How Soon Do You Need To Treat Lyme Disease

Treatment For Other Forms Of Lyme Disease

People with other forms of disseminated Lyme disease may require longer courses of antibiotics or intravenous treatment with antibiotics such as ceftriaxone. For more information about treating other forms of Lyme disease, see:

The National Institutes of Health has funded several studies on the treatment of Lyme disease that show most people recover within a few weeks of completing a course of oral antibiotics when treated soon after symptom onset. In a small percentage of cases, symptoms such as fatigue and myalgia can last for more than 6 months. This condition is known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome , although it is also sometimes called chronic Lyme disease. For details on research into chronic Lyme disease and long-term treatment trials sponsored by NIH, visit the visit the National Institutes of Health Lyme Disease web siteexternal icon.

What Can Patients With Chronic Neuropsychiatric Symptoms From Lyme Disease Do To Get Proper Treatment If We Are In A So Called Non

Chronic neuropsychiatric Lyme disease is a confusing entity to treat. That is why it is best to consult with someone who has had considerable experience evaluating these patients. That specialist may then be able to guide you and your doctor regarding the next phase of treatment. For example, while one patient may need additional antibiotics, another may need symptomatic therapies focused more on the residual symptoms. If one lives in an area in which Lyme disease is not common, it can be helpful to ask your doctor whether he or she would consider it useful for you to consult with a doctor from another state who might be more familiar with the latest treatment strategies. Most doctors would appreciate the recommendation of a colleague with more extensive expertise. It helps both the treating doctor and the patient. Your doctor may also wish to call a specialist in another state who has more experience often informal professional to professional consultation is quite helpful. We wish to add however that we have seen many patients who have avoided going to regular doctors or regular psychiatrists because of a fear of being misunderstood. This can be risky because it delays help which that particular doctor may be able to provide. One does not necessarily need to be an expert on neuropsychiatric Lyme disease to treat depression or irritability related to Lyme disease.

What Are The Symptoms Of Lyme Disease

Symptoms can start anywhere from 3 to 30 days after the bite. They may look different depending on the stage of your infection. In some cases, you wonât notice any symptoms until months after the bite.

Early symptoms include:

All of those symptoms are also common in the flu. In most Lyme infections, one of the first symptoms youâll notice is a rash.

Without treatment, symptoms can get worse. They might include:

• Severe headache or neck stiffness
• Rashes on other areas of your body
• Arthritis with joint pain and swelling, particularly in your knees
• âDroopingâ on one or both sides of your face
• Inflammation in your brain and spinal cord
• Shooting pains, numbness, or tingling in your hands or feet

What does the rash look like?

Some Lyme rashes look like a bull’s-eye with circles around the middle. But most are round, red, and at least 2 inches across.

The rash slowly gets bigger over several days. It can grow to about 12 inches across. It may feel warm to the touch, but itâs usually not itchy or painful. It can show up on any part of your body.

How small are ticks?

Ticks come in three sizes, depending on their life stage. They can be the size of a grain of sand, a poppy seed, or an apple seed.

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Stage : Early Disseminated Lyme Disease

Early disseminated Lyme disease occurs several weeks to months after the tick bite.

Youll have a general feeling of being unwell, and a rash may appear in areas other than the tick bite.

This stage of the disease is primarily characterized by evidence of systemic infection, which means infection has spread throughout the body, including to other organs.

Symptoms can include:

• disturbances in heart rhythm, which can be caused by Lyme carditis
• neurologic conditions, such as numbness, tingling, facial and cranial nerve palsies, and meningitis

The symptoms of stages 1 and 2 can overlap.

At What Point Do I Stop Antibiotics For The Psychological Symptoms Of Lyme Disease And Conclude That These Symptoms Will Not Go Away

The cause of the psychological symptoms in Lyme disease is unclear. It is clear that patients with acute Lyme disease who develop new onset depressive symptoms or irritability or cognitive disturbances often show a remarkable improvement when given antibiotic therapy. If the psychological symptoms persist or if the initial symptoms are severe, it is very important to consult with a psychiatrist to evaluate how best to treat these symptoms apart from the antibiotic therapy. When symptoms continue even after a repeated course of antibiotic therapy, this could be due to the fact that an activated immune system results in a change in neurotransmitter functioning. As a result, the altered neurotransmitter function may contribute to ongoing depressive symptoms, even after the immune system is no longer activated. Treatment of the psychiatric symptoms at that point would require anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medications or psychotherapy.

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How Is Lyme Disease Diagnosed

It can be difficult to diagnose Lyme disease. The ticks that carry it are very small and the bites dont hurt. Many patients dont remember being bitten. In addition, most of the symptoms are common with other illnesses.

If you find a tick in your skin, use tweezers to remove it immediately. Then wait a few days to see if you develop any symptoms. If you do, call your family doctor. Your doctor will ask you about your symptoms. He or she will look at the bite and check for a rash. They may order a blood test. But those arent always necessary to make the diagnosis. They can often give false results, especially in early-stage Lyme disease.

People who have joint swelling or nervous system problems may need to have special tests. Your doctor may need to take some fluid from the swollen joint or the spine to check for clues to your condition.

If you have been sick for 4 weeks or more, call your doctor. He or she can give you a blood test at this stage. It will tell you if you have Lyme disease.

Early Disseminated Lyme Disease

• Prevention

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection thats caused by a bite from a blacklegged tick.

Early disseminated Lyme disease is the phase of Lyme disease in which the bacteria that cause this condition have spread throughout the body. This stage can occur days, weeks, or even months after an infected tick bites you.

There are three stages of Lyme disease. Early disseminated Lyme disease is the second stage.

• Stage 1: Early localized Lyme disease. This occurs within several days of a tick bite. Symptoms may include redness at the site of the tick bite along with fever, chills, muscle aches, and skin irritation.
• Stage 2: Early disseminated Lyme disease. This occurs within weeks of a tick bite. The untreated infection begins spreading to other parts of the body, producing a variety of new symptoms.
• Stage 3: Late disseminated Lyme disease. This occurs months to years after an initial tick bite, when bacteria have spread to the rest of the body. During this stage, many people experience cycles of arthritis and joint pain along with neurological symptoms such as shooting pain, numbness in the extremities, and problems with short-term memory.

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Can Lyme Disease Be Prevented Or Avoided

The best way to prevent Lyme disease is to avoid being bitten by ticks. When you are outdoors, follow these guidelines:

• Avoid areas that are wooded, brushy, or have tall grass.
• Walk in the center of trails.
• Use an insect repellent with at least 20% DEET. It can be put on clothing or sparingly on the skin. Dont apply it to the face or hands of children.
• Treat clothing, tents, or other gear with repellents containing 0.5% permethrin.
• Wear light-colored clothing. This makes it easier to see and remove ticks from your clothes.
• Wear a long-sleeved shirt and long pants. Tuck your pant legs into your socks or boots for added protection.

After you get home, check everything and everyone for ticks.

• Bathe or shower as soon as you can to wash off any ticks that have not attached to you.
• Check your entire body for ticks. Use a mirror for places you cant see. Check your children and your pets. Common tick locations include the back of the knees, groin area, underarms, ears, scalp, and the back of the neck.
• Check any gear you used, including coats, backpacks, or tents.

Tumble dry clothes or blankets on high heat in the dryer for 10 to 15 minutes. This should kill any ticks. If clothes are dirty, wash them in hot water and dry on high heat for 60 minutes.

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.

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What Is The Significance Of Band 41 On The Igm And Igg Western Blot It Is Not Lyme Specific And The Cdc Requires More Bands To Be Present Before A Diagnosis However It Is A Band For Bacteria So What Else Could Cause That To Be Positive If Not Lyme

The 41 kd band is often found on the Western blot. We did a study where we looked at the banding patterns of patients with chronic Lyme disease and healthy controls from the inner city of NY who have never had Lyme disease. We found that a large percentage of the healthy controls tested positive on the 41kd band. For that reason, we don’t feel the 41kd band has much clinical signfiicance in guiding us as to whether a person has been exposed to the agent of Lyme disease. One reason a positive 41 kd band might emerge is that our mouths contain non-pathogenic spirochetes it is conceivable that some may seed the blood stream periodically and lead to the positive 41kd immune responses.

What Are The Risk Factors For Post Treatment Lyme Disease

Risk factors for Post Treatment Lyme Disease include:

• Delay in diagnosis
• Increased severity of initial illness
• Presence of neurologic symptoms

Increased severity of initial illness, the presence of neurologic symptoms, and initial misdiagnosis increase the risk of Post Treatment Lyme Disease. PTLD is especially common in people that have had neurologic involvement. The rates of Post Treatment Lyme Disease after neurologic involvement may be as high as 20% or even higher. Other risk factors being investigated are genetic predispositions and immunologic variables.

In addition to Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, there are several other tick-borne co-infections that may also contribute to more prolonged and complicated illness.

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What Should I Do If I Am Bitten By A Tick

If you experience a tick bite, the best way to remove it is by taking the following steps:

• Tug gently but firmly with blunt tweezers near the “head” of the tick at the level of your skin until it releases its hold on the skin.
• Avoid crushing the tick’s body or handling the tick with bare fingers as you could exposure yourself to the bacteria in the tick.
• Wash the bite area thoroughly with soap and water.
• DO NOT use kerosene, petroleum jelly , or hot cigarette butts to remove the tick.
• DO NOT squeeze the tick’s body with your fingers or tweezers.

What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease can affect different body systems, such as the nervous system, joints, skin, and heart. The symptoms of Lyme disease are often described as happening in three stages. Not everyone with Lyme has all of these, though:

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What Should I Expect After My First Treatment

As with any treatment, results will vary for each person, based on many factors, like the following:

• Status of your Lyme disease, acute versus chronic.
• Existence of coinfections that sometimes accompany Lyme disease.
• Underlying medical conditions.
• Overall well-being.

Many people receiving modern Lyme Disease Mexico treatments report positive results. For example, at Lyme Mexico, patients report elimination of symptoms after the first session. While the elimination of symptoms cant be guaranteed, it is likely that, at a minimum, you will see some relief of symptoms.

Alternative And Holistic Treatments

Alternative Lyme disease treatments are popular with many Lyme patients, especially those with late-stage or chronic Lyme. These alternative regimens are often given in conjunction with antibiotics occasionally they are used as primary treatment. Lymedisease.org has reported on the most popular alternative treatments with useful data about their effectiveness and side effects. Below are some of the highlights.

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History And Physical Examination

The clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease can be straightforward in patients with a history of tick exposure and the characteristic finding of an erythema migrans rash.12 The CDC has defined erythema migrans rash as an expanding red macule or papule that must reach at least 5 cm in size .11 According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines, erythema migrans rash is the only clinical manifestation sufficient to make the diagnosis of Lyme disease in the absence of laboratory confirmation.20 Although one study concluded that primary care physicians in a Lyme diseaseendemic area of France correctly identified erythema migrans in 72 percent of patients,22 the study was limited by lack of complete clinical information for the participants.

A number of conditions resemble erythema migrans however, the rapid and prolonged expansion of an erythematous lesion is unique to erythema migrans.11 Lesions most often occur at anatomic sites that are unusual for cellulitis and other conditions that mimic erythema migrans therefore, a complete skin examination should be performed before excluding erythema migrans.20

How To Prevent Lyme Disease From Progressing

Learn the symptoms of early Lyme disease so that you can seek treatment promptly if you contract the infection. If you get timely treatment, you can avoid the potential complications of early disseminated Lyme disease and later stages.

The symptoms of early Lyme disease can occur between 3 and 30 days after an infected tick bites you. Look for:

• rash, such as:
• a red, expanding bulls-eye rash at the site of the tick bite
• a round or oval rash that can be as wide as 6 to 8 inches

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How Do You Treat Lyme Disease

Every doctors first response to how Lyme disease is treated will focus on the use of antibiotics. When diagnosed early, antibiotics can eliminate Lyme disease in some people. Unfortunately, a large group of people is not given relief after a round or two of antibiotics. Their Lyme disease progresses from acute to chronic, and the symptoms make it hard to complete daily responsibilities.

A Lyme disease doctor will have multiple advanced treatments, with and without antibiotics, available in their office or clinic. Advanced treatments include intravenous antibiotic therapy, therapeutic apheresis for blood and plasma, biofilm eradication, hyperthermia, IV vitamin infusions, antioxidant protocols, oxidative stress reduction protocols, supplements, and much more.