Lyme disease is an illness caused by a certain bacteria. This disease can be acute, if caught in a timely fashion. If left untreated for a long time, or if the first treatment was unsuccessful, the disease is considered chronic. Chronic Lyme disease treatment differs from the acute illness slightly. There are some treatments that should not be tried because they can make the disease worse.
What is Lyme disease?
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is caused by the Borrelis burgdorferi. Humans most commonly contract this illness when bitten by a deer tick that is carrying the illness. Symptoms of Lyme disease include: chills, rash that resembles a target, fever, swollen joints, general malaise and even temporary paralysis.
Acute Illness Progresses to Chronic Illness
In approximately 95 percent of all people infected with Lyme disease, treatment with antibiotic therapy while the disease is in the acute phase is effective. The other five percent, as well as those that don’t get diagnosed while the disease is in the acute phase, are considered to have chronic Lyme disease. Chronic Lyme disease treatment is different from acute treatment and there are some natural treatments you can try to alleviate the symptoms of this illness.
Alternative Therapies
Diagnosing Lyme disease is not as easy as a blood test. The bacteria that cause this illness are difficult to grow in the lab, which makes them mysterious to doctors. Unless you are the patient of a physician who is aware of Lyme disease, you may be misdiagnosed. This is the biggest reason that people will turn to alternative therapy rather than continuing with their physician.
The first alternative therapy is a medication called bismacine. This is an injectable medication that contains the metal bismuth and can be harmful to the body in large amounts. Use this medication responsibly.
Another method of treatment is ICHT, or intracellular hyperthermia therapy. This is done with a chemical being administered to the patient. This chemical causes a febrile illness. It is thought that with the fever, the spirochetes will heat up from the inside out, which will kill them.
Hyperbaric chambers have been used by some Lyme disease patients. The school of thought here is that the high levels of oxygen will trigger the immune system to kill any bacteria that are left by the antibiotic therapy.
Colloidal silver or silver salts are controversial and no studies have shown that these work on Lyme disease.
Rife machines were frequently used in the 1930’s. These machines are painless to use and work very simply, although it’s not clear if they actually work. The thought is that these machines work by matching the radio frequency emitted by diseased tissue and the match kills the tissue as well as the causative organism.
Treatments you should never try
One of the symptoms of chronic Lyme disease is swollen joints. The first treatment doctors normally prescribe to minimize joint swelling is Prednisone. This steroid medication will be more harmful than helpful for the person suffering from chronic Lyme disease. Steroid medication works to weaken the immune system and open the body up for worse infection from the Lyme disease spirochetes.
There are many different schools of thought regarding repeat courses of antibiotic therapy. One thought is that taking antibiotics when they didn’t work the first time will just make the Lyme disease spirochetes resistant to the medication and create a sort of superbug.
Regardless of the length of your illness, Lyme disease can be a painful, lifelong problem. Ignorance of many doctors related to this illness often pushes patients toward unconventional methods of treatment. There are a seemingly endless number of alternative therapies for chronic Lyme disease treatment, and finding the right one for you may take time, patience and determination.