(book review) “Beyond Lyme disease: Healing the underlying cause of chronic illness in people with Borreliosis and co-infections.”

Author Connie Strasheim has written five books about Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses. She’s come to believe there are two groups of people with Lyme disease:

1. Those whose main health problems are caused by Lyme and other tick-borne infections

2. Those who have a whole lot of complicated health problems, of which Lyme and coinfections are only a small part.

She wrote her most recent book, “Beyond Lyme Disease,” for the second group. She maintains that other conditions—not Lyme alone—may actually be the primary cause of their woes.

Chapter One is devoted to adrenal insufficiency, which can be both a cause and an effect of chronic illness. The adrenal glands are involved in immune function and the body’s stress response. They regulate blood sugar levels, blood pressure and inflammation, among other things. Problems with the adrenals can lead to hypothyroidism. Alas, treating hypothyroidism without addressing its underlying cause can make the situation worse. Strasheim asserts that properly addressing adrenal fatigue and related hyperthyroidism may be central to a patient’s ability to recover.

Next, she looks at nutrient deficiencies and other food-related issues. The nutritional content of food in the United States has changed vastly in the last 60 years. A case in point: in 1951, three spears of broccoli contained 130 mgs of calcium and 3500 IU of Vitamin A. By 1999, the nutritional content of an equal serving of broccoli had fallen to 48.3 mgs of calcium and 1542 IU of Vitamin A. Today, those numbers would be even lower. This is just one example of how hard it can be for people to get the nutrition they need. Other problems include genetically modified, pesticide laden foods; food allergies; and differing nutritional needs among individuals.

The author devotes chapters to the following conditions that can also make it harder for people to get well: electromagnetic radiation and pollution; mold and mycotoxins; heavy metal toxicity; parasites; gastrointestinal dysfunction; emotional trauma and depression.

She discusses candida and other fungal issues; opportunistic viruses and bacteria; dental infections and amalgams; structural problems like misalignment of the vertebrae; and when the body is unable to properly detoxify.

Straisheim acknowledges that the need to discover and treat multiple causes of illness can seem overwhelming. Yet, if regular treatment doesn’t seem to be helping you, it can be empowering to find new healing strategies. “Beyond Lyme Disease” is an important book for anyone seeking insight into why they seem unable to recover from tick-borne illness.

Click here for more information about this book.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Education and Outreach. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.