How To Treat Lyme Disease Without Antibiotics

Type Of Clinician Overseeing Care

We asked patients to tell us the type of clinician overseeing their care. Choices included: family physicians, internists, rheumatologists, infectious disease specialists, and clinicians whose practice focused on tick-borne diseases . Very few patients selected an infectious disease specialist. Seventy-five percent of high responders and well patients report having their care overseen by an LLMD.

Physicians who treat Lyme disease as their primary focus might be expected to have better results than physicians who dont simply because volume of cases handled means a greater experience level. It is commonly recognized in medicine that volume of cases is associated with better treatment outcomes . Just as patients with cancer commonly seek out physicians who specialize in that area, perhaps patients with chronic Lyme disease should also.

Natural Treatments For Lyme Disease

Emmas been using a range of treatments to help heal her body, support her liver, and fight off the Lyme. Our naturopath gives her a concoction of herbs, supplements, and uploads different killingtreatments and detox support programs onto our minibioresonance machine .

She also takes a biofilm supplement that helps to draw out the Lyme bacteria from their protective coating so they can be killed.

Its been a slow process, but one thats brought about massive improvements over these past two years.

Now, prevention is very important to avoidcontracting Lyme in the first place. Sometimes, its just unavoidable my sister was bitten while in bed a spider crawled under her sheets and bit her in her sleep but, in other cases it can be prevented

• Wear long pants, sleeves, and socks to keep ticks away from skin.
• Use a natural insect repellent or bug spray whenever you go somewhere with large amounts of insects such as the woods, when hiking or camping, or out in the garden.
• Check skin thoroughly after being out in the woods or other outdoor areas.
• If youre pregnant, its best to avoidoutdoor areas where ticks may be found to help reduce risk.
• Improve immunity to give your body the best chance in fighting off this bacteria.

most mentallydifferentlyRickettsia Mycoplasma

Treatment For Erythema Migrans

People treated with appropriate antibiotics in the early stages of Lyme disease usually recover rapidly and completely. Early diagnosis and proper antibiotic treatment of Lyme disease can help prevent late Lyme disease.

Treatment regimens listed in the following table are for the erythema migrans rash, the most common manifestation of early Lyme disease. These regimens may need to be adjusted depending on a persons age, medical history, underlying health conditions, pregnancy status, or allergies. Consult an infectious disease specialist regarding individual patient treatment decisions.

*When different durations of antibiotics are shown to be effective for the treatment of Lyme disease, the shorter duration is preferred to minimize unnecessary antibiotics that might result in adverse effects, including infectious diarrhea and antimicrobial resistance.

NOTE: For people intolerant of amoxicillin, doxycycline, and cefuroxime, the macrolide azithromycin may be used, although it is less effective. People treated with azithromycin should be closely monitored to ensure that symptoms resolve.

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Nutritional And Herbal Therapy

A wide variety of dietary and nutritional interventions were marketed including conventional nutrients such as vitamin C and vitamin B12, commonly used supplements such as garlic and fish oil, as well as other herbal products such as turmeric, olive leaf, teasel root, cilantro, chlorella, sarsaparilla, andrographis, marijuana, cannabis oil, and cat’s claw . One combination, a salt/vitamin C protocol was marketed as a miracle cure for Lyme disease . A website advocated high dose methyl B12 and glutathione, given as self-administered injections for detoxification . The traditional East Asian remedy moxibustion was also advertised . Some sites marketed modified diets such as gluten restriction or high protein diets . One protocol recommended magnesium and water supplementation with oral serrapeptase, a protease derived from Serratia bacteria . In addition to serrapeptase, other enzymes have been advertised to treat patients with Lyme disease including the soybean-derived nattokinase and the earthworm-derived lumbrokinase .

What Is Lyme Disease

Lyme disease, funnily enough, has nothing to do with limes, its called that because it was first known as Lyme arthritis, named after the town where it was first reported, Old Lyme, in Connecticut, United States and due to the arthritic symptoms it caused.

Lyme disease is an infection caused by the bacteria, borrelia burgdorferi, which are transmitted from a tick or insect bite. Its only recently been found that insects, other than ticks, like mosquitoes, spiders and possibly fleas, can spread Lyme disease or cause similar infections.

Lyme disease symptoms can start with flu-like symptoms, headaches, muscle and joint pain. Over time, however, the symptoms continue to get worse, and turn into a long-terminflammatory response similar to that of an autoimmune condition.

According to Dr. Axe

Its important to understand that although Lyme disease originates from a tick bite, symptoms arise due to an inflammatory process. Two people who are both bitten by the same tick carrying the bacteria that causes Lyme disease can respond very differently. Thats why preventing and treating Lyme disease symptoms by maintaining healthy immune regulation is key.

Furthermore, not everyone who is bitten by an insect carrying the Lyme bacteria will contract Lyme. If the immune system is strong enough, it will be able to fight it off before it gets a real hold on the body.

Bitinginsects ticksmosquitoesspiders fleas borrelia burgdorferi

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Symptoms Of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease causes a range of symptoms that change and intensify as the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, first introduced by the tick, spread to the rest of the body. Untreated cases can cause serious problems or lead to a fatal condition. Whats tricky, too, is that the onset of initial symptoms occurs anywhere from three to 30 days after exposure.

Clinically, there are three stages of Lyme disease: early localized disease, early disseminated disease, and late disseminated disease. Early localized disease, the initial manifestation, is characterized by:

• Bullseye rash and swelling,the most notorious symptom, occurs in 70% to 80% of cases. Clinically referred to as erythema migrans, its appearance variesit can be a different color or shapeespecially in people of color. It arises about a week after exposure to the bacteria.
• Other symptoms of the first stage include fever, fatigue, headache, and joint pain. Very often, those with the conditionespecially if there is no rashfeel as if theyre experiencing the flu.

Disseminated Lyme disease symptoms arise as the bacterial infection works its way to other bodily systems, organs, and structures. Typically a month or more after exposureand potentially chronicsymptoms have changed and include:

In its late disseminated phase, the bacterial infection has begun affecting nerve and joint structures, causing significant complications. Chronic arthritis, continued swelling of the brain , and nerve damage can all result.

Seven Herbal Medicines Can Kill Lyme Disease Bacteria In Test Tube

Researchers have determined that seven herbal medicines are highly active in test tubes against B. burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, compared to the control antibiotics, doxycycline and cefuroxime.

Published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, the laboratory study was funded by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation and supported in part by The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and colleagues at the California Center for Functional Medicine and FOCUS Health Group, Naturopathic collaborated on the study.

Since traditional antibiotic approaches fail to resolve symptoms in up to 25% of patients treated for Lyme disease and many suffer disabling effects of the disease, there is a need for novel treatment proven effective against B. burgdorferi, said the papers co-author Sunjya K. Schweig, MD, CEO and co-director, California Center for Functional Medicine and Scientific Advisory Board Member, Bay Area Lyme Foundation.

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New Antibiotics For Lyme Disease

Researchers in the Lyme disease community were aware that the commonly prescribed antibiotics for Lyme disease were ineffective against chronic Lyme, so they set out to identify more effective treatments. The goal was to repurpose already approved medications by screening medications from drug libraries. Testing already-approved medications with established safety profiles allow quick identification of effective treatments without developing new medications, attaining approval, and establishing safety in humans.

Antibiotics Alone Are Unlikely To Get You Well

This is the second time I am making this point because it is very important. It is essential to your recovery that, at a minimum, your treatment address the steps outlined in my Lyme disease treatment guidelines: The Ross Lyme Support Protocol. Even a year or more into your treatment, these ten steps are essential to resuscitate and support the immune system.

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What Are The Symptoms Of Lyme Disease

Symptoms can start anywhere from 3 to 30 days after the bite. They may look different depending on the stage of your infection. In some cases, you wonât notice any symptoms until months after the bite.

Early symptoms include:

All of those symptoms are also common in the flu. In most Lyme infections, one of the first symptoms youâll notice is a rash.

Without treatment, symptoms can get worse. They might include:

• Severe headache or neck stiffness
• Rashes on other areas of your body
• Arthritis with joint pain and swelling, particularly in your knees
• âDroopingâ on one or both sides of your face
• Inflammation in your brain and spinal cord
• Shooting pains, numbness, or tingling in your hands or feet

What does the rash look like?

Some Lyme rashes look like a bull’s-eye with circles around the middle. But most are round, red, and at least 2 inches across.

The rash slowly gets bigger over several days. It can grow to about 12 inches across. It may feel warm to the touch, but itâs usually not itchy or painful. It can show up on any part of your body.

How small are ticks?

Ticks come in three sizes, depending on their life stage. They can be the size of a grain of sand, a poppy seed, or an apple seed.

What Is Post Treatment Lyme Disease

Post Treatment Lyme Disease represents a research subset of patients who remain significantly ill 6 months or more following standard antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease. PTLD is characterized by a constellation of symptoms that includes severe fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, sleep disturbance, depression, and cognitive problems such as difficulty with short-term memory, speed of thinking, or multi-tasking. In the absence of a direct diagnostic biomarker blood test, PTLD has been difficult to define by physicians, and its existence has been controversial. However, our clinical research shows that meticulous patient evaluation when used alongside appropriate diagnostic testing can reliably identify patients with a history of previously treated Lyme disease who display the typical symptom patterns of PTLD.

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Lowering Of Microbial Burden

Antibiotics may be recommended for this arm of treatment. If a patient has failed or not responded to antibiotic therapy for chronic lyme in the past, in my experience they still may respond if the other three arms of treatment are added in. Herbal options, and especially ozone therapy, are excellent first choices if not an acute case.

When using these options, risks such as allergy and upper gut irritation with the herbs is a discussion. With antibiotics, the risk of resistance, lower GI issues including serious cases of diarrhea, allergy, are concerns to be discussed. Because of such risks, and the fact that my own experiences been that herbal options are often just as effective although somewhat slower to have clear changes, herbal options are often considered first.

The herbal options that I prefer include much of the newer research that has been published on especially japanese knotweed, cryptolepsis, as well as various essential oils. The classic formulas such as cats claw, Buhner herbs are useful. I do find favorable results with the formulas from Beyond balance as well.

Occasionally though, in my experience, even though the chronic lyme patient is getting full detoxification support, Herxheimer like reactions still occur. In these cases there are many in the office treatments that can help to calm the inflammation based on the individual assessment.

Natural Remedies For Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. It is spread through the bite of infected ticks.

Ticks are very small, and their biteswhich can occur anywhere on the bodyare usually painless, so you may not immediately be aware that you have been bitten. In most cases, the tick must be attached to the body for 24 hours before Lyme disease is transmitted.

The signs and symptoms of Lyme disease usually start within three to 30 days after youve been bitten by an infected tick. Many people experience flu-like symptoms after being bitten, while more serious symptoms show up weeks after the bite. Early signs and symptoms of Lyme disease include:

• Chills
• Rash
• Swollen lymph nodes

If left untreated, symptoms can worsen to include Bells palsy , severe headaches, muscle, joint, and tendon pain, cardiac problems, and neurological disorders.

Most cases of Lyme disease can be managed and treated with two to three weeks of antibiotics. Depending on the severity of your symptoms and how long after the bite you were diagnosed, you may need a longer course of antibiotics to clear up the infection. Many people turn to natural remedies to help treat Lyme disease.

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Ongoing Symptoms Of Lyme Disease

A few people who are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease continue to have symptoms, like tiredness, aches and loss of energy, that can last for years.

These symptoms are often compared to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

It’s not clear why this happens to some people and not others. This means there’s also no agreed treatment.

Speak to a doctor if your symptoms come back, or do not improve, after treatment with antibiotics.

The doctor may be able to offer you further support if needed, such as:

• referral for a care needs assessment
• telling your employer, school or higher education institution that you require a gradual return to activities
• communicating with children and families’ social care

Page last reviewed: 05 July 2021 Next review due: 05 July 2024

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy For Lyme Disease

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves exposure to 100 percent oxygen at a high pressure. Its often in a room called a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to promote wound healing.

There isnt much research about the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for Lyme disease. But a 2014 case study from Taiwan reports that it treated Lyme disease in a person who hadnt responded to antibiotics. Still, more large-scale studies are needed to understand whether its an effective treatment.

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Tetracycline Plus Macrolide Plus Grapefruit Seed Extract Plus Japanese Knotweed

• doxycycline 100 mg 2 pills 2 times a day
• clarithromycin 500 mg 1 pill 2 times a day
• grapefruit seed extract 250 mg 1 pill 2 times a day.
• Japanese knotweed½ tsp 3 times a day

Key Points:

• Tetracyclines and macrolides both block protein production by binding to the protein production apparatus in germs called ribosomes. But they each bind to a different part of the ribosome improving the blockade of protein production.
• Japanese knotweed is added here to treat persister Lyme. It also may treat growing Lyme and can lower inflammation cytokines.

Look How Far Ive Come

My initial Lyme test was, in the words of my doctor, lit up like a Christmas tree. Pretty much everything on it was positive: 2 different strains of Lyme, babesia, bartonella, and mycoplasma. I was a mess.

This summer I had a repeat test. Everything came back negative. While this doesnt mean Im definitively negative for Lyme, it certainly indicates weve been able to reduce the load enough that its not showing up on the tests. Ill likely need to continue some level of treatment for quite some time.

There are many Lyme specialist who dont believe its ever possible to be completely cured of Lyme. Its a sneaky bacteria and good at hiding. Many believe, the best you can get is to effectively put yourself in remission and strengthen your immune system. This keeps the Lyme bacterial load low enough that the symptoms are kept at bay.

Another fantastic result of treatment has been a huge decrease in inflammation. My c4a levels were 20,749 when I was first diagnosed. Thats a lot. . At the beginning of this year, after about a year of treatment, they were down at 17,594. This September, I was delighted to see my levels down to 4,090. Im inching closer to being back in the normal levels.

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What Treatment Approach Did Well Patients And High Responders Use

We asked patients what their treatment approach was and listed four options a) antibiotics, b) alternative treatments, c) both antibiotics and alternative treatments, and d) no treatment at all. High treatment response was most closely associated with the use of antibiotics compared to patients who were using alternative treatments alone or forgoing treatment altogether. Treatment with antibiotics for Lyme disease was far higher among well patients and high responders compared to non-responders .

As you can see in the chart below, many patients who were taking antibiotics were also taking herbal supplements, which can be antimicrobial . So it is possible that there was a synergistic effect between antibiotics and herbal supplements.