Dr. Diane (My Lime Doc) explains use of disulfiram for Lyme disease: it has been shown in some studies to kill Borrelia and has helped some patients, but it commonly causes strong reactivity and side effects (headaches, rashes) and requires complete abstinence from alcohol and alcohol-containing tinctures. She recommends it as a short-term option (typically 4–6 weeks) for patients who are not responding to other treatments, not as a first-line early therapy, and stresses caution due to die-off and interaction risks.
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Hey everybody. Dr. Diane from my Lime Dog here. In this video we're going to talk about disulfiram and Lyme. So one of the things that comes up a lot with my clientele is what about using disulfiram for Lyme? And disulfiram has been shown to kill Lyme in some studies, and I can tell you from a couple patients I've worked with that this is a useful treatment for some people. I've seen a couple people where it's made a world of difference. But I've also seen a high, high level of reactivity from disulfiram. Disulfiram classically is used as an ant abuse. It's used to get people off of alcohol. And so you cannot have alcohol at all when you're on this. And one of the problems is a lot of the things we use in natural medicine that are the strongest are in alcohol based tinctures where it's just a tiny little bit of alcohol. But when you're on something like disulfiram, it really limits some of the other treatments that can be used. So that's one problem with that. I've also seen long term it caused things like headaches and caused things like rashes. So it's not something that I recommend long term use. The way I tend to recommend using disulfiram is if some other treatments you're using are not working and you need alternatives. It's really important in the Lyme community that we are having as many different tools in our toolbox because not everybody's going to respond to the same treatment. So because of some of the side effects, I tend to not recommend Daiso Forum as an early stage use case. There's a lot of other herbs and natural products that do work a lot better early on and can avoid a lot of the side effects. And secondly, because it's a ant abuse and you can't use a lot of other substances when you're on disulfiram. It does limit the overall treatment picture, but it's a great alternative to you short time. Most people like four to six weeks max that I like them on something like disulfiram as a way of killing some of those spirochetes of getting people over the hump if they're feeling stuck. So but like I said, I've seen it work well for some people. I've also seen some people have a high level of reactivity, a high level of die off. So you really want to be careful in using disulfiram. Like a lot of other treatments in the Lyme world. All right, if this has been helpful, please do subscribe. Tell your friends about my channel. If you're interested in working with me in my clinic, there's information about how to get a free call with the clinic. Click below in the show notes and I hope to see you soon.
