IS LYME DISEASE CURABLE?
When you discover that you have Lyme, you feel the world crumbling down. Everyone seems to be having a different opinion regarding the treatment. Which one is right? Is Lyme disease curable? Can you get rid of it? How long will it take to treat it? Well, nothing is black or white when it comes to Lyme.
The treatment options for Lyme Disease can vary depending on the stage of the infection.
The antibiotic treatment is complicated. It seems to be more effective in an early stage of this terrible disease. Not too long time ago, practitioners were convinced that one course of oral antibiotics ( 14 to 21 days) would do the trick. Some of them still are.
Unfortunately, this is not enough to fight Lyme and eliminate the infection completely, especially if the patients had been contracted the disease a few months back. Many studies have shown that the low dosage and the short-term medication do not eliminate Lyme.
The antibiotics prescribed are Doxycycline, Cefuroxime and Amoxicillin
– the dosage depending on the age and symptoms of the patient. Treating Acute Lyme disease can have a positive outcome, when the patient is administered for three to six months of higher dose antibiotics used in combination and rotation.
In case the symptoms persist after the first round of antibiotic treatment, then the physician usually prescribes another course or oral or decide to switch it to different antibiotics. When treatment is delayed, then the infection spreads out and become chronic.
Chronic Lyme disease can be treated using different types of antibiotic treatments: oral, intravenous, intramuscular and the pulse and combination therapy.
Keep in mind that the treatment plan should address the infection and the co-infections. It should also decrease inflammation, boost the immune system, and help detoxify.
ORAL TREATMENT.
When a patient presents co-infections, then the treatment is far more complex. It involves repeated and prolonged antibiotic therapy. The prolonged treatment needs to target the co-infections as well, not only the Borrelia infection. The dose, duration and the type of treatment can vary from one patient to another. The data suggest that the duration of antibiotics should be extended in order to prevent or delay recurrent and refractory Lyme disease.
INTRAVENOUS TREATMENT.
Once you reached a chronic stage of Lyme disease, your symptoms are more severe and require an aggressive treatment, which can last for months and months. When the oral medication fails, the intravenous treatment is considered. It is not unusual to have it combined, with supportive therapies ( physical therapies, antidepressants, anti-inflammatories) in order to achieve positive outcomes.
Among the antibiotics prescribed we meet ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, penicillin, imipenem, azithromycin and doxycycline. These drugs represent a more suitable alternative therapy and they tend to be more effective in fighting the spirochetes.
INTRAMUSCULAR TREATMENT.
When the above two treatments are no longer effective and patients do no not respond neither to oral or intravenous treatment, then intramuscular treatment is recommended. Patients having multiple relapses or who cannot tolerate oral or intravenous treatment may benefit from the intramuscular benzathine penicillin (1.2 to 2.4 million units per week) .
PULSE AND COMBINATION THERAPY.
The combination therapy refers to a combination of antibiotic treatments that coincide with symptom flare-ups. The specialists recommend rotating different antibiotics to address the different forms and locations in the body of Borrelia.
The antibiotic treatment does not come without any risks. Some patients develop side effects and unpleasant reactions which prevent them from continuing the treatment. Antibiotic treatment does not work for everyone. There is no universal, one-size-fits all treatment. Ideally, the treatment should consist in a multifaceted approach to treatment. The main goals should be total restoration of health, enabling the body to fight the infection.
Here are other Lyme-related posts:
LYME DISEASE COMES WITH CO-INFECTIONS AS A BONUS
CHRONIC LYME DISEASE IS A REAL THING
TOP 10 WORST SYMPTOMS OF LYME DISEASE
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF LYME DISEASE?
WHY IS LYME DISEASE TOUGH TO DIAGNOSE?
HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST TICK BITES?
JOURNEY TO SELF-DISCOVERY?
HOW I FOUND THE SILVER LINING OF LYME DISEASE?
9 WAYS TO KEEP A RELATIONSHIP GOING WHEN BOTH PARTNERS ARE ILL?
All of the above posts were written by me, as part of my Lyme Disease awareness campaign. They were originally published on my personal website. If you would like to learn more about Lyme disease, visit A-ZLYME.COM. On my A-Z Lyme blog, I post weekly Lyme-related articles which I might re-post on Steemit, in order to increase the awareness about this infamous illness.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to re steemit or up vote it!
Please leave your feedback in the comments, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Man im glad we don't have lyme infected ticks in Australia.
The worst we get is the chance of being made allergic to read meat if the tick that bites you has feed on a bandicoot.
As far as I know there ticks carrying Borrelia in Australia as well. I would not rely too much on the NSW Health fact sheet. I have two friends, one from Melbourne and the other in Canberra, who both have contracted Lyme while being in Australia.
English is really popular in Korea. It's now part of the Korean language. They call it Konglish. They have a unique way of saying good luck and don't give up: fighting!
Konglish, I like that. Thank you!
Thank you for this information, i have never heard of this disease yet, i will read more what causes it.
In most of the cases it's caused by a tick bite but it can also be caused by a bite of other insects such as mosquitoes, sand flies. If this was not scaring enough, it can be contacted via blood supply, sexual contact and can be passed from a mother to the foetus.
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Damn, I prefer to be run by a truck than get through all of that.
Sometimes you don't have a choice. Trust me, I've been there, done that.
I would love to say something like stay strong, but that will just feel like I know what you go through, and I don't. Well, I don't know what I can say afterwards. Thank you for not giving up to despair, I think. Is quite inspiring :).
It is great to see you spread awareness on this. I know one person who suffers from this and the affect it has taken on their mind and body is very sad.
Lyme and the co-infections can affect all systems and wreak havoc in one's body. They use to say that you can't die from Lyme either. In the past six months, I heard about three Lyme suffers passed away. This disease needs recognition.
After witnessing someone go through it, I can see how it unfortuantly can cause death. Especially with not finding it until later on or not getting the proper treatment.
I love what you’re doing--and what a powerful list of resources you’re compiling!
I do my best to spread the word about it because it's an awful disease which is being swept under the carpet.
Thanks for sharing and bringing more awareness. I am understanding more about Lyme through your post! Praying for your healing and we have Manglish too... kipidab! Try saying it fast. 😆
As in keep-it-up! Keep up what you are doing to let more people understand about lyme, keep up the fight and thank you for being an inspiration. A lot of us take our good health for granted.
Manglish and Kipidab! Wow! Good to know! Thank you for your kind words. It's true most of us we take our health for granted!
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