To heal from Lyme disease, your body will require medicine to rid your bloodstream of the bacteria B. burgdorferi, given to you by an infected deer tick.
Cleaning the bacteria from your blood is a tough job. Initially, doctors will prescribe antibiotic treatments for a minimum of two weeks. Many doctors agree that 21 to 28 days of antibiotic therapy is more helpful, especially when the antibiotics are given orally.
If your doctor wants to avoid oral medication and administer IV (Intravenous) treatment instead, do it. This preference is one sign that your doctor understands the urgency of more effective cleaning of your blood.
Let me explain why IV is better than oral treatment before sharing the different types of IV treatments available.
Oral vs. IV Treatment Process
Oral treatments mean you will be consuming medication by mouth, usually in the form of a pill or capsule. The tablet you take goes through a process, more like an obstacle course, before it reaches your bloodstream.
You take the pill by mouth. It then travels to your stomach, where acids start breaking it down and removing some of its strength. After breaking down in your digestive tract, the medicine is sent to your liver for processing. Then, it is sent into your bloodstream.
The circulatory system distributes the medicine throughout your body, where it is then metabolized. This entire process can take up to an hour or more.
IV stands for intravenous, which is translated to “into the vein.” With IV treatments, your doctor will inject the drug directly into your veins, and within less than one minute, the medicine will enter your bloodstream. You receive the full dosage amount recommended because it did not have to go through the digestive tract.
IV administration gives your doctor more control of how the medicine can work in your system. Your doctor can also vary the IV treatments based on your symptoms. For someone with Lyme disease, this is a bonus.
Below are descriptions of the types of IV treatments for Lyme disease to give you a better understanding of how they can help you heal.
IV Antibiotics
IV antibiotics are used to treat severe infections, such as Lyme disease, especially when chronic. IV antibiotics can reach your tissues faster and at higher concentrations than oral antibiotics. Many of you with Lyme may have even tried oral antibiotics already without success, making IV antibiotics even more desirable.
Common antibiotics used to treat Lyme disease intravenously include ceftriaxone or cefotaxime. You’re right; those are big names. More simply put, they are in the penicillin family. They are usually administered up to four weeks.
Additional antibiotics your doctor may want to try include doxycycline and amoxicillin.
Studies have shown that IV antibiotics have improved patients’ cognition, fatigue, and myalgias or muscle aches.
Antibiotics given through IV is not the only treatment available for people living with Lyme disease.
Vitamin C Through IV
When you see “Vitamin C,” you likely think oranges. And you’re right, except when we talk about Vitamin C therapies using IV administration to treat Lyme disease. This method has been found useful because Lyme spirochete can shift into different forms, making it hard to track and eliminate.
High doses of Vitamin C, however, when given through IV, allow high concentrations of the vitamin to stay in the bloodstream, effectively killing all forms of the spirochete.
IV Vitamin C treatments can take between 2 to 4 hours. Because this version of Vitamin C is not stored in the body, it acts as a high-powered, short-term weapon against Lyme disease.
Silver Through IV
The positive effects of taking Silver have been recognized for many years. Most people think of colloidal Silver, which is a more widely used oral version. However, when discussing treatments for Lyme disease using IV methods, doctors will use silver nanoparticles.
Silver nanoparticles are more potent and more effective in killing bacteria. It has an anti-germicidal component that binds to viral enemies, disabling them. Meaning, bacteria can no longer replicate and cannot continue to harm you.
Antioxidants Through IV
The Lyme Resource Center reports administering Methylene Blue or M-Blue through IV is an effective way to treat Lyme disease. Low doses have been shown to kill parasites and are effective in treating co-infections like babesia common with Lyme disease.
IV Glutathione, found in every cell, is an antioxidant treatment used in fighting Lyme disease by combating free radicals. Due to heavy metals and toxins we encounter daily, it is common for glutathione levels to be low or depleted. When this happens, your body cannot repair itself.
Replacing glutathione can help protect your brain, nervous system, bones, joints, muscles, and other parts of your body essential to the healing process.
Other antioxidant therapies successful with IV administration include Phosphatidylcholine. This is one of three lipids found within the body that aids in longevity and overall health. When this lipid is damaged, like bacteria associated with Lyme disease, they malfunction and can even begin to work against you.
You may have heard of the PK Protocol before. In this protocol, Phosphatidylcholine is a lipid compound that helps the body detox at the cellular level. When these lipids are functioning, cells can repair themselves and fight chronic diseases.
Vitamin IV Drips
Doctors now recognize the importance of natural vitamins to aid in the attack against diseases. Often, those living with Lyme disease have lower levels of crucial vitamins, like Ds and Bs, CoQ10, and even magnesium.
You can receive all of these vitamins through an IV drip in less than an hour. It will boost your immune system to help your body fight the effects of Lyme disease.
Conclusion
The first step to getting started with any of these IV treatments is to contact our doctor, who specializes in Lyme disease. Often called Lyme specialists, we can create a treatment plan based on your individual needs. We can even start today. Give us a call.