Lyme Disease & Lyme Diet
Lyme disease is a condition directly linked to inflammation. When a tick infected with Lyme disease bites you, it transmits the Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, into your bloodstream. The bacteria immediately start to multiply and travel through your bloodstream, stopping in places where they can go undetected from antibiotics. Once it perceives a threat, the human body goes into protective mode. It produces inflammation to hunt down the bacteria and eliminate them from the body.
Bacteria can move against the flow of blood and hide in scar tissue around your joints. They have biofilms, or tiny armor, protecting them. What this means is that the inflammation can’t find the bacteria. Inflammation never gives up. It will continue searching for the bacteria until it feels the problem is resolved. This means your body can remain inflamed indefinitely. However, you can do things to reduce the inflammation, starting with a Lyme diet.
What is a Lyme Diet?
The proper diet can boost your immune system, regulate hormones, detox organs, and reduce inflammation. A Lyme disease diet can also
- Reduce swelling and pain in joints
- Give you more energy
- Improve concentration and memory
- Ease headaches
- Help the thyroid and adrenals do their job
- Replace bad gut bacteria with good bacteria
A Lyme diet consists of foods, beverages, and activities. It is a process of replacing inflammatory foods with anti-inflammatory varieties.
Reduce Sugar Intake
Sugar is a major contributor to inflammation and the worsening of Lyme disease symptoms. It weakens the immune system, dysregulates hormones, creates spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels, and causes inflammation. If you already have inflammation due to Lyme disease and then consume sugar, you increase the amount of inflammation in your body.
Studies show sugary foods and drinks stimulate free fatty acids in the liver, which triggers the release of inflammation.
Too much sugar intake also leads to diseases impacted by inflammation, on top of your Lyme disease. For example, asthma, diabetes, arthritis, hepatitis, sinusitis, and Crohn’s disease.
When reducing your sugar intake, watch out for tricks the food producers use to sell products, like the 56 aliases of sugar.
Reduce Gluten Intake
Anything made with wheat, rye, oats, and barley contains gluten. This includes flours used to create delicious, carbohydrate-filled cookies, crackers, bread, and more. While the items taste great, too much of them can harm the body. That’s because it activates the immune system. Diseases associated with gluten include celiac disease, hypothyroidism, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis, to name a few. You don’t want any of these conditions while also having Lyme disease.
Start looking at labels for hidden ways gluten is snuck into your foods, beverages, and even your toiletries. Then start making substitutions.
Test Your Allergies
Allergy testing is readily available today. Top companies provide at-home testing kits. To get a broader range of testing, make an appointment with a Lyme literate doctor. You can receive feedback on the same day of your test rather than waiting two weeks for information.
Reports state 70% of the immune system is found in the gut. Taking too many antibiotics can weaken the immune system and increase the body’s ability to develop allergies. The standard rounds of antibiotics used to treat Lyme disease may also create inflammation responses.
Reduce Stress
The body gets stressed when it thinks it is in danger. It has a flight or fight response. Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol are released that affect many parts of the body, triggering immune responses. This type of stress also triggers the release of inflammation. Like most people, you encounter stress throughout your day, every day.
Chronic stress leads to diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, and heart disease. Having any of these diseases, as well as Lyme disease, can be devastating.
Work With a Lyme Literate Doctor
If you learned there are modern advancements in Lyme disease treatment that can reduce or eliminate your symptoms, you would want to know about them. If I told you some doctors could create specific nutrient and vitamin protocols that support a Lyme diet, you might want to learn more.
Lyme-literate doctors can create the most effective treatment plan using the latest equipment and supplements. You can even receive vitamins through an IV directly to your bloodstream, so you don’t lose any benefits to the digestive process.
Lyme-literate doctors can evaluate you and give you a step-by-step approach to improving your diet and getting rid of inflammation.
Stay Hydrated
Drinking sugary sodas, coffee, and juices do not give your body the fluids it needs for good health. Water is necessary. There is reason research tells us the body can’t live long without water. It doesn’t say we can’t live without soda. Water can be compared to oil in a vehicle. It’s a necessary component of proper functioning.
Drinking water is a great way to reduce inflammation, too.
Food is Medicine
You have likely heard that food is medicine. It’s true. Some foods harm and some foods heal. Learning which foods harm and heal your body is essential in a Lyme diet. One of the easiest tips to remember is that if the food came from a plant, it is likely a healing food. Examples are leafy greens, berries, avocados, tomatoes, and nuts. Salmon, chicken, venison, and lean meats are also good choices.
When you go to the grocery store, check the ingredients. Anti-inflammatory foods and drinks will have less than three ingredients, like a potato. McDonald’s has taken the potato and added 18 other ingredients to create their french fries. It’s true.
Consider It a Lifestyle, Not a Diet
Dieting makes many people think of a temporary plan that eliminates everything good. They return to old, unhealthy eating habits when they get off the diet. Instead, think about a Lyme diet as a slow-changing lifestyle. You don’t have to accomplish everything at once. All you must do is take the first step towards change. You deserve to feel better. Contact Lyme Mexico today to learn more about Lyme Disease treatment.
Reviewed by Dr. Omar Morales, MD