Life After Lyme Disease

Homeopathy Supplements

Homeopathy can be used to treat a wide range of chronic conditions.  This holistic treatment has been shown to have positive effects on widespread infections including Lyme disease.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has warned that Lyme disease is the fastest growing vector-borne disease in North America.  The majority of Lyme disease cases are located in just 12 high risk areas which include Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Maine.  The only state that has not seen any reports of Lyme disease in North America is Montana.

Homeopathic Diagnosis

Homeopathic practitioners endeavor to create a full picture of a patient’s health.  This will encompass diet, lifestyle and general feelings of well being.  Both conventional and holistic healthcare advisors face a number of difficulties when diagnosing Lyme disease.  The symptoms can be vague and in many cases patients do not realize they may have been exposed to the ticks that carry the Lyme infection.  There are also no reliable scientific testing procedures in place for confirming Lyme disease. This can lead to many cases of incorrect diagnosis, both in terms of over and under diagnosis of Lyme disease.

The main benefit of the homeopathic treatment process is that it does not rely on the confirming the presence of Lyme disease absolutely.  Instead this method presents an initial diagnosis and then records how the condition has manifested in the individual patient.   By charting the history of illness the homeopathic practitioner can understand how the disease is affecting the body and how to tackle the symptoms appropriately.  Conventional medicine recommends only one treatment scheme (a short term course of antibiotics) to treat all Lyme patient sufferers, regardless of symptoms.  Homeopathic treatments however are highly personalized and can show some positive effects within just a few days.

Treatment

Unlike the conventional medical community Homeopathic practitioners remain united over the treatment of Lyme disease.  This unified front shows an inspiring faith in the healing system which cannot fail to impress patients. Once the individual manifestation of the condition has been identified then the practitioner will rely on accepted treatment methods to manage symptoms and work towards a cure.  Many of these treatments will work to support and boost the immune system and strengthen the patients own natural defenses against the Lyme infection.  Conventional medical experts are also beginning to see the benefits of assisting the immune system to fight widespread infections naturally.  Each homeopathic treatment will be slightly different but typically treatments used to combat this condition including Sepia, Sulphur, Tellurium, Syphilynum, Ledum, Carcinocin, Arnica, Rhus Tx, Arsenicum, Apis, Hypericum, Ruta and Silica.  There are also a wide number of other homeopathic treatments that can be used with success against Lyme disease.

Hypericum can be used to treat Lyme Disease

As well as homeopathic supplement treatments homeopathic practitioners can recommend a number of other treatments to work on overall health and well being.  These can include herbal supplements, diet, heat therapies (raising the body temperature to inhibit bacterial growth) and stress reduction techniques.

Homeopathic treatments work on overall health and well being.  They tackle not just the condition itself but also any weaknesses in the body’s system that could be contributing to ill health.  Many Lyme disease patients have responded well to homeopathic treatments and this could be worth investigating if you are not happy with conventional treatments.

Early spring is a high risk time for Lyme disease as the ticks that transmit this condition start feeding voraciously in preparation for their breeding season. If you are traveling through tick habitats then you will need to take extra precautions against tick bites, as Lyme disease is an unpleasant condition that can have a number of long lasting symptoms.

Adult Male Deer Tick

Co-Infections

As well as the bacteria that causes Lyme disease ticks can also carry a number of other nasty pathogens. This means that a high number of Lyme disease sufferers could also be infected with additional pathogens. These can complicate treatment and result in much more serious symptoms. The main co-infections that can be transmitted alongside Lyme disease include the parasitic infection Babesiosis and the bacterial infections of Ehrlichiosis (HME or HGE) and Bartonellosis. Experts believe that as many as two thirds of all patients with Lyme disease may have these additional infections as well, many of which will remain undiagnosed.

Dr. Harriet Kotsoris, Medical Director at the Lyme disease research group ‘Time For Lyme’ warns both patients and healthcare advisors about these co-infections:

“Patients infected with Lyme disease are at risk of developing one or more co-infections, tick-borne illnesses that can worsen the severity and/or the duration of Lyme symptoms”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that Lyme disease cases rose in 2008 by as much as 28% to over 35,000 reported cases and cases of co-infection are also on the rise.

Adult Female Deer Tick

Treating Co-infections

Many co-infections cannot be treated with the standard antibiotics that are used to treat Lyme disease. Co-infections such as Babesiosis require completely different medications and protocols than Lyme disease and so they must be independently diagnosed and treated separately.

However not much is really about understood about co-infections and there are many disagreements in the health profession on how to best approach this issue. Some healthcare providers believe the antibiotics used to treat the primary Lyme disease infection will also clear up any co-infections that may exist. However many experts advise that because of the different natures of the co-infections a wider scope of antibiotic treatment should be prescribed following an independent diagnosis of each infection.

Diagnosing Co-Infections

It can be difficult diagnosing Lyme disease and co-infections. Traditional methods such as PCRs and serologies can only test for certain species of pathogens (many tick-borne pathogens still remain unidentified). Standard blood analysis is successful only in the first two weeks of the infection and most patients do not actually seek medical help until several weeks after the initial infection. To diagnose Lyme disease and co-infections a series of tests needs to be carried out over a period of time, as it can take as up to four months for infections such as Bartonellosis to manifest and as long as eight months for Babesiosis to appear.

Successful diagnosis of Lyme disease and co-infections must also be based on the history and symptoms of the patient, as the testing is not always reliable.

Most people who are infected with Lyme Disease also have one or more co-infections. If you have been diagnosed with Lyme Disease it is very important that you are tested for other co-infections that can often tag along with the Lyme. These co-infections are other bacterium, viruses and protozoan parasites such as Babesiosis, Bartonella, Ehrlichiosis, Mycoplasma, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado Tick Fever, Tularemia , Powassan encephalitis and others. It is very important to test for these as treatment will often be different depending on what type of co-infection one has.

Current consensus is that co-infections need to be treated first in order to successfully treat Lyme Disease as treatment of Lyme Disease becomes more complicated when there are co-infections present. Often treatment of Lyme is more successful when co-infections are first eliminated. Many Lyme Disease researchers now believe that co-infections are one of the reasons why some people do not respond to Lyme Disease treatment.