By: Dr. Alan Lindsley
I have been asked this question a thousand times by individuals who have spent years in the spin cycle of feeling better, feeling worse, feeling better, and worse yet again. After helping hundreds of patients regain their health again, I would say with confidece that yes you can live a fully functional life, have energy to do all your favorite activities, and age gracefully while still knowing your friend’s first name along with your own after you have had Lyme disease. Once exposed to a virus, it will live with you the rest of your life, but you may never feel the symptoms of the virus again if you have a healthy immune system. Many patients are told that a round or two of doxycycline will eliminate Lyme disease from your body and all positive tests after this point are simply the result of your immune system’s initial response to the Lyme bacteria or a co-infection.
Others treating in a drug model cycle their patients through a series of cocktails of antibiotics usually 3-4 at one time, trying to create a multi-prong approach. Every month or two they switch the antibiotics up hoping to kill any of the remaining bacteria or parasites that have evaded the last cycle of drugs. Still others may turn to herbal-based medicines to give them the edge to beat down the parasites and bacteria associated with Lyme disease. If using an antibiotic approach, most good flora in the gut is destroyed, and parasites and yeast unaffected by the antibiotics take over the gut system, creating dysbiosis and more toxins to deal with overloading the liver yet again. If you have been sold this view point and this is the protocol they are using, you may want to put down your paddle before you find yourself too fa down that long river in Egypt called denial.
The real truth is that most cases of Lyme disease are more than just simple Lyme bacteria running around in your blood stream targeting specific ogans and creating a system that is full of toxins that overwhelm detoxification pathways creatin systemic problems in our body blocking the most basic functions of energy production, immune function, and tissue repair pathways. Combinations of Lyme bacteria, Babesia, Bartonella, and Ehrlichia (carried by ticks and potentially mosquitoes) along with hidden Sporazoa (carried by mosquitoes) are common in most people with or without a positive test. The biggest problem in testing is finding the exact match to the bacteria or parasie that you are hosting. Multiple strains in each of these categories make most testing very expensive and unreliable at best at pin pointing the infection. When you spend thousands of dollars on testing (or your insurance does) and they find no evidence of any bacteria r parasites associated with Lyme disease, you are simply told, “You do not have Lyme disease.”
Often at this exact moment an all-out search begins to “categorize” your symptoms into a diagnosable disease so we can potentially apply a prescription to the symptoms. The most common diagnosis for muscles and joints will be fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue bursitis, tendonitis, or some form of arthritis (rheumatoid, osteo, or infective). If areas being affected are located in the central nervous system (CNS), it will be diagnosed as anxiety, depression, sleep disorder (multiple), MS, ALS, Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer’s. I call all of these names No Known Cause (NKC)- No Known Cure diseases.
When a doctor decides to hand you a diagnosis like this, I have advised that you should look them square in the eye and say, “I see you have categorized my symptoms into a diagnosis. Tell me what is the root cause? Explain to me your plan to return my physiology of my tissue to a normal functional level.” You may hear crickets chirping as the sun sets before you get an honest answer. If you decide to go the pharmaceutical route, be aware that no drug prescription actually heals our tissue. Drugs manipulate the receptors on cells blocking most symptoms as they turn receptors off or on but are incapable of healing our cells. Most of these diseases we experience start with a lack of energy to keep the tissue healthy and repair is unlikely.
The body is very intelligent, so it will do whatever it can to survive all of the hidden infections and toxins that are secreted. It diverts energy from function to survival areas, and you slowly see your ability to perform daily tasks drain away until you fid yourself not being able to perform them. Forget about working, exercising, laughing, or loving while trying to maintain friendships or relationships. You are happy just to shower and eat.
Most people with Lyme disease and most of those treating Lyme disease have no idea how the body makes energy or what nutrients are used in these chemical pathways to repair and detoxify. This causes a person to stay in this spin cycle of disease as they slowly watch their mental and physical health deteriorate and then die. They don’t live, they simply exist trapped in a body and a system that has no ability to create healing.
I have been asked hundreds of times, “What’s your protocol?” as if there is a single way to treat every person exactly the same. My answer is simple: if you have the exact same infections, the exact same body type, the exact same genetic SNiPs (interruptions in our normal genetic code), the exact same diet, the exact same chemical and metal toxins, the same exposure to the exact same mental and emotional stresses that have been present for the exact same amount of time, then great we can create one sweeping protocol for all who have Lyme disease.
In all the cases I have seen no two people are exactly the same, and so there is no real basic protocol, but the same basic things are done every time. The two steps to getting well are simple: get rid of what is not you (bacteria, parasites, fungus, yeast, heavy metals, and chemical toxins being excreted or exposed to) and rebuild what is you (fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, protein, carbs, and water). A body that has a functioning energy system with proper balance of nutrients will have a functioning immune system, an abundance of energy, and little or no sign of illness or disease processes. While creating energy and repairing our tissue, it is only a matter of time before an inflammatory-based diseas process begins destroying our tissue and the labeling games begin!
Herbs have been used for thousands of years to remove pathogens, boost detoxification pathways, and assist the bod in repairing tissue. Combining the correct combinations of herbs into herbal tinctures can have amazing effects on stubborn infections. A single antibiotic may be thought of as a single arrow being shot at a moving target. Correctly combined herbal combinations can be thought of as shooting a 100 arrows at a moving target. I like a whole quiver of arrows being used at once. These herbal combinations along with proper application of nutrition for the body’s building blocks create a path to restoring normal function of tissues. A huge part of this healing process is understanding and identifying the genetic SNiPs and what types of nutrients will help bypass these genetic breaks in our inherited genetics. Bypassing these genetic weaknesses is often the difference between feeling a little better and getting completely well. Lyme disease has an amazing ability to really expose our genetic weaknesses.
People who make energy well are not in my office or anyone else’s regardless of whether Lyme is present or not. I have seen hundreds of people live productive lives, including myself, with Lyme disease until there is a tip of balance in the ability to manage the chronic problem and make energy. This is when you often see the wheels fall off; manageable symptoms become unmanageable, and they begin looking for answers. When Dr. Google, Phil, and Oz can’t explain away the symptoms, they find themselves looking to a nutritionist, a chiropractor, an herbalist, or a medical doctor for answers. Tens of thousands of dollars can be spent on testing with nothing being found to identify the cause or someone to provide a logical plan of action to restore normal cell health and physiological function.
One of the goals of our website is to introduce basic concepts of how the body works, how Lyme disease affects the body, and basic concepts to getting well. Anyone interested in understanding the fundamentals of healing and basics of Lyme disease is encouraged to view the videos on our site. We will be adding to these basic concepts and ideas every few months.
Website: www.naturespharmacyllc.com.
Dr. Lindsley has helped thousands of patients from all over the United States suffering with chronic Lyme Disease by treating each patient based upon their individual and genetic needs. He is a former suffer of Lyme Disease for over 30 years. Through his own research he has developed several different products that target Lyme bacteria and various co-infections. He has taught over 50 doctors in the midwest his approach to treating patients with Lyme Disease and his unique understanding of how patients can once again have complete health and vitality.
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