Managing chronic Lyme symptoms
If you have chronic Lyme, or post-Lyme symptoms, like I do, it's up to you to raise your awareness and change your behavior if you need to. You can't depend on your doctor to tell you to start an exercise program, give up sugar, stop drinking pop, and never touch a glass a wine. You have to make those decisions yourself. Okay, some doctors may counsel you to exercise, but speaking generally, they won't bother. It's not their job. It is their job to find the pathology and fix it, not to counsel you in preventing chronic illness.
Most chronic disease (perhaps including chronic Lyme) is a result of long-term behaviors, including diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors. This should come as no surprise. Habits may be hard to break, but if getting healthy is our goal, we do ourselves a disservice when we don't recognize the problems caused by our own repeated behavior. Complementary and Alternative medical practitioners, such as nutritionists, acupuncturists and nurse practitioners are generally aware of this. Many perhaps most, Western doctors are not.
My own experience has taught me this. Eating sugary food or drinking alcohol is one example. I've been living with so-called chronic Lyme for 6 years now. When I make the choice to eat those cookies, knock back that beer, stress out from overworking, or skip the gym for days on end, my body reacts. I can ignore the obvious cause and effect. I can attribute the flare-ups and Lyme-brain to the capricious Borrelia infection, or I can take responsibility for giving the infection an advantage. I can choose to recognize my own culpability, and next time the cookies are passed around or my friend wants to pour me a glass of wine, I can simply say no thanks. What may have begun with a Borrelia infection from a tick bite can be exacerbated by habitual behaviors that continue unchecked for years or even many decades. Nothing about chronic Lyme is simple. There is even controversy over calling it 'chronic Lyme.' But one thing seems clear. Medicine alone cannot cure a person suffering with long-term Lyme symptoms. We need to approach healing from multiple levels.
Success stories are published here for many reasons. We need the inspiration, the 'atta girl/boy' pat on the back, for one thing. For another, we want a recipe. 'How did that person do it? What protocol did she or he follow? If they can do it, maybe there is hope for me.'
Managing chronic Lyme disease is dicey, no question about it. But there are many ways to prevent the problems we know are lurking, by making intelligent choices and stopping behavior known to increase the problems. One way to begin raising your awareness around habits that may be hurting you is to see what the Lyme experts say about it. If you think for one minute that drinking alcohol is okay when you have a Lyme infection, just check out what Dr. Burrascano has to say about it.
Dr. Burrascano's bullet list for chronic Lyme:
CHRONIC LYME- Treatment Issues
• In chronic Lyme Disease, active infection may persist despite prior antibiotic therapy
• Relapses do occur and retreatment is often needed
• Repeated or prolonged antibiotic therapy usually is necessary
• High doses of antibiotics are needed, and blood levels should be confirmed wherever possible
• Antibiotic combinations usually are necessary
• Check for co-infections and immune status, and treat appropriately
• May need to rotate through different regimens based on response
• If the CD-57 count is not normal at the end of treatment, then continued illness or a relapse is likely
• May not cure the infection, and may need repeated or open-ended maintenance therapy
• Signs of persistence of infection:
– continued fevers, synovitis
– four week cycles, migrating symptoms
– PCR positivity and low CD-57 counts
• As symptoms wind down, I DO NOT cut the dose, for resistance may develop
• Aggressive supportive therapy is required- and search for any other possible cause of a weakened host:
– Toxin exposure, heavy metal poisoning, malnutrition, endocrine dysfunction, other illnesses, severe or ongoing stress
• Progressively increase exercise program as the symptoms of Lyme decrease
– Exercise is vital and required, or a full recovery will not occur
– Not exercising will increase risk of a relapse
* This post was modified by the editor on 11.24.10.
Most chronic disease (perhaps including chronic Lyme) is a result of long-term behaviors, including diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors. This should come as no surprise. Habits may be hard to break, but if getting healthy is our goal, we do ourselves a disservice when we don't recognize the problems caused by our own repeated behavior. Complementary and Alternative medical practitioners, such as nutritionists, acupuncturists and nurse practitioners are generally aware of this. Many perhaps most, Western doctors are not.
My own experience has taught me this. Eating sugary food or drinking alcohol is one example. I've been living with so-called chronic Lyme for 6 years now. When I make the choice to eat those cookies, knock back that beer, stress out from overworking, or skip the gym for days on end, my body reacts. I can ignore the obvious cause and effect. I can attribute the flare-ups and Lyme-brain to the capricious Borrelia infection, or I can take responsibility for giving the infection an advantage. I can choose to recognize my own culpability, and next time the cookies are passed around or my friend wants to pour me a glass of wine, I can simply say no thanks. What may have begun with a Borrelia infection from a tick bite can be exacerbated by habitual behaviors that continue unchecked for years or even many decades. Nothing about chronic Lyme is simple. There is even controversy over calling it 'chronic Lyme.' But one thing seems clear. Medicine alone cannot cure a person suffering with long-term Lyme symptoms. We need to approach healing from multiple levels.
Success stories are published here for many reasons. We need the inspiration, the 'atta girl/boy' pat on the back, for one thing. For another, we want a recipe. 'How did that person do it? What protocol did she or he follow? If they can do it, maybe there is hope for me.'
Managing chronic Lyme disease is dicey, no question about it. But there are many ways to prevent the problems we know are lurking, by making intelligent choices and stopping behavior known to increase the problems. One way to begin raising your awareness around habits that may be hurting you is to see what the Lyme experts say about it. If you think for one minute that drinking alcohol is okay when you have a Lyme infection, just check out what Dr. Burrascano has to say about it.
Dr. Burrascano's bullet list for chronic Lyme:
CHRONIC LYME- Treatment Issues
• In chronic Lyme Disease, active infection may persist despite prior antibiotic therapy
• Relapses do occur and retreatment is often needed
• Repeated or prolonged antibiotic therapy usually is necessary
• High doses of antibiotics are needed, and blood levels should be confirmed wherever possible
• Antibiotic combinations usually are necessary
• Check for co-infections and immune status, and treat appropriately
• May need to rotate through different regimens based on response
• If the CD-57 count is not normal at the end of treatment, then continued illness or a relapse is likely
• May not cure the infection, and may need repeated or open-ended maintenance therapy
• Signs of persistence of infection:
– continued fevers, synovitis
– four week cycles, migrating symptoms
– PCR positivity and low CD-57 counts
• As symptoms wind down, I DO NOT cut the dose, for resistance may develop
• Aggressive supportive therapy is required- and search for any other possible cause of a weakened host:
– Toxin exposure, heavy metal poisoning, malnutrition, endocrine dysfunction, other illnesses, severe or ongoing stress
• Progressively increase exercise program as the symptoms of Lyme decrease
– Exercise is vital and required, or a full recovery will not occur
– Not exercising will increase risk of a relapse
* This post was modified by the editor on 11.24.10.
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