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Hope for Lyme Disease Sufferers: Healing Lyme Disease With Alternative Medicine
- Sarah Newland
- May 27
- 8 min read
Three days after I found out I was pregnant, I was in the ER with tingling and weakness in my arms and legs. Doctors looked for answers, and threw out scary words like Guillain Barre Syndrome and MS. Would I even be able to hold my child nine months from now, I wondered? My symptoms progressed and in a matter of weeks I went from weight-lifting and walking miles, to hardly being able to walk down the stairs or lift a plate of food. I eventually stumbled on a functional medicine doctor who tested me for Lyme disease. It was a full-on positive, along with multiple co-infections. I was relieved that I didn’t have one of those scary syndromes, but also terrified because I knew several people who dealt with chronic Lyme disease and hadn’t been able to heal.
Because I was pregnant, I especially didn't want to use harsh antibiotics to fight the disease. I began to search for other roads to healing, learned a lot about how alternative medicine can treat Lyme disease, and found that there is much hope for healing.
Because this disease hits so close to home, and can cause such debilitating symptoms, we at Perennial Health believe Lyme disease education is SO important. Knowing how to reduce Lyme disease exposure, what to do if you get Lyme disease, and how to address chronic symptoms can make a world of difference.
If you are facing the threat of Lyme, read on to discover the many paths to healing.
What is Lyme disease?
Lyme disease is an illness caused by various strains of Borrelia bacteria, transmitted through tick bites. Lyme disease is very common in the United States, and the Upper Midwest is one of the most prevalent areas. The disease is tricky because once it reaches a certain stage it puts up a biofilm barrier that makes it difficult for your body, or even high-powered antibiotics, to kill. This leads to chronic Lyme conditions that can take a lot of work to get rid of. But there is hope!
Lyme Disease Prevention
If you live in a Lyme-prevalent region (see map above), preventing tick bites is the most important step you can take. Ticks are most commonly found in woodland areas and long grass. If you are in these areas, use the following precautions:
Cover your skin as much as possible.
Stay on trails, and out of long grass, underbrush, and wood piles.
Use tick repellant. We recommend 20% Picardian. It is non-toxic (link EWG) and more effective than essential oils.
Check yourself for ticks after you come inside. Since they can be really tiny (sometimes hardly bigger than a grain of sand!) it may be helpful to have someone else help you or use a lint roller to pick up any ticks you can’t see.
What to Do If You Get a Tick Bite
Let’s say you’ve done your best keep ticks off of you, but after a hike in the woods you find one embedded under your arm. It usually takes 24 hours or more for ticks to transmit Lyme disease, so don't panic. Instead...
Remove the tick as soon as possible. The longer a tick is on you, the greater chance you have of getting infected.
Use safe removal methods. It’s important remove ticks a certain way, because removing them improperly can actually cause ticks to release more bacteria into your body. Learn how to remove ticks here.
If possible, keep the tick so that you can have help identifying that it, since not all types of ticks carry Lyme disease. (Learn about types of ticks here!) Keeping the tick also allows you to test it for Lyme disease if needed.
Watch for symptoms. In Minnesota, about 1 in 3 adult deer ticks are infected with Lyme disease, so keep a lookout for Lyme symptoms if you have been bitten.
Consider getting tested. Sometimes Lyme disease will quietly spread through your body before causing many noticeable symptoms. Even if you don’t have any dramatic symptoms, you may want to get tested for Lyme disease six weeks after the bite, when antibodies would start to show up.
Consider starting a preventative protocol with antimicrobial herbs, like the ones listed here or here. Though they are very strong herbs, these are safe to use for a limited period of time to help prevent contracting a tick-borne disease.
How Do I Know If I Have Lyme Disease?
Lyme disease can be tricky to diagnose for two reasons. First, there is a huge variety in symptoms, depending on what part of your body the bacteria attacks and how long you’ve had it. Many people never get the iconic bullseye rash, and because deer ticks can be so small you may not even know that you were bit.
Symptoms can include any of the following.
Early stage Lyme symptoms include:
Bullseye rash
Flu-like symptoms
Facial muscle weakness or paralysis
Fainting, shortness of breath, heart palpitations or chest pain
Severe headaches and neck stiffness
Shooting pains
Lightheadedness
Pain and swelling in large joints
Late stage or chronic Lyme symptoms include:
Fatigue
Headaches
Joint pain
Muscle aches
Twitching
Memory loss
Brain fog/memory loss
Sleep issues
Heart-related palpitations
Gastrointestinal symptoms (stomach/digestive)
Neuropathy (nerve pain, numbness, hot/cold sensations, tingling)
Depression, anxiety or mood changes
All these symptoms can present differently in each person, making Lyme disease difficult to diagnose by symptoms alone.
Not only is Lyme disease difficult to diagnose due to varying symptoms, it's also difficult because standard testing is very inaccurate. Most standard tests only check for one or two strains of Borrelia, but in reality there are over 18 strains. In addition to that, Lyme disease often comes with other coinfections of other bacteria that will cause many issues in your body. These are usually not tested for either. They include:
Babesia, a protazoua that causes symptoms like night sweats, fever, air hunger, brain fog, fatigue, and more.
Bartonella, a bacteria and can cause changes in mood, pain on the soles of feet in mornings, stretch marks on the skin, eye problems and temporal lobe seizures.
Anaplasmosis, which can cause fever, abnormal liver function tests and platelets, and worsen underlying Lyme symptoms.
These other tick-borne bacteria must also be treated in order for symptoms to clear, but are often ignored in conventional clinics.
Because of these difficulties, Lyme and its coinfections are often misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia, MS, arthritis, or unexplained chronic fatigue, leaving people to suffer without answers.
So, if symptoms are hard to go by, and standard testing is not up to par, how can you find out if you have Lyme disease? Fortunately, there are much more comprehensive blood tests available through many functional medicine doctors.
Check out this database to find a Lyme-literate functional medicine doctor near you!
Another way we like to test for Lyme disease is through the F-scan that comes with our Firefly light therapy device. It scans your body for the frequency emitted by Borrelia bacteria, as well as various tick-borne coinfections. This scan will usually show a positive only if your immune system is actively fighting Lyme, so if you have a lot of other pathogens your body is prioritizing, Lyme may not show up until those others are dealt with. However, if your symptoms match up with tick-borne illnesses during our initial consultation we often suggest starting on SupremePlex natural amino acid complex for 1-2 weeks prior or during your Firefly Light Therapy sessions. This activates your immune system to focus on Lyme and co-infections so the Fscan can be more beneficial. Schedule a discovery call to learn more!
How to Address Lyme Disease with Alternative Medicine
Ok, so let’s say you have gotten the tests and you are positive for Lyme disease or one of its coinfections. What can you do next?
The Western Medicine Route
The western medicine route involves taking high doses of antibiotics for several weeks. Studies have shown this to be effective in the acute stage of Lyme, but once it turns chronic and develops its biofilm barrier, the efficacy drops drastically. Antibiotics are also not very effective in treating Bartonella, one of the most common coinfections. Another drawback is that the antibiotics can cause a plethora of gut issues and other health problems. If you decide not to go the traditional route, there are still many other options for addressing Lyme.
Treating Lyme with Herbs + Supplements
Another option for addressing Lyme disease is using antibacterial herbs. These herbs have been shown to be as effective as antibiotics in the acute stage, and much more effective in the chronic stage. (See this study from John Hopkins University) Herbs include oregano, cinnamon, Japanese Knotwood and Cat’s claw, to name a few. Because specific herbs are best for specific infections, and having too much may cause miserable detox reactions, it is important to work with an experienced health professional when treating Lyme. Even though these herbs are natural, they are powerful and should be used with care!
Want to go the herbal route? We highly recommend Dr Kyle Warren, with Restorative Health Solutions. He knows everything there is to know about Lyme disease, and has compassionate but effective approach to helping you find healing.
Another similar path for addressing Lyme is using the SupremePlex supplement. This blend of amino acids is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and promotes healthy detoxing. These three functions are all pivotal for treating Lyme. Not only does it kill the bacteria, it helps reduce the many symptoms caused by inflammation from the disease, and supports your body as it detoxes from dead pathogens. We use SupremePlex here at Perennial Health, alongside light therapy, and have seen amazing results with these two working synergistically together.
Addressing Lyme with Firefly Light Therapy - Our Personal Favorite
Did you know that every cell has a specific frequency that will cause it to shatter? Just like the opera singer who hits a certain note and shatters the glasses, each type of Borrelia bacteria has a frequency that will destroy it.
Firefly Light Therapy can be programmed to use those specific frequencies of light that will cause Borrelia (and its coinfections) to implode. How cool is that? It’s completely safe for all other cells, and the light also has anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting effects. As we mentioned before, this combined with the SupremePlex has helped many people address their chronic Lyme, even after years of unsuccessfully pursuing healing.
Lifestyle Support
While treating Lyme it’s important to give your body everything it needs to thrive. Make sure you are getting lots of healthy sun exposure, time grounding, limiting EMF exposure, and eating a whole-foods, seasonal diet. You may want to avoid alcohol, sugar, gluten, and dairy for a while to help reduce inflammation in your body while you heal. These lifestyle practices will help your mitochondria and immune system grow more healthy and resilient.
A Hope-filled Ending
So how did my story end? I am now officially Lyme-free, with a healthy, happy little boy. Every time I hold my baby, even exhausted at 3am, I thank God for arms strong enough to rock him when he cries. While I still have lingering neurological damage that I’m working to heal, in many ways I feel better than I ever have!
If you are dealing with Lyme disease, there is hope! Whether it's through herbs, light, or energy medicine, there are ways to guide your body to healing without pumping yourself full of antibiotics, or taking medication after medication to manage symptoms.
If you are facing a possible Lyme diagnosis, we are here for you! Feel free to schedule a discovery call to talk about what path of healing may be best for you.
Lyme Disease Resources
Podcasts
Videos
Tick Bite Safety
Lyme Testing
Treating Lyme
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