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Can You Kill Lyme Bacteria with Essential Oils?

Persistent Lyme bacteria resist the effects of antibiotics. However, several essential oils from plants can kill them in the laboratory.

Lyme disease can sometimes be hard to treat because the bacteria that cause it, Borrelia burgdorferi, can go dormant. When Lyme bacteria are not actively reproducing, antibiotics can’t kill them.

Essential Oils Against Persistent Lyme Bacteria:

A scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found ten different essential oils from plants that are lethal to the bacteria even while it is growing slowly if at all (Antibiotics, online Oct. 16, 2018). Compounds from garlic, allspice, spiked ginger lily blossoms, myrrh trees and may chang fruit killed stationary phase Lyme bacteria in the culture dish within a week. Other plant compounds that killed the bacteria came from cumin seeds, thyme leaves and cinnamon bark.

This research is still very preliminary. The next step will be to test some of these potent natural compounds against Lyme infections in laboratory animals. Ultimately, scientists will need to do clinical trials in infected humans.

Learn More:

You can learn more about Lyme disease and the difficulties of treating it from some of the interviews we have done. Feel free to sample

Show 1128: What You Need to Know About Tick-Borne Diseases

Show 1081: What Do You Need to Know About Lyme Disease?

Show 1003: From Lyme to Alpha-Gal: The Latest on Tick-Borne Diseases

Show 996: Mystery and Lyme Disease Misdiagnosis

Here is an explanation of persistent Lyme bacteria.

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About the Author
Terry Graedon, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and co-host of The People’s Pharmacy radio show, co-author of The People’s Pharmacy syndicated newspaper columns and numerous books, and co-founder of The People’s Pharmacy website. Terry taught in the Duke University School of Nursing and was an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology. She is a Fellow of the Society of Applied Anthropology. Terry is one of the country's leading authorities on the science behind folk remedies..
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