About The Author Dr Hinchey
In addition to naturally treating patients with complex illness stemming from underlying tick-borne disease atTAO in Connecticut, Dr. Myriah Hinchey createdLymeCore Botanicals to provide quality clean and effective herbal formulas for Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections, and is highly active in sourcing, testing, and overseeing production of the herbal formulas she uses to treat her patients.
Dr. Hinchey also foundedLymeBytes, a multimedia company dedicated to educating patients and other practitioners about Lyme disease and tick-borne illness and focuses on bringing Patients, Practitioners and Resources together for healing Lyme disease.
How Herbal Supplements Can Help
The best way to gain the level of phytochemical protection you need to help your immune system win the internal battle against invasive microbes is to take herbal supplements specifically, standardized botanical extracts.
Standardized botanical extracts take herbal supplements to the next level. Theyre made with wild plants or plants that have been cultivated to enhance their phytochemical content and are grown in an environment that doesnt introduce unwanted chemical toxins. The extraction process also yields the greatest concentration and the widest spectrum of phytochemicals in the plant. And the final product is standardized to a concentration of one or several key phytochemicals in the plant, so you know what youre getting.
Below are a few of my favorite herbs for mitigating the systemic chronic inflammation associated with chronic Lyme disease. Though all of the herbs have value in suppressing microbes and reducing inflammation, three of the herbs mentioned below Japanese knotweed, cats claw, and Chinese skullcap were found in a 2020 study from Johns Hopkins University to have greater activity against Borrelia burgdorferi than the antibiotics, doxycycline and azithromycin.
What Do You Do If There’s A Tick Under Your Skin
Use a pair of fine-tipped tweezers to remove it as soon as possible. Pull upward with steady pressure. If parts of the tick are still in your skin, try to get those with the tweezers, too. After everything is out, clean the bite area with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
You probably wonât get infected if you remove the tick within 36 to 48 hours.
How do you throw away a tick?
Put it in soapy water or alcohol, stick it to a piece of tape, or flush it down the toilet.
Don’t Miss: Do I Need To Fast For Lyme Disease Blood Test
Lyme Sci: When Brain Inflammation Persists After Lyme Disease Treatment
In a new study, researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have found evidence of chemical changes and widespread inflammation in the brains of patients with chronic symptoms following treatment for Lyme disease.
This Johns Hopkins study, in Journal of Neuroinflammation, supports the experience of hundreds of thousands of patients who have tried for years to have their chronic symptoms of pain, sleep disturbance, fatigue, and cognitive impairment validated.
What this study does is provide evidence that the brain fog in patients with post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome has a physiological basis and isnt just psychosomatic or related to depression or anxiety, says John Aucott, M.D., a senior author of the new paper and director of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center.
The fact is, too many patients with Lyme disease are left with chronic, debilitating symptoms following treatment for Lyme disease. In the nearly 40 years since the discovery of Lyme, no one has been able to determine why some patients get better with treatment and others remain ill.
Summary: Healing Chronic Lyme Naturally For 2022 Is All About Back
As I mentioned before, a rock-solid foundation for health is essential to a properly functioning immune system.
Continually work to achieve proper nutrient levels by eating nutrient dense foods and avoid those that are processed and filled with sugar drink an adequate amount of water get enough rest and manage your stress in order to support normal and healthy inflammatory responses.
Naturopathic physicians are incredible resources for those interested in making lifestyle changes to support health and wellness, and we are fortunate enough to live in a state where naturopathic medicine is covered by most major medical insurances.
Don’t Miss: How Much Does A Lyme Disease Test Cost
Symptoms Of Post Treatment Lyme Disease
- Include severe fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, & cognitive problems
- Can significantly impact patients health and quality of life
- Can be debilitating and prolonged
Our research indicates the chronic symptom burden related to PTLD is significant. Although often invisible to others, the negative impact on quality of life and daily functioning is substantial for PTLD sufferers.
The chronic symptom burden related to Lyme disease is considerable, as shown on the left side of the graph above, and statistically significantly greater than the aches and pains of daily living experienced by the control group, on the right.
What Are The Side Effects Of Lyme Disease Treatments
Antibiotics, like all medications, have the potential for side effects. Any antibiotic can cause skin rashes, and if an itchy red rash develops while on antibiotics, a patient should see their physician. Sometimes symptoms worsen for the first few days on an antibiotic. This is called a Herxheimer reaction and occurs when the antibiotics start to kill the bacteria. In the first 24 to 48 hours, dead bacterial products stimulate the immune system to release inflammatory cytokines and chemokines that can cause increased fever and achiness. This should be transient and last no more than a day or two after the initiation of antibiotics.
The most common side effect of the penicillin antibiotics is diarrhea, and occasionally even serious cases caused by the bacteria Clostridium difficile. This bacterial overgrowth condition occurs because antibiotics kill the good bacteria in our gut. It can be helpful to use probiotics to restore the good bacteria and microbiome balance.
You May Like: Lyme Disease Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Early Dissemination Of The Pathogen
The next phase of disease is denominated early dissemination. A systemic disease evolving out of a single erythema migrans lesion has been reported in up to 40% of affected children. About 25% of children with rare multiple erythema migrans do have cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis, demonstrating a clinically nonovert dissemination of the pathogen into the central nervous system .
Aside from this systemic dissemination into the skin, early dissemination mainly affects the nervous system – presenting as meningitis and cranial neuritis predominantly in children. Meningoradiculoneuritis and plexus neuritis are reported less frequently. The involvement of the heart was documented as atrioventricular blockade, myopericarditis and cardiomyopathy, but seems to be rare in both Europe and North America . Early musculoskeletal complaints are reported frequently in the United States, and are less frequent in Europe. The musculoskeletal system can be involved with mild arthralgia and myalgia, in addition to a mild oligoarthritis.
In children, early dissemination and especially neuroborreliosis usually occurs earlier than in adults. This might be due to a different site of the tick bite. In children the upper trunk and the head are selected more often by the tick than in adults, potentially making the CNS more accessible to the spirochete .
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.
You May Like: How Long Does It Take For Lyme Test Results
Healing Lyme: How To Reduce Inflammation
Reducing inflammation requires a multi-pronged approach. But please dont confuse multi-pronged with complex and expensive. Some protocols that I see are exhausting to just read through! Plus, I have serious doubts about whether they are actually possible to follow if you have, you know, a life and responsibilities.
I firmly believe in not hijacking your own body by trying to micromanage every little thing your body does naturally. Its about offering a helping hand rather than hopping in the drivers seat. And some simple changes, additions and subtractions can go a long way to reducing inflammation.
Hunting For Alternative Drug
Frustrated by the lack of treatment options for Lyme disease patients with lingering symptoms, Rajadas and his team began hunting for a better alternative in 2011. In 2016, they published a study in Drug Design, Development and Therapy that listed 20 chemical compounds, from about 4,000, that were most effective at killing the infection in mice. All 20 had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for various uses. One, for instance, is used to treat alcohol abuse disorder.
Jayakumar Rajadas
In this most recent study, azlocillin, one of the top-20 contenders, was shown to eclipse a total of 7,450 compounds because it is more effective in killing B. burgdorferi and causes fewer side effects. Lyme disease affects more than 300,000 people annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can affect various organs, including the brain, skin, heart, joints and nervous system, and cause heart problems and arthritis if untreated. Symptoms include fever, headaches, chills, and muscle and joint pain.
Traditional antibiotics, such as doxycycline, are effective as an early course of treatment for the infection in the majority of patients, but it remains unclear why these drugs fail to treat 10% to 20% of patients, Rajadas said.
You May Like: What Kind Of Tick Has Lyme Disease
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.
Cbd Vs Neural Inflammation
Humans have an endocannabinoid system , a neuromodulatory system. A primary function of the ECS is to modulate the nervous system.
There are two main cannabinoid receptors within the ECS: cannabinoid receptors 1 and cannabinoid receptors 2 . The therapeutic potential exists for these receptors in treating a variety of diseases.
CBD interacts with and stimulates CB1 and CB2 receptors. An animal study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine suggested that non-psychoactive CBD could aid in alleviating chronic neuropathic pain. Additionally, CBD demonstrated analgesic properties.
The journal Bentham Science Publishers Limited published another animal study indicating that cannabinoids, including CBD, are capable of modulating neuroinflammatory disorders.
According to the study, cannabinoids prevented pro-inflammatory cytokines from being produced both in animal models and human cell cultures. It is thought that CB2 receptors are primarily responsible for this action.
There are some similarities between symptoms of Lyme disease and those of brain inflammation . Symptoms of encephalitis are headache, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, fever, seizures, slurred speech, hallucinations, and loss of consciousness.
Encephalitis, whether caused by Lyme disease or not, is a very serious illness and should be treated by a medical professional.
You May Like: Which Lyme Test Is Most Accurate
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.
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.
Also Check: Can Lyme Disease Cause Inflammation
Treating Inflammatory Arthritis Post Lyme Disease
When inflammatory arthritis develops in the context of Lyme disease, clinicians have three options, experts say.
The authors of a small study that assesses treatment options after a Lyme disease infection, question the value of delaying treatment with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs once autoimmune joint disorders set in.
Our study demonstrates that when inflammatory arthritis develops in the context of Lyme disease, clinicians need to distinguish among three possibilities: patients who have active infection in joints, those who have post infectious Lyme arthritis, and those who have another form of inflammatory arthritis following Lyme disease, wrote researchers who led by Sheila Arvikar, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The study, which appears in the December 28 online issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology, is based on a review medical records for 30 patients who were referred to the Massachusetts General Hospital for suspected Lyme arthritis between 2003-2015. The patients developed a new-onset systemic autoimmune joint disorders a median of four months following Lyme disease, with the most common disorders being rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis. They also found that patients with Lyme arthritis may be taking antibiotics without benefit when disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs may be more appropriate.
Important considerations:
Disclosures:
How Is Lyme Disease Diagnosed
Your doctor will diagnose you based on your symptoms and whether youâve been exposed to a tick. They might also run a blood test. In the first few weeks of infection, the test may be negative because antibodies take a few weeks to show up.
Hopefully soon, there will be tests that can diagnose Lyme disease in the first few weeks after youâre exposed. The earlier you get treated, the less likely itâll get worse.
Read Also: Diagnosed With Lyme Disease Now What
The Next Big Weapon Against The Lyme Was To Heal My Gut
I was slowly getting better, month after month. The next big weapon was to heal my gut. I had to do a complete overhaul of what I was eating along with nourishing my gut with probiotics and cultured foods. Probiotics are live bacteria and yeast for your gut. They help boost your immune response and stop the growth of harmful bacteria while balancing the friendly bacteria you dont want to get rid of. They also have effective anti-inflammatory properties for gut, heart, and mental health.
Now I had been eating Paleo, but I was still consuming a lot of fruits and natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup. I was consuming a lot of sugar and starches that turned into sugar. I was feeding the disease. Sugar feeds all diseases. I went on a strict Keto diet to starve the Lyme and candida out. I ate healthy fats , fish, and tons of non-starchy veggies. I began to eat fermented cultured foodsfoods containing live probioticsto help heal and nourish my gut. I started to feel alive again.
Problem : Conventional Treatment May Not Be Sufficient
The conventional approach to Lyme typically includes 10 to 28 days of antibiotics. Then what? Well, nothing. That course of antibiotics supposedly kills off the bacteria. The problem with this is that some research suggests that as many as 25 percent of patients with Lyme disease still have some symptoms long after antibiotic therapy, suggesting that some bacteria lingers, or its effects linger in the body.
Recommended Reading: Lyme Disease Treatment Scottsdale Arizona