Digging at the Root Causes of Chronic Lyme (and What to Do About It)

Lyme In the Limelight

These days, chronic Lyme has come to represent more than just the bacterial infection that causes it. More people are beginning to realize that it is profoundly wrapped up with other tick-borne infections, such as Bartonella and Babesia, as well as Toxic Mold Syndrome. 

Our understanding of Lyme disease has significantly changed since the first days when we were just learning about it as a bacterial infection that could be cured with antibiotics. Unfortunately, conventional medicine (as well as functional medicine to an extent) is still mostly in the “dark ages” when it comes to understanding and treating the Lyme “Complex”, as well as other ‘invisible illnesses”. To this day, many doctors tell their patients who present with chronic Lyme symptoms that it’s a psychological problem (``it's all in your head”) and to take a xanax. As a result, they don’t look at it as a medical problem. To put it lightly, this is misguided. 

However, researchers such as Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, are shedding much needed light on the issues that cause chronic Lyme and related illnesses. As a result, many Lyme literate practitioners today are adopting the model of the “cell danger response”. This is an important concept, affirming what many patients have been telling their doctors for decades. It explains why they’re not able to get better with treatment, and that there’s more beneath the surface than what we’ve come to think of as “Lyme”.

How Lyme Turns Chronic

Many areas of medicine are still failing to acknowledge the existence of chronic Lyme. The cell danger response flies in the face of this belief. Very briefly, the cell danger response is when the body shuts itself down in response to certain infections, or toxins, in order to prevent the infection from further damaging the body. In a significant number of people, however, the body gets stuck in this shut down mode, or cell danger response, whether an infection is present or not. Essentially, it fails to reboot itself, causing a global inflammation response that becomes unregulated . 

To complicate matters further, the bacteria in many tick-borne infections are “stealth” pathogens, meaning they are capable of immune evasion and become resistant to treatment, and to testing. So often with Lyme there is an infection lingering in the body, while the body remains “shut down” from the cell danger response, and inappropriately reactive to many chemicals, treatments, foods, smells and other stimuli. 

The Rebooting Model

In the old days, a practitioner could treat some chronic illnesses with a fair amount of success by correcting for hormone deficiencies and filling nutrient gaps. Today, although these therapies can help patients get better, there are a significant number of people that can’t get fully well with these treatments alone (I will explain why in a bit). If you’re dealing with Lyme disease, simply treating with antibiotics may help some, but not many others. We have learned that chronic Lyme not only hijacks the immune system, but interferes with all the organ systems in the body. If you’ll excuse the analogy, it then becomes necessary to “reboot” each system at a time in order to get the body back online and working properly again. 

In his groundbreaking book Toxic, Neil Nathan, MD, presents the case for why we are generally sicker these days, and as a result, become more resistant to the older models of treatment.

One of the reasons is that we live in an increasingly toxic world, with high levels of exposure to chemicals, electromagnetic fields and other toxins. These toxins we take into our bodies profoundly affect the way certain infectious diseases, especially the Lyme complex, are dealt with by the body. In individuals who are genetically susceptible to it, environmental toxicity plus Lyme infection is a recipe for unremitting chronic illness. 

About a quarter of the population aren’t able to fully flush out the toxins from their system through what is called the “biotoxin pathway”. This would indicate why patients with chronic Lyme are not able to get well with conventional treatment. In order to get well, they must no longer be exposed to the toxins in their environment. Secondly, it takes an approach that “reboots” their systems so that their body can regulate again, usually with additional detox support. In many cases, until these first two issues have been addressed, an antimicrobial treatment alone is inadequate for many people.

Where to Begin?

Many practitioners will begin with the elimination / detox phase of healing. However, I almost always start with my clients by supporting their nervous system first. There are two reasons for this. For one, the nervous system is the seat of the “master control system of the body”, which is the vagus nerve, and can be relatively easy to stimulate, and will assist in mobilizing toxins out of the body.

Secondly, in many who are chronically ill, the limbic system has become accustomed to being on high alert mode, which can inhibit a lot of processes that regulate inflammation and detoxification. Ultimately, this assists the organ systems functioning and more naturally eliminates biotoxins. A significant minority of people will ultimately not get their health back until these issues are addressed. 

Additionally, starting with the nervous system can help patients cultivate a healthy mindset at the onset of treatment. A certain adjustment of consciousness can add immense value to the person in treatment, and encourage the client to remain hopeful in the face of setbacks. 

Three Ways to Assist Nervous System for Lyme Recovery

There are lots of ways to support and reboot the nervous system. I’ll share my three favorites, all of which can be used together as part of the first phase of healing, and are relatively easy to do on your own. 

Ocean Breath

Ocean breath uses a slight contraction of the back of the throat to add pressure to the outbreath during deep, slow belly-breathing. Reducing airflow during exhalation increases vagal activity. Ujjayi breath (meaning “victory over the mind through breath”), also known as ocean breath, is a commonly practiced form of healing breath, which brings a sense of feeling calm, alert and attentive, with the additional benefits of stimulating the vagus nerve.

The vagus nerve, as I’ve mentioned above, is known as the “master control system” of the body. This is because it’s connected to every major organ system, including the gastrointestinal, endocrine and immune. By engaging the vagus nerve through breathwork, you’re allowing these organ systems to function optimally, such as assisting the digestive system in mobilizing biotoxins, and reducing the amount of inflammatory molecules in the bloodstream. You will also feel much more embodied, and can help dispel anxiety and fear very quickly, which is itself a very big deal for many with chronic Lyme. 

There are many online tutorials you can find on Ocean Breath. Richard P. Brown, in his book The Healing Power Of Breath presents a nice overview and instruction on this particularly healing form of breath. 

I teach many of my clients to do Ocean Breath. When they become adept at the technique, I often suggest combining the exercise with a Full Body Scan visualization for an optimal effect. 

The Basic Exercise

The Basic Exercise is another powerful technique to directly stimulate the vagus nerve - and it takes as little as five minutes. This exercise was developed by the osteopath Stanley Rosenberg, and is well detailed in his book The Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve. However, you can find excellent tutorials online.

This deceptively simple exercise uses eye movement to engage muscles in the back of your  head, drawing the first two vertebrae into alignment -- a necessary condition for the state of social engagement, and shifting our metabolic energy from a posture of defense to one of relaxation and embodiment. Physiological shifts connected to the activation of the social engagement system affect posture, digestion, respiration and immune response, not to mention our emotional and behavioral coloring. This exercise, practiced daily, is one way to improve, or "tone," our vagus nerve, which can increase our resilience to physical and emotional danger.

Annie Hopper’s DNRs Program

DNRS (Dynamic Neural Retraining) is a limbic system retraining program developed by Annie Hopper, originally developed to help quiet the body’s overreaction to stimuli such as chemicals, food, sound and EMFs. The limbic system is a part of our nervous system that monitors the environment for possible threats, and mediates many involuntary physical reactions, including inflammation.. Many people who have chronic Lyme, Bartonella or Toxic Mold, and are “stuck” in the cell danger response, where the body mounts an inflammatory response inappropriately, will often benefit from this program. The program uses a combination of positive thinking and physical exercises to reprogram the limbic system. It is available as a DVD set from Hopper’s website www.retrainingthebrain.com.

Concluding Remarks

Although I wasn’t aware of these particular therapies early on in my own struggle with chronic Lyme, I wish I had been. I believe it would have saved a lot of struggle later on, when I developed SIBO, Toxic Mold Syndrome and complex migraine disorder. 

These days, whenever I have a set-back in my health, I do most of these exercises daily. It takes less than an hour of my day, and the benefits are quite simply amazing.