Photo by Erik Karits on Unsplash
According to the CDC, over 476,000 new Lyme disease cases are diagnosed and treated each year, and worldwide, at least 1 in 7 people have been or are currently infected.
Part of the challenge of treating chronic Lyme is that there is no reliable biomarker on which to base testing. So, testing is often not effective and many people go undiagnosed for years.
Also, ticks have the capacity to carry and transmit a wide range of microorganisms all at the same time, making it difficult to distinguish between Lyme and a host of other potential co-infections, including babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, relapsing fever, tularemia, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF).
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a powerful tool for treating all of these infections – as well as similarly debilitating conditions like mold toxicity. HBOT also increases the effectiveness of most medications used to treat these diseases.
HBOT’s power comes in part from the fact that oxygen is a natural antimicrobial, so it can combat all the microorganisms which cause Lyme and its co-infections. It’s particularly potent against the anaerobes, which normally hide out in areas of the body which are lower in oxygen due to lack of direct blood supply. Coincidentally, the vascular system of arteries, capillaries, and veins which carry the blood is also how most medications are delivered.
Unlike those medications though, HBOT doesn’t rely on the blood supply to deliver oxygen. Instead, the increased pressure in the hyperbaric chamber sends oxygen directly into all the fluids and tissues of the body – including places where your vascular system doesn’t go – and it reaches all of the microorganisms which cause these diseases.
Equally important, the increased pressure and high levels of oxygen have a powerful anti-inflammatory effect, which is crucial in addressing the inflammation these microbes create. Increased pressure and high levels of oxygen also help normalize immune function, and immune dysregulation is one of the effects of these systemic infections.
Curiously enough, one way we know that HBOT is working is when, several treatments in, our Lyme patients start feeling worse! This is a phenomenon known as a Herxheimer reaction, or herxing, and means that the microorganisms causing chronic illness are starting to die off, releasing toxins into the body.
Fortunately there are a number of easy ways to detoxify when herxing, including drinking water, soaking in epsom salt baths, and taking Burbur and Pinella extracts, both of which are extremely safe, and helpful for moving toxins out of the body.
We encourage patients who are herxing to keep up their HBOT treatments and use the detoxification techniques and supplements. We generally find that within a few sessions, symptoms abate, and people start feeling much better overall.