Chronic fatigue has a way of disrupting every part of your life. When you suffer from continuous exhaustion, you may have days when you find it hard to keep moving through your daily routine. Driving may become difficult as you struggle to concentrate and stay alert. Dizziness may come over you any time you stand up. You may also have pains, including headaches, sore throat, nerve pain, muscle pain, or joint pain. You try to sleep, but your rest is broken and unrefreshing.
Not knowing why you feel so debilitated, you don’t know how to get back to the energetic person you once were. Perhaps doctors have tried to solve the riddle for you, too, without success. They may have suggested you have hepatitis, hypothyroid, or influenza, but they find nothing when they test for these things. While chronic fatigue can have many different causes, it can be an effect of Lyme disease.
Would you like to find out more about chronic fatigue and Lyme disease? Contact us to get the info you need.
Is Lyme Disease Behind Your Chronic Fatigue?
When Lyme disease causes exhaustion, it usually brings other symptoms as well. You may experience headaches, arthritis, heart palpitations, dizziness, and other symptoms. Based on a 2011 study and his experience since then, one researcher recently suggested that between 62 and 88 percent of his patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome actually had Lyme disease.
Getting tested for Lyme disease is a good first step. However, false negatives are not uncommon. Therefore, if you have been tested and still feel unsure, it’s time to take additional measures. You can start by speaking with a doctor who specializes in treating Lyme disease. They can put their expertise and years of experience to work finding out if Lyme disease is behind your chronic fatigue.
Recognizing Signs of Lyme Disease
Long-term Lyme disease is not always easy to recognize. Until someone develops a more reliable test for this illness, doctors must be skilled diagnosticians to determine if you’ve been infected. So, it’s unlikely that you would know for sure whether you have this disease without talking with an expert.
However, if you notice Lyme disease symptoms, you can reasonably assume it’s worth consulting a Lyme disease specialist.
First Signs
First, try to remember if there was a month in the past when you suddenly had the following symptoms.
- Bullseye rash also called Erythema migrans
- Fever
- Chills
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Joint pain
- Muscle pain
- Swollen lymph nodes
Lyme disease happens when a tick bites you and infects you with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. If you did have these symptoms for a short time, it’s possible a tick bit you, whether you knew it or not. On the other hand, Lyme disease doesn’t always show up the same way for everyone. Sometimes, the rash doesn’t look like a bullseye, for example. Besides, if this happened long ago, you may not have given it much thought, or you may have attributed your symptoms to some other kind of sickness. The important thing is finding out now if you have Lyme disease.
Long-Term Symptoms
Many of the long-term symptoms are like the early symptoms. However, they are sometimes much more severe and certainly longer lasting. For instance, if you have Lyme disease, you might experience joint pain, headaches, muscle aches, joint aches, heart palpitations, dizziness, and nerve pain, along with your chronic fatigue. Numbness or tingling in your hands and feet, as well as facial palsy, can indicate Lyme disease, too. Any of these symptoms may be worse at some times than they are at others. And indeed, your exhaustion may wax and wane. However, the symptoms stay with you for the long term, making your life a seemingly endless battle.
Traditional Treatments for Lyme Disease
Doctors typically prescribe antibiotics for those who find out they have Lyme disease soon after the tick bite. People who don’t get that treatment early on may have more trouble in the long run. The problem is that, once the early stage is over, a different approach is needed. All too often, treatment of long-term Lyme disease amounts to using medications to cover up the symptoms. If your Lyme disease is causing you headaches, your doctor might give you analgesics or NSAIDS to reduce the pain. Yet, the condition is still active, causing you other problems and interfering with your overall health.
As for chronic fatigue, traditional medicine offers little help. Typically, the two main treatments are cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy. Yet, these treatments do nothing to address the medical cause of the condition.
Holistic Medicine and Lyme Disease
A holistic medicine practitioner offers treatments that address the root of the problem. Suppose the doctor finds that your chronic fatigue is caused by Lyme disease. In that case, they will recommend an integrative approach to your health issues.
At Premier Health and Holistic Medicine, Dr. Robin Ridinger creates holistic treatment plans for Lyme disease and the chronic fatigue it can cause. With many options available, Dr. Ridinger customizes her recommendations to meet your unique, individual needs.
Types of Holistic Treatments for Lyme Disease
Because Lyme disease can affect nearly every part of your body, the best treatments for you depend on which symptoms you experience and the state of your overall health. Some of the treatments Dr. Ridinger uses include the following.
Diet and Supplements
Eating a well-designed diet of healthy foods helps your body detoxify. Perhaps your diet was previously unhealthy. Or the effects of illness might have caused changes in your system. If you were misdiagnosed at first and given the wrong medications, that could introduce toxins into your body as well. Your health improves as you rid yourself of toxic substances that have accumulated over time.
Bioidentical Hormones
Because fatigue is often related to a hormone deficiency, hormone replacement can help. While synthetic hormones have been associated with significant health risks, bioidentical hormones have not. Dr. Ridinger’s treatment plans for Lyme disease with chronic fatigue use these natural hormones to get your body back to its optimal hormone levels. Once your estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and thyroid hormones have reached this best level, your symptoms may reduce significantly.
Thyroid Hormone Replacement
Thyroid is, of course, another hormone, but it deserves special attention. Low thyroid levels can cause fatigue, as well as other troublesome symptoms. As a holistic medicine practitioner, Dr. Ridinger recommends bioidentical thyroid hormones. In addition, she uses not only the T4 but also the T3 hormone, which traditional medicine tends to ignore.
Herbal Therapies
Since the early days of humanity, people have used herbal remedies for healing. Now, holistic doctors know even more about these natural medicines. Herbal therapies can not only help with specific problems, but they can improve your overall health and sense of wellbeing.
Antibiotics or Antifungals
Although holistic doctors usually prefer natural treatments, there may be times when you need antibiotics or antifungals. Lyme disease can cause infections that require this type of medicine. If so, Dr. Ridinger will prescribe them to you and monitor the results to ensure you recover your health.
Seeking Help for Chronic Fatigue from a Holistic Doctor
If you feel exhausted but don’t know why, talking to a holistic doctor may be your best option. Dr. Ridinger provides holistic treatments for chronic fatigue and Lyme disease to decrease symptoms, increase your energy, and improve your health.
With over 25 years of experience as a holistic medicine doctor and a specialist in treating Lyme disease and chronic fatigue syndrome, Dr. Ridinger offers valuable insights into Lyme disease and fatigue. After diagnosing your condition, whether Lyme disease or some other health issue, she creates a plan to help you move past it and regain your health. Dr. Ridinger’s whole-body approach focuses on healing and restoring your health, choosing among a range of therapies to achieve your highest level of health.
Ready to end your chronic fatigue? Contact us for a consultation with Dr. Ridinger.
