TOUCHED BY LYME: Avoiding a heart transplant by treating Lyme disease

Dr. Steven Phillips is a well-known Lyme specialist and co-author of the book: Chronic: The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Pandemic and How to Get Healthy Again.

He also produces an email newsletter called Zerospin, where he takes a deep look at various health-related matters. Most of the time, you need to be a paid subscriber to read it.

However, his most recent article, “Heart Failure, Infection, & a Medical Brick Wall,” is available for anybody to read for free. And I highly recommend you do so.

Dr. Phillips tells the story of his own father, who developed end-stage heart failure in his early 60s. Cardiologists told him a heart transplant was his only hope for survival.

Young Dr. Phillips–a newly minted medical school graduate at the time–tried to talk to the cardiologists about less drastic treatment options. Guess what? They didn’t want to hear it!

Dr. Phillips then took over his dad’s care. He found that treating a previously overlooked infection — Lyme disease — “permanently fixed his heart, averting the needs for heart transplant.”  His dad went on to live almost 30 more years, passing away in 2021 as he neared the age of 90.

The article discusses many factors that can contribute to heart failure, including viruses, parasites and bacteria. Dr. Phillips says he took down the paywall “because this information can save lives.”

Click here to read the whole article.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s Vice-president and Director of Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.