Treatment

Mainstream Medicine

Using the mainstream medical approach for Lyme Disease, antibiotics and only antibiotics are required to destroy and eradicate Borrelia burgdorferi from the body. 

The type of antibiotics used for treatment are directly dependent on the stage and manifestation of the disease. The following is taken directly from Health Canada.

"Although Lyme disease can have serious symptoms, several antibiotics are available to treat the illness. Lyme disease is more effectively treated if diagnosed early in the course of illness. Most cases of Lyme disease can be cured with a 2-4 weeks of treatment with doxycycline, amoxicillin, or ceftriaxone. Persons with certain neurological or cardiac forms of illness may require intravenous treatment with penicillin or ceftriaxone. Patients diagnosed in the later stages of the disease can have persistent or recurrent symptoms requiring a longer course of antibiotic treatment.  Treatment failure has been reported, requiring patients be retreated; the risk of treatment failure is greater in patients with long-term Lyme infection."   

As the Health Canada statement indicates, treatment failure is common. Some research suggests that in the case of Chronic Lyme Disease, the success rate to long-term treatment is as low as 1 in 3, meaning over 65% of those treated with long-term antibiotics, end up having the disease again. The problem is that the bacteria has the ability to hide in areas known as bio-films where it is shielded from antibiotic treatment and cannot be killed.  The systemic problem of low antibiotic success feeds the fire that too little is known about this disease and that too little research is being done to solve the mysteries that still exist.  

Natural Medicine

In the summer of 2006, I finally came to my senses and gave up on my doctor.  Everything my doctor did to treat my symptoms made me worse. Round after round of short-term antibiotics without ever referring me to a specialist or ever trying to properly test for any sort of specific bacterial or viral infection, my body was left with an enraged bacterial infection that flourished throughout my body.  The more short-term antibiotics I received, the physically sicker that I became. Furthermore, my doctor's outright persistence that the pain I suffered from was all in my head, and that the problems I had were directly related to a history of family mental illness that simply did not even exist, was the most blatantly demoralizing period of my life. I felt I had no choice but to introvert and hide from exposing what I had been told. The power of my doctor telling me that I had mental problems and that my physical pain was not real, was both unbearable, and unforgivable.

I am living proof that alternative medicine is safe and effective.  My body has first- hand knowledge that Naturopathic, Homeopathic, and Herbal Remedies, not only work, but they do what they do without causing damage to the body, in the way that the long-term use of harsh pharmaceutical antibiotic drugs can.  Even more so, I am living proof that the alternative medicine way has the ability to restore what two-decades of bacterial infection damage can do. 

In my case, the collateral damage done after almost two-decades of Lyme Disease, has given me a clear understanding of what works.  In the beginning, I was diagnosed with and tested positive for a major fungal infection.  After 6 months of treatment from July of 2007 until December of 2007, I test fungal free to this day.  

What is clear today is that the only reason that I ever contracted the fungal infection was because my body was constantly fighting a major bacterial infection, Lyme Disease, and because my immune system was under such overwhelming stress, it lacked the ability to defend itself when exposed to the fungus.  In short, the infestation of Borrelia burgdorferi inside my body resulted in major immune system deterioration and damage.  In the process of recovering from Lyme Disease, I have suffered from significant Adrenal Gland and Thymus Gland pain and problems, that have greatly effected my bodies ability to react from exposure to colds and infections. 

In my case, solving all the collateral damage has been a more complex and costly treatment process than dealing with the Lyme Disease itself.  I relate my situation to a small leak in a $10 engine part, that results in $4,000 damage to the engine of a car.  If the part had been repaired when it failed, the engine damage would have never occurred. 

In the hundreds, now thousands of hours I have spent investigating alternative medicine products in order to facilitate curing Lyme Disease as well as all the collateral damage done to my body, the one thing I have not been able to find is a first hand accounting of the experiences I had through my recovery.  The alternative treatments that are available for Lyme Disease are both numerous and effective.  I am living proof that prescription antibiotics that can have side effects as debilitating as the disease itself are not necessary for the treatment and cure of Lyme Disease.  I am living proof that natural herbs and supplements, as well as effective homeopathic remedies really work to eradicate Lyme Disease.

 James Christie, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.