Before we get too far into this Lyme Awareness series on this blog, I want to be up front with you all! I have only had about one month of studying Lyme disease. I am no expert and if I ever say anything on here that you know to not be true, please let me know! I am going to be sharing what I have learned to the best of my ability and hopefully you will find it interesting and informative. Please continue to ask questions about Lyme disease as I have not had many questions yet and I would love to learn more by answering your questions.
For this blog post I would like to try to explain what Lyme disease actually is as there are some misconceptions about it, or rather it is a complex disease that scientist, natural, and medical doctors and even different countries, do not all agree on.
The actual Lyme bacteria can live in your body and not cause any damage for a long time, maybe even your entire life. Scientists have found the bacteria in bodies from thousands of years ago. This shows that Lyme disease is not a new disease but rather incredibly old, so that leaves the scientists and doctors confused as to why there has been an increase of cases in the last number of years. What they have come to believe in all of their studies is that you can have the Lyme bacteria and not necessarily have Lyme disease.
Here is how I understand it.
The Lyme bacteria enters your body, usually from a tick bite. It decides that while it is in your body to throw a party and makes it pretty comfortable for all its other bacteria friends to join in. If your immune system is healthy then your body is like, “wait no, this is my house you ain’t having no party up in here!” But if your immune system is already compromised your body can try to close the door but they just barge in anyway, and the bigger the party, the bigger the mess is in the house. Your immune system can fight off this party for a long time, maybe even your whole life, but if enough other factors come into your life to weaken your immune system eventually it could develop into Lyme disease. For example, you have more stress in your life, you move into a home with mold, you are exposed to chemicals and other toxins, or a whole host of other factors that could compromise your immune system. This is how the Lyme bacteria can live in your body dormant for years and suddenly flare up and you become very sick.
The Lyme bacteria is called Borrelia and there are a host of other infections that it invites in for his party. One book that I have been going through (thanks to one of my friends reading it aloud so I can listen to her recordings) explains that Borrelia is like the Godfather and the only way to get rid of it is to get rid of his body guards first. So, in other words, we need to get rid of the co-infections (other infections that came to the party) first in order to get rid of the Borrelia bacteria.
*The book is “New Paradigms in Lyme Disease Treatment” by Connie Strasheim
Borrelia is a spirochete cell. This means that the tip of the cell has a spiral head that burrows into other cells. This is the reason why Canadian doctors cannot find anything wrong with the blood of their patients, it is no longer in the blood but in the cells of the body they are living in. The Canadian medical test is targeted to acute Lyme infection, this can be caught 30-60 days after first being exposed (via a tick bite) before the spirochete’s have a chance to get into the cells and are still in your blood. Acute Lyme infection can usually be treated easily with a round of antibiotics.
More on the difference between acute and chronic Lyme in the next blog post, stay tuned!
If this raised any questions feel free to ask.
