May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month

What is Lyme Disease?

• A tick-borne illness caused by the bacteria Borrelia that often acutely results in a bullseye rash, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, and limb weakness

• Chronically, Lyme can cause chronic fatigue, chronic inflammation, brain fog, body pains, joint pains, neurological and memory problems, headaches, depression, and insomnia

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Lyme’s Most Common Co-Infections

• Mold Toxicities

• GI Infections

• EBV (Epstein-Barr Virus)

• Mycoplasma

• Bartonella

• Heavy Metals

How is Lyme Disease Treated?

• Initial treatment for an acute Lyme infection is typically a round or a few rounds of antibiotics, and if caught early enough you can fully recover

• Chronic Lyme is sometimes often treated with the same antibiotics, just for a longer period of time.

• Naturally, supplements, nature, cure, homeopathy, lifestyle, and dietary changes can all be utilized in treatment. Treatment varies and is individualized based on the person’s needs.

How to test for Lyme?

• There are two commonly used blood tests; ELISA and Western Blot tests. These tests are often not specific or sensitive enough, therefore can miss a Lyme diagnosis

• A new test IGeneX is also available that tests for more species and is used in early detection

• Although these tests do exists, there is still a percentage of patients that have a false negative test, this is where symptoms, signs, and ruling out of other diseases becomes important

Three at-home therapies

• Infrared sauna

• Stress management: meditation, breathwork, movement, grounding, nature, self-care

• Mediterranean diet

Interested in discovering your health journey with Dr. Christina Erndl?

Call 480.361.3844