Herbs That are More Effective in Treating Lyme Than Antibiotics

Lyme disease is in the news a lot lately. It’s a malady that causes a myriad of terrible symptoms, is carried by infected ticks and a bite can infect a person. The effects are devastating and in some cases, this condition resists standard antibiotic treatments. In these people, the pain, neurological problems and other symptoms can persist for months or even years.

The essential oil of a plant is the result of pressing out an oil containing the fragrance of the plant, hence the term “essential” oil. This essential oil of several medicinal plants has recently been studied by scientists for its ability to fight the Lyme disease bacterium. The herbs studied were myrhh trees, garlic cloves, cinnamon bark, amyris wood, spiked ginger lily blossoms, may chang fruit, oregano, clove buds, citronella, thyme leaves, cumin seeds and allspice berries.

According to a recent Futurity article: “We found that these essential oils were even better at killing the ‘persister’ forms of Lyme bacteria than standard Lyme antibiotics,” says Ying Zhang, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The statistics are amazing. Lyme disease infects approximately 300,000 people in the US each year. It is usally treated with antibiotics and clears up as expected. However, for some unknown reason, there are an unlucky 10-20% of those cases that don’t get better with the antibiotic treatment. Those are referred to as “persistent Lyme infection” or “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome” and can continue for months or years.

Research studies have found that the use of these herbal essential oils killed the Lyme bacteria and no new bacteria grew back in 21 days. Even the most persistent of bacteria were no match for these potent oils. These results are superior to the antibiotic treatment results.

The studies were done in lab dishes, and there needs to be more testing before the scientists are ready to say that they are to be used by doctors, but this is great news for Lyme sufferers. New treatments could be on the way for the medical community as well as for traditional healers to use with Lyme patients.

Be sure to check out the full descriptions of these plants for the complete information about their beneficial uses.