How Do You Tell If You Have Lyme Disease

Stage : Late Disseminated Lyme Disease

Late disseminated Lyme disease occurs when the infection hasnt been treated in stages 1 and 2. Stage 3 can occur months or years after the tick bite.

This stage is characterized by:

• arthritis of one or more large joints
• brain disorders, such as encephalopathy, which can cause short-term memory loss, difficulty concentrating, mental fogginess, problems with following conversations and sleep disturbance
• numbness in the arms, legs, hands, or feet

Is There A Cure Or A Drug Prescribed For People Who Have Not Had Lyme Disease But Are Suffering From The Lymerix Vaccination

The issue of adverse events from the LYMErix vaccine has been under active investigation. If you are suffering from neuropathic pains or arthritic problems after the vaccine, you might consider contacting the Lyme Disease Association for a referral to a physician with a particular clinical and research interest in this question.

Lyme Prevention Is Possible

There is no Lyme disease vaccine, but there are methods of prevention. Wearing long sleeves and pants when hiking, camping, or working will offer personal tick protection. Wearing clothes treated with permethrin can also help keep ticks away.

At home Lyme prevention is available through reputable tick control companies. Professional Central Mass tick control companies will offer a choice between repellents and insecticides. Repellents will keep ticks away from your yard. EPA-registered pesticides will eliminate ticks. Repellents and insecticides are available in time-released formulas. Time released tick control will give you about two or three weeks of protection at home.

Dont forget to protect your home year-round. Tick tubes offer extended tick control through the fall and winter. Employing this kind of tick control will result in less ticks on your property in the springtime.

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How To Test For Lyme Disease

Wondering how to get tested for Lyme disease? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests a two-step testing process to check for a Lyme disease infection, both of which involve antibody testing , typically done on the same blood sample.

If the first step in the process returns a negative test result, then the second step is not necessary. However, if the first step yields a positive result, the second test is recommended as confirmation of a Lyme disease diagnosis. The Everlywell Lyme Disease Test follows this recommended protocol from the CDC, so it includes the two-step testing process.

How Is Lyme Disease Treated

Your healthcare provider will figure out the best treatment for you based on:

• How old you are

Lyme disease in the earliest stage is usually treated with antibiotics for 2 to 3 weeks.

Treatment will also be considered based on these and other factors:

• If you are bitten by a tick that tests positive for the bacteria that causes Lyme disease

• If you are bitten by a tick and have any of the symptoms

• If you are bitten by a tick and are pregnant

• If you are bitten by a tick and live in a high-risk area

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I Am Wondering If Columbia University Uses Xenodiagnosis For Detection Of Infectious Diseases

This is an interesting question. Xenodiagnosis in this case refers to allowing an uninfected tick to feed on an individual with suspected infection to see whether the tick is able to suck up spirochetes when the spirochetes might not have been detectable otherwise. As strange as this concept appears, it has been used successfully recently by Dr. Steven Barthold at UC Davis. After being unable to identify persistent infection in a treated infected mouse using the standard PCR and culture techniques, he was then able to identify the spirochetes in these mice after treatment using the xenodiagnosis method. We at Columbia are not using this method on humans. This is a very intriguing scientific question that should be studied in humans.

The Centers for Disease Control publishes national statistics and identifies those counties with the highest rates of Lyme disease in the United States. The web sites of many state health departments provide data on Lyme disease by town of residence.

Support groups can be found by calling the Lyme clinics or Lyme disease organizations in your state. You might also call a national organization, such as the Lyme Disease Association for the names of support groups in your area.

Welcome To The School Of Lyme 6 Tips For Those Newly Diagnosed With Lyme Disease

Every day, I receive emails from people who have recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease. As most of us do when we hear a new medical term or leave a doctors office, these people frantically search the web looking for information. Sometimes they come across one of my blog posts. Then they write with questions about treatment, with requests for finding a good doctor and with prayers that I will be able to offer them some hope. Most of all, they want to know: What do I do to get better?

Because I find myself offering the same responses to many such patients, I thought I would create a School of Lyme For the Newly Diagnosed. Consider this a brief survey course on tick-borne illness, open to anyone who wants to learn the basics of what to do when you get a Lyme diagnosis.

Lesson 1: Its Lyme, not Lymes!

Its important to know the correct name of your disease! Many people mistakenly call it Lymes disease, assuming it was discovered by a Dr. Lyme. In fact, Lyme is named for the town in which it was first detected: Lyme, Connecticut. As for the names of co-infections, those are not as simple, but should still be part of your working vocabulary well get to those in Lesson 5.

Lesson 2: All cases are different

Lesson 3: Find an LLMD

Lesson 4: Get tested for co-infections

Lesson 5: Take probiotics

Lesson 6: Dont panic

Opinions expressed by contributors are their own.

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Can Autism Be Misdiagnosed As Lyme Disease What Research Is There To Prove This Can A Child With Autism Be Successfully Treated For Lyme Disease

It would be extremely unusual to misdiagnose a child with autism as having Lyme disease. Lyme disease typically gets diagnosed when a child has joint and muscle pains, along with fatigue, positive blood tests, and central or peripheral nervous system involvement. Certainly a child with autism may also get Lyme disease and thus have two disorders. In that situation, treatment of Lyme disease should result in a resolution of the Lyme disease but it would not likely result in a change in the autism symptoms. The question of interest to us is whether there are cases of “regressive autism” that occur in older pre-school age children for example that has been induced by a central nervous system infection, such as with Borrelia burgdorferi. In such a situation, treatment with antibiotics may well result in an improvement in the developmental regression. This area however has not been adequately studied.

How Do You Know If You Have Lyme Disease

The first thing many practitioners recommend a blood test for Lyme disease is controversial. Thats because blood tests for Lyme disease dont actually look for the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. Instead, they look for antibodies to the bacteria. There are problems with this:

• If youre tested right away, you may not yet have developed enough antibodies for the test to detect.
• Many people who had a Lyme infection in the past carry antibodies for years afterward. Yet they have no active infection.

You need to be cautious because there are a lot of false negatives happen through this standard testing. If you’re told that you don’t have Lyme disease but intuitively you feel that it’s an issue for you and you’re having symptoms that are unexplained — maybe you’re having neurological issues or memory issues, or you’re having lots of unexplained joint pain and fatigue — you really need to seek a naturopathic physician who works with a lab that provides more specific testing that looks at the cofactors and other ways of evaluating if Lyme actually is an issue for you.

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Plus additional BONUS training videos on treating tough cases of brain fog and cognitive impairment!!

In this blog, you will learn:

• What the signs and symptoms of Lyme Disease are
• How Lyme Disease is diagnosed
• Why it is important to get a correct diagnosis so that treatment can be targeted and effective

Do your clients suffer from fatigue, headaches or muscle or joint pain? Do they have Lyme Disease and do you know how to treat it? Then this blog on Lyme Disease is for you. Please read on for the details!

Do you get stuck clinically with symptoms of Lyme with your patients? Would you like to have a larger impact on improving pain or fatigue issues? The key to the treatment of many diseases may just be an individual approach using nutrition, lifestyle and exercise. If you want to improve your patients quality of life, you need a customized approach to address each patients root causes. Our functional medicine course will teach you how to do this. Look into our functional medicine school : we will educate you to have a greater impact on improving your clients lives.

** Please note: If you want the short summary version of this article, then please click here **

What is Lyme Disease ?

Lyme Disease is a bacterial infection, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. Borrelia is a bacterium that is transmitted by an infected black-legged tick. It is most commonly spread by a tick bite. The disease is named after Lyme, Connecticut, where it was first identified in 1975 in the US.

When Is The Lyme Disease Blood Test Ordered

When someone has the signs and symptoms of Lyme disease or they live in a region that has deer ticks or black-legged ticks, then this blood test will be ordered. It will also be ordered when these symptoms occur without improvement over the course of 7-14 days by most medical providers.

• A bulls-eye rash that grows from the bite site.
• Fevers, chills, and a persistent headache that does not go away.
• Unusual and persistent fatigue that does not immediately improve.

The IgM and IgG tests are generally ordered first when Lyme disease is suspected. This is because people who have never been exposed to the bacteria that causes the disease will not have any antibodies present. If these tests are positive and followed up by a positive Western Blot test, then the chances are very good that Lyme disease is present. This is especially true if antibody levels continue to rise over time.

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Are There Any Diseases That Can Be Misdiagnosed As Lyme Disease

Lots of diseases could be misdiagnosed as Lyme disease. This of course makes sense when you know that Lyme disease itself may manifest as a multisystemic disorder that can mimic other diseases. This means that just as the Lyme disease might be “missed” in some cases, some individuals may be misdiagnosed as having Lyme disease when in fact they have another disease. Erring on either side of this diagnostic divide can be dangerous. Given that the main symptoms that afflict patients with Lyme disease are fatigue and pain and given that these are non-specific symptoms seen in a wide ranges of diseases, including cancer, hematologic, and endocrine disorders, one has to make sure to rule out other reasonable causes of fatigue and pain before making the diagnosis of Lyme disease. It is also important to realize that a patient can have two independent diseases – Lyme disease and another emergent condition. For example, concurrent depression,sleep apnea or hypothyroidism may exacerbate fatigue in a patient with actual Lyme disease.

I Was Wondering If Lyme Disease Affects Vision

Lyme disease can affect eye sight in a number of ways. If the extraocular muscles are involved as in a cranial nerve palsy, then the muscle weakness may result in double vision. Patients may report that their visual acuity appears to be less or that they have lost color vision or can’t see the full visual field. If there is central involvement of the visual pathways, then some patients may experience a marked sensory hyperacusis such as prominent painful light sensitivity or rarely visual trails. In very rare cases, an unattenuated increase of intracranial pressure from neurologic Lyme disease may result in blindness. Of course, any visual problems should be checked by an ophthalmologist or a neuro-ophthalmologist who can then perform a thorough differential diagnosis to rule out other conditions.

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Can Lyme Disease Be Sexually Transmitted

First of all, if you have been treated for Lyme disease, even if your Western blot is positive, it is very unlikely that there are any spirochetes still circulating in your bodily fluids. Second, there is no good documentation that Lyme disease can be contracted by sexual contact. Given the number of cases of Lyme disease that have been diagnosed over the last 20 years and the fact that there are have been instances where people with active infection are having sexual intercourse but have not yet been treated, one would expect there to be many well documented cases of suspect partner to partner transmission this is not the case. Therefore, for all these reasons, it is highly unlikely that a person could acquire Lyme disease through unprotected intercourse or other sexual contact.

Chronic Lyme: The Disease That Doesnt Exist

Until recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flatly dismissed the idea of chronic Lyme disease. Despite many patients reporting debilitating long-term symptoms after being treated for Lyme disease.

Fortunately, recent studies have verified the existence of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome. In fact, the CDC now includes information about it on their website.

But many practitioners havent gotten the word that there really is a chronic condition related to Lyme infection. Patients with ongoing symptoms of fatigue, joint pain or fuzzy thinking may find themselves facing a skeptical healthcare provider who doesnt recognize the symptoms relationship to Lyme disease.

We still dont know a lot about Lyme disease or why post-treatment Lyme syndrome occurs. And there is no consensus at all about how to treat it. Retreatment with IV antibiotics isnt particularly effective and may be harmful.

This leaves many people with chronic symptoms related to Lyme disease in a difficult place. Theres no question that theyre suffering from debilitating symptoms. And they deserve a practitioner who takes their concerns seriously. So do you! If your doctor isnt open to your questions, I encourage you to find someone who is.

References:

Aucott JN. Posttreatment Lyme disease syndrome. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2015 Jun 29:309-23. doi: 10.1016/j.idc.2015.02.012.

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How Can I Prevent My Dog From Getting Lyme Disease Or Other Tick

Recommendations on preventing ticks include these from AKCs Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Jerry Klein:

• Inspect your dogs and yourself daily for ticks after walks through the woods or grassy settings. On dogs, look especially on the feet , on lips, around eyes, ears , near the anus, and under the tail.

• Remove ticks stat. The quicker you find them the less likely your dog will contract a secondary illness related to tick bites. Learn the proper method of tick removal. Invest in a pair of fine tweezers used for this purpose. If you are unable to do so, consult with a veterinarian.

• Ask your veterinarian to conduct a tick check at each exam. Theyll be able to find any you may have missed.

• Prevent ticks from jumping on your dog with one of the many veterinary-approved flea and tick preparations available on the market. Speak to your veterinarian to find the best and most appropriate product for your dog.

• Keep grass mowed as short as possible. Refrain from walking into grassy patches in endemic tick areas if you can.
• Get your dog vaccinated. Vaccination could prevent your dog from getting Lyme disease. They may not be appropriate for some dogs, so discuss with your vet.

What To Do When You Get Bit By A Tick

If you get bit by a tick and you have the tick in your possession, get it tested at your local testing facility. The facility will likely test it for Borrelia burgdorferi. We also recommend you get tested as well, even if you are not experiencing symptoms or you did not get a bullseye rash. Nearly half of the people who contract Lyme disease dont even show signs of a bullseye rash.

If you think you may have Lyme disease and you have been dealing with symptoms for months or even years, you are likely disillusioned with your health journey and you need some well-deserved answers. You dont have to accept your symptoms as a life sentence as even the most complex cases can be helped. We have a strong track record of helping our clients get to the root cause of their symptoms so they can get on a lasting road to recovery. If you have questions or you just want to talk to someone about your health journey, we are here for you. Go here to book a 30-minute complimentary call with one of our trained health advisers. Be well!

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How To Avoid Tick Bites

To reduce the chance of being bitten:

• cover your skin while walking outdoors and tuck your trousers into your socks
• use insect repellent on your clothes and skin products containing DEET are best
• stay on clear paths whenever possible
• wear light-coloured clothing so ticks are easier to see and brush off