And we are live. It's Dr. Jay in the house. Today we're going to be talking about ticks going wild. It is spring. It is here. Everyone's outside. They're playing in the grass throughout doing sports. And ticks are a thing that happens. We see it all the time with our patients. Evan, welcome to the show, man. How you doing? Hey, man. Glad to be here. And I'm doing well. Luckily, there's less ticks in Florida, at least where I have been.

So I've been really happy about that because back in Kentucky, even in February, there would be ticks that could come out if you had a warm day in February.

The leaves were not even on the trees yet in Kentucky, but yet the ticks were out.

And I've told my story here many times, but I've tested positive for Lyme, Bartonella, and Babesia. And it's been, it's been challenging. I won't lie. And I don't know if you can ever fully get rid of these bugs. I think Bartonella Babesia, you can lie, which is Borrelia burgdorferi. There's some controversy about whether you can fully get rid of it or not.

I think the goal is get on top of it and get your immune system to a point where it's not creating any issues.

So this idea of a forever protocol, I don't think it has to be a forever protocol, but I think you're definitely going to have to have some things factored in, whether that be immune support, whether that be gut support, whether that be actual herbs to kill the bugs and clear the infections. And so depending on what's happening in your life, this could be death,

it could be divorce, it could be some family situation, a financial problem, it could be maybe an issue with your kid. You're worried about your kids. You have some sort of stress in that way. I have seen people flare up their Lyme symptoms under the intense stress. So this is why we're going to unpack this today. We'll talk about some adaptogenic herbs, some things that you can do to directly hit the bugs, some things you can do to keep your system strong. Yeah, when it comes to Lyme, I've seen Lyme and the various Lyme co-infections, Borrella, Babesia, Bartonella, or Likia, I've seen too many people get tick bites and have no issues at all. And some have issues, right? And so it's not a, there's definitely a correlation, but there's definitely not a

causal relationship. And so what I look at is to see, okay, well, where is that person's immune

system? And the people that are sicker and then getting tick bites, then they're at a higher risk.

And so then for me, what does that tell me? It tells me that weakened immune systems and compromise immune systems make it harder to deal with the stress of that said tick bite. Just like anything else, right? If you have healthier and stronger adrenals, you're going to be able to deal with the emotional stress that you're dealing with of that day. You're going to be able to deal with maybe food coming in that's not perfect, right? And so the weaker your immune system is, the more you have to be on top of sleep and diet and nutrition and looking at the gut health. Because remember, the gut is where 80% of your immune system lives. And so if we have immune stress going on in our gut and then we add in to our inflammation, histamine, stress bucket, a tick bite with a co-infection, now that could be over, you know, put you over the top and now symptoms start to happen. And so I don't think it's a one-to-one kind of causal relationship. I've had too many experiences where that's not the case. And so for me, we have to look at, and I've seen too many people that have gone to like these eyelid doctors that doctors that are hyper focused on the Lyme or the

co-infection and there's so many other issues that are still going on with that patient,

gluten-sensitive, gut permeability, weakened adrenals, very little DHA, neurotransmitters are

beaten up, still not digesting protein, but they're hyperphobic other gut infections, right, H. Pylori, blastoparasites, C. diff, but then they're just hyper-focused on this Lyme infection or this Lyme co-infection, but everything else is off. And so that's what we have to really look at the big picture. It's good to still look at that co-infection. I'm not saying don't. I'm thinking it's look at the whole picture.

Yeah. Well, and we've seen people that have gotten way worse going to Lyme experts. And that's why we

look at Lyme and co-infections, but we don't necessarily call ourselves the Lyme guys because we know

that this is one puzzle piece in a master system. And we have to look at the whole thing. My story was we had new babies. We were up in the middle of the night. I had mold exposure. So I had all these other things that if I were to go all in on lime, I never would have got myself fully better. I had to address everything else, and my gut was a big piece as well. So if you do go to the Lyme expert, I'm going to say it in another way that then you said it. If you go to the Lyme guy, it's likely that you're going to miss the other issues, the mitochondrial stuff, the neurotransmitter stuff, the parasites, the dysbiosis, the sebo, the mold toxicity, the environmental people. How many people are going to a Lyme expert and they're not getting asked about their environment. Hey, do you have water leaks in your home?

Do you have mold in your basement? people are going to a Lyme expert and they're not getting asked about their environment. Hey,

do you have water leaks in your home? Do you have mold in your basement? Because that could make or

break your entire protocol. And it could be that Lyme is not the biggest piece of the puzzle anyway.

Now, we do need to talk about Alpha Gal. Let's unpack Alpha Gal because this has been a very,

very popular topic this year. A lot of people are

blaming a famous billionaire and saying he is at play, but AlphaGal has been happening long

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