Medical Treatment
God has used the combined effects of many medical treatments to restore my health. Requests for this information have become too numerous for me to fulfill on an individual basis. I hope the following is helpful in answering your questions.
The medical treatments that have helped me can be divided into three branches:
- Traditional Lyme Disease Treatment (i.e. aggressive antibiotics)
- Integrative Medical Treatments
- Live-Cell Therapy—A Treatment Used In Many Diseases
It is important to note that the first two branches of treatment were yielding virtually no results until Live-Cell Therapy was added in 1998. The change ushered by this treatment is described below under Live-Cell Therapy.
Traditional Lyme Disease Treatment
Lyme Disease is curable if detected early and treated adequately. My case of Lyme Disease was misdiagnosed for many years, and thus disseminated into severe, chronic, persistent infection. Not all cases of Lyme require such extensive antibiotic treatment, but for me, as for many other patients, it has proven to be necessary in the fight against the infections transmitted by the tick.
For many years, my treatment regimens included oral, intramuscular, and intravenous antibiotics strategically implemented against the spirochete bacteria transmitted by the tick and the various coinfections that accompany it. Since 2003, my treatment regimen has not included antibiotics.
In May 2005, God caused my path to cross with a godly Lyme Disease specialist in Springfield, Missouri, Charles Crist, M.D. His medical recommendations have been extremely helpful. The genuine care that he and the office staff have demonstrated has personally blessed and encouraged me. God has given him incredible insight into my health conditions and treatments … even long distance. The website for his medical practice is www.drcharlescrist.com.
Integrative Medical Treatments Obtained In The U.S.
God has used innumerable integrative therapies over the years to support my health and further its restoration … and He continues to do so. The specific therapies are too numerous to name, especially considering that throughout the years of debilitating illness I received thousands of therapies, common and uncommon. I have found well-researched, proven therapies to be tremendously beneficial. Therapies I am currently receiving include, but are not limited to, the following vitamin and nutritional support therapies recommended for neuroborreliosis:
- Beta Force —this high-quality Beta Glucan has been extremely helpful in every aspect of my health, from immune enhancement to muscle recovery. Beta Force has greatly improved my energy and stamina, eliminated the need for daily massages following muscle use and allowed me to exercise with normal recovery. It has increased my stamina and endurance, and therefore, the extent to which I am able to function. Beta Force also effectively and quickly fends off encroaching cold and flu viruses, especially when taken in high doses (at least 500 mg per 50 lbs body weight) combined with Olive Leaf Extract and the Vitamin C listed below. Beta Glucan is an immune modulator — meaning that it regulates the immune system. In doing so, it stimulates the macrophage, a white blood cell that is responsible for a host of actions that facilitate the functions of the immune system. Macrophages scarf up and destroy foreign particles in the body, produce chemicals that signal other immune cells to move to the infected areas, and produce growth factors for cells that repair injured tissues. Other Beta Glucan products exist, but before you purchase one, educate yourself on the elements necessary in order to ensure that the product is high quality and pure.
- Propax NT—Propax NT replaced Immune Option which I took for several years. Immune Option was extremely helpful but became unaffordable. I estimate that Propax NT accomplishes about 60-70% of what IO did for me. If you can afford IO, I recommend it. If not, you might consider Propax NT. It’s been a viable substitute for me, and it’s a third the cost of IO ($130 for IO vs $38.95 for Propax).
- Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C — I highly recommend Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C by LivOn labs—or at least an equivalent. There are other products in addition to this one in which vitamin C is encapsulated in phospholipids. When C is encapsulated in this way, it increases its bioavailability—it becomes more absorbable by the body. Due to this, phospholipic vitamin C is reported to be the closest one can get in an oral form to IV vitamin C. (Based on my experience with vitamin C IV’s, I agree with this assertion. For me, phospholipid C produces as near the same results as IV C as any oral form I’ve taken.) The brand I took was discontinued, so I switched to Lypo-Spheric C in 2012, and I’ve loved it. Previous brands I took had to be refrigerated. This isn’t a problem, unless you travel frequently or do not work from home. Lypo-Spheric C’s individual dose packets are extremely portable. I’ve experienced several obvious benefits from phospholipid C (whether this brand or another)—energy increase, pain reduction, stamina improvement, and resistance to cold and flu, among many other positive results. Lypo-Spheric C is also fantastic for healthy people who don’t have Lyme Disease. It’s a great product to keep at home for bouts with cold and flu. My family members have experienced the effect of this form of C so miraculously that they now take it at the first signs of flu or cold. Visiting family members have taken it and within hours emerged from a severe flu. I was traveling recently and shared my personal supply with a friend who was ill with a cold—and after taking a few doses of Lypo-Spheric C in one day, she was completely cured.
- Probiotics – I take Primadophilus Optima Intensive and Primadophilus Optima Max Potency by Nature’s Way
- Primal Defense (made by Garden of Life)
- Ginko Biloba
- Vitamin D3
- Melatonin
- Stamets 7 by Host Defense—an immune enhancing supplement with mushroom mycelium extracts (Immune Option Enhanced by Bioimmune also contains mushroom mycelium extracts.)
- Amino Acids—I used to take two products that were part of a protocol of essential amino and fatty acid supplementation for neurotransmitter regulation (through Dr. Crist). It has since become cheaper for me to purchase the individual components through Amazon. They are: L-Tyrosine, L-Tryptophan (or 5-HTP), Folic Acid, MSM.
- In 2012, suffering from having eliminated more expensive elements of my supplement regimen, I began three supplements from Buhner’s protocol: Cat’s Claw, Andrographis Paniculata and Japanese Knotweed.
- Prescription medications include thyroid medication (Synthroid – T4 – and sustained release, custom compound T3) as well as hydrocortisone (adrenal hormone).
Other therapies include hormone supplementation with natural hormones, and of course, a healthy diet and exercise.
I have discontinued many supplements since 2010—not because they weren’t effective but because it wasn’t financially feasible for me to continue them. I mention the following four because they were part of an effective treatment regimen but are not listed above under supplements I’m currently taking.
- Olive Leaf Extract (by Seagate)
- Lauricidin, natural antimicrobial. When I took Mepron, discontinuation caused ensuing weakness. It made it almost impossible to stop taking it. However, when I added Lauricidin, it filled in the gap. I was able to discontinue Mepron with no weakness. I presume the antimicrobial properties of Lauricidin picked up where Mepron left off, without negative side effects. Lauricidin was helpful to me for several years. When I stopped taking it, I had to titrate off of it because of ensuing weakness.
- Immune Option
- Cystoprotek (available at www.amazon.com or www.cysto-protek.com). I took this for Interstitial Cystitis, which many Lyme patients also have. It was incredibly effective for me.
For Everyone: There are two products that my family members take when they feel a cold or flu approaching: Beta Glucan by Transfer Point and Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C. I used to have to convince them to take supplements as illnesses encroached, but after experiencing how quickly they make them vanish, I no longer have to persuade them to take these supplements. Recently, my Dad was coming down with a severe flu/cold. He had an appointment with the doctor for an injection to hopefully knock it out. In the intervening hours, he took Beta Glucan and Lipo-Spheric Vitamin C … and within hours, the doctor’s appointment was no longer necessary. I could cite similar occurrences with friends and family members during the past few months alone. I cannot recommend these products highly enough to anyone—not just Lyme disease patients.
Live-Cell Therapy
I have received Live-Cell Therapy since 1998, and continue to receive treatments each month. It has been the most vital extension of God’s hand in my continued restoration. Due to the nature of my neurological disease, other therapies have not been able to address the cognitive, emotional and hormonal dysfunctions I’ve experienced to the degree that Live-Cell has. In His sovereign plan, God continues to work through this therapy to maintain and improve my health.
Live-Cell has been such a benefit to me — and I believe so strongly in the scientific validation and medical effects of this treatment — that I would love for everyone who desires an improvement in their health to be able to try this life-changing therapy. It is not strictly a Lyme Disease treatment, but has been used to address and correct many physical ailments in thousands of patients. I personally know of patients with diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Autism, Huntington’s Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Lyme Disease, to name a few, who have all seen dramatic improvements in their health since beginning Live-Cell Therapy.
I am asked countless times to define live-cell. At best, my description is an overly simplified, layman’s attempt at butchering a fascinating, highly scientific, complex treatment. For what it’s worth, here is my definition: Live-cell is injections of shark embryo cells. The injections are made up of shavings of shark embryo tissue mixed with saline. The cells are taken to corresponding organs in the human body (by macrophage cells) where they stimulate new growth and normal functioning in that organ. (Examples of types of cells I’ve received: hypothalamus, limbic, thymus, placenta, heart, thyroid, brain stem, adrenal, etc.
In order to explain how miraculously God has worked in my illness (and similarly in the lives of many others who have been ill) through Live-Cell Therapy, I will describe my experience to you.
At the time I first received this treatment I had been in a wheelchair for five years, bedridden for three, and my physician had prepared my family for my death just prior to the time I received my first injection of Live-Cell. (This was after the Lyme diagnosis and 18 months of antibiotics, including daily IM injections of Rocephin and periodic IV antibiotic therapy. When I testified at the Texas Senate hearings on Lyme disease in 2000 and was required to state the financial cost to my family, at that time we had spent over $400,000 in medical expense. The figure speaks for itself: I had tried thousands of treatments from around the world, seen physicians of world renown…all to no avail.) The worst torture for me during the previous years had been the psychiatric/cognitive effects from the encephalitis. I spent many of my days wailing and writhing, in severe dementia, often unable to even speak in complete sentences. My personality, among other things, had been long absent.
I received the first injections of live-cell in February 1998. After the first series of injections, I began to have brief moments in which I had ability to think, to smile and to read; and the agony in my brain began to subside. Over time these slight improvements—which after several months also included enough strength and stamina to begin to walk—began to increase, lasting longer and becoming more consistent. After the first year of treatment, the neurologist I was seeing at the time was amazed at the difference live-cell had brought about within that first year. He specifically mentioned to me the improvement in different brain centers. Analytical and sequential thinking as well as memory had dramatically improved among many other things.
If you have Lyme Disease, you will be interested to know that for the first two years of Live-Cell treatment none of my antibiotic treatment regimens changed. That aspect of treatment remained exactly the same. Only Live-Cell was added. At that point, improvements were made which antibiotics alone had never produced (nor had physicians ever given me hope that they could be achieved with antibiotics). For example, my fever lowered from its daily 102°; dementia began to decrease; cognitive function changed dramatically allowing me to read again; my personality began to return; exuberance and zeal for life returned; energy markedly increased…and the list goes on and on. Every aspect of my health and abilities from appetite to stamina, from neurological deficits to muscle strength, began to improve and have continued to improve since I began Live-Cell Therapy. (If you have Lyme Disease, you may be interested to know that I remained on antibiotic therapy throughout the first seven years of receiving Live-Cell treatments. However, antibiotic therapy alone was not bringing about any progress until the addition of Live-Cell Therapy. I found the combination of both therapies to be beneficial. In 2006, I was finally able to discontinue all antibiotic therapy while continuing live-cell therapy.)
At the time I began Live-Cell Therapy, I had seen physicians from across the nation and Europe and tried treatments with good proof of effectiveness, but which made no difference for me. This has been altogether different.
I have seen three prominent Lyme Disease specialists since I began receiving Live-Cell injections (including one of the most prominent specialists in the U.S.) Each has clearly recommended that I continue the treatment because of the documentation showing the improvement it brought and the improvement that is lost if I discontinue treatment. The evidence exists and is well documented from the onset of treatment.
“Natalie’s Journey” shows footage of my illness and health improvements, covering a span of five years (excluding pre-illness footage). The medical treatment that brought these improvements about was live-cell therapy. From the footage of my illness at its worst to the joyful clips of improved health at the end, no other aspect of my treatment regimen changed, except the addition of live-cell therapy. Live-cell therapy is clearly what God used to restore my health and functioning.
If you and Dr. Velazquez feel that Live-Cell Therapy is a good option for you, let me suggest one course of action that proved essential for the success of my treatment. In the initial years in which I received Live-Cell Therapy, I kept a detailed journal of the injections I received (the types of cells) and my symptoms—improvements, regressions and everything in between—enabling me and the physician to see a correlation between certain types of cells and my improvement. The pattern that emerged mapped out a successful therapy approach and enabled us to see what types of cells were helping me the most. (For example, hypothalamus cells are what relieved the racing in my brain and the feeling of being burned alive or electrocuted. They are what stopped the kicking and screaming and wailing from these torturous sensations. I discovered the benefit of these cells when they were omitted and the symptoms returned. This occurred in the initial two years. Now, years later, I can omit hypothalamus cells and the symptoms do not return.) I then began receiving primarily these types of cells, which had proven to be so beneficial and effective against my disease process.
Over the years, I have been able to reduce the frequency of the cells that brought initial improvement. However, over time, new health challenges have emerged (ex: adrenal insufficiency, thyroiditis from virus in thyroid). New types of cells continue to address these new problems. Therefore, live-cell remains a God-send!
Some people assert that oral or sublingual glandulars will accomplish the same results. I strongly disagree. I took oral glandulars for years – of the highest, most reputable quality – and they did nothing for me. I remained confined to bed, wailing night and day from the encephalitis. For the long standing Lyme disease symptoms, only live-cell helped. For newly occurring issues, such as my adrenal insufficiency, I have once again tried glandulars. But they cannot hold a candle to live-cell therapy.
To find out more about Live-Cell Therapy, you can go to the website of Luis Velazquez, M.D. Contact information for Dr. Velazquez is also available at this link.
Please note that all “live-cell” is not the same. I had previously tried other live-cell treatments from other hospitals/physicians with no results. The formula, frequency and type of injection are critical. Dr. Wolfram Kuhnau of Germany was a disciple of the original xenotransplant pioneer, Dr. Niehans. Dr. Velazquez studied under Dr. Kuhnau. Only Dr. Velazquez offers this vital therapy in the method of Dr. Kuhnau. I originally received live-cell (xenotransplant) therapy under the late Dr. Kuhnau. For the past ten years I have received therapy from Dr. Velazquez. Other physicians/hospitals claim to offer Dr. Kuhnau’s therapy, but it is not the same.
When I asked Dr. Velazquez’ permission to post this information on our website, I did not ask him if I could be honest with you about my opinion of him. He doesn’t know what I’m going to share with you, nor would he agree because he is far too humble to take any credit for anything God does through either his medical expertise or Live-Cell Therapy. You see, he is a godly man who prays for his patients, seeking earnestly to be an instrument God uses to improve their health.
Dr. Kuhnau, the physician under whose care I first began Live-Cell treatments, is no longer in practice. And since beginning therapy with Dr. Velazquez, my health has improved in areas previously not addressed. Dr. Velazquez is honest and genuine, a physician with true integrity. I cannot recommend him or the therapy he administers highly enough.
I hope you don’t mind me sharing candidly with you how God has blessed me through the therapy and the man of God who administers it. I, too, give all credit to Jesus Christ, the source of ALL our comfort, care and provision.
Regardless of whether or not God desires to use this therapy in your life, I pray that He will be your comfort in your illness—that He will call Himself to your side, in your immediate vicinity to be all that you need. May His Grace be sufficient, producing in you His character, His strength, His joy, His peace and His eternal perspective. May you know the Word—both the written and Living Word—as your “rock of unyielding strength and impenetrable hardness.” May your refuge be in Him alone, not in any physician, medical treatment, or earthly source.
In His Grace,
“Natalie Grace Nichols is experiencing God’s grace and freely expressing it. My wife, Betty, and I thank God for the ministry of Jesus through Natalie.”
“I’m so thankful that God is raising up women like Natalie for a new generation, providing biblically balanced teaching, encouragement, and comfort for people who are enduring life’s trials.”
