The Alkaline Brain: Dietary Concerns in Lyme-Borreliosis

By Dr. David Jernigan


Due to the recent discovery that people with Lyme disease universally suffer from hyperammonemia, the excessive accumulation of ammonia in the liver, jaws, heart, and brain, and in rare cases the entire body, certain dietary changes can help reduce the severity of the symptoms of Lyme disease.

Ammonia is very alkaline with a pH of 11.6. Many doctors have been taught that most sick people have acidic bodies (< 7.0 pH). The reality is not that simple. People may be predominantly acidic but may also be extremely alkaline in the areas of ammonia accumulation. This is why many people worsen when they are given dietary recommendations such as eating fresh fruits and vegetables, which work to alkalinize the body. Drinking alkalinized water would also tend to aggravate symptoms related to hyperammonemia.

While there are many people who have been helped by these alkaline diets and alkalinized water, it is likely that they did not have a significant accumulation of ammonia and therefore did not experience a worsening of their symptoms.

It appears that alkaline diets can aggravate the already over-alkaline, ammonia regions of their body: the brain, jaws, heart, and liver. The ammonia conditions must be cleared before addressing the more acidic regions of the body.
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Understanding Fevers

The human race, when viewed over the last few hundred years, is moving away from the inflammatory diseases associated with high fevers toward the more cold illnesses, such as diabetes, cancer, and fibromyalgia. Today the average person will commonly run a “normal” body temperature between 95-97° F. Ideally children and adults should maintain a core temperature of 98.6° F or slightly higher. Incao, P. Lilipoh, Issue 24, 2001 It is interesting to see how what experts consider to be “normal” is changing every year as our population becomes sicker and sicker. I purchased a thermometer recently that listed the normal temperature range as 95.9 to 99.5° F. This company considers a temperature that is almost 3 degrees colder than the optimum 98.5 to be normal, when as will be discussed later a temperature this low should not be considered normal and is actually detrimental.

Fevers on the other hand are a very important mechanism in the developmental processes of growing children. Not only does the fever help destroy the microbes, but it trains the body to regulate the warmth organization of the body in adult life. Fevers in childhood also help to establish a stronger constitution.
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