When Lyme disease leaner (spirochetes) cross the blood-encephalon barrier, they can cause myriad neurological impairments and nervous system inflammation. Neurological Lyme affliction can manifest equally brain fog, retentiveness loss, word and song iteration, defoliation, anxiety and low, sleep disturbances and more than. "Lyme brain" is terribly frustrating for patients who could once multitask, only now lose their train of thought mid-sentence, or can't find their way to the store. Many have written to me to ask what helped me amend cerebral part. Here's what helped the most: - Pharmaceutical treatment: Lyme is a bacterial infection, and you can't improve cognitive function without killing the bacteria that's causing information technology. Sometimes symptoms tin get worse as bacteria die off faster than your body can eliminate them (a Herxheimer reaction), but in my feel, the payoff is worth the temporary increase in discomfort and decrease in capabilities. Your doctor may want yous to pulse antibiotics in order to give your body time to recover. There are detail antibiotics that piece of work best to penetrate the claret-encephalon barrier and ameliorate cognitive symptoms. Because every single example of tick-borne affliction is unique, in that location is no set protocol, merely your Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD) can tailor i to your needs.
- Supplements: Certain supplements can aid reduce inflammation and neurotoxins. Glutathione and Essential Fat Acids are 2 that are commonly used (just again, I can't give specific medical advice; you need to check with your LLMD about which supplements, and what dosage, would be appropriate for you). I'm wary of doctors who sell supplements themselves (you lot desire to brand sure your wellness, not their financial proceeds, is their top priority). Though supplements may seem adept because they're "natural," they tin can have side effects and contraindications, and so don't always assume that natural is better. For me, I've needed a combination of both pharmaceutical treatment and supplements to improve all of my symptoms of Lyme disease, babesiosis, and ehrlichiosis.
- Rest: Your trunk needs adequate sleep to heal. This tin can be actually hard to come past for Lyme patients, and it also can be aggravating and downright boring to be in bed all the time. But your body is working really hard to fight infection, and information technology needs all the rest it can get in order to do so. Fifty-fifty at present, a decade into remission, I still tin go neurologically overstimulated and feel a burst of cognitive symptoms. When that happens, I need to wind down, give myself some serenity time, and go extra sleep.
- Anti-inflammatory foods: In my post "The Lyme Nutrition," I discuss foods that help with reducing inflammation. There are skilful foods to avoid, similar gluten and candy carbohydrate, and expert foods to include, like fruits, vegetables, and proteins. Certain foods have antioxidant properties. Whether eating them has helped my cognitive function, I can't say for certain, merely I know it hasn't hurt, and I'll accept any excuse to accept a piece of night chocolate!
- Pacing: It can be enticing to keep reading a book that yous're really into, or to binge watch a prove, simply doing either tin exist taxing on a Lyme-riddled brain. Frequently, I don't know I'm overstimulated until it's too tardily. I feel fine reading one page, and then some other, and so all of a sudden, my head feels like it's full of molasses. I've learned to stop while I'grand ahead. You might tell yourself, "I have to stop reading after 2 pages, even if I experience fine, and rest for twenty minutes." Eventually, as your infections get better, you'll exist able to exercise more than, just you have to think of improving cognitive part as a marathon, non a sprint.
- Making lists: Because retention can be and then impacted by tick-borne illness, it tin can help to make to-do lists for each day. You can literally write down tasks like "shower" and "eat luncheon," and cheque them off when you've done them (it's especially helpful to set reminders, either in writing or on your phone, to accept your medications). Write out only what you can handle for one solar day at a time, and put other items on lists for later in the calendar week. Recollect to include self-intendance items, too, similar "rest" or "take a bathroom."
- Neurofeedback: This not-invasive brain preparation program helps your brain to piece of work optimally (the system I utilize is called Neuroptimal). I utilise it to help quiet my brain downward; others use it to sharpen their thinking. The process uses your brain'southward own information to figure out what it needs. It's a relaxing process that involves watching kaleidoscope images on a screen (yous can close your optics if those experience overstimulating) and listening to gentle music while sensors are attached to your caput. Y'all'll hear occasional skips in the music, which are signals that help your brain go back to its optimal state. Neuroptimal is great because it works on the whole brain at once. The neurofeedback practitioners I've worked with have cautioned against doing neurofeedback that simply works on one section of the brain at one time, maxim this tin can really worsen Lyme encephalon. I beginning got connected with my practitioner through a sleep dispensary (which meant that sessions were covered by insurance). Your LLMD may want to practise a sleep report, or refer y'all to a practitioner; you tin can also find one through the Neuroptimal site.
- Body work/cranial sacral massage: I practise a blazon of hands-on therapy called Integrative Manual Therapy, which encompasses cranial sacral therapy and neurofascial processing. This gentle, low-cal impact helps lymphatic drainage, and frequently calms my limbic system Easing these symptoms reduces my brain fog, allowing for better cerebral office. Some physical therapists offer this blazon of therapy (which again ways that insurance can encompass it).
- Play word and retention games: To assist sharpen my brain (and keep me busy), a friend used to play writing games with me over email. He'd set rules such every bit, "Tell a story about a canis familiaris using just three syllable words" or "Tell me the name of someone we went to school with, and then come upwards with some other using the first letter of that person'due south last proper noun." I think these games helped amend my memory. It was nice to do them over electronic mail because I could take every bit long every bit I needed to complete them.
- Recall the music or games of healthier times: Retentivity care units for the elderly sometimes use music therapy to help prompt long-term memory. People struggling with short-term memory are often able to recall and sing entire songs from their youth. In the midst of convalescence, I played an former card game, "Scrooge." This elaborate version of double solitaire requires memory, quick thinking, and strategy. These were not functions that I could mostly execute well in those darkest days of illness, but while playing that card game, I suddenly could. When I won handily, my opponent quipped, "There'south nothing wrong with that brain of yours!"
- Limit stimulation: I chop-chop learned that loud noises, crowded rooms, and flashing screens would stimulate my brain to the bespeak of shut down, and and so brain fog would settle in. Past limiting the amount of time I spent on screens, and avoiding particularly fast-paced shows, I was able to keep my brain at-home then I could engage in other activities like writing and reading.
- Accept that there volition be setbacks: Healing from tick-borne disease is not linear. You volition regain some cerebral function, and and then have periods of brain fog, and and then outset improving over again. Eventually, if yous follow your doctor's protocol and stick to some of these tips, you should start to encounter more good days than bad. I still sometimes struggle with cognitive problems, but they are slight now. When I was at my sickest, I couldn't read or lookout man TV. I mixed up my words. My head ached. At present, I tin write, teach, read and watch TV in short segments, and generally carry on with good cognitive functioning, so long as I work to maintain my health.
Jennifer Crystal
Writer
Opinions expressed by contributors are their own. Jennifer Crystal is a author and educator in Boston. Her work has appeared in local and national publications including Harvard Health Publishing and The Boston World. Equally a GLA columnist for over six years, her work on GLA.org has received mention in publications such equally The New Yorker, weatherchannel.com, CQ Researcher, and ProHealth.com. Jennifer is a patient abet who has dealt with chronic illness, including Lyme and other tick-borne infections. Her memoir about her medical journey is forthcoming. Contact her via email below.
Email: lymewarriorjennifercrystal@gmail.com
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