Six Innovative Treatments for Lyme Disease
By Adam Breiner, ND I
f you’ve been diagnosed with Lyme disease, chances are good you’ve been prescribed antibiotics. That may be fi ne, but it may not be enough to keep symptoms at bay. You may
fi nd the problems you were having return a few weeks, months, or even years later. This happens because the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria (which causes Lyme disease) likes to “hide out” in tissues where blood fl ow and therefore oxygen is reduced, such as in connective tissue.
Borrelia has also been found to create biofi lms, which are like
a walled-in city, and the bacteria can survive there in safety until antibiotics are no longer in the body’s system. Then the Borrelia bacteria will reemerge, causing symptoms of Lyme disease to appear once again.
Do You Have Lyme? Fewer than 50% of patients with Lyme Disease recall getting
a tick bite. It is thought that the longer the tick is attached, the higher the risk of transmission. However, transmission from an infected tick can happen very quickly. It’s possible to contract Lyme disease even if the tick is attached for less than 24 hours. If you don’t develop the classic “bulls-eye rash”, the Erythema rash, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have Lyme. Some studies show that the rash can occur in less than 20% of Lyme patients, therefore this is not necessarily a good indicator as proof of infection. If you do fi nd a tick on you or your child you should proceed to carefully remove the tick as instructed on the ILADS (International Lyme and Associ- ated Diseases Society) website.
As cautioned on their website, do not squeeze, burn the tick
with a match, or place Vaseline on the tick. Go to
http://www.ilads. org/lyme/
what-to-do-if-bit-by-tick.php for instructions as well as a video on their recommended tick-removal process. Once you have the tick, I advise my patients (unless they are coming into the offi ce with the tick) to send the captured tick for testing. Tick Report (
https://www.tickreport.com/) is an excellent place to send the tick for testing for Lyme Disease and other tick-borne diseases. Tick Report is a non-profi t resource based at UMass Amherst; the turn- around time is fairly rapid, and their price is very reasonable.
How Can We Detect Lyme? I have had patients come in that have been told they do not
have Lyme because their tests are negative. Standard blood tests are not always very accurate or sensitive enough. The fi rst test that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says to do is the ELISA (Enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay) test. The ELISA test must be done within the fi rst 30 days of symptoms appearing and even then, it can miss up to 35% of culture-proven cases. The next test that is recommended is the Western blot test; however com-
30 Natural Nutmeg - May/June 2018
mercial lab kits remove certain bands which represent an antibody which is specifi c to a part of the cell wall of the Lyme bacteria caus- ing the Western blot test to miss up to 20-30% of culture-proven positive cases. Armin Labs (
https://www.arminlabs.com/en/tests/ elispot) in Germany, offers an excellent test called the EliSpot test which has been found to be between 20 to 200 times more sensitive than the ELISA test. The EliSpot test shows current activity in chronic and recent infections. Also, by monitoring this test, your doctor can tell if your recommended treatment is effective.
Testing is just one factor in diagnosis; symptoms can even be more important. Very sick and chronically ill patients may not show an immune response to bacteria. Only after treating the patient and restoring their immune system, will they demonstrate a positive response to testing.
EAV Testing
In our offi ce, we use instrument testing known as EAV testing (Electro-acupuncture According to Voll). This device can measure the fl ow of electrons or electromagnetic energy running through the patient’s acupuncture meridian points and can determine whether the electrons are fl owing properly. Once we establish the fl ow along a meridian, we can further test for the signals of various things such as toxins or infections (like the signal for Borrelia burgdorferi) and whether these signals are altering electrical conductance. I like to call this testing Biological Signal Analysis. For instance, if we send the signal for Borrelia down a pathway that we know has a distur- bance and it changes the electrical conductance on that pathway, then it indicates the presence of a Borrelia signal. We can also test how strong that signal is. I fi nd that EAV with Biological Signal Analysis is a very accurate method for giving insight into the pa- tient’s case and into the type and locations of infections and toxins a person has. Although we fi nd a high correlation with the other testing methods used, we never use this method as a stand-alone diagnostic test for Lyme.
In addition, we use EAV testing to help us understand which botanicals (see Botanical Medicine below) will best help our Lyme patients. We also use this testing to determine if our patient’s mes- enchyme is blocked. Mesenchyme holds our cells together, also known as interstitial tissue. Our nerve endings, capillaries, venules and lymphatic(s) are located here and this is where the exchange of nutrients and wastes take place. For example, as you breathe in oxygen it is transported to your lungs, then to your arteries, and down to your capillaries where it is unloaded into the mesenchyme and then diffused into the cells of your organs. The CO2 (carbon dioxide) comes out of the cells into the mesenchyme, and is picked up by the venules, goes to your veins, and from there to your lungs to be exhaled. If the mesenchyme is blocked and cannot function
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