As defined by the American Psychological Association (APA), adjunct therapy refers to one or more therapies that support a primary treatment to improve outcomes. Adjunct therapies typically follow antibiotic treatments and are essential for eliminating Lyme bacteria from your system when treating Lyme disease.
What is Lyme Bacteria?
When a deer tick bites you, it transmits Lyme bacteria into your bloodstream. Lyme bacteria reproduce and spread throughout your body. They are incredibly clever and difficult to destroy. Reasons for this include the Lyme bacterium’s ability to hide in the lining of blood cells, create protective biofilms, travel against blood flow, and go dormant and undetectable.
Lyme bacteria can outsmart Lyme disease tests and antibiotics. Because antibiotics are always the first line of treatment, a second or third adjunct therapy should follow to outsmart the Lyme bacteria and eliminate them once and for all.
If Lyme bacteria, every piece of them, are not destroyed, they can start to rebuild, and chronic Lyme disease symptoms will appear. Below are eight effective adjunct therapies to discuss with your Lyme doctor.
Neurofeedback Therapy
Neurofeedback is like biofeedback. It uses your brain’s feedback to heal your body. Getting input from your brain can tell your doctor the exact actions you can take to improve brain functioning. Ultimately, this allows your body to fight Lyme disease properly. Neurofeedback teaches your brain to communicate effectively again and resolve Lyme disease symptoms such as brain fog, sleep disturbances, and mood swings.
Mind-Body Therapies
Ample research shows a connection between the mind and body. When one is unhealthy, so is the other, and vice versa. Lyme disease affects both the mind and body. If you only treat the body like antibiotics, your mind may still be affected. You must treat both at the same time using adjunct mind-body therapies.
Examples of mind-body practices include the following:
- Meditation or prayer
- Yoga
- Qigong
- Self-massage
- Deep breathing
- Focused attention
- Sleep hygiene
- Acupuncture
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Your body needs oxygen to function. The air you usually breathe is only 21% oxygen. Your doctor may use hyperbaric oxygen therapy to get a more optimal oxygen intake. The more oxygen you can get to your cells and tissues, the better the body can fight off bacterial infections like Lyme disease.
Getting more oxygen on your own is not something you can do, or that is recommended since too much oxygen can damage the body. You are also at risk for fire hazards and explosions when too much oxygen is in the air.
Your Lyme literate doctor will have the proper equipment, a hyperbaric chamber, to administer the treatment.
Hyperthermia
The hyperthermia process includes a Lyme doctor controlling the temperature inside your body. Fever is a natural method of fighting infections. Hyperthermia is an artificial fever response that triggers your body’s immune system to attack bacteria and destroy Lyme infection.
Hyperthermia for Lyme disease must be provided by a Lyme-literate doctor who has the advanced equipment and clinic to support safe administration.
IV Therapies
The use of an IV allows your doctor to administer antibiotics, vitamins, and minerals directly into your bloodstream, where Lyme bacteria are active. Taking oral supplements means they must pass through your digestive system and become degraded. By the time they reach the bloodstream, you only receive a portion of the substance.
Advantages of IV therapies include the following:
IV antibiotics are more potent and attack Lyme bacteria more effectively
- Improves cognition
- Helps you feel more energized
- Simple, safe, and pain-free procedure
- Can be done on an outpatient basis
- Some other IV treatments that have improved Lyme disease outcomes include Methylene Blue, vitamin C, silver, antimicrobials, and gallium.
Regenerative Therapy
The use of stem cells to improve Lyme disease symptoms within the body has been around for many years and continues to develop and progress. Regenerative therapy is proving to help those with Lyme disease too. Everyone has unique stem cells that can repair damaged cells in the brain, bone, muscles, and tissues.
The reparation process begins with your Lyme-literate doctor extracting your stem cells and storing them for later use. However, many doctors choose to use synthesized stem cells that may have a better survival rate. Your doctor injects healthy stem cells into your bloodstream, at which time they begin to move to damaged cells in your body. Once they arrive at the damaged areas, stem cells conform to those cells and take over the functioning of those neurons. This begins the healing process.
Chelation and Heavy Metal Detox
Chelation involves your doctor injecting binding substances into your bloodstream that can grab hard-to-flush Lyme bacteria and make it possible for them to be eliminated. This process is beneficial when detoxing heavy metals out of your body.
You encounter heavy metals daily from the environment, the foods you consume, and your lifestyle. Heavy metals hinder your immune system, making it more challenging to fight Lyme bacteria. When chelating sources bind to heavy metals, they are quickly forced out of your system through urine, sweat, and bowel movements. This improves your immune system and its ability to attack and destroy Lyme bacteria.
Nutritional Therapies
When your body senses a foreign substance in your bloodstream, such as Lyme bacteria, it triggers an inflammation response. The inflammation seeks out the bacteria to destroy it. This natural process would work if Lyme bacteria weren’t so great at hiding. But they are good at hiding, causing your body to stay in an inflammatory state.
If you have Lyme disease, you must avoid inflammatory foods, which are items that contain multiple ingredients made from unnatural sources. Inflammation thrives on sugar.
Anti-inflammatory foods can help reduce inflammation in your body. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains are examples of anti-inflammatory foods.
If you have Lyme disease and feel you could benefit from adjunct therapies, reach out to Lyme Mexico to discuss options. You deserve any treatment that can improve your treatment outcomes.