Lyme disease is most common along the eastern seaboard and throughout Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It is currently spreading throughout the United States. There are up to 300,000 new cases reported by state health departments each year. The incidence rate in high-risk counties during 2012 are four times higher than it used to be in 1993.
Symptoms include chills, fatigue, fever, pain in the joints, aching muscles, nausea, and heavy sweating. Lyme disease can also cause arthritis and problems in the nervous system for many years after the original diagnosis.
Even the most powerful of antibiotics do not work on this chronic disease. Despite this, conventional treatments will still call for the use of ineffective pharmaceutical drugs that not only fail to alleviate the true cause of Lyme disease, but also cause serious side effects for patients who are already burdened with the chronic disease. (Related: These herbs have potent anti-inflammatory properties that may improve symptoms of chronic Lyme disease.)
Lyme disease starts when a tick bites a human, infecting him or her with disease-causing bacteria. However, just because it began with the introduction of pathogenic microbes does not meant it will end with the elimination of said microorganisms.
Conventional healthcare providers will respond by prescribing antibiotics to eliminate the microbes and associated infections. However, these pharmaceutical drug-based treatments ignore the internal makeup of the human body that is responsible for preventing the onset of diseases.
A combination of emotional stress, lack of nutrients, and toxins can weaken the immune system. This makes the body more vulnerable to infectious diseases like Lyme disease.
The strategy of taking antibiotics to kill off all harmful bacteria is not a surefire way to ensure the recovery of patients from chronic diseases. It will even backfire and expose a patient to new health problems.
Constant use of strong antibiotics will cause problems in the intestinal tract that houses many good bacteria. Depleting the population of beneficial gut bacteria allows their harmful counterparts to take over the gut. This can weaken the immune system, which opens the door for external diseases to enter the body.
Hansa Center for Optimum Health founder Dr. David Jernigan advises that the main goal in the treatment of Lyme disease should be to restore the immune system of the body. If that can be accomplished, the tick-delivered bacteria will not be able to trigger the symptoms of the disease.
Jernigen is strongly against the use of harsh antibiotics as the primary treatment for chronic Lyme disease. Instead, he advocates a biocentric approach that restores the natural defenses of the body against illnesses.
After interviewing thousands of Lyme disease patients, Jernigen finds that the natural healing ability of the body is given little credit in their recovery. Instead, almost all the effort is attributed to the use of antibiotics and other pharmaceutical drugs.
Just because a laboratory test says the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease has been wiped out does not mean the patient is good as new. It also isn't evidence of the effectiveness of the drugs.
The bacteria responsible for Lyme disease is very robust. So the symptoms of the disease can persist even after a supposed clean bill of health if the immune system of the patient remains weak.
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