Rebuilding the joints will ALSO rebuild the body as a whole, including the brain

In Lyme disease, we often talk about how Borrelia attacks joints and causes joint degeneration. This is, of course, true. However, thinking about it a bit differently can help us gain even more insight – and even more improvement in our health.

Really, Lyme disease doesn’t just destroy the joints, it destroys many other tissues, particularly those with lots of collagen content. The joints happen to have lots of collagen as a part of their makeup, so the joints get attacked with particular aggression.

Even the human brain has a high level of collagen content. According to several sources, “Recent studies have found collagen is extensively distributed throughout the brain and may be essential in protecting the brain against degeneration such as that in Alzheimer’s.” So, when we take supplements to repair the joints, we are also getting the benefit of repairing the brain, too! Thinking about it this way makes joint repair seem much more important and all-encompassing, doesn’t it? Here’s more on how collagen protects the brain against Alzheimer’s disease, which we know can sometimes be Lyme disease in disguise. You can see some pretty amazing connections here, between joint health, collagen, and other parts of the body!

Stephen Buhner, the very well respected author of several Lyme books, is quoted as saying, “They [the spirochetes] only do one thing to cause disease and that is break down collagen. Where they break down the collagen is where the symptoms occur.”  (source [page 2]). That’s a pretty profound statement, right? The primary mechanism of Lyme damage is the breaking down of collagen.

So, what’s the bottom line? The moral of the story is that repairing the joints and restoring collagen in the body can lead to great symptom improvement, not just in the joints, but throughout the body, including the brain, where spirochetes have done damage by feeding on and depleting collagen levels. In fact, this is part of a larger theme I’m focusing on lately – that is, at some point, we need to stop doing the “kill, kill, kill” protocol and start rebuilding the body. We can get hyperfocused on killing Lyme organisms and forget to address the damage that they cause.

So, lately I’ve been researching supplements to repair the joints – and repair the body, too! Here are the supplements I’ve come up with. Please use these only after getting approval from your doctor, as I am NOT a doctor. You’ll see that one of the main supplements is collagen, which I’ve personally found to be very helpful.

You can see that Scott Forsgren, who I respect as a leading Lyme expert, also uses collagen in his morning smoothie. I’ve also talked to several Lyme doctors who are integrating the use of collagen into their protocols, as well.

Important Warning: Because Lyme organisms feed on collagen and other joint-repairing substances, taking these supplements may cause a flare-up in Lyme symptoms as the organisms become more active and start feeding on the food you are providing them. This is somewhat of a conundrum: do you withhold these important nutrients and allow your body to continue to be broken down, or do you take the nutrients and deal with increased infections? I definitely don’t have the answer to this conundrum. But I will say that people who are further along in their recovery and who have their infections under control will fare better when using the supplements I linked to above. If someone is already in the throes of a bad Lyme infection that is out of control, I would probably avoid taking collagen and related supplements (of course, make the final decision with your doctor). 

On the other hand, if you’ve read my book Lyme Disease and Rife Machines, you’ll see that I don’t always believe that “drawing out the bacteria” is a bad thing. Sometimes, we end up in a stalemate with Lyme disease and it is very hard to make additional progress, and so drawing out the bacteria can expose it and make it vulnerable to treatments. Of course, this is a delicate balance, because drawing out too much bacteria too quickly can lead to back-sliding. This is why I say it is a MUST that you work through this dilemma under the CLOSE supervision of a trusted physician who has experience with these issues (again, I’m not a doctor; I’m just presenting information to you as someone who has researched this topic extensively). I’d definitely welcome discussion on this topic in the comments section below! 

So there you have it – some new thoughts on rebuilding the joints – and the body as a whole – using collagen and related supplements.

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