Denial, Fear and Addiction Recovery

March 6, 2014

Denial, Fear and Addiction Recovery-Its Possible

to overcome addiction you must face it fear and denial are obstacles

The phenomenon of addiction recovery may not be properly understood without the clear acceptance of the two adjectives (denial and fear). Let’s then try to make known of these facts about addiction recovery.

Denial

Addictions don’t happen overnight. Instead, recreational drug or alcohol use, over time, can lead to an addiction. Many times the user may not even be aware that this line (addiction) has been crossed. As well, some users who think they might be addicted believe it is only when they are hurting. The first step of beating addiction is admitting that you are addicted.

Fear

Admitting that you have an addiction means facing it, and that can be very difficult. Many addicts will experience various fears including fear of judgment when others find out, fear of letting down their loved ones, fear of losing their job, and fear of change. No one said that beating addiction would be easy, but it will be worth it.

When addiction set in the family many times your family members often don’t knows what to do. Their lives have been turned upside down. Every waking moment becomes weighed down with serious concerns. You may have promised many times to end your addiction and get help. As they look back, the explanations for the hours lost, the money spent and the emotional trauma, are now clearer. These losses are the many sad faces of addiction. You’re not yet ready to stop you may only be capable of empty promises and guilt-ridden apologies. What can they do? What can you do?

When you seek professional help, you and your family are scared. You may be more frightened than ever before. Your secrets will be exposed. You may find yourself willing to do anything at this point to avoid getting help. Lying (best with a straight face and indignation) is typical. You may promise anything to take the pressure off. If that doesn’t work, you lash back: “What right do you have to tell me what to do? If you don’t stop questioning me, our relationship is over.” The fear and hostility may be palpable.

Family members will find no easy ways to guide you into care. You’re in a cycle of denial and fear, fueled by shame, resentment, and deep inner pain. You feel so alone that you become hardened to the emotional outbursts and rage of loved ones. Professional help is strongly recommended if you’re at this point.

Denial, Fear and Addiction Recovery-How an intervention works

An intervention is an objective, caring, nonjudgmental process. You’re confronted with the reality of your actions by those adversely affected. The objective is to motivate you to accept help. Although your family is definitely involved, a professional interventionist guides the process.

The purpose of any intervention method is to help you confront your denial of problems and your fear of change, and to help you get into care. The interventionist is trained to communicate supportively, helping you accept your need for help and educating you and your family about addiction. She provides a link to treatment, ensuring that the right treatment center is found and contacted and that background preparation for your entry is completed. You’re invited to a meeting but you may not be told much about the purpose of the meeting. At the meeting, which is carefully planned and structured, concerned persons express love and caring while describing, in behavioral terms, how you’re affecting them. They express their wishes and needs for you to enter treatment.

Concerned persons need to state concerns clearly, without lapsing into accusations and anger. One simple skill is to communicate with an “I” message versus a “you” message. For example, “I feel sad” versus “You make me feel sad.” Describing behavior versus voicing feelings, opinions, and judgments is a learned skill. It is based on making references to the actions that are clearly observable, like those that could be captured on video or audiotape, for example.

During the intervention, the realistic consequences of not entering treatment are described, matter-of-factly. The consequences may include separation or divorce, the refusal of adult children to attend family functions, job loss, and loss of friendships. Other people can’t control your decisions and behavior. They can only control their responses to your decisions and behavior.

The intervention process often exposes weaknesses in the family system. Families who have long suffered from a member’s addictive behavior may be angry and punitive. Or they may be numbed into temporary or chronic states of no longer caring about what happens to you. Conversely, they may fear reprisals for breaking your secrets and the codes of silence that have helped you maintain your addictive behavior. The denial of problems and disbelief in the potential for change often add up to turning a blind eye to your addictive behavior. The interventionist has to balance the goal (getting you into treatment) with the complex communications of family members who may have old and new issues to settle.

Most interventionists and experienced clinicians are specialists in helping you move past your denial and increasing your motivation for treatment. To achieve this goal, they use a motivational interview.

The motivational interview has become one of the more powerful interventions to help you. Such an interview is conducted by a trained professional and is designed to help you go beyond your guilt, fear, and anger to participate in healthy decision-making. The interventionist helps you consider your decisions practically, in terms of what you stand to gain by change and what you stand to lose by change — and what you gain and lose by not changing. The goal is to help you make an informed decision about treatment.

Denial, Fear and Addiction Recovery-Intervention principles

There are ten general principles that influence the decision to intervene and that guide the intervention process. They include:

Your behavior is causing significant damage in your life.

Denial is preventing you from fully appreciating the damage the addiction is doing to you and your life.

You’re unlikely to seek help on your own.

The people involved with you can change the environment by changing the enabling system — making it more likely that you will seek help.

The sense of genuine concern and understanding conveyed by the interventionist is one of the most important factors in influencing you to seek help.

Anger and punitive measures have no place in interventions, because they increase your defenses, making it less likely you’ll seek help.

The consequences for not going into treatment should not be designed to punish but rather to protect your health and well-being.

You require an initial period of intensive treatment such as a 28-day residential program or an intensive outpatient program to address your denial.

The intervention may be useful even if you aren’t likely to go to treatment.

The intervention isn’t a confrontation. Rather, it is a well-organized expression of genuine concern for you, given a chronic and serious addiction problem.

Denial, Fear and Addiction Recovery-Its Possible

Modern day’s conveniences and obesity

March 6, 2014

Modern day’s conveniences and obesity-Technology

we need technology for comfort, but this modern days convenience are causing obesity, food for example

The kind of life we live today is that which is full of comfort, convenience, speed, attractive and any other defining adjective that you may deem fit and appropriate. All these are happening thanks to new technology which is intended to make life more productive. These technologies and innovations are contributing to the sedentary lifestyles that many of us have become accustomed to. Almost every device that has ever been invented may be with exception of medical products advances of course has contributed to the decline of our health. If you look around you and globally you will wonder why obesity is on the roof top. It’s not just because of high calorie diets only actually a lot of the blame lies in the types of lifestyles that most people today choose to live. These lifestyles are directly supported and perhaps encouraged by our modern conveniences.

Modern day’s conveniences and obesity-Screen Time

Have you ever asked yourself how much more time do you spend in front of a TV or the computer today than you did when you were young? The computer, and the endless things you can do with it, has been a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. A good number of jobs (if not all) these days require employees to sit in front of a computer screen for several hours at a time. I can just imagine that you are you doing that right now or? When people get home from work, they use the computer again to check their email, look up recipes for dinner, and check their bank accounts surely this thing called technology is part of every one’s life. TV’s also get turned on quickly. A 2009 study by the Nielson Company said that the average American spends more than 8 hours a day in front of screens (this includes TV and other screens). This means that a significant portion of an average American’s day is spent being sedentary.

Mobile devices are really no more healthy then their desktop counterparts either. Even most mobile phones are used while down (I hope the only option is when driving a car!). Mobile devices exist to make our life more convenient. Now we can get text messages, phone calls, and Internet wherever we are whenever we want to. Because it’s so easy to enthrall yourself into the internet on your phone or the latest addicting appliances, we tend to find more excuses to live a sedentary life.

Modern day’s conveniences and obesity-Drive Time Cars & Trucks

Cars are also a big item to blame for obesity and other diseases. While vehicles have allowed for many freedoms not afforded to us 100 years ago, they also have contributed to the decline of our health. The average commute time to work for an American is around 26 minutes. That’s about 13.2 days per year spent sitting in a car. Think about that for a second. Almost two weeks of your life, per year, is spend sitting in a car driving to work. If you had chosen to walk or ride a bike to work instead, you could have burned enough calories to lose about 10 pounds of excess weight.

Let’s not forget about the risks of injury or death associated with driving (or even being a passenger for that matter) in a car. According to the National Safety Council, there were more than 10,800,000 motor vehicle accidents in America in 2009. These accidents resulted in over 33,808 deaths and 2,217,000 injuries in that year. Statistically speaking each American will be involved in at least 3 car accidents within their lifetime. The numbers are staggering – this is why driving poses such a health risk to people.

And there is a third way that driving a car can harm your health – stress. With growing traffic congestion and longer commute times the incidents of road rage and aggressive driving become more prevalent. People’s stress levels are increasing this is certainly a cause for many health problems. Doctors will tell you that stress can cause any number of ailments including headaches, depression, and even over eating resulting in weight gain and the obesity.

Modern day’s conveniences and obesity-Tools

Any tool that allows you to complete a job quicker while expending less energy is also contributing to the obesity problem and the decline of our health. When you use an electric screwdriver instead of a manual one less calorie are burned by the operator when installing the screws. The benefit of using the electric tool is that you can get the job completed faster and in a better manner than you could by hand or manually. The downside of using it is that you receive less exercise and health benefits. While using an electric screwdriver instead of a manual one seems trivial, this idea can carry over to every other tool and device that we use in our everyday lives.

Modern day’s conveniences and obesity-Food

Convenience of foods including fast food restaurants are another major cause of the decline in health of humanity. It is now easier than ever to eat large quantities of fattening foods quickly and cheaply. There are a multitude of fast food restaurants available to you in almost every town you visit today. A two-thousand calorie stomach stuffing meal is likely obtainable anyone who can spare 15 minutes and 15 dollars. People these days are very busy than ever even to make their own food. A quick and convenient meal (albeit an unhealthy one) caters exactly to that lifestyle. The advent of convenience foods has significantly contributed to the amount of calories the average individual consumes today. Our hectic modern lifestyles also contribute to us eating more food in total disregard of the consequences of feeding on such foods or diet.

This is one area of convenience that has brought with it a lot of suffering to humanity today. Yes we all need food to live and be healthy, but the kinds of foods you and I feed on today? Surely must it be at the expense of humanity being obese or over weight? Are we all aware of the serious consequences of being overweight? Can we live with it? It is all about today’s life conveniences.

Modern day’s conveniences and obesity-Cure for Convenience

So if convenience is the one of the causes of obesity, then what is the cure? It’s all very simple, take note of this. Everyone should make an attempt to strive for new inconveniences in their lives. That is to say people need to find creative ways to balance their busy schedules with the necessity to eat right and get exercise. Any small change in your lifestyle can have a significant impact on your health. If you have time, complete tasks as manually as possible instead of using a machine (this will help the environment too). Consider walking to the mailbox instead of driving to it. Choose to carry groceries in baskets instead of using the shopping carts. Take time to enjoy a real meal instead of succumbing to the whims of a fast food giant. And don’t forget to take the stairs instead of giving in to the convenience of the elevator.

A long side all this suggestions take a walk to the only institution that will help you lose weight optimally at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s. In this facility doctor Akoury cares focuses on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE.

Modern day’s conveniences and obesity-Technology

Excess estrogen and weight gain

March 6, 2014

Excess estrogen and weight gain-The role of Estrogen

excess estrogen can be a problem in your desire to lose weight

Progesterone and estrogen have opposing functions in your system. When it comes to weight gain estrogen causes your body to make and store fat while progesterone encourages your body to use fat for energy. While estrogen impairs blood sugar control and interferes with thyroid function, progesterone helps normalize blood sugar and facilitate thyroid activity. A nice balance between the two helps assure a healthy body and one of progesterone’s main functions is to balance estrogen levels.

A number of things help get you out of balance. First, not only does estrogen encourage fat production, but your fat cells manufacture estrogen. This means the more fat you have the more estrogen your body produces, and the more estrogen your body produces the more you will be prone to weight gain.

All of us are exposed to environmental toxins which imitates estrogen and fool our bodies into thinking we have even more of this hormone in our system than we do. Some sources of xenohormones include livestock fed estrogenic compounds to make them nice and fat before they end up at your grocery store. You may also get estrogenic drugs from your water supply due to all the women taking synthetic hormones in birth control pills and menopause drugs.

Lack of progesterone can also be hard on thyroid health and we know there is a strong connection between having a healthy thyroid and weight loss. According to experts women taking medication for low thyroid may find that they need less or no thyroid medications after using natural progesterone. If this is the case if you take thyroid medication, then you need to work closely with your doctor to adjust your medication as needed when you use natural progesterone.

Natural progesterone creams are available over the counter or by prescription from compounding pharmacies which can make up a cream designed just for you. You may need to find a physician familiar with natural remedies to assist you in this process. Conventional physicians may suggest a medication containing progestin or synthetic progesterone. However these are not the same as natural progesterone and have serious potential side effects.

Estrogen balance is essential for achieving and maintaining fat loss. In men and premenopausal women, too much estrogen a condition called estrogen dominance causes toxic fat gain, water retention, bloating, and a host of other health and wellness issues. In women, with stress and age there is a natural decline in testosterone and progesterone levels, leaving a relative excess of estrogen.

Excess estrogen and weight gain-What causes estrogen dominance?
There are only two ways to accumulate excess estrogen in the body: we either produce too much of it on our own, or acquire it from our environment or diet. Unfortunately, accumulating estrogen is not hard. We are constantly exposed to estrogen-like compounds in foods that contain toxic pesticides, herbicides, and growth hormones. Many of these toxins are known to cause weight gain, which serves to fuel the production of more estrogen from our own fat cells. More weight gain then leads to insulin resistance which increases the risk of estrogen dominance.

Pharmaceutical hormones such as those used in hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) or the birth control pill can also increase estrogen, whether we take them actively or absorb them when they make their way into our drinking water. We are living in a virtual sea of harmful estrogens, and researchers are only beginning to identify the extent of this exposure on health in humans and even other species.

Excess estrogen and weight gain -Signs and symptoms of estrogen dominance
A premenopausal woman with estrogen dominance is likely to have PMS, too much body fat around the hips and difficulty in losing weight. Perhaps you have a history of gallstones, varicose veins, uterine fibroids, cervical dysplasia, endometriosis, or ovarian cysts. In both sexes, estrogen dominance is thought to be responsible for many types of cancers. This particular hormone imbalance could be one of the leading causes of breast, uterine, and prostate cancer.

Excess estrogen and weight gain-How to correct estrogen dominance
we can be reduced the dominance of estrogen by among other means using these foods or specific habits:

Since the liver breaks down estrogen, alcohol consumption, drug use, a fatty liver, liver disease, and any other factor that impairs healthy liver function can spur an estrogen build-up. If you occasionally consume alcohol, always take a 1mg folic acid and a B-complex vitamin to reduce its negative effects.
Bacterial imbalance in the gut, and other problems that compromise digestion, interfere with the proper elimination of estrogen from the body via the digestive tract. Be sure to include a probiotic daily with 15 billion units. Store it in the fridge and take one or two capsules twice daily on an empty stomach.
Insoluble fiber also binds to excess estrogen in the digestive tract, which is then excreted by the body. A fiber supplement can also affect the composition of intestinal bacteria and reduce the build-up and re-absorption of free-floating estrogen. Good sources include wheat bran, corn bran, rice bran, the skins of fruits and vegetables (apples, pears, berries, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and carrots), nuts (especially almonds), seeds (particularly sunflower seeds), soybeans, dried beans, and whole-grain foods.
Choose organic dairy and meat products to reduce your exposure to hormone additives.
Consume weak phytoestrogenic foods such as pomegranate, flaxseeds, pears, apples, berries, organic non-GMO fermented soy, wheat germ, oats, and barley.
The body requires sufficient intake of zinc, magnesium, vitamin B6 and other essential nutrients, not only to support the breakdown and elimination of estrogen, but also to aid the function of enzymes responsible for the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. Be sure to add a high quality multivitamin supplement daily.
Avoid exposure to xenoestrogens from plastics, cosmetics, and the birth control pill.
Avoid unfermented soy products like tofu and soy milk.
As the body responds to high levels of stress, it “steals” progesterone to manufacture the stress hormone cortisol, often leaving a relative excess of estrogen. Stress management is essential.
Infrared sauna treatments are an excellent way to rid your body of estrogen.
Maintaining poor sleep habits cause a reduction in the hormone melatonin, which helps protect against estrogen dominance. Aim for seven to eight hours of sleep per night in a cool, dark room.

In all these efforts of trying to lose, for real optimal weight loss, a visit at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s will be the best choice you can make in your desire to lose weight. Doctor Akoury cares and she focuses on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE. What else can be better?

Excess estrogen and weight gain-The role of Estrogen

Young Women and Prescription Drug Overdoses

March 6, 2014

Young Women and Prescription Drug Overdoses- Analgesics (Pain killers)

Young women are the major victims of prescribe painkillers

In medical terms, analgesics are drugs that alleviate pain. Analgesic drugs fall into broad classifications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), COX-2 inhibitors, and opiates. Any type of painkiller is associated with specific risks, and it is the responsibility of drug manufacturers and prescribing healthcare providers to make patients aware of what those risks are so that patients can make informed choices. Prescribing physicians and dispensing pharmacists have a responsibility to ensure that patients receive maximum benefit of these drugs without suffering detrimental side effects.

Painkiller use is prescribed for either acute or chronic conditions. In cases of trauma, injury, or surgery, opiates or opiate derivatives are often the drugs of choice, as well as NSAIDs. In chronic conditions, such as arthritis, either COX-2 inhibitors or over the counter NSAIDs may be prescribed. For chronically painful conditions such as fibromyalgia, low back injury, or compound spinal fracture, opiate-derived analgesics are often the drug of choice when other medications fail to provide reliably effective relief.

Young Women and Prescription Drug Overdoses- Narcotic and non-narcotic painkiller

Both narcotic and non-narcotic painkiller use are associated with dangerous drug complications for the health of the people for whom they are prescribed of whom the majority are young women. It is estimated that prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Hydrocodone, and Vicodin are responsible for five times as many deaths as illegal street narcotics. Prescription painkiller abuse is on the rise, and access to prescription narcotics has created a black market of addiction that was not anticipated by the drugs’ manufacturers who continue to produce these pharmaceuticals for legitimate medical use.

Physical quality of life can be damaged by painkiller use. The drugs may alleviate chronic pain due to injury, but the physical complications associated with painkiller use, such as hypertension, appetite and weight loss, associated neurological deficiencies, hypersomnia, and digestive disorders, may objectively outweigh the benefits accrued. Financial ruin due to acquiring a ready supply of the required drug on hand while tolerance limits increases after repeated use, and associated loss of self-esteem and social reputation, are other considerations that are not documented in a person’s medical record, buy still negatively impact a victim’s quality of life.

Intangible losses that cannot be tallied in monetary terms are the specialty of medical liability attorneys. Their role is to measure a client’s state of life before being subjected to a medication regimen and then compare it to their current state after they have followed a doctor’s orders. Dangerous drug lawyers are familiar with all the issues that are involved in pharmaceutical product liability law. They review the relevant records, literature and case law to ensure their clients receive due representation and compensation for damages incurred.

The physical effects of prescribed painkillers are amply documented. Selective and non-selective NSAIDs have been linked to increased incidence of liver damage, and to upper gastrointestinal bleeding that leads to metabolic disorders, anemia, and digestive dysfunction. In all this the biggest victims are the middle aged women

Young Women and Prescription Drug Overdoses- Investigations

Our young mothers, wives, sisters and daughters are dying at rates that we have never seen before according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem is one of the few health issues CDC is working. Actually for many decades now, the overwhelming majority of U.S. overdose deaths were men killed by heroin or cocaine. But by 2010, about 40 percent of deaths reported were women most of them are middle-aged women who took prescription painkillers.

These alarming revelations of female overdose death rates are closely tied to a boom in the overall use of prescribed painkillers. The new report is the CDC’s first to spotlight how the death trend has been more dramatic among women.

Women may be more prone to overdoses because they’re more likely to have chronic pain, the prescribed painkillers, have higher doses, and use them longer than men, as reported by the director of CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. But doctors may not recognize these facts about women, said John Eadie, director of a Brandeis University program that tracks prescription-drug monitoring in the USA.

Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers skyrocketed over the past decade despite no major increases in the need for prescription painkillers over the last 20 years, said Chris Jones, a health scientist at CDC. Doctors are prescribing medications more frequently for patients who may not need them, a trend in the medical profession that needs to be reversed immediately according to experts.

Women between 45 and 54 had the greatest increases in drug overdose deaths, likely because of dependence on prescription drugs to ease chronic pain, experts said.

Young Women and Prescription Drug Overdoses- Solutions

A jump was also seen in visits to hospital emergency rooms. Painkiller-related ER visits by women more than doubled between 2004 and 2010, the CDC found. These numbers alone, however, may not tell the whole tale. “If one looks carefully at the data it can be quickly seen that the vast majority of prescription overdose deaths occur as a consequence of individuals combining these drugs with another sedative,” according to experts who studies drugs and behavior. The solution to this prescription problem therefore lies in maximizing prescription monitoring programs.

Health care providers should responsibly prescribe prescription painkillers by monitoring patients for substance abuse and mental health problems, discussing patient treatment options that don’t involve prescription drugs, and discussing the risks and benefits of taking painkillers for chronic conditions.

Patients should use prescription drugs only as directed by doctors, discuss all medications they’re taking with their doctors, and dispose of medication after they’ve completed the prescribed treatment.

Women should also discuss pregnancy plans with their doctors to ensure infants do not develop heart malformations and become addicted to opiates.

Young Women and Prescription Drug Overdoses- Analgesics (Pain killers)

Natural Treatments for Lyme disease

March 5, 2014

Natural Treatments for Lyme disease-An alternative

Don’t be stressed up with Lyme disease, try the natural ways of treatment

When a patient exhibits a certain combination of these presenting symptoms, we automatically assume we’re dealing with Lyme and treat it as such: Persistent swollen glands, sore throat, fevers, chills, sore soles, especially in the morning, joint pain and/or swelling in fingers, toes, ankles, wrists, knees, elbows, hips, shoulders, numbness in the arms and/or legs, unexplained back pain, stiffness of the joints and back, muscle pain and cramps, obvious muscle weakness, twitching of the face or other muscles, confusion, difficulty thinking, difficulty with concentration, focus and reading, problem absorbing new information, searching for words and names, forgetfulness, poor short term memory, poor attention, disorientation: getting lost, going to wrong places, speech errors, such as wrong words or misspeaking, mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, psychosis (hallucinations, delusions), paranoia, bipolar, tremor, seizures, headaches, light and sound sensitivity, double, or blurry vision with floaters, ear pain, hearing problems, such as buzzing, ringing or decreased hearing, increased motion sickness, vertigo, spinning, off balance, “tippy” feeling, lightheadedness, wooziness, unavoidable need to sit or lie, fainting, flu-like feeling, tingling, numbness, burning or stabbing sensations, shooting pains, skin hypersensitivity, facial paralysis-Bell’s Palsy, dental pain, TMJ, neck creaks and cracks, stiffness, neck pain, fatigue, tiredness, poor stamina, insomnia, fractionated sleep, early awakening, excessive night time sleep, napping during the day, unexplained weight gain or loss, unexplained hair loss, pain in genital area, unexplained menstrual irregularity or milk production, breast pain, irritable bladder, erectile dysfunction, loss of libido, queasy stomach, nausea, heartburn, stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, constipation alternating with diarrhea, low abdominal pain, cramps, heart murmur or valve prolapse, heart palpitations or skips, “Heart block” on EKG, chest wall pain or sore ribs, head congestion, breathlessness, “air hunger,” unexplained chronic cough, night sweats, exaggerated symptoms or worse hangover from alcohol, skin rashes, conjunctivitis (pinkeye), herpes, Zoster/Shingles the list is endless.

It is therefore confusing because a Lyme sufferer may not display the telltale rash (erythema migrans), a painless“ bull’s eye” shaped blotch on the skin the size of a silver dollar, or the more diverse larger rash, or any at all. When the rash is present, there is no doubt that a person has Lyme. However, the rash is only present in about 50% of the cases and may take up to 1 month to even appear. To add insult to injury, many Lyme patients don’t even remember getting bitten as the nymph is very small (about the size of a poppy seed) and can easily go unnoticed.

There are mixed opinions about treatments and simply because someone is listed as a Lyme Literate doctor, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they do anything different than the conventional Doctors when it comes to treatment usually it is antibiotics… although, Lyme Literate Doctors may recognize the importance of recommending some of the tests and symptoms involved in the process.

Naturally, there are splits in the orthodox medical community as well as the alternative community, which have led to divergent diagnoses and treatment of Lyme disease, with the real loser being the patient showing Lyme-like symptoms. These patients are often trapped between opposing medical opinions. Indeed, the severity and treatment of Lyme disease is often complicated due to late diagnoses, failure of antibiotic treatment, and immune suppression in the patient (sometimes resulting from inappropriate treatment with steroids

Taking antibiotics alone isn’t a good idea when knocking out this elusive ailment. Many expert healers say Lyme disease treatment should also include botanicals and exercise. Nevertheless Lyme disease is a complicated infection, tough to diagnose and even harder to treat if doctors miss an early diagnosis, which is all too often the case. Lyme disease treatment is tricky because the most popular blood tests used in most doctors’ offices to detect the disease miss about 55 percent of Lyme cases. If and when a patient finally is diagnosed, it’s sometimes by a clinical evaluation of the symptoms, ones that often mimic other ailments like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and even Alzheimer’s disease.

Complicating matters even further, the hodge-podge collection of symptoms often waxes and wanes and moves from one bodily system to another, making it even harder for doctors to effectively diagnose and treat. Headaches, migrating pain, bowel problems, uncharacteristic mood swings, panic attacks, and sleep disorders are just a few of the symptoms commonly reported in Lyme patients.

Natural Treatments for Lyme disease-Antibiotics Aren’t Always the Only Answer

While antibiotics and other prescription medicines are certainly helpful in treating the disease and the all-to-common tick-borne co-infections that often hitchhike into your body through a tick bite, experts in natural medicine say there’s also a place for holistic remedies in the treatment and management of Lyme disease, particularly in Lyme patients battling a chronic infection and its side effects. Antibiotics alone may not suffice because Lyme disease is caused by an intracellular spirochete bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. ”

Intracellular here means that the spirochete gets into the cell and therefore is not always available to the antibiotics. “The cell membrane inadvertently protects the bacteria and shields it from the antibiotics. The bacteria can also hide dormant in the nervous system, among other places, where antibiotic drugs can’t reach them.” The bottom line is that many natural treatments can help heal the body by knocking out the infection and reducing inflammation while also getting an injured immune system back on track. Some of the natural way may include the following.

Natural Treatments for Lyme disease-Natural Ways to Deal with Lyme

Acupuncture: While researchers admit more research is warranted, acupuncture appears to be a promising way to help reduce or eliminate pain brought on by Lyme disease.

Lyme-killing plants: According to the report, herbs like samento, banderol, andrographis, Japanese knotweed/resveratrol, smilax, cat’s claw, and Stephania all target Lyme and related tick-borne infections. Be sure to talk to a doctor knowledgeable in integrative medicine for more info on taking these herbs.

Have tea time: Green tea compounds, along with curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric, are known to reduce oxidative stress and help aid in traditional antibiotic treatment.

Be tested for deficiencies: Zinc, B, and D vitamin deficiencies could slow down Lyme recovery, so be sure to ask your doctor to test for these, and improve your diet or supplement accordingly to bring your numbers up to healthy levels.

Probiotics: Foods may help replenish beneficial bacteria in the gut that are wiped out by antibiotic Lyme disease treatment. Organic yogurt, kefir, and even fermented vegetables are good sources of probiotics.

Exercise: Even small concentrations of oxygen can help destroy Lyme bacteria in the body. Although Lyme typically zaps people’s energy, intense exercise during and after treatment can help keep the disease at bay.

Inflammation annihilators: Natural compounds that ease inflammation, such as curcumin, modified citrus pectin, and Tibetan Herbal Formula. First and foremost, a low-glycemic-index diet is a must because carbohydrates, including sugar, fuel the Lyme germs. This means ditching most processed foods and avoiding any added sugar. “Understanding the person, and actively supporting the person’s general health with emphasis on their immune system, circulation, reduced inflammation, and detoxification can be very helpful

Category Archives: Men’s Health