I am listening to the Chronic Lyme Summit this week, and one thing coming through loud and clear is that this illness is complicated, and sorting it requires a comprehensive approach. You have to cover all the bases to get long lasting results. Many still don’t understand the intricacies of Lyme disease; as a patient, I learned about them the hard way with lots of herxing and relapses. Sometimes the long road is the only path over the mountain of tick-borne illness
I was one of those patients whose response broke the rules. I was toxic and depleted. As I figured this out, I kept asking for a less aggressive approach to my treatment. Things like IV vitamin C and glutathione that “makes everyone feel better” made me sicker and sicker, until I finally said no more.
The hair on my head was falling out; I had no hair on my body either. I was exhausted and in pain every day. My hormones were all too low. In rebuilding hormone levels, they started me on pregnenalone, I argued with the doctor to cut the dose, because I understood my sensitivity, but still had a massive flair that set me back months.
Long Term Chronic Illness Wear On The Body
If you have been sick for 5, 10, or more years, there are cumulative effects like clogged lymph, sluggish liver mitochondrial dysfunction, and leaky gut. Overload adds up, creating additional hurdles for recovery. You get too sick to treat effectively without some essential rebuilding first. What do I mean by this?
You have to fix rebuild, restart the systems that keep you well to tolerate treatment and maintain wellness. The idea of system repair before or coincident with pathogen treatment is fundamental in Eastern health traditions. I know this now from Ayurveda, as well as my Lyme journey.
Cover All The Bases Address Broken Systems, Wear And Tear
Work with a health care team who does the testing to understand the hurdles in your future and builds a comprehensive plan that meets your needs and covers all the bases, in addition to treating pathogens with pharmaceuticals or herbs. System repair may take more time but will bring you to a healthier place.
Elimination
You eliminate waste through your sweat, kidneys, and digestive tract. If your elimination pathways don’t work, this is a problem. Open lymphatic drainage and healthy kidney and liver function are a must. If your hands and feet are hot and cold or you have excess fluid in those extremities, your lymph is not moving well. Talk to your health care team. One of the best things you can do to help your lymph and kidneys is to drink water. Drink warm water throughout the day to maintain healthy hydration.
Chronic dehydration can also contribute to constipation. Ideally, adults defecate once or twice a day. Once a week or five times a day is not healthy. Constipation and diarrhea both indicate problems. Constipation concentrates toxic waste in the body rather than escorting it out. Diarrhea interferes with nutrient assimilation, and your cells starve for the materials they need to rebuild health. I had diarrhea for years after the antibiotics to kill pathogens. It took a while to get back to normal.
Energy
Mitochondria generate energy and stimulate defense against pathogens via activating specific components of our immune response to promote healing. If every cell in our body has parts that are not working, our defensive system gets stuck and can’t do its job. Rebuilding mitochondrial health promotes immune system accuracy and resiliency.
Mitochondria are the energy makers of the body. Glucose is converted to ATP to store energy for later use: no power if mitochondria are stuck. Mitochondrial dysfunction is on factor in the exhaustion associated with chronic illness. Toxicity overwhelms these organelles and impairs the ability of lymph to carry pollutants away from the cells. Check-in with your health care team and seek support. Click this link for some options shown to help mitochondrial function.
Digestion
Digestion takes stuff your body sees as other or foreign like food, information images, smells, and that you bring in and converts them to a form your body can recognize and use. When digestion is impaired, this conversion is irregular or incomplete, and the body doesn’t understand the results. It treats the partially broken down foods as toxins. Partially digested materials add a burden to the body’s detox pathways.
Detoxification
We live in a toxic world. Illness adds to toxic loading as does getting well. Detox needs to start at the beginning and follow along through the process. Start by quitting smoking and drinking, eat more nutrient-dense and organic foods. Reduce the use of personal and household chemicals. Move and sweat every day. Work with your health care team to determine if you need additional detox support with prescriptions, supplements, or intravenous chelation therapy.
Chronic infections.
Why do you see the infections at the end? It is not as though your doctor won’t knock the pathogenic population a little early on to get some symptom relief. Still, in many ill people, their systems are too broken to bear the stress that complete pathogen elimination creates. Because of this, they get sicker, and treatment slows or stops before your immune response is healthy enough to carry its part of the load. All of these bad bugs die ugly; they release a lot of toxins when they kick it. Your body has to be able to shepherd toxins out.
Parasites
Move parasites up in the treatment schedule. Address them early because they host and protect pathogenic organisms. Work with your doctor to determine when you are ready to eliminate parasites through a cleanse or medication.
From Parasites, move on to clear any ongoing nagging infections. Your body will be in a better position to remove, and toxins from die off and your immune response will help you.
Unfortunately, a comprehensive treatment is not a short process, but it is a doable one. There is a lot to gain in this type of healing. All of these areas need to be examined and addressed as part of a comprehensive approach to rebuilding wellness from chronic Lyme disease. It may take more than one pass through each category to deeply heal. Assemble a health care team to support you on the journey and keep moving forward.
The purpose of this article is to share and educate on Lyme disease recovery strategies. The information provided on this website is not a substitute for professional medical care, treatment, or advice. All the material here is for information purposes only. Always share strategy and work with your health care team.