Learning the Basics: What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme Disease is a tick-borne infection that is most common transmitted when a deer tick (also called a black-legged tick) burrows into the skin and begins feeding from its host. Current research suggests that tick bites do not transfer the bacteria known to cause Lyme Disease until the tick in question has been burrowed into the skin for 24 hours, and is the reason behind the many efforts of public health departments to improve understanding of tick-borne illnesses, and encourage people of all ages to conduct regular tick checks, even in the absence of feeling, seeing, or suspecting a tick.
Lyme Disease actually describes a wide range of symptoms attributed to a bacterial infection caused by ticks. This bacteria, Borrelia Burgdorferi, initially makes its presence known via a rash, fever, headache, and persistent exhaustion. If these symptoms are not caught, and Lyme is not immediately treated, such symptoms begin to increase in severity, and are often accompanied by additional symptoms, including joint pain, sleep disturbance, mood changes, appetite changes, and a host of other ailments linked to chronic disease.
Many people live with Lyme and do not realize it. This is due, in part, to the difficulty in testing and catching Lyme Disease’s bacteria. The bacteria has developed a survival mechanism that allows it to cloak itself in the human body, thereby avoiding destruction by the body’s immune system. Over time, the bacteria can travel through the blood stream and disperse to virtually all areas of the body, and can begin to present symptoms in diverse areas throughout the body.
How PEMF Therapy Works
PEMF therapy is an energy therapy that uses pulses of electromagnetic energy to provide the body’s cells with adequate energy. Delivering that energy to the body serves as a boost to the body’s own natural defenses, including its day-to-day functions, detoxification processes (think the processes carried out by the kidneys and liver), and immune function. All of these pathways require plenty of energy to complete, and failing to secure an adequate amount of energy results in a breakdown of all of the processes required to maintain a healthy body. Repeated illness, environmental factors, aging, and more are all potentially responsible for the breakdown of adequate cellular energy, and corresponding damages to the body’s functions. These damages can lead to chronic illness, diminished immune function, and a general feeling of malaise, all of which can contribute to or further exacerbate developing illnesses.
With continued use, PEMF therapy can provide improvements to overall health and wellness, and can be responsible for faster wound healing, better sports performance, and significant changes to chronic illness symptoms. Because the energy delivered by PEMF machines mimics the same energy generated by food and the body’s natural daily processes, the human body is able to utilize the energy effectively, and there is no residual heat or energy left to fester in the body.
PEMF and Lyme
PEMF therapy has been used to treat many conditions that are resistant to treatment, including fibromyalgia, treatment-resistant depression, and persistent fatigue, which has garnered interest in its use as an intervention for Lyme symptoms. This is an important distinction to make: PEMF therapy is not necessarily designed to provide relief from Lyme disease itself, but serves as a wonderful therapy to ease the pain and difficulty of managing Lyme symptoms. Persistent fatigue, joint pain, chronic illness, chronically impaired immune response, migraines, brain fog, irritability, and more have been attributed to Lyme disease, and many doctors and their patients spend years chasing solutions to symptoms before finding the likelihood of Lyme—Lyme that, by that point, can be almost impossible to successfully treat. This is where PEMF’s contributions to Lyme become extremely important: if curing is not necessarily the goal, what is? In most cases, the management of the most intense and unbearable Lyme symptoms is the goal, and PEMF therapy is the perfect treatment modality to achieve that end.
PEMF therapy is also ideal for Lyme treatment because it is safe and non-invasive, and does not typically have negative interactions with existing medications and therapy regimens. If, for instance, you are already attending physical therapy for joint mobility issues related to Lyme, you do not have to alter your existing routine to begin using PEMF therapy. If you have to take an anxiety medication to deal with mental disorder symptoms as a result of Lyme infection, PEMF therapy can be used alongside that medication without fear of repercussions. PEMF therapy provides a safe, effective, and straightforward way to ease the discomfort associated with ongoing Lyme infection, and can be a welcome relief for anyone suffering from Lyme Disease.
Potential Pitfalls of PEMF For Lyme Disease
Perhaps the most significant pitfall of any Lyme treatment is the difficulty in knowing how effectively the treatment is working. Because Lyme is a persistent pathogen and excels at hiding in the body, eradicating the bacteria entirely can feel impossible, and is a great source of chagrin. PEMF therapy is not designed to or capable of eliminating bacteria and other pathogens, and is therefore not a targeted treatment system for Lyme Disease. For this reason, some people are not eager to utilize PEMF in the management of the disease.
PEMF Therapy and Lyme Disease: Turning a Corner
PEMF therapy has been evaluated for more and more ailments in recent years, because it has shown itself to be a powerful form of treatment for such a wide variety of ailments, many of them unresponsive to standard treatment methods. Lyme fits in well with this demographic, as it is among the most resistant bacterial infections in existence, because it is adept at “hiding” in various places in the body, effectively evading the body’s natural defenses. While PEMF will not seek out the bacteria that causes Lyme and destroy it, it will support your body’s efforts to do so, and can greatly minimize the symptoms of chronic Lyme infection, including persistent inflammation, recurring infections, muscles aches and spasms, brain fog, and much, much more.