How important is diet?

I have come a long way in my recovery I attribute credit to - 75% antibiotics 25% lifestyle changes( eliminated sugar, gluten, nicotine, added exercise). It is possible I may have recovered just as far without eating well, but probably would have taken longer.

I'm mostly sugar free and gluten free and I do pay for it when I have much of either, especially the gluten. Never realized it had a negative effect on me until I cut it out for this.

Post Edited (Dahlias) : 7/19/2018 3:57:34 PM (GMT-6)

I don’t totally buy into the GF diet unless you have Celiac or some other issues.

(My son has celiac tho)

I don’t eat gluten and/sugar on a daily basis tho.
Generally GF at home as I keep GF products on hand for when our son comes home.

No - not any IV abx.

ashleylynn said...

Girlie said...
I don’t totally buy into the GF diet unless you have Celiac or some other issues.

(My son has celiac tho)

I don’t eat gluten and/sugar on a daily basis tho.
Generally GF at home as I keep GF products on hand for when our son comes home.

No - not any IV abx.

Would IBS be considered in the category of "some other issues" because I've had IBS for many years.

Yes - I’ve read that gluten can contribute to IBS - and also Dairy.
Try removing them from your diet and see how you feel

DonN said...
I'm a long way from well, but when I came down very ill 16 yrs ago I went on a vegetarian diet for a year. I was worse at the end of the year. I cut out all suger, caffeine and processed foods for another year and still no change except for a very slow heartbeat and very tired. Now, I just eat a real food diet, drink my coffee, and take my herbs

Does a real food diet mean whole foods diet, or are you saying you basically just eat whatever you want now?

Hey enorasteal:



That’s great the plant based diet is working well for you.


What are you doing for treatment?

Diet was very important for me. I eat mostly plant-based, avoid processed foods/refined sugar/alcohol/dairy/minimize gluten. I think the more severely affected one is by these infections the more important it is to leverage any potential beneficial angle to aid recovery. People will have success with different food strategies, I don't think there is a one size fits all. If I had to choose, I'd say avoiding refined sugar was the single most helpful dietary change I ever made.

My diet is pretty strict, no carbs, no sugar(including fructose), No legumbres and no dairy. All I eat is vegetables, nuts, bone broth, meat and chicken. I only used abx. during 2 months and 3 weeks. During that time, I did not feel good, I started to feel better after quiting abx. It has been 2 months that I only use some herbs which are: Japanese Knotweed, Cyptolephis,and Bart blend. Apart from that I get vitamin, mineral and antiinflammatory supplements. How do I feel?
As an example last week I cycled 75 kms in a good pace, I have been doing my daily routine, My symptoms are giving me bothersome 2/10. Before abx. and during abx. period it was 7-8/10. I struggled to walk even at home, there were weeks I never went out.

I still have some muscle pain, joint pain but really light and keep migrating around my body.

I will tell you what, whenever I see a negative person and scary news about ''what horrible things happens to Lymies and how actually all the horrible neuro degenerative diseases are Lyme'' my syptoms come back.

I do not know if my answer is relevants to your exact question I just wanted to sum it up

ashleylynn said...
In your treatment plan, how much better does following a certain diet make you feel? And which diet do you follow?

Ashley- this is a important and repeated question here. In the past, opinions varied because they were taking about their personal experience and body, not yours. What one needs another may not and vice versa.

If you have any autoimmune issues this is very important to learn.

For starters common sense says natural foods are best. Less sugar. Pay attention to gluten or milk product sensitivities. Try leaving them out for a while.

Sugar with ABX = gut yeast heaven. Beer too.

Quite a few people get candida or another internal yeast which can eventually go into the blood stream. Do your best to avoid this. Its been said that sugar cravings may be a sign of gut yeast overgrowth already there.

astroman said...
Sugar with ABX = gut yeast heaven. Beer too.

Quite a few people get candida or another internal yeast which can eventually go into the blood stream. Do your best to avoid this. Its been said that sugar cravings may be a sign of gut yeast overgrowth already there.

Does honey or stevia feed candida as well?

For me, diet was very important. I'm very strict now, but I have to remember that I eased into it. I was told to cut gluten, dairy, and sugar before I knew I had Lyme. Those three are big contributors to inflammation, which causes a lot of chronic pain, depression, and overall poor health.

Sugar was first to go. It came naturally because I had been living in Europe where sugar is not nearly as prevalent, so my taste buds naturally adjusted and I learned to sweeten things only to be tolerable, not decadent. I now think a lemon is a sweet treat. Everyone, no matter what disease you do or don't have, will benefit from reducing sugar. Cutting all added sugar is the goal, there is plenty in fruits and even some vegetables. Honey or stevia if necessary. With Candida, even those might be cut, however doing so still didn't help my Candida. Only going off abx ever solved that.

Next was gluten - easier because of the popularity of gluten-free products. However, the processed and packaged things you replace it with, and usually GMO CORN, are not much better and might be worse. I make my own bread without yeast or gluten. Pasta from rice or legumes only. Any treats like brownies or cookies are rare and homemade (though I did Enjoy Life cookies for a while).

I did dairy by cutting only milk, but I kept eating cheese and yogurt. After 9 months on abx, I found that any dairy was setting off my Lyme rage, so I cut ALL dairy and felt much better.

Then came my personal sensitivities. I will never know if these were caused by Lyme or the antibiotics' destruction of my gut, or both. But keeping a "food and mood" diary helped me identify all the things that made me feel worse, and cutting them was a benefit.

Everyone is different. It takes a lot of careful observation and label-reading to be sure that you've eliminated something and can tell if it worked or not. My husband said cutting dairy didn't work, but we found out he was not careful in reading labels and ate a lot of things at parties or restaurants without thinking about it. As soon as he got strict about it, problems cleared up.

My advice for everyone:
1. Start ignoring calorie and fat labels and look at ingredients. Know what you're putting into your body.
2. eat more vegetables. every meal.
3. cut sugar and sugar substitutes.
4. try cutting gluten for 6 weeks. Do not replace it with corn or processed products, only simple ingredients, mostly homemade.
5. try cutting dairy for 6 weeks. Do NOT replace with soy. Try to avoid substitutes at all, but use the replacement milks sparingly - find the ones with the least ingredients, unsweetened. Make your own. (Puree'd cauliflower makes a great creamy thickener for savory dishes and soups, and yes, even chocolate pudding!)
6. Keep a 2-column journal, one column every ingredient that you've eaten (this makes simple home cooking much more convenient, otherwise you have loooooooooooooong lists to write out. I heard a rule "if you can't cover the entire ingredients list with your thumb, don't eat it.") The other column how you feel. In a few weeks, look for recurring patterns.
7. Cut alcohol (this was also an early given, but I don't drink anyway, so it was not hard)

Start with small steps while you're well. It gets much harder to keep a strict diet when you're very sick and have no energy to cook, but that's when it's most important. It's a tough battle.

Be well.