Chronic Neuro immune Illness

Byron White Formulas and Holistic Healing.

 By International Blogger Candice Mitchell of Infectiously Optimistic

As time has elapsed and the nature of tick-bourne illness has evolved, it has become increasingly clear to those with open eyes that Lyme Disease spans far beyond just the bite of a tick.  Chronic Lyme Disease has become a silent rising epidemic, one that is under-researched and under-diagnosed, but contrarily widely contracted and devastatingly crippling. The disease is multifaceted and complex, and requires a treating physician to look beyond bacteria and assess the many layers of illness and imbalance that an afflicted patient may possess. It is a handful of wise, dedicated and attentive physicians that gives patients suffering from this complex neuroimmune chronic illness hope, with their research, their willingness to listen, and their ability to comprehensively treat each patient as a unique individual. I recently had the opportunity to speak with one of them, neurosurgeon and neuroscientist Dr. Pamela Costello. Not only is Dr. Costello a doctor, but she is a healer.  Her practice of medicine is unique, in that she combines her extensive experience and research in neurological illness with the use of allopathic and holistic modalities to heal her patients struggling with chronic neuroimmune and infectious illness.  She doesn’t merely treat symptoms or an aspect of a disease, but instead integratively and comprehensively heals the root of it. She took the time to share with us the ways in which she accomplishes this, including the vital role that Byron White Formulas ™ play in her practice.

Candice Mitchell:

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me about your experience, Dr. Costello. How long have you been in practice?

Dr. Pamela Costello:

I’ve been in practice since 2000, but investigated and ultimately began to incorporate integrative medicine and neuroscience into my medical practice during my residency and post-doctoral training from 1992 through the present.

CM:

At what point in your career did you recognize tickborne disease as a potential contributor to neuroimmunebased illness and chronic health issues?

Dr. C:

My graduate studies were in developmental neuroscience and the prenatal in- uences of the immune system on the developing brain. I did an undergraduate research program as well in 3rd world human parasites and their intermediate hosts and vectors, so my interest in parasitic disease and neuroimmunology would date back to the 1980’s.  In 1993, while doing my post doctoral fellowship research, I became further versed in the issue of neurotoxins during my study of Alzheimer’s brains. My greatest inspiration, however, in furthering my understanding of treating Lyme Disease, arose when one of my very dear friends became gravely ill with Lyme Disease.  I quickly realized how ineffective standard medicine was in both diagnosing and treating her illness.  Her quest to heal became my quest, and ultimately led me to my current practice focus on the integrative care of Lyme Disease and Neurotoxins.

CM:

Truly fascinating.  At what point in your career did you become interested in treating these issues holistically? I’m interested to hear what in- uenced your choice to move from the use of pharmaceutical-based “conventional” medicine to treating with natural and alternative modalities.

Dr. C:

In medical school, residency, and on into my private practice, I’ve always been plagued by the limited scope and high side e  ect or toxic pro le of allopathic medications.  I’ve struggled with following AMA guidelines and the “standard of care” while working in the hospital, thus I often agreed to prescribe only those medications that I could clearly reason were on the low end of toxicity and high end of therapeutic yield. As for managing my out patients (i.e.,clinic or office patients), I’ve had much greater latitude in offering an integrative approach. Managing my hospitalized patients was more difficult in that standard prescription medications were often all I had available to treat the patient.   The increasing tide of multiply resistant organisms and worsening side effect profiles of the ever increasingly powerful antibiotics, in conjunction with the increasingly toxic disease states, actually became both eye opening and quite disturbing.  I began working with alternative medicine at the outset of my practice, including using IV Vitamin C infusions during all of my surgeries. I was naturally drawn to leaders in the integrative field such as Andrew Weil, MD, and Dr. Deepak Chopra, whom I followed in the early 1990’s.  At that time, I studied alternative therapies primarily on my own, referencing these pioneers and others (Dr. Linus Pauling amongst them), until I found Dr.  Thomas Rau of the Paracelsus Institute.  I completed a training program with him in Biological Medicine. My friend’s struggle with Lyme Disease, however, provided me the definitive shift in my focus. I would say that it has been an ‘evolution’ toward a fully integrative practice.

CM:

What types of health conditions do you treat on a day to day basis in your integrative practice?

Dr. C:

I have a wide variety of patients who seek my care, as I offer comprehensive care as a neurosurgeon, neuroscientist (treating adult and pediatric neurologic conditions), but I subspecialize in infections and neurotoxins that attack the nervous system.  This covers a large group of the population in this era of such potent organisms, in conjunction with the toxic background of a genetically altered food supply, and a water and air source that is rife with neurotoxins and lacking in any vital energy.