Treating Lyme Disease with Sage

Lyme disease is an extremely common infectious disease with an almost worldwide distribution. The pathogen was first identified in 1981 by the American bacteriologist Willy Burgdorfer and described in his honor as Borrelia burgdorferi. It is now known that Lyme disease can also be caused by other borrelia and a few other types of bacteria.

In addition, it is now known that more than 1 billion people worldwide suffer or have suffered from Lyme disease. It is assumed that a good half of all patients with rheumatic diseases suffer from Lyme disease. There is currently no effective treatment on the market. The treatment of choice for diagnosed Lyme disease is the administration of antibiotics with all their known side effects and interactions, including the development of tumors. Due to the fact that borrelia are extremely adaptable, we need to move away from conventional therapies (antibiotics, vaccines, chemotherapy) and find new treatment options.

In our research with plant-based active substances with regard to their usability as new, less toxic antibiotics to which resistance cannot or can hardly be developed, we found active substances in some sage species that can selectively kill Borrelia and Yersinia. In microbiological test series, we were able to prove that specifically the non-human pathogenic bacteria can be killed.