Welcome to my blog! This is a place of information and hope for fellow Canadians who are suffering from Lyme disease. I want to share with you the knowledge I have gained during my fight with this debilitating, frightening, and misunderstood illness. I hope you will be blessed.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Where can you purchase supplements for Lyme?

All Lyme patients know that supplements are regularly prescribed to help in the healing process. Prior to contracting Lyme, I rarely took supplements.  Once in a while, I would buy a container of multivitamins, and I would take vitamin C or echinacea if I felt a cold coming on.  But that's about it. Now, it's a whole different story.  I'm well acquainted with the alphabet.....you know, vitamins A, B, C, D, and E.  I take some supplements to help with inflammation.  I take the "brain supplement", Omega 3.  I take supplements to boost my immune system.  I need high-dose iron because my ferritin gets too low without it.  I feel like a walking pharmacy!  Supplements are without a doubt the most expensive part of my Lyme disease treatment.....even more than the antibiotics and LLMD appointments!  Crazy!

Some supplements I purchase at the drug store, but not too many.  Most doctors recommend pharmaceutical grade supplements.  What does that mean?  I'm no expert, but my understanding is that supplements vary in their quality.  Cheaper versions may have more fillers and less of the actual "ingredient". I do buy my vitamin C (Ester-C) and iron at Costco because the price is really good.  For the others, I go to the health food store.  Then, there are some supplements that I purchase online through LLMD Dr. Marty Ross' website at www.treatlyme.org.

Dr. Ross has a great online store and he explains exactly how he uses all of the supplements in his videos which are on the website.  He discounts the products as much as he can according to the agreement with the supplier which he must adhere to.  I have found the online store to be reliable, except for one time when it took a whole month for my product to arrive.  I only paid for regular shipping, not expedited shipping. Usually that's not a problem, and the item arrives in about 2-3 weeks.  This particular time, it took so long I thought that the package had gotten lost.  I traced the package and learned that items shipped from the online store go from his office in Seattle WA, to Los Angeles for sorting, then back up to Ontario, Canada where I'm from.  That's one long trip!  I think in the future, I will pay for the faster shipping method.

I found out last week that naturopath Dr. Angela Lee from Richmond Hill, Ontario has created a Canadian online store of her own.  The number of products she offers is not as extensive as Dr. Ross' site, but if you can find what you need there, it would be more convenient and faster.  The online store is at this address:  http://lymeessentialscanada.ca/pages/about-us.

Before I sign off, I just wanted to give a thumbs up to a great iron supplement.  I've been using this product for 3 years now, and I must say that it performs exactly like it claims, for me anyway.  No stomach upset, no constipation.  No adverse side-effects at all.  It is called FeraMax and is available at your local pharmacy.  I buy mine in a bottle of 100 at Costco as it's much cheaper that way.  Please note:  I have no affiliation with this company at all.  I just wanted to share with you a great product that has worked for me.  If you have reduced iron stores, do check with your physician first before taking this product.  Also, consult your pharmacist to be sure that there are no drug interactions (which is often the case with iron).