Lyme Disease and Modern Chinese Medicine

Lyme disease is the fastest growing infectious disease and it is now epidemical in the Northeast, Middle West, and Northwest regions of the United States. The number of reported cases has doubled in last decade and the infection scale has become larger than HIV. Aside from hepatitis C, Lyme Disease may be the second largest infectious disease in this country. Worldwide, it is also rapidly spreading in Canada, Europe, and Asia. There is great controversy concerning the diagnosis, treatments, and prognosis of Lyme disease, especially regarding the chronic and persistent form. This controversy has often left chronically infected patients without adequate medical care. Due to the special features of the Lyme spirochete and its multiple co-infections, conventional Western antibiotics treatments have not proven to be very effective. Stand-alone antibiotics treatment has become less effective overtime due to increased resistance and adaptation of germs. The Western medical approach to this infectious disease is to focus only on killing the pathogen. It does not address the complexities of the Lyme pathogenesis and various associated complications in chronic infections. Modern Chinese medicine is an integration of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. We use this integrative system for the treatment of chronic Lyme disease. With over a decade of practical clinical experience, we have found that modern Chinese herbal treatment with supplemental acupuncture applied to Lyme disease (especially its auto-immunity and immune complex related complications) yields a much better clinical outcome than the conventional stand-alone antibiotics approach. What is modern Chinese herbology and how does its phytopharmacology match with the pathophysiology of Lyme disease? What are the shortcomings of conventional Western approach in treating chronic Lyme disease? How does MCM treat Lyme disease with herbal remedies and what are the phytopharmacology of these herbal remedies? This book is a comprehensive discussion about traditional and Modern Chinese Medicine and aims to answer these questions in detail.