New: Ohn Lyme Disease Essential Oil Blend
Using information gathered from scientific studies and my 20+ years of working with patients suffering from Lyme disease, I have designed this custom essential oil blend to target and help eliminate the B. burgdorferi bacterium by penetrating the biofilms that the bacterium produces to protect itself from antibiotics.
This custom blend may be especially effective for those suffering from chronic Lyme disease , as long-term antibiotic use can be ineffective and harmful to your gut microbiome and immune system.
Essential Oils For Combating Borrelia Burgdorferi
If you have already been infected with Borrelia burgdorferi from a tick bite , here are some oils to consider trying:
- You already know from the study referenced previously that oregano, cinnamon bark, and clove bud essential oils are also excellent options for fighting the Lyme disease bacteria.
- Tea tree oil is another powerful antimicrobial oil well worth considering based on studies like this one. The study explains, Antibacterial action of the film was found to be primarily due to the action of essential oils which resulted in leakage of vital fluids from the microorganisms. In this case, those microorganisms were E. coli and S. aureus.
- Finally, think about using thyme oil, also renowned for its effects against bacteria.
Antimicrobial Treatments For Lyme Disease
The conventional medical approach to Lyme disease treatment in adults is a ten to 21-day course of the antibiotic doxycycline.1 However, a growing body of research shows that this treatment is insufficient, if not completely ineffective, for cases of chronic Lyme disease. Functional medicine offers a far more comprehensive approach to the antimicrobial treatment of Lyme disease. Read on to learn about the types of antimicrobial treatment options available, and how they can be combined for optimal effect.
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Lyme Disease Herbs And Essential Oils
I have had Lyme disease for about 30 years. I remember being around 10 years old when my mom would rub my legs at night before I could fall asleep because they hurt so bad. Back then there was not the testing that we have these days for many different diseases, parasites, and conditions. In addition to that, we were in a location in Africa that wasnt top in tropical disease research.
Whats probably the most frustrating aspect of having Lyme Disease is that it is a type of bacteria.
Surely SOMETHING can kill this bacteria!
Because I have had it so long, it has spread to my joints, nervous system, and heart. My doctor and I agree that my heart palpitations and arrhythmia, as well as Raynauds and resent tingling in my hands and feet are the result of nerve damage from Lyme disease. The pain never goes away, but definitely ebbs and flows. It becomes a part of how you live and function and you learn to tune it out during the day. At night when all is quiet and you are trying to lie still is the hardest times.
Different Susceptibility Of Persisters To Antibiotics
Amoxicillin-induced RBs have been used as an alternative model to stationary phase culture of B. burgdorferi in screening drugs active against persisters in vitro. Both models showed different susceptibilities to the same tested drugs. Because the structure of stationary phase culture is more complex, as it is enriched with RBs, micro-colonies and biofilm- like aggregates, its tolerance to tested antibiotics was shown to be higher in comparison to amoxicillin-induced round bodies .
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The Signs Your Dog Has Lyme Disease Are More Straightforward Than The Symptoms In Humans Know The Symptoms Of Lyme Disease In Dogs And How To Treat This Tick
When I opened her crate that morning, Samantha didnt move. Instead of racing around with a toy in her mouth, our bouncy one-year-old Labrador Retriever stared at us with wide brown eyes, looking frightened. She didnt object when my husband lifted her, but when he set her down, she stood as though frozen. He carried her outside and held her while she urinated. When he let go, she couldnt walk.
A few hours later, our vet announced that every joint in her body was inflamed and she had a fever. No wonder our puppy couldnt move. She hurt all over. Samantha had Lyme disease.
Lyme disease affects thousands of Americans and their dogs and horses each year. Named for Old Lyme, Connecticut, where it was discovered formally identified in the 1970s, Lyme is a regional disease, with 90 percent of its cases in New England and the Middle Atlantic states. The rest come from the upper Mississippi and parts of California and Oregon. A few dogs and people with Lyme disease live elsewhere, but they are believed to have been infected during travel or, in some cases, by ticks from migrating birds.
Essential Oils And Drugs
We purchased a panel of essential oils and cinnamaldehyde . The essential oils from Plant Guru company are tested by third party laboratory using GC/MS, and the GC/MS report can be found on their website . Dimethyl sulfoxide -soluble essential oils were prepared at 10% in DMSO as stock solution, which was then added with seven-day old stationary phase cultures at ration of 1:50 to achieve 0.2% of essential oils in the mixture. The 0.2% essential oils were further diluted to the stationary phase culture to get the desired concentration for evaluating anti-borrelia activity. DMSO-insoluble essential oils were directly added to B. burgdorferi cultures, then vortexed to form aqueous suspension, followed by immediate transfer of essential oil aqueous suspension in serial dilutions to desired concentrations and then added to B. burgdorferi cultures. Doxycycline , cefuroxime , , and daptomycin were prepared at a concentration of 5 mg/mL in suitable solvents , then filter-sterilized by 0.2 μm filter and stored at â20 °C as stock solutions.
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Subculture Studies To Assess Viability Of The Essential Oil
A 7-day-old B. burgdorferi stationary phase culture was treated with essential oils or control drugs for 7days in 1.5ml Eppendorf tubes as described previously . After incubation at 33°C for 7days without shaking, the cells were collected by centrifugation and rinsed with 1ml fresh BSK-H medium followed by resuspension in 500µl fresh BSK-H medium without antibiotics. Then 50µl of cell suspension was transferred to 1ml fresh BSK-H medium for subculture at 33°C for 20days. Cell proliferation was assessed using SYBR Green I/PI assay and epifluorescence microscopy as described above.
Essential Oils For Keeping Ticks Away
The following essential oils may help to keep ticks away. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is an understatement where Lyme is concerned.
- Not only is oregano oil potentially effective against the Lyme bacteria, but the carvacrol compound in it can kill ticks.
- Vetiver oil is commonly used as an insect repellent and may help to deter ticks.
- Garlic oil may be effective against ticks as well.
- This study showed that clove oil is significantly more effective against ticks than citronella oil.
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Potential Treatment For Lyme Disease Kills Bacteria That May Cause Lingering Symptoms Study Finds
Screening thousands of drugs, Stanford scientists determined that in mice, azlocillin, an antibiotic approved by the Food and Drug Administration, eliminated the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
Deer ticks are vectors of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.Scott Bauer/USDA Agricultural Research Service
For decades, the routine treatment for Lyme disease has been standard antibiotics, which usually kill off the infection. But for up to 20% of people with the tick-borne illness, the antibiotics dont work, and lingering symptoms of muscle pain, fatigue and cognitive impairment can continue for years sometimes indefinitely.
A new Stanford Medicine study in lab dishes and mice provides evidence that the drug azlocillin completely kills off the disease-causing bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi at the onset of the illness. The study suggests it could also be effective for treating patients infected with drug-tolerant bacteria that may cause lingering symptoms.
This compound is just amazing, said Jayakumar Rajadas, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and director of the Biomaterials and Advanced Drug Delivery Laboratory at the Stanford School of Medicine. It clears the infection without a lot of side effects. We are hoping to repurpose it as an oral treatment for Lyme disease. Rajadas is the senior author of the study, which was published online March 2 in Scientific Reports. The lead author is research associate Venkata Raveendra Pothineni, PhD.
How Do Essential Oils Help The Body Fight Lyme
So lets talk about the essential oils for Lyme disease protocol. The basis for using essential oils to treat Lyme lies in their antimicrobial capabilities.
This 2017 study in Frontiers in Medicine took a look at the potential effectiveness of five different essential oils against Borrelia burgdorferi.
The researchers tried using a 0.25% concentration of oregano, clove bud, cinnamon bark, wintergreen, and citronella to see what the effects would be.
The researchers reported, Interestingly, some highly active essential oils were found to have excellent anti-biofilm ability as shown by their ability to dissolve the aggregated biofilm-like structures. The top three hits, oregano, cinnamon bark, and clove bud completely eradicated all viable cells without any regrowth in a subculture in fresh medium, whereas but not citronella and wintergreen did not have this effect.
Additionally, they said, Carvacrol was found to be the most active ingredient of oregano oil showing excellent activity against B. burgdorferi stationary phase cells, while other ingredients of oregano oil p-cymene and -terpinene had no apparent activity.
More research is needed in this area of course, but Lyme patients do not have the luxury of waiting for the medical field to catch up with their needs.
But now you at least have some evidence to suggest that certain essential oils may help in your fight against the bacteriaand you even know which compound in oregano oil makes it so powerful.
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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.
Garlic Myrrh Thyme Kill B Burgdorferi
Dr. Zhang and his team had previously found some highly active essential oils that were effective against biofilm and stationary phase B. burgdorferi.
In this new study, the researchers screened another 35 essential oils for their antibacterial properties. Using pressed essential oils from plants or their fruits, the researchers tested the activity of the plants fragrant essence.
Lab-dish tests revealed that ten of these 35 plants have strong activity against the latent, persister forms of Lyme disease. These essential oils derived from garlic cloves, myrrh trees, thyme leaves, cinnamon bark, allspice berries, cumin seeds, and eucalyptus, among others.
We found that these essential oils were even better at killing the persister forms of Lyme bacteria than standard Lyme antibiotics.
Dr. Ying Zhang
Also, five of these oils were effective against dormant forms of Lyme bacteria in a concentration of only 1 part per 1,000. Specifically, essential oils from garlic bulbs, allspice berries, myrrh trees, spiked ginger lily, and may chang trees completely eradicated all Lyme disease bacteria in 7 days, and no regrowth occurred in 21 days.
Thyme leaves, cumin seeds, Amyris wood, and cinnamon bark oil were also highly effective against stationary phase B. burgdorferi.
If tests in rodents confirm their cell culture findings, Zhang and colleagues will start organizing human clinical trials.
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Fatigue And Joint Pain
There are an estimated 300,000 new US cases of Lyme disease each year. Standard treatment with doxycycline or an alternative antibiotic for a few weeks usually clears the infection and resolves symptoms.
About 10 to 20 percent of patients, however, report persistent symptoms, including fatigue and joint pain. This persistent Lyme infection or post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome in some cases can last for months or years.
Scientists dont know the cause of this lingering syndromebut it is known that cultures of Lyme disease bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, can enter a so-called stationary phase, in which many of the cells divide slowly or not at all. The slow-dividing or dormant persister cells, which can form naturally under stress conditions, are more resistant to antibiotics.
How To Treat Tick Bites
A dog in the wrong place at the wrong time can be bit by dozens or even hundreds of ticks. Deer ticks go through three stages of life , and feed only once in each of these stages a blood meal ends each stage.
Larval ticks dine on mice and other small rodents, but nymphs and adults are a threat to dogs. Because they are small and their bites dont itch, ticks are easily overlooked, especially adult deer ticks and the nymphs of any species. Ticks prefer warm, moist conditions, so double-check under collars and around ears. If you arent sure what a lump or bump is, inspect it with a magnifying glass. Warts, similar skin growths, and nipples can feel like feeding ticks.
Tick Removal
Be careful when removing a tick to grasp it with tweezers firmly at the head, as close to the dogs skin as possible, and slowly pull straight back. Never twist, press, burn, or apply irritating substances like kerosene to an attached tick because doing so can cause the parasite to expel the contents of its digestive tract, creating an unwanted hypodermic effect.
Get instructions on how to remove a tick from your dog here.
Cleaning a Dogs Tick Bite
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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.
Essential Oil And Drug Susceptibility Testing
The live and dead cells after seven-day treatment with essential oils or antibiotics were evaluated using the SYBR Green I/PI assay combined with fluorescence microscopy, as described . Briefly, the ratio of live and dead cells was reflected by the ratio of green/red fluorescence, which was calculated through the regression equation and regression curve with least-square fitting analysis.
To determine the Minimum inhibitory concentration of cinnamaldehyde on growth of B. burgdorferi, the standard microdilution method was used and the growth inhibition was assessed by microscopy. 10% cinnamaldehyde DMSO stock was added to B. burgdorferi cultures to get an initial suspension with 0.5% of cinnamaldehyde, and then a series of suspension was prepared by two-fold dilutions, with cinnamaldehyde concentrations ranging from 0.5% to 0.004% . All of the experiments were carried out in triplicate. The B. burgdorferi cultures after treatment in 96-well microplate were incubated at 33 °C for seven days. Cell proliferation was assessed by the SYBR Green I/PI assay combined with BZ-X710 All-in-One fluorescence microscope.
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Antibiotics For Lyme Disease
Lyme-infected dogs improve so dramatically on antibiotics that many veterinarians regard their response as a Lyme disease test in itself. If an athletic, healthy dog experiences sudden-onset lameness from inflamed, tender joints, and recovers overnight on antibiotics, its probably Lyme disease. In most cases, you see results in 24 hours, says Dr. Cappel.
Many veterinarians prescribe antibiotics for two to three weeks, but Dr. Cappel recommends longer treatment. I find that dogs tend to relapse if you dont really wipe the bacteria out, she says, so I use antibiotics for at least four weeks. I think this does a better job of finding and killing the spirochetes, so the dog is less likely to have a recurrence.
According to Connecticut veterinarian Mary Wakeman, DVM, One side effect of antibiotic therapy is actually a sign that the treatment is working. Its called the Jarish-Herxheimer reaction and it occurs when the body has an inflammatory response to all those dead spirochetes. Its more common name is the die-off reaction. Depending on how overwhelmed its system is, a dog can experience one to several days of feeling worse than before.
More importantly, says Dr. Wakeman, the die-off reaction can affect pregnant bitches, causing miscarriage. I recommend screening bitches living here in the Northeast with the Lyme Western Blot blood test four to six weeks before they are due in heat, she says.to be sure they dont have Lyme disease.