Natural Lyme Treatments and Prevention

Lyme disease is one of the most pervasive and yet under-diagnosed and misunderstood diseases out there. The American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF) reports that it is the most common arthropod-borne illness in the US, with over 150,000 cases having been reported to the Center for Disease Control since 1982. ALDF charts the first ever reports of Lyme to 1883, where it was mentioned in European medical literature. Lyme has been called many things over the years since then, including acrodematitis, chronica atrophicans, lymphadenosis benigna cutis, erythema migrans, and Bannwarth’s syndrome.

But all of these were just names for each of the diverse symptoms of Lyme and were not recognized as indicators of one umbrella disease until 1975, in Lyme, Connecticut, when a number of children and adults started experiencing uncommon arthritic symptoms. By 1977, the first 51 cases of Lyme Disease were diagnosed and the black-legged tick was targeted as the transmitter. By 1984, blood testing became standard in Connecticut and by 1997, the first Lyme disease vaccine was on the market, although it was taken off in 2001. There is currently no vaccine for Lyme Disease. The Connecticut State Department of Public Health hypothesizes that the emergence of Lyme is due to “changes in land use”: that is, land that had for many decades been used for farming was being converted for residential/suburban uses, which meant it was being “reforested” and thus repopulated with the fauna (deer, mice) that carry Lyme bacteria, which was now in very close proximity to humans.

What to know about Lyme Disease today? 

According to the CDC, “Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi” and is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks, “or deer ticks, which are prevalent in the northeast and mid-Atlantic United States.” The ticks themselves, typically in their immature or “nymph” stage when they infect humans, feed on white-footed mice, the principal reservoir of infection, become infected with the LD bacteria and then transmit it to humans the very next time they feed. These ticks can latch on anywhere, but you’ll most often find them in hard-to-reach areas such as the groin, armpit, and scalp. There are typical symptoms of Lyme, to be sure, but they are incredibly wide-ranging and diverse, and are also common signs of many other diseases and viruses, which is why it is often so hard to officially diagnose Lyme. However, typical symptoms include fever, headache, swollen knee joints, fatigue, facial paralysis, arthritis, dizziness and light-headedness, heart palpitations, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans, which presents as a bulls-eye on the skin. Most cases of Lyme disease can be treated successfully with a few weeks of antibiotics, especially when started soon after the initial bite.

If left untreated, however, (which is quite common, given that the standard test for Lyme can be imprecise and only detects the antibodies called up to combat the infection, so cannot identify whether the infection is ongoing or in the past) the infection can spread to the joints, the heart, and the nervous system. And even if treated with a course of antibiotics, there are growing reports of chronic Lyme Disease or post-Lyme Disease Syndrome, which overwhelmingly affects women, and due to this, as well as to its diverse manifestations such as fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, difficulty concentrating or remembering things, and a host of other symptoms, is extensively misdiagnosed, simply ignored, or dismissed as an imaginary “women’s disease” akin to fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome or depression. In fact, The New Yorker, in its recent article on Porochista Khakpour’s book, Sick: A Memoir, reveals that a doctor who failed to find the source of the symptoms for one of the Lyme, Connecticut women who fought to have the disease recognized and treated in the 1970s said, “sometimes people subconsciously want to be sick.”

This is where traditional Chinese medicine comes in. In TCM, we have what we call Gu Syndrome (or “Rottenness Syndrome”), which describes a number of different chronic inflammatory conditions, including Lyme as well as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and others. Heiner Fruehauf, in the Pacifical College of Oriental Medicine blog, writes that the TCM treatment for Gu is two-pronged, treating both the internal and external symptoms of the disease, utilizing herbal formulas that have tonic as well as anti-parasitic effects. The idea is to increase your vital energy (yang qi) at the same time that you are attacking the Lyme pathogen.

An example of a typical Chinese herbal remedy used for Lyme would include: