Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in America, with it now classified as an epidemic by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet, testing, diagnosing, and treating Lyme disease has not improved general practices. If you struggle with pain and think it may be related to Lyme disease, even if you have received a negative test result, contact a Lyme literate doctor immediately. Lyme-literate doctors have advanced, modern techniques to examine your blood to determine if you have Lyme disease. Lyme literate doctors also provide great insight into Lyme disease pain management.
Why Lyme Disease Pain Management Is Needed
Lyme disease develops in three stages: localized, early dissemination, and late dissemination. Each stage has its own set of symptoms that progressively worsen over time. When left untreated or mistreated, Lyme symptoms become chronic and interfere with daily functioning. The pain from Lyme disease derives from the body’s constant state of inflammation as it detects Lyme bacteria and tries to eliminate it. The body’s immune system is not strong enough to fight Lyme bacteria that quickly multiply and travel in the bloodstream throughout the body, hiding in scar tissue and blood vessel linings. Pain from Lyme disease can include swelling and soreness in joints, headaches, muscle aches, neuropathy, arthritis, and your senses can be hypersensitive.
Traditional Lyme Disease Pain Management
For many referred to a pain management clinic to treat Lyme symptoms, they are given opioids, which work initially. Over time, however, tolerance builds, and you need more of the opiate to achieve the same effect. Taking opioids without treating your Lyme disease is not a viable solution. You will become addicted to the pain pills, which create additional health problems, like stomach pain, digestive problems, and withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop taking them. Pain relievers and muscle relaxers trick the brain by attaching to the pain receptors, blocking you from feeling pain. They do not treat Lyme disease, only mask the symptoms. Fortunately, prescription opioids are not the only treatment for Lyme disease pain.
Antibiotics for Lyme Disease
Doxycycline is one of the most potent antibiotics available and is often used to treat Lyme disease. If you are lucky, your Lyme disease will be treated early enough for antibiotics to eliminate the Lyme bacteria before it starts to spread in the body. If you are not so lucky, symptoms will persist after antibiotic treatments. Your general practitioner will not have alternative treatments. That’s why seeing a Lyme literate doctor is crucial. Lyme literate doctors will also prescribe antibiotics. However, they will be administered through an I.V. infusion directly into your bloodstream, where Lyme bacteria live. The antibiotics are not degraded through the digestive process, so you get the full effect of the medicine.
Nerve Treatment for Lyme Disease
If you feel pain, a nerve supply is affected in that area. For example, if you have pain in your knee, the nerve supply to your knee is damaged somehow. Each time you move your knee, the nerves are irritated and cause pain.
Neural pain can be treated with neural therapy. Your Lyme literate doctor can inject pain reliever medicine directly into the joint or area of pain. The medicine used is Novocain, which is often prescribed as a topical cream or pouch. While this application works, an injection works for longer, is quicker, and is more effective.
Alternative Procedures for Lyme Disease
If the Lyme bacteria in your bloodstream is the source behind the inflammation causing your pain, then it makes sense that eliminating the bacteria once and for all would reduce or get rid of your pain. There are multiple treatments a Lyme literate doctor can use to clean your blood.
Apheresis
Apheresis involves a blood donor, a patient, and a qualified medical doctor. This is not a regular blood transfusion, however. With therapeutic apheresis, a patient with infected blood needs replacement blood to get rid of the bacteria living in their bloodstream. Your Lyme literate doctor will determine if you could benefit from plasmapheresis, plateletpheresis, or red cell exchange.
Biofilms are protective casings
Biofilm are protective casings where spirochetes, or bacteria, can hide. If biofilms develop, they can make treatments like antibiotics useless. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate biofilms and prevent the protection of bacteria within your blood. Biofilm eradication protocols help in the elimination process by combining anthracycline derivatives and antimicrobials that attack the inside and outside cells. This may sound complicated, but it is a simple act that prevents DNA and RNA synthesis by breaking them down until they can no longer reproduce. This protocol helps to rid the body of the entire biofilm, not just a portion of it like many antibiotics do.
Hyperthermia
Hyperthermia is the process in which a Lyme-literate specialist will create an artificial fever response. Fever is the body’s natural way to activate the immune system to fight bacterial infections, like those associated with Lyme disease. Your fever is controlled and lowered immediately by your doctor once your immune system receives the benefits.
Oxidative medicine
Oxidative medicine produces a chemical change in bacteria when it comes into contact with ozone, weakening the bacteria. The more bacteria are exposed to ozone, the less toxic it becomes, and eventually, it is destroyed.
Detox and Withdrawal from Opioids
If you are currently on opioids to treat Lyme pain, that’s okay. A Lyme-literate doctor can help you detox from opioids without the withdrawal symptoms. Many people no longer need opioids after receiving alternative therapies.
Detoxification can be done using methadone, suboxone, and allopathic medicines. You will only be on these substitutes temporarily. You will be slowly tapered off the medication over many months and until you are without withdrawal symptoms. However, you don’t have to wait to start receiving advanced treatments for Lyme disease.
Contact Lyme Mexico today to talk to a Lyme literate doctor about your options. Pain management is a serious issue. You deserve to work with the best doctors who can find the right treatment for your pain.