Lyme - A chronic Persistent Infection
It is a falsehood to call Lyme a ‘tick-borne’ illness. It is most definitely a ‘vector-borne’ illness, meaning that it can be transmitted not only by ticks but by insects such as spiders, horse flies and mosquitos too. Research indicates that around 40% of mosquitos are infected with Lyme. I have never been bitten by a tick in my life yet my lab results of a few years ago indicated that I have had Lyme infection.
The difference between tick bites and other insect bites is that bites from ticks contains an enzyme (chemical messenger) that allows the Lyme bacteria responsible for Lyme infection (spirochetes) to rapidly penetrate body barriers. This means that it can take as little as four seconds from a bite for spirochetes to enter the brain!
Mosquito, spider or fly bites don’t contain this damaging enzyme like tick bites. The immune system may or may not overcome the Lyme infection. This means that when Lyme is acquired through other insects than ticks, Lyme disease can creep up on you very slowly over the years, growing in the joints, brain, connective tissues and vitreous area of the eye.
Another Lyme falsehood is that you need to have had a red bull’s eye rash to have Lyme. This is much more likely to occur on a second exposure rather than first exposure to Lyme. Therefore, the bull’s eye rash should not rank as diagnostic criteria for Lyme disease. Many patients have been falsely dismissed as not possibly having Lyme through this erroneous criteria alone.
Should we be afraid of insects and going out into Nature? No, but we should be wary of the things that cause damage to the eco system for the following reason. We once had a healthy population of earthworms that ate ticks. We now have a fifth of the insects we once had and our songbirds are dying out too. The main reason for this environmental catastrophe according to key researchers such as Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt is the 3G, 4G and now 5G wifi radiation we all bathe in. Wifi not only ramps up the activity of infections like Lyme, mould and viruses but also resonates with metals. This means that if you have metals in your body, including dental amalgams, you become a living antenna for radiation.
Diagnosing Lyme
The difficulty with diagnosing Lyme is that spirochetes hide in the tissues and linings of blood vessels. Lyme expert Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt has developed techniques in the U.S. for teasing the parasites out of their hiding places and capturing them in the urine. In the U.K., my preferred method of detection is via the Borrelia Elispot test with Armin Labs in Germany, a leading specialist infection laboratory. Elispot tests look at how the white T- cell soldiers of the immune army are reacting with a particular microbe. This test is very sensitive, specific and clinically relevant. It is more accurate than Western blot or other Lyme tests used by the NHS. The CD57 Natural Killer cells, also part of the immune army, get depleted when fighting Lyme, so I like to test these cells too. No doubt increasingly sophisticated methods will evolve in the future for detecting the many different species of Lyme so that more patients no longer go undiagnosed.
Persistent Lyme and its Consequences
The patients I see with Lyme have not just been bitten but suffer from the persistent chronic form of Lyme whose symptoms can mimic most other illnesses. Lyme can be a driver of diseases like can be a driver of conditions like Parkinson’s, dementia, chronic fatigue, M.E., autism, thyroid disorders, adrenal fatigue, fibromyalgia, insomnia, psychiatric conditions, autoimmune diseases, Addison’s disease and even cancer. Living spirochetes have routinely been found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients on autopsy. Lyme is also exacerbated by Covid and mould exposures.
Lyme symptoms can include cyclic flares of aches and pains in shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and neurological symptoms such as brain fog and cognitive difficulties and fatigue. The term ‘neuroborreliosis’ refers to Lyme which produces symptoms in the brain or central nervous system.
One difficulty relating to the persistence of Lyme in the body is that if you kill the actual spirochetes, they act like the head of the Hydra and release an increased number of cyst forms (also known as ‘round bodies’) that persist and float in the lymph. This cystic form of Lyme contains the Lyme DNA and emits frequencies that can be sensed by passing immune cells. These immune cells can then start attacking the foreign invader but unfortunately target the tissue structures where the cysts are hiding. This can turn into an autoimmune scenario such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis or lupus etc. This is why patients who have had rounds of antibiotics to treat Lyme often feel worse when the antibiotics stop and why these patients often suffer more fatigue and neuro-cognitive difficulties than those who haven’t been treated with antibiotics.
The Solution
It is possible to get rid of the debilitating symptoms of Lyme and other chronic infections. I have done so myself. But only by making the right moves in the right order. These can include the following:
The right testing - finding out whether you have Lyme is the first step to doing something about it.
Addressing any areas of the immune system which have become ‘stuck’ and thus help to keep the Lyme infection going.
Optimising your diet so you are not creating a superb feast for Lyme and co-parasites.
Addressing other parasites and co-infections.
Reducing wifi exposures.
Addressing activation of retroviruses that keep Lyme and other symptoms going. This has been a real game changer and can make the difference between recovery and persistent illness.
Addressing hidden dental infections and toxins.
Directly addressing Lyme and co-infections with high quality natural antimicrobials that don’t produce resistance to treatment like antibiotics.
If this looks like hard work, yes it is. But what is the alternative? Lyme and co are tough infections to quieten down but unless you do this, they can go on and create havoc in every body system and ruin the quality of your life.
The wrong thing to do is nothing. The right thing to do is decide you are going to address the condition and decide to do it. There are patients who have already done this successfully and gotten their lives back.
If you would like to explore any of the above issues, please email the Good Health Clinic: goodhealthclinic@outlook.com or ring on 07836 552936.
Note on Clinic Fees
Due to current economic circumstances, I am reviewing clinic fees as I will need to increase them in order to maintain services. The new fees will be from the first of August, 2022. I will inform you shortly of the new fee structure. So book your follow ups now.