Could it be? Could it REALLY be true? A breakthrough treatment for Lyme disease is here?! Well, according to what I read on the PR Newswire, it is.

A specialty clinic called the Functional Alternative Research clinic has apparently devised a targeted combination treatment plan for people who’ve been diagnosed with Lyme disease. You can read the article here.

Located in Salt Lake City and headed up by Doctor Brett Earl, they are using intense alternative treatments to treat this highly infectious disease that is spread to humans by ticks. The Centers for Disease Control in the United States estimates that more than 300,000 Americans are infected each year.

So back to Dr. Earl… he and his colleagues claim to be having success in treating their patients by, for example, raising their core body temperature (hyperthermia) to mimic the body’s own natural response of a fever. The theory goes that the fever actually helps to rid the body of infection and will obliterate Lyme disease.

What concerns me about this alternative treatment plan, is that it doesn’t include antibiotics, the known protocol for successfully treating early-stage Lyme disease. So would this treatment be in tandem with antibiotics? Or are they actually successfully treating patients without them?

While I’m no expert on the disease, I have read a good deal about it and I’m not so sure I’d be willing to undergo alternative treatment without antibiotics, but I’d definitely be interested in going to the clinic if I felt my symptoms had not improved after standard protocol treatment.

So I ask you, would you be willing to wear a “hyperthermal” space suit of sorts if it worked? I guess I would!

Lyme disease has so many uncertainties surrounding the treatment based on when the disease is identified – early, moderate or late-stage. Many scientists and doctors now believe that once the disease sets in and progresses, it’s not only tricky to diagnose, since it mimics other chronic illnesses like MS or RA, it’s really difficult to treat.

Now it’s time to hear from you: What do you think of Dr. Earl’s methods? Is this quackery or have they found the key? I think they’re on to something! Sound off and share.