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Medical data is for informational purposes only. You should always consult your family physician, or one of our referral physicians prior to treatment.

Supplement to

The Art of Getting Well

The Herxheimer Effect

Sources are given in references.

Authors of contributions\quotations are alphabetically arranged;

major author, if any, is underlined.

Henry W. Allen, Robert W. Bradford, D.Sc., Dr. A.H. Davies,

K. Fleishman, Haraldur Gudjonsson, Adolf Herxheimer, Dr. Karl

Herxheimer, Dr. A. Heyman, J. Jadassohn, Dr. Jarisch, Kwang

Jeon, Ph.D., P. Joulia, J.F. Mahoney, Russ McMillan, D.D.S.,

M.P.H., Dr. P.H., G. Milian, J.E. Moore, Gus J. Prosch, Jr., M.D.,

Dr. Paul K. Pybus, Vice Admiral Stamm, Roger Wyburn-Mason,

M.D., Ph.D./Responsible editor/writer Anthony di Fabio.

The Roger Wyburn-Mason and Jack M. Blount

Foundation for

the Eradication of Rheumatoid Disease

AKA The Arthritis Trust of America

7376 Walker Road, Fairview, Tn 37062

Permission to publish granted to Townsend Letter for Doctors, 911 Tyler St., Port

Townsend, WA 98368-6541, May 1991, p. 370.

Dr. Paul K. Pybus

Dr. Paul Pybus, a surgeon and Englishman who resided in

South Africa, was my friend and former Chief Medical Advisor for

The Rheumatoid Disease Foundation.

In the 1960s he worked with Roger Wyburn-Mason, M.D. the

man who brought us our first consistently successful treatment for

otherwise crippling arthritis.

From early teachings by his mentor, Wyburn-Mason, Paul

Pybus developed our technique of intraneural injections that is so

successful for the pain of both Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid

Arthritis, and which may be the foundation for explaining one of

the causative factors of Osteoarthritis. That story is elsewhere

An article prepared by Dr. Paul Pybus at the same time as the

above mentioned Intraneural Injections. . . booklet was titled “The

Herxheimer Reaction History.” Paul prepared this material because

of the extreme importance of noting and accounting for the

Herxheimer effect when treating arthritics. It is a pity that many

modern-day physicians have not been taught the Herxheimer, or,

if they have, do not understand its importance when treating a

number of diseases. [Also see http://www.arthritistrust.org.]

It is a phenomena that results when there is an

intensification of the disease symptoms and often an expansion

of similar symptoms to other places all of a temporary nature,

after which the patient is improved or well. Often it appears to some

as if they have the flu, and so is described as “the patient having flu-

like symptoms.” “Flu-like symptoms” is an over-simplification of

what happens in varying cases and with varying patients.

When treating Leishmaniasis, Syphilis or Tuberculosis, the

phenomena is called Herxheimer, when treating Leprosy it’s called

Lucio’s Phenomena. Other rare tropical diseases also call it the

Herxheimer. When treating Candidiasis, patient’s and doctors call

it the “die-off effect.”

In all cases of the Herxheimer, there is the appearance of a war

or tussle going on inside the body akin to the antigen/antibody

warfare, where the body produces fever, sweat, aching and

swollen joints, diarrhea, nausea, and so on, in varying proportions

with varying degrees depending upon state of metabolism, genet-

ics, source of disturbance and so on.

It is my belief that some prescription drugs wrongly are

described to be toxic in a certain way because, on observing an

Herxheimer reaction in the patient trying the new drug, the drug

researchers (and others’ observations during subsequent follow-

on research and use of the drug) do not fully understand the

Herxheimer and believe the cause is the drug’s “toxicity.” Even

with a full understanding of the Herxheimer effect, a pharmaceu-

tical company must follow the “rule of over-caution,” to satisfy

FDA requirements for the “health and safety” of us more ignorant

citizens. Thus, even with knowledge of the Herxheimer effect,

a physician researcher is not necessarily in a position whereby he

can, or wants to, discriminate between drug toxicity and the

Herxheimer effect.

It is necessary for the successful treatment of Rheumatoid

Diseases, therefore, that a physician attend the patient who uses

our treatment protocol, and that the physician fully comprehend

the distinctions between specific drug toxicities and the Herxheimer

effect. This distinction probably can come only through the

experiences of applied clinical practices.

Drugs do have toxicities of their own, but the essential

importance for Rheumatoid Arthritics is to be able to

discriminate between the two: Herxheimer effect and toxicity.

This is unfortunate, as it clouds otherwise desireable

treatment modes, not just those recommended in our treatment

protocols for arthritics. From another viewpoint, those who fully

understand the distinction between the Herxheimer effect and

drug toxicities find themselves with a guiding clinical tool that

permits the physician early in the treatment regime to determine

the probability of success for a given patient.

Through our Physicians, we have learned that, generally

speaking, the more severe the induced Herxheimer, the more

probability of wellness — which is not to say that one who has a

very light Herxheimer may not also get well.

Prior to Dr. Paul Pybus’ work developing intraneural

injections, it was felt that Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

had little in common, except that here and there folks with

Rheumatoid Arthritis might also have some Osteoarthritis.

Perhaps it is still true, that the causes are indeed distinguish-

able.

But one very interesting set of experiences has come forth

from the application of the Wyburn-Mason/Pybus/Prosch

Intraneural Treatment on both Rheumatoid and Osteo victims: joint

pain and joint damage in both diseases seem to stem from the same

source, namely a disturbance in certain key trigger points along

the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nerves are usually