Summer and Fall are great seasons to enjoy nature and explore the woods. But the forest is no place for shorts and flip-flops. Dangers lurk around every bend of the trail, ranging from poison ivy and flesh-tearing brambles, to snakes, spiders and other insects. One of the most ubiquitous threats to humans is the deer tick — a tiny parasite that carries a deadly bacteria. Once it bites, it burrows under your skin, releasing bacteria into your bloodstream that causes a condition called Lyme disease.
Learn about Lyme disease, its signs and symptoms, common remedies, and innovative new approaches for treating chronic long-term symptoms.
What is Lyme Disease?
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. Vector borne diseases are those that are transmitted to humans by blood-feeding arthropods, including mosquitoes, fleas and ticks. Such diseases include malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is transmitted to humans via a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi that is carried by black-legged ticks, aka deer ticks. Unlike mosquitos that bite and fly, ticks bite and burrow, taking up residence under the skin of their host until they are detected and removed, or until they detach themselves after feeding.
Once infected, Lyme disease is fairly easy to identify from its target-like rings around the bite. However, if the tick burrows into your scalp or other hidden areas, you may not associate your symptoms with a tick bite. Ticks often attach themselves in the armpits, ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, on the scalp, and in pubic hair, so it is important to do a thorough check on yourself, children and pets after time spent in wooded areas.
Symptoms of Lyme disease include:
- fever
- chills
- headache
- achy joints
- swollen lymph nodes
- fatigue
- target-like skin rash
After it finishes feeding, the tick usually falls off on its own, but it can remain attached for up to two weeks.
Alternative Therapies for Chronic Lyme Disease Syndrome
After you discover and remove a tick, you should be alert for symptoms of Lyme disease. It is important to note that not all ticks are infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, and being bitten by a tick does not mean you will get Lyme disease. To transmit Lyme disease, a tick must carry the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria and be attached to a host for 36–48 hours.
If you experience Lyme disease symptoms, it is important to seek immediate medical treatment. If left untreated, the bacterial infection can spread to your heart, joints, and nervous system. While death from a tick bite is rare, an untreated host may experience long-term effects, such as arthritis, issues with the visceral organs, and neurological disorders.
The first line of treatment for Lyme disease is a 2-4 week course of oral or intravenous antibiotics, which in most cases successfully eradicates symptoms. However, in certain cases, symptoms can persist for six months or longer after treatment, a condition called Chronic Lyme Disease (CLD). According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as many as 36% of patients receiving early antibiotic treatment experience persistent symptoms after treatment.
Why symptoms persist in some people and not others remains unknown, but some experts suspect that the bacteria triggers an autoimmune response in some people. In cases where antibiotics fail to eliminate symptoms, alternative therapies may help to accelerate recovery from Lyme disease.
Alternative Therapies for Chronic Lyme Disease Syndrome
People with persistent symptoms are often willing to go to great lengths to find relief and restore their health. According to one study, there are over 30 known alternative therapies for Lyme disease.
Researchers have classified alternative therapies for Lyme disease under five broad categories:
- Oxygen and reactive oxygen species therapy
- Energy and radiation therapies
- Nutrition therapy
- Heavy metals and chelation therapy
- Biological and pharmacological therapies
While some alternative therapies are safe, with no known side effects, certain other treatments bring with them harmful side effects of their own. If antibiotics do not get rid of your Lyme disease symptoms, here are three all-natural alternative therapies that pose minimal risks to patients, and none of them requires a doctor’s prescription.
1. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for Lyme disease
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) attacks the symptoms of Lyme disease by maximizing the patient’s exposure to enriched oxygen. Lyme disease is a microaerophile, meaning that it thrives in low oxygen environments. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy exposes patients to pressurized 100% pure oxygen in a sealed hyperbaric chamber. Air breathed in a non-pressurized environment is only about 21% oxygen.
The high concentration of pressurized oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber first saturates the lungs, where it is picked up by the bloodstream and circulated to cells throughout your body. HBOT forces high concentrations of oxygen into cells and infuses body fluids with oxygen, creating a highly oxidized environment that is hostile to Lyme disease and kills Lyme bacteria.
2. Cryotherapy for Lyme disease
Inflammation is your body’s defensive response to invasive viruses and bacteria. If Lyme disease goes untreated, your body will attempt to eliminate the bacteria by activating an inflammatory response throughout your entire body, including your organs, joints, soft tissues, and even your brain and nervous system.
If bacteria is not completely eradicated by the immune system, symptoms may persist, along with chronic low-grade inflammation. Long-term chronic inflammation has been linked to obesity and metabolic disorders. It can cause persistent symptoms like brain fog, neurological disorders, joint pain and muscle stiffness. In addition, Lyme bacteria can become dormant, remaining in your body for years, and resurfacing during times of high stress or compromised immune function.
Whole body cryotherapy eases chronic Lyme symptoms by:
- Reducing inflammation
- Promoting strong immune function
- Numbing pain
- Improving joint mobility
- Eliminating brain fog
Regular cryotherapy sessions can help you manage and ease Lyme disease symptoms and optimize your immune function.
3. IV Vitamin therapy for Lyme disease
Powerful antioxidants like Vitamin C and Glutathione are crucial for eliminating cellular waste products like oxidizing agents and free radicals that damage cell membranes and DNA. Toxins and free radicals are released into your cells when Lyme bacteria die off, triggering an inflammatory response and the release of excess cytokines, a process in Lyme disease called Herxheimer die-off reaction. Antioxidants work to repair cells and DNA, reduce inflammation, suppress cytokine production, and eliminate harmful toxins from your body.
In a chronic state of Lyme infection, cellular glutathione levels have a hard time keeping pace with damage to cells caused by Lyme bacteria, particularly in nerve cells. Lyme bacteria can also cause liver inflammation, which is linked to a plethora of metabolic disorders. Glutathione and Vitamin C IV therapy provides a potent infusion of antioxidants that quickly penetrate the cells, to eliminate oxidizing agents and free radicals, reduce inflammation, repair cells, and force out toxins.
Avoiding Tick Bites and Lyme Disease
Spending time in nature is therapeutic for reducing stress, promoting Vitamin D production, providing exercise and infusing your cells with fresh air. While ticks and other vermin abound in the woods, the benefits of enjoying the forest far outweigh the risks.
Rather than shutting yourself inside and avoiding the outdoors, there are several measures you can take to avoid tick bites and Lyme disease:
- Stay on footpaths and avoid long grass and underbrush
- Wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt or jacket
- Wear a hat
- Tuck your trouser legs into socks or boots
- Wear light-colored clothing, to more easily spot ticks
- Wear an insect repellent or rub on essential oils like tea tree or citronella
- Check your body, pets and children for ticks immediately after being outdoors
If you find a tick on your body, or on your children or pets, remove it immediately with tweezers, making sure to remove the entire tick, including the head. Drop the removed tick in a container of rubbing alcohol or burn it with a match, to prevent it from escaping and laying eggs.
DO NOT use a flame near the skin to try to force the tick out. After removing a tick, wash the area with soap and water and apply rubbing alcohol or another antiseptic.
HBOT, IV Vitamin Therapy and Cryotherapy for Lyme Disease in NYC
Enjoying the great outdoors has its risks and rewards, and sometimes the risks get the upper hand. If you are suffering from chronic Lyme disease symptoms, InVita Wellness offers all-natural solutions at affordable prices. Our Midtown clinic is equipped with the latest technologies and therapies for optimizing your health, without drugs or surgery, and without a medical prescription.
Contact InVita Wellness today, and enjoy the benefits of cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and IV vitamin therapy for enhanced health and improved quality of life.
Resources:
Huang, Chien-Yu, et al. “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy as an effective adjunctive treatment for chronic Lyme disease.” Journal of the Chinese Medical Association 77.5 (2014): 269-271.
Lantos, Paul M., et al. “Unorthodox alternative therapies marketed to treat Lyme disease.” Clinical Infectious Diseases 60.12 (2015): 1776-1782.
Rebman, Alison W., and John N. Aucott. “Post-treatment Lyme disease as a model for persistent symptoms in Lyme disease.” Frontiers in medicine 7 (2020): 57.
