Lyme disease got its name from a town in Connecticut where physicians were treating an unusually large number of cases of what was first thought to be Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Medical investigators eventually found that the condition was actually caused by a bacterial infection, Spirochete. Today we know that we are looking at more than just a simple bacterial disease.
Many Lyme symptoms mimic other diseases, such as MS, Altzheimer’s, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and other autoimmune disorders as well as Parkinson’s and many other ailments, making it difficult to determine whether a patient has Lyme or another disease. Because of this mimicry, many Lyme patients go undiagnosed until they are in a more chronic state.
Why lyme disease is so complicated??
The severity and treatment of Lyme disease is often complicated due to late diagnoses, failure of antibiotic treatment, and immune suppression in the patient (sometimes resulting from inappropriate treatment with steroids).
Western Blot test is good but not perfect – too many false negatives.
The alternative Lyme blood test isn’t any good either because there are too many false positives if the patient has ever had cold sores or genital herpes.
Chronic Lyme disease is real and symptoms can be many and varied including mental/emotional symptoms not usually associated with a bacterial infections.
In addition to late diagnoses, many cases are missed or misdiagnosed due to inconclusive tests.
The presenting set of the symptoms could anything like persistent swollen glands, sore throat, fevers, chills, sore soles, especially in the morning, joint pain and/or swelling in fingers, toes, ankles, wrists, knees, elbows, hips, shoulders, numbness in the arms and/or legs, unexplained back pain, stiffness of the joints and back, muscle pain and cramps, obvious muscle weakness, twitching of the face or other muscles, confusion, difficulty thinking, difficulty with concentration, focus and reading, problem absorbing new information, searching for words and names, forgetfulness, poor short term memory, poor attention, disorientation: getting lost, going to wrong places, speech errors, such as wrong words or misspeaking, mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, psychosis (hallucinations, delusions), paranoia, bipolar, tremor, seizures, headaches, light and sound sensitivity, double, or blurry vision with floaters, ear pain, hearing problems, such as buzzing, ringing or decreased hearing, increased motion sickness, vertigo, spinning, off balance, “tippy” feeling, lightheadedness, wooziness, unavoidable need to sit or lie, fainting, flu-like feeling, tingling, numbness, burning or stabbing sensations, shooting pains, skin hypersensitivity, facial paralysis, dental pain, TMJ, neck creaks and cracks, stiffness, neck pain, fatigue, tiredness, poor stamina, insomnia, fractionated sleep, early awakening, excessive night time sleep, napping during the day, unexplained weight gain or loss, unexplained hair loss, pain in genital area, unexplained menstrual irregularity or milk production, breast pain, irritable bladder, erectile dysfunction, loss of libido, uneasy stomach, nausea, heartburn, stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, constipation alternating with diarrhea, low abdominal pain, cramps, heart murmur or valve prolapse, heart palpitations or skips, chest wall pain or sore ribs, head congestion, breathlessness, “air hunger,” unexplained chronic cough, night sweats, exaggerated symptoms or worse hangover from alcohol, skin rashes, conjunctivitis (pinkeye), herpes, Zoster/Shingles.
These patients are often trapped between opposing medical opinions. Indeed, the severity and treatment of Lyme disease is often complicated due to late diagnoses, failure of antibiotic treatment, and immune suppression in the patient (sometimes resulting from inappropriate treatment with steroids). In addition to late diagnoses, many cases are missed or misdiagnosed due to inconclusive tests.
The orthodox response to Lyme disease is to treat an infected person with a heavy dose of oral antibiotics. Of course - as orthodox treatments are known to do - those treatments often produce unpleasant side effects, including nausea, diarrhea, sun sensitivity, vaginal yeast infections, rash, glossitis, abdominal pain and an eradication of their immune system. these types of high dose antibacterial treatment can be almost as painful as the disease.
Lyme bugs work hard to protect themselves by existing in a self-produced matrix. The bugs secrete exopolysaccharides and exoproteins, effectively creating an armored shell around the community. Because of these methods, they remain stealth to the immune system and even antibiotics have a difficult time penetrating. Inside these shells, called biofilms, the bugs communicate with each other regarding when to grow. When the community grows large enough, the biofilm breaks, flooding the system with bugs. There are many natural supplements that work to break these up, creating movement, including fish oil, antioxidants, herbal compounds and enzymes. Specific herbs can reduce the number of colonies and reduce the number of cells inside the colonies.
In addition to the disease itself, many sufferers of Lyme also have co-infections, which can cause a lot more problems than the Lyme itself. Babesia, the most common of the co-infections, is found in about 66% of Lyme patients. Symptoms of Babesia are usually neurological in nature, and may include fever, chills, night sweats, weight loss, numbness, tingling, OCD, anxiety and depression.
Bartonella is another common co-infection with Lyme Disease. Bartonella causes what is referred to as “cat scratch fever.” It attacks the surface of the gut lining and also causes skin problems, sharp pains on the soles of the feet, painful migraines, and the sensation of something crawling under the skin. Another noteworthy co-infection is Rickettsia, which manifests as fatigue, anorexia, anemia, fever, chills, headache, muscle pain, tremors and gut problems. It has a special affinity for the adrenal glands with a key symptom of adrenal fatigue.
Homeopathy for lyme disease are :
Homeopathic medicine selection is driven by the subjective symptom pattern, not by the diagnostic disease label. This approach takes aim at the specific pattern of disturbance in an individual. It appears to do this without provoking disease resistance, and may in fact promote host resistance. Further study needs to evaluate exactly what systems are involved in this process and to what degree.
The homeopathic methodology is not rigid. The pharmacopea provides an extremely wide range of treatment options. There are a number of different style, including classical homeopathy, which make the application of homeopathic principles extremely flexible.
Classical homeopathy is a system of medicine that relies on the prescription of one single medicine at a time. This prescription is based on a thorough interview with the individual patient and takes into consideration the entire psycho-somatic totality of symptoms that are present in each individual. There is not one single homeopathic medicine for Lyme Disease. Any homeopathic medicine can be effective in Lyme Disease if it matches the appropriate symptoms of the particular individual in question.
Sepia, Sulphur, Ledum, Syphilinum, Carcinocin, Kalmia, Arnica, Rhododendron, Bryonia, Gelsemium, Rhus Toxicodendron, Arsenicum Album, Apis, Hypericum, Ruta, Symphytum, Silica, Cimicifuga, Argentum Nitricum, Mercury, Colchicine, Pulsatilla, Lac Caninium, Lyssinum, Myristica, Carboneum Sulphuricum, China, Psorinum, Tuberculinum, Natrum Sulphuricum,, Thuja are some of the names of the remedies I have used for lyme disease in my practice.