Rapping with Rosner An Interview with the Author of “When Antibiotics Fail: Lyme Disease and Rife Machines”

by Scott A. Forsgren

Since I was diagnosed with Lyme disease in summer 2005, I have employed numerous modalities in an attempt to regain a sense of health and wellness. I have used Rife therapy as one of many approaches in treating my own chronic Lyme disease. It is an option that I encourage everyone to research and come to your own conclusions as to whether or not it is right for your unique healing journey.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and rap with Bryan Rosner, the author of the popular book “When Antibiotics Fail: Lyme Disease and Rife Machines”. It has served as a major catalyst in the decision that many people have made to incorporate Rife treatment into their Lyme disease program. In the remainder of this article, I will share with you the discussion that Bryan and I recently had.

When and how did your Lyme disease journey begin?

I have likely had Lyme since birth. I had a few issues as a child that I attributed to growing pains but when my health deteriorated as an adult, many of the symptoms were similar to those I had as a child but much worse. In 2002, I contracted Giardia from a stream while hiking. That seemed to have a negative impact on my immune system which allowed the Lyme to more clearly present itself. I started having migraine headaches and other problems that I knew were not symptoms of Giardia. As it turned out, Lyme disease was at the root of my problem.

How bad were you at your worst?

At my worst, I was really, really bad. I could hardly walk up a flight of stairs. I often felt like passing out. I was very depressed. I had significant issues with my memory. I could not eat. I had gone from being a strong athlete in my twenties doing triathlons to someone that could just not function. I had paranoia and often felt like I needed to check myself into a mental institution. I was most impacted psychologically.

What co-infections or other factors did you have to deal with besides Borrelia burgdorferi (the causative agent in Lyme disease)?

To my knowledge, I did not have any Lyme co-infections. I did trial courses of Mepron, Zithromax, Malarone, and Artemisinin without any noticeable effects. There probably were some other tick-borne infections, but we never specifically identified them. All the tests came back negative. Mercury was a significant issue for me, however. I had the highest level of mercury in over 800 patients that my doctor had seen. As it turns out, my father, mother, and sister all tested high as well. We believe the source was a mercurycontaining outdoor paint that was used to paint the inside of our house. I have done three years of chelating and continue to do so occasionally to this day.

I used the approach outlined by Andrew Cutler, Ph.D. with alpha-lipoic acid and oral DMPS. One of the advantages of the Cutler approach is that it is easy to do at home and relatively gentle. It does not require IV treatment or require regular visits to a doctor to perform chelation. I have found this gentle, longer treatment approach to be the most effective.

What were some of the many treatment modalities that failed you prior to your pursuit of Rife therapy?

The most interesting was ICHT in Italy. ICHT stands for “intracellular hyperthermia therapy”. It cost $20,000 for three weeks. While I was there, another patient died and was wheeled out beside me. ICHT did not really work for me. I have done several herbal and antibiotic protocols including IV Rocephin and IV Zithromax. I did hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). I spent $15,000 at Century Wellness Clinic, which is now Sierra Integrative Medicine. That was too expensive and too far for me to travel regularly. Everything helped, but nothing seemed to give me the upper-hand.

Can you briefly explain the theory behind Rife therapy and why it may work for Lyme disease?

The theory was discovered by Royal Rife in the 1920’s. Since then, it has essentially been lost. The premise is that if you resonate microorganisms with certain frequencies of electromagnetic fields, they will be destroyed. It works very well for certain afflictions. Spirochetes appear to be very susceptible, possibly due to their long, spiral shape. To my knowledge, Rife does not affect cysts or cell-wall deficient forms of Borrelia, however.

One could argue that the best results with Rife may be attained when using only Rife therapy. However, in my opinion, there is room for the use of other therapies that target the cyst and cell-wall deficient forms. I by no means suggest Rife therapy as the only option for recovering from Lyme disease. I think there is a place for all of these tools and they should be used when needed. When using Rife frequencies for Lyme, are frequencies for detoxification and overall support generally included as part of the program?

This is an area where my opinion may differ from others. I have not seen any convincing evidence that Rife frequencies actually benefit detoxification. If that evidence can be presented, I would not argue with it, but I just haven’t seen it. There is speculation that there may be other uses for the frequencies, but for me, the best way to detoxify would still be sauna, exercise, colonics, coffee enemas, and liver cleanses.

What do you say to those people that contend that Rife therapy has negative effects on human cells?

It may. No one knows for sure. It is only logical to use Rife therapy as little as possible to get the desired effect. There is no reason to use it for more than about one hour once a week. If there were significant issues from this low-usage approach, I think those would have become more evident by now. Many people have used this technology with no observable side effects.

If we look at the other options for treatment, most have some downside as well. Rife may not be side-effect free, but I have not seen any evidence that it is harmful with appropriate use. The risk is something I am personally willing to take because of the benefits that Rife has given me. I had not gotten better with any of the other treatments.

When taking antibiotics, they are in your system around the clock. The body is being bombarded constantly with those chemicals whereas with Rife, you may be exposed an hour a week. The body then has the remainder of the week to reenter equilibrium.

Are there any complementary therapies that you believe one should consider while using Rife therapy?

This is an area that is highly individual. If someone has mercury poisoning, they need to address that. If they have co-infections, they need to address those. There may also be hormonal or other imbalances that need to be investigated. I don’t think there is any blanket statement that can be made here.

A couple of things will be mentioned in my upcoming book such as systemic enzyme therapy like Wobenzym. It should be taken on an empty stomach between meals. There are studies that show that the enzymes enter systemic circulation and have profound effects on healing. I do think this is one thing that has been overlooked. For me, Wobenzym profoundly helped with a neck injury and also seemed to help with a number of my Lyme-related symptoms.

I think magnesium supplementation is critical. Everyone with Lyme disease should be on magnesium. In my new book, I talk about a recent study that shows 10 Lyme disease sufferers that were dramatically helped with IV magnesium supplementation. There is no good reason why people should not be taking magnesium.

Which therapies are compatible with Rife?

This is the million dollar question. Therapies that are not related to being antibacterial such as sauna, exercise, nutrition, supplements are likely acceptable. Most antibiotics probably do push the spirochete into the cyst or cell-wall deficient forms. I am not sure though that this is a bad thing. Short courses of antibiotics used sparingly may wipe out a whole colony of bacteria and that may be worth it. I don’t think antibiotics should be completely avoided, but I do think that there should be periods of time where they are not used so that the Rife therapy can be most effective. I think the Marshall Protocol is a very useful complementary therapy.

Can you tell us more about the Marshall Protocol?

The Marshall Protocol (MP) helped me tremendously and has helped a number of people that I know. It is a good complementary protocol that can be used with Rife. Some people seem to not be helped by it at all and they should pursue other options, but for some, the MP may be very useful.

The MP is the only treatment on earth that I know of that lowers the 1,25 Vitamin D level in the body. This can be immunosuppressive if it is too high. If someone does have that problem, they may not get well without the MP. If they don’t have high 1,25 Vitamin D levels, the MP may do nothing for them.

When I started taking Benicar, it was unbelievable. It was the biggest shakeup I had in my health. It helped significantly. There are some people that don’t seem to need the MP and it would be arrogant to say that everyone needs any specific protocol. It can be the most helpful thing in the world for some, but may be simply a waste of time for others. It all depends.

Did you avoid sunlight while on the MP?

Sun avoidance is something that I still continue to this day. It seems to be an important part of sustaining the health that I am in now. When I was on Benicar and started feeling better, I seemed to be even more sensitive to sunlight. I wear long sleeves and protect my skin from the sun. The progress starts to reverse if I am exposed to significant amounts of sunlight.

I also found the antibiotic portion of the MP to be useful. Once you are on Benicar, even if you were previously seeing limited benefits from certain antibiotics, the effects of the antibiotics are greatly enhanced. You take far less of the antibiotic and have a much larger effect. Over time though, I felt like I obtained less benefit from the antibiotics. I do not use them at this point.

Do you support the concurrent use of Flagyl, Tinidazole or similar interventions to combat the cyst form while using Rife therapy?

Yes, I do think these are good options.

How often does each Rife session last and how frequently are they administered? Approximately how long does recovery from Lyme disease take, on average, when using Rife therapy?

An average of one hour once per week is a good guideline. Recovery from Lyme disease takes about 1-3 years with Rife therapy. There is a group of people that don’t seem to get entirely well and may plateau at 70-90% and need to look at co-infections or heavy metals. For those people, they will never get better with

Rife alone as it is not the whole answer in those cases. Rife does not seem to be significantly effective for co-infections. It seems to be more effective against Borrelia. There are several people that I have talked to, however, that started Rife and subsequently stopped antibiotics and did fully recover. Whether or not the Borrelia was addressed by Rife which allowed the immune system to become stronger and fight the co-infections or if Rife did have an impact on them remains unclear.

Of the spirochete, cell-wall deficient form and cyst form, which of these can Rife devices impact?

The spirochete is the most susceptible. The cell-wall deficient form and the cyst form may not be affected by Rife therapy.

Knowing that a significant percentage of the symptom picture in Lyme is related to neurotoxins, is that also generally addressed in some way while one is using Rife as a primary treatment protocol? Detoxification is critical. There are many ways to accomplish it. Sauna is probably at the top of the list. You can clean the liver, do colonics, use coffee enemas and these may be useful, but nothing comes close to what a sauna can do. Sauna is a much more common treatment in other countries. Far Infrared Sauna (FIR) or dry saunas are probably the best. It depends on tolerance and individual preference.

Which Rife device do you believe holds the most promise?

The Doug Coil machine is at the top of the list. It is now available for purchase without requiring someone to build it themselves. In my experience, this has been the best performer. There may be other machines out there that are better.

I just have not experienced them yet. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being that your current health is as good as it was before you became ill, where are you today? Generally, 8 or 9. Some days might be a 7 while others are a 10. There are a few symptoms that seem to persist, but overall, I am on a marked upward path and have not had any setbacks in three years.

If you were starting your journey through Lyme today knowing what you know now, how would you approach treatment and recovery differently? What would be your plan of attack?

I would talk to more experts and gather more information. I think, in general, Lyme sufferers are better off today than we were even in 2002. With the Internet and so many ways to communicate with others that are also living the disease, there are many more resources readily available to us.

I would definitely get a Rife machine. In fact, it worked so well that I often wonder if I had a Rife device early on, could I have avoided much of the journey? If I were just infected, I would pursue an aggressive antibiotic regimen as soon as possible. Rife and the Marshall Protocol are the two treatment options at the top of my list. Exercise and sauna are also critical. Otherwise, I like to keep it simple.

Do you think that it is possible to entirely eradicate Borrelia from the body with Rife therapy?

No, probably not. In some rare cases, it may happen. Doug MacLean, inventor of the Doug Coil Rife machine, had full blown Lyme and continues to remain healthy only having used Rife therapy. In 5-10% of cases, it may happen. For those of us that were more chronic, it may be naïve to think that we can get rid of it entirely from the body, but if my quality of life never got better than it is now, I could live with that.

What do you continue to do today as maintenance to keep your health on the upswing?

I am not doing that much really. I still do Rife treatments and I do need them. Symptoms do start to reoccur if I don’t do my treatments. I use Benicar for a few weeks in the spring and the fall and it seems to have a significant impact. Many people have flare-ups in the spring and fall and this seems to be a good time for me to bring the Benicar back into my treatment. I use Rife about 20 times per year and the MP in spring and fall. They keep me doing well.

I understand you have a new book on the horizon. What can you tell us about it? Yes, I do have a new book coming out. It is an expanded look at some of the content of the first book and it contains some exciting new information. I discuss what I believe to be the top five Lyme treatment protocols and my top five Lyme supplements. I also discuss ways to integrate these therapies into a comprehensive treatment plan.

The book should be available in the Summer of 2007. More information on the first book can be found at http://www.lymebook.com. Bryan Rosner can be reached through his web site at http://www.lymebook.com.

Disclaimer:

Bryan Rosner is not a medical professional. The information presented here is based solely on his own story and experience. Always consult with a medical professional on any aspect of your personal health program.

Scott Forsgren has had Lyme disease for over 10 years. He can be reached through his web site at http://www.BetterHealthGuy.com.

The intent of this article is to share information. It is not intended to be an endorsement of any of treatment options mentioned in this article. Scott has had no personal experience with the Marshall Protocol and does not have an opinion on its use. He does advocate doing your own research and making decisions in conjunction with a doctor as to what is best for your unique situation.