Lyme Disease Cure

Is there a Lyme Disease Cure? Learn how we went from debilitating chronic Lyme Disease to radiant health. No practitioners were able to help us, so we had to figure it out on our own. Many years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, this website summarizes everything we learned along the way. The quest for a Lyme disease cure led us to health better than we have ever had before we contracted Lyme. Here is an outline of the content, for those who like to skip around:
 
Lyme Disease Cure Overview

Our Family’s Experience with Lyme

Lyme Symptoms

Lyme Disease Testing

Chronic Lyme Disease Treatment

• Chronic Lyme Disease Cure – What Worked
• What Didn’t Work

Acute Lyme Treatment

Can Lyme Disease Be Cured?

Support Groups

Blessings from Chronic Lyme Disease

FAQ

References

Lyme Disease Cure Overview

Our body’s immune system is the best defense we have against Lyme disease and co-infections. What? No magic pill? Lyme has proven it can outsmart all the drugs we have today. It changes form, encysts, and hides – for years. Our immune system can adapt and fight Lyme better than any drug [4]. Ever hear the stories about people living to be 100 with Lyme? If the immune system is functioning (and that’s a big IF for a lot of us), it should win the Lyme battle. So why are so many human immune systems today losing the battle? People with Lyme symptoms, in my observation, have one or more of the following:

1. Gut dysfunction – This sometimes includes other bacterial infections. Gut health is our immune health. The immune system struggles without a healthy gut. Healing leaky gut is neither easy or obvious.
2. Parasite infections – Often chronic, often without obvious symptoms
3. Hidden dental infections – in root canals or extracted tooth sockets
4. Heavy metal toxicity – Many of us need some form of chelation therapy.
5. Difficulty detoxing, draining & methylating – these aren’t really root causes, they’re more results of what happens when you have Lyme + something from #1-4 above.

If our bodies only had Lyme, they would be able to fight it effectively. The problem is that we have one or more other chronic infections or issues from the above list. Why do I think Yolanda Foster is having such a difficult time with Lyme? Because she’s being treated for Lyme. Noone is looking for other infections that she might have, the functioning of her gut, her immune system, or her ability to detox and drain.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it is somewhat useful to go after Lyme. However, I think it is much more important to clear up these other ‘hidden’ problems, so our immune system can focus on fighting Lyme. The Lyme disease cure is actually within all of us.
 
 

Our Family’s Direct Experience with Lyme

Our oldest child was bitten by ticks at ages 1.5 and 3 in San Jose, CA and Los Altos, CA. The picture above shows the tick she got at age 3. Very difficult to find in that thick hair! Our pediatrician said that since the ticks were on less than 24 hours, we shouldn’t worry about Lyme. We were illiterate enough to believe her. We proceeded working on our daughter’s health issues as if they were gastrointestinal (GI) issues, autism, methylation, heavy metal toxicity, etc. We had no idea she had Lyme, and in hindsight this was actually a very good thing!

We first tested our child for Lyme at age 4 when she started having health problems. The doctor recommended Lyme Western Blot (WB), which came out positive on IgG Band 41 only. He wrote “No evidence of Lyme.” Again we were illiterate enough to believe him. In hindsight, Band 41 can be Babesia, and it is often the band that shows positive first. It can also commonly be positive from dental infections, but she had never had a cavity, let alone a root canal.
 

How were we able to resolve 90% of her clinical Lyme symptoms on our own, without ever having a Lyme diagnosis? The details of how we did this are in the individual sections of this website under healing the gut, diet, autism, and methylation. The remaining 10% of her clinical symptoms resolved when we cleared up parasite issues. More details on all of this in Chronic Lyme Treatment.
 

At age 6, with 90% of her clinical symptoms gone, we noticed that her white blood cell count was chronically low. We decided to look again for Lyme, and the results came back positive on the Western Blot (WB) antibody blood test on ALL IgM bands. It is interesting to me that once we healed her gut, changed her diet, got her methylating, got her detoxing, and got her draining, her body started fighting the Lyme. Then she got a positive antibody test.

Around the time we got the Lyme diagnosis for our oldest daughter, we had a horrible head lice infestation in our house. The lice was probably brought home from a summer camp, and by the time I realized that we had lice, we all had hundreds of them. Everywhere. Evacuate-the-house kind of infestation….. The lice spread the Lyme to the rest of our family. Every. Single. One. Of. Us.

 

 
 
So why am I thankful that our oldest daughter struggled for so long without a Lyme diagnosis? Had she gotten an immediate diagnosis, we probably would’ve gone to a Lyme-Literate MD (LLMD), who would’ve treated her with multiple antibiotics for a very long time. The antibiotic success rate in treating Lyme is 30-40% [1]. Dr. Klinghardt was quoted as saying 62% of the time people get worse after antibiotic treatment [5]. I also know several Lyme patients from our local LLMD practice. This practice has a 6 month waiting list. Of about 15 people I know who’ve been there, I only know of 1 ‘success’ case. However, that 1 ‘success’ had at least 3 other practitioners on board (ND, Acupuncture, Chiropractic). This person also did lots of extra testing and supplementation on their own. So in my mind, it’s unclear if those practitioners helped the success, or the LLMD, or all the other things that person was doing on their own.

We didn’t have a Lyme diagnosis. We had no idea that we were even on the path of a Lyme disease cure. We were forced to figure it out on our own. The skills and tools that we learned at our oldest daughter’s expense saved the rest of our lives when we got Lyme. Our success rate treating Lyme? 4 out of 4. A much better statistic than we’re seeing out of LLMDs. This is why I’m so thankful that we struggled for so long without a Lyme diagnosis. It forced us to figure out how to get our bodies working again so our immune system could fight the Lyme and co-infections. I am of the strong opinion that our own immune system is the best defense we have.

At age 7.5, our oldest daughter was re-infected while on a hike. (You’d think we’d smarten up and move out of the SF Bay Area after getting Lyme so many times here!) She had no tick but a suspicious looking rash above the ankle. There was a faint ring around the rash. Had we not been Lyme literate, we definitely wouldn’t have noticed the ring around the rash, and would have just called it a bug bite. This time we new we needed an acute Lyme disease cure. We treated her for Acute Lyme.
 
 

Lyme Symptoms

Lyme presents itself differently in almost every person. Why? Because I don’t believe the symptoms that we see are actually caused by Lyme. Lyme disables the immune system so other bacteria, viruses, parasites, and dental infections flare up. The body struggles to fight, detoxify, and drain out all of these infections. This is what causes symptoms.

I was led to this conclusion after multiple ZYTO sessions during Lyme flare-ups. We knew we had classic Lyme symptoms – swollen ankles, brain fog, etc. However, ZYTO showed Borrelia, Bartonella, and Babesia as very low stressors, if at all. Often they were nowhere to be found. Viruses, bacteria and yeast are typically high stressors in these scans – everything from the Flu to HHV to Candida.

The most comprehensive list of symptoms I’ve seen is the Burrascano Survey. Lyme symptoms often mimic other diseases, including fibromyalgia, arthritis, gut (GI) tract problems, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and failure to thrive [2]. Patients are often misdiagnosed. Instead of re-listing Dr. Burrascano’s symptoms, I will instead summarize our specific symptoms.
 
Our oldest child initially had debilitating symptoms, including nausea, tummy aches, abdominal pain, autism, joint pain, brain fog, mood swings, difficulty concentrating, psychosis, weight loss, and fatigue. Since we had no idea that she had Lyme, we assumed it was some kind of gastrointestinal issue. Little did we know that ‘tummy aches’ are the #2 most common symptom of Lyme! (#1 is joint pain)

Overall, I was debilitated with fatigue, brain fog, inability to concentrate, memory loss, insomnia, night sweats, twitching in my legs. I had a constant sore throat, swollen ankles that came and went, confusion, stiffness in my neck, light sensitivity and mood swings.

My husband was starting down the same path as me, but his body seemed to be doing a better job fighting the Lyme than mine. This is consistent with his significantly higher CD57 than ours. One practitioner suggested this is because he’s Type O blood and we are A+. I have no idea if this is true or not. However, my husband’s health was also starting to decline, as he was getting more and more symptoms on the Burrascano checklist.
 
 

Lyme Disease Testing

The Lyme Western Blot (WB) blood test looks for the body’s antibody response to Lyme. This test is used by most doctors who are not Lyme-Literate MDs (LLMD). Unfortunately in chronic Lyme, Borrelia is known for disabling immune function, so the body does not always produce antibodies. This has created great controversy surrounding Lyme testing, amongst regular MDs, LLMDs, and the CDC. The only test that everyone seems to agree equals a positive result is the Lyme Western Blot.

For an acute Lyme exposure, the only test fast enough to detect it before it becomes chronic is ASYRA or ZYTO. For this reason, there are some LLMDs who automatically prescribe multiple antibiotics for any bite or rash that looks suspicious, without any kind of concrete positive test result.

Here is a summary of available Lyme tests and my comments on each one:
 

• ASYRA – In my opinion, ASYRA energetic screening is the golden standard for Lyme diagnosis. ASYRA can detect Lyme and co-infections 10 days after exposure, which is faster than any other method. I have found it consistent with other testing methods, and I have yet to hear of a case where ASYRA was wrong in diagnosing Lyme and co-infections. It is relatively inexpensive, and insurance might even pay depending on what kind of practitioner you have administer the ASYRA screen.
• Lyme Western Blot (WB) Blood Test – Only measures antibody response to Lyme. Antibody response doesn’t start until about 6 weeks after acute exposure. Chronic Lyme infections tend to disrupt immune function so no antibodies are produced. Often people with chronic Lyme come out negative on the Lyme WB test. Our oldest child initially tested negative, although her symptoms were severe. Later, when we had fixed her gut, changed her diet, got her methylating and most of her symptoms were gone, she finally tested positive on two IgM bands (a positive result according to the CDC). After a 30-day bone broth and pureed organ meat fast, she tested positive on all three IgM bands. It seemed that Babesia symptoms and infections presented first with us (swollen, painful joints and positive on IgG Band 41) followed by Borellia and Bartonella taking over. It was at this point that we tested positive on IgM bands.
• Igenex – They have blood tests that actually look for the DNA of Lyme and co-infections. These tests seem to be preferred by most LLMDs at the time of writing. They are, however, expensive, and it is my understanding that insurance does not always cover them.
• Burrascano Survey – This is a checklist of typical Lyme and co-infection symptoms. Some practitioners say if you have more than 1/3 of the symptoms, then that is a clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease.
• CD57 – This is a blood test of white blood killer cells. The only known infection to decrease CD57 is Lyme (Borrelia). Some practitioners think that other chronic infections can also lower CD57. Some practitioners think that CD57 < 200 and more than 1/3 of the symptoms on the Burrasco Survey is a positive diagnosis. Overall, CD57 as a diagnosis for Borrelia is controversial and opinions will vary from person to person. I do feel strongly, however, that CD57 is good to track over time for people with Lyme or any other chronic infection.
• ZYTO – ZYTO energetic screening can also be used to detect Lyme and co-infections. My experience is that a positive is a positive but a negative is undetermined. ZYTO is very good at measuring what is bothering the body, which may or may not be Lyme. For example, Lyme may be bringing down the immune system so that there is a raging Candida or H.pylori infection. These may show up on ZYTO but Lyme might not. ZYTO can give an opinion about which herbs, homeopathics, antibiotics, etc. will work best against any particular strains of Lyme and co-infections found. It is also very good at making sure that detoxification and drainage pathways are open and that methylation is working properly.

Here is a table summarizing our testing and results:

*Our ASYRA practitioner detects on a scale of 0-10. According to our practitioner, positive is >2-3, Needs treatment is >4 and debilitating symptoms is >7.

**ZYTO scans showed many strains of Lyme and co-infections. Often the strains and number reported varied over time. I take this with a grain of salt. We may not have the exact strains that are even in the ZYTO system. We also know that Lyme and co-infections can mutate. More details on ZYTO can be found here <ADD LINK>.

***Some practitioners consider CD57<200 as a positive diagnosis, and <100 of great concern.

****Some practitioners consider >33% of symptoms on the Burrascano survey as part of a positive diagnosis.

*****It was hard for ZYTO to find Lyme and co-infections on her because parasites were dominating the stress on her body. Once she started parasite medications and excreting parasites, ZYTO scans found a huge Lyme and co-infection flare-up. This was consistent with our clinical findings as well.

I decided not to do Igenex Lyme testing, primarily because it is expensive. Given the above results and our symptoms, I was convinced we had Lyme and co-infections. Digging deeper didn’t make sense to me, because it wouldn’t change our treatment plan. We already knew what had worked for our oldest child before we even knew that she had Lyme. We planned to use the same treatment for the rest of the family. Furthermore, there may be even more co-infections that we don’t even have the technology to detect. The treatment plan that worked for us focused on getting our immune systems functioning again, regardless of exactly what strains of Lyme or co-infections we have.

Chronic Lyme Disease Treatment

I’m often asked how I got our family to health so quickly from our debilitating Lyme symptoms. People expect a quick answer detailing some magic pill. I have to explain that it took lots of hard work across many different categories to get our immune system working again, the infection under control, and the symptoms to disappear.

Chronic Lyme Disease Cure: What Worked

Here’s what worked best for us in rank order from most helpful to least helpful. Note that the first two items are relatively inexpensive. Up to #10 on this list I consider ‘essential’ to getting rid of symptoms. The rest I consider more in the ‘permanently’ get rid of symptoms category.
 

1. Healing the Gastrointestinal Tract – The gut is the center of the immune system. Getting the gut functioning properly was the first and most important step of healing. This alone solved ~90% of our daughter’s initial clinical symptoms. We also did two 30-day bone/meat broth ‘fasts.’ Clinical symptoms were even better after these fasts, and blood results looking at immune function also improved after the fasts.
2. Lifestyle– Sleep, Water, Exercise, Stress- Sleep in the dark for at least 8 hours for adults, 10 hours for kids, plus everyone takes 1.5 hour naps on the weekends. Adults drink 3+ liters of water per day, kids 1.5+ liters. Exercise in the sunshine and fresh air but do not overdo it. We found that stretching, walking and weightlifting put less stress on our bodies than cardio workouts. This meant no late night parties, alcohol, or compromises on bedtime. More details here.
3. Detoxification – As Lyme and co-infections die, they release mycotoxins that our bodies have to excrete. If these toxins build up, symptoms usually appear. Proper support for detoxification is VERY important. More details can be found here. Specifically for Lyme, we found Diet, Enemas, Activated Charcoal, DE and Sauna / Skin Brushing most useful.
4. Drainage pathways – Most practitioners don’t understand the concept of drainage, let alone how to fix it. Drainage refers to opening excretory pathways in the body, both at the physical and energetic levels. Drainage pathways are also VERY important. Specifically for Lyme, the most helpful for us seemed to be: Skin Terrain, Lmph-max, Colon Terrain, Lymph-Tone II, Lymph-Tone III, and Gallbladder Terrain. We either muscle test at home or use ZYTO for testing. Here is a video demonstrating how we test at home. If these debugging techniques are new, check out the Overview Video first.
   
    
   
5. Methylation – Our oldest child’s Lyme symptoms definitely improved once we got her methylating properly. More details can be found in the MTHFR treatment section.
6. Lee Cowden Protocol/ Nutramedix herbal Lyme protocol, straight off the internet. **The Cowden protocol has since changed. The new protocol seems OK, except that I do not recommend taking Stevia. Stevia can help fuel sugar cravings, inhibiting success in 1. Healing the Gut above.** I decided initially to try Cowden because it seemed to have the best success rate at 80% in one clinical trial. There have been no clinical trials with LLMD antibiotic protocols, but some of them have admitted to 30-40% ‘feel better’ success rates. The Buhner protocol has no success rate data that I’m aware of. I’ll take the 80% chance, please! We did the Cowden Protocol at 3x the recommended dose. It was our home testing and ZYTO scans over many months helped us figure out that we needed 3x the dosage of the Cowden herbs. More Lyme symptoms started going away after month 2 for the kids, and after months 3-4 for the adults. My sense is that it is very unlikely that Cowden would have worked had we not already conquered steps #1-5 above. The Cowden protocol supports the immune system more than it tries to kill infections. I have seen many cases of failed Cowden, but none of them had #1-4 down first. Cowden talks about this in several articles as well. We rotate the enzymes we take with Cowden between Serrapeptase, Nattokinase, Enzyme Defense, and Lumbrokinase. (Our favorites for Nattokinase are NSK-SD and Doctors Best. Favorite brands for Lumbrokinase are Doctors Best and Nutricology.) Here are a few instructional videos showing how we test for the best enzyme and debug Lyme flare-ups. Watch the Overview Video first if unfamiliar with these techniques.
    

   
    
   
    
   
    
   
    
   

 

7. Head Screwed On Straight – Keeping a positive, optimistic attitude while going through Lyme is almost impossible but essential. The first thing I did when I got mine was to talk to my psychiatrist! I knew this was going to be a marathon that I would have to sprint. I wanted to make sure that my head was screwed on straight from the starting line. She gave me one very good piece of advice – “Don’t let this disease take over your whole life. Keep working (or doing something you love), even if you can only do it for 1 hour per day. Don’t let the disease become your identity.” This seemed impossible at the time, but it was great advice. I wish I had known of the work of Kelly Turner, who studied late-stage cancer patients who were sent home to die. These patients miraculously healed, and their stories have been unstudied and unpublished before her work. Although Cancer isn’t exactly Lyme, Kelly’s themes of how people healed themselves were remarkably similar to what we went through. Dr Klinghardt has an interesting quote: “If the illness looks physical, the cause is likely in the emotional realm. If the illness looks emotional, the cause is often physical [5].” More advice, tips, and tricks can be found in the social and emotional aspects of healing section.
8. Chiropractic or Osteopathic care – It’s hard to detoxify and drain if your body isn’t functioning properly.
9. Frenectomy – Frenectomy and Lyme? Yup. If the resting position of the tongue is on the bottom of the mouth, or if one is a mouth breather, the detoxification and drainage ability of the body is compromised. Please see the Frenectomy section for all the details.
10. Parasites – Lyme can hide in parasites like worms and flukes. It turns out that many of us in the western world have worms and flukes without realizing it. My opinion is that Lyme will eventually come back if parasites aren’t treated. I am suspicious that many of the cases of Lyme relapse reported have parasites as one of the reasons. As our youngest child started excreting lots of broken up parasites after taking medications, she had a huge Lyme flare-up. From her experience, we observed Lyme, heavy metals, and toxins were released from the parasites. Details on how we diagnose and treat parasites are in the parasites in humans section.
11. Dental infections – Lyme can also hide in root canals and extracted teeth sockets, a.k.a. cavitations. These chronically infected areas distract the immune system from fighting Lyme in the rest of the body. They are also a great hiding spot for Lyme to re-appear later. Clearing up these hidden infections is essential to prevent a Lyme relapse. Details of diagnosing and treating our dental infections can be found in the hidden dental infection section.
12. Overall immune support & supplements – We have a long list of supplements that vary based on where we are in our healing. This is similar to the list that betterhealthguy.com posts on his site. We determine supplements via ZYTO, as well as with our home testing. Items that we are on almost all the time: Vit D (winter only), Vit C (2g), DE, Minerals (especially when chelating), Fermented Foods at every meal. We are occasionally on other Liver & Kidney support and Methylation

support.

13. Oxygen – We do the cheap version of HBOT – A Buteyko breathing exercise called steps. The breathing exercises we do are like this video, except we do them while walking briskly. We do 6 reps 2x/day, with rest in between. We dropped to 4 reps once we were able to do 6 reps, but it took us several months to hold the 6 reps long enough. We aim for 80 steps on each round, or about 25 seconds for a 5-year-old and 40 seconds for an adult. These have been amazingly helpful – we all have more energy, and it feels like we’re even getting more oxygen. I do buy their theory that increasing carbon dioxide levels in the blood actually re-sets the trigger point that increases tissue oxygen levels. Oxygen supports immune function and helps our bodies fight Lyme. This book also comes recommended.
14. Sweating – Lyme is notorious for going after the hypothalamus. Our oldest daughter completely lost her ability to sweat. Getting her to sweat again was key to her recovery. Figuring out how to get her to sweat took us several years and lots of trial and error. Here’s what ended up working, in rank order from most to least helpful:
1. Sauna – 2x / week, start slow and build up in intensity
2. Dessicated Hypothalamus supplement from Bio-Design: 1-3 caps 2x/day
3. Itires homeopathic remedy
15. Sauna – We did notice that sauna therapy 1-2x week helped us feel better, I’m guessing because it helped us detox. We didn’t notice a clinical difference between traditional sauna therapy and IR saunas. After sauna sessions, we were careful to soap up in the shower and wash off to avoid re-absorption of toxins. Cold showers after sauna sessions also helped get our Lymph system moving.
16. Skin brushing– Keeping our Lymph system moving via skin brushing was also helpful. It seemed like drainage symptoms resolved faster with skin brushing. Similarly, non-strenuous exercise like walking or yoga was also helpful.
17. Chelation– I don’t think we’ve seen the full benefit of this yet because it is a long process. A body “terrain” or environment with lots of metals and toxins is amenable to Lyme, co-infections, and other bacteria, viruses and yeast. I’ve also learned that the body is good at storing metals. I have noticed that when chelating we had some Lyme flare-ups.
18. Myofacial Therapy – Getting the tongue in the proper position and swallowing correctly we found useful for both breathing and detoxing. Proper oral function seems to help both increase the airway and release pressure on the central nervous system in the central spinal canal. We work with an oralfacial myofunctional practitioner and do about 20 minutes 2x/day of exercises. If you can afford this, great. If not, the most important piece for us was re-training our tongue to rest on the roof of our mouth instead of on the lower part. We did this by applying a small ball of strip paste to the roof of our mouth 2x/day. However, the ingredients in this paste are suspicious and it is intended for external, not internal use. If I could do it again, I would have created my own strip paste recipe. Here are the instructions for application:
     
    
     
    1. Make a small ball of paste.
    2. Dry the roof of the mouth on this spot.
    3. Wet your finger so the paste won’t stick to it. Put the ball on the wet tip of the finger.
    4. Apply the ball of paste on the ‘spot’ as in this picture
    5. Use the tongue to smash the ball on the ‘spot.’
    6. Apply after breakfast and before dinner

     

    The goal is to get the tongue to play with the paste on the ‘spot.’ Slowly over time, this re-habituates the tongue to be on the roof of the mouth.

We have eliminated our chronic Lyme symptoms. The children took about 2 months after completing items #1-10 to resolve symptoms. The adults took about 4 months. Asyra has confirmed that Lyme is no longer stressing our bodies as it previously had. We do still see Lyme still coming through on ZYTO. My theory is that the hiding Lyme comes out and then our bodies take care of it, which is why we are still seeing it come through on ZYTO. It has been reported that Lyme can encyst and hide in the body without food for at least 1 year, some reporting up to 14 months.

We are planning to stay on the Cowden herbal protocol (#6) until we no longer see Lyme coming through on ZYTO. Even though our symptoms are long gone. Some say Lyme likes to flare up in the winter, so I want to see at least one winter without Lyme or co-infections coming through on ZYTO. Our goal is obviously to eradicate Lyme and co-infections. Can Lyme disease be cured? Or will our bodies continue to fight Lyme for the rest of our lives? Honestly we don’t know. This answer is so complex that I devote a whole section and video to it: Can Lyme Disease Be Cured?
 
I have summarized the top ten most important aspects of our Lyme disease cure in this video:
 

What Didn’t Work

Here is a list of things we tried that didn’t work:
 

1. Essential Oils –We did raindrop therapy from a professionally trained practitioner as well as a few individual EOs for acute Lyme. We saw no clinical changes.
2. Bacterial / Parasite Homeopathic Remedies – Tried several including Bacterotox, Bacteria-Chord, Cina, Para-Chord. Using these on their own we saw no improvement, but my sense is they might be supportive with other things.
3. Constitutional Remedies – We did this several times both with practitioners and with ZYTO. We did not observe any changes.
4. Biomat – A lot of Lyme people swear by their Biomats. We didn’t notice a clinical difference in any of us. We tried sleeping on it, low temps, warmer temps. It could be that this is because we tried it relatively late in the process. We were already asymptomatic and had our detox and drainage pathways working pretty well by the time we tried it.
5. Frequency Generators, Zappers, RIFE Machines – We have tried many versions of these techniques. This includes various zapper machines, singing tones, listening to tones, and frequency treatments on ZYTO. Dr. Simon Yu believes that these devices agitate parasites and cause them to hide deeper in the body[3]. My experience is that this is true for parasites, Lyme disease, and Lyme co-infections. Although some report symptoms subsiding, it is not because bacteria, viruses or parasites are dying. It is because they are hiding. Note that for our family of four, no symptoms changed with any of these methods.

Acute Lyme Disease Treatment

Our oldest child came home from a camping trip in Rancho San Antonio Park (Los Altos, CA) with a mysterious rash. It was just above the ankle. It had a faint single ring around the main rash (hard to see in the picture). We rushed her to the pediatrician and LLMD to get prescriptions for antibiotics.
 

 
Some practitioners are of the opinion that it is much more difficult for the body to deal with re-exposure and potentially several different strains of Lyme and co-infections. I didn’t want to take any chances, since I knew how debilitated she was with the first Lyme infection. I didn’t want her to be that sick ever again.
 
Dr. Klinghardt is of the opinion that one only gets a bulls-eye rash if one already had Lyme disease [5]. This is certainly consistent with our family’s experience – none of us had a bulls-eye rash when we were initially infected, but the oldest child got one the second time around.
 
Is there an acute Lyme disease cure? I knew we had a chance with immediate antibiotic therapy, before the new strain of Lyme had a chance to bore, encyst and hide in her joints and organs. The research on acute Lyme treatment with antibiotics is actually pretty convincing – 80%+ numbers being reported.

Here was our Acute Lyme disease treatment protocol. This was based on the weight of a 50lb child.

1. Ozone injection into site of bullseye rash. Also bubbled ozone into her enema for a few weeks. I’m normally not a fan of ozone enemas since they kill beneficial bacteria, but she was on antibiotics anyway, so why not.
2. Antibiotics – Amoxicillin 1375mg twice per day & Bactrin 1 caps twice / day.

   To control GI issues, she took 2g Grapefruit seed extract & 2 caps berberine / day taken mid-day. 20+ billion probiotics without FOS/inulin were taken in the morning & evening. She also took ADP proactively to help with mold/fungal issues, 1 pill twice a day.

3. ZYTO PRACTITIONER WEEKLY for the first 4-6 weeks. Note I convinced our local LLMD to actually prescribe antibiotics that were testing the best on ZYTO. We used ZYTO to monitor yeast, molds, and viruses, and made sure her drainage and detox pathways didn’t get stuck.
4. Full Buhner protocol for acute Lyme – look on his website or in his book for details.
5. Cowden Protocol at 3x dose (continued as above from her chronic Lyme infection).
6. We found that the mold/fungal issues after this treatment plan lasted around 3-4 months. We ate no sugar, carbs, or moldy foods during that time. She also stayed on ADP for 3-4 months post acute Lyme protocol.

She didn’t develop any new Lyme symptoms. It seems to me that this treatment plan worked against her ‘new’ Lyme exposure. One thing it didn’t work against was the herpes infection that she got with the ‘new’ Lyme. About 7 days after the bite, she got big hives all over her body, despite the multiple antibiotics. ZYTO confirmed the herpes virus, HHV5. She had gotten HHV6 already from the first Lyme exposure.

After this experience, our second time contracting Lyme disease in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have now stocked up on Lyme antibiotics that I keep around our home. The antibiotics I stock are Cipmox and Ciplin DS from All Day Chemist. This is just in case someone gets bitten again. We were lucky to get immediate appointments with both a ZYTO practitioner and a LLMD, but I know we may not be so lucky to get fast appointments in the future.
 
 

Can Lyme Disease Be Cured?

Can Lyme Disease be cured? I get this question a lot when people see how our family has gone from debilitating symptoms to radiant health. Are we really cured? The answer is actually very complicated.
 
We know Borrelia can bore, encyst and hide in joints, organs and tissues. How long can Borrelia hide in this encysted form without food? We don’t really know, but there have been studies pointing to at least 14-18 months. It is possible to be symptom-free and still have Borrelia hiding encysted in the body. Anecdotally, we hear of cases of Chronic Lyme Disease being ‘cured’ or ‘in remission’ for years, only to re-surface with a vengeance later.
 
Can Lyme Disease Co-Infections be cured? We don’t really know the answer to this either. Similar to Borrelia, Babesia specifically is well known for boring into joints, organs, and tissues. It can also encyst and hide.

What if we define Lyme disease cure as being symptom-free? Under this definition, it is possible to be ‘cured’ of Lyme disease. Our family of 4 has been symptom-free for 5 years by now. We live vibrant lives, and most people can’t believe we ever had Lyme. Details of our Lyme disease cure can be found above under Chronic Lyme Disease Treatment.

 
How does one stay symptom free? What if the Borrelia comes out of hiding? The best defense we have is our immune system. It is with us all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The immune system can adapt and keep fighting as Lyme and co-infections mutate. Dr. Klinghardt said in one of his trainings that once you have Lyme, you have Lyme; the goal is to train your immune system to tolerate the bugs while managing the microbes and integrating with them [5].

 
How do we keep the immune system ready to go? Our list is above in Chronic Lyme Disease Treatment. I want to stress the importance of clearing up chronic infections, like gut bacteria, dental infections, and parasites. Then the immune system can focus on fighting Lyme. In other words, we now consider this list a way of life. We don’t need a magic Lyme disease cure pill. Our immune systems are ready for Lyme or anything else that comes our way!

 
These thoughts about ‘Can Lyme Disease Be Cured?’ are summarized in this video:

Support Groups

Getting a Lyme diagnosis can be overwhelming. The first thing I did when I got mine was to talk to my psychiatrist! I knew this was going to be a marathon that I would have to sprint. I wanted to make sure that my head was screwed on straight from the starting line. She gave me one very good piece of advice – “Don’t let this disease take over your whole life. Keep working (or doing something you love), even if you can only do it for 1 hour per day. Don’t let the disease become your identity.” This seemed impossible at the time, but it was great advice. I also have more detailed tips on the social and emotional aspects of dealing with chronic disease.

Another person with Lyme gave me more advice: Many people with Lyme are ‘crazy’ and a lot of the Lyme groups have incoherent posts. I’ve realized that Borellia does bore into the brain, and many people with Lyme have cognitive troubles. I’ve generally found this advice to be correct.
 
I checked out our local Lyme Support Group meetings, but I found them unsupportive of people who are not working with an LLMD. I also found it quite depressing to listen to all the stories of people working with LLMDs who were getting simultaneously sicker and poorer.

 
Truly inspiring is the work of Dr. Kelly Turner. She studied late-stage cancer patients who were sent home to die. These patients miraculously healed, and their stories have been unstudied and unpublished before her work. Kelly published 9 hypotheses, or common themes, of how these people healed themselves. Check out her talk and her book Radical Remission. I have summarized her hypotheses here.
 

The only Lyme specific info that I sometimes follow is the blog/FB from Better Health Guy. His focus is updates about latest articles and studies that might be of interest to people with Lyme. His tone is upbeat and non-judgemental.

I also find following Christine Carter quite helpful, especially for #10 under Chronic Lyme above: “Head Screwed On Straight.”

I follow Mark’s Daily Apple for support and info about diet. This is a major part of #1 “Healing the Gastrointestinal Tract” under Chronic Lyme above. I also sometimes follow the podcasts of Sarah Fragoso and Jason Seib.

Blessings from Chronic Lyme Disease

Lyme and Blessings? Really? In hindsight, I can say Lyme was a big blessing for our family. It robbed us of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Years of our lives. What is so blessed about that?
 

1. Parasites – We definitely wouldn’t have realized or treated parasites had we not had Lyme. We experienced great improvements in our overall health from parasite cleansing alone. Thank you Lyme disease!
2. Hidden Dental Infections – Lyme also forced us to find and heal our dental infections. Unbelievable improvements in our chiropractic and overall health from clearing up hidden dental infections.
3. Frenectomy, Oral Development Work for Children – We probably would’ve put our children in braces and headgear had Lyme not forced us to see different osteopaths and dentists. I had no idea how much our oral structure effects our health.
4. Healing the Gut & Diet – Lyme forced us to heal our guts and change our diet. It was a major shift with big rewards. The rewards weren’t only in the Lyme category – better moods, better skin, better cholesterol, thyroid function improved, and more energy.
5. Friends – Finding out who your true friends are is definitely a blessing.
6. Prevention – Without Lyme, we never would have figured out or addressed our gut, our diet, our chronic infections, or our ability to detoxify and drain. I’m suspicious all this work on our health is going to help prevent us from future diseases.
7. Head Screwed on Straight – Lyme definitely helped make sure we had our heads screwed on straight. Gratitude for our days on this earth, warm meals, family, home and health. We have never been so thankful and happy.

So is Lyme a blessing? It definitely was in many ways for us. Would I wish it on anyone? No way!!! But, if you are suffering, maybe there’s a bigger reason. Namaste.

FAQ

Q: What helped most with your short term memory, initiative, drive, and brain fog issues?
A: For cognitive symptoms, we found the following the most helpful, in rank order:

1. Enema – 500mL held for at least 20 minutes. A fleet enema from the drugstore is fine.
2. Activated Charcoal – This often tested well for us during brain fog episodes. Put it in the enema for even faster resolution!
3. Drainage – Occasionally neither enemas nor charcoal worked because it was a drainage issue. Drainage usually takes longer – about 1-2 weeks for resolution. Drainage is item 4 on the Chronic Lyme Disease Treatment list.

Q: Mold!! Everyone in the Lyme community is talking about mold these days. The Chronic Lyme Disease Cure above doesn’t even mention mold. Why not?
A: Good question! The very first thing our family tried was ZYTO treatments. We did this because we thought we just had allergies, and ZYTO was supposed to be good at treating allergies. Well, it turns out that our ZYTO practitioner also treated us for many mold allergies. Many times. For about 1 year. From the very beginning of our health problems. My sense is that these treatments actually helped. Furthermore, we eat a strict autoimmune Paleo diet. I theorize that not eating grains, sugars, fruits, and moldy foods helps prevent mold illness. We do all live and work in older buildings build in the 1950s and 1960s. However, as far as we know, none of these buildings have mold issues. We have yet to observe any mold-specific illness in our family of four.
 

Q: So you didn’t work with a Lyme-Literate MD (LLMD)?

A: Nope. We really didn’t work with any LLMD. Their success rates are 30-40%. As an engineer, if I’m unsuccessful more than 50% of the time, then I’d be fired. Yes, Lyme is not easily treatable with one pill, but I still challenge them to do better. Furthermore, I see patients coming out of our local LLMD practice bankrupt and sicker. Heart. Breaking. My success rate on our family is 4 people out of 4 people. Without a LLMD, mostly on our own, and all the details are above under Chronic Lyme Disease Cure. A quote from Dr. Lee Cowden (LLMD) in his ACIM training flyer “…Active patients tend to heal faster and more completely than passive patients…”

Q: What practitioners do you think should be on my team?

A: See above practitioner discussion for my opinion about LLMDs. Our Lyme practitioner team includes the following, in rank order from most helpful to least helpful: ZYTO practitioner, chiropractor, osteopath, oral myofacial therapist, dentist, and oral surgeon.

Q: How long do I have to treat an acute Lyme exposure until it becomes chronic Lyme disease?

A: We don’t know. The sooner treatment for acute Lyme is started, the better. ASYRA can detect Lyme in about 10 days. Blood tests take a few weeks, and I’ve often heard practitioners say that by then it’s too late – the Lyme is already chronic. My opinion is that we know Lyme can bore into joints and tissues, encyst, and hide. It all depends on where the Lyme exposure happens on the body, and if the infection has already found a place to encyst and hide. There are lots of variables here. Unfortunately no concrete answer.

Q: I am nearly debilitated by my symptoms and have found I’m extremely sensitive to ElectroMagnetic Frequencies (EMF). Have you experienced this or have any insight related to this?

A: We have not noticed that we are sensitive to EMF. I do know several people who are. Nothing has helped them. However, none of them have done energetic treatments from BLEEPScan a biofeedback company overseas. (I have to use BLEEP because they have threatened a lawsuits.) This machine can treat for EM sensitivity. Does it work? I don’t know. We have gotten EMF treatments because it came up on our scans. I can’t say we noticed any symptom of this, or any difference after the treatment. If anyone tries it, let me know if it works. The other place I would look to solve EMF sensitivity is actually leaky gut.
 

Q: Do you have a list of your upkeep protocol post recovery?

A: We are still working on chelation (it takes many years) and parasites (The kids are constantly being re-infected at school). In addition, we take 2g Vitamin C per day, and 5-10kIUs of Vitamin D in the fall, winter, and spring. We do IR sauna twice a week, and enemas every 2 weeks. Drainage remedies are monitored every few months, or I hand test them if anything come up. We are constantly on drainage remedies. Occasionally we are on some other supplements, examples would be methylation support or activated charcoal. Many of these additional supplements likely have more to do with our chelation work than with Lyme directly.

 
Q: Just got test back positive for Lyme. What is safe for breast feeding? I have a 3 month old.

A: There are differing opinions on this topic, as I’m sure you’ve found out already. There is no consensus in the medical community. All I can do is add my opinion to the mix. If the baby is healthy, their stomach acid should, in theory, take care of any infectious Lyme bacteria coming in orally. However, many of us these days don’t have healthy gut flora, let alone enough stomach acid to kill bacteria and viruses or digest our food properly. There is also no consensus on the topic of passing Lyme and co-infections in utero to unborn fetuses. My personal opinion on this topic is that Lyme and co-infections are probably passed on in utero.

So in conclusion, I would guess the baby already has Lyme, and I would continue breastfeeding. The exception to this is if you have had a large heavy metal exposure in your life. In that case, I would reach into my wallet and send a breastmilk sample out for testing. If it comes out high for heavy metals, then I would stop breastfeeding.
 

Q: What do you think about using Stevia for Lyme, as in the article “Effectiveness of Stevia Rebaudiana Whole Leaf Extract Against the Various Morphological Forms of Borrelia Burgdorferi in Vitro”?

A: Great news! Our family drank lots of Stevia sweetened sports drinks when we were Lyme-symptomatic. We even had our own stevia plant in our garden. I never noticed any difference in our symptoms with stevia sweetened drinks… We know Lyme can encyst and hide from antibiotics. I would assume the same is true of stevia. Plus Lyme is systemic, so can the stevia get to all parts of the body where the Lyme is? I’m wondering about an IV stevia or injectible stevia. Just thoughts…

References

[1] Strasheim, Connie, “Insights into Lyme Disease Treatment: 13 Lyme-Literate Health Care Practitioners Share their Healing Strategies”

[2] Lyme Disease Symptoms

[3] Dr. Simon Yu MD, Accidental Cure, 2010.

[4] Bruce Lipton, PhD, The Biology of Belief, Chapter 1-2, 2008.

[5] Klinghardt Pearls as recorded by Better Health Guy, September 2017 training.
 
 

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Last Updated: Mar 23, 2023 @ 3:54 pm