Daisy Ilchovska is a 36-year-old nutritional therapist, researcher, and author from Bournemouth, England. She is the founder of Optimal Health Nutrition, a virtual clinic established to help people overcome health challenges through evidence-based strategies.

At the age of 26, Ms. Ilchovska was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and doctors told her to expect to be permanently disabled in less than a decade. Shortly thereafter, she suffered a tick bite causing her to health to deteriorate from a myriad of neurological symptoms.

After working with a half dozen conventional doctors, she discovered that she had to take responsibility for developing her own treatment plan because none of her doctors knew how to treat her. She overcame Lyme through her own research and seeking out hypothermia treatment in Germany.

Her recent work includes publishing a research paper in the December 2020 issue of Autoimmunity Reviews, publishing a book titled “Lyme in the Limelight” in 2022, and contributing a chapter on Lyme disease and autoimmunity in the 3rd edition of Infection and Autoimmunity to be published in early 2023.

If you would like to learn how Lyme disease inspired a young researcher to study nutritional intervention, Lyme disease, and autoimmunity, then tune in now!

PS Christina Kantzavelos, Lyme literate therapist, special guest co-hosted this interview with Rich from Tick Boot Camp!

Christèle Dumas-Gonnet is the 48-year-old co-founder of ChroniLyme, a patient advocacy association dedicated to improving diagnosis and treatment of chronic Lyme disease, based in Lyon, France. She is also a member of the European Lyme patient engagement collective PREFACE (Patient Resource Facilitator Europe).

Shortly before the end of her university studies, she began to suffer from fatigue, aches, pains, and “a white fog that prevented [her] from concentrating”. For the next 20 years, her health slowly and steadily declined requiring her to seek treatment from “dozens of doctors” and hospitals.

In 2014, she was hospitalized for “left side paralysis that lasted several days”. During her hospitalization, she underwent several diagnostic tests including a spinal tap and a brain MRI. Despite the “highly positive results” for “Lyme neuroborreliosis” from the spinal tap, the hospital released her with a single diagnosis of “atypical migraines”.

For the next two years, she was not treated due to her silent diagnosis resulting in a rapid health decline. Her illness prevented her from performing any social or professional activities and she was deemed fully disabled by the French government.

In 2016, she sought treatment with a general medical practitioner known as “Doc Lyme” who diagnosed her with and initiated treatment for Lyme disease. Following the diagnosis, Ms. Dumas-Gonnet collected her medical records and discovered that she had unknowingly tested positive for Lyme disease two years earlier.

Her experience with diagnostic and treatment nightmares typically faced by Lyme patients caused Ms. Dumas-Gonnet to use her education and training to advocate for patients in France and across Europe.

If you would like to learn more about how Lyme disease inspired a patient to build two Lyme advocacy organizations and to appear before the French National Assembly and Senate, then tune in now!

Dr. Jaban Moore is a Doctor of Chiropractic and founder of the Redefining Wellness Center located in Kansas City, Missouri. The mission of Redefining Wellness Center is to educate people about the root causes of chronic illness to help them to find true healing.

The foundation of Dr. Moore’s passion for restoring health through a multi therapeutic approach was informed by witnessing his mother struggle with chronic illness and health decline during his childhood.

Later, during his time at chiropractic school, he began his own rapid health decline. His search for answers for why he was suffering from extreme fatigue, joint pain, and low testosterone began by utilizing his access to a wide range of doctors at medical conferences. After many misdiagnoses, he attended a conference for functional medical doctors where he accepted a recommendation to test for Lyme disease.

Testing positive for Lyme disease gave rise to a journey of personal and professional development for Dr. Moore. After consulting several doctors and utilizing a wide range of treatments, he found relief and has been symptom free for over 5 years.

If you would like to learn how Lyme disease inspired a doctor to build a wellness center to educate people about the root causes of chronic illness, then tune in now!

Sarah Lombard is a 27-year-old social media marketing, management, and creation professional from Scottsdale, Arizona.

Prior to attending college, she enjoyed a very social teen life that included “the worst diet known to man”. She would “eat candy and cookies for lunch with some fries and coming home, starving, eating frozen dinners and spoons full of sugar”.

At the age of 17 she began to get sick. She suffered monthly infections, stomach aches, lethargy, lack of motivation and anxiety. Her symptoms forced her to seek treatment from so many doctors she “lost count”.

After being misdiagnosed with various illnesses and undergoing several procedures and tests, a co-worker recognized her symptoms and referred her to a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD). A blood test confirmed her co-workers suspected Lyme disease diagnosis.

Post diagnosis treatment began with clearing her “gut from yeast and parasites” followed by the “Cowden protocol with liquid tinctures for 9 months”. She then turned to “Disulfiram but it’s an extremely hard regimen and it made [her] too sick to function so [she] had to stop”.

If you would like to learn more about how Lyme disease inspired a young woman to use her professional skill set to socially serve the community, then tune in now!

PS Ashley Marba special guest co-hosted this interview with Rich from Tick Boot Camp!

Vanessa Nolet is a 29-year-old young woman from Quebec, Canada. She is working on finishing up a bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Management.

Prior to getting sick with Lyme disease, Ms. Nolet had a great life filled with friends and sports. She worked at a spa while going to college and was exposed to Freon during an accident which changed her life.

Around this time, Ms. Nolet was bit by a tick and within a month she became very ill. She had chronic fatigue, whole body spasms, light sensitivity, body burning, ulcers, arthritis, irregular periods, autoimmune symptoms, and more.

She visited many doctors, specialists, and hospitals in Canada before going to America for help where she was finally diagnosed. Nobody could figure out why she was sick. Some doctors misdiagnosed her with conditions such as Fibromyalgia, other pain disorders, and Lupus.

Finally, at the age of 27, Ms. Nolet was diagnosed with Lyme disease in part thanks to Dr. Richard Horowitz’s Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome (MSIDS) questionnaire. She was treated with Doxycycline, Rifampin, Azithromycin, Naltrexone, AGE, and more with a specialist in Canada.

If you would like to learn how a young woman from Canada fought for a root cause diagnosis and is now on the path to health, then tune in now!

PS Johanna Laliberte special guest co-hosted this interview with Matt from Tick Boot Camp!

Kahlil Fuller, stage name “Two Monies”, is a singer, songwriter, musician, and entertainer from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Shortly after graduating from North Carolina A & T with a degree in marketing he “noticed a huge rash on [his] left leg” while working out at the gym. He assumed the rash was from a harmless “bug bite” until he began to limp 5 or 6 days later.

Prompted by left leg paralysis, Two Monies called his primary care doctor of 15 years. Expecting his doctor to diagnose his “problem and… fix it” he was surprised to “be let go by his doctor” without a diagnosis.

The medical surprises continued for Two Monies when his next set of doctors diagnosed him with a “complex and controversial” medical condition named Lyme disease. His diagnosed illness moved him from a stable independent life to “stressed, depressed and anxious”.

Working with a Lyme Literate Chiropractor in North Carolina and a Lyme literate practitioner in San Francisco became a game changing experience for Two Monies. Treatment with herbs, Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), probiotics, CBD oil, IV glutathione, infrared sauna, and IV antibiotics modulated his symptoms and expanded his quality of life.

If you would like to learn more about how two co-infections and Lyme disease gave Two Monies a bad rap, then tune in now!

Lexi Czar is a 27-year-old young woman from Creston, BC, Canada. She created Lyme disease awareness apparel and is and is thinking about relaunching her brand in the future.

Prior to suffering the extreme symptoms of Lyme disease, Ms. Czar was a full-time student with a part-time job and was involved in many extracurricular sports and activities. She traveled throughout British Columbia and Alberta and was an extremely happy person with a great group of friends.

Ms. Czar struggled with health issues as a child after a bad case of mono, but once she entered college her symptoms became more persistent. She had severe migraines and chronic fatigue which were dismissed and attributed to being a stressed college student.

Unfortunately, Ms. Czars symptoms continued to worsen and expand, including body pain, insomnia, restless legs, bone issues, anxiety, and depression. After contracting dengue fever and being exposed to toxic mold, she was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease when she was 22.

Ms. Czar was bit by another tick and reinfected with Powassan virus, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF), Babesia, and Bartonella after making progress recovering from her initial Lyme diagnosis. Some of the treatment modalities she has used over time include stem cells, kambo, peptides, microdosing (with psilocybin), herbal antibiotics, ozone, light therapy, Rife, the FREmedica WAVE device, and more.

If you would like to learn how a young woman from Canada is using a variety of non-standard treatment protocols to recover from chronic Lyme disease and co-infections, then tune in now!

PS Emma Pikoulas special guest co-hosted this interview with Matt from Tick Boot Camp!

Åsa Rydmark is a 48-year-old woman from Sweden who has traveled all around the world. She’s worked in the medical field as a Registered Nurse (RN), research nurse at a gynecological ward, and for the last two years as a research coordinator at Linköping University.

Ms. Rydmark had many tick bites throughout her life, got a bullseye rash when she was 14, and Lyme came out and wreaked havoc when she was 39 due to mold exposure and environmental toxins weakening her immune system while performing home renovations. At first, she thought her symptoms were due to “sugar addiction” after reading an article in the newspaper about it. Removing sugar and gluten from her diet helped her feel a little bit better.

Ms. Rydmark quickly realized there was more to the picture and saw many doctors, all of which told her she was fine and her tests all came back normal. She was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease at the age of 46.

Ms. Rydmark and her doctors believe she suffers from Acrodermatitis Chronica Atrophicans (ACA), a late and chronic manifestation of European Lyme borreliosis (Borrelia afzelii), which is characterized by red or bluish-red lesions and leads to extensive flaccid atrophy of the skin.

Ms. Rydmark was treated with Doxycycline for a month, but her doctor wouldn’t do any more for her and she only made minimal health improvements. She started researching and came across the Tick Boot Camp Podcast, Dr. Rawls’ work on chronic Lyme, and Dr. Horowitz’s Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome (MSIDS) all of which solidified her gut feeling that she was still sick with Lyme disease and needed more help.

Ms. Rydmark started her treatment with Dr. Rawls’ herbal Restore Kit and Gut Revival Kit from Vital Plan, but the international shipping costs weren’t practical so she had to stop despite feeling better and kickstarting her true healing journey. Next, she tried some Microbe Formula products that built upon the improvements started with Dr. Rawls’ products. She also discovered Swedish Fascia Vibes which helped improve lymphatic flow and aided her body to rid itself of toxins more easily. This was a gamechanger for Ms. Rydmark.

If you’d like to learn more about how Ms. Rydmark “found a new complete and whole sense of self and a belief in the power to heal and help others,” then tune in now!

PS Rachel Barnes, a Life, Health, and Wellness Coach, special guest co-hosted this interview with Matt from Tick Boot Camp!

Karen Widaman is a 62-year-old certified dog trainer and owner of a large dog training company from Glendora, California.

Despite working in a high-risk industry, Ms. Widaman was unaware of that her contact with thousands of dogs increased her Lyme vulnerability. In 2015, she began to suffer from stomach, foot, and hand pain her doctors believed to be unrelated symptoms in part because she tested negative for Lyme disease.

Unrelenting symptoms forced to treat with a plethora of medical doctors including internists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, oncologists, and infectious disease doctors. In desperation, she sought out a “natural doctor” who retested her for Lyme utilizing a test from IGeneX.

Testing positive for Lyme disease offered Ms. Widaman a path forward. The Integrated Natural Medical Clinic began treatment with herbal supplements utilizing the Buhner protocol and ozone therapy followed up with stem cell, nutritional therapies, and SOT therapy.

Today, Ms. Widaman is pain free and functioning at a high level utilizing supportive therapies to reduce inflammation and support for her immune system. If you would like to learn why a professional dog trainer had to leave the old dogs in the medical community to learn new tricks from an integrative medical discipline to heal, then tune in now!

PS Tiara Smith special guest co-hosted this interview with Rich from Tick Boot Camp!

Casey Fillian is a 45-year-old personal trainer, massage therapist, and competitive runner from Marlboro, New Jersey. Ms. Fillian is also a Lyme disease pioneer: during her childhood she was one of the first people in the United States diagnosed with Lyme. After suffering a tick bite while attending a summer camp, she “developed a fever, general malaise… a bad flu, [her] knee blew up to 3 times its size, and [her] torso was covered in a rash”. Although her parents did not believe the “knee swelling was related to the flu”, the family pediatrician “was suspicious of a new disease [thought] only in Connecticut at the time”. “He sent us to Yale University Hospital and the doctors were able to confirm and start me on an oral antibiotic protocol” followed by “admission to Monmouth Medical Center… for IV therapy”. Her childhood experience inspired her to make “fitness and exercise a priority in [her] life”. She pursued a career as a fitness professor and trained for and ran in several distance and marathon events. In 2017 after returning home from a marathon training event, she discovered a tick embedded on her hip. The second/adult tick bite was followed by a bullseye rash, sepsis, and chronic illness. She has since treated with 3 courses of antibiotics via PICC line and herbal supplements allowing her to return part time to work serving the senior population in a fitness facility for people 62 and older. If you would like to learn how a Lyme disease pioneer was twice knocked down by Lyme but got up each time twice as strong, then tune in now!

PS Adina Bercowicz, founder and president of Lyme TV, special guest co-hosted this interview with Rich from Tick Boot Camp!