#115 – Battling Lyme Disease with Paul and Susan Archer from Supa Naturals

Introduction

Paul 00:01

Well, the past, really, to get into CBD started, I would say back in April 2013. And Susan kind of developed some health issues that were concerning, just started having symptoms: neuropathy, fatigue, dizziness, night sweats, and just a bunch of different things which we really didn’t understand what’s going on and that kind of led us on this journey that took us through a lot of different modes, medicine, looking for answers.

Vadim 00:37

All right. And we are back in class. This is Vadim, the CBD professor from cbdschool.com: Your school to learn all about cannabidiol. I think you are really going to enjoy this episode of the CBD School Podcast. I sat down with the husband-and-wife team, Paul and Susan, of SUPA Naturals who are also the sponsors of this episode. You’re going to love hearing about Susan’s story of Lyme disease and how CBD helped her with her symptoms. And when you’re done listening, make sure to visit supanaturals.com, which is spelled SUPAnaturals.com, where you can get 15% off with coupon code CBDSCHOOL15, which is just for listeners of the CBD School Podcast. So again, that website is supanaturals, spelled SUPANATURALS.com and use the coupon code at the CBDSCHOOL15 for 15% off your order. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.

On today’s episode of the podcast, I have a husband-and-wife team, I’m pretty sure, and they are Paul and Susan of SUPA Naturals, the co-founders. And the first thing I always ask people is where are you calling in from, California?

Paul 02:09

Actually, we’re in Seattle today.

Vadim 02:12

Okay, okay. Well, welcome to the show. Very nice to have you.

Paul & Susan 02:14

Thank you. Very excited to be here.

Susan 02:15

Oh my gosh.

Vadim 02:19

That happens all the time. No worries. Well, very nice to have you, Paul and Susan. So did I get that right, husband and wife?

Paul 02:26

That’s correct.

Vadim 02:26

Okay, good, good. Glad I didn’t mess that up. So yes, you two are the co-founders of SUPA Naturals, which is an interesting name, and the first thing I want to ask you is where does the name come from?

Paul 02:38

Right. It actually should be relatively obvious, but it’s just a combination of our first two names. So the SU from Susan and the PA from Paul, we pushed it together came up with SUPA. We thought it was kind of a nice play on words.

Vadim 02:52

I like that. I do like that. And when did you start the company? It’s a relatively new endeavor for you?

Paul 02:59

It is relatively new. I guess we started working on it mid-2019. We just launched the website right before Thanksgiving last year, so late November 2019. And so we’ve been up and running since then. And we’re looking to do other things after getting up and running, but that’s where we are right now.

Being Diagnosed with Lyme Disease

Vadim 03:17

Nice. Okay, well, what made you want to start a CBD company?

Paul 03:21

Susan 03:39

I mean, it was pretty crazy. So we just came back. Actually, we’re on the plane back from San Diego with our kids for spring break. And on the plane, I just started getting these shooting pains only on the left side of my body, like through my arm, through my foot, and then my foot and my arm, from my elbow to my hand just started tingling and it wouldn’t go away. And I was getting muscle twitches — like all kinds of neurological problems. And so when we got home, I developed a fever. I was in bed for probably four or five days. Night sweats like Paul had mentioned. It was kind of scary. I was like, I don’t know what was going on with me. But of course, you know, I didn’t feel well enough to go see our GP at the time.

So you know, after probably a week, after a week or so, after we’ve gotten home, had an appointment with our doctor and with somebody we’ve seen for years, he was great. And you know, I was told, “Susan, you’re so healthy, you know, there’s nothing wrong with you. This must be just a fluke. I’m sure it’ll go away but I’ll check you out anyway.” And of course the little neurological exam he gave me and passed fine and he’s like, “Okay, let’s do some blood work.” That all came back normal. And so he referred me to a neurologist who suggested I get some MRIs because my symptoms were really quite odd. And so I had the MRIs done, which for me was kind of terrifying. I’m not a claustrophobic person, being in that tiny little vessel was not —

Vadim 05:18

I understand that.

Susan 05:21

And it’s funny to this day, I can’t listen to Norah Jones, because that’s what they gave me on the headphones while in that thing. Sorry, Norah, I just can’t anymore. Anyway, so the neurologist, you know, got the reports back. And, you know, everything looked fine. Throughout there, Paul reminded me. I’ve forgotten about this, probably because I blocked it out. But she’s like, “You know, it’s quite possible that you’re developing early symptoms of MS. But there’s nothing in your MRIs yet that’s showing any degenerative signs because it’s too early.” And so yeah, I must have completely blocked this out. Because he’s like, “You are a mess.” Leaving the neurologist, of course, because, you know, who wants to hear that they could have MS, you know, that’s horrible, right?

Vadim 06:03

Yes. I didn’t even know. Can people develop that without it being like a genetic early condition? Can you just get it randomly?

Susan 06:10

I think you can. I don’t think it has to be genetics.

Vadim 06:13

I see. Okay. Okay.

Susan 06:15

Crazy. So, you know, I mean, so the road ended with the neurologists. She’s like, “Well, until you get worse or whatever, if you want to come back in a year, we can check it again for fun.” I’m like, “Okay, no, thanks.” So I went back to my GP and he’s like, “Okay, I’m sorry that you’re having these symptoms, but I really don’t think there’s anything else I can do for you.” And he basically concluded that it was quite possible that I needed more attention from my husband and it was all in my head. So you can just imagine, okay, now I’m crazy. I’m the crazy person, you know.

Anyway, so, sadly, we ended our relationship with our GP who we had loved and it really fired me up to think okay, well, if my answer is not here obviously, so what do I need to find? Or who do I need to find? So it started this journey of looking into alternative medicines, naturopathic doctors, and our children saw a naturopath anyway, so I started going and seeing her. She thought maybe I was low in vitamin B12. So we started these B12 injections, and it turned out she gave me so much B12 that I started developing even worse neuropathy.

Vadim 07:28

Because too much of it can actually have the opposite effect. Yeah.

Susan 07:34

Right.

Vadim 07:34

By the way, did you notice when you would get the injection you’d feel really good?

Susan 07:38

Yes. I went totally like, oh my gosh, I felt like a burst of energy.

Vadim 07:42

Yeah, I’ve had that.

Susan 07:43

I couldn’t sleep at night. It did go, but I got to the point where I was just way too much. It was ridiculous. And so after we tried that, I think Paul had found — I mean, how long do you think the process was? Because I was into aroma therapy, essential oils and shiatsu. Gosh.

Paul 08:03

Probably 18 months in? Two years in?

Susan 08:05

Something like that. Anyway, so I had tried so many different things. And Paul, I think, found a naturopath in Seattle who has got great reviews. So I’m like, “Okay, let’s go give her a shot.” And she discovered with blood testing everything, I had Hashimoto’s disease, which is autoimmune thyroid condition. And I started taking thyroid hormone for that, and which did increase my energy levels a bit, but I still was having all this neurological stuff going on. And she thought, “Okay, well, might be kind of early,” at the time, I was in my early 30s. She’s saying, “Well, maybe you’re going to premenopause.” I’m like, “Oh, great. Maybe it’s a hormone issue,” you know. And so she did hormone replacement therapy, but actually, it did help a little bit, but then I started getting all these other horrible symptoms that were associated with estrogen. Okay, I’m like, well, this isn’t gonna work, either. It’s just a crutch. I don’t want to do that. Like, somebody help me find the root of this problem.

Vadim 09:01

I think this thing that you went through, so many other people are going through. I’ve gone through the same thing where you’re looking, you’re going from doctor to doctor and you’re just not getting answers, or it’s getting even worse because you’re getting too many answers.

Susan 09:14

Yes. And yeah, like, maybe it’s everything. But then you really start doubting yourself, like, gosh, why nobody can figure out what this is. Maybe it is me. You start, like, it’s crazy. So I had been googling a lot, which Paul kept telling me, “Get off Google,” and I would just freak myself out with all the stuff that comes up, you know. But something that was interesting to me was the symptoms that also assumed to be with those who had Lyme disease. And so I went to this naturopath and I said, “Hey, maybe… I never had a tick bite, I never — but early on, I did have the fever and night sweats and all that stuff going on. So I’m like, okay, well, maybe, but I never had the classic tick bite, bull’s eye, you know.

Vadim 09:56

A lot of people don’t even get it. That’s the thing.

Susan 09:58

And wasn’t it crazy? Yeah, it’s the weirdest thing. And so she’s like, “Okay, well, I don’t think you have this. But if it’s just another box to check, then let’s try.” So we had the Lyme panel done. And at first I called him to get my results, which is like, “No, you’re negative. There’s nothing here.” I’m like,”Really?” I’m like, “Okay,” and she’s like, “Wait, wait, wait,” and she looks back again, which made me wonder or question her abilities a little bit. But she’s like, “Wait, no, actually, you are positive for Lyme. There’s actually a couple tiles here that you’re checking positive for.” I’m like, well, eureka, you know. it was scary, but at the same time, okay, somebody found it out. I think it was two and a half years after the first symptom that I finally had some kind of diagnosis, you know. So it was liberating and then scary, because now, what? How do I get rid of this, right?

So from that point, Paul and I started looking into finding more Lyme disease specialist. And we went through gosh, oh, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, I tried changing my diet, eliminating foods, IV therapies, like lots and lots of IV therapies. I would probably be in the IV room three to four times a week. And, of course, none of this is covered by insurance. So it was so expensive to go through all these different things. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers, a machine called OndaMed, that they hook you up to try and balance out your frequency levels.Oh my gosh, like, I went through so many different things.

And gradually, you know, I mean, gosh, it’s been a few years now. So gradually, of course, all these things, the detoxes, everything started helping, trying to reduce my stress, bring back meditation to my life, you know, just trying to find ways to really center myself and not let life get too crazy. It was hard, though, because we had two young kids, you know, at the time, and it was hard for me because I was trying to heal myself, take care of my family, but I can’t really take care of my family, you know, try to be a great mother and wife to Paul and the kids. And yeah, it was just kind of crazy. But as I improved and found different alternative ways of healing because it really just led me into this natural kind of place.

And with CBD hitting the market early last year, we just started hearing more and more and more about it. And I had never tried marijuana in my life. Like this was super new to me. And I was a little hesitant, but I’m like, okay, well, you know, we see all the articles and people talking about it. Oh my gosh, this stuff’s amazing. I’m like, I can’t not try this, you know. And I found that, you know, we tried a few different brands and some are more effective than others, but it really helped my neurological symptoms. Wait, something’s clicking here. I don’t know what it is about this stuff, but I really started seeing a much better improvement to the point where I feel almost normal most of the time now. So it’s really been almost a miracle plus all the other amazing things it’s done for me and Paul, but really, truly, CBD’s been kind of a home run.

Vadim 13:00

About the Lyme disease, I’ve heard a lot of people saying that it really helps them with Lyme symptoms. So what in particular did it help you with?

Susan 13:11

For me, a lot of it was the neuropathy, and for whatever reason, it was mostly on the left side of my body. And so the numbness, the tingling, numbness, muscle twitches, shooting pains, almost like just a weakness. Like I remember, even trying to pick up a water glass, I would just almost feel like I had to drop it. So it was really helpful. I don’t know what it was about it. But it really helped all my neurological symptoms a lot. And it also helped my sleep, just getting more rest and not being so stressed because gosh, after how many years, this process was to figure out what I had and try and treat it and get better. I mean, it’ll be seven years this April, I think, from the onset of the symptoms. And so it took a huge amount of emotional energy and everything and it was just depleting. And so having the CBD just helped my endocrine system. I think it was a really big deal in helping me get back to health and wellness too.

Vadim 14:09

And have you been able to get rid of the Lyme disease completely?

Susan 14:14

You know, it’s funny, as I never ended up rechecking.

Vadim 14:17

Wow.

Susan 14:18

It’s probably good to hear. But honestly, I feel so good. I really do feel good. I mean, I’ll have days sometimes where I’m more tired and exhausted or whatnot from different circumstances, but on a daily basis, for the majority of it, I feel pretty darn good and I’m so grateful. It’s truly been quite the journey, as you can imagine for both of us, I mean.

Vadim 14:41

And did you do the regular antibiotic that normally is taken for it?

Susan 14:45

I actually did not. I decided not because I didn’t want to wreck my flora. Mine was already messed up anyway, but I don’t want to do that. And from what I’ve read, people would be on this stuff for months and IV antibiotics and you’re there every day or I have to get it administered at home. And I’m like, this is not what I want. I really took a huge step away from Western medicine approach after that bomb my doctor threw at me, saying that it was in my head. And so I was like, no, no, we’re gonna try something else.

Paul 15:21

We learned too that that treatment isn’t generally very effective, but when it is the most effective is when it’s administered very, very early on. And by the time, we would even have been in a position to think about doing that kind of treatment. And I think considering Lyme disease, we were a couple of years into the process. So the chances of it being of any use at that point will pretty much zero. So it was pretty easy for us to say, “That’s not the way we want to go.” Not to mention the way Susan said. It would have been pretty impractical for her to be able to do that treatment just from a time perspective, just with two young kids in the time, it would have been very hard for her to go and be in a hospital for multiple hours every day for potentially a week or two, whatever it would be.

Susan 16:02

I don’t know. So people are on this stuff for months. And then if it didn’t work, oh, we’re gonna switch to this antibiotic instead. And the detriment to their health from this, I’m like, I already feel awful as it is. Let’s not make it worse.

Vadim 16:15

Of course. I had it before. And I caught it very quickly, early.

Susan 16:22

Oh my gosh, wow.

Vadim 16:23

And I quickly just caught it and took the stuff but it was like right away and it caught it. I had a swollen knee. So it wasn’t prolonged, but in your case — and to this day, are you pretty much symptom-free from it? Or does it sometimes flare up?

Susan 16:41

If I do too much or if I push myself too hard, I will definitely have days where some of the neuropathy or something will come back. But it’s so much better. I’d take that over what I had. Because it never went away. I would have it consistently, like I was just half numb almost all the time, which gets the point like, oh my gosh, you get used to it, sad to say. So when the symptoms started subsiding, I was kind of in disbelief for a while, but yes, to answer your question, when I do too much, it definitely will flare up every now and then. I have to be very mindful about checking with myself and taking care to not overdo it at least.