Celebrating Lyme Disease Awareness month: FACTS vs. MYTHS

May is Lyme disease awareness month! I am so thankful that there is a month devoted to raising awareness about Lyme disease and educating others! So do to my part I thought I would post some facts vs. myths about Lyme disease to educate those around me.  So here it is:

Fact or Myth:

You can only get Lyme disease from a deer tic or a tic with a spot on it

• MYTH..... any type of tic and be infected with Lyme disease, even in the nymph stage when they are super tiny

Only those who develop a bulls eye after being bitten have contracted Lyme disease

• MYTH..... Although this is a sign of infection, not everyone's body responds in this way

Half of people who have Lyme Disease do not recall being bitten by a tic

• FACT..... about 50% of those infected do NOT recall being bitten by a tic

The CDC states that the treatment for Lyme disease is 22 days of Doxycycline

• FACT.... Unfortunately the CDC does not recognize the use of long term antibiotics as a treatment for Lyme disease, this causes a lot of legal complications for doctors specializing in treating the illness.  

If you are tested for Lyme and your results show a negative test, then you do not have Lyme disease

• MYTH.... Lyme disease can have a FALSE negative test! The CDC states that a doctor testing for Lyme, by law, must inform their patient that Lyme disease can show a false negative test and therefore are recommended to be tested again in the future.  It would have saved me a lot of frustration if doctors I had seen a few years ago would have followed this. 

Lyme disease is sometimes referred to as "the great mimicker" as it has been known to mimic other illnesses and disorders such as Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue, and even ADD.

• FACT.... In fact, a lot of those who were diagnosed with these illnesses and others have actually been misdiagnosed  in the past and had Lyme disease

Now that you have the facts right educate others and protect yourself by following the NIH's recommend ways to protect yourself from getting infected! 

Eating gluten free: My 5 go-to gluten free snacks

Eating gluten free definitely has its health benefits but it also be a total pain.   Some people think avoiding gluten requires too much meal planning or is more expensive, but I have actually found easy ways to fit it in with my busy lifestyle!  So to save you some time and frustrations here are my tips for eating gluten free.

First of all, I mentioned before that I already eat very clean for the most part.  This means eating a very limited amounts of processed foods, so most of what I eat is naturally gluten free, but you have to indulge sometimes!

My 5 go- to gluten free snacks: 

1. Humus
 Humus is naturally gluten free and it comes in a variety of different flavors and it goes great with every vegetable.  I usually have mine with carrots or gluten free cracks.

2. Popcorn
 I love popcorn! I actually air pop my own and season it Kernel Seasons brand seasoning and a lot of their seasonings are actually gluten free! This is also great to remember when traveling because you can buy bagged popcorn in virtually every chip isle.  My favorite brand is the Wise brand reduced fat white cheddar or butter.

3. Peanut butter
For me this literally means spoon in the peanut butter, but its great to have with celery or put them on the rice cakes. To be honest, I am a total addict.  My all time favorite brand is Trader Joe's chunky peanut butter, and I have to say once you have it there's no going back to another other brand...although surprisingly the Walmart brand  natural peanut butter is a pretty good substitute.

4. Rice cakes
These pretty much taste like popcorn in a condensed form and they are soo good! My go to brand is the Quaker Oats kind, but any brand is good with a little peanut butter.

5. Chex cereal 
I am one of those weird ones who eats dry cereal as a snack, since I have never really been a milk drinker.  Chex cereal is a great gluten free snack because all of the flavors except the wheat are gluten free and you can bag it up and take it anywhere!

All of these have made eating gluten free so much easier while I am at school, and they are not super pricey like the gluten free brands are!

Detoxing: basic tips and tricks

Detoxing is a very important piece of your health, whether you are battling a chronic illness or not.  There are many different detox regimes, some even specific to certain health problems. Of course, when you are busy it is hard to fit another thing into your busy schedule.  In order fit detoxing into my busy schedule, I try to do small things to detox throughout the week.  Here are some small detoxes I do throughout the week that you can easily incorporate into your everyday schedule.

Lemon water- I drink lemon water every day.  It not only keeps me hydrated but lemons have great natural detoxing qualities.
Feet soaking- I try to soak my feet in Epson salt as much as possible, but it is really important for those days that you feel bad.  Soaking your feet can help eliminate harmful toxins like heavy metals from your body. I just have a heated foot bath that I add some Epson salt to and soak for 10-15 minutes.
Epson salt bath- Whenever I am at home I try to take an Epson salt bath at night.  This also helps eliminate harmful toxins from your body.

Another great way to detox is to see a homeopathic doctor.  They can soak your feet with an ionizer with drains the lymphatic system, bacteria, and harmful toxins. They can also recommend different detoxes specific to your health needs.  I personally saw a homeopathic doctor and really liked it, you just need to come open minded because some of their treatments are pretty out there.

In addition to all of these when I feel like I need to detox, I follow my Lyme diet as strictly as possible.  To review my Lyme diet read here.

Pulsing and Protocols

So I took a week off my antibiotics last week because I was going to the beach for the weekend.  I think it's good to take a week off here and there to give your body a break.  However, I do advise you to not do this frequently!

Taking time off every once and a while is great because it allows your body to lower its tolerance to antibiotic. Which also means that when you start taking them again, it will hit your body much harder than usual.  Needless, to say my meds have been kicking my butt this week!  I have been sleeping 11 hours at night and took two naps the other day...All with plenty of caffeine! I have also been experiencing some of the cognitive/neurological symptoms that I haven't had much of in a while.

If you are prescribed to long term antibiotics, how do you feel about pulsing?

I used to be on a protocol where I would pulse during the week by only taking meds on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I would do this for three weeks, take a week off and start it over again. At first, I really liked the idea of this because it allowed me to take the weekends off so I would have enough energy to get out and socialize with friends.  In reality, I found that this is not enough medicine to be taking and your body is likely to quickly build up a tolerance this way.  The doctor I see now, has me back to taking meds everyday of the week.  And let me tell you I like it soo much more! I have definitely seen the most progress taking meds everyday of the week.  I do sometimes take a week though, but it is purely my own discretion.

My plans for the rest of the day: lots of resting and doing homework in bed!  How do you feel about pulsing your protocols?

Under Our Skin: My thoughts

I finally just watched "Under Our Skin" last night after searching for it for months.  Every doctor I saw encouraged me to watch it to learn more about Lyme.  If you have never seen the documentary, it basically follows a handful of people sharing their stories and experiences.  It also goes over some of the legal complications with Lyme disease which is something I think everyone should be aware of.

It was one girls story in particular that I completely identified with.  She started off telling her story by sharing how happy she was when she found out she had Lyme disease.  Meaning, she thought she would just take a round of antibiotics and finally be cured.  After being sick for the whole summer, and struggling with weird flare up of symptoms here and there for the past few years, this is exactly how I felt.  Unfortunately for both of us that is just not the case.  She is also very active despite being sick, just like myself.  Her reasoning, was that she was laying in bed so sick that she was absolutely miserable.  Working a time consuming job seemed to be the perfect distraction from her symptoms.  Since she was still fighting Lyme disease, she was still dealing with the hard symptoms day to day, but pretending that she was feeling much better than she was.  It really hit me watching her story, because this sounds just like my own story.  I still continue to go to school and go to school events even if it means that I have to drag myself out of bed.  Although I am pretty open about having Lyme disease in order to educate others, I constantly at like I am feeling much better than to avoid people feeling bad for me.

If you have never seen this documentary I strongly suggest you watch it, whether you have Lyme or not.  Not only is it full of actual stories and great insight, it also has a lot of factual information that most people do not know.  It is also extremely important that we educate others on what is happening with healthcare laws and Lyme disease.  If you ever get the chance to watch this documentary, pass it on and educate others around us. 

#thingsthatannoyme

Alright, I generally think of myself as a decently optimistic person...............but a girl's gotta vent! I think one of the best things you can do is process your feelings and vent it out.  This morning one of my friends instagrammed a picture with "things you shouldn't say to someone with a chronic illness," and I have to say they were very on point!  So here is my version of things that annoy me about Lyme disease.

Number one, it literally drives me crazy when people say that I have "LIMES" disease.  I am sorry but, I am not a farmer and I did not get an illness from a fruit that people put in their cocktails. Also ironically, for some reason I really, really hate limes so this bothers me even more... maybe its fate.

Number two, when people tell me I don't look sick. I just take the compliment... I mean that IS a compliment right?? But honestly is there some golden rule that says you have to look as crappy as you feel? Thank god that's not a real thing because that would be a whole new level of struggle.

And finally, those oh so friendly people who have decided that since they have never heard of Lyme disease that it is not a real thing.  These are the people that I just flat out ignore.  I mean, if you going to treat me as if I am dealing with an irrelevant and therefore a made up illness.. then I am going to treat you like you are irrelevant.

These little things definitely annoy me, but I have learned to laugh about it.  I mean what is life without finding humor in the little things that get in your way? Sometimes its good to get a good laugh and vent it all out!

The G word

So I finally took my cap and gown out of the bag today even though I got it a few weeks ago.  Obviously, I still have not fully accepted the fact that I am actually graduating.  It was only 9 months or so ago that my doctor was telling me that I would most likely have to drop out of school. Being the motivated person that I am, that was not an option for me.  That's not to say that this was year has not been a challenge for me.  In order to be able to graduate on time, I really had to prioritize. 

I am the type of person who loves staying busy, always running around getting stuff done and trying new things. I love exercising and just being active, and hate being stuck in the house!  I am also such a morning person that I would spring out of bed at 7 or 8 in the morning and workout or do homework just to start off the day.  As you can imagine, this new lifestyle was very, very tough for me to grasp.  I learned that I would need to rest my body and really limit my activity meaning no more working out, and no more of the morning runs that I love.  I was so tired that I literally could not wake up in the morning even if I had gone to bed earlier the night before.  So basically, between the fatigue and body aches, I was told to really take it easy meaning I would need to stay resting in my apartment.  As you can imagine, I was going to have to miss out on a lot of social events.  

So how did I mesh this new lifestyle in with the lifestyle I typically lived at school?  I continued to drag myself out of bed early because with Lyme, getting out of bed is a very long process so this kept me from being late to class.  My typical morning at that time: I would wake up, shower, get back in bed until I had enough energy to get ready, start getting ready for the day and taking breaks in between.  I drank lots and lots of coffee just to get through an average morning routine.  I was so sick that I could barely walk to and from class so I would come right back to my apartment and get back in bed.  I finished all of my school work while I was laying in bed.  So yeah, aside from a handful of social events and doctors appointments, I spent majority of my first semester of my senior year....in my bed.  And yes, I did suck as much as it sounds.

Now I am three weeks away from graduation, I have definitely improved from these past months, but I still have a ways to go.  I now have more energy to do more things I just need to prioritize and save my energy for the most important things.  As bittersweet as it is to leave the place I have made some of the best memories in the past four years, I am so incredibly happy to be graduating because it is a huge accomplishment for me.  It just goes to show, that if you want it bad enough, and try hard enough you can make it happen, no matter what gets in your way!

Until next time,
Julie

Exercising with Lyme: my first time running!

The weather was so nice here today that I decided to drive down to the river by myself and take a shot at running! And I was able to run my first FULL mile since I stopped running!! I can barely put into words how accomplished I feel right now.


 I have not been on a run since this summer when I had to stop because I could not physically get my body to do it.  I had to really push myself, but I was able to complete the full mile and walk the mile back.
Out of all the lifestyle changes I have had to make, not being able to run is what bothered me the most.  I am going to have to take it is slow, but I am just grateful to have made it this far!



Now I know it is not recommended to run while doing Lyme treatment, but my outlook is that you can break some rules in moderation.  If you are also battling Lyme, I encourage you to get out and do some exercises whether its yoga, strength training (with light weights or body weight), or just doing some walking.  I am a huge believer that a body in motion stays in motion, so making an effort to do small exercises everyday while help you keep up your energy levels.

For now I am going to relax and drink some lemon water to hydrate and detox!

My Lyme Diet

I am detoxing today so naturally I am going to be super cranky.  But I figured that while I am trying ignore my sugar cravings I would work on another blog post!  Through the past few months I have learned so much about detoxing and what you can and cannot have while treating Lyme.  So here is my Lyme diet! 

The basic overview of my diet is:

-        -Gluten free

-        -Low starch

-        -Low sugar

-        -Mostly no dairy

-        -No red meat or raw fish

Im not going to lie, when I first started treatment I though the dietary restrictions were such a pain and saw it as another thing I needed to add to my list.  I finally seemed to figure out a happy medium for clean eating while at school.  

Now I know being gluten free seems more expensive or that it requires more effort but if you are eating low starch, you are really limiting the amount of processed foods in your diet anyway so most of the food you consume will naturally be gluten free. 

Why do we omit gluten? 

Gluten actually turns into glue in your body.  It is already hard enough for our bodies to break down, but if you are trying to detox, gluten can lower your ability to get rid of bacteria.  You don’t have to get super crazy and check every label, just remember that if its unprocessed its most likely gluten free! 

Why low starch?

First off, most starchy foods are processed foods which you should be avoiding anyway because you should not be putting harmful chemicals in your body while trying to get rid of harmful things that are already in your body! Makes sense right? Second, starches have YEAST! Too much yeast in the body creates and environment for harmful bacteria and even mold! If you are taking oral antibiotics like me you already have a high amount of starch in your body already. 

Why low sugar?

Sugar actually promotes the growth of yeast which as I said before is very bad for your body.  Spirochetes are considered parasites and parasites thrive off of sugar! If you are having intense sugar cravings that is why!

Why no dairy?

I have always tried to keep my dairy consumption to the bare minimum because I am slightly lactose intolerant and dairy is very high in fat anyway.  The only dairy I consume is if I cook with a little bit of butter or if I am a eating something with dairy as an ingredient.  Dairy also has bacteria in it so you should try to limit it as much as possible. Also, dairy is mostly fat so as we are limited to the amount activity we do, eating dairy is gonna make you gain weight!

Why avoid red meat and fish?

Again, undercooked meat and fish can contain bacteria and if you have a compromised immune system you are less likely to fight these harmful things off!  

What about caffeine?

I have read a few things about omitting caffeine from your diet….. I don’t do this.  I have never been a big soda drinker, but I am a coffee addict.  If it weren’t for coffee this year I'm not even sure if I could have made is through school this far! Coffee is literally what keeps me going through the day.  

Of course I don’t always follow this diet as strictly as I should since I am still in college.  Sometimes I will take days off, but it is very important to get right back into it!

I hope this helps anyone trying to find a balance with their diet restrictions and I will try to post a blog on detoxing soon!