The month of May has been Lyme awareness month. The tick season this year is predicted to be the worst ever. Lyme talk is everywhere. Nowadays people even know that Lyme doesn’t just come from ticks, in fact many people with chronic Lyme do not recall ever having a tick bite not to mention a bull’s-eye rash. Everyone with a chronic set of symptoms that no one is able to figure out is suspecting Lyme, and are being diagnosed with Lyme. Lyme vaccines are in the works and chemicals (natural and synthetic) to kill ticks are flooding the market with the promise of prevention. My inbox is flooded with emails and queries regarding tick-bites and Lyme, how to PREVENT the dreaded disease. Is there a homeopathic prophylaxis? Is there something we can take so that ticks don’t bite us? And, if they do, so that we won’t get Lyme? etc. On the flip-side, the moment the doctors give a Lyme diagnosis, people are dropping every thing that they were doing to help their symptoms, even holistic-minded people, practitioners and patients alike, and jumping on the antibiotic bandwagon. Strong antibiotics, for months at a time, to boot. I see utter fear in people’s eyes when they get a tick bite, or goodness forbid, a bull’s-eye rash. Not taking any chances, antibiotics first, everything else later. If I could hit PAUSE on this madness, and knee-jerk, fear-based reactions to Lyme, I would gladly do so right away. Why? Because no one can think logically when they are consumed with fear. That just leads one to seek the wrong treatments, setting them back months and years, and often driving the disease deeper, and a weaker vital force at the end of it all than they started out with.
My intention is certainly not to make light of the suffering of people with deep-seated disease. 6-8 years ago, I was one of the first ones educating people about chronic Lyme. I had watched and was intrigued by the documentary “Under Our Skin – The untold story of Lyme Disease“, a chilling tale of microbes, medicine, and money, as they put it. It’s a fascinating film, and I recommended everyone to watch it, to get educated about Lyme. It was hard to get a medical diagnosis for Lyme then. As a fairly new homeopath at the time, I was interested in the common symptoms of the disease, to discern what constellation of remedies might be indicated for people exhibiting these symptoms. The diagnosis didn’t matter to me either way, as it never does in homeopathy. The characteristic individuality and the constitution of the person seeking help for a certain set of symptoms is what we homeopaths always focus on. But, we do have the concept of miasmatic theory in homeopathy which are “traits” passed down from generation to generation and certain pathogenic microbes can be part of the miasmatic case of the person, therefore I was interested in the Borrelia Burgdorferi and its co-infectious siblings from that perspective. I wondered, did it have the potential to be a miasmatic influence in future generations? Or have a relationship to a previous or existing one, perhaps? (Which it indeed does – to the Syphilis spirochete.)
Fast forward to the current day from the experience of working with many chronically ill people since, I have a much better understanding of the power of homeopathy, and the underlying “obstacles to cure”. Nowadays, the pendulum has swung to the other side as Lyme literacy has shot up in recent years, thanks to ILADS. Virtually everyone with mysterious symptoms is getting diagnosed with Lyme, it’s even being cross-diagnosed with many other chronic issues like ADHD, Autism, OCD, ODD, SPD, etc. Somehow people seem relieved when they get the diagnosis, as if they have finally found the answer to their problems. Have they? In most cases, they haven’t. I know that from the way they are going about treating it, both practitioners and patients alike. Antibiotics, antibiotics, antibiotics. Even a homeopathic MD had said to me years ago that when it comes to Lyme, she recommends antibiotics. With experience and a deeper understanding of the human body and the microbiome that I have now, I completely disagree. Some choose “natural treatments” with no antibiotics, but they almost always seem to involve biocides such as tea-tree oil, olive leaf extract, grape seed extract, rife machines, etc. These are NO DIFFERENT than antibiotics, and all such treatment is accompanied by debilitating herxheimer reactions in many chronic cases. Just because it is “natural” doesn’t mean it is safe, or the correct thing to do. No biocide (synthetic, natural or energetic) ever kills everything, they just don’t. What does not get killed, comes back stronger. Not only that, the antibiotics and biocides have certainly wrecked the microbiome in the process (even if countered with heavy-duty probiotics), the main weapon you already had in your system to help keep the pathogenic microbes at bay to begin with. (When someone hears the word microbiome these days, they immediately think probiotics is the solution, but it is so much more complicated than that!) So, now you have a combination of stronger pathogens, and weaker microbiome. Things just get more chronic thereafter, and harder to resolve. Every single DIFFICULT case of chronic Lyme I have worked with, have had lots of antibiotics/biocides in their case histories, period. Therefore, you see, going directly and solely after the microbial kingdom is never a good treatment plan, and usually a big mistake in the long run… you eradicate one bacterium or virus, there will be another one to take its place. There will always be a microbe if you look for it. WHY? Because Nature uses the microbial kingdom – the bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites – to break down waste matter, dead cells, and toxins, to keep each other in check and maintain ecological balance. Our bodies are no different. Microbes are not to be feared or targeted, but understood, as these are an intrinsic part of LIFE itself. These will lodge and create a problem ONLY if the terrain (e.g. your body) is full of waste and decaying matter. Therefore, one needs to take a smarter approach.
Treating Lyme for the best possible outcome
Here’s what one should understand about LYME. Lyme is primarily nothing but systemic acidosis, similar to Fibromyalgia or Lupus or Multiple Sclerosis, and many other similar chronic diseases – all diseases of systemic acidosis. It’s no wonder that it gets mis-diagnosed for so long, but, what’s the point of even getting the correct diagnosis? I repeat, notice how no antibiotic touches chronic Lyme… it may offer temporary relief, but symptoms come back with a vengeance, or morph into something else. That’s because the spirochete is not the main problem (the terrain is) nor do the antibiotics do anything about cleaning and draining the lymphatic system, instead they simply add to the acidosis, as they proceed to wreck the microbiome. The lymphatic system is the sewer system of our body, and the majority of the immune system lives in it. It is the key missing focus in the treatment of chronic diseases. The blood is always alkaline, and blood tests may not correctly and accurately show the toxicity that is the job of the lymph to carry, except for inflammation markers when they show up in a “blood test”. (The blood deals with the nutrition, the lymph deals with the sewage.)
Acute:
The simplest protocol to use if you get a tick bite is to apply a little paste of food-grade calcium bentonite clay to the site of the bite to help draw out any surface toxins (helps with itching). Followed by a dose of Ledum 30c. Repeat 4-6 hours apart for up to 3 doses (water dosing preferable for those of you who know how), ONLY if the bite continues to be irritated. If redness and itching persists after 48 hours, or if there are subsequent symptoms, then seek a consult.
Chronic:
The best way to address chronic LYME and all similar diseases, is through understanding chemistry, and biology. That we are made of a bunch of cells with two fluids surrounding each cell, the blood (20%) and lymph (80%). The toxicity, the sewage, the waste are part of the lipid based lymphatic fluid. Clean and reduce the acidosis by opening the body’s elimination channels. How? With the chemistry of the right foods (Diet) and herbs (Gemmotherapy) to alkalize and clean and drain this gigantic sewer system in our bodies. (I have to mention here that I don’t recommend enemas, especially coffee enemas!) Acidosis results in erosion and corrosion (death) of organ systems and their functions. This includes the body’s methylation capabilities and genetic polymorphism (like the MTHFR) slowing down detoxification as a result, which in turn leads to more acidosis. It’s a vicious cycle, like many progressively degenerative phenomena out there. Through cleaning and drainage of the lymph, inflammation can be reduced, the vital organs and systems in the body can be re-generated and the microbiome strengthened, epigenetic markers reversed, ultimately facilitating the body’s self-healing capabilities, and it’s ability to appropriately DIGEST, ABSORB, UTILIZE, and subsequently CLEAN itself without help. The vicious cycle then transforms to a health-promoting cycle. Nothing magical about it, but simplicity accompanied by due diligence. Along with the diet and Gemmotherapy, constitutional and miasmatic homeopathy is crucial to balance energetically at a deeper level, affecting mental, emotional (and even spiritual, if so inclined) of a person’s totality, sometimes you need that inner shift and growth to take place before physical symptoms start resolving… for sure, toxicity and acidosis can occur from mental and emotional stress and traumas in life, as well. Stress affects the parasympathetic nervous system and shuts down the kidneys thereby slowing down detoxification. EVERY SYSTEM in the body and mind is CONNECTED, and imbalance in either manifests as symptoms in both. Furthermore, the role of the MIASM (hereditary susceptibilities) in Lyme is pretty significant and that’s what sets Homeopathy apart as we are able to address miasms so beautifully and effectively with it. When thus addressed holistically, voila, no more symptoms.
Understand, not fear the problem. Choose treatments and tools that regenerate your body and mind, not take away function from them even more. By that I emphasize on cleaning and drainage first, BEFORE thinking nutritional deficiencies, as the norm is to always jump to thinking “nutrition” when hearing the words “regenerate” and “repair”. Supplements are pretty useless (or temporary) until and unless digestion, absorption, and utilization are restored. Those three important functions can not happen until the dead/damaged cells are cleared out and the remaining cells/organs/tissues are cleansed of the acids (waste) in the lymphatic fluids surrounding them so that they can perform their designated functions optimally. This also allows the microbiome to re-seed and grow stronger, as the pathogenic microbes reduce with the reduction of waste matter in the body, resulting in a balanced eco-system within the body (and mind).
That brings me back to the tick population going out of control in the first place. That has been attributed to an imbalance in the eco-system of our environment subjected to the harsh chemicals and toxic wastes from industrialization, animal husbandry practices, all resulting in climate change. What does that mean for all those toxic tick-killing products on the market? (Tick Populations Booming due to Climate Change). Sounds like a similar story to what’s happening inside our bodies, doesn’t it? As within, so without.