Lyme Recovery Clinic

I have to admit that if someone would have told me that the key to healing was forgiveness when I had just been diagnosed with Lyme disease more than a decade ago, I probably would have bounced a bottle of doxycycline off of their head.

It was the early days of Lyme for me and I was very focused on my physical symptoms. These symptoms were unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my otherwise very healthy life prior to the diagnosis. So as soon as I received confirmation after going at least 2 years without a definitive answer, I was ready to disinfect and get the damned bugs out of me.

Like most Lyme patients, I went for a long period of time of being sick and undergoing tests before I received a definitive diagnosis. Like most patients, I was used to trusting my traditional medical doctor because whenever I had a cold or a fever, he would prescribe some antibiotics and I would get better. As simple as that.

However, when I came in with Lyme symptoms, my doctor didn’t have a clue. He ran his usual battery of tests, but because I didn’t have cancer, diabetes or heart disease, he literally said, “Oh well. I guess we’ll just have to chalk this up to being ‘just one of those things.'”

When I pressed him further on what exactly he meant by that, he said, “Your symptoms aren’t life threatening, so maybe you can learn to live with them.” My brain could barely process what I was hearing.

If you’ve been paying attention to posts in the Lyme community, the word “stevia” has been a hot topic for the last year or so. You’ve probably seen comments like… “Stevia can cure Lyme disease!”; “No, stevia causes cancer and infertility!”; “Stevia can’t be absorbed in the human body!”; I’ve been putting it in my coffee for years, so why am I not cured of Lyme?”

In this short and admittedly non-comprehensive guide, we attempt to put some ideas to rest and to offer a small bit of common sense regarding this plant that various cultures have been using as a food additive for more than 400 years.

Besides treating symptoms and the disease itself, most chronic Lyme patients understand the importance of ridding the body of toxins generated from killing bacteria. Other toxins may also be present in the body from heavy metals, mycotoxins (from mold), normal metabolism or from the environment itself. The point is, in order to give your body a chance to heal properly, these toxins must be removed in a way that doesn’t disrupt your system.

Many Lyme disease and chronically ill patients are probably aware that Ionic Foot Baths can be a non-invasive and natural way to help the body remove toxic substances quickly.

For the uninitiated, most typical ionic foot baths consist of a tub of salted, clean water (usually distilled) with two stainless steel plates placed in the foot bath that pass a low-amp electrical current (usually 3-7 amps) through the water to dislodge toxins in the body that are pulled out immediately into the ionized water. You can’t feel the current, but you will notice the water changing colors within minutes when the toxins begin to emerge.

In 1969, author Elizabeth Kübler-Ross published her book “On Death & Dying,” and in it she presented a famous formulation of the stages of grief that dying people tend to go through as they come to terms with the realization that they will soon pass. Since the book’s publishing, her stages-of-grief system has become more popular than her book, and it is now a part of our modern cultural awareness. Her five stages include denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Inspired by Kübler-Ross’ work, I have begun to notice similar but different stages of consciousness, experiences and emotions for chronic Lyme patients as they move to complete healing. One of the differences in the staging system I’ve developed is that a patient can get stuck in a stage and never progress to complete healing. Conversely, in the stages of grief, a patient ultimately moves through the system and reaches the final conclusion of death whether they like it or not.

Everything is connected, and we are all multifaceted beings. But as we go about our daily routine, we seldom think about it until some obstruction or jarring event comes into our lives to rattle our cages and make us look at ourselves more closely. Such is the case with chronic Lyme disease, and as I talk to more and more Lyme patients across the country, I’m finding that their experiences frequently match my own when it comes to moving through the illness to complete healing.

When seeking treatment for Lyme disease, most chronic Lyme patients understand the need to take a number of supportive substances to help them repair damage from the bacteria, stave off further infection and to improve cellular functioning and protection. The bacteria attacks healthy cells and weakens one’s bodily defenses, and without some kind of supportive measures imbalances can occur.

We polled a number of chronic Lyme patients across the country and asked them to reveal the contents of their personal medicine cabinets.

Greek physician Hippocrates, who is considered the “Father of Modern Medicine,” is famously quoted as saying, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” When it comes to treating chronic Lyme disease most patients find that paying strict attention to what they put into their body besides medicine and supplements can play a major role in their recovery. And beyond this, food can become a major factor in dictating whether a patient improves or declines based upon how their body reacts to their food intake.