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Lyme Disease

  • May 31, 2023

At times, you may wake up with your every muscle and bone aching, or with a feeling of a severe, deep, crushing pain. Time and time again you may have light-headedness, dizziness, or brain fog. This invisible illness with its bizarre symptoms can make your life doleful. The illness is actually a result of the most common tick-borne infection, known as Lyme disease. It is prevalent all over the United States. Borrelia burgdorferi is a bacterium that leads to the occurrence of Lyme disease. The ticks infected with these bacteria can transmit the infection to humans via a bite. (https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/8/4/269)

Lyme disease has three phases, namely, 1) localized, 2) systemic or disseminated, and 3) chronic/persistent. A wide range of symptoms are also based on these phases of the infection and include skin rash, high temperature, facial numbness, extreme tiredness, headache, muscle aches and pains, joint stiffness, chills, difficulty in concentration, swollen lymph nodes, and heart problems. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3652387/)

The first two phases are components of early disease while the third phase is basically a chronic or persistent infection.

Lyme disease is treated with antimicrobial drugs and people often get cured from the infection. However, in a small fraction of people, infection enters into a chronic state. For these people marijuana may be of great help on account of its pain-relieving properties.  (https://docmj.com/is-medical-marijuana-an-effective-treatment-for-lyme-disease/)

Studies have shown that symptomatic relief may be obtained by the use of marijuana in patients with Lyme disease, including pain reduction, improvement in sleep, and diminished anxiety. (https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/60/12/1776/2462643)

Marijuana is not able to cure Lyme disease, but it may be helpful in some patients.