Spring! And time for a Health Tip on Lyme Disease and other tick borne illnesses. All in preparation for your summer vacation to those large northern suburbs Wisconsin and Michigan because each exports so many cases of Lyme Disease to our WholeHealth Chicago Centers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The weather is warming and with warm weather, the tick population will explode. A little tick will latch to your ankles or fall in your hair, then bite (don\u2019t worry, you won\u2019t feel a thing), gorge lustily on your blood, then empty its gastrointestinal tract into your bloodstream. That\u2019s medical talk for, \u201cthe tick takes a big sh-t into your blood\u201d. In that sh-t, can live any of four bacteria, the most well known, Borrelia burgdorferi, a\/k\/a Lyme Disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All because you ventured through the Cheese Curtain into Wisconsin or you\u2019re living life on the edge in Michigan. Okay, northern Illinois has its share of infected ticks as well. In fact 50% of ticks north of Chicago are infected.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ticks are a cesspool with legs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The total number of Lyme disease cases, caused by the organism is definitely on the rise. The current guesstimate from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is 476,000 a year, a dramatic increase from the 30,000 annually they estimated just a decade ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, even the CDC is uncertain if this is an overestimate or an underestimate. Thousands of cases are treated as Lyme but are not reported anywhere. Likewise, thousands of cases of Lyme disease are simply missed by both patient and physician only to surface years later in one of the two forms of chronic Lyme disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We see a lot of patients with chronic Lyme at WholeHealth Chicago, largely because Lyme Disease carries a real prejudice from the past, when doctors told patients there was no such illness and patients believed their doctors. As a result, many people have been ill for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are three faces of Lyme disease: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lyme Disease<\/strong> (most common): Caused by Borrelia burgdorferi<\/em> \u2013 Yes, you need to be tested for all of them. Acute Lyme Disease <\/strong>No one argues about the existence of acute Lyme disease. You\u2019re in the woods in a Lyme-rich area. You get bitten by a tick (most people don\u2019t remember the bite)<\/strong>, you see a red rash or you don\u2019t, and have a flu-like illness. Doctors in the Northeast and the upper Midwest see so much of this that they simply start patients on antibiotics without waiting for any test results (which can take weeks to turn positive). With correctly dosed antibiotics, the recovery rate is about 90%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Post-treatment Lyme <\/strong>You and your doctor agree that you had Lyme in the past and thought you were adequately treated but now you have symptoms of fatigue, joint pain and brain fog. Your tests show evidence of your old infection. Likely your doctor will retreat your Lyme but some research is thinking this is an autoimmune phenomenon possibly from chronic inflammation. It has been compared to COVID-long haul. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is where the Lyme controversy starts <\/p>\n\n\n\n Disseminated \/ Late-Stage \/ Untreated Lyme<\/span><\/strong> Your symptoms went away because your immune system stepped in and did its job\u2014suppressing, but not completely killing, the infection.<\/strong> Although the B. burgdorferi<\/em> has spread through your body, it\u2019s in a dormant (sleeping) state. It could remain suppressed like this for years\u2014decades, even\u2014and never give you a lick of trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019d never be tested for Lyme disease because you\u2019re healthy, but if you were tested, you\u2019d show positive antibodies for Lyme, still suppressing your infection. Very likely, thousands of healthy people living in Michigan and Wisconsin would test positive for Lyme, but since they\u2019re fine, we don\u2019t test or treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But now, it\u2019s possibly years later and large group of patients diagnosed for years with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and a wide variety of symptoms labeled as \u201cpsychosomatic\u201d are found to have a positive Lyme test, although they deny ever having Lyme disease and don\u2019t remember a tick bite.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, many of these patients were diagnosed with chronic Lyme Disease after they had a severe case of COVID. <\/strong>In other words, it was as if their COVID sufficiently weakened their immune systems to allow their Lyme to \u201cwake up\u201d from its dormant state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These chronic Lyme patients (and there are thousands) are the subject of an acrimonious debate among doctors termed the \u201cLyme Wars”.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n One would never believe that these two issues would generate vicious and truly juvenile battles among physicians, but doctors are just as crazy as everyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What brought about the \u201cLyme Wars\u201d was an unpleasant combination of the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the scene, years, decades perhaps, after the infected bite: you are seeing doctors for a smorgasbord of symptoms very similar to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue (ME\/CFS). You don\u2019t remember a tick bite although you were an outdoorsy kid and vacationed in WI every summer. Like many with fibro and ME\/CFS, you\u2019ve seen several doctors and told all your tests are normal (although usually they\u2019re not tested for Lyme or had a second rate test). Then, along the way, someone does finally run a decent Lyme test and lo! it\u2019s positive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019d think that when presented with a symptomatic patient who tests positive for Lyme, the treatment course would be clear. Lyme Disease is an infection: build immunity (nutritional supplements, healthful diet, ozone infusion, peptides), treat the infection with antibiotics and\/or herbs. End of story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But tragically, and I feel my blood boiling as I write this, many of you \u2013 even with clear evidence of disease \u2013 are denied treatment because your doctor read somewhere that, \u201cthere\u2019s no such thing as chronic Lyme disease\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doctors who \u201cdon\u2019t believe\u201d chronic Lyme exists are usually the same group who deny the existence of fibromyalgia, ME\/CFS, and other so-called \u2018controversial illnesses’. They want evidence beyond a blood test for Lyme. When confronted with the positive Lyme test result, they\u2019ll say, \u201cThat\u2019s not good enough. You probably had Lyme years ago. Or else it\u2019s a false-positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The doctor-patient conversation can go like this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n You:<\/strong> You\u2019ve given me a course of antibiotics for acute Lyme disease. Unfortunately, I\u2019m still sick. Or (even worse):<\/strong> Or (the worst):<\/strong> A minority of doctors (dubbed LLDs for \u201cLyme Literate Doctors\u201d) protest any implication that chronic Lyme disease is a psychiatric disorder. However, and given the stubbornness of a Lyme infection itself, there\u2019s no unanimity on a treatment protocol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Co-infections<\/strong> (other tick-borne diseases): Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 Yes, you can get all from a single bite.<\/p>\n\n\n\nChronic Lyme Disease Debate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sometime in the past, you (or your child) got bitten by a tick, didn\u2019t notice it, never saw a rash, and attributed the resulting illness (headache, fever, muscle aches) to a summer flu. You got better and totally forgot about the incident. The average age of this initial bite event is guesstimated at eleven, during a woodland romp.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Why the debate? Why withhold treatment?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Doctor:<\/strong> Well, it can\u2019t be Lyme. I\u2019ve treated you for Lyme.
You:<\/strong> But I still feel terrible.
Doctor:<\/strong> You need a psychiatrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You:<\/strong> I\u2019ve had fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue for years. I\u2019ve read about chronic Lyme. Can you test me for this?
Doctor:<\/strong> No. There\u2019s no such disease. You need a psychiatrist, or an infectious disease specialist, or a rheumatologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You:<\/strong> I\u2019m not better. I paid for an advanced Lyme test myself and it came out strongly positive. This is why I\u2019m so sick. Now can we start treatment?
Doctor:<\/strong> No. I don\u2019t know anything about that lab. It\u2019s not one we use at Northwestern\/Rush\/UofC\/Loyola. Really, we can\u2019t help you here.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLyme Wars: From the Minority <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n