What we’ll cover
- Understanding Chronic Lyme Through a Functional Medicine Lens
- 🧠 The Story Too Many Know
- 📉 Why Conventional Medicine Often Falls Short
- 🌿 The Functional Medicine View: Infection + Terrain
- How Borrelia Alters the Terrain
- ⚖️ Acute vs Chronic Lyme: Who’s in Control?
- 🔍 The Questions Functional Medicine Asks
- 🧩 Hidden Drivers That Keep People Sick
- 🧪 The CD57 Marker — A Window into Immune Balance
- 🧬 The 3 Labs That Reveal the Terrain
- 🔄 The Four-Phase Healing Map
- 🌱 The Bottom Line
- ✋ Ready to Find the Root Cause?
- About Dr. Matt le Roux
Understanding Chronic Lyme Through a Functional Medicine Lens
Imagine being a high-performing professional—thriving in your career, balancing family, and enjoying weekends outdoors.
Then one summer, after a simple tick bite that barely left a mark, everything starts to change.
At first, it’s subtle: fatigue that lingers, aching muscles, and stiff joints. But months later, exhaustion becomes crushing. Your thoughts slow, your memory falters, and your motivation fades.
Doctor after doctor runs tests that all come back “normal.” Yet you know something is deeply wrong.
This is the unspoken reality of chronic Lyme disease—a condition that doesn’t just affect the body but reshapes lives.
“Lyme isn’t just an infection—it’s a thief of vitality, energy, and clarity.”
🧠 The Story Too Many Know
In Australia, Lyme-like illness remains a growing concern. While Australia does not officially recognize Borrelia burgdorferi as endemic, thousands of Australians each year report tick-borne infections with symptoms identical to Lyme disease — including fatigue, joint pain, and brain fog.
For some, antibiotic treatment brings relief.
But for others, symptoms persist for months or even years — a condition often described as chronic Lyme or Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS).
📉 Why Conventional Medicine Often Falls Short
Traditional medicine excels in treating acute infections, but struggles with complex, chronic illnesses like Lyme disease.
The standard Lyme playbook:
- Identify Borrelia burgdorferi
- Prescribe 2–4 weeks of antibiotics
- Assume the infection is “cured”
But up to 20% of patients continue to experience fatigue, pain, and cognitive symptoms for months or years after treatment.
Why? Because conventional care often stops at killing the bacteria—without repairing the terrain it disrupted.
Quick Fact:
🧬 10–20% of Lyme patients experience chronic symptoms despite antibiotics.
🔥 The cause? Ongoing immune, mitochondrial, and inflammatory dysfunction.
🌿 The Functional Medicine View: Infection + Terrain
Functional medicine views Lyme not as a single infection, but as a whole-body event that disrupts immune balance, energy metabolism, and cellular repair.
How Borrelia Alters the Terrain
| System | Impact | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Immune System | Chronic inflammation & cytokine storms | Autoimmune-like reactions |
| Mitochondria | Oxidative stress & ATP depletion | Fatigue, muscle pain |
| Gut Microbiome | Dysbiosis & leaky gut | Inflammation & immune activation |
| Cell Danger Response | “Freeze mode” for survival | Blocks healing & energy flow |
| Biofilms | Microbial protection shield | Persistent infection |
⚖️ Acute vs Chronic Lyme: Who’s in Control?
| Phase | Driver | Treatment Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Acute Lyme | Borrelia infection | Antibiotics, immune support |
| Chronic Lyme | Terrain dysfunction | Restore mitochondria, detox, immune regulation |
Borrelia starts the fire. The terrain keeps it burning.
🔍 The Questions Functional Medicine Asks
- What’s blocking your body’s ability to heal?
- Are toxins (mould, metals, pesticides) adding to the burden?
- Are co-infections (Babesia, Bartonella) still active?
- What is the state of you mitochondrial and gut function?
- What’s your nervous system tone and recovery capacity (HRV, sleep)?
These more profound questions uncover the why behind persistent symptoms.
🧩 Hidden Drivers That Keep People Sick
1️⃣ Immune Dysregulation – The immune system stays stuck in overdrive, mimicking autoimmunity.
2️⃣ Co-Infections & Biofilms – Secondary infections like Babesia or Bartonella hide in biofilm-protected niches.
3️⃣ Toxic Load – Mould toxins, metals, and pesticides amplify inflammation and hormonal disruption.
🧪 The CD57 Marker — A Window into Immune Balance
The CD57 test measures a subset of NK (natural killer) cells, which are crucial for immune defence.
- A low CD57 level may indicate chronic immune suppression, a condition commonly observed in some Lyme disease patients.
- It’s not diagnostic alone, but when tracked over time, it reveals whether the immune system is recovering or still under strain.
“CD57 doesn’t prove Lyme—but in context, it tells the story of the immune system’s resilience.”
🧬 The 3 Labs That Reveal the Terrain
| Test | What It Shows | When Elevated |
|---|---|---|
| C4a | Immune “alarm bell” | Stuck inflammation, mould exposure |
| TGF-β1 | Remodeling signal | Stuck inflammation, mold exposure |
| MMP-9 | Barrier permeability | Leaky gut/brain, exercise crashes |
🔄 The Four-Phase Healing Map
| Phase | Focus |
|---|---|
| Support mitochondria, hormones, and the nervous system | Restore sleep, blood sugar, bowel function, and pacing |
| 2. Reduce Burden | Treat infections, remediate mould, and open detox pathways |
| 3. Rebuild | Identify triggers, prevent relapse, and seasonal optimization |
| 4. Maintain | Identify triggers, prevent relapse, and seasonal optimisation |
“Healing from chronic Lyme isn’t linear—it’s layered.”
🌱 The Bottom Line
Chronic Lyme is not just about Borrelia. It’s about a terrain under stress—a system overloaded by infection, inflammation, and environmental toxins.
Borrelia triggers the illness. Your terrain determines how far it spreads.
✋ Ready to Find the Root Cause?
If you’ve been told your tests are “normal” but you still feel exhausted, foggy, or inflamed, there is a deeper story.
Functional medicine helps uncover the underlying causes of your symptoms.
🩺 Book a Functional Medicine Consultation
Discover your root causes and begin restoring your terrain.
About Dr. Matt le Roux
Dr. Matt le Roux, B.Sc (SportSc), M.Chiro, IFMCP
Functional Medicine Practitioner | Gold Coast & Doha
Matt specialises in complex, chronic cases—bridging neuroscience, functional medicine, and integrative care to help patients restore vitality and performance.
