Saturday, March 23, 2024

What Is The Best Treatment For Chronic Lyme Disease

Must read

What Treatment Approach Did Well Patients And High Responders Use

The Best Approach to Recover From Acute and Chronic Lyme Disease or a Bartonella Infection

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.

Option 2 Supplement And Prescriptions:

In my experience, this prescription antibiotic-based option has a 10 percent better chance of working than the supplement-only option above. For best results use the two prescription medicines and the supplements at the same time. Note: This option is also a full Lyme infection support and treatment.

  • Clarithromycin 500 mg 1 pill 2 times a day. AND
  • Rifabutin 150 mg 2 times a day or 2 pills 1 time a day or Rifampin 300 mg 2 pills 1 time a day. AND
  • Liposomal Cinnamon, Clove, and Oregano Oil Combination 1 pill 2 times a day.

Treatments For Chronic Lyme Disease

A bite from a bacteria-infected tick causes Lyme disease. If you get the disease, you might have lingering symptoms. Some people have ongoing pain and fatigue, says Afton Hassett, PsyD, principal investigator at the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at University of Michigan.

The continued symptoms are known as chronic Lyme disease, or post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome .

Don’t Miss: How To Get Rid Of Lyme Disease Naturally

Lifestyle Remedies For Tick

If caught early enough, Lyme disease can typically be treated using several lifestyle remedies.

Regular exercise augments the amount of oxygen in the body and blood, which acts to destroy the Lyme bacteria in the blood.

Additionally, probiotics taken daily boosts the number of good bacteria in the gut, supplementing the immune system.

Herbal And Rx Antimicrobials That Treat Persisters

10 Supplements for Lyme Disease Every Patient Has in Their Protocol ...

This is a newer area in Lyme treatment. To help justify these various antimicrobial options, I describe the experimental basis behind my recommendations. These options are ones I am using with various degrees of success in my Seattle practice. They all have either laboratory experiments supporting their use or published human experiments.

Laboratory-Based Experiment Options

Here is a list of prescription and herbal medicine options shown in lab experiments to kill persisters that I am incorporating into my treatments of Lyme and/or Bartonella.

  • Disulfiram work slowly up to 4 to 5 mg/kg body weight 1 time a day.
  • Methylene Blue 50 mg 2 times a day.
  • Liposomal Oregano, Cinnamon, and Clove Oils 1 capsule 2 times a day.
  • Cryptolepis 5 ml 3 times a day.
  • Japanese Knotweed½ tsp 3 times a day start at ¼ tsp 1 time a day and then increase after two weeks to ½ tsp 3 times a day.
  • Cats Claw 30 drops 2 times a day.

Human-Based Experiment Options

Here is a list of prescription medications shown in human experiments to help with persister Lyme.

  • Disulfiram work slowly up to 4 to 5 mg/kg body weight 1 time a day.
  • Dapsone work up to 100 mg or 200 mg 1 time a day.

Don’t Miss: Will Lyme Disease Go Away

The Best Supplements For Lyme Disease

by Lyme Mexico | Mar 8, 2022 | Alternative Treatments |

Lyme disease is well-known for the inflammatory responses it creates in the body. This happens anytime the body senses a foreign bacterium. Inflammation is used as a defense mechanism. It seeks, finds, and destroys the enemy. Unfortunately, with Lyme disease, it is not always that simple.

When inflammation is constantly present in your body, you can experience swelling, soreness, tenderness, and chronic pain in every area of the body. Lyme bacteria are very good at hiding in your bloodstream and going dormant to avoid detection. This puts inflammation on a continual hunt for bacteria but without success.

Treatment for Lyme disease typically consists of antibiotics.

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: Does Lyme Disease Last Forever

What Is The Outlook For Someone With Lyme Disease

Most of the people who get Lyme disease and receive treatment early will be fine. Treatment can cure Lyme disease but you might still have some long-term effects. Untreated Lyme disease may contribute to other serious problems but its rarely fatal.

Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome

Even after proper treatment, some people may experience lingering fatigue, achiness or headaches. This is known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome or PTLDS. The symptoms dont mean that you still have an infection. PTLDS probably wont respond to additional antibiotics. The majority of people in this group will have symptoms that resolve at some point over the next six months.

Chronic Lyme disease

Chronic Lyme disease is a term used by some for a condition in a person who had Lyme disease and the symptoms of PTLDS. Some people consider chronic Lyme disease to be the same as PTLDS. However, some people receive a chronic Lyme disease diagnosis without a Lyme disease diagnosis. Sometimes, extended treatment with antibiotics helps.

This term may be why some people think a Lyme disease infection can occur without being bitten by a tick. There isn’t enough proof that mosquitoes can transmit Lyme disease. Many researchers dislike using the term chronic Lyme disease.

Antimicrobial Herbs That Kill Growing Phase Spirochetes & Cysts

What is the Best Treatment for Lyme Carditis?

Intracellular and Extracellular

Based on my observations, these herbal combination options have as good of a chance as the prescription options. They appear to kill intracellular and extracellular Lyme too based on the clinical benefit I see in my medical practice.

  • Cats Claw and Otoba Bark Tinctures 30 drops of each 2 times a day. Start at 5 drops 2 times a day and add 1 drop per dose per day until you reach 30 drops 2 times a day. If you get a Herxheimer reaction, stop increasing the dose until it has passed.
  • Cats Claw and Japanese Knotweed 30 drops of Cats Claw 2 times a day and ½ tsp of Japanese Knotweed 3 times a day. Work up to these doses over 30 days. Start Cats Claw at 5 drops 2 times a day and add 1 drop per dose per day until you reach 30 drops 2 times a day. Start the Japanese Knotweed at ¼ tsp 3 times a day and in two weeks increase to ½ tsp 3 times a day.

Recommended Reading: What Does A Lyme Flare Up Feel Like

You May Like: How To Catch Lyme Disease

The Treatment Of Early Lyme Disease

Christie Choo-Kang, PharmD, BCPSNephrology and Renal Transplant Clinical SpecialistBoston Medical Center

Eileen Tang, PharmD Candidate 2011College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, St. Johns UniversityNew York, New York

Arun Mattappallil, PharmD Candidate 2011College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, St. Johns UniversityNew York, New York

US Pharm.

Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is the most common vector-transmitted illness in the United States.1,2 The disease was first recognized in 1975 in a number of children in Lyme, Connecticut, who were initially diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis because of overlapping signs and symptoms.1 In 1982, Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, discovered that a spirochete isolated from Ixodes scapularis, a deer tick, was the same spirochete found in patients with Lyme disease.

Confirmed cases of Lyme disease are defined as erythema migrans greater than 5 cm in diameter or one or more objective late manifestations of Lyme disease with laboratory confirmation in patients with possible exposure to ticks. Healthy People 2010 set a goal of a 44% decrease in the incidence of Lyme disease by 2010. Since 2000, the CDC has contributed more than $3.5 million per year for new research on Lyme disease.2

Key Points About Lyme Disease In Children

  • Lyme disease is an infection caused by bacteria. The bacteria are usually spread by tick bites.
  • Lyme disease is a year-round problem, but it peaks during the spring and summer months.
  • Ticks live in wooded areas, low-growing grasslands, and yards. A child is more at risk outdoors in these places, or around a pet who has been in these areas.
  • One of the most common symptoms is a ring-shaped rash that looks like a bulls-eye. It may be pink in the center and have a darker red ring around it. The rash does not occur in every case of Lyme.
  • Lyme is usually not hard for a healthcare provider to diagnose. Diagnosis is usually based on symptoms and a history of a tick bite. Your child may have blood tests to help diagnose Lyme.
  • Lyme disease is usually treated with antibiotic medicine. Early stage Lyme disease is more easily cured with antibiotics than late-stage disease. Repeated courses of antibiotics for post-Lyme disease syndrome dont help.
  • There is no vaccine for Lyme disease. But you can help prevent Lyme disease by protecting your child from tick bites.

Also Check: Gold Standard Test For Lyme Disease

Borrelia The Misunderstood Microbe

Retrospectively, I may have harbored Borrelia burgdorferi for years before I actually developed symptoms. Im an outdoor person tick bites have always been a common affair.

Its not uncommon for people to harbor borrelia and not know it stealth is this microbes middle name.

Lyme disease is mostly transmitted by nymphal ticks, which are about the size of a pin. They bite, transmit the microbe, and then drop off most people arent even aware of being bitten. Because symptoms of the initial infection are so mild , its not uncommon for people to be completely unaware of being infected.

And borrelia isnt the only microbe to worry about. Ticks carry many microbes that have similar characteristics to borrelia. What they all have in common is stealthy characteristics that make them hard to find and even harder to get rid of.

If immune system function is robust, a person can harbor these types of microbes indefinitely, keeping them in check without ever having symptoms. When illness does occur, its typically chronic and debilitating, but not life-threatening. Additionally, the degree of chronic illness is highly variable. Some people are severely debilitated, while others are only marginally miserable.

Key Points For Healthcare Providers

Chronic Lyme Disease Treatments Linked to Serious Infections
  • In patients with facial palsy who are unable to close one or both eyes, eye drops or an eye patch may be needed to prevent dry eyes.
  • Neurologic symptoms do not necessarily indicate central nervous system infection in a patient with Lyme disease.
  • Two-step serologic testing for Lyme disease is the recommended diagnostic test for neurologic Lyme disease.
  • Cerebral spinal fluid analysis is not necessary to diagnose Lyme meningitis, but can help exclude other causes of illness, such as bacterial meningitis.
  • Consider Lyme radiculoneuritis in patients who report severe limb or truncal radicular pain without preceding trauma who live in or who have traveled to Lyme-endemic areas.
  • Read Also: Honey As An Antibiotic For Dogs

    Recommended Reading: Can Lyme Disease Cause Ms

    Two Standards Of Care For Lyme Disease Treatment

    There is significant controversy in science, medicine, and public policy regarding Lyme disease. Two medical societies hold widely divergent views on the best approach to diagnosing and treating Lyme disease. The conflict makes it difficult for patients to be properly diagnosed and receive treatment.

    One medical society, the Infectious Diseases Society of America , regards Lyme disease as hard to catch and easy to cure with a short course of antibiotics. IDSA claims that spirochetal infection cannot persist in the body after a short course of antibiotics. The group also denies the existence of chronic Lyme disease.

    In contrast, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society , regards Lyme disease as often difficult to diagnose and treat, resulting in persistent infection in many patients. ILADS recommends individualized treatment based on the severity of symptoms, the presence of tick-borne coinfections and patient response to treatment.

    LDo believes that patients and their doctors should make Lyme disease treatment decisions together. This requires that patients be given sufficient information about the risks and benefits of different treatment options. Then, patient and health care provider can collaborate to reach an informed decision, based on the patients circumstances, beliefs and preferences.

    Top 3 Most Popular Alternative Lyme Disease Treatments

    • Herbal protocols rated 68% effective
    • Chelation or detox rated 63% effective
    • Homeopathy rated 55% effective

    Of these alternative treatment options, herbal protocols were rated the most effective by participants, but note that 22% rated this treatment method as having moderate or severe side effects. The treatment option with the most moderate or severe side effects was detox, at 29%. The least effective treatment option was rated to be stem cells.

    As shown in the data above, herbal protocols are a common treatment choice, and there is some exciting new research in this field that may make it an even more popular option. Researchers have found that two plants Ghanaian quinine and Japanese knotweed have properties that might make them effective against the Lyme bacteria.

    As with any medical intervention, alternative Lyme treatments can come with risks or negative side effects. It is crucial that you discuss these risks with your doctor before beginning any treatment regimen.

    Also Check: Can Lyme Disease Cause A Stroke

    Why Are Antibiotics The First Line Of Treatment For Lyme Disease

    The use of antibiotics is critical for treating Lyme disease. Without antibiotic treatment, the Lyme disease causing bacteria can evade the host immune system, disseminate through the blood stream, and persist in the body. Antibiotics go into the bacteria preferentially and either stop the multiplication of the bacteria or disrupt the cell wall of the bacteria and kill the bacteria . By stopping the growth or killing the bacteria the human host immune response is given a leg up to eradicate the residual infection. Without antibiotics, the infection in Lyme disease can evade the host immune system and more readily persist.

    When To Consider Antibiotic Therapy

    Lyme Disease | Pathophysiology, Signs, and Treatment

    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.

    Read Also: Does Lyme Disease Cause Brain Lesions

    When To See A Doctor

    A person should see their doctor if they get a tick bite as deer ticks and black-legged ticks can carry Lyme disease. If a person is unsure about the type of tick that bit them, they can bring it with them in a sealed container.

    The symptoms of Lyme disease can take some time to develop. Sometimes, a person may not notice the tick, and it will fall off their body before they have any symptoms.

    It is also possible that a doctor will instruct a person to wait a month before undergoing a test for Lyme disease.

    During this time, a person should look for early signs of Lyme disease. These include:

    Risk Factors For Post

    Youre at a greater risk for post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome if youre infected by the bite of a diseased tick. If the infection progresses to the chronic stage, your symptoms might continue for weeks, months, or even years after the initial tick bite.

    You may also be at a higher risk for these long-term symptoms if youre not treated with the recommended antibiotics. However, even people who receive antibiotic therapy are at risk. Because the cause of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome is unknown, theres no way to determine whether it will progress to the chronic stage.

    Typically, the symptoms of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome resemble those that occur in earlier stages. People with persistent symptoms often experience lingering episodes of:

    Also Check: How To Get Checked For Lyme Disease

    More articles

    Popular Articles