No one is 100 percent safe from Lyme disease. Avril Lavinge, Ben Siller, Justin Bieber, Alec Baldwin, and Bella Hadid – all these celebrities struggled with Lyme disease. But the good news is that people with acute or chronic Lyme can optimize the body’s ability to heal from this debilitating tick-borne infection.
The best way to improve your ability to heal and prevent complications and severe symptoms is to keep your immune system strong. You need a qualified Lyme-literate doctor who can get you on a proper treatment protocol. However, making some lifestyle and dietary changes will definitely maintain healthy immune function and detoxification, reduce Lyme symptoms, and help you heal faster.
1. Change your diet
A healthy diet that consists of nutrient-dense whole foods is what your body needs to achieve a strong immune system. A diet that agrees with the immune system means a diet that agrees with your gut. It’s important to eliminate foods that are not friendly to your gut. Such a method involves removing the most common food allergens and pro-inflammatory foods such as sugar, gluten, alcohol, dairy, vegetable oil, soy, corn, peanuts, caffeine, eggs, pork, and beef for at least a month. You can then slowly including one food at a time over a three-day period to see is there any allergic reaction. If you find this food, you should stop eating it in order to speed up your recovery process.
Eat plenty of whole foods and lots of veggies and give up processed foods since they can easily disrupt your immune system. According to some data, many Lyme sufferers respond well to an anti-inflammatory alkaline diet. Many Lyme-literate practitioners also suggest that a low-grain high-vegetable diet is one of the best choices for speeding Lyme recovery.
2. Start taking these supplements
Lyme patients need a lot of vitamins and minerals to keep a healthy and strong immune system. Since even the healthiest diet can’t always cover all of your needs you need to take supplements. All Lyme patients usually take four supplements to boost immune function and speed the Lyme recovery process. These include:
- Multi minerals. People with Lyme need a multimineral supplement to improve their detoxification pathways.
- Probiotics. Probiotics keep our gut healthy and thus maintain a healthy immune system. In addition to probiotic supplements, you can eat fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, kefir, and tempeh.
- Omega fatty acids. Omega-3 intake can fight chronic inflammation caused by Lyme infection. These fatty acids particularly reduce the production of inflammatory proteins called cytokines.
- Vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D is extremely important for improving immune function, spending for 20 minutes under the sun daily will give you 2,000 IU of vitamin D.
3. Be physically active
Even light physical activity is recommended for healing from Lyme. Blood flow helps deliver oxygen and essential nutrients to your extremities and remove toxic by-products from the body. It also helps fight chronic fatigue (which is a common side effect of Lyme disease) and boosts your endorphin levels which act as painkillers. However, don’t overdo it, as intense physical activity can act as an unhealthy stressor on your body and slow down your healing. Do gentle and restorative exercises every day. You can choose such options as stretching, yoga, tai chi, swimming or walking. They will help you combat fatigue, pain, and poor coordination – common symptoms of Lyme disease.
4. Find ways to combat your stress
It’s very important to eliminate stress from life since it increases inflammation and prevents your body from normal healing. You can try meditation, yoga, and walking to regulate the nervous system and calm the fight-or-flight response.
5. Maintain your body’s natural detoxification
When you’re on a Lyme treatment protocol and are taking antibiotics or herbal supplements, you are actively killing off Lyme microbes which release toxins when they’re dead in your body. Oftentimes, antibiotics or other medications can kill off these microbes faster than your body can process and eliminate them, therefore it’s essential to support natural detoxification pathways. Chlorella, bentonite clay or activated charcoal are good toxin-adsorbents which will help your body deal with dead Lyme microbes. Drink plenty of water, manage your weight, maintain a healthy diet, take regular Epsom salt baths, and take care of your sleep.
6. Improve your sleep quantity and quality
All of these tips won’t work without a good night’s sleep. Lack of sleep will prevent your body from proper detoxification and strengthening your immune system—both of which are activities that happen mostly at night. Make sure you’re sleeping as many hours as your body needs to feel rested and be full of energy. You need to sleep when you’re tired and if you struggle with insomnia, eliminate this problem as soon as possible with the help of your primary care doctor.