Does Lyme Disease Go Away On Its Own
Its certainly possible for people to get Lyme disease and to clear the infection on their own, without treatment, says Dr. Kuritzkes. But its better to be treated, because some of the complicationslike arthritis and myocarditis and damage to the central nervous systemcan be very serious.
The type of bacteria that causes Lyme disease is in the same general family as the type that causes syphilis, Dr. Kuritzkes explains. That doesnt mean anything similar in terms of transmission, but syphilis has several different phases, with primary and secondary and tertiary symptoms, he says. The infection can hide out in the body for a long time and can cause problems down the road if its not treated.
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Lyme Disease Antibiotic Treatment Research
For early Lyme disease, a short course of oral antibiotics, such as doxycycline or amoxicillin, cures the majority of cases. In more complicated cases, Lyme disease can usually be successfully treated with three to four weeks of antibiotic therapy.
After being treated for Lyme disease, a minority of patients may still report non-specific symptoms, including persistent pain, joint and muscle aches, fatigue, impaired cognitive function, or unexplained numbness. These patients often show no evidence of active infection and may be diagnosed with post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome .
Multiple clinical trials, funded by NIH and others, have shown no benefit to additional IV antibiotic treatment in patients with Lyme disease, although the interpretation of those results have been challenged by some.
Cdc: We Are Not Dismissing Your Pain
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases specialist and an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, says there is no scientific evidence to suggest an ongoing infection in patients with lingering Lyme disease symptoms. He said all infections require a recovery time beyond when the antibiotics run out. He said that continuing antibiotic treatment after a few weeks for people who have Lyme disease carries a lot of risk and no real benefit.
Adalja said the positive test results that some laboratories produce are just a way to support a doctors diagnosis. It is not a valid way of approaching this, he said. The CDC also warns against prolonged antibiotic use because it can drive the growth of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotic medications.
Oral antibiotics can cause gastrointestinal upset, and those who take antibiotics intravenously are subject to line infections. Last year, the CDC issued a call to action to halt unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics.
Yang said Lyme disease is a very well understood condition, with close parallels to another old and well understood disease, syphilis, which is caused by a related bacterium.
The CDCs online information on post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome skirts the controversy by emphasizing that all patients need personalized care.
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Symptoms Of Post Treatment Lyme Disease
- Include severe fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, & cognitive problems
- Can significantly impact patients health and quality of life
- Can be debilitating and prolonged
Our research indicates the chronic symptom burden related to PTLD is significant. Although often invisible to others, the negative impact on quality of life and daily functioning is substantial for PTLD sufferers.
The chronic symptom burden related to Lyme disease is considerable, as shown on the left side of the graph above, and statistically significantly greater than the aches and pains of daily living experienced by the control group, on the right.
Does Lyme Disease Stay With You Forever
Lyme disease signs and symptoms generally become evident after 3-30 days of exposure to an infected tick. The disease is typically diagnosed through a blood test that detects Borrelia antibodies in the blood and can often be cured with a course of oral antibiotics.
In the case of the early stage Erythema Migrans rash , antibiotics such as doxycycline, amoxicillin, and cefuroxime will be administered. If the nervous system is affected, it is likely that penicillin will also be used within the treatment.
While the majority of cases of Lyme disease can be cured with the correct treatment, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome can occur for a number of months following treatment in a small number of people.
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Doctors Debate Patients Suffer: The Fight Over Chronic Lyme Disease In Wisconsin
Mainstream medicine says the tick-borne infection is a short-term ailment, but some patients insist they have Lyme-caused symptoms that last for years.
Wisconsin Watch
If life had gone as planned, Maria Alice Lima Freitas would be in medical school, inspired by the career of her father, a surgeon who practiced in Brazil. But instead of changing careers, the 49-year-old therapist retired from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Is Lyme Disease Curable The Truth From Experience
What if you woke up one morning, so swollen and achy you couldnt get out of bed and no doctor could figure out what you had? Welcome to my daughters life for ten years. This was the beginning of her chronic Lyme saga. She also wondered, is Lyme disease curable?
She was confined to the couch and unable to go to school. I would make her breakfast, then take her to many doctors to try and figure out what she had. The thing about this disease is that its hard to diagnose and difficult to treat. Signs of Lyme disease can vary and be confused with other conditions.
It can feel scary and uncertain if you or someone youlove has Lyme disease. You might wonder, is lyme disease contagious? Can youfully recover from it?
The good news is that Lyme disease is not contagious via human to human contact. There are effective ways to overcome grief and hope for recovery even if you are taking on late stage Lyme disease treatment.
Here are the top things you should know if you think you or a loved one has Lyme:
Lyme Disease Symptoms:
According to lymedisease.org, Untreated or undertreatedLyme can cause some people to develop severe symptoms that are hard toresolve. Experts call these cases post-treatment Lyme disease orchronic Lyme disease .
When bit by a Lyme carrying tick, not everyone will get Lyme disease rash or the bulls-eye. Some people dont even show immediate signs. Early-stage symptoms of Lyme disease can include fatigue, fever, chills, headache or flu-like characteristics.
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What’s The Best Way To Prevent A Tick Bite
Ticks can’t fly or jump. But they live in shrubs and bushes and can grab onto you when you pass by. To avoid getting bitten:
- Wear pants and socks in areas with lots of trees and when you touch fallen leaves.
- Wear a tick repellent on your skin and clothing that has DEET, lemon oil, or eucalyptus.
- For even more protection, use the chemical permethrin on clothing and camping gear.
- Shower within 2 hours after coming inside. Look for ticks on your skin, and wash ticks out of your hair.
- Put your clothing and any exposed gear into a hot dryer to kill whatever pests might be on them.
How do you know if you’ve been bitten?
Since ticks are so small, you’ve got to have pretty good eyes to see them.
If you have a small, red bump on your skin that looks like a mosquito bite, it could be a tick bite. If it goes away in a few days, itâs not a problem. Remember, a tick bite doesnât necessarily mean you have Lyme disease.
If you notice a rash in the shape of a bull’s-eye, you might have a tick bite. Talk to your doctor about treatment.
If you have an allergic reaction to ticks, you’ll notice a bite right away.
Later Signs And Symptoms
If you are not treated for Lyme, then you might get the following symptoms:
The occurrence of the rash in other parts of your body
Joint pain You can get pain and swelling in your joints.
Neurological problems You can develop meningitis, Bells palsy, numbness and weakness in the limbs, and impaired muscle movement.
Nausea and vomiting
Heart rhythm issues
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When To See A Healthcare Provider
Prompt treatment for Lyme disease reduces the risk of lingering symptoms and complications. If youve already been treated with antibiotics but continue to experience issues, talk to your healthcare provider to determine if additional treatment is necessary. Patience and proactive communication with your healthcare professional will help you get back to your usual state of health.
Where Does Lyme Disease Occur In Ohio
Blacklegged ticks that carry Lyme disease are most commonly found in the eastern and southern areas of the state, but are likely to occur in suitable wooded habitat throughout most or all of Ohio. On the map below, each dot represents one case of Lyme disease and is placed randomly in the patients county of residence. The presence of a dot does not necessarily mean that the Lyme disease infection was acquired in Ohio. The place of residence can be different from the place where the patient became infected.
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Chronic Lyme: What Happens When Lyme Goes Untreated
The Lyme community typically uses the term chronic Lyme disease to describe a range of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms that crop up after getting Lyme disease and persist for months to years after infection.
The risk of chronic Lyme increases the longer a Lyme infection goes untreated or undertreated. In other words, patients are more likely to recover fully if their Lyme infection is detected and treated as early as possible after the discovery of a tick bite. This stage is usually marked by symptoms such as fevers, chills, muscle aches, and sometimes rashes.
When left untreated or undertreated, however, Lyme disease can spread throughout the body and affect:
- The central nervous system
As Lymedisease.org points out, these symptoms can evolve, disappear, and reappear at different times.
Change Your Eating To Improve Immune Function
Dr. Axe says that, since Lyme affects your immune system, you need to find ways of boosting its function.
If you attack the root cause of the symptoms, then you may have a shot at resolving your problem.
He gives the recommendation that you should try removing grains, fruit, and sugar from your diet.
Instead, you should be focusing on anti-inflammatory foods such as vegetables, seeds, coconut, bone broth, organic meat, and raw cultured dairy.
He also recommends the following foods to boost immunity:
High antioxidant foods Fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly leafy greens and brightly colored vegetables or berries are rich in many nutrients. They aid in controlling free radical damage and inflammation.
Bone broth Bone broth has certain amino acids that can enhance immune function.
Probiotic foods Probiotic foods can aid in reducing infectious disease and its symptoms. Foods such as kefir and yogurt and fermented vegetables should be added to your diet.
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What Is The Treatment
Most cases of Lyme disease can be effectively treated with 2 to 4 weeks of antibiotics. Depending on the symptoms and when you were diagnosed, you may require a longer course or repeat treatment with antibiotics.
Some people experience symptoms that continue more than 6 months after treatment. Research continues into the causes of these persistent symptoms and possible treatment methods.
How You Get Lyme Disease
If a tick bites an animal carrying the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the tick can become infected. The tick can then transfer the bacteria to a human by biting them.
Ticks don’t jump or fly. They climb on to your clothes or skin if you brush against something they’re on. They then bite into the skin and start to feed on your blood.
Generally, you’re more likely to become infected if the tick is attached to your skin for more than 24 hours. Ticks are very small and their bites are not painful, so you may not realise you have one attached to your skin.
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Treatment For Lyme Starts One Year Or More After Tick Bite
In my opinion and experience, only a rare person in this group goes on to cure Lyme disease. Most people go into remission. In remission, the germs still live in a person, but the immune system keeps them under control.
About 85 to 90% of people treated with long term antibiotics and methods to boost the immune system, can go into remission. For the best chance of reaching remission I suggest following the first 12 steps in The Ross Lyme Support Protocol. These steps
- get rid of coinfections,
- support the adrenal and thyroid glands, and
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Plus additional BONUS training videos on treating tough cases of brain fog and cognitive impairment!!
In this blog, we will focus on Lyme Disease and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. You will learn:
- How chronic Lyme Disease and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome can look very similar to each other
- How diagnosing, testing and treating these two conditions can be quite challenging
- What to look for to tell the difference
- How we can apply Functional Medicine principles, look for the root causes and successfully treat Lyme Disease & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Do your clients suffer from chronic fatigue that doesnt seem to go away? Do they have Lyme Disease or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and do you know how to spot the difference? Then this blog is for you. Please read on for the details!
Do you get stuck clinically with symptoms of Lyme or Chronic Fatigue with your patients? Would you like to have a larger impact on improving fatigue issues? The key to treating disease is an individual approach using nutrition, lifestyle and exercise. To improve your patients quality of life, you need to identify and address each patients root causes. Our functional medicine course will teach you how to do this. Look into our functional medicine school 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 ?
What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ?
CFS Causes
CFS Diagnosis
What is Lyme Disease ?
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Potential Treatment For Lyme Disease Kills Bacteria That May Cause Lingering Symptoms Study Finds
Screening thousands of drugs, Stanford scientists determined that in mice, azlocillin, an antibiotic approved by the Food and Drug Administration, eliminated the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
Deer ticks are vectors of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.Scott Bauer/USDA Agricultural Research Service
For decades, the routine treatment for Lyme disease has been standard antibiotics, which usually kill off the infection. But for up to 20% of people with the tick-borne illness, the antibiotics dont work, and lingering symptoms of muscle pain, fatigue and cognitive impairment can continue for years sometimes indefinitely.
A new Stanford Medicine study in lab dishes and mice provides evidence that the drug azlocillin completely kills off the disease-causing bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi at the onset of the illness. The study suggests it could also be effective for treating patients infected with drug-tolerant bacteria that may cause lingering symptoms.
This compound is just amazing, said Jayakumar Rajadas, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and director of the Biomaterials and Advanced Drug Delivery Laboratory at the Stanford School of Medicine. It clears the infection without a lot of side effects. We are hoping to repurpose it as an oral treatment for Lyme disease. Rajadas is the senior author of the study, which was published online March 2 in Scientific Reports. The lead author is research associate Venkata Raveendra Pothineni, PhD.
Stage : Early Disseminated Lyme Disease
If stage 1 Lyme disease remains undiagnosed and untreated, it can progress to stage 2, or early disseminated, Lyme disease. This stage occurs 312 weeks after the initial tick bite.
The term disseminated indicates that the bacteria have spread throughout the body. At this stage, the infection may affect the following tissues:
A person who has progressed to stage 2 Lyme disease may develop new symptoms alongside those from stage 1. These new symptoms may include:
- new rashes across the body
- conjunctivitis or vision problems
- poor memory and concentration
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What Is Post Treatment Lyme Disease
Post Treatment Lyme Disease represents a research subset of patients who remain significantly ill 6 months or more following standard antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease. PTLD is characterized by a constellation of symptoms that includes severe fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, sleep disturbance, depression, and cognitive problems such as difficulty with short-term memory, speed of thinking, or multi-tasking. In the absence of a direct diagnostic biomarker blood test, PTLD has been difficult to define by physicians, and its existence has been controversial. However, our clinical research shows that meticulous patient evaluation when used alongside appropriate diagnostic testing can reliably identify patients with a history of previously treated Lyme disease who display the typical symptom patterns of PTLD.
What Happens At Your Appointment
The GP will ask about your symptoms and consider any rash or recent tick bites you know about.
Lyme disease can be difficult to diagnose. It has similar symptoms to other conditions and there’s not always an obvious rash.
2 types of blood test are available to help confirm or rule out Lyme disease. But these tests are not always accurate in the early stages of the disease.
You may need to be retested if you still have Lyme disease symptoms after a negative result.
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Lyme Disease Frequently Asked Questions
If you have not done so already, remove the tick with fine-tipped tweezers.
The chances that you might get Lyme disease from a single tick bite depend on the type of tick, where you acquired it, and how long it was attached to you. Many types of ticks bite people in the U.S., but only blacklegged ticks transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Furthermore, only blacklegged ticks in thehighly endemic areas of the northeastern and north central U.S. are commonly infected. Finally, blacklegged ticks need to be attached for at least 24 hours before they can transmit Lyme disease. This is why its so important to remove them promptly and to check your body daily for ticks if you live in an endemic area.
If you develop illness within a few weeks of a tick bite, see your health care provider right away. Common symptoms of Lyme disease include a rash, fever, body aches, facial paralysis, and arthritis. Ticks can also transmit other diseases, so its important to be alert for any illness that follows a tick bite.
References:
Moody KD, Barthold SW, 1991. Relative infectivity of Borrelia burgdorferi in Lewis rats by various routes of inoculation.Am J Trop Med Hyg 44: 135-9.
There are no reports of Lyme disease being spread to infants through breast milk. If you are diagnosed with Lyme disease and are also breastfeeding, make sure that your doctor knows this so that he or she can prescribe an antibiotic thats safe for use when breastfeeding.