Genomic Insights From Borreliaceae Lineages
Between 1982 and 2010, the B. burgdorferi species complex, known as B. burgdorferi sensu lato, steadily expanded from 1 to 18 species as isolates from tick vectors, their hosts, and patient samples were characterized . A subset of these species are associated with human disease. B. burgdorferi sensu stricto in the USA, as well as B. afzelii and B. garinii in Eurasia are the most common agents of LD in the Northern hemisphere. Cases of LD in Europe are also caused by Bb and B. bavariensis , but are less common. B. spielmanii , B. bisettiae , and B. lusitaniae have been identified in human specimens but their clinical importance is less clear. B. valaisiana has been identified in human specimens , but others have recently provided compelling reasons why existing evidence does not support it being considered a human pathogen . Additional species have been identified in tick vectors or their hosts, but not in patient samples.
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.
Natural Solutions For Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is spread through the bite of one of several types of ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash that looks like a red bulls-eye. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system.
Typically, a diagnosis of Lyme Disease means rounds and rounds of strong antibiotics which kill of the good gut bacteria which are a major contributor to a healthy immune system.
However, I have found it is nothing more difficult for the body to eliminate than any other stressor such as heavy metals, and it does not have to be a scary chronic condition. In fact, often the reason people cannot get over their Lyme infection completely is BECAUSE they have heavy metals or other toxicity suppressing their immune system. Once those are removed it is quite easy for the immune system to get rid of the infection.
Lyme seems to have both a bacterial and a parasitic component, and antibiotics only address the bacteria portion. When I work with Lyme clients, we address both components, providing plenty of support for the lymphatic system to clean out all the junk, and clients start feeling better right away.
In clients with a history of Lyme , I find they generally do have a low level of Lyme remaining in their body due to other toxins being present. Within a few months of being on their customized nutrition program the infection is able to go away completely.
You May Like: Natural Herbs For Lyme Disease
What Are The Symptoms Of Lyme Disease
Everyone can manifest the symptoms of Lyme disease differently. Thats one of the things that makes it so hard to treat. Having said that, the following are some common symptoms.
If you have been bitten by a tick and live in an area known to have Lyme disease, see your doctor right away so that a proper diagnose can be made and treatment started.
What Are The Best Natural Remedies For Neurological Lyme
Numbness, tingling sensations, and brain fog are some of the frustrating neurological manifestations of Lyme disease. What are the best natural remedies for neurological Lyme disease, also known as Lyme neuroborreliosis? Here, Dr. Bill Rawls explains how the right herbal therapies can help suppress harmful microbes, enhance immune function, and boost brain activity. Learn more about Dr. Rawls natural approach to overcoming chronic Lyme disease here.
Read Also: What Does Lyme Disease Cause
Healthy Vs Weak Cells
How all this plays out is a function of the health of cells as much as the aggressiveness of the bacteria: Cells that are weak from being chronically stressed are more vulnerable to invasion by bacteria.
A healthy person with healthy cells who is bitten by a tick may not have much in the way of acute symptoms and may never develop chronic symptoms. It doesnt mean, however, that the bacteria have been eradicated from the body. They can stay dormant in tissues for a lifetime.
All it takes is a shift in the health of cells for dormant bacteria to surface and invade more cells. The immune system scrambles to keep a lid on things as bacteria erupt and infect other cells. Dead cells break apart and create debris. Macrophages secrete acid and free radicals to break down debris. Reinforcements are called in. More acid. More free radicals. More collateral damage. More debris. Flow of nutrients and oxygen is obstructed and cells are weakened even further.
The invasion intensifies as more cells are infected. Along with inflicting injury to cells in tissues, bacteria infect and kill WBCs. In addition, bacteria throw the immune system off balance by disrupting the cytokines the immune system uses to coordinate the resistance. As the process spirals out of control, the immune system loses the capacity to keep microbes in check.
Before long, tissues throughout the body start to look like a war zone. Cells suffer. Symptoms result. It becomes a never-ending cycle of misery.
Understanding Lyme At The Cellular Level
To truly understand Lyme disease and why herbs are the best solution, you have to think at the cellular level. More than anything else, Lyme disease is an assault on cells of the body.
The human body is composed of trillions of living cells. Everything that happens in the body results from the actions of cells. Symptoms occur when cellular functions are compromised. The type of symptom reflects the types of cells being affected.
When the borrelia spirochetes spill into the bloodstream from the tick bite, their one goal is reaching tissues of the body. The immune systems job is keeping them from getting there.
As soon as the bacteria enter the bloodstream, white blood cells of the immune system immediately begin engulfing and destroying the bacteria with potent acid. Sometimes, however, the bacteria are able to turn off that process and stay alive inside the WBC. The compromised WBC unwittingly becomes a Trojan horse that transports the bacteria to tissues throughout the body even across the blood-brain barrier into the brain.
Despite their mechanisms of persistence, casualties on the bacteria side are high and most of the bacteria are eliminated. All it takes for success, however, is a few bacteria reaching tissues of the body joints, brain, heart, everywhere. Once on site at tissues, the remaining spirochetes immediately begin scavenging nutrients, such as collagen from joint tissue and myelin from nerve tissue to create more spirochetes.
Don’t Miss: Can Chronic Lyme Be Cured
Why Is Lyme Disease Treatment So Important
A New Study Shows Nearly 15% of the World’s Population Has Likely Had Lyme Disease.
Also, according to the Centers for Disease Control , Lyme disease is one of the most rapidly emerging infectious diseases in North America and Europe.
On the East coast, 50-60% of western black legged ticks are infected with species of Borrelia that cause Lyme disease.
Named after a small Connecticut town, Lyme disease is transmitted to humans by the bite of ticks infected with the bacterial spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. To make matters worse, there are several other species of Borrelia that cause Lyme disease and tick borne relapsing fever.
Initial Signs And Symptoms When First Infected Are Very Similar To That Of The Flu Leaving Many Cases Undetected
When initially infected, typical signs and symptomsincluding fever, body aches, fatigue, headaches, nausea, and Erythema migrans are very similar to that of the flu and can often be dismissed as such, leading to undetected infection.
If left untreated or improperly treated, Lyme disease can spread to the heart, joints, and nervous system, causing symptoms ranging from stiff neck, swollen joints, and muscle pain to heart palpitations, headaches, psychiatric symptoms , irritable bladder, cognitive decline, insomnia, and night sweats.
Don’t Miss: What Exactly Is Lyme Disease
When Symptoms Boil Up
You can think of it as a pot of water on the stove that starts out over a low simmer. As the simmer increases, minor discomforts start showing up general body aches and joint stiffness bloating, gas, and digestive issues lack of energy and simply not feeling well. Often, these kinds of changes become accepted as part of aging or life in general.
Its not until the pot is fully boiling over that things become noticeably uncomfortable. Sometimes its a specific event that causes the pot to bubble over severe emotional stress, an accident or trauma, an acute viral illness, or even a tick bite. But most often, its a perfect storm of cellular stress factors accumulating over time until a tipping point is reached.
At that point, the immune system can no longer keep a lid on things, and life becomes miserable. I refer to this as Chronic Immune Dysfunction.
When To Consider Antibiotic Therapy
Last Updated 11/01/16
There is definitely a place for using antibiotic therapy for treating acute symptomatic Lyme disease and coinfections.
There is little consensus, however, on antibiotic use for chronic Lyme disease. At present, there are no studies showing benefit from long term use of antibiotic therapy for treatment of Lyme disease and the practice is not condoned by the conventional medical community.
The primary problem is that synthetic antibiotics do not kill only pathogens . Antibiotics kill all bacteria.
The types of microbes associated with Lyme disease are survivors. When full guns are levied at the microbiome , stealth microbes are generally the last ones standing. Normal flora are very susceptible to being killed by antibiotics. The harder and longer target stealth microbes are targeted with potent antibiotics, the higher the possibility that normal flora will get caught in the crossfire.
Destruction of normal flora shifts the balance of the microbiome from friendly microbes to pathogens . Prolonged antibiotic use allows these pathogens to become antibiotic resistant. The total process places undue stress on an already overly stressed immune system.
Indiscriminate use of high potency antibiotics destroys normal flora, allows potential pathogens to flourish, causes yeast overgrowth in the gut, fosters antibiotic resistance, and disrupts immune function.
It is impossible to overcome stealth microbes without a healthy immune system.
Also Check: What Is Lyme Disease And What Are The Symptoms
Herbal Pain Relief For Joints And Muscles:
One of the most debilitating symptoms of Lyme disease is the amount of physical pain that it can cause. Considering that the symptoms of Lyme can last anywhere from weeks to years, it has become very important to find natural pain management options.
For nerve pain, curcumin found in turmeric, St. Johns wort and Skullcap are highly recommended by natural therapists.
The all-natural herbal options detailed below, date back far beyond modern medicine and each has a range of medicinal properties.
Lyme Disease Stage 2 Early Disseminated Infection
Untreated, the infection spreads through the bloodstream and lymph nodes within days to weeks, involving the joints, nervous system, and possibly the heart. Multiple rashes may erupt in other places. If the infection affects the nervous system in the second stage of Lyme disease, various acute neurological problems may appear. These include facial palsy, which is the loss of muscle tone on one or both sides of the face, as well as meningitis, which involves severe headaches, neck stiffness, and sensitivity to light. In addition, some case reports have described altered mental status, shooting pains that may interfere with sleep, as well as abnormal skin sensations.
Within days to weeks after the onset of local infection, the bacteria may begin to spread through the bloodstream and a rash may develop at sites across the body that bear no relation to the original tick bite.
Recommended Reading: Can Lyme Disease Cause Asthma
Putting It All Together
The biggest challenge for those battling Lyme disease and co-infections, whether it is a new diagnosis or a recurring chronic case, is knowing how to move forward.
Patients are constantly bombarded with either apathy about their situation or unsolicited advice on how to deal with it. Family, friends, teachers and even doctors seldom understand the multi-system dysfunction and the serious emotional toll Lyme disease takes on the patient. Patients can be left feeling hopeless, confused and alienated, and are often told it is all in their head and prescribed antidepressants.
I completely understand!
Recent Progress In Lyme Disease And Remaining Challenges
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States with an estimated 476,000 cases per year. While historically, the long-term impact of Lyme disease on patients has been controversial, mounting evidence supports the idea that a substantial number of patients experience persistent symptoms following treatment. The research community has largely lacked the necessary funding to properly advance the scientific and clinical understanding of the disease, or to develop and evaluate innovative approaches for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Given the many outstanding questions raised into the diagnosis, clinical presentation and treatment of Lyme disease, and the underlying molecular mechanisms that trigger persistent disease, there is an urgent need for more support. This review article summarizes progress over the past 5 years in our understanding of Lyme and tick-borne diseases in the United States and highlights remaining challenges.
Don’t Miss: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy And Lyme Disease
Reasons To Choose Herbs
Plants have to deal with a wide range of microbes, including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi, just like any other living creature. Not having an immune system, plants deal with the problem by producing a sophisticated spectrum of biochemical substances called phytochemicals. Instead of one chemical, like an antibiotic, a medicinal herb contains hundreds of phytochemicals that suppress microbes in different ways therefore resistance is almost unheard of, even with very long-term use. Some herbs provide more potent antimicrobial properties than others. While herbs would never be a good choice for treating a life-threatening illness like pneumonia, they are perfect for suppressing stealth microbes associated with chronic illness.
Different herbs offer a slightly different range of benefits, therefore multiple herbs can be used together to cover for all possible stealth microbes involved. In fact, this is the preferred way of doing herbal therapy . This provides for a wide spectrum of activity against a wide range of microbial threats. You can think of it as an orchestra of healing the sum of multiple herbs is more powerful than each herb individually.
Over the millennia, humans naturally selected certain plant substances for use as medicines. These plants, now known as medicinal herbs, have chemistry that meshes well with human biochemistry. Not surprisingly, medicinal herbs are well tolerated by most people and can be safely used for extended periods of time.
The 2 Tiered Testing For Lyme Disease Is Positive In Less Than 30
The MarDX Western Blot is much more sensitive than the ELISA and detects Borrelia burgdorferi more often, but can still give a false negative more than 30% of the time.
In addition to issues with test sensitivity, there is the matter of timing. It can take weeks for IgM to become positive and over a month for IgG to show a Lyme infection, so testing too soon after a tick bite may not be accurate .
If a patient is not mounting a strong immunological response to Lyme, it is hard to detect antibodies in the patients blood, which is what ELISA and Western Blot testing investigate. Performing a urine PCR, which looks for DNA of Borrelia burgdorferi, is more accurate.
To complicate matters further, if you are only looking at Borrelia burgdorferi, you will miss the presence of other species of Borrelia that cause Lyme disease and TBRF.
Antibody and PCR testing does not test for co-infections, so you may receive a false negative, despite clinically showing signs of infection. For these reasons, it is important to be tested for all of the common co-infections of Lyme disease, including Babesia, Mycoplasma, Bartonella, Anaplasma, and Ehrlichia, none of which are detected by any Lyme test.
Once again, being proactive and treating comprehensively is the best approach.
Specialized laboratories like IGeneX or Vibrant Wellness can be used for proper testing of all tick-borne diseases.
Don’t Miss: Lyme Disease Pins And Needles
Other Natural Treatments For Lyme Disease
The treatments discussed above are only some of the natural treatments that claim to treat Lyme disease. According to a 2015 study looking at the alternative treatments found during an Internet search, other natural treatments people use for Lyme disease include:
- saunas and steam rooms
The investigators noted that theres no research backing up these treatments, any many dont have a logical rationale behind them.
An Overview Of Medical Treatment For Lyme Disease
Medical treatments for Lyme disease include antibiotics, herbal antibiotics, and other pharmaceutical drugs besides antibiotics. Combinations of antibiotics are typically used for Lyme disease treatment because the three types of Borrelia bacteria that cause Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi for short, Borrelia afzelii, and Borrelia garinii, morph into different forms that must be targeted with different antibiotics. Antibiotics that are commonly used to treat Lyme disease include penicillins , cephalosporins , macrolides , and tetracyclines .
The natural world is filled with botanicals with antibiotic properties. Herbal antibiotic protocols incorporate many of natures most potent antibiotic plants. Two of the most popular herbal antibiotic protocols for Lyme disease include the Buhner and the Cowden protocols. A few notable herbs in these protocols include Japanese Knotweed , which, in addition to being antibacterial, contains phytochemicals that alleviate Lyme-induced inflammation, and Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, a bitter botanical with potent anti-Borrelia activity.
Several non-antibiotic drugs are also used in Lyme disease treatment, including artemisinin, an antimalarial drug, and low-dose naltrexone , an immune system-modulating drug. You can read more about the applications of LDN for Lyme disease in my article, Low Dose Naltrexone for Lyme Disease Treatment.
Recommended Reading: How Long Do Lyme Disease Symptoms Last