Hyperbaric Oxygen & Fibromyalgia

Background: 

Lyme disease, is a bacterial infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and transmitted to humans by the bite of infected ticks. 

Borrelia species can infect any tissue or organ system. Therefore, multiple symptoms from different body systems are observed with patients with Lyme disease. 

Borrelia species are colloquially called "shape-shifters". Borrellia can exist as a spirochete (corkscrew form), cyst form, cell-wall deficient form and filamentous form. 

Acute symptoms can occur anywhere from 3-30 days following a tick bite.

Up to 70% of people infected with Lyme disease get the erythema migrans (EM) rash, however most people with chronic Lyme Disease don't ever recall being bitten by a tick!

Ticks and can spread numerous other infections, which cause similar symptoms: Babesia, Bartonella, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia & Mycoplasma. It's quite common for our Naturopathic doctors to screen for various Lyme Co-infections when screening for Lyme disease. 

The common Elisa & Western Blot testing has many pitfalls: Many patients with Lyme are seronegative, which means they do not produce antibodies to Borrelia and if they do produce antibodies most conventional reference labs do not test for the full spread of antibodies associated with Lyme disease. These days our Naturopathic doctors tend to rely on newer "EliSpot" Lyme Disease testing which is suggested to be between 20 and 200 times more sensitive than a conventional ELISA.

Various herbal protocols are available: Cowden, Zhang, Buhner, Byron White. Of course, standard anti-biotic protocols are also available and it's common to see the two interspersed.   

Chronic Lyme disease symptoms are often vague and resemble numerous other infectious disease and autoimmune conditions

Chronic Lyme Symptoms: 

Lyme Disease can "imitate" the following conditions: 

Autism, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Chronic fatigue syndrome, Fibromyalgia,  Infectious mononucleosis, Polymyalgia rheumatica, Reiter’s syndrome, Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Parkinson’s disease & Alzheimer’s disease

Texas A&M Case Reports

All patients were positive for Lyme disease with Serological Testing. 

Taiwan Case Report

This case report on Hyperbaric Oxygen and Lyme was published in 2014 by Huang et al. In April 2003, the then 31-year-old healthy man (who was a frequent hiker) began suffering from intermittent low- and high-grade fever.

January 2004, bulls eye rashes were found over the patient's legs and he suffered from joint pain (shoulders, knees, TMJ). From 2004-2007, he developed additional symptoms including: nervous system issues - irritability, mood swings, poor concentration, short-term memory loss, sleep disturbances, facial tingling, blurred vision, and light sensitivity; cardiovascular system issues - chest pains and palpitations; musculoskeletal system problems - associated with migrating joint pain and headaches. 

In 2004 and 2007 he was suspected of Lyme Disease and was treated twice with antibiotic regimens. Because the above symptoms had not improved significantly, in October 2011 the patient visited Huang et al for HBOT.

Prior to commencing treatment, some residual symptoms such as elbow and joint pain, numbness of the extremities, eye twitch, insomnia and cognitive difficulty persisted. 

30 sessions of Hyperbaric Oxygen at 2.5 ATA for 90 minutes were used. 

In the first 10 sessions of HBOT, cognitive issues and insomnia resolved.

In the second 10 sessions of HBOT, numbness and eye twitch resolved.

In the final 10 sessions of HBOT, joint pain resolved. 

In all, after 30 sessions of Hyperbaric Oxygen, most of the patient's symptoms resolved.

A case report also exists where a 40 year old female with unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss was treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen and Doxycycline for acute Lyme disease which all resolved with 10 HBOT treatments which implies efficacy of HBOT in acute Lyme. 

In summary, it appears that Hyperbaric Oxygen at least in some cases eliminates persistent chronic Lyme Disease symptoms in patients who have already undergone (and failed) antibiotic therapy. 

Naturopathic Medicine: 

Naturopaths at TruMed focus heavily on IV Therapy so we thought we'd highlight 3 key IV treatments we're seen helpful in our Edmonton patients: IV Alpha Lipoic Acid, IV Glutathione and IV Phospholipids.

The infecting agents in Lyme cause inflammation through various pathways such as IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α and NO, creating free radicals and oxidative stress, which damage cell membranes, mitochondria, and nerves. IV therapy with Alpha Lipoic Acid and Glutathione can quell part of this inflammation especially in the nervous system. 

IV Therapy with Phospholipids, which in Edmonton we use Plaquex as our source, can be helpful for mitochondrial restoration and neuronal restoration. IV Therapy with Lipoic Acid, Plaquex and Phospholipids are often stacked in a Lyme disease patient for recovery. 

Our Naturopaths may employ alkaline, anti-inflammatory dietary strategies for our Edmonton patients, such as the Mediterranean diet (fruits, vegetables, fish) or low-carbohydrate diets can also be helpful in reducing inflammation. 

Occasionally referral to allied practitioners in the Edmonton area for LDN can be useful for reducing muscle and joint pain associated with Lyme.

Complex cases often require genetic testing and investigating roles of various other infections.

With genetic testing our Naturopaths can see if there are various issues with detoxification, and methylation in our Edmonton patients. In 2020 AOR started offering a reasonably good genetic test which we've started to use in our clinic.  

Our in-house Lyme Disease testing is usually sent to Armin Labs in Germany, our Naturopaths find EliSpot testing is accurate and cost effective. 

Our Naturopathic Doctors screen for viruses such as EBV, CMV, HHV-6, as well as mold toxicity in our more complicated cases. 

Viral and bacterial testing is typically done through blood sent to Los Angeles or Germany. 

Our Naturopathic Doctors also look for yeast overgrowth, most typically Candida albicans typically via stool testing or EliSpot. 

Our Viral Test Reports

Questions?

Get in touch (780) 757-8378