Did COVID Cause a Lyme Flare?

I'm seeing more and more of my patients getting sick with something - it might be COVID, it might be a flu virus that's going around, whatever the case may be ... and they're finding that their Lyme is really flaring.

Even folks who have been in remission or pretty close to it are experiencing this.

It's important that we distinguish this from long-COVID, although it can look similar, with ongoing fatigue, cognitive deficits and many other overlapping symptoms.

In fact, back in the day when people first talked about long-COVID, there was much chatter and speculation amongst ILADS docs as to whether what might actually be happening in some of the cases is an activation of previously dormant tick-borne infections.

I can certainly think of one patient who was deathly ill with the earlier strain of COVID, and struggled for months afterwards. He had previously tested positive for Bartonella, and while he didn't want to look at that as a possibility and continued to seek treatment for long-COVID, there were so many Bartonella symptoms he was experiencing that were glaring to me, including a lot of psychiatric issues. Those psychiatric issues, however, clouded his judgement and he went around and around in circles trying to find care.

Naturopathic doctors are well qualified to treat long-COVID. I am finding interventions like high-dose glutathione, natural antivirals, low-dose naltrexone and MAH ozone therapy very helpful.

But beyond that, we have to look at the possibility of tick-borne illness flaring up and being part of the problem. In this case we may need to bring in more targeted antimicrobial treatments, whether natural or pharmaceutical.

With the right treatment, we can move people through these flares and get them back on their feet again.

If you need help navigating chronic infections or long-COVID, call my office RestorMedicine, and we can help you. Phone is 619 546 4065 and email is [email protected].

We're here to help.