Lyme & Infectious Diseases

Lyme and other chronic infectious diseases can cause many symptoms that interrupt your ability to live a normal, productive life.

What is Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness, which is most commonly caused by one of three pathogenic species of the spirochete Borrelia. B. burgdorferi is the primary cause of the disease in the United States.

A spirochete is a corkscrew-shaped bacteria.  Lyme is often accompanied by co-infections that can complicate diagnosis and treatment.

Lyme disease has a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations, and it also varies in severity due, in part, to differences in the infecting species.

How do you get it?

Most humans are infected through the bites of immature ticks called nymphs. Nymphs are tiny (less than 2 mm) and difficult to see; they feed during the spring and summer months. Adult ticks can also transmit Lyme disease, but they are much larger, so they are easier to identify and remove. In most cases, the tick must be attached for 36 to 48 hours or more before the Lyme disease bacterium can be transmitted.

Acute Lyme Disease

If infection is transmitted by a tick, patients often develop flu-like symptoms within 3-30 days. Symptoms may include a rash, sometimes shaped like a bullseye, and flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes. If these symptoms occur, and there is potential tick exposure, seek immediate medical attention. Many cases of acute Lyme disease can be cured with a 2- to 4-week course of oral antibiotics if caught soon enough.

Chronic Lyme Disease

If the infection is not caught soon enough, it sometimes becomes chronic, where it no longer responds to oral antibiotics as it did in the acute stage.  Even those who are treated promptly occasionally develop Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.

Symptoms vary, but often include:

• Extreme fatigue
• Joint or muscle pain
• Nerve pain, numbness, or tingling in the hands or feet
• Brain fog, difficulty thinking or remembering
• Digestive issues

When Lyme becomes chronic, patients sometimes need aggressive support.  Sanoviv can often help.  We have affordable testing, a free consultation with a doctor, and comprehensive treatment plans that can help you to get your life back.  For more information, please contact one of our friendly admission associates at 800-726-6848.

How do we treat Chronic Lyme Disease and associated Co-Infections?

People come to Sanoviv from all over the world to receive treatment for Chronic Lyme.  Why?  We have effective treatment options that are only available in a handful of locations in the world.  And no other facility has the unique combination of therapies and treatments that form a comprehensive plan to address this debilitating disease.  The core feature of our treatment is extreme whole-body hyperthermia, enhanced by numerous supportive therapies.  Our comprehensive in-patient treatment program has helped many Lyme patients to finally get back on the path to healing after struggling with this disease for many years.

What is whole-body hyperthermia?

Whole-Body Hyperthermia refers to heating the body to a specified core body temperature using sophisticated equipment as a medical therapy.  Much scientific data and research has been done on Hyperthermia, especially in Germany, where it has been widely studied and shown to be effective. Yet, this important therapy is still relatively unknown and rarely accepted in the US.  For maximum effectiveness, hyperthermia must be done with the highest standard of equipment, in a hospital setting, and an environment of detoxification.  Sanoviv uses the Heckel HT3000 equipment from Germany, which is specifically designed for therapeutic hyperthermia.

Whole-Body Hyperthermia for Lyme and Chronic Infectious Diseases

A specialized form of whole-body hyperthermia, referred to as expanded or extreme hyperthermia is used as a primary therapy in the treatment of Chronic Infectious diseases such as Lyme Disease and its associated co-infections.  In this therapy, the patient is sedated while the core body temperature is carefully raised to a target therapeutic temperature of 41-42 degrees Celsius (105.8 – 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit), in a carefully controlled hospital environment.  Various supportive therapies enhance the effect and have been shown to reduce or eliminate symptoms in many patients – even in cases where it has been chronic for years.

The potential benefits of extreme hyperthermia include:

• Temperatures above 105 degrees have been shown in vitro to kill bacteria such as Borrelia and many other co-infections. So, the temperature itself may directly reduce or eliminate these infections.
• This aggressive therapy tends to break down biofilms, which can shield or protect chronic infections from the effects of antibiotics and our immune system. Thus, extreme hyperthermia may help to render the spirochetes and other bacteria more vulnerable, drawing back the curtain to expose them to the full effect of antibiotics.  With this in mind, we usually administer high dose IV antibiotics (targeted to the specific pathogenic profile of the patient) during the hyperthermia so that it can attack them when they are most susceptible.
• It stimulates detoxification, helping the body to release toxins and toxicants that have accumulated in the tissues, and may be contributing to the chronic nature of the disease. These can then be released from the body using its many pathways of detoxification.
• An artificially induced fever signals the immune system to increase activity by searching out and destroying bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens.

These effects work synergistically with the other supportive therapies in our Lyme & Chronic Infectious Disease Program to attack the disease from multiple perspectives.

Sanoviv’s Lyme and Chronic Infectious Disease Program provides all-encompassing care for patients with severe and complex conditions. Together, you and our team of professionals will develop a unique treatment strategy tailored to your requirements. We are committed to assisting you in regaining your life since we know how crippling these illnesses can be.

 

What to expect during chronic Lyme treatment

Preparation – Sanoviv patients spend 3-5 days of preparation and testing in order to prepare for extreme hyperthermia.  Testing includes evaluation by various integrative professionals and laboratory work.  Detox therapies help lower the overall toxic load so that the detox effect from the hyperthermia doesn’t overload the body.  This is a critical step, where we stimulate 8 important pathways of detoxification.  Patients are also hydrated and prepared nutritionally.  During this time, most Lyme patients will have a minor surgical procedure to place a subclavian catheter, which carries IVs directly into a major vein in the shoulder.  This way the patient doesn’t have to be repeatedly pricked for IVs.

Extreme Hyperthermia Treatment – On the day of the treatment, the patient goes through several phases of treatment.  Below is a description of the typical treatment.  Your specific treatment may vary depending on doctor orders or your health profile.

• Intake and Preparation – The patient has an appointment in the special care (nursing) department to prepare for the procedure and meet the anesthesiologist (who will stay with them throughout the procedure). The individual will be placed in the hyperthermia chamber and connected to IV, oxygen, a digital rectal thermometer, and various other devices to measure the patient’s vitals throughout the procedure. When everything is ready, the patient is sedated.
• Heating Phase – The body is slowly heated to the target core body temperature of 41 -42 degrees Celsius. Depending on the individual, this can take anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours.  Patient vitals and temperature are continuously monitored throughout the procedure.  Each body heats at a different rate and reaches a different temperature within the target temperature range.
• Therapeutic Phase – Maintain the target core body temperature for 60-90 minutes. During these phase, targeted antibiotics are administered to the patient.
• Cool Down Phase – The body temperature is slowly reduced until it returns to normal.
• Recovery – The patient wakes from the anesthesia and is transferred to a hospital recovery room where the individual can continue to be monitored and have access to oxygen or other services if needed. Companions can be with the patient as they recover.  Once the patient is stable, he or she will be released to return normal program activities.

The full treatment time, including all 5 phases described, is between 5-7 hours.  This therapy is done twice during the 2-week treatment program.  Each Sanoviv doctor can modify or customize the standard protocol as needed to address the individual needs of the patient.  While whole-body hyperthermia is an essential part of our Lyme disease treatment, it works best when combined with other supportive therapies. The Sanoviv approach includes a variety of simultaneous treatments designed to work together in a comprehensive program to fight infections that have become chronic and are non-responsive to other treatments.

• The first step in chronic Lyme treatment is identifying the bacteria causing the infection. This can be done through a blood test or a biopsy. Once the bacteria have been identified, your doctor will prescribe antibiotics.

• It is vital to take the antibiotics as prescribed and finish the entire treatment course, even if you feel better. If you stop taking the antibiotics early, the bacteria may not be killed entirely, and the infection could return.

• In chronic Lyme treatment, your symptoms and progress are monitored. Our doctor will likely want to see you for follow-up appointments to ensure the infection is properly treated. You may also need additional tests, such as blood tests or X-rays, to check for any complications from the infection.

Our comprehensive in-patient treatment program 

Our comprehensive Lyme and Chronic Infectious Disease treatment program has helped many Lyme patients finally get back on the path to healing after struggling with this disease for many years.