Lyme Disease Treatment Step 2 of 10
Every year, 300,000 people are affected by Lyme disease in the United States. Once a person is bitten by a tick, with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, they can experience symptoms anywhere from 3 to 30 days later. Whether a person contracts Lyme disease usually depends on the kind of tick, where you were when the bite occurred, and how long the tick was attached to you. Symptoms can vary in a wide range, depending on the stage of the infection. A few of the symptoms include a red rash that doesn’t itch or hurt, headaches, fever, joint pain, loss of mobility in the face, and fatigue. If the infection progresses, symptoms can lead to loss of muscle tone, irregular heartbeat, brain and spine inflammation, and shooting pain or tingles in hands and feet.
Doctors diagnose Lyme disease through symptoms and the patient’s history of tick exposure, they can also do blood tests. If blood is drawn within the first week of the disease, the test may come up negative since it takes a few weeks for antibodies to develop.
While some doctors recommend antibiotics to treat Lyme disease, we have created a 10-step program to help our patients get on the road to recovery.
The second step in our Lyme disease recovery program that we recommend to our patients is to decrease and eradicate known or suspected parasitic infections. Parasites usually come from consuming food while visiting foreign countries, or due to food imported from around the world that has spent time with multiple exposures. People are known to get parasites from food such as sushi and from domesticated cats and dogs. Having a parasite, or several, typically results in fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, hair loss, and reduce your immune system. Lyme disease and other bacteria, viruses, and organisms can be found residing within parasites which is why it is important to reduce parasites within the intestines while treating Lyme.
Our first step generally is sufficient and involves an herbal product called Paragard at an approximate cost of $30 monthly. This treatment course often starts the first month with the Cowden protocol and persists for the first 3 months. Starting in months 4 and 5 of the Cowden protocol I recommend taking Para1 for 2 months depending on benefit or response, with an average cost of $30 monthly. Para1 supports parasite treatment by ridding the intestines and mucoid accumulations associated with histamine response over many years.
At East Valley Naturopathic Doctors, we want our patients suffering from Lyme disease to feel confident in their journey to recovery. Please feel free to call us with any questions or concerns you may have.
