surviving chronic lyme
Is Lyme disease curable? When caught early, Lyme disease is curable for most people. However, some (even when treated early) go on to develop Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, and continue having symptoms. Others don’t catch Lyme early and end up with Chronic Lyme Disease. Both of these categories of people need further treatment, but western medicine isn’t always the answer for them.
Using herbs for healing Lyme disease is a huge focus in my healing journey, but herbs have so many wonderful uses! My use of herbal remedies focuses on chronic Lyme, tendon health, and hormones – so many of the herbs you’ll find on this site are amazing for these issues. But, herbs are multi-functional, and each herb has multiple uses – so the same herbs I use for brain fog can help someone else with having more energy!
While the medical community has been slow to research and acknowledge chronic Lyme, there are some scientific studies that can help us piece together the specific ailments we experience. Here’s some research I’ve uncovered that have helped me understand some of my specific health issues:
Join me as I embark on an experimental journey into the world of organic gardening! Elements of sustainability, food forestry, and permaculture are all at play in the cultivation of both produce and herbs. Here, nurturing the soil as a living entity, while recycling what God gave me (an abundance of composted soil, thanks to my horses!) is a large portion of the sustainable features of my farm.
I’ll be discussing my personal gardening hacks and attempts at sustainable gardening. These garden hacks are designed to make healing from chronic illness more of a reality for those of us with less energy and chronic fatigue.
I’m an artist, website creator, wife, and herbalist. I have a small horse farm close to Springfield, MO where I board and work with horses, help manage sensitive horses that couldn’t be helped with traditional vet care, and grow my own herbs to help treat myself and these amazing animals.
I’ve had issues with hormones, anemia, and joint pain since I can remember, but it wasn’t until I turned 17 that I really started to have health issues. My 20’s are a blur of discomfort, hospital visits, and chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia symptoms – all of which went undiagnosed. I was told to take iron supplements and reduce stress; advice that’s not overly helpful to someone who’s body tries to kill them at least once per month.
Since learning about my health conditions, I now realize how much food affects me by either helping or causing inflammation. This has led to not only a change in my previous ways of thinking about food, but in other everyday activities like gardening (for food instead of aesthetics, though I still love my roses and other ornamentals!) and managing my animals, including my very sensitive horse with a muscle disorder.
Trying to manage my horse is where my breakthrough in really understanding how food can be a source of health or a major trigger, and taught me how to reduce inflammation in the body using food and herbs for healing. If you’d like to see more about my journey to manage my PSSM horse, visit my research-based Jax’s Story blog.
In my personal experience, reducing inflammation has been the crux of my healing journey – there’s no “healing” without a reduction of inflammation. See more on coping with chronic pain and inflammation here.
For me, herbs and whole foods are the best “supplements” for reducing inflammation. The amount of healing I’ve experienced since changing my diet to a high fiber, higher protein, low carb, whole foods, and herb-heavy diet has been amazing. And while it sounds like I’m stringent with my diet, I’m really not – I love sweets and still eat out on occasion, but I’ve drastically cut back on both of these things, make sure I get my herbal mixes daily, and do small things to increase my whole foods and fiber intake (such as add lentils to my homemade spaghetti – simple changes like this take nothing away from the recipe and provide a lot of benefit).
Learning how to reduce inflammation in the body can be a daunting task, but taking small steps, such as adding minor additions into your current diet while limiting trigger foods, is an easy way to move in the right direction towards healing.
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Stay curious, stay healthy, and live your best life!