naturally. Try to live more naturally. That's really important because we're just really off the map of how humans live. eat whole foods. That's really important for people to eat whole foods. You know, and you can't do that with everything you eat. I mean, I don't make my own mayonnaise, but I'd say 90 plus percent of my food, I'm making myself and I'm making it from whole foods. And take herbs every day. Because not only,

Starting point is 00:51:16 you know, you look at all these herbs that we've talked about for chronic Lyme disease, every single one of them has anti-cancer properties, too. That's right. Why would you not want to do that? that. Exactly. So they're definitely herbs you wouldn't want to take on a daily basis, but the herbs that we've talked about here and adaptogens like Rishi and cortiseps and rhodiola, all of these things are herbs that don't have drug-like properties that are, how they're working is they're protecting ourselves from all of these stress factors that we've talked about. So cellular protection is really important. So eating a good diet, that's great. You know, get. getting sleep, all these things, but the microbe protection, all herbs have antimicrobial properties.

Starting point is 00:52:04 All plants have that. Very different than an antibiotic. It's not disrupting. It's selective for pathogens. So it's not disrupting our gut flora. So taking herbs every day, what you're doing is just bringing on, you're borrowing the plant system of robust cellular protection, protecting yourself from free radicals, toxic substances, radiation, microbes of every variety. So taking herbs every day is just really, really important for staying healthy. Dr. Rawls, thank you for coming on culture apothecary. Pleasure. Thank you. I'm really struck by the powerful insights that Dr. Rawls shared about Lyme disease and the importance of looking beyond traditional treatments. It's clear that lime is far more complex than many realize, and it affects so many aspects of our health. You know,

Starting point is 00:52:56 what stood out to me most is this idea that healing doesn't just come from addressing the symptoms, but from supporting cellular wellness and strengthening the body's natural defenses. Share your Lyme disease story in the Kutervatives Facebook group. Mondays and Thursdays at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern. New expert guests bring their own unique remedy to heal a sick culture, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Subscribe to Real Alex Clark on YouTube and follow me on Instagram at Real Alex Clark. You can also find the show on Instagram at Culture Apothecary. I'm Alex Clark, and this is Culture Apothecary.

Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - The Lyme Disease Episode | Dr. Bill Rawls, MD

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.