Lasting immune strength for healing Lyme disease

 Lyme disease can be crippling for the immune system. It can be hard to know if Borrelia is disabling immunity and causing underperformance, or if our immune system is over-performing due to an autoimmune or histamine trigger. Chances are that the symptoms of chronic Lyme are a mix of both. 

A healthy immune response is critical to healing symptoms of Lyme disease. It may be that we never rid the body of every Borrelia bacterium – that instead Lyme remission means our immune systems limit reproduction to the degree that we can live symptom-free.

The process of calming and strengthening the immune system enough to achieve Lyme remission can be lengthy and frustrating. It can mean a wholesale re-education of the nervous system. Many tools are useful for this. Below is an exploration of three of my favorites.

Use your mind to strengthen immunity

The nervous system and the brain are intimately linked to immune strength. We Lyme Warriors can work with brain retraining anytime, for free, from home. In my experience, it’s always useful to calm and soothe my brain and the nervous system, and to lower my stress response. As a rule, the less stressed my nervous system is, the healthier my immune response.

I use language to work against Lyme anxiety. No matter what my symptom profile at any given time, my goal is to create and maintain a feeling of trusting my body, trusting my immune system, relaxing into the feeling of being taken care of by my own system's intelligence and grace. I wrote the Immune Strength meditation specifically to support this feeling of trust and relaxation.

You can use guided meditations, or your own mantras. Experiment with short sentences that resonate with you, that you can repeat. Find what works for you personally through experimentation, repetition, creativity. Here are some suggestions:

I am strong and healthy. My immune system is a beautiful, intelligent, living system. I am calm. I am safe.

For me, mantras have a profound effect. Repeating a good one, while I relax and breathe deeply, ALWAYS lessens my symptoms. Remember that your nervous system will follow language – though it may take some time to feel the results.

Herbal supplements to support immunity

Adaptogens are a class of medicinal herb that can be super useful for toning and harmonizing immune response. Adaptogenic herbs support the body’s natural healing response to all kinds of stress: physical, mental and emotional. I use ashwagandha, astragalus, and eluthero, as per the Lyme protocol in Stephen Harrod Buhner’s book, Healing Lyme. These three adaptogenic herbs all support adrenal health, build stamina and boost immunity. each in slightly different ways.

Here is an article I recently published with ProHealth detailing some of the specific properties of the adaptogen astragalus. I love astragalus, and for me it works best in combination with the other two adaptogens mentioned above.

Here’s another article I wrote for ProHealth, outlining eight herbal supplements for immune support during Lyme disease treatment, including the three adaptogens mentioned above, as well as cat’s claw and four kinds of medicinal mushrooms. (The mushrooms can be bought in powder form, and mixed into tea or hot chocolate.) I use all of these herbs daily, and haven’t had any side effects. All of them have lessened Lyme symptoms for me in various ways, and I feel they all support my immune system as well. It’s a lot of potion mixing and pill taking to organize and maintain, but vibrant health is worth the work.

Make your own adaptogenic tinctures

You can make your own tinctures if you are feeling crafty. They pack a powerful punch, and it’s far cheaper to make them yourself.

I am not an herbalist, and I kind of wing it – but I have been making my own tinctures for more than three years now, and they work. Here's my recipe.

Buy the powders online (organic), and combine them in a mason jar with some damn fine vodka. (We Lymies can't drink, so we should enjoy our tinctures. I like Tito’s vodka best, but any kind will work.)

I use a ratio of 1/4 powder to 3/4 vodka. Shake up the mixture, and place it somewhere protected from light and extreme temperatures. Shake the jars up whenever you think to, and let them soak for six weeks or longer. When you are ready, strain out the powder and store the liquid in brown or blue bottles. Or, just leave the powder in the alcohol and let your tinctures increase in potency for however long they last.

Cut sugar out of your diet

Bad bugs love sugar. Sugar can also negatively affect the immune system and increase inflammation systemically – so just ditch it. Yes, even fruit. Get yourself some stevia-sweetened dark chocolate (Lily's, or Bulletproof), buy yourself some xylitol (it busts biofilms), and let your body forget that sugar was ever on the menu. For me, all it takes is two days off sugar to feel the profound results. 

 

Thank you so much for reading! You are magnificent, fully alive,

Shona

Sources:

Ko JK, Chik CW. The protective action of radix Astragalus membranaceus against hapten-induced colitis through modulation of cytokines. Cytokine. 2009;47(2):85-90. doi:10.1016/j.cyto.2009.05.014

Piao YL, Liang XC. Astragalus membranaceus injection combined with conventional treatment for viral myocarditis: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Chin J Integr Med. 2014;20(10):787-791. doi:10.1007/s11655-014-1825-3

Qin Q, Niu J, Wang Z, Xu W, Qiao Z, Gu Y. Astragalus embranaceus extract activates immune response in macrophages via heparanase. Molecules. 2012;17(6):7232-7240. Published 2012 Jun 13. doi:10.3390/molecules17067232

Buhner, Stephen Harrod. Healing Lyme. Silver City, NM, Raven Press, 2015. 

Dudhgaonkar S, Thyagarajan A, Sliva D. Suppression of the inflammatory response by triterpenes isolated from the mushroom Ganoderma lucidum. National Institutes of Health Website, 2009 Oct;9(11):1272-80. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2009.07.011

Hardeep S. Tuli, Sardul S. Sandhu, A K. Sharma. Pharmacological and Therapeutic Potential of Cordyceps with Special Reference to Cordycepin. National Institutes of Health Website, 2015 February. 4(1): 1–12 doi: 10.1007/s13205-013-0121-9

Lai PL, Naidu M, Sabaratnam V, et al. Neurotrophic Properties of the Lion’s Mane Medicinal Mushroom, Hericium Erinaceus (Higher Basidiomycetes) from Malaysia. National Institutes of Health Website, 2013;15(6):539-54