Addressing Chronic Infections

What are chronic infections?

Chronic infections are the continuous presence of an infection. An infection can be due to a bacteria, virus, parasite, or fungi. An infection becomes chronic when the body is unable to clear it after the initial infection period. This can be due to many factors such as inadequate immune system response, stress, and lack of nutrients.

Common Chronic Infections I See in Our Office:

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)
Lyme disease and co-factors
Parasites
Shingles
HPV
Imbalance in commensal gut bacteria
Pathogenic gut bacteria
Mycotoxin Illness

Symptoms from Chronic Infections:

Symptoms vary across the board depending on how your chronic infection is presenting.

For EBV, I often see extreme debilitating fatigue, feeling run down, sore throat, headaches.

For Lyme, I often see fatigue, weight changes, inability to handle stress, food sensitivities, hair loss, headaches, dizziness, brain fog, chills, joint pain and stiffness, muscle aches.

You may not realize you have HPV until you go in for your annual pelvic exam with your gynecologist, only to have the pathology report come back positive.

With gut imbalances leading to chronic infection, I often see this manifest with digestive disorders, changes in bowels, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, abdominal distention, pain or discomfort in the abdomen, skin rashes, frequent gas, and foul breath.

Mycotoxin illness occurs when you’ve been exposed to mold and mycotoxins. Your body’s immune response can be hindered by mold and mycotoxin, leaving your immune system compromised. Often times you’ll develop every symptom in the book, all labs will come back normal and you’ll feel like you’re going crazy, only to find out your body is struggling with internal mold and mycotoxins. This will prevent your body from being able to fight off common pathogens with ease leaving you vulnerable.

Dig Deeper:

Functional labs, detox support, supplementation, and immune support will be a key part of your individualized protocol. Additionally, I also may include lifestyle modification to best support you through healing.

How healing is DIFFERENT at Balanced Healing:

I understand how elusive chronic infections can be. I know that sometimes your standard labs may look relatively normal and that functional lab testing may be required to put together a protocol to get you on the path towards healing. I used a multi-pronged approach that looks at lab analysis for data, and our clinical expertise, to create the best plan possible to regain your health.