Neuroborreliose: Eine komplexe Herausforderung für Betroffene und Ärzte | Arkadi Prokopov | QS24

Are you already a Vicky Sanner? Welcome, dear viewers, here in our format Nature Medicine. Today I have one of the outstanding scientists here at home again. He is a doctor and comes from the former Soviet Union, where he worked on the Russian air and space travel and specialized in deep divers, who had to go deep down there and had to have enough air reserves. And so he has been dealing with IHHT for decades. It is actually the name that always comes first in connection with the interval hyperhypooxytherapy, because he knows himself so well. And today he is here to talk to me about neuroborreliosis and how to treat it in such a way that you are really successful with it. After the intro, I introduce you to my guest. Stay tuned. Yes, here we are again and now I can introduce you to a doctor and scientist. Arkady Prokopov. Welcome, dear Arkady. Thank you very much, Alexander, for the invitation. With pleasure. I am very excited about a lecture in the field of neuroborreliosis. In general, we know borreliosis. This is the stimulus, there are infections, punctual bones or where it hurts. Neuroborreliosis, as a result, does not hurt the bones, but the nerves. Yes. Neuroborreliosis can arise with two variants. First, so-called primary neuroborreliosis, when the borrelia arrive at the beginning in the nervous system. And it happens, for example, that people do not feel that they have actually bitten a tick. Because sometimes the ticks are so small, so-called larvae, the very young ticks, and they can already transmit borrelia. Not just borrelia, because normally it is a cocktail of different germs and parasites, but borrelia are the most important. And when they stick somewhere near the nerve, somewhere on the skin, then it may be that borrelia come straight into this nerve. And then the borrelia run along the nerve until they come to the brain. And in such cases, sometimes you can see minimal redness where the tick has bitten, and no typical symptoms. But sometimes symptoms such as blemish on the face arise, yes, on one side, typical blemish. And then a bit like a fever, like a mild flu. And in this phase, you have no idea that it was a borrelia tick, then you just don't think about these problems. But when borrelia start to activate in the brain and multiply in the brain, then massive symptoms arise. Symptoms of a brain inflammation, and this is not an acute inflammation, but a so-called low-grade inflammation. And this produces hundreds of symptoms. First, just tiredness, fog in the head, and you can forget all the things that happen pretty quickly. Sometimes short-term memory is slowed down. Then there is also a headache, there are also problems with the eyes, with hearing. And of course, then you start to move from doctor to doctor. Many examinations are done at HNO doctors, at eye doctors, and so on, and so on. But no one looks at borrelia, right? Very rarely, very rarely, because the symptoms are very different. And when you have already made various diagnoses, then the doctors sometimes come up with the idea, we have to do a borrelia test, they do an immune test, and sometimes they just see minimal values. So you can't say 100% that this is a certain borrelia infection. Why? Because the immune system in the brain is limited by circulation. And what happens in the brain? Not exactly, we can see in the blood. So immune values in the brain are much higher, but we can't make a function of the brain to determine which immune values the liquor has. That's why it's still a complicated thing. And only when these various factors are put together, an experienced doctor can also ask, maybe it's primarily neuroborreliosis. Then comes the question of treatment. How can you kill borrelia, which are already so deep in the brain, in neurons and in other brain cells, have already hidden themselves. How could you kill these borrelia? Because antibiotics usually don't get through the blood-brain barriers. Antibiotics are against bacteria. Is borrelia classified as a bacterium? Yes, borrelia are so-called spirochetes. So an antibiotic would work against borrelia? At the beginning of the stage, there is a typical image of borrelia, a red dot, and then it grows with a red ring. It's a big suspicion of primary borrelia. And then you prescribe up to a month of doxycycline, a very good antibiotic, well tested, and has little side effects. And two or three weeks, then you can see in the blood whether it was an antigen response and so on. And usually in 80% borrelia disappears. It has not developed as a systemic disease. But do you know it then, or is it just gone? But it could well be that the borrelia is already gone. Not ruled out. Unfortunately, with borrelia, it is always suspected that some bacteria, some borrelia, spirochetes, they can first drill themselves somewhere, for example in the cartilage, in the connective tissue, in the tendons. And first, very few symptoms. Very few. I have, for example, young people, my patients, well, young people, 30, 40 plus, and they are high-ranking athletes. They get really good results, riding a bike, triathlon, marathon, everything is perfect. But most of the time they have problems. Knee pain. Knee pain. Nothing. They do all the physiotherapy, take the food supplements, and it doesn't disappear. Then they do an analysis for borreliosis, immune values. Yes, of course, it is borreliosis. Is that a blood test that shows? It's an immune test, a blood test. Armin Laabs does it in Munich. Or Dr. Kierkegaard also has this whole panel of diseases that are transmitted to the brain. These are good reliable tests. So does this also show a neuroborreliosis? Unfortunately not. Because neuroborreliosis, primary neuroborreliosis, it happens that in the blood values we see either minimal immune complexes, immune components, or almost none. Because the brain is well protected, well isolated, but the borrelia are already there. What do you do in such cases? Unfortunately, you find the cause, for example, all these problems are known. There are people, for example, diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and they died of Alzheimer's disease. Then the pathologists do the autopsies, and find borrelia in the brain. You never got a diagnosis of borrelia, but you can see the DNA of borrelia in the brain. And then you do electronic microscopy, microphotography, and find borrelia. Because the borrelia are incredibly smart, in brackets, spirochetes. By the way, they are related to Treponema pallidum. The pathogens of syphilis. They are very, very closely related. But Treponema pallidum has about 22 genes. And Borrelia burgdorferi has more than 100 genes. So it's five times smarter than Treponema pallidum. That's why it can protect itself much better against immunity. It can simply deceive our immune cells so that they don't attack the borrelia. And that's why our bodies can, with borrelia, actually, when you are healthy, so strong young people, the borrelia penetrate deep, deep hypoxic niches, like cartilages, veins, and also deep in the brain. They can't recognize immunity. That's why there is no immune reaction. But when you go into advanced age, or get, for example, an injury, for example, a trauma, broken knee or broken bone, you get hormonal preparations, sometimes against inflammation. You get high-dose hormones. Cortisol, and so on. These hormones suppress immunity and then spread the borrelia throughout the body. Then you can see that it's clearly a borreliosis. You can see it in the blood. But between an infection and a real outbreak, it can take a lot of time. Exactly. That's the problem. Because sometimes months and years pass. I had patients with borreliosis, with minor symptoms, lived 20-30 years ago. I had a man, a professional hunter, always in the woods, and of course he got thousands of ticks. But the real manifestation of borreliosis, and then later neuroborreliosis, started when he was in his late 40s. He was fit until the end of his 40s. And then massive symptoms, in the bones, in the cartilage, in the tendons, also in the brain, and systemic immune weakness. And very often these patients develop chronic fatigue syndrome. Of course, understandable. How is school medicine treating this neuroborreliosis? Borreliosis in general is a big, growing problem in school medicine. Because so-called guidelines against borreliosis simply prescribe antibiotics for up to two months. Or more. High-dose antibiotics. Different types of antibiotics. But that doesn't work up here, does it? Yes, of course. It affects the whole body. About 20% of these patients, who are prescribed, may receive healing. Although with borreliosis, you can never talk about healing. It's just a remission for several years. But total healing is always questionable. And yet the others, most of them don't get any benefits. The symptoms remain. And even worse, the symptoms get worse due to massive side effects of antibiotics. Because antibiotics that work against spirochetes also suppress mitochondria. And they also ruin the intestinal environment. Yes, and of course they also ruin the intestinal flora. So there's a vicious circle. A vicious circle. That's why I've understood for a long time that with pharmaceuticals, supplements and phytopharmacists, it's possible to ease the symptoms. To get a remission. But a real, drastic improvement and healing, you can never talk about. But you can do it with biological modulation. What is biological modulation? I have to remember the story of neurosyphilis. Today, syphilis is not a problem for therapy. You just take the specialized form of penicillin and in two or three months, total healing. But syphilis is not a disease. Syphilis is a gender disease. It's not a serious disease. But it's important that both are Borrelian. They are both sensitive. By the way, the Borrelian spirochetes are also sensitive to penicillin. There are also successful applications of bicillin, a special form of penicillin, which can help drastically. But a healing of neurosyphilis was in the 20th year, in 1923, I think. The discoverer received the Nobel Prize for the healing of neurosyphilis. It was Dr. von Jauregg from Austria. He noticed that patients with neurosyphilis benefit drastically from a fever. For example, when they get a fever, they have a fever. When they get malaria, there are continuous fever attacks. He noticed that the symptoms of neurosyphilis disappeared. He deliberately started to infect patients with malaria. Later, he started to use other stimulants for hyperthermia. I don't know exactly if he started with hyperthermia as a therapy, but at least it was recognized as a real drastic improvement and healing. He received the Nobel Prize. How does the neuroporeliosis react to hyperthermia? Hyperthermia destroys the active form of Borrelia. There are also other intracellular forms, which are perhaps more resistant. There are also so-called spores. The very micro-micro-spores of the Borrelia DNA are inert. They are not metabolically active. They are in a sleeping state. That's why they don't react to hyperthermia. They can come back later. It's a good form of therapy, but only for the active ones, not for the sleeping ones. I think it's active. This therapy is successful. But the problem is that such therapies always last for a certain period of time, for example 2, 3, 4 weeks. First, it is already a great burden for physiology. The person is already damaged. He has a weakened immune system, hormonal disorders, and in such a state there is a drastic use of hyperthermia. It also has costs. I think that young people and people with early stages of neuroborreliosis can be cured in certain cases. But there is no guarantee that all Borrelia disappear. They hide themselves infinitely well. Why does hypoxic therapy work, intermittent hypoxic-hyperoxic therapy, against Borrelia and neuroborreliosis? Because Borrelia have a very sensitive time in their lives. This time is when they concentrate on multiplication. This is the most important process. The Borrelia divide, disperse in cells, and then they go out into the whole body and conquer new areas. This process, when the Borrelia is in a division phase, is very sensitive. For this process, there are so-called hypoxic niches, where blood circulation is very weak, low oxygen, and immunity does not enter these niches. For example, in the cartilage, there is very little capillary, and oxygen partial pressure is also very low. That's why they hide in such areas. They also see the same thing. Borrelia is a favorite place for multiplication. And suddenly, in these hypoxic niches, where there is always low oxygen, there is a drastic storm. Oxygen partial pressure becomes even lower, and the Borrelia rejoice. Aha, less oxygen, we go out but in the next minute, much higher oxygen comes. And this is a disaster for Borrelia. That's why they die. If such a storm continues, Borrelia simply have a ruined multiplication cycle. They cannot multiply. Because millions of years before evolution, Borrelia lived with us for millions of years. It was never such a situation, such a state, that Borrelia have no hiding place. Because this hiding place must always remain with low oxygen. And suddenly there is an oxygen storm in this area. And that ruins the whole multiplication cycle. And Borrelia become weaker, but the immune system can recognize it. A weakened Borrelia can recognize it. In addition, the immune system itself benefits from such oxygen fluctuations. Because immune cells are produced in the bone marrow. After these oxygen fluctuations, intermittent hypoxia and hypoxia are stimulated for more multiplication. Hypoxia stimulates the multiplication of all the important stem cells in the bone marrow and in the brain. And the mitochondria in these immune cells become much stronger. With stronger mitochondria, immune cells can attack and kill Borrelia better. They can recognize it better. But it's never a 100% cure. They can't reproduce. And those who do, get one on the lid. But those who are still inside... In biology, there is no 100% success. Or results at all. It is impossible. Biology is designed in such a way that there are always different variants. Because these variants have advantages. And the damaged variants can multiply well in this damaged environment. Therefore, biology has no guarantees. But when we improve the whole level, the whole ecological landscape in our body, then Borrelia have fewer chances. That means, we exclude massive Borrelia multiplication, we support the elimination of Borrelia. And of course, there is a chance for the spores. Because they stay hidden. What do I see in my patients? The chronic pain disappears pretty quickly. The state of the brain improves. They understand that the fog in the brain slowly disappears. Headaches go away. Visibility improves. The immune values improve. You do blood analysis. The immune values show the activity of Borrelia. They are also reduced. And the most important thing, we see a good clinical response. People with chronic pain and fatigue feel good. They sleep well. They have strength in their muscles again. And so they go on. Then, for example, there is an attempt to eliminate Borrelia completely. You have to provoke these spores to wake up. The new generation of Borrelia. And then we start again with Epoxy therapy. And so with several cycles of this therapy, you can hope that Borrelia goes away. I have several patients who, after 3-4 years of continuous use of Epoxy therapy, are now totally free. They have no symptoms. They feel good, completely normal. I think this technology has to come to the awareness of doctors and therapists, as well as healing practitioners, who deal with such patients. What would you recommend to them so that they can deal with the whole range of applications regarding such IHT? Yes, of course. There is always a growing demand. Because Borrelia is spreading all over the world. Not only in Europe, but also in America, Canada. I think 3-4 years ago there was also a Nobel Prize for this technology. Yes, for hypoxic therapy. Not for therapy, but simply for scientific foundations. What does hypoxia do to our organism, to our cells? What pathways are stimulated? Yes, in 2019 there was a Nobel Prize for Greg Semenza and colleagues. It is wonderful, but ironically, the practical application of hypoxic therapy, we have since the late 70s and it is an established therapy, a school-medicine therapy in Russia until now. Although, of course, it is also little used, because everything that has nothing to do with pharma has certain disadvantages in school medicine. In any case, people now know more, they are looking for new possibilities, new methods. For example, I published a book on the therapy of Borreliosis on doing Lyme disease. This is described in my experience. And of course we always have a good platform for training, for doctors and health practitioners and for patients. This is here in Switzerland at Michael Beck's Fit4Life studio. We do seminars twice a year. So also for Austrians and German doctors? Yes, for all countries. They come from all countries and yes, it works, it increases every year. I mean, this treatment is still good for much more, not only for Borreliosis, but also for metabolic activity, for mitochondrial performance increase, actually for the basis of every disease, right? Exactly. And for me, this was actually an unexpected side effect of this therapy. Because I used this therapy for diabetes type 2, for cardiovascular diseases, for stroke, heart attack, for rehabilitation, for simply age-related diseases. It was already known that it worked. And then I noticed, that in Germany, in Heidelberg, patients come to me and say, can you help me with Borreliosis? And I didn't know what Borreliosis was. That was in 2004, 2005. And then we tried it and I see always improvement, always improvement. Then of course I started to study, to read, and with patients further a long-term application can actually bring healing. But it doesn't have to be an application for one month and then in the next two years, next month there will be an improvement. But for real healing, you have to do it continuously for several months, preferably 2-3 years. Improvement and often healing. I know a doctor in the Basel region, who has 10 devices and treats only Borrelian patients. Yes, I have trained several doctors since 2010. Doctors with Borreliosis, they have Borreliosis themselves, they are athletes. They can't help themselves. I trained them, I know several doctors. Of course they have healed and they help others. Very good. Thank you very much for these explanations. That was Dr. Arkady Prokopov, dear viewers, where we wanted to sensitize you to this treatment form of IHHT, Interval Hyperhypooxytherapy, to make you smarter. Not only with Neuroborreliosis, but with a variety of diseases, a treasure has been found, which increases the self-healing powers of the body at the base. If the mitochondria have proper performance abilities, the body can perform many regenerations and healings on its own body. It is also good to lure Borrelia out of their hiding place and shock them with a flood of oxygen, which they don't like at all. Many of them die. Let yourself be advised by a specialist doctor who is already working on this, or with a therapist of your choice, who is familiar with IHHT. I wish you good luck with this. See you next time.