Beyond Lyme Disease: Healing the Underlying Causes of Chronic Illness in People with Borreliosis and Co-Infections by Connie Strasheim

Author:Connie Strasheim [Strasheim, Connie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780982513897
Publisher: BioMed Publishing Group
Published: 2012-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Parasites

Lyme-literate practitioners are increasingly finding that parasites are a major cause of symptoms and illness in their patients with Lyme disease. Unfortunately, parasites are often treated as an ancillary or secondary problem to tick-borne infections—as a nuisance to the immune system, but not the real reason why symptoms are present.

If the body has parasites, it’s sometimes because the immune system has been weakened by other factors, such as tick-borne infections, but parasites also play a main role in immune suppression and illness. And to assume that parasites can be effectively treated by simply taking a couple of antiparasitic remedies such as wormwood or Alinia for a couple of weeks is to underestimate their tenacity and importance in the overall symptom picture.

Lyme-literate doctors usually treat their chronically ill Lyme patients for many months or years with multiple antibiotics and herbs. Good doctors regularly rotate their patients’ regimens to ensure that the infections are thoroughly and adequately treated. But what if symptoms of Lyme disease are present and the tick-borne infections are difficult to eradicate because parasites are also keeping the immune system in a weakened state? What if parasites are a bigger problem for the body than tick-borne infections? At the 2011 Conference “A Deep Look Beyond Lyme,” Simon Yu, MD, presented numerous case studies that demonstrated how his chronically ill patients, who were initially diagnosed with conditions from autism to cancer, Lyme disease, and MS, would improve radically after parasite treatment. They also responded better to nutritional treatments after their parasites were eliminated. Dr. Yu contends that if you can rid the body of parasites, sometimes symptoms of other infections will automatically resolve. He believes that parasite treatment can be effective for healing chronic illness when all other treatments fail.

Dr. Yu has also found that, as with Lyme disease and MS, parasites cause lesions on the brain and other Lyme-like symptoms. These symptoms are often blamed on tick-borne infections. Based on the opinions and experience of Dr. Yu, it seems worthwhile for people with Lyme disease to investigate the possibility that their symptoms are being caused, at least in part, by parasitic infections.

Another well-respected Lyme-literate doctor whom I interviewed (whose name I must withhold for privacy) contends that some people who believe that Lyme organisms are their main problem are really suffering from multiple parasitic infections. He believes that if patients are treated for parasites first, then they may only need antibiotic therapy for their tickborne infections for weeks or months, instead of years.

Additionally, many people with Lyme disease suffer from psychiatric symptoms, which are usually attributed to tick-borne infections, but studies have shown that psychiatric symptoms may also be caused by parasites. For instance, an abstract of a 1997 article that was published in Psychological Bulletin states: “The title of a 1930s article asked the question, ‘Stupidity or Hookworm?’ In this article, the authors discuss research that attempts to answer the question of whether intestinal worms; namely, hookworm, whipworm, and roundworm, harm the mental performance of their hosts.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.