How can we help?
We have access to reliable and sensitive set of diagnostic tests, for example the Phage test developed by Leister University and the Red Laboratories. You can read more about this test here.
We can assist in providing health and nutritional guidance to restore health.
We can liaise with Lyme literate medical professionals who can guide a pharmacological intervention.
To book a free 10 min call to discuss your specific needs, please follow the link here.
What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme Disease is a devastating condition that can significantly affect a person’s health and if contracted during childhood, the development of the child, with potentially very debilitating consequences.
Lyme Disease is insidious. It is transmitted by one or several different types of bacterial agent(s), often of the genus Borrelia and/or other tick-borne bacterial and/or viral agents. These infective vectors are transmitted to the individual by an insect bite, most commonly but not unlikely, a tick bite. It can also be transmitted from a mother to her unborn child in utero. Lyme Disease progresses gradually. The infection initially leads to flu-like symptoms, and sometimes but not always a rash called erythema migrans, often referred to as a bull-eye rash. If untreated, the disease progresses to a multi-system chronic condition. In chronic Lyme Disease potentially any tissue or organs is affected, causing a wide-range of symptoms, which can fluctuate from day to day.
The challenges Lyme Disease sufferers face are many:
- Their health can be significantly impacted. This could amount to cognitive and mental health difficulties (e.g. depression), even psychiatric symptoms (e.g. psychosis, hallucination) and epilepsy. It could also lead to chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia (-a rheumatic condition characterised by muscular or musculoskeletal pain with stiffness and localised tenderness at specific points on the body), heart issues, ocular/vision problems, or developmental issues if a child is affected. It can cause invalidity and can result in the death of the individual.
- The health deterioration can occur several years after the initial infection. Until that time, the infection was kept in check by a healthy immune system. This can contribute to the difficulties in identifying the root cause of the health difficulties the person experiences.
- Lyme Disease is very commonly undiagnosed and misunderstood by mainstream health professionals who are not Lyme literate. In the UK, the NHS only recommends a short course of antibiotics after a tick bite when the individual has had an erythema migrans rash or based on the occurrence of flu-like symptoms and recent known exposure to ticks.
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- The problem is that ticks are not always seen as they can be extremely small (- adult ticks are about the size of an apple seed, nymphs are about the size of a poppy seed, and larva are the size of a grain of sand).
- Ticks often reached unexpected and hard to examine locations (for example the skull, belly button, armpits, pubic and surrounding areas).
- Erythema migrans are only seen in a small proportion of infected individuals.
- Chronic Lyme is not diagnosed and recognised by the NHS because the NHS relies on diagnostic lab tests (serology and Western Blot) known to be insufficiently sensitive and to only detect a fraction of affected individuals, leading to approximately 70% of false negatives. A second reason is that a multi-system disorder does not fit in one specific health speciality, leading to the person being referred to a series of specialists who each in isolation do not comprehend the complexity of the disease. Lyme Disease requires a functional medicine approach and the integration of disciplines to be fully understood and effectively treated. Finally, the varying nature of the symptoms and commonly associated cognitive dysfunction lead to the erroneous conclusions that the disease “is all in their head” or psychiatric in origin therefore necessitates medications that target the symptoms (e.g. depression, psychosis) rather than the root causes of the symptoms.
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- Their condition often remains untreated and potentially deteriorates further.
- Lyme disease is never totally cured, because Borrelia can remain dormant in the body in a cyst form and can potentially flare up if the health of the person deteriorates. There are many potential factors that can cause a health deterioration, stress, poor diet and/or lifestyle, nutritional deficiencies, exposure to toxins and unrelated challenges to the immune system, such as a common infection. Keeping the condition in check can be a difficult balacing act.
- To book a free 10 min call to discuss your specific needs, please follow the link here.