INSIGHTS INTO LYME DISEASE TREATMENT

Title: Insights Into Lyme Disease Treatment: 13 Lyme-Literate Health care Practitioners Share Their Healing Strategies
Author: Connie Strasheim
ISBN: 13:978-0-9825138-0-4
Not all Lyme disease treatments work for everyone. There are many factors which determine a patient’s response to a particular drug, supplement or protocol. This is why it is so important to be familiar with the various options available. The current medical paradigm allows for allopathic methods, natural remedies and a combination of both. The latter scenario seems to work the best for most people when it comes to Lyme disease and the co-infections.

“Insights Into Lyme Disease” offers a very wide variety of treatment choices within the allopathic and natural healing models. This book contains 13 chapters, each one written by a different healthcare specialist. I thought the book was well organized and easy to read. Its pages are jammed packed with solutions which are specific to Lyme disease but which are also very pertinent for use with other chronic illnesses. Most of the natural remedies in the book treat the whole person, which in turn, lifts the spirits and boosts the immune system. Then the body, in its own wisdom, can correct whatever imbalances there may be. On page 207 Dr. Ronald Whitmont tells us, “No single medical specialty contains all the healing methods that are sufficient for the complete attainment of health in all possible scenarios.”

Some of the subjects covered are lifestyle changes, detoxification, hormone dysfunction, homeopathy, spiritual and emotional issues, reducing inflammation, different antibiotic regimes…and much more. People are always looking for a magic bullet which will solve all of their problems. Everyone is searching for one treatment, a specific food, or a single pill which will bring them back to normal. The reality is that many factors are involved in causing chronic illness and therefore many factors need to be addressed in the healing process. Recovery from a longstanding problem takes time, so patience needs to be added to the equation also.

Unfortunately, it often isn’t the pills or foods that we add to our regimen that makes the big difference but more often it is the foods we eliminate. For example, Dr. Metzger writes on page 224. “The root of all evil is not the love of money, but the love of sugar.” She goes on to say, “When I put my patients on the “Sugar Busters” diet, they start getting better, and not only because the diet lowers their inflammation, but also because chemicals and other toxins get automatically removed from their bodies.”

When it comes to the testing for Lyme disease, the general consensus of the doctors who contributed to this book was that clinicians should not rely on the laboratory testing alone but should also use their own clinical judgment. If a patient tests negative for a specific microbe, yet he exhibits many symptoms of that particular condition, then a trial of medication is tried and evaluated. The Lyme spirochete is pleomorphic, which means it changes form. This action of the microbe gives it a stealth capacity, which allows it to hide from testing, the immune system and from the drugs which are used to eliminate it. Different drugs target different forms of the germ. This is why physicians in this book often use two or more types of antibiotics and or natural remedies simultaneously, to effectively reduce the pathogen load on the body.

Many people who have had chronic Lyme disease touch their lives; will tell you that it has changed their lives. While dealing with this illness can be quite an ordeal, often patients have found that this “wilderness” experience broadens their view on life, helps them to wake up and realize what really matters, and brings them out the other side into greater understanding. When people begin to feel better, new talents often develop. Dr. Peter J. Muran has this to say about what Lyme disease can offer us. “If you talk to any Lyme-literate physician, they will tell you that once you have chronic Lyme disease, it never goes away. You’ve got it for life. But I prefer to reframe the situation and prognosis and encourage my patients to say,”Okay, I have this disease. That means I can’t trash my body. I will use herbs, vitamins, supplements and other therapies to support and maintain a strong immune system. And doing these things can, collectively, provide me with a greater and longer quality of life than if I never had Lyme in the first place.” Lyme disease can be the catalyst for teaching us to honor our body’s natural blueprint for health by showing us how to reduce its overall stress load.”

Insights into Lyme Disease Treatment contains a wealth of information which helps patients to do just that….reduce their overall stress load, so that the body can ultimately heal itself. Actually, there are too many treatments and protocols in the book to even begin to summarize them here. I will leave that thrill of discovery to the reader. I feel this book is a very valuable aide to patient and doctor alike. The only problem I found with this book was that it made me want to visit every clinician who contributed! Seriously though, I found the information in this book to be informative, refreshing and hopeful. Two Thumbs Up!