Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Chronic Lyme Disease in Concord, CA

Chronic Lyme disease — also referred to as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) — occurs when symptoms of fatigue, pain, cognitive impairment, and neurological dysfunction persist for six months or more after completion of recommended antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease. It is estimated that 10 to 20% of people treated for Lyme disease will develop PTLDS, affecting tens of thousands of patients in the United States annually.

Northern California presents a significant risk environment for Lyme disease. The western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus), the primary vector of Borrelia burgdorferi on the West Coast, is endemic throughout the Bay Area hills, Marin County, the East Bay Regional Parks, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and many other areas where residents hike, camp, and recreate. Many Bay Area cases are complicated by tick-borne co-infections, particularly Bartonella henselae (cat scratch fever) and Babesia microti, which often go unrecognized and untreated alongside Lyme.

The mechanisms behind PTLDS remain an area of active research and some controversy, but leading hypotheses include persistent low-level bacterial infection or biofilm-protected bacterial reservoirs, autoimmune mechanisms triggered by the initial infection, and ongoing neurological inflammation from the initial Lyme-related immune response. Effective management requires addressing all of these factors, which is why HBOT as an adjunctive therapy has generated significant interest in the Lyme disease treatment community.

HBOT addresses chronic Lyme disease through several distinct and complementary mechanisms, many of which conventional antibiotics alone cannot replicate.

First, elevated tissue oxygen tension is directly bactericidal to Borrelia burgdorferi and its common co-infections — Bartonella henselae and Babesia microti, both of which thrive in low-oxygen, microaerophilic environments. Second, HBOT disrupts bacterial biofilms: protective protein matrices that Borrelia and other tick-borne organisms construct around themselves to evade antibiotics and immune surveillance. Breaking down biofilm exposes the bacteria to both the immune system and concurrent antibiotic therapy, significantly improving bacterial clearance.

Third, HBOT reduces the neuroinflammation that drives many of the most debilitating chronic Lyme symptoms — brain fog, mood dysregulation, neuropathic pain, and fatigue. By improving cerebral blood flow and suppressing inflammatory cytokine production, HBOT creates conditions for neurological recovery that persist beyond the treatment period. Fourth, chronic Lyme frequently causes mitochondrial dysfunction in the cells of affected tissues; HBOT directly stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis and ATP production, partially reversing the energy deficit that makes chronic fatigue so treatment-resistant. HBOT protocols for chronic Lyme typically involve 40 or more sessions and are coordinated with your infectious disease physician or Lyme-literate specialist.