Understanding Lyme Disease
What is Lyme disease?
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there are around 476,000 people diagnosed with Lyme disease every year. Lyme disease is a bacterial illness that is spread through transmission of a tick bite. Typically, the tick needs to be attached to the skin for 36-48 hours before the infection can be transmitted to the human host. Most adult humans are bit by young ticks called nymphs and it is difficult to even know that one was bit.
The early or acute phase of Lyme disease is treated effectively with antibiotics. Unfortunately, many people are not diagnosed quickly enough because symptoms haven’t started yet and/or you don’t realize you’ve been infected. Without early treatment, the infection can go into different stages causing additional signs and symptoms of progressing Lyme disease.
Signs and Symptoms of Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is known as “the great imitator” because the symptoms can vary and overlap with other common health complaints making the diagnosis difficult.
In the first stage, many people go through a flu like illness and something called an erythema migrans rash which is a rash specific to Lyme infection.
The most common symptoms of early Lyme disease are fever, chills, headache, fatigue, neck stiffness, myalgia, joint pain, and swollen lymph nodes.
As the bacteria (spirochetes) spread from the bite site, additional symptoms and manifestations can occur such as 7th cranial nerve palsy, meningitis, or Lyme carditis (heart inflammation from Lyme disease).
In the third stage, without proper treatment, patients may also experience neuroborreliosis which is a disorder of the central nervous system or Lyme arthritis.
The Tricky Part About Lyme Diagnosis
Many bacterial infections can be diagnosed by laboratory culture, molecular techniques or chemical assays, but this is not currently practical or feasible for Lyme disease. The bacteria that causes the infection is called a spirochete. These bacteria can be sneaky and invade other tissues through the lymphatic system such as the heart, nervous system, and connective tissue. They can often hide in those tissues which is why regular blood work isn’t always the most reliable indicator of whether or not you have a Lyme infection.
Antibiotic treatment decreases culture positivity rates meaning that you’re more likely to get a false negative (i.e. a negative result when it’s really positive) while taking antibiotics.
Spirochetes are transient in a low copy number giving another reasons to why serum, blood, or plasma are not the most reliable type of measurement for Lyme disease.
The current ELISA antibody test and Western Blot ran by your standard lab company is not very reliable. It can take a full 12 weeks for Borrelia burgdorferi to be detected in lab culture which makes it unsuitable for clinical practice.
Treatment
The standard treatment for Lyme disease is antibiotic therapy. Typically, the antibiotics are doxycycline or amoxicillin depending on age, allergies, and other considerations determined by your doctor.
Some alternative treatments have been studied and have been shown to be effective against B. burgdorferi bacteria in vitro such as essential oils and herbal botanicals.
The following herbs have shown to help in the aid of treating Lyme disease.
Yellow dye root - Cryptolepsis sanguinolenta
Eastern American black walnut - Juglans nigra
Japanese knotweed - Polygonum cuspidatum
Cat's claw - Uncaria tomentosa
Sweet wormwood - Artemisia annua
Pink rock rose - Cistus criticus
Chinese skullcap - Scutellaria baicalensis
FREE Consultations!
Let’s discuss some of the symptoms and problems you are having and how we can help in this FREE 15 minute discovery call.
A functional medicine approach to treating Lyme disease
In functional medicine, we look for the root cause of illness. When it comes to Lyme disease, we know that the immune system needs to be supported so that the body can fight off the infection. To enhance the immune system, we can use things like vitamin C, zinc, and vitamin D to name a few.
We can also use studied therapeutics such as essential oils and plant botanicals. We have access to specialized functional labs that identify the Lyme disease bacterial antibodies and co-infections better than the standard lab testing.
We can recommend ways to help with mental health and emotional issues stemming from a difficult treatment journey.
There are options outside the traditional medical model. Don’t stop advocating for your health!
We’d love to be a part of your wellness journey!
The Shore Integrative Health Team
(443) 339-9713
kristin@shoreintegrativehealth.com
508 Idlewild Avenue, Unit 5
Easton, MD 21601
Written by Virginia Conner, PA-C