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Treating Ticks

A Natural, Integrated Approach to Lyme Disease

By Andrea Candee

Named for the town of East Lyme, Conn., where the disease was first identified, Lyme Disease occurs when a Lyme-infected tick feeds off a human host and passes a bacteria known as spirochete into the bloodstream.

The conventional medical approach is to treat Lyme Disease with antibiotics. When a child or adult is quickly treated with an appropriate antibiotic, the result is usually a swift and positive healing. However, if the person does not recover with the first round of antibiotic, additional rounds are routinely prescribed. Long-term antibiotic therapy can result in an imbalance of micro-organisms in the intestinal tract and deplete the functioning of the immune system, making the body more susceptible to other illnesses. Consider taking the best of both conventional and holistic medical practices by integrating natural remedies with antibiotic therapy. They can help keep the body strong while the antibiotic does its job.

A common scenario is for a tick to feed upon a dog, picking up a strain of parvo virus; feed upon a mouse, picking up a strain of hanta virus; feed upon a deer, picking up the spirochete, and then feed upon the human and pass a spirochete piggybacked by viruses. In recent months, doctors are discovering bartonella bacteria piggybacking the spirochete. Bartonella is cat scratch fever, likely picked up by the tick feeding on a cat.

When my son had Lyme Disease, blood tests confirmed that it was accompanied by the virulent bacteria, ehrlichiosis, and his doctor immediately put him on an antibiotic. Of course, I gave him acidophilus and echinacea as described below. However, since antibiotics do not treat viruses, rather than waiting to see if one round of antibiotics would bring him to total recovery, I tested him for viruses, using kinesiology. I gave him natural remedies that specifically addressed the particular strains of virus that commonly piggyback the spirochete and for which he tested positively. When children and adults do not fully and quickly recover with a round of antibiotics, it may be because viruses are also involved. They do, however, respond to natural remedies designed to address the specific viruses, which can be given along with antibiotics – without interfering with each other.

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