How A Keto Diet Might Help You Recover From Lyme Disease Faster

If you asked around among your friends and colleagues, you'd be hard-pressed not to find someone who's been affected by Lyme disease—the notorious infection caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of a tiny infected black-legged or deer tick—or sometimes via co-infection through other tick-borne transmissions such as Babesia (parasite) or Bartonella (bacterium).

That's because Lyme is the number one tick-borne illness in the United States, with an estimated 300,000 people diagnosed1 every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That is a conservative estimate.

Since ticks are so tiny, many people don't even notice when they've been bitten. Because symptoms often mimic other health conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, dementia, fibromyalgia, and even brain tumor, Lyme disease is often referred to as "The Great Imitator3" and can go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed for years.

This leaves many people struggling to manage their unrelenting chronic Lyme with no answers in sight when treatments for these other diseases don't end up working. 

Symptoms of Lyme are global, spanning multiple body systems, especially the nervous, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular systems. Days to months after the tick bite, later signs and symptoms of Lyme4 can include severe headaches, fatigue, neck stiffness, erythema migrans rashes, arthritis with severe joint pain, facial palsy, abnormal heart beat, shortness of breath, dizziness, inflammation of the central nervous system, nerve pain, brain fog, and memory loss (to name a few).

So, why is there so much talk about Lyme disease right now? There are a few different reasons. First, Lyme is more common. CDC data shows us that cases of Lyme disease6 have significantly increased in the past 10 to 20 years. Researchers believe the major drivers for this increase in Lyme7 are the impact of climate change on broadening tick habitats and improvements in monitoring, detection and reporting of Lyme cases.

Because our genetics as humans have been stable for many thousands of years, we have to look at what has changed: the world around us. Many lifestyle choices and environmental factors have changed.

In my opinion, epigenetic or lifestyle factors like the processed foods we eat, epidemic proportions of metabolically unhealthy Americans, the depletion of nutrients from our soil, the pollution in the air we breathe, and toxins in the water we drink may be amplifying and perpetuating the impact that chronic infections caused by viruses, mold, protozoa, parasites, and bacteria (like Lyme disease) have on the body. As our earth is groaning in the form of climate change, so, too, is the human immune system from the onslaught of modern stressors.

Typically, mainstream medicine will diagnose the presence of Lyme through lab work—that is, if you notice a bite or if you or your doctor recognize your symptoms as possible Lyme indicators, Then the infection is typically treated with a round of oral or intravenous antibiotics. 

But chronic Lyme that persists after antibiotic treatment (sometimes referred to as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome8) or that's never diagnosed and treated to begin with goes largely unrecognized in conventional medicine. Thankfully, this battle with chronic Lyme is gaining recognition among the functional medicine community with the support of organizations such as the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS).

The most effective food protocol for Lyme that I've found in my years of seeing many patients around the world is a mostly plant-based variation on the ketogenic diet that I call “ketotarian” (here's a sample shopping list and meal plan). By avoiding the common pitfalls of the conventional keto diet (lots of meat and dairy and not enough veggies), this dietary approach leverages the benefits of nutritional ketosis in the clean, sustainable way that I believe people with chronic infections need.

Studies suggest that oxidative stress can contribute to mitochondrial dysfunction9 in the immune cells of Lyme patients. Dysfunction of mitochondria, the energy powerhouse of cells, can manifest as fatigue10, a hallmark Lyme symptom. 

Long-term exposure to the Lyme pathogen has been suggested to trigger autoimmune diseases13 such as rheumatoid arthritis and other joint-related conditions through pro-inflammatory processes. This means reducing inflammation is likely crucial for helping to manage Lyme disease and reducing its debilitating symptoms. Fortunately, this is something a plant-heavy ketogenic diet excels at.

A robust immune system is important to help mount an attack against a Lyme infection. Since close to 80 percent of our immune system16 is in our GI tract, many Lyme disease experts agree that the gut microbiome is a key player in strengthening the immune system. 

While studies are needed in humans to truly determine the benefits of a ketogenic diet for Lyme disease, we do know that many of the underlying mechanisms or pathways implicated in Lyme disease may be helped with a high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb keto diet. That's why I recommend a properly formulated, plant-centric keto diet as a nutritional strategy to support the Lyme healing process.