We can only be victims of conventional medicine if we give doctors control over the decision-making process. Whenever I go to a doctor’s visit, I always inform the doctor that they do not have permission to give me prescription antibiotics. After the shock wears off of his or her face, they start to ask what if questions, and my response is always the same. Regardless of the medical issue at hand, I refuse to ingest antibiotics. This stance may appear foolish and short-sighted to those who prescribe or take antibiotics on a regular basis. But I assure, it is not.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with Lyme (or any other infection), then I implore you to thoroughly research the negative biological effects of prescription antibiotics and testimonials of other Lyme patients who have taken that treatment path. Before I dive into scientific theory, I would like to share my story.

My Experience with Antibiotics

It was my junior year of college, and I had been fighting a severe sinus infection. It was an infection that started off as the most painful sore throat and turned into a persistent upper respiratory infection. I was under the impression that the infection could not be viral and must be bacterial, since it had been persistent for a month. I setup a doctor’s office, explained my situation, and was prescribed Amoxicillin. Like many others, I had taken antibiotics before and never experienced any noticeable issues, so I assumed this was the safest route back to health. I could not have been more wrong.

Two hours after swallowing the first dose of Amoxicillin, my life changed forever. I was sitting in a room working on homework, and all of a sudden I was hit with an intense feeling of fear. My external environment was calm, but my internal environment had switched into full panic mode. My core muscles began to involuntarily contract and release. I was shaking, twitching, and convulsing as I laid on the floor. Unsure of what was going on, I decided to lay down in bed and wait for the episode to pass. The periodic convulsions persisted, so I headed to the emergency room two hours later.

Overtime, my health deteriorated further. I continued to experience partial seizures. I developed food, chemical, and environmental sensitivities. I began fighting a range of viral and bacterial infections, and was eventually diagnosed with Lyme Disease. My poor gut health lead to a systematic illness that affected every organ and cell in my body. I can only imagine the route my life would have taken if I had simply refused to take Amoxicillin. However, my journey is not in vain. It has inspired me to question treatment methods of conventional medicine and search for a deeper understanding of preventing and healing chronic illness.

The War on Infection

In the mid to late 19th Century, scientists were debating the origin and purpose of germs. Louis Pasteur became known as the father of The Germ Theory. His interpretation of experimental research led him and his followers to believe that bacteria and viruses originate in the environment and are the root cause of disease. Therefore, by killing germs, we can successfully treat disease.

On the other hand, Pasteur’s rival, Antoine Béchamp, created the pleomorphic theory from his own experiments and research. His theory suggests that germs originate from microzyma, organisms that live within the human body (and other organisms) where they usually remain quiescent and harmless. When the body is threatened by a potentially harmful matter and unhealthy terrain, the microzyma morph into bacteria and viruses. The purpose of these germs is to remove the harmful matter, dead cells, and toxins. Therefore, germs are the result of disease, not the cause. We can successfully treat disease by cleaning up the harmful matter, dead cells, and toxins.

On his deathbed, Pasteur admitted that the cause of disease is the terrain, not the germs. If you read about Pasteur’s experimental procedures, then you will find that his research was invalid and unscientific: he injected healthy animals with blood from diseased animals merely demonstrating that you can induce disease in healthy tissue by poisoning the blood with dead cells. For the purpose of this article, we will entertain the idea that Béchamp’s stance holds more truth than Pasteur’s. See the links below for more information on this debate.

Unhealthy Terrain

What determines an unhealthy terrain? The following four factors are the root cause of all disease.

1. Acidic pH
2. Positive electric/magnetic charge
3. Presence of poisons and toxins
4. Nutritional deficiencies

Please Note: Killing off bacteria does not address any of these factors. In fact, killing the bacteria is equivalent to firing an obnoxious, loud spoken maid whose responsibility is to clean your house. When she is gone, you no longer suffer the pain of listening to her ramblings, but your house remains dirty and will gather filth over time.

Result of Antibiotics Use in Lyme Patients

There is a huge controversy surrounding the use of antibiotic as treatment for Lyme Disease. Most medical professionals are taught to prescribe one dose of antibiotics. However, this method consistently fails Chronic Lyme patients who have been sick for an extended period of time. They deal with the toxic effects of killing off the bacteria and perhaps receive temporary symptom relief due to a reduction in inflammation, but the infection always reappears with a vengeance. Desperate, Chronic Lyme patients look for a doctor who will prescribe them multiple rounds of antibiotics over an extended period of time. Alone, this method provides temporary symptom reduction, but always leads to a relapse. Lyme patients who choose the antibiotic treatment path are merely managing symptoms while damaging not only their gut, but also their entire body.

Antibiotics kill the good bacteria in the gut, whose responsibility is to breakdown undigested food. When the good bacteria die, the ability to digest food decreases and intestinal fungus, such as Candida, begins to proliferate. The fungus has the ability to poke holes through the intestinal lining of the gut wall with their tendrils, which leads to a syndrome called leaky gut. At this point, undigested food travels through the damaged gut wall into the blood stream and triggers the immune system to produce phagocytes to break down the food. This puts a strain on the immune system, liver, and kidneys. When the liver and kidneys become overwhelmed, the toxins may circulate and penetrate the blood brain barrier leading to neurological symptoms. In an attempt to clean up the toxic mess, multiple infections simultaneously activate.

Lyme patients may suffer from food, chemical and environmental sensitivities, chronic systematic inflammation, multiple organ dysfunction, decline in cognitive function, anxiety, fear, chronic fatigue, and much more.

Herbal Alternatives for Prescription Antibiotics

To stop the symptom management disease proliferation cycle, it is important to wean off all medications, embrace healing reactions, and focus on nutrition and cleansing methods. There are herbal alternatives that will help decrease the presence of infections by supporting the healing process without killing off the good bacteria in the gut.

Here is a short list of herbal antimicrobials that I have had success using.

• Garlic
• Oregano Oil
• Wormwood
• Clove
• Cinnamon
• Echinacea
• Cat’s Claw
• Cranberry
• Ginger
• Licorice Root
• Olive Leaf
• Thyme
• Cayenne

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but rather reassurance that there is an alternative herbal treatment path that is more effective than prescription antibiotics. By replacing antibiotics with herbs, you are replacing poison with nutrition, thereby replacing death with life.

Lyme Patient Testimonials

“A wise man learns from the mistakes of others, a fool by his own.” –Latin Proverb.

If there is still doubt in your mind about which treatment path to choose, then I encourage you to read Lyme patient testimonials. Look for the long-term results. Who had success and claims to have cured the incurable? Who is convinced Lyme disease is a lifelong battle with inevitable relapses? What approach did they take? Learn from their mistakes and successes as you create your own path.

Resources and Suggested Readings

http://www.ener-chi.com/are-antibiotics-really-necessary/
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/06/18/antibiotics-bacteria.aspx
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pasteur_louis.shtml
http://www.laleva.org/eng/2004/05/louis_pasteur_vs_antoine_bchamp_and_the_germ_theory_of_disease_causation_1.html
http://healingnaturallybybee.com/you-cannot-catch-bugs-germs-bacteria-or-candidafungi/#a2