Dr. Isabel Sharkar, NMD, is co-founder of Indigo Integrative Health Clinic in Washington, D.C., a thriving clinic that has been serving the local community in health restoration and body optimization for over a decade. Being in constant pursuit for truth and healing Dr. Isabel graduated in 2011 from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine as a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine.
Many women with Lyme disease don’t identify as “chronically ill.”
They are capable, high-functioning, and outwardly successful yet quietly managing fatigue, inflammation, cognitive strain, or a sense that their body never fully recovered after an infection.
This disconnect is common and deeply frustrating.
Despite completing a prescribed course of antibiotic treatment and doing “all the right things,” many continue to experience persistent symptoms. For some, this pattern is labeled post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) or chronic Lyme disease, terms that reflect ongoing symptom burden rather than an active infectious disease.
In women who push through symptoms for years, Lyme symptoms can present on a spectrum, whether completely taking down a high-performing woman or showing up more subtly:
These are not failures of resilience.
They are signals of a system that adapted under prolonged strain, often while continuing to perform at a high level.
The symptoms of Lyme disease in this population are frequently misattributed to stress, aging, or chronic fatigue syndrome, delaying accurate diagnosis and appropriate care.
When symptoms persist after treatment, Lyme is often no longer the primary driver. Instead, it becomes part of a larger physiological pattern involving:
In some cases, remnants of the original bacterial infection or immune reactivity to Borrelia bacteria and co-infections may still influence symptoms. But for many patients, persistent symptoms are sustained by the body’s regulatory systems rather than ongoing infection.
This is why repeated antibiotic treatment or escalating medicine protocols often fail to resolve chronic Lyme symptoms.
Without addressing immune balance, detoxification capacity, and nervous system regulation, patients remain stuck in cycles of partial improvement.
At Indigo Health, we do not ask,
“How do we eradicate Lyme?”
We ask:
This allows us to treat Lyme as one contributor, not the defining feature of the patient.
Rather than focusing solely on bacteria, antibiotics, or repeated treatment for Lyme disease, we look at the entire physiological ecosystem sustaining persistent symptoms.
This approach integrates diagnostics, immune function, nervous system state, metabolic health, environmental exposures, and cognitive load.
Many high-achieving women with Lyme remain in a state of physiological overdrive long after the infection has been addressed.
Without stabilizing the nervous system:
Healing accelerates when safety, regulation, and recovery capacity are restored, not when more pressure is applied through aggressive interventions.
This is particularly relevant in patients labeled with PTLDS or chronic Lyme disease, where nervous system dysregulation often sustains symptom patterns long after antibiotic treatment has ended.
For many of our patients, progress begins when treatment shifts from aggressive to intentional.
From: Doing more
To: Doing what matters, in the right sequence
This is where long-term resolution becomes possible.
Rather than chasing symptoms with repeated antibiotics or escalating medicine protocols, we focus on restoring regulation, immune balance, and recovery capacity, allowing the body to recover intelligently rather than defensively.
This is not about ignoring infection.
It is about treating the illness at the systems level that sustains persistent symptoms.
Persistent Lyme symptoms are not a personal failure, a lack of resilience, or evidence that your body is broken.
In high-performing women, they are more often signals of a system that adapted under prolonged strain and never fully recalibrated.
When symptoms linger months or years after conventional treatment, Lyme is rarely acting alone. Co-infections, immune dysregulation, nervous system hypervigilance, inflammatory load, environmental stressors, and hormonal shifts often sustain chronic Lyme symptoms long after the original infection itself is no longer the primary driver.
This is why long-term resolution comes from restoring regulation, rebuilding resilience, and addressing the broader physiological ecosystem that allowed symptoms to persist.
At Indigo, we treat Lyme as one contributor, not the defining feature of the patient.
Because healing accelerates when the system feels safe, supported, and intelligently guided — not when more pressure is applied.
If you’re still managing fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, body aches, or reduced resilience months after conventional Lyme treatment, the next step isn’t doing more.
It’s identifying what’s sustaining the pattern.
At Indigo, we take a systems-based, precision approach to uncover what may be preventing full regulation and recovery, from immune and nervous system dynamics to hormonal, metabolic, and environmental load.
Book a free Discovery Call today to explore whether a more thoughtful, individualized strategy could help restore stability, energy, cognitive clarity, and long-term well-being.
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