Lyme Disease & Post-Lyme Syndrome Treatment in Greenville, SC
Functional medicine approach to Lyme disease and post-Lyme syndrome in Greenville, SC. Dr. Hendry addresses persistent Lyme with herbal protocols, ozone therapy, and comprehensive testing. Call (864) 365-6156.
What Is Lyme Disease & Post-Lyme Syndrome?
Lyme disease is a tick-borne infectious disease caused primarily by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Acute Lyme disease, caught early and treated with antibiotics, often resolves without lasting complications. The more challenging presentation — and the one that brings most patients to integrative medicine — is post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), also called chronic Lyme or persistent Lyme: a constellation of fatigue, joint pain, cognitive impairment, neurological symptoms, and immune dysregulation that persists months to years after antibiotic treatment. Conventional medicine has limited options for this population. Functional medicine, with its focus on the underlying drivers of immune dysregulation, inflammation, and microbial persistence, offers a systematic approach that many patients have found beneficial when standard care has not resolved their symptoms.
Common Symptoms
Root Causes: A Functional Medicine Perspective
The conventional model of Lyme disease assumes that a standard antibiotic course eliminates the infection and that persistent symptoms represent post-infectious inflammation rather than ongoing bacterial activity. The functional medicine model examines a broader set of contributing factors that explain why some patients never recover fully after treatment.
Borrelia burgdorferi has documented ability to form persister cells — dormant bacterial forms that are antibiotic-tolerant and can reactivate when immune conditions are favorable. Co-infections dramatically complicate the clinical picture: Babesia (a malaria-like parasite), Bartonella (a bacteria affecting the nervous system and vascular endothelium), Ehrlichia, and Anaplasma are frequently transmitted alongside Borrelia and produce their own overlapping symptom patterns that standard Lyme testing does not detect.
Conventional Lyme testing (ELISA followed by Western blot) has well-documented sensitivity limitations, particularly in early infection and in patients with immune dysregulation — a fact acknowledged in the medical literature. False negatives are common. Patients with clinical presentations consistent with Lyme may test negative using standard methods while still harboring active infection or significant immune dysregulation from prior infection.
The immune system's response to Borrelia can trigger autoimmune cross-reactivity, where the immune system begins attacking host tissue. Neuroinflammation from microglial activation contributes to the cognitive symptoms. Gut microbiome disruption — both from the infection itself and from repeated antibiotic courses — perpetuates immune dysregulation and systemic inflammation. Mitochondrial dysfunction, driven by bacterial toxins and inflammation, explains the profound fatigue that characterizes the chronic presentation.
How We Treat Lyme Disease & Post-Lyme Syndrome at IHP
Dr. Hendry's integrative approach to Lyme disease and post-Lyme syndrome begins with comprehensive evaluation — both the clinical history and functional testing that conventional infectious disease panels miss. This includes assessment of co-infections, immune function, inflammatory markers, gut microbiome status, nutritional deficiencies that impair immune function (vitamin D, zinc, magnesium), and mitochondrial support markers.
Herbal antimicrobial protocols are a cornerstone of integrative Lyme treatment. The herbs Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum, containing resveratrol and stilbene compounds), cat's claw (Uncaria tomentosa), cryptolepis, and andrographis have documented activity against Borrelia, including against persister cell forms that are antibiotic-resistant, in peer-reviewed in vitro research. Dr. Hendry prescribes these as part of structured protocols from our in-house herbal pharmacy, combined with biofilm-disrupting agents and rotation strategies to prevent adaptation.
Ozone therapy supports Lyme treatment through direct antimicrobial activity, immune modulation, and mitochondrial support. Gut restoration addresses the microbiome disruption from both the infection and prior antibiotic courses. Targeted supplementation corrects the nutritional deficiencies that impair immune clearance. Acupuncture addresses neurological symptoms, sleep disruption, and pain through its well-documented effects on the central and peripheral nervous system.
Dr. Hendry's Approach
Dr. Hendry takes a pragmatic view of Lyme disease: he neither dismisses persistent symptoms in patients with plausible Lyme exposure as psychosomatic, nor advocates for indefinite antibiotic therapy without functional evaluation. His approach is to systematically identify what is actually driving the patient's ongoing dysfunction — whether that is microbial persistence, autoimmune cross-reactivity, gut dysbiosis, mitochondrial impairment, co-infection, or some combination — and build a protocol that addresses each identified driver. This requires thorough testing, patience, and a willingness to refine the approach based on the patient's response. Most patients with chronic Lyme presentations have been dismissed or under-treated for years; Dr. Hendry's goal is to provide the systematic evaluation and evidence-informed treatment they have not received elsewhere.