Combat to Care: Pine Pollen, Wellness, and Chronic Lyme Disease

Health Not War: Rethinking Lyme Disease Treatment

Since I first became interested in pine pollen and addressing the long-term effects of Lyme Disease, my understanding and approach have profoundly evolved. Initially, I relied heavily on antimicrobials—whether pharmaceutical or herbal—to combat the disease and its co-infections. This method aligned with my science-based mindset. However, my perspective has undergone a significant transformation.

Challenging the Antimicrobial Approach: Key Questions and Patterns

Understanding Symptom Variability

Why do some people develop Lyme Disease symptoms while others do not?

Timing of Symptoms

Why are symptoms immediate in some cases and delayed by decades in others?

Fluctuating Symptoms

Why do symptoms ebb and flow within the same individual?

Varied Treatment Responses

Why does response to treatment vary so widely?

Targeted Infections

Why does Lyme Disease seem to target certain people?

If Lyme Disease (a systemic Borrelia burgdorferi infection) were similar to other bacterial infections like syphilis or staph infection—both treated effectively with antibiotics—these questions would be moot. However, the reality is that Lyme Disease treatment is, at best, difficult to manage.

Rethinking Lyme Disease: No Easy Answers

While I don't have definitive answers, I have developed a new perspective. Almost a decade ago, during my Lyme Disease treatment, I viewed my body as a war zone, under siege, and needing military precision against it—against myself.

This perspective is detrimental. Bodies deserve respect and reverence, not military precision. When we view ourselves as ill, we will never feel well.

Exploring Common Infections: Insights from Herpes and Tuberculosis

Herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 are widespread and often latent infections, typically symptomatic only during immune system stress. Similarly, latent bacterial infections, like latent tuberculosis (LTB), exist without symptoms but can become active under certain conditions. Here, overall health significantly influences whether a latent infection progresses to an active one.

Lyme Disease as an Opportunistic Infection

These examples suggest that Lyme Disease might also shift from latent to active states based on lifestyle and overall health. I now believe Lyme Disease to be an opportunistic infection that can lie dormant and awaken depending on our physical, mental, and spiritual health. Chronic Lyme Disease does not respond to antibiotics as other bacterial infections do.

Transforming Health: Supporting the Body Over Fighting It

Might we achieve health in the face of Lyme Disease by supporting the body rather than fighting it? Can we feel as healthy—even healthier—with Lyme Disease than before the infection? While I don't claim to have answers, neither does the antimicrobial approach.

Radically Supporting Health: Rethinking Cultural Norms

Our dominant culture is antithetical to health. The ideology of constant growth and expansion, much like cancer, is toxic. To radically support health, we must reconsider and redefine these fundamental assumptions. Living this way makes us sick, robbing health from the body, mind, and spirit.

When I first turned to pine pollen for Lyme Disease recovery, it was to embrace the more-is-better standard of self-worth. However, pine pollen, like many herbs, taught a different lesson.

Pine Pollen and Other Flower Pollens: Nature’s Restorative Power

Pine pollen and other pollens do not exhibit antimicrobial activity. Instead, they nourish and restore. According to Peter Holmes in The Energetics of Western Herbs (pages 413-414), flower pollens have numerous functions:

Provides nourishment, restores the endocrine, nervous and immune systems, and enhances immunity: Tonifies blood, qi and essence, regulates metabolism, generates growth and promotes longevity.

Restores the nerves and heart, balances the circulation and promotes rest; promotes clear thinking and lifts the spirit.

Tonifies urogenital qi, harmonizes urination and relieves irritation, fortifies the yang and relieves impotence and infertility; increases estrogen and androgen.

Promotes urination, resolves toxicosis and relieves overweight; dissolves deposits and regulates bowel movement.

Tonifies digestive qi, promotes absorption and relieves underweight; clears dysbiosis and regulates bowel movement.

Opens the chest, relieves wheezing and benefits the throat.

Stimulates immunity and reduces infection and inflammation; promotes tissue repair; relieves allergies.

In short, pollens radically support health by restoring and renewing, offering a new perspective on well-being.

Final Thoughts

The lesson I've learned about Lyme Disease, pine pollen, wellness, and chronic infections is that achieving better health requires addressing the roots. If we run ourselves ragged, we will never find wellness. This truth is not difficult to understand but challenging to implement due to societal pressures.

On my healing journey, my Lyme Disease has become a signal for how I live my life. When I neglect my needs, I feel sick. But when I practice self-care, invest in relationships, and treat myself with compassion, I feel better than before Lyme Disease. And that is a huge success.