As we treat many patients at Sanctuary Functional Medicine for Lyme disease, everyone wants to know why Lyme is so hard to kill or at least why they have to take so many therapies to kill it. We educate on biofilms and the various forms of Lyme present in our bodies. The biofilm serves as a protective layer under which they hide. The various forms of Lyme require different therapies, especially the persistant forms that resist our attack.
This article linked below describes how the Borrelia bacteria’s ability to alter its surface proteins allows it to both evade host immune defenses and allow it to infect different animal hosts. The article mentions at least 15 “genospecies” each with multiple strains. While Borrelia burgdorferi appears to infect most animals, other strains are pickier in which animals they infect. Regardless of their host choice or fancy names, researchers are uncovering the mechanisms by which Lyme evades the various arms of the immune system.
The short story… Lyme possesses many “resources” to perpetuate infection once it gets under your skin. For that reason and the fact we desire restoration for our patients, we press against Lyme with all the therapies at our disposal to both kill the microbe and strengthen bodies to keep the infection from reawakening.
Original Article
Tufts, Danielle M et al. “Outer surface protein polymorphisms linked to host-spirochete association in Lyme borreliae.” Molecular microbiology vol. 111,4 (2019): 868-882. doi:10.1111/mmi.14209
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
