There is a lot of controversy and conflicting opinions over the treatment of Lyme disease. Infectious disease doctors rely on guidelines from the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA). According to these guidelines, formulated back in the 20th century, Lyme disease is a fairly trivial infection requiring about a four-week treatment with a single standard-dose antibiotic. IDSA doctors do not see a significant problem in other tick-borne diseases defined as co-infections of Lyme disease, such as bartonellosis

On the other side of the barricade are the opinions of doctors gathered in the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). According to ILADS, Lyme disease is difficult to diagnose and treat. In order to achieve therapeutic success, several synergistic antibiotics must be used over several months (similar to tuberculosis). ILADS doctors put great attention to the problem of Lyme disease co-infections, especially bartonellosis and babesiosis

Doctors from both camps are attacking each other, even making accusations of acting to the detriment of patients. Who is right? Let’s look at this problem purely practically. How is Lyme disease usually treated? The majority of patients are treated according to IDSA standards, i.e. with one antibiotic for 3 to 4 weeks (usually doxycycline, amoxicillin or cefuroxime). Unfortunately, after such therapy, more than 1/3 of patients report chronic complaints of fatigue, joint and muscle pain, and neurological and psychiatric symptoms. Patients complain of many seemingly unrelated disorders, most often mentioning fatigue, pain, tingling, numbness and burning in various parts of the body, palpitations, problems with memory, concentration, mood swings, sleep disturbances. These symptoms show great variability, migrate throughout the body, and clearly respond to random antibiotic therapies used for another reason.

The origin, ,namely the true nature of these ailments, referred to as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, (PTLDS) lies at the heart of IDSA’s dispute with ILADS. For IDSA doctors, the ailments of this group of patients are either the result of permanent tissue damage by bacteria and inflammatory or autoimmune processes, or they are treated as disorders that exist solely in the psychological realm of the patient. This is why, after treatment of Lyme disease according to the IDSA, patients visit many specialists, e.g. rheumatologists, neurologists, cardiologists, and eventually get stuck, often for years, in ineffective psychiatric therapy. What do the ILADS doctors think about this? To put it briefly and precisely, for ILADS doctors, post-treatment syndrome does not exist – it is simply a badly treated or incompletly-treated Lyme disease.

Where is the truth?

To answer this question, it is necessary to refer to scientific works more recent than those of the twentieth century… Thus, there have been repeatedly published reports on the survival of Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria in the bodies of patients after traditional antibiotic treatment. Experimental work using mice, dogs and monkeys (unfortunately…) has shown that typical antibiotic treatment does not completely remove Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria from the body. It has also been shown relatively recently that B. burgdorferi can transform into spore forms that are resistant to antibiotics.

These facts speak rather in favor of ILADS. The ILADS treatment is long-lasting but offers a real chance of curing the chronic form of Lyme disease. An alternative to the use of many antibiotics over several months is natural therapy. Especially the new technology of producing liposomal herbs makes it possible to obtain high concentrations of phytonutrients in the patient’s blood giving hope for effective treatment.

So, if you feel chronically ill after traditional Lyme disease treatment and have a significantly poor quality of life, you should use other treatment options – including ILADS methods or natural therapies.