Balance Your Blood Sugar
Blood sugar balance isnt just crucial for type 2 diabetics research shows that blood sugar regulation impacts inflammation, immune function, cognition, and energy in non-diabetic individuals too!
High blood sugar and experiencing lots of blood sugar swings increase inflammation in your body and will prevent your immune system from functioning properly. Eating a diet that supports healthy blood sugar control is thus an essential part of the optimal diet for Lyme disease.
To balance your blood sugar, limit your intake of processed carbohydrates and added sugars, being especially careful to avoid sugar-sweetened beverages, which are particularly harmful to blood sugar control. Eat protein at every meal, and avoid eating naked carbs or carbs by themselves .
See my article Blood Sugar, Lyme Disease, and Diabetes Whats the Connection? for more information on the blood sugar/Lyme disease connection.
Intermittent fasting can help improve blood sugar regulation and reduce inflammation. See my article Intermittent Fasting for Lyme Disease Recovery for more information on IF and how it can influence your Lyme recovery process.
Effects On Taste And Smell
Lyme disease may affect the cranial nerves in the back of your brain. These help with sensations such as smell and taste. The effects of Lyme disease on these nerves may cause:
- heightened sensitivity to smell
2019 ILADS report notes that weight gain is a possible symptom of untreated chronic Lyme disease. Untreated could mean a delayed diagnosis.
The aches, pains, and swollen joints commonly associated with Lyme disease may make it hard for you to remain active. Less exercise and physical activity may result in weight gain for some people.
Weight gain may also result from changes in appetite, shifts in mood, and depression.
The antibiotics you use to treat Lyme disease may also play a role. Antibiotics affect gut health by changing the collection of microbes in your gut. This may alter how your GI system breaks down food and absorbs calories, leading to weight gain.
Swap The Sad Diet For Anti
When it comes to managing inflammation, diet is the perfect place to start. The foods you choose to eat can either help or hinder your recovery from Lyme disease by impacting your bodys inflammatory burden. The Standard American Diet, rich in refined carbohydrates and industrial seed oils, increases the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, immune molecules that trigger an inflammatory response. Many of the same pro-inflammatory cytokines triggered by the SAD diet are also triggered by Lyme disease and other tick borne infections.1 The SAD diet is also associated with an impaired immune response, which is the last thing you want when youre battling an infection.2 Other food groups, such as gluten and dairy, can also trigger inflammation and are best avoided by people with Lyme disease.
Conversely, eating an anti-inflammatory, nutrient-dense diet can accelerate your recovery process and create a foundation for long-term health. At CCFM, we recommend that most patients begin a Paleo Reset Diet. This diet is designed to reduce inflammation and improve digestion, energy, blood sugar control, and body weight. The Paleo Reset Diet is centered around the following foods:
- Non-starchy vegetables ideally 6-8 cups of vegetables across the color spectrum
- Gluten free diet
- Elimination and reintroduction diet
Incorporate Anti-Inflammatory Foods
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How Do Dogs Get Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is caused by a spiral-shaped bacterium known as Borrelia burgdorferica. When a tick carrying the disease bites your dog, the disease is spread to them. Among the signs and symptoms of Lyme disease in dogs are:
- Chronic arthritis/lameness that lasts 34 days
- Lack of appetite
- Enlarged lymph nodes
- And other symptoms
Despite the fact that there are several types of ticks, the following are the most common carriers of Lyme disease:
- Deer ticks, Western Black Legged Ticks, and Lone Star Ticks are all types of ticks that may be found in Texas.
Before I go any further, Id want to underline that Lyme disease is not caused by the tick in its natural state. A crucial point about which I shall elaborate later is that this is a historical reality. But first, lets make sure you grasp the role of the tick in the transmission of Lyme disease.
Ways To Prevent Lyme Disease In Dogs
Ticks and Lyme disease in dogs may be prevented in a number of methods, including the following:
- Ticks and Lyme disease in dogs can be prevented in several ways, including:
Here are some more detailed instructions on how to avoid Lyme disease in dogs and tick exposure on a daily basis, which you can read below.
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The Autoimmune Protocol Diet
Chronic Lyme disease may trigger autoimmunity in some people. Individuals with Lyme disease and autoimmune disease may benefit from the autoimmune protocol , a nutritional approach intended to alleviate autoimmunity by removing foods that frequently trigger an immune response. AIP is an extension of the Paleo diet. In addition to eliminating grains, legumes, industrial seed oils, and refined sugar, it eliminates foods that can trigger intestinal inflammation and food intolerance, including coffee, dairy, eggs, nuts and seeds, nightshade vegetables, and alcohol. You can learn more about AIP in 5 Steps to Personalizing Your Autoimmune Paleo Protocol.
How Can I Prevent My Dog From Getting Lyme Disease
The most important step in tick prevention is to protect your dog from being exposed to ticks. Ticks may be found in a variety of habitats, including grassland, forested, and sandy locations. They gain access to an animal by climbing to the top of a leaf, blade of grass, or short tree, particularly a cedar tree, and then latching onto the animal. They will remain in this position until their sensors detect an approaching animal on which they will crawl or fall. Ticks are less likely to infest animals if they are kept away from dense underbrush.
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Dont Continue Living And Eating The Way You Always Have
Please dont continue to live and eat the way that you always have. That is unless you were already living a super clean lifestyle and eating an amazing diet full of good quality meats , wild-caught fish, fresh veggies and no refined sugar, gluten or GMO corn. The Standard American Diet is called SAD for a reason. Its usually high in sugar, bad fats and carbs.
THE TRUTH IS, you cannot continue to live a lifestyle filled with stress, environmental toxins, and bad food and expect to heal. Eating poor quality food, processed food, and the wrong food is so harmful to your body. It increases your risk for disease and cancer and will absolutely hinder your healing from tick-borne disease. If you want true healing you absolutely must give up those things even if you think you cant live without them, things like smoking, drinking too much and sugar! These things only prove to deplete your immune system and create an environment that is happy to welcome in disease and infections. Start learning about these things and make the necessary changes. You can enjoy delicious food without eating bad-for-you food.
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How A Lyme Inflammation Diet Proves To Be Beneficial
by Lyme Mexico | Sep 8, 2021 | News |
Inflammation is a hot topic in medicine today. Researchers are finding that it can negatively impact every part of the body and lead to many diseases and health conditions, including Lyme disease. Too often, people talk about inflammation like it is a tangible thing, like it is something you can see, feel, or smell. This is not accurate, however. Inflammation is a process that protects your body from bacterial infections and viruses.
Yes, inflammation can is a good thing when fulfilling its purpose.
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Know The Symptoms Of Lyme Disease
According to pest experts, this years tick season is anticipated to be one of the worst in decades. This is partially due to a mild winter across the United States, but also because of a decrease in the population of a certain species of mouse. Increased tick populations mean increased instances of tick-borne diseases. Here are some symptoms to be on the lookout for.
Special Diets For Lyme Disease
For some Lyme disease patients, specific diets that are oriented around certain macronutrient targets or that remove foods beyond the most common dietary inflammatory triggers can be helpful. Here are several special diets that I often utilize with individuals who have Lyme in my practice:
- The Paleo diet: Removes all grains , legumes, and dairy.
- The Autoimmune Protocol : This is a more limited form of the Paleo diet. In addition to removing all grains, legumes, and dairy, it also eliminates foods that can stimulate an autoimmune response, including eggs, nightshades, nuts, seeds, chocolate, and coffee. I have personally found both Paleo and AIP diets to be extremely helpful at various points in my Lyme recovery experience.
- The Ketogenic diet: This is a very-low-carbohydrate, high-fat, moderate-protein diet. In my experience, this diet can be quite helpful for neurological Lyme disease. Ive previously written about the ketogenic diet for Lyme disease.
- The Low-FODMAP diet: This diet strictly reduces your intake of FODMAPS , which are a group of short-chain carbohydrates found in a variety of plant foods that tend to be poorly absorbed in the small intestine in individuals with gut dysbiosis, including SIBO. Poorly-digested FODMAPS can cause symptoms such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation. Temporarily reducing FODMAP intake can reduce gastrointestinal symptoms and support gut healing while the underlying causes of SIBO are being addressed.
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The Tick Thats Becoming More Prevalent In Ri Could Cause A Red Meat Allergy
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
The Amblyomma americanum tick â also known as the lone star tick. Photo: CDC Gathany/Vickers
One Rhode Island man said he believes it was a lone star tick bite last summer that caused him to go into anaphylactic shock when he ate a beef burrito in the weeks following and now he says he cant eat meat or even wear wool.
Alpha-gal Syndrome also called alpha-gal allergy, red meat allergy, or tick bite meat allergy is a serious, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . AGS may occur after people eat red meat or are exposed to other products containing alpha-gal.
Growing evidence suggests that AGS may be triggered by the bite of a lone star or blacklegged tick, the CDC continues. More research is needed to understand the role ticks play in triggering this reaction, and why certain people develop AGS.
A University of Rhode Island expert said the lone star tick is well established in Rhode Island and spreading.
It used to be black-legged ticks on Long Island in the 1980s and now the lone star tick has set up shop in some fairly metropolitan areas, including Staten Island, said URIs Dr. Thomas Mather.
This tick is definitely is definitely on the inroads here, said Mather of it in Rhode Island. Its a sad thing. Its a much more aggressive biter.
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Foods To Help You Recover From Lyme Disease
Lyme disease treatment presents unique nutritional challenges. The disease triggers inflammation that spreads throughout your body. Fortunately, you can nourish your body with foods that help you improve your health and fight inflammation. Thus, you will help your body in its recovery from the ravages of this illness.
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Lyme Disease From Tick Larvae
Ticks are not born with Lyme disease, as is commonly believed. Another live entity provides them with it as well. Ticks deposit their eggs throughout the spring season. By the end of summer, the larvae have hatched and are ready to begin feeding. They squat on the ground, waiting for a tiny animal or bird to come by and brush against them. The larva will attach itself to the tiny mammal and begin feeding on it over the course of the following several days. If this animal has Lyme disease, the larva will have the bacteria in its stomach, indicating that the animal has the condition.
When the tick attaches itself to its next host, the bacteria in the ticks blood is transferred to the new hosts bloodstream.
What Are Health Officials Doing
In May, the federal government poured $4 million into the countrys first-ever Lyme disease framework. Its a guide that will help Ottawa with establishing national surveillance, issuing guidelines and educating the public about the illness tied to tick bites.
The Public Health Agency of Canada says that its anticipating the possible expansion of the Lone Star ticks range into Canada. Its even developed a risk modelling method and is researching the possible impact of warming climates on the ticks populations.
We aim to be able to identify locations in Canada that may become suitable for the Lone Star tick in the near future. We are also using our passive tick surveillance data to study where Lone Star ticks are being carried into Canada by migratory birds, Maddison said.
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The number of Lyme disease cases has shot up across Canada over the last seven years, from 144 in 2009 to a high of 917 in 2015. Blacklegged ticks carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, and transmit it to humans through bites. So, more reports of Lyme disease are partly due to more awareness, but also due to more ticks.
Its been a nasty year for ticks all around, according to Wilson.
His organization sells tick removal kits online in 2016, he sold 4,000 kits in an entire year. So far, hes sold 7,000 kits in the month of May alone.
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What Are The Clinical Signs Of Lyme Disease
Within three to thirty days after being bitten, some persons with Lyme disease develop a distinctive bulls-eye rash at the location of the bite. If this occurs, the condition can be easily identified and treated at an early stage if caught early enough. However, the indications of Lyme disease in animals are more difficult to identify than they are in humans. In dogs and cats, the distinctive rash does not appear to develop. As a matter of fact, Lyme illness in cats is virtually unheard of. Affected dogs have been characterized as walking on eggshells, according to the report.
- This is a common occurrence.
- These animals frequently develop high fevers.
- This severe lameness occurs quickly and may move from one leg to the other, making it difficult to walk.
- For some pets, the Lyme disease organism can remain in their system for more than a year before they begin to show symptoms.
Vomiting, tiredness, anorexia , and weight loss are all non-specific symptoms that may suggest that Lyme disease is damaging the kidneys. The renal type of the disease is less prevalent than the other forms, yet it is frequently deadly.
Support Your Immune System
Your immune system requires an array of nutrients to function at its best. Furthermore, infection and stress deplete the body of critical micronutrients. Lets take a look at several of the micronutrients needed for a well-functioning immune system:
Vitamin D is frequently low in patients with persistent Lyme disease On top of that, Borrelia burgdorferi directly reduces vitamin D receptor expression in immune cells, increasing the need for vitamin D.
Vitamin D is critical for Lyme disease recovery. Daily sun exposure and the consumption of vitamin D-rich foods, including fatty cold-water fish and pastured egg yolks, support a healthy vitamin D status. However, supplementation is often necessary, especially during the fall and winter months.
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that regulates both the innate and adaptive branches of the immune system. The innate immune system is our set of frontline immune defenses, whereas the adaptive immune system is composed of specialized cells that target specific pathogens.
We need both branches of the immune system to battle Lyme, and vitamin A can help. Interestingly, vitamin A deficiency worsens Lyme arthritis in mice, whereas vitamin A replenishment reduces the harmful inflammatory response.
Zinc also inhibits complement activity. Complement is a part of the immune system that is excessively activated by Lyme infection and contributes to inflammation.
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Refrain From Eating These Foods If You Have Lyme Disease
In general, having a balanced diet that consists of anti-inflammatory foods, such as fruits and vegetables, can help reduce the severity of lyme disease symptoms. Foods that contain refined sugars, processed grains, and trans fats should be avoided because they have inflammatory properties that may worsen symptoms. Studies have found a direct correlation between high sugar intake and the onset of chronic symptoms associated with lyme disease. Consuming a diet high in sugar can lead to an increased rate of fatigue, cognitive impairments, and joint pain in those suffering from lyme disease.
Processed grains, such as white bread or breakfast cereals, and trans fat-laden foods are two key dietary factors that can worsen symptoms of Lyme disease. The inflammatory nature of these ingredients can trigger an immune response, which can cause inflammation and lead to worsened symptoms, such as joint pain and fatigue.
Processed grains, such as white rice and white flour, can reduce fiber intake which is essential for gut health. The lack of fiber can cause digestive issues, including constipation and diarrhea, which may make Lyme disease symptoms worse.
Trans fat-laden foods like margarine, fast food, fried snacks, and baked goods should be avoided as they are known to increase inflammation in the body. Eating a diet high in trans fats can make Lyme disease symptoms worse, such as joint pain and fatigue.