Lyme Disease Basics

Lyme disease is caused by a bacterial infection with Borrelia. Under the umbrella of the Borrelia bacteria, there are 4 specie types: Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia mayonii are most common in the United States; Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii are the most common causes in Europe and Asia. 

The infection is transferred primarily through being bit by an infected black-legged tick — also known as a deer tick. 

The most common signs and symptoms of Lyme disease consists of severe fatigue (tiredness), achey/painful joints, headaches, chills, swollen lymph nodes, and sometimes a fever. Most (~70-80%) develop a circular rash around the location of the tick bite within 3-30 days of being bitten.

Why Killing Lyme Is So Difficult

Stealthy Invador

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you have been diagnosed with Lyme disease and have undergone Lyme treatment with no success.

You have probably searched endlessly for treatment for Lyme that actually works. Because let’s be honest, having Lyme disease is miserable and exhausting.

Killing Lyme disease is very difficult for a number of reasons. The first reason has to do with the fact that Borrelia is a very stealthy invader. Borrelia is very good at hiding from the immune system and this makes it difficult for our immune system to kill it quickly.

Borrelia also grows slowly as it attempts to survive in a person’s gut microbiome. Remember, Borrelia doesn’t want to take over someone’s entire body — it is a species that is simply trying to survive.

Diagnosing

Secondly, Lyme disease can be very hard to diagnose — so if you can’t confirm the diagnosis, how do you know what treatment to give?

Lyme symptoms can vary from patient to patient so diagnosing lyme based on symptoms can be challenging. It helps if you recall a tick bite or circular skin rash.

This is where lyme testing comes in. Many common Lyme tests include the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test and the Western-blot test. Both of these are commonly used to diagnose lyme disease — though not the only way. In fact, the most effective way that we use is our office is through a holistic and profound technique called Systems Health Care (more on that later!).

Co-infections

If you’ve heard of lyme disease you have probably heard of co-infections. Co-infections simply means there are other additional infections present that have a symbiotic relationship with borrelia bacteria.

Lyme co-infections are usually noted to be Babesia, Erhlichia, or Bartonella. However, it could really include any other infectious agents: bacterial, fungal, parasitic, or viral.

Bio-films

Are you and your doctor addressing bio-films related to your lyme disease? Biofilms are the sludge-like substances created by infections to (1) create a barrier of protection from them and your immune system and (2) create an environment for multiple infections to work symbiotically to help one another survive.

Unless you destroys the biofilms, you immune system can’t get through to kill the infections. Biofilms will always include parasites but often they will include other infectious agents as well.

These are rather easy to destroy with the herbal oil therapies.

Antibiotics For Lyme Disease?

Antibiotic Specificity

There are over 20 different specie types of Borrelia which means one lyme patient may have a slightly different infection than the next lyme patient. Anti-microbials recommended to kill lyme, however, are most-often broad-spectrum antimicrobials.

Using a wide-spectrum solution to address a very specific issue is what we call a “shot-gun” approach. With lyme, this RARELY works.

Broad-spectrum antimicrobials may work for a common bacterial infection, however, each and every lyme patient will need a specific solution or remedy to kill their specific infection.

Antibiotics Are More Harmful Than Helpful

Anti-microbial drugs are meant to be detrimental to killing bacteria — that’s great rightt?

Well, not quite. The problem is they are so good at killing bacteria that they don’t know the difference between the “good” bacteria and the “bad” bacteria.

This results in antibiotics unfortunately killing our “good” bacteria as well. This then leads to poor gut health and huge microbiome imbalances (dysbiosis). If you know the significance and power of gut health, you know this can lead to a lot of other health problems (quickly and down the road).

The best approach is to kill the infectious agents without harming our “good” bacteria — this is our exact approach but more on that later.

Side note: in addition to our gut health, antibiotics also cause a lot of dysfunction and disruption to the thyroid system and immune system (yes – the immune system!).

Antibiotics Rarely Work To Kill Lyme

Though antibiotics are so commonly recommended and used with lyme patients, they rarely work. The reason why is because lyme is very complex (yes, we know) and part of the reason it is able to survive in your body is because you have a poorly functioning immune system.

Here is the problem with antibiotics: they don’t support your immune system and help it function better. Instead, they interject into the situation and attempt to super-cede your immune system.

The problem with this, is the bacterial agents that cause lyme are not your typical infectious agents. They are smart and know how to hide. It is far more important to support the powerfully and intelligently designed immune system to be able to find and kill lyme-causing bacteria or co-infections.

The Key To Killing Lyme Quickly

Diagnose Lyme Disease With Advanced Testing

Diagnosing lyme can be very difficult. As with every patient it’s essential to start with a comprehensive history, consider present and past symptoms, and do a thorough exam. 

While some lab tests struggle to diagnose lyme, there are some amazing functional tests like the Cyrex Array 12 panel from Cyrex labs which not only checks for Borrelia Burgdorferi but also for the many common lyme co-infections: Babesia, Erhlichia, and Bartonella (and 27 others). 

Apart from advanced testing, and most effectively, we use Systems Health Care (SHC). SHC allows us to test for lyme infections, co-infections, biofilms, and anything else limiting your immune system. We find the most success using this technique compared to any other advanced lab testing. 

Balance The Immune System

Like with any infection, it’s the immune system’s job is to kill it and take care of it. If the immune system is under stress, imbalanced, or lacking the right nutrients, it isn’t able to direct a powerful enough response to infections. 

Balancing the immune system can be a complex issue since there are multiple pieces to the immune system. With lyme and related bacterial co-infections, you have to support the T-helper 1 (Th1) cells which are responsible for killing bacterial infections. 

Supporting the Th1 response requires anything from Vitamin A or Vitamin D to Astragalus or similar herbs. It’s also essential to support the T-regulatory cells which are responsible for directing your T-killer cells. Supporting T-reg cells usually need things like Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Glutathione, or fatty acids. 

Nutrient deficiencies, inflammation, toxins, and other infections are the biggest reasons for an immune system being imbalanced. 

Powerful Anti-Lyme Herbal Therapies

Diagnosing lyme and balancing the immune system is very important for killing lyme quickly. That is why herbals are KEY for killing lyme disease.

As mentioned previously, most antibiotic treatments for lyme are not specific, cause more damage overall, and rarely even kills lyme.

Herbal therapy is by FAR the most important and effective way to kill lyme. There are over 10 herbs that have been noted to be very powerful anti-lyme killing herbs: Chinese skullcap, Bidens, and Isatis are a few examples. 

In our office, we check all of those herbals and closely support the immune system to ensure the body has everything it needs to defeat the infections. 

Are you stuck in your battle against lyme? Consider working with a functional doctor who knows how to get to the bottom of your lyme infection and allow your body to heal. 

Suffering From Lyme Disease?

At Freedom Health and Wellness, we address all of these things and more through a personalized and functional approach. We help people with chronic diseases and illnesses regain their health by getting to the source of their health concerns.