10/10/2025
Lyme Disease or Autoimmune Disease?
When the body fights for survival too long, it begins to confuse the battle.
Why the Confusion Happens?
Lyme disease and autoimmune disease share many symptoms such as fatigue, pain, inflammation, brain fog, anxiety and digestive issues, so it’s common for people to be misdiagnosed or treated for one when it’s really the other.
From a conventional perspective, Lyme is an infection, while autoimmune disease is an immune malfunction.
But from a naturopathic viewpoint, both conditions stem from the same core issue- a body under long-term stress, toxicity, and inflammation, where the immune system becomes overwhelmed and confused.
Lyme Disease: The Invader 🦠
Lyme begins as an infection typically from the Borrelia bacteria transmitted by ticks.
In a healthy body with strong detox pathways, the immune system can often manage and clear it.
But if the body is already overburdened with heavy metals, mold, chronic stress, gut imbalance, or nutrient depletion, the infection can linger, creating chronic inflammation and multi-system dysfunction.
This chronic inflammation can mimic autoimmune disease, and in some cases, trigger it.
Autoimmune Disease: The Confusion 🤔
Autoimmunity occurs when the immune system becomes hypervigilant and starts targeting the body’s own tissues.
But in naturopathic medicine, we don’t see this as “self-attack.”
We see it as misdirected protection- the immune system doing its best to respond to hidden threats it can’t identify clearly (toxins, infections, or trauma).
Lyme can initiate this confusion by overwhelming the immune system with chronic immune stimulation. Over time, the immune system becomes exhausted and misguided.
The Overlap: 🔘
Many people with chronic Lyme also test positive for autoimmune markers- not because they have two separate diseases, but because their immune system has been under siege for too long.
In essence: ⬇️
Chronic Lyme can look like autoimmunity,
and autoimmunity can feel like chronic Lyme.
Both are expressions of immune dysregulation- it’s the body’s attempt to heal and protect in a toxic, depleted environment.
Whether it’s labeled Lyme, autoimmune, or both- the path to healing is the same:
restore communication and calm the immune system.
👉🏻 Detoxify the terrain (liver, lymph, gut).
👉🏻 Rebuild minerals and antioxidants.
👉🏻 Soothe inflammation and oxidative stress.
👉🏻 Support the adrenals and the nervous system.
👉🏻 Heal the gut and microbiome.
👉🏻 Release emotional pressure (the inner inflammation.)
Lyme and autoimmune disease are not enemies to be fought, they are messengers of imbalance.
Both call us to slow down, to cleanse, to nourish, and to create harmony inside the body once more.
When the body feels calm again, the immune system can remember its true purpose- to protect, not to attack.
At Hudson River Homeopathy & Apothecary we can help identify whether your symptoms stem from infection, viral load, inflammation, gut dysbiosis or immune confusion and guide you back to balance through personalized, root-cause healing.
Www.hudsonriverhomeopathy.com
