7 Natural Ways To Optimize Your Body's Ability To Heal From Lyme Disease

So, despite your best efforts to prevent tick bites, you've somehow contracted Lyme disease. Don't beat yourself up; it happens to the best of us (read all about how my chronic Lyme disease came back even after antibiotics, and how I healed myself naturally). 

The good news: Whether you have acute (aka "just-bitten-by-a-tick") Lyme disease or chronic ("lord-only-knows-how-long-you've-had-it") Lyme, there are ways to optimize your body's ability to heal from this debilitating tickborne infection. Here, we asked a variety of respected integrative Lyme practitioners for their top strategies to get over Lyme faster, no matter what stage you're in. The major consensus? A strong immune system can make all the difference in the severity of your symptoms and your ability to heal—and, fortunately, there are a variety of ways to boost your defenses. 

"If your immune system is strong, you're going to take care of these [Lyme-causing] microbes," says William Rawls, M.D., integrative physician and author of Unlocking Lyme. "Antibiotics are only as good as your immune system. They can help knock down the number of microbes, which gives the immune system a leg up, but you can't depend on these drugs alone."

To be clear, implementing the strategies below won't necessarily cure you of Lyme—you should still seek out a qualified Lyme-literate practitioner who can get you on a treatment protocol that aligns with your values (e.g., antibiotics, antibiotics and herbs, just herbs, etc.). But making these changes will almost definitely support healthy immune function and detoxification, reduce your symptoms, and help you get more out of your current Lyme treatment so you can heal faster. 

Nearly every Lyme practitioner recommends eating a healthy diet composed mostly of nutrient-dense whole foods. And while that's a great start, it might not go quite far enough.

"I want everybody to eat a diet that agrees with their immune system, and that means eating a diet that agrees with their gut," says Kristin Reihman, M.D., family medicine doctor and author of Life After Lyme (a book that's been a great resource in my own Lyme-healing journey). "That usually means starting with a comprehensive elimination diet to determine what foods actually agree with your gut and which ones are better left out for the duration of your recovery."

Reihman has her Lyme patients follow the Institute of Functional Medicine's comprehensive elimination diet, which involves removing the top most common allergens and pro-inflammatory foods from your diet (e.g., gluten, dairy, soy, corn, peanuts, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, eggs, pork, beef, vegetable oil) for at least 21 days, then slowly reintroducing one food at a time over a three-day period to see if you have any type of adverse reaction. If you do? Keep that food out of your diet for the remainder of your Lyme recovery process.  

Modern processed foods can disrupt immune function. So, many functional Lyme experts agree on a whole-foods dietary approach, though their specific protocols may differ slightly. 

"I really recommend that people try to get most of their nutrients from whole real foods," says Reihman. "That includes six to eight palm-size servings of leafy greens and otherwise brightly colored vegetables per day, three palm-size servings of some protein, and ample healthy fats and oils such as coconut oil, olive oil, ghee. Ghee is particularly great for healing the gut and empowering the immune system."

Darin Ingels, N.D., naturopathic doctor and author of The Lyme Solution, is also a big fan of a veggie-heavy approach and says his Lyme patients respond particularly well to an anti-inflammatory alkaline diet, which he details in this mbg post. Rawls believes a high-vegetable, low-grain or no-grain diet, such as the paleo diet, is the best choice for long-term maintenance. And mbg Collective member and functional nutrition expert Will Cole, D.C., recently made the case for a plant-heavy ketogenic diet for speeding Lyme recovery. 

"When the body exists in a constant state of alert, all of its systems—especially immune system functions—become overly taxed," says Rawls, adding that stress can often be the cause of a Lyme setback. 

While we can't necessarily eliminate stress from our lives, we can counter its effects with practices such as regular meditation, yoga, walking, and—one of Reihman's favorite techniques—tapping, which seems to help regulate the nervous system and calm the fight-or-flight response. 

"Sleep is mandatory," says Reihman. "You could be doing everything else 'right,' but if you're not sleeping enough, you're not actually giving your body the chance it needs to detoxify properly or empower your immune system—both of which are activities that happen mostly at night."

The key: Making sure you're sleeping as many hours as your body needs to feel rested and wake up on its own without an alarm.