Lyme Disease Treatment: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Watch For

When you get bitten by an infected tick, Lyme disease, a bacterial infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and spread through tick bites. Also known as borreliosis, it can start with a bull’s-eye rash and flu-like symptoms—but if ignored, it can lead to joint pain, nerve damage, and heart issues. The good news? Most cases are treatable if caught early. The bad news? Many people don’t realize they’ve been bitten until weeks later, and by then, the infection has spread.

Standard antibiotics for Lyme, oral medications like doxycycline, amoxicillin, or cefuroxime used to kill the bacteria in early-stage infection work well in the first few weeks. Doctors usually prescribe them for 10 to 21 days. But if the infection slips past the skin and into the joints, nerves, or heart, treatment gets longer—sometimes up to 28 days. There’s no magic cure beyond antibiotics. No supplements, no special diets, no herbal teas will replace them. If you’re told otherwise, be skeptical. The CDC and WHO both agree: antibiotics are the only proven treatment.

But here’s where things get messy. Some people still feel tired, achy, or foggy after finishing their course. That’s not always an active infection—it’s often post-treatment symptoms, sometimes called chronic Lyme, a term used informally to describe lingering symptoms after standard antibiotic treatment, though not recognized as a distinct medical diagnosis by major health bodies. The medical community doesn’t support long-term antibiotics for this, because studies show they don’t help and can cause real harm—like C. diff infections, yeast overgrowth, or antibiotic resistance. That’s why the posts you’ll see below focus on real-world outcomes: what antibiotics actually work, how to spot treatment failure, and what to do when symptoms don’t go away.

You’ll find comparisons of doxycycline vs. amoxicillin, real stories about delayed diagnosis, and advice on when to push back if your doctor dismisses your symptoms. There’s also info on how Lyme interacts with other conditions—like autoimmune disorders or mental health issues—that can make recovery harder. And yes, we cover the myths too: no, you can’t cure Lyme with garlic or ozone therapy. Yes, you should get tested if you’ve been in tick country and feel off for more than a week.

What matters isn’t just getting treated—it’s getting treated right. Miss the window, and you risk months of pain. Wait too long to act, and you might end up in a cycle of misdiagnosis. The goal here isn’t to scare you. It’s to give you the facts so you know when to act, what questions to ask, and how to avoid the traps that lead to unnecessary suffering.