Lyme Disease Misdiagnosed As Multiple Sclerosis
The following articles compiled by LymeInfo provide information about Lyme disease being misdiagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis. The differential diagnosis can be tricky, as Lyme tests can be falsely negative. Disseminated Lyme disease is also very complicated to treat. Therefore, it is important for those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis to be thoroughly evaluated by a physician skilled at diagnosing Lyme disease. After reviewing the below articles, please browse around the Lyme Info website to learn more about Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. Be sure to visit our Lyme Disease Diagnosis & Treatmentpage. The list below is merely an introduction and does not cover all articles on this topic.
What Are Lyme Disease And Multiple Sclerosis
Lyme disease was named after Lyme, Connecticut, where the illness was first identified. Lyme disease is caused by the spirochete bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme is a seasonal tick-borne infection it is contracted from the bite of a deer tick carrying the bacteria.
In about 15 percent of cases, B. burgdorferi affects the central nervous system, which is what causes neurologic Lyme disease. NLD is the form of the Lyme disease that may be confused with MS, as it causes neurologic symptoms that can resemble the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Unlike multiple sclerosis, however, Lyme disease can often be treated with antibiotics if caught early on.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune response targets the CNS, including the brain and spinal cord. In people with MS, the bodys defenders attack the central nervous system, causing inflammation and stripping nerves of their protective coating, called myelin. Over time, this damage called demyelination can cause people with MS to experience a variety of symptoms that affect physical movement, eyesight, and cognitive functioning.
Is There Any Relationship Between Sleep Apnea And Lyme Disease
We do not know of any evidence that Lyme disease causes sleep apnea, although sleep apnea has been associated with other encephalitic disorders. Sleep apnea may look like Lyme disease. For example, patients with sleep apnea may be difficult to arouse when asleep, will have excessive daytime sleepiness, and may complain of insomnia. They may have morning headaches, inattentiveness, and a decline in school or work performance. Hypertension may also occur. One can have sleep apnea without being obese. The problem can occur in children as well as adults. The diagnosis is made at a sleep lab after special tests of respiratory function and all-night polygraphic sleep monitoring. Patients with central sleep apnea may have lesions in the medulla with ninth and 10th cranial nerve palsies with trouble swallowing or speaking. Patients with obstructive sleep apnea tend to be overweight and to have large tonsils. These patients may snore and then have 10-30 second periods at night when breathing appears to stop. Patients will then take a deep snorting breath and then return to sleep, unaware of what just happened. Treatment is determined by the severity of the symptoms and the type. In central apnea, medroxyprogesterone and protriptyline can be helpful. Weight loss and surgical correction are the treatments for the obstructive type. Patients may experience enormous relief after the surgery. Symptoms previously incorrectly attributed to Lyme disease may now resolve completely.
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Multiple Sclerosis Is Lyme Disease: Anatomy Of A Cover
Perhaps the biggest ongoing medical scandal of the past hundred years is the fact that it has been known since 1911 that Multiple Sclerosis is a neurospirochetosis caused in 25% of cases by Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. and 75% by Treponema denticola , and that the Big-Pharma-controlled medical-industrial complex covered this up in order to make money selling symptom relievers to MS patients. At the lower levels there is no cover-up at all, but simply human nature at work, as we wrote about here, to dispel the notion that we are “conspiracy theorists”. Since 1911, overwhelmingly much medical research has been conducted where living Borrelia bacteria were found in the brains of people who were diagnosed with MS.
**** I spent more than 100 hours writing and researching this article. This article does not “need to be spread further”, esp. not by people who turned plagiarism into a business model. This article is here for everyone to easily find and read. Anyone can link to it. We always submit a DMCA takedown notice to hosting providers when this article get plagiarized. We regularly search for violations. The previous plagiarist lost their hosting. ****
Then why isn’t this common knowledge? Surely, those thousands of MS experts and MS researchers can’t be all wrong?
Let’s examine the reality on the ground.
1. Multiple Sclerosis Societies.
2. Big Pharma.
3. Patient advocacy groups.
4. MS “experts”.
For Chronic Cases Of Lyme Does Iv Igg Hold Hope For Remitting Symptoms And Improving The Quality Of Life
To our knowledge, IV Ig has never been studied in a controlled fashion as a treatment for chronic Lyme disease, although some physicians are using this treatment for patients who are thought to have autoimmune-mediated neurologic sequelae from Lyme disease that persist after antibiotic treatment. There is insufficient data at this point to say whether IVIg treatment will have acute or sustained benefit for patients with persistent symptoms after being treated with antibiotics for Lyme disease. This is an area of research which is worth pursuing. Certainly, given that there is evidence that IV Ig may be beneficial for a variety of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as relapsing and remitting multiple sclerosis , myasthenia gravis, pemphigus, polymyositis , dermatomyositis , Wegener’s granulomatosis , and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, it is reasonable to consider that this treatment may also be beneficial for patients with post-treatment Lyme disease if there is evidence of immunologic dysfunction. This treatment may be especially helpful if there is evidence of autoimmune-mediated neuropathic pain. IV Ig treatment is expensive and not without risks, so such treatment should only be initiated if the potential for benefits significantly outweigh the risks.
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Symptoms Of Lyme Disease
Lyme affects the nervous system in about 10 to 15 percent of cases.1,3 Symptoms of Lyme can develop within days of a tick bite they can also take months to appear. The majority of people with Lyme disease, between 60 and 80%, will develop a large, red rash, that looks like a bulls-eye target. Other early indicators include flu-like symptoms like fatigue, fever, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, and muscle and joint pain. As the condition progresses, people may experience numbness and tingling, and some people experience cognitive issues including short-term memory loss and speech disruption. When diagnosed early, Lyme disease, unlike MS, can be successfully treated with antibiotics.3
How Can Lyme Disease Be Prevented
If you enjoy the outdoors, do not stop enjoying it. But take steps to prevent Lyme disease:
- Avoid tick-infested areas when ticks are most active. Further information about ticks occur- ring in Mississippi can be found in Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Bulletin 1150 A Guide to Ticks of Mississippi.
- Wear light-colored clothes to make it easier to spot ticks, and wear long-sleeved shirts when possible. Tuck pant legs into socks or boots, and tuck shirts into pants. When ticks attach to their prey, they move upward, looking for places to attach. Tucking in pants and shirts forces them to remain on the outside of clothing, where you can find them easier. Wear closed-toed shoes.
- Apply insect repellents containing permethrin to pants, socks, and shoes but not to skin. You can apply repellents containing DEET or picaridin to skin, but wash them off after coming indoors.
- Walk in the middle of trails to avoid grasses and shrubs. Ticks wait on the tips of grasses and low shrubs for prey.
- After being outdoors, wash and dry your clothing on the hot setting.
- Thoroughly inspect your body, and remove any ticks. To remove a tick, use tweezers to grasp it by the head or mouthparts, and pull firmly. Do not squeeze the body or apply petroleum jelly, a hot match, or any other irritant.
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Does Lyme Disease Cause Peripheral Neuropathy
Yes, patients with Lyme disease may develop “peripheral neuropathy” a dysfunction of the nerves that transmit electrical signals between the body’s periphery and the spinal cord and brain. Common symptoms of Lyme-related neuropathy include multi-site “neuropathic pain” , spinal or radicular pain, distal paresthesias , sensory loss, weakness and hyporeflexia. . These symptoms are often caused by malfunctioning of small “A-delta fibers” and “C fibers” that carry pain and temperature signals. Pathology of the small nerve fibers can also disrupt autonomic functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and gastrointestinal functions. Involvement of the cranial nerves can lead to blurry vision, double vision, facial droop, loss of balance, or tinnitus .
The precise mechanisms by which these nerve fibers are damaged in Lyme disease remains a subject of active investigation. Some possibilities include: direct assault on the nerve fibers by spirochetes during periods of active infection immune-mediated damage to the nerve fibers or their protective myelin sheaths by the host’s own innate or adaptive immune system or production of antibodies with accumulation of immune-complexes that disrupt the small vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to the metabolically-active peripheral nerves.
What Criteria Do Doctors Use To Choose Different Antibiotics
Partly, doctors rely on what medicines have been shown in published studies to be effective for Lyme disease. For neurologic Lyme disease, the best tested antibiotic is IV ceftriaxone . For early Lyme disease, the best tested antibiotics include oral doxycycline, cefuroxime and amoxacillin. Physicians however often use other antibiotics well. For example, because one mouse study and several in vitro studies indicate that the agent of Lyme disease can penetrate and lodge inside cells, some doctors prefer to use medications that have good intracellular penetration ). Other factors that go into the decision include whether the patient is allergic to a particular family of antibiotics or whether the patient can tolerate oral medications intolerance might suggest the use of intramuscular penicillin whereas if a person is allergic to penicillins or cephalosporins a doctor would want to avoid long-acting intramuscular penicillin-family medicines.
To our knowledge, having had a Lyme disease infection that has been treated does not have a negative impact on the ability to become pregnant.
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Lyme Disease And Ms Are Often Confused
The symptoms of Lyme disease and MS can be similar. Doctors may confuse one with the other. To diagnose these conditions, your doctor will need to conduct blood and other tests. If your doctor suspects you have MS, you may need:
Its unlikely that you have both Lyme disease and MS, but its possible. Some of Lyme diseases symptoms can mimic those of MS. It can also follow a relapse-remittance course, where symptoms come and go.
If your history and medical results suggest either condition, your doctor may decide to try antibiotic therapy to see if theres an improvement in your symptoms. Once they fully determine your condition, youll begin a treatment and management plan.
If you have Lyme disease or MS, its important to seek medical advice right away. Despite the different outlooks for Lyme and MS, early diagnosis and treatment for either condition is imperative to your overall health.
Who Diagnoses Multiple Sclerosis
Many conditions could cause similar neurological symptoms. Getting an accurate diagnosis is sometimes difficult. Some people see multiple providers over years before receiving a diagnosis. While the search can be frustrating, its important to keep looking for answers. Identifying and treating MS as soon as possible can help slow the diseases progression.
If your primary care provider suspects you may have MS, you will need to see a neurologist. A neurologist is a doctor who specializes in treating conditions that affect the nervous system, which includes your brain and spinal cord.
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What Kind Of Doctor Tests For Lyme Disease
In fact, any kind of doctor can test you for Lyme disease. However, that doesnt mean its a good idea to have your dermatologist or podiatrist order the diagnostic tests. Many people simply see their family physician or primary care doctor to get diagnosed and treated for Lyme.
There are also doctors who specialize in Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, called Lyme-literate doctors, who you may want to consult instead more on that a little later in this article.
Finally, there are other types of specialists you may or may not need to consult with depending on the duration and severity of your symptoms.
For example, many patients wonder if they need to see an infectious disease specialist.
Ms Or Lyme Woman Questions Ns Treatment Options After Double Diagnosis
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOS
Madison Sagle couldnt get up off her bedroom floor.
Her legs buckled as she stepped out of bed. Pinned by some invisible force, she could barely move her left arm and leg. The entire left side of her body went numb.
I didnt know if I was having a stroke or if I was going to pass out, recalled Sagle.
For more than a month the Lawrencetown mother of two had been in and out of two different hospitals trying to find out what ailed her. Her debilitating neurological symptoms included bouts of vertigo that kept her bedridden for days at a time.
It would take another month of more hospital visits and a trip to a neurologist before she started to get to the root of her illness.
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What Percent Of Cases Of Reasonably Proven Lyme Disease Present Without Erythema Migrans
According to the Centers for Disease Control , erythema migrans occurs in 60-80% of Confirmed cases. Under careful monitoring of patients who develop new onset symptoms, about 20% have systemic symptoms without a rash or other objective sign of Lyme disease .
To be considered a confirmed case by CDC for epidemiologic surveillance in the absence of a rash, a person has to have laboratory evidence of infection and at least one late manifestation of Lyme disease. Late manifestations of Lyme disease considered diagnostic are: joint swelling, facial palsy or other specific signs of nervous system involvement, or specific cardiac conduction defects. The CDC also has criteria for a “probable case”, defined as physician-diagnosed Lyme disease that has laboratory evidence of infection. Suspected cases without an EM are those with laboratory evidence of infection but no clinical information available.
When To Seek A Doctor
If a doctor says you have multiple sclerosis, consider seeing a MS specialist, or neurologist, for a second opinion.
People should consider the diagnosis of MS if they have one or more of these symptoms:
- vision loss in one or both eyes
- acute paralysis in the legs or along one side of the body
- acute numbness and tingling in a limb
- imbalance
- double vision
Confirming the diagnosis is an important step for a disease that depends on a strong long-term relationship between a patient, family members and a medical team to monitor and manage the disease.
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‘yeah This Is Serious’
She said the neurologist sent her for standard pre-treatment bloodwork, which includes testing for other potential causes of her symptoms. Testing at Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre microbiology laboratory-confirmed she had Lyme.
Arriving at the diagnosis was an uphill battle.
It came after she was misdiagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo . Her symptoms persisted and a subsequent appointment with an ear, nose and throat specialist ruled out BPPV. She had CAT Scan that showed no abnormalities. She was put on a four-month waiting list for an MRI in New Glasgow because the wait list in Halifax was a year and a half.
Sagle’s break came in June when the ENT doctor followed up, letting her know there was a resident neurologist working at the Halifax Infirmary emergency department. She took his advice to go to the ER and see if she could be examined by the specialist in training.
Sagle ended up waiting 12 hours to see the resident neurologist who was also perplexed by her symptoms, she said. She pushed to get a second opinion from the senior neurologist on duty at the hospital that day. He also couldnt figure out what was wrong with her. Sagle also convinced the neurologist to expedite her MRI test to two weeks instead of four months.
Evidence For A Conspiracy Of Silence
Now I’ve given my opinion. You may find it harsh – I call it mild.
You don’t have to believe me, when I say there is a conspiracy. Believe Alzheimer and Parkinson’s disease expert Dr. Alan B. MacDonald M.D., Staff Pathologist at the St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center. He wrote:
Note how he claims that the majority of researchers deny the existence of spirochetal cystic forms. Denial is defined as knowing that something exists, but deliberately refusing to acknowledge it for ulterior motives. By putting “endowments” between question marks, he implies that Big Pharma bribes universities and publishers into censoring the very existence of spirochetal cysts from medical textbooks.
And if you think Dr. MacDonald is a lone loon, read the fascinating and terrible personal story and Lyme-vs-MS lecture by microbiologist and Borrelia expert Tom Grier. He says MS is merely a symptom of Lyme disease and not a disease onto itself. And he says the medical establishment is arrogant, ignorant and corrupt:
The painful truth is: There is no such thing as Multiple Sclerosis. It’s the name of a symptom. A symptom of a disease of “unknown” cause. But the real cause has been known for a hundred years: The spirochete Bb s.l., Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme neuroborreliosis, Lyme disease. MS doesn’t exist. MS is Lyme neuroborreliosis. MS is Lyme disease. It’s a bacterial infection you can get from a tick bite, amongst many other suspected infectious pathways.
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