The typical Lyme Disease treatment approach usually focuses on killing alone. Often, there is very little attention to anything else, with the exception of a perhaps recommending a probiotic with antibiotics. The problem with this is twofold: antibiotics for Chronic Lyme just aren’t that effective, and Lyme & Co does damage to every system in the body which needs to be repaired for real healing to take place.
The Three Stages of Lyme
There is lots of evidence that a prompt course of antibiotics in Early Localised Lyme can often be effective. Early Localised Lyme is the very stage of the disease, straight after the bite. In 30% of cases, a bulls-eye rash may develop. In this stage, the bacteria has not colonised areas of the body and exists primarily in the blood. Oral doxycycline can often eradicate the infection at this stage.
The next stage is called Early Disseminated Lyme. This happens several weeks after the bite, once the bacteria has started to colonise areas in the body. Typical symptoms include:
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- Chills
- Fever
- Swollen Lymph Nodes
- Cold & Flu-like symptoms
- Stiff neck
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Muscle Aches
- Bell’s Palsy
- Numbness/Tingling
- Meningitis
- Cardiac abnormalities
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There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that antibiotic treatment in Early Disseminated Lyme can reduce the severity of symptoms in later, chronic Lyme. This is my experience.
The last stage is Late Disseminated Lyme, or Chronic Lyme. This can occur weeks, months or even years after Stage 1 & 2. It depends on how well your immune system can manage the infection. Symptoms of Chronic Lyme include:
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- Fatigue, which can develop into CFS
- Arthritis, including damage to joints
- Migratory Arthralgia, which is joint pain that moves around
- Headaches
- Short term memory issues
- Mood disorders
- Cardiac issues, such as abnormal rhythm
- Numbness, tingling & pins & needles
- Autoimmune diseases, such as Lupus and Connective Tissue Disease
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Unfortunately, this is not an exhaustive list. Chronic Lyme is nicknamed The Great Imitator as it is often misdiagnosed as many other conditions.
Antibiotics for Chronic Lyme
Many people don’t even find out they have Lyme until they are well into the Late Disseminated stage. By this point, Lyme has colonised areas in the body and has moved out of the blood and into the collagenous tissues. Biofilms have likely been established and spirochaetes can be found in a variety of its life cycle stages (cyst, L-form, spirochaete).This is one of the reasons why testing is often inaccurate.
In our society we are so conditioned to believe that there’s a pill for every ailment. We’re taught that an infection must be aggressively killed by antibiotics. Big Pharma markets toxic medicines that do nothing more than suppress symptoms, leaving the root problem to go unchecked. How many Lyme sufferers have been palmed off with antidepressants and painkillers?
For most with Chronic Lyme antibiotics offer symptom suppression. Soon after stopping the treatment, symptoms come back with a vengeance. Many people, myself included, have experienced the same thing when treating with herbal antibiotics. This is because Lyme will react to a hostile environment by switching into cyst form, and re-emerging once conditions are favourable.
Antibiotics Trigger Defensive Manoeuvres
When Borrelia spirochaetes encounter a hostile environment, they revert to cyst form. This protects them from both antibiotics and the patient’s immune system. Studies have shown that not only can this cyst form be induced by exposing the spirochaetes to adverse conditions such as antibiotics, but that some cyst forms exist within human cells. Scientists believe this could be the reason why Lyme Disease can be so persistent, even with aggressive antibiotic treatment.
Another study showed that antibiotics do indeed reduce the number of spirochaetes, but at the same time increased the number of cyst forms. These cyst forms then reverted to spirochaete form once they were no longer under threat. In some cases, the number of spirochaetes was lowered to a virtually non-existent level, but cyst numbers increased massively. This would explain a reduction of symptoms which come back once antibiotics are stopped. When choosing to take antibiotics, the question needs to be asked: What if all it’s doing is sending the bacteria into hiding?
When To Use Antibiotics
We know that early treatment with antibiotics can eliminate Lyme or reduce the severity of the disease, so taking a sufficient course of doxycycline (400mg per day for 6 weeks) is the best thing you can do if you’ve just been bitten.
If you are experiencing cardiac issues – see a doctor and receive antibiotic treatment. The same goes for any other life threatening complications. Antibiotics are an amazing scientific breakthrough and they have saved many, many lives. However, long-term antibiotics are also damaging. They not only kill bad bacteria, but eradicate beneficial bacteria. They are not the answer to everything, even though pharmaceutical companies would have us believe we need to pop a pill for every illness.
The Alternative to Antibiotics
One of the reasons I settled on Rifing was because it is impossible to alert the bacteria that they’re actually being killed, therefore preventing cyst formation. Bryan Rosner covers this in his book, “When Antibiotics Fail: Lyme Disease and Rife Machines“. As an introduction to Rifing, I highly recommend it.
You see, bacteria requires a chemical change in the environment in order to react. This is because all cells primarily communicate chemically. When using a coil machine you are applying an electromagnetic field and resonating the organism at its resonant frequency. This causes the bonds between atoms to break, rupturing the bacteria. It’s the perfect stealth treatment because the bacteria don’t know they’re under attack.
Some individuals claim that Lyme can become ‘aware’ of frequency treatment, or can change their resonant frequencies – but this is impossible. You can read more about that here. The truth is that cells of all kinds are constantly dying – this is called apoptosis – and is a normal and controlled part of its life-cycle. This applies to all human cells, bacteria and viruses. This cell death does not trigger Lyme into cyst form, and neither does Rifing.
I’m certainly not against the use of antibiotics for early Lyme, or even for individuals with crippling symptoms who need suppression of the infection in order to function. I do believe there is a better way though – a way that doesn’t cripple our bodies whilst not doing much to eradicate the infection.
Have you ever taken antibiotics for Lyme? What was your experience? I’d love to hear from you. Let me know in the comments below!
Sources:
Patel, R. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2000.
University of Maryland Medical Center: “Lyme Disease and Related Tick-Borne Illnesses.”
Lantos et al, 2013. “Persisting atypical and cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi and local inflammation in Lyme neuroborreliosis”
Sapi et al, 2011. “Evaluation of in-vitro antibiotic susceptibility of different morphological forms of Borrelia burgdorferi”
