Herxheimer (Healing crisis)

 About Herxheimer (Healing crisis) The Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction is a reaction to endotoxin-like products released by the death of harmful microorganisms within the body during antibiotic treatment.

Herxing is a well known reaction when killing off harmful bacteria and viruses. You’ve heard the saying that sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. Well, that is exactly how herxing works. The problem is that it often feels like you are just plain getting sicker and it can be really, really confusing.

At first, when you start successfully treating yourself with antibacterials, antivirals and all of the other things that start killing off pathogens, it can seem like somewhat of a roller coaster. There are a lot of ups and downs. And, there were so many times that I literally cried because, even though I was really hitting the treatments hard, I felt like I was going backwards. But then, a couple of days later, I seemed a tiny bit better than before.

Just remember, these pathogens are making you feel miserable while they are alive and thriving. But, when they die, they are like toxic sludge in our system and until we get them out by sweating and excreting waste products, they will continue to make us feel miserable.

I’ve seen time and again where someone has written a product review of a fantastic antibacterial, or something, and have said something like ‘This gave me a headache and made my stomach upset and I’ll never take it again!’. Yep…that’s herxing. Unfortunately, that person will likely never get better.

If you have severe herxing from a treatment, don’t keep making yourself feel bad. Simply discontinue taking it for a few days and then restart, maybe a little slower next time and the build up again gradually.

Either way, stay the course and remember that this is a war (which is a series of battles) not just a single battle.

I hope this helps!