CBD Oil & Lyme Disease

CBD Oil Gives Hope to Lyme Disease Sufferers

Lyme disease affects millions of people worldwide, but CBD oil is giving hope to many who suffer from the debilitating inflammatory and neuropathic symptoms of this insidious disease.

What is Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread to humans by ticks that carry the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium. It is not spread from human to human. Other species of the Borellia bacterium can cause Lyme in parts of Europe and Asia.

Symptoms of Lyme disease

Physical symptoms

Early symptoms of Lyme infection are flu-like, including a tell-tale rash at the bite site called Erythema migrans, headache, fevers, fatigue, joint pain, and swollen lymph nodes. If left untreated, symptoms may become far more serious as the infection spreads, causing gut-health issues and serious inflammation and infection in the heart, joints, spine, and brain. Sufferers may experience severe neuropathic pain and numbness, facial palsy, and memory loss.

Mental-health symptoms

The toll that chronic Lyme disease takes on your mental-health is reported by some sufferers to be unbearable, due to nerve damage, inflammation, neurotoxins, and chronic ill health.

Why are Lyme symptoms difficult to treat?

Lyme has a reputation for being notoriously difficult to treat. Because Lyme symptoms mimic many other illnesses and conditions, Lyme is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. This leads to more serious and chronic inflammatory symptoms.

Researchers in the United States also reported in 2015 that the bacterium that causes Lyme is able to create dormant and drug-tolerant persister cells, thus evading the very antibiotics being used to kill the bacterium.

Treating Lyme-disease symptoms with CBD oil

CBD dosage regime for Lyme

Many desperate Lymies are turning to CBD oil for relief. CBD can help manage symptoms because it manages inflammation, and it’s bactericidal and anxiolytic. We recommend starting with our high strength classic decarb or raw entourage CBD oil. Use our CBD dosage guide to work out your dosing.

Anti-inflammatory action of CBD oil

Lyme disease causes a systemic inflammatory response in the body. CBD oil is very effective at treating inflammation and restoring homeostasis to the body. Inflammatory symptoms of Lyme that may be treated with CBD oil, include: joint and muscle pain, arthritis, gut-health, neuropathic pain, and brain and heart inflammation.

CBD oil has been shown to be a neuroprotective antioxidant which is great news for sufferers of Lyme-related neuropathic pain.

For a detailed discussion of how CBD oil treats inflammation, read our in-depth article, Can CBD oil help with autoimmune diseases and inflammatory conditions?

 

“One of the most important health benefits of cannabinoids is their anti-inflammatory property.”

—Dennis Hill, Biochemist—

Anti-bacterial action of CBD oil

Lyme disease is caused by a bacterial infection that evades antibiotic treatment. The CBD cannabinoid was proven to be bactericidal as far back as 1976. Research published in 2008 described cannabidiol (CBD) as being anti-bacterial and “especially promising” due to its non-psychoactive nature. Research published in 2012 also confirmed that CBD oil was bactericidal against many different strains of bacteria. This is promising news for Lyme sufferers.

Anti-Anxiety action of CBD oil

CBD oil is effective in treating anxiety because it can activate serotonin and maintain anandamide. This is great news for those Lyme sufferers who report mental-health issues to be as debilitating as their physical symptoms. Read our in-depth article on why CBD oil is effective in treating anxiety symptoms, Does CBD Oil Help Anxiety Symptoms?

Natural treatments for Lyme

When conventional medicine fails to treat Lyme disease with antibiotics, sufferers may turn to natural or less-conventional treatment modalities. Many of those are listed here and here. They include:

 

Astragalus	Parasite removal	MSM sulfur protein	Eat food you crave
Colloidal silver	Iodine	Echinacea	Chlorophyll
Niacin	Gotu kola	Ginkgo biloba	Bentonite clay
Alpha-lipoic acid	Colloidal Copper	Magnesium	Manganese
Iron	Lithium-orotate	Aspartate	Methyl-cobolamine
Hydroxy-B12	Cobalt drops	Selenium	Rizols
Garlic	Cilantro	Chlorella	Fish oil

 

Dr Axe lists his top four natural treatments for Lyme, which are:

1. Improve your diet to support your immune system and gut health, including:

• Probiotic-rich foods
• Bone broth
• Antioxidant-rich foods

2. Use supplements judiciously to strengthen your cells and immune response, including:

• Vitamin D
• CoQ10
• Medicinal mushrooms
• B-complex
• Omega 3s
• Magnesium
• Turmeric
• Probiotics

3. Sufficient sleep and stress reduction, by way of:

• 7-9 hours quality sleep per night
• Relaxation, mindfulness, and emotional balance

4. Reduce mould and parasite burdens and exposure, via:

• Activated charcoal
• Bentonite clay
• Low-sugar, high healthy-fat diet
• Specific herbs

Incidence of Lyme

Lyme Disease is a worldwide disease, with over 70 countries affected across five continents. The United States reports 300,000 new cases of Lyme annually, Europe 360,000 over 20 years, China 30,000 cases annually, and Australian authorities now acknowledge the existence of a Lyme-like illness, with around 2,000 people infected.

Lymies who use CBD oil

Lyme-disease sufferers are turning to CBD oil to manage their chronic symptoms.

“I have had great results…for anxiety, depression…the lingering symptoms from a long 6 year battle with Lyme.” Read more…

“I have a bachelor of science degree in natural health, and know what to look for in a product….within an hour, our brains were clear. No brain fog. For me that’s big, because I have had the neurological form of Lyme disease for 18 years.” Read more…

Herbalist and writer—Shelley M White—discovered cannabis in her desperate search to control her Lyme disease. In her book she affirms its effectiveness as a bactericide, anxiolytic, and anti-inflammatory.

“Cannabis…serves as an excellent tool for symptom management”

—Shelley M White—