Stevia Shown To Kill Borrelia Burgdorferi:
Recent studies have revealed evidence that whole leaf stevia extract may be effective at killing the spirochetes Borrelia Burgdorferi, the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease . The study showed that exposing the bacteria to stevia leaf extract eliminated Lyme disease, even when the bacteria was in its dormant form.
While more studies are still needed before stevia leaf extract becomes a prescribed natural cure for Lyme disease, that doesnt mean it isnt worth trying at home along with some of the many other natural remedies discussed. It is important to know that pure stevia leaf extract is different from powdered stevia in the supermarket. You can however purchase pure stevia leaf extract in supplement form.
How To Choose The Best Herbal Supplements
The best advice is to avoid choosing your herbal supplements to treat Lyme disease. While you know your body best and can quickly identify your symptoms and match them with a supplement, there are other factors you must consider before heading over to your local alternative store. Below is a brief list of crucial considerations before consuming a supplement:
- Brand name. Yes, it makes a difference. Supplements your Lyme literate doctor will prescribe will be manufactured by brands with excellent reputations, a long history of satisfied customers, and proven results.
- Possible interactions with other medicines and supplements. To avoid new negative symptoms, you must be sure the supplements you take will not interact or interfere with any current medications you may be taking.
- Side effects. All medicines and herbal supplements have the potential for side effects. Your doctor can update you on the list of possible side effects and investigate if you are more likely to experience them.
- The best form. Herbal supplements come in many shapes: capsules, tablets, tea, IV infusion, powder, etc. Your doctor should recommend how much you should take based on your personal needs and feedback from lab testing.
Evaluation Of Activity Of Natural Product Extracts Against Stationary Phase B Burgdorferi
Table 2. Activity of natural products against growing and stationary phase B. burgdorferi.
Figure 1. Effect of natural product extracts on the viability of stationary phase B. burgdorferi. A 7-day old B. burgdorferi stationary phase culture was treated with the natural product extracts at 1, 0.5, and 0.2% for 7 days followed by staining with SYBR Green I/PI viability assay and fluorescence microscopy.
We also tested several other herbs and substances that are used by Lyme patients including Stevia rebaudiana, Andrographis paniculata, Grapefruit seed extract, Ashwagandha somnifera, Colloidal silver, Lauricidin, and antimicrobial peptide LL-37, but found they had little or no activity against stationary phase B. burgdorferi cells.
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Essential Oils From Garlic And Other Herbs Kill Persister Lyme Disease Bacteria
- Date:
- Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Summary:
- Oils from garlic and several other common herbs and medicinal plants show strong activity against the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, according to a new study.
Oils from garlic and several other common herbs and medicinal plants show strong activity against the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. These oils may be especially useful in alleviating Lyme symptoms that persist despite standard antibiotic treatment, the study also suggests.
The study, published October 16 in the journal Antibiotics, included lab-dish tests of 35 essential oils oils that are pressed from plants or their fruits and contain the plants main fragrance, or essence. The Bloomberg School researchers found that 10 of these, including oils from garlic cloves, myrrh trees, thyme leaves, cinnamon bark, allspice berries and cumin seeds, showed strong killing activity against dormant and slow-growing persister forms of the Lyme disease bacterium.
We found that these essential oils were even better at killing the persister forms of Lyme bacteria than standard Lyme antibiotics, says study senior author Ying Zhang, MD, PhD, professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School.
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When We Think About Why Lyme Disease So Easily Takes Over The Human Body We See That Inflammation Plays A Huge Role
If the body is constantly putting out fires from everyday exposure to events or substances that cause inflammation , it has a much harder time when a real threat enters the body.
We have to focus on creating a foundation for health, which is simple but sometimes hard to implement in modern life. Rather than subscribing to a particular diet or detox to achieve this goal, I instead recommend returning to the basics. Eat food in its original unprocessed form. Limit sugar and alcohol intake. Drink fresh, filtered water as often as possible. Move your body. Create a healthy sleep schedule and take time during your day for short mental health breaks. Prioritize stress-relieving activities that bring you joy and peace. If it is too overwhelming to implement all these at once, work on one aspect of health at a time, and build upon that. Its never too late to start improving your bodys resilience.
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The Science Behind The Best Herbs For Healing Lyme
Before we dive into natural interventions that are useful to treat and heal Lyme disease, it is extremely important to understand how Lyme develops.
In a fascinating study published in 2019, researchers in Amsterdam found that tick saliva is not only the medium through which the pathogenic bacteria enter their hosts, it also contains a mixture of proteins that disarm the bodys immune system. This protects Borrelia from any natural defenses that you would normally mount to the infection .
The Best Herbs For Lyme Disease Treatment
No one person shares the exact same symptom presentation of Lyme disease and co-infections as well people with Lyme disease infections are at different stages of the disease, so no treatment is the same. However, there does exist the best herbs for Lyme disease treatment that are shared among all stages and all symptom presentations.
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For Those Without Access To Antibiotics Or Aversion To Pharmaceutical Use Herbal Antimicrobials Taken Internally Can Be Used Effectively To Address The Suspected Infection Either Instead Of Prescriptions Or In Addition To Them
A recent study looked at several antimicrobial and antiparasitic herbs as compared to the controls of prescription doxycycline and cefuroxime . The botanicals with good to strong activity against Borrelia included Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, Juglans nigra , Polygonum cuspidatum , Artemisia annua , Uncaria tomentosa , Cistus incanus, and Scutellaria baicalensis .
In fact, Cryptolepis sanguinolenta extract caused complete eradication of the spirochete, while doxycycline and cefuroxime could not fully eradicate B. burgdorferi. This research makes a powerful case for using herbal antibiotics in addition to or instead of pharmaceuticals.
You may also consider taking homeopathic Ledum and Apis, two remedies excellent at addressing puncture wounds and insect bites and stings. Dr. Alexis Chesney, a Lyme literate Naturopathic physician, put together a very helpful Tick Preparedness Kit that contains herbs, homeopathics, and items for tick removal and storage.
- Homeopathic Apis mellifica 30C
- 4 ounce Deer Tick Bite Formula
*4 ounce tick bite prophylactic formula specific to the types of ticks in your region
Treatment Of Lyme Disease Without Antibiotics
Many of my chronic lyme patients have come to me after they have been on repeated courses of antibiotics, with only temporary improvement. In these cases, one option for treatment is a more holistic, naturopathic approach to chronic lyme disease which involves nutritional support to regulate physiology, detoxification, more broad spectrum antimicrobials , and immune system modulation.
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The Value Of Growing Herbs For Treating Lyme
Treating Lyme disease means eliminating bacteria that cause inflammation. As Lyme bacteria enter your bloodstream, they set off an inflammatory response. Inflammation is usually a good thing. It attacks a bacterium and flushes it out of your system. But with Lyme disease, the bacteria are excellent at hiding from inflammation.
Rather than giving up its search for the bacteria, the inflammation remains triggered and spreads to various body parts. If left untreated, symptoms become chronic and may interfere with your ability to function mentally and physically. When inflammation remains triggered, it leads to pain, swelling, brain fog, depression, anxiety, facial paralysis, arthritis, and more.
Treatment For Chronic Lyme Disease
Sometimes, people go through treatment for Lyme disease but their symptoms donât go away. If this lasts over 6 months, itâs known as chronic Lyme disease or âpost-treatment Lyme disease syndromeâ .
Doctors still arenât sure why some people get PTLDS. Some believe that getting Lyme disease may cause damage to your tissues or immune system. Others believe itâs because the bacteria that causes Lyme hasnât completely gone away.
There is little evidence that taking more antibiotics at this stage will help. They may actually be harmful. Instead, your doctor will focus on treating the symptoms youâre still having. This will be different for everyone. Some people could benefit from a medicine that relieves fatigue, while others may need a drug that can help with headaches or very sensitive skin.
Your doctor could also have you try a treatment that helps people with chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia.
More research is needed to figure out how best to treat PTLDS. Itâs something that can be frustrating. Just remember: Many people who have this condition do start feeling like their old selves after a few months.
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My Long Road To A Lyme Diagnosis
I could write a freakin’ book about my pre-diagnosis Lyme experience. Not to sound dramatic, but it was basically a nightmare playing out in slow motion. For your own sanity, I’ll give you the condensed version.
Personally, I don’t remember a tick bite, and like many Lyme sufferers, I never got the bull’s-eye rash or flu-like symptoms so often touted as “classic” signs of Lyme disease. Instead, my whole ordeal began with a sharp, stinging sensation in my left ankle after a day of walking in New York City, where I’d just begun my first “big girl” job. It hurt, but I didn’t think much of it, and about a week later I was told I had tendinitis that would resolve relatively quickly. But then my other ankle started to hurt, and after a few months, the pain extended to the bottoms of my feet, my knees, and even my arms. Sometimes it would feel like electric currents were running through my toes when I stood up. After a while, I began to question my tendinitis diagnosis, but after about five “second opinions” and countless tests , doctors had no real explanation for what was going on. In the words of one of my least favorite doctors, “There’s nothing else I can do for you.”
Growing Herbs For Treating Lyme
Japanese Honeysuckle Lonicera japonicaEasy to grow vine. Very common in this area with white turning to gold flowers.L. japonica can be tricky to identify as there are many cultivars of honeysuckle and many ornamental versions and labeling is not very accurate. L. japonica is a vine-style honeysuckle with large white-turning-to-gold flowers with the nectar that you can sip. They are attractive plants but do spread, and it is listed as an invasive in this area. I am currently working on accurately identifying the honeysuckle species we have growing here and propagating to pots for spring 2019.
TurmericTurmeric is a fabulous anti-inflammatory and is a great accompaniment to any Lyme treatment. Turmeric is a tropical plant though wanting to grow and stay at around 80 degrees. I grow it in my greenhouse, but it does go very dormant in the winter and takes a long time to start leafing out again once it gets warm. The trick is keeping it dry and in a bright but shady position. Overwatering is what will kill it by rotting the rhizome. Ginger is grown the same wayI usually have turmeric plants in pots although they are often only rhizomes leafed out plants are usually available from June through September.
Cistus and Ledum We are currently experimenting with growing Cistus Balm of Gilead and Ledum or Labrador Tea in this area more info to come soon!
Artemisia annua or
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Natural Treatments For Lyme Disease In Dogs
Lyme, and many of its co-infections, are common in companion animals, although Lyme can infect nearly all animals on the planet. A number of people, concerned about their pets, and exasperated at the lack of progress by their vets, reported good success once they began using the protocol I developed for people on their dogs .
So, I want to share it with you too.
Here are 6 natural treatment options for Lyme disease in dogs.
Generally, improvements begin to occur within two to four weeks.
Please note that all of the herbs can be given simultaneously and all the herbs may be used along with antibiotics. Also, if your dog is very small, use smaller doses, if larger use more. The doses I am giving here are for a medium sized dog. And yes, you can use liquid formulations as well. I just prefer to use the herbs themselves.
Anyone Can Be Tricked
The influential physicist Richard Feynman famously said:
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
Some people invariably become convinced that an ineffective treatment works for them. But, as Dr. Harriet Hall describes in her course on Science-Based Medicine, we humans may believe ineffective treatments work for many reasons:
The disease may have run its natural course. Many diseases are cyclical. The wrong treatment may get the credit. Diagnosis and prognosis may be wrong. Temporary mood improvement confused with cure Psychological needs affect behavior and perceptions We confuse correlation with causation
Dr. Barry Beyerstein, a professor of psychology, described the above reasons in his essay Why Bogus Therapies Seem to Work. He concluded:
To people who are unwell, any promise of a cure is especially beguiling. As a result, false hope easily supplants common sense. In this vulnerable state, the need for hard-nosed appraisal is all the more necessary, but so often we see instead an eagerness to abandon any remaining vestiges of skepticism.
Erstwhile savvy consumers, felled by disease, often insist upon less evidence to support the claims of alternative healers than they would previously have demanded from someone hawking a used car. Caveat emptor!
In the following short clip, magicians Penn & Teller show how easily fake medicine can fool us:
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Herbs That May Help Treat Lyme Disease
Although doxycycline, a wide known antibiotic, is prescribed to treat Lyme disease, research shows that adjuvant herbal therapies may provide relief for persistent Lyme symptoms.
Moreover, herbal therapies may enhance the antimicrobial effect against Lyme disease they may also reduce the need for patients to require long-term antibiotic treatments.
In this article, we outline how herbal treatments may tackle the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.
Understanding the Bacteria Behind Lyme Disease
Firstly, lets understand the bacteria that spread Lyme disease. The Lyme disease-causing Borrelia bacteria are microaerophiles, meaning that they thrive in low oxygen. This group of microorganisms are tenacious, slow-growing pathogens. Out of 36 recognized species, 13 are either acknowledged or alleged to have caused Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is a common tick-born disease in both Europe and North America. The bacterial microorganisms that spread Lyme disease are known as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato these include the species Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, the main cause of Lyme in North America. The predominant species that cause Lyme disease in Europe are Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii.
The Role of Herbs in Treating Lyme Disease
Treating Your Lyme Symptoms
References
Lyme Disease And Herbal Protocols
You can take the best supplements and see the best doctors for Lyme disease, but your efforts will be wasted if you do not change your lifestyle. Learning the steps you can take to enhance a supplements effectiveness is crucial to treating Lyme disease. Factors like unhealthy eating, exposure to toxins, chronic stress, physical injuries, and bacteria must also be a priority. These are additional reasons you should contact a Lyme-literate doctor to learn more. Together, you can create an effective protocol.
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What Is A Lyme Disease
A tick-borne illness, Lyme disease is the most common in North America and Europe. Caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, an individual becomes infected when an infected tick bites and feeds on the blood. The bacteria enters the body through the bite and then spreads throughout the bloodstream. Detecting the disease early is crucial but not easy. Signs and symptoms may mimic that of other conditions and include rash, fever, chills, fatigue, body aches and headache early on. Later stage signs include joint pain, neurological issues, heart problems, inflammation of the eyes, liver inflammation and severe fatigue.
Being Aware Is Crucial To Preventing Lyme Disease
Several factors must be taken into consideration to prevent Lyme disease:
- Knowing where you are most likely to pick up ticks
- How to keep your lawn and pets free of ticks
- Preventing a bite if a tick hitches a ride on you or your children
- Identifying the ticks that put you at most risk
- Removing the tick promptly and properly
- Knowing the symptoms of an infection
- Recognizing the flaws in testing and the rate of misdiagnosis.
That’s a lot of information to digest! Still, being aware of all of these factors is crucial in protecting your family.
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