Misdiagnosis Of Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is considered to be the best example of how the medical industry misdiagnoses disease still to this day. One of the most referred medical books is Mendels Infections disease textbook, which tells doctors that if the blood tests come back negative for Lyme disease, they should look for another diagnosis. These immune system tests are very sensitive and in fact, the tests miss over 50% of cases because of false negatives.
On the flip side, there are times when patients test positive for Lyme disease when they actually have a different bacterial illness. Or they test positive because they were once infected with the tick-borne disease at another time during their lives, but the infection is no longer active or causes disturbances in the body.
On top of false negatives and positives, many patients are told that their medical conditions are solely in their heads. Their symptoms are all in line with hypochondriac symptoms and therefore not taken as seriously. Or the symptoms align with another disease and misdiagnosed that way. For example, Chronic Lyme disease has symptoms very similar to other chronic illnesses such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and arthritis. This is another reason that so many suffering from Lyme disease arent given the correct diagnosis and more importantly, left untreated.
Click here for a larger sample list of Lyme disease misdiagnosis.
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Symptoms Of Lyme Disease
In 70-80% of cases, one of the earliest noticeable symptoms of Lyme disease is a circular rash at the site of the tick bite. The rash is called erythema migrans and expands over time. Flu-like symptoms have also been reported at this stage, which includes but isnt limited to: fever, chills, headaches, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, joint pain, and muscle aches.
If not caught right away, after a few weeks, the disease will spread to more areas of the body including the joints, heart, and nervous system. Even more rashes may flare up and there may be periods of pain and fatigue in the limbs and rapid heartbeat. As it spreads to the brain, Bells palsy , headaches, and poor memory may ensue.
Unfortunately, if left untreated or treatment thus far is unsuccessful, the disease gets much worse. This is when sufferers feel arthritic especially in the knees which may become chronic. On top of that, since the nervous system is affected, those infected can develop abnormal sensations and confusion. Lastly, while not evident in most patients, heart muscle inflammation and irregular heartbeat may occur on top of the rapid beating.
Click here for a symptom slideshow and more information.
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Lyme Disease Can Be Difficult To Diagnose
Unlike a simple illness like strep throat where your doctor can obtain a swab and grow out the bacteria on a plate to make the diagnosis, Lyme disease diagnosis currently relies on tests of your bodys antibodies to the Lyme organism. See below for additional information about challenges in diagnosing Lyme disease.
Is Lyme Disease Curable
When it comes to Lyme disease there are a lot of factors at play. The first being, you may have other tick-borne co-infections. Coinfections were largely missed by the medical community until recently. Weve come to find out that when you get a tick bite, youre not usually just exposed to Lyme disease. Second, other underlying infections not due to the tick bite can also cause problems. And finally, your personal body chemistry and environmental exposures play a large role in how you react and recover from Lyme disease.
With the Fully Functional® process, it is possible to cure Lyme disease. Although in some people treating Lyme disease means management over a complete remedy. Even if you have to manage your Lyme disease, you can still live a very full and healthy life by implementing the steps of the Fully Functional® process.
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Lyme Disease Can Be Tough To Treat Even If You Find It
People are diagnosed with Lyme disease in a conventional setting when antibodies are identified in their lab work or on the basis of a specific skin rash appearance after a tick bite. Most often, these patients are given a 2-week course of an antibiotic like Doxycycline. This helps some people recover completely.
The problem? Some people just dont get better. In fact, sometimes they get worse. Lyme disease patients often struggle to get relief this is because many doctors dont fully understand this condition and patients with chronic or unusual symptoms are sometimes told that the symptoms are in their head. This is an unfortunate situation that has happened far too many times. If you have Lyme disease or suspect you have Lyme disease I assure you, your symptoms are not in your head.
Diagnostic Tests/lab Tests/lab Values
Lyme disease is diagnosed based on symptoms, physical findings , and the possibility of exposure to infected ticks. Laboratory testing is helpful in the later stages of disease.
Diagnosis of any infectious disease requires a combination of clinical experience and assessment by the doctor and understanding of the lab tests and their limitations. Laboratory tests are rarely definitive and all tests have a proportion of results which are false-positive and false negative . When tests are done in places where the disease is rare or absent , many positive tests will be falsely positive.
The tests to diagnose Lyme disease are technically complex and require specialist expertise. It is important for people who want to be tested to make sure the laboratory that performs the test is reliable.
Lyme disease is most commonly diagnosed by a screening test called ELISA and this is then confirmed using a western blot test. Both of these tests detect antibodies that are produced by the immune system of someone with Lyme disease.
Lyme disease can also be diagnosed by testing a sample of the skin lesion by nucleic acid testing or culture.
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Lyme Disease Are You Suffering From Lyme Disease
Its summer. Here are the long days of enjoying the outdoors. But summertime fun can also come with some summertime woes. The Center for Disease Control has found that roughly 300,000 people a year are diagnosed with Lyme disease. Many doctors say that Chronic Lyme disease creates a worse quality of life than most other chronic illnesses.
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Signs And Symptoms Of Lyme Disease
Accordingto the Lyme Light Foundation, Lyme disease is calledthe great imitator as condition manifestations often mimic fibromyalgia, chronicfatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis or systemic lupus.
Symptomsof Lyme disease include:
Erythema migrans
Sore pockets in the arms, knees or thighs
Cognitive challenges
Classicallypresented, there are four stages of this condition:
Stage 1: The first stage is termedEarly Localized Lyme, which mayfeature flu-like symptoms that manifest anywhere from three to 21 days upon infectiousentry. The presence of a bullseye rash was once considered commonplace however,recent research presented by the National Center for Health Research suggests lessthan 50% cases witness an initial rash. Stage 1 may be asymptomatic for somepatients.
Stage2: The second stage of this condition is termed Early Disseminated Lyme andfeatures many classic signs and symptoms. Fatigue, more pronounced flu-likesymptoms, swollen lymph nodes or glands, sore throat, vision challenges andsensations felt in the bite region may be experienced.
Stage 3: The third stage of thiscondition is termed Late DisseminatedLyme and features more extreme symptoms including brain fog, temporaryamnesia, apraxia, ataxia, heart palpitations and arrhythmias, arthritis onset,extreme fatigue, Bells Palsy with accompanying neuritis and stroke-likesymptoms.
The Use Of Massage For Lyme Disease
As I mentioned earlier, we are here today to talk about the use of some more alternative techniques in the treatment of Lyme disease. One of the most popular ones is massage therapy for Lyme disease. There are many benefits of massage for Lyme disease such as:
- Improved blood flow
- Improved quality of sleep
- Shorter recovery time, etc.
But with so many massage techniques, which one should you choose? To take away some of the stress in this situation, here are my favorite massage techniques for Lyme disease.
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Safe And Gentle Massage Techniques
Light to moderate work is best when working on clients with Lyme disease. The following modalities work well:
About 30000 Cases Of Lyme Disease Are Reported To The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention Every Year
Rates of infection vary by state, with the Northeast a particular hotbed of Lyme disease but all U.S. states are home to the ticks that cause the infection. Rates of Lyme disease are growing.
ClemsonUniversitys Lyme disease forecastmap indicatesthe presence of ticks that carry various bacterial strains linked to Lyme. Onceconsidered a northeastern condition exclusively, the Borrelia Burgdorferi bacteria is appearing in higher concentrationsalong the East Coast into the Carolinas, across the upper Midwest, upper GreatPlains and into pockets of the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.
CraigPrior, president of the Companion Animal Parasite Council, said, As mice andother animals that ticks feed on move into new habitats, the ticks and Lymedisease move with them. Awareness is the key, and forecasting helps people andveterinarians know the potential risk in their county.
Anyonecan become infected, once bitten by an infected tick. With Lyme disease on therise, there is a good chance at least one of your clients might suffer fromthis condition.
Thisarticle provides general information about Lyme disease it does not replacemedical advice and any client presenting with untreated Lyme disease should bereferred to an appropriate health care professional.
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What Causes Lyme Disease
Lyme disease refers to a potentially life-threatening infectious disease. The first case of Lyme disease was described back in 1975. Since then, we often see people being affected by such conditions. But what is it that is causing Lyme disease in the first place?
This disease is transmitted by a tick bite. The tick needs to be either black-legged or a deer tick, both of which are carriers of the bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi. The tick itself becomes infected after having fed on infected deer, mice, or birds, among other animals.
But now all people who are bitten by a thick will necessarily develop Lyme disease. The general rule says that the thick needs to be present on the skin for at least 36 hours. It is then that the infection is transmitted, and the individual develops Lyme disease. Most Lyme disease patients do not even remember being bitten by a thick. That is why it is very important to check for any thick bites if you spend time or live in a wooden area. The risk of Lyme disease in such areas is the greatest.
As for symptoms, a variety in the severity of the symptoms themselves can be seen. Some people develop milder symptoms as compared to others who experience the most severe symptoms of them all. The most characteristic symptom is a flat, circular skin rash that looks a lot like a bulls eye. The rash is red-colored and appears on the bite site. Fatigue, fever, headaches, muscle aches, etc. are some more common symptoms.
Laughter Is The Best Medicine
Last but not least I do believe the key to happiness is laughter. Laughter reduces stress hormones like cortisol and releases endorphins, the bodys natural pain reliever. My simple advice is to avoid things that cause you stress, fear or anger.
Watch comedy or movies with happy endings. Stay connected with someone you can be honest with, one who listens and can make you laugh. Above all else, never give up hope.
LymeSci is written by Lonnie Marcum, a Licensed Physical Therapist and mother of a daughter with Lyme. In 2019-2020, she served on a subcommittee of the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group. Follow her on Twitter: Email her at: lmarcum@lymedisease.org .
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Lyme Disease is a very common bacterial infection caused by ticks here in New England.The infection is cause by a bit from a deer tick that has been attached to you for about 24 hours. The common signs of Lyme are flu symptoms and the bulls eye rash.
However, there are people who dont not show those classic signs of the infection. And those are the people who will go months or even years without having treatment. That causes long term damage to your body. When treatment can be a long hard road of super anti-biotics that are very ruff on a person digestion system. My personal opinion is when Lyme has gone this long without getting treatment it never really goes away. It finds a way to hide in your tissues beyond the reach of the antibiotics. The only real way to treat is with massive dose of antibiotics, but that is really no way to live!
Lyme Disease And Other Tick
Lyme disease was first discovered in Lyme, Connecticut in the mid-1970s. It was found to be the cause of a sudden epidemic of arthritis in children. It is caused by a spirochete . Transmitted by tick bites, Lyme disease can make you very sick. It can even be deadly. In this article, were covering Lyme disease natural treatment options, other tick-borne infections, symptoms, diagnosis, and more.
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The Effect Of Massage On Lyme Disease
Some 300,000 people are affected by Lyme disease every year. The bacterial infection, commonly spread via tick bites, can cause joint pain, facial paralysis, fatigue, heart palpitations, debilitating headaches, memory loss and in some cases, inflammation of the spinal cord nerve cluster. While a course of antibiotics has proven to be the most effective treatment for the disease, it doesnt do much to alleviate its painful and persistent symptoms. However, this blog post suggests something that might massage.
For several years now, various different types of massage have been used as effective treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, an illness that also causes painful joint inflammation. Accordingly, massage can also be used to relieve the pain associated with Lyme disease. A Swedish massage can bring some relief to aching joints. Reiki touch therapy can be used to sooth generalized body pain. Reflexology techniques can be used to circulate fresh blood into inflamed hands and feet. The precise application of shiatsu massage can reduce the intensity of nerve pain without causing additional irritation. And cranial-sacral massage can be utilized to make otherwise immobilizing headaches bearable. Look over this intriguing piece to find out more about how massages can be used to treat the symptoms of Lyme disease.
Success Story: Staying Healthy While Battling Lyme Disease With Supplements Exercise And Massage
In many ways, Im a typical Lyme disease patient. Like so many before me, it took a long time for doctors to put a name on the mysterious illness that was slowly destroying my health and when the diagnosis finally came, it was far too late for an easy cure.
There came a point during treatment when I realized that if I was ever going to live anything approximating a normal life, Id need to figure out what could be done to minimize some of the diseases more debilitating symptoms. That meant a lot of reading and even more experimentation, but the end result is that Lyme is now more of an inconvenience than a crippling disease.
Regardless of whether youre taking a prolonged course of antibiotics or, like me, are using classical homeopathy or another recognized form of treatment , the following suggestions should prove useful in relieving some of the discomfort associated with battling a chronic Lyme infection.
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