The article, “Lyme Disease: Some Thoughts On Its Coinfections” by Stephen Harrod Buhner is one of the best that I have read.  It clearly explains how Lyme Disease is different from other bacterial infections and why some people become so seriously ill.  Below are a couple quotes that really jumped out at me that I felt are important for people to understand.

“The stealth nature of the organisms and the complexity of their infectious cycle necessitates a very different approach than is usually common in the Western tradition. The paradigm of a silver bullet, i.e. antibacterials, specific to the invading organisms has proven inadequate. The organisms are exception-ally good at generating a swarm of genetic variants in short time lines, creating subtypes that are unaffected by antibiotics. They often infect difficult to reach areas of the body, places antibiotics cannot easily reach. As well, they infect a wide variety of bodily systems, mimicking in their symptoms, a wide range of disease conditions. Thus the infected have been diagnosed with such things as arthritis, bi-polar disorder, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia (various types), Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and so on.”

“It is crucial to address immune status as part of any treatment protocol, irrespective of orientation. There is an inescapable truth revealed by research on the Lyme-group: The weaker or more compromised the immune system, the more likely someone is to become infected and the more likely they are to have a debilitating course of illness. Improving the immune status of those infected allows the immune system, refined over long evolutionary time, to do what it does best, i.e. use very elegant mechanisms to control and clear infection.”

Unfortunately, many of us have comprised immune systems due to the environmental contaminates in our food, water, air, homes and workplaces.  Those of us with compromised immune systems such as allergy sufferers, people living with cancer or those with pre-existing auto-immune issues such as autoimmune thyroid disease, diabetes, Crohn’s disease, etc. are at particular risk of having difficulty if exposed to Lyme Disease or one of the other serious infections carried by ticks.

Read the whole article here including Buhner’s treatment suggestions.

For more information about Lyme and coinfections visit Stephen Harrod Buhner’s Healing Lyme website .

If you have read this far please let me add one more thing.  Lyme Disease (Borrelia Burgorferi) is found in every state in the US and in most every country around the world.  It is endemic in some places such as the Northeastern US.  Please take care to check for ticks after spending time in grassy or wooded areas (taking a shower when you come in is a good idea).  Ticks die back in the dry heat of mid-summer but reemerge in the cooler damper fall weather.  They are carried by white footed mice, birds and other small mammals as well as deer.  And here is a reminder about what to do if you are bit by a tick.