{"id":6460,"date":"2014-11-24T16:48:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T22:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=6460"},"modified":"2021-08-23T10:13:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T15:13:09","slug":"lyme-the-latest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/24\/lyme-the-latest","title":{"rendered":"Lyme: The Latest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I\u2019d guess that <a href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/01\/lyme-the-latest-part-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lyme disease<\/a> nears the top of the \u201cmore info please\u201d requests I receive from both Health Tip readers and WholeHealth Chicago patients. There are three good reasons for this concern:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Lyme disease is definitely on the upswing<\/strong>, both actual patient numbers and geographic spread.<\/li><li><strong>Treatment, especially for chronic Lyme, can be a real challenge<\/strong>. When it\u2019s discovered early&#8211;within a couple weeks of the tick bite&#8211;and treated correctly, Lyme disease is no big deal. But most people who get Lyme don&#8217;t even remember the tick bite (and you can&#8217;t even see half your skin anyway), so that months or even years after exposure they\u2019re beset by a slew of unexplained symptoms and realize they&#8217;ve been feeling ill for a long time. At various doctors\u2019 offices, the phrase \u201cYour tests are normal\u201d has become the mantra from hell. What&#8217;s happening is that some people are dealing with an undiagnosed\/untreated chronic Lyme infection that&#8217;s gone under the radar of the inefficient Lyme screening blood test currently available.<\/li><li><strong>Physicians themselves don\u2019t agree about chronic Lyme disease<\/strong>. Many prominent infectious disease specialists dismiss chronic Lyme sufferers as neurotic and, even when blood tests show clearly that Lyme is present, (mis)inform patients that there&#8217;s nothing to be done. Many&nbsp;primary care physicians throw up their hands and send Lyme patients off to the nearest and largest medical center, keeping fingers crossed for decent treatment, an iffy proposition at best.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>My associate Casey Kelley, MD, recently returned from the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) conference in Washington, DC. Dr Kelley probably knows more about chronic Lyme than just about anyone in Chicago, certainly more than the infectious disease docs at the Big Boy Medical Centers, whose consultations have been (to put it politely) disappointing. Given her expertise, I\u2019ll step aside and let her tell you about it\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Lyme fundamentals<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The bacterium <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Borrelia_burgdorferi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><em>Borrelia burgdorferi<\/em> (Bb)<\/a> is one smart little spiral-shaped bug causing a lot of big problems. Known as a spirochete because of its spiral, Bb is one of the most complex bacteria known, and it\u2019s clever too. It finds a warm, welcome home in the human body and skillfully adapts itself to stay alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bb is proficient in ways that sound like a sci-fi script: it protects itself with slimy biofilms that boost its resistance to antibiotics by a factor of 100 and can conceal itself inside a shell-like cyst that allows it to hide inside human cells where the immune system either can\u2019t penetrate it or ignores it. Bb burrows its way into most areas of the body, but prefers the joints, heart, and nervous system even as it stealthily changes aspects of itself to better hide in each of these different tissues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, Bb affects hundreds of thousands of people and possibly many more. That\u2019s right. We have an epidemic on our hands. Depending on who you ask, each year there are anywhere from 300,000 to 1.2 million new cases of Lyme disease in the US. With one of the most complex genetic make-ups of any known bacterium, Bb is smart, adaptive, and elusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is also a survivor, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm2426012\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bear Grylls<\/a> of the microbial world. Bb makes fellow spirochete syphilis look like a dumb cousin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bb is so clever it rarely goes to battle alone. Often other tickborne bacteria such as <em>anaplasma, ehrlichia, babesia<\/em>, and <em>bartonella<\/em> come along for the ride, each capable of causing equally devastating human disease. But don\u2019t let all this get you down. These bugs can be beaten. Yes, it can be a long and challenging journey, but it can be accomplished and you can recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Important note:<\/span><br>If you think Lyme doesn\u2019t apply to you but you\u2019ve been suffering for a long time with <em>something<\/em>, managing your symptoms with a lot of medicines and supplements, it\u2019s definitely worth trying to rule out Lyme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What exactly is Lyme disease? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Lyme disease is an infection with the bacterium Bb, but there are five subspecies and more than 100 different Bb strains in the US (300 strains worldwide) that are equally capable of causing infection. This diversity likely contributes to its ability to outfox both the immune system and antibiotic treatment, leading to chronic infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lyme\u2019s reputation as a great imitator means it affects individuals differently. Just about everyone knows Lyme is transmitted by an innocuous-looking, tiny tick. What you may not know is that most sufferers never even remember being bitten by a tick. It\u2019s hard to watch for and catch an infection early when you have few to no warning signs you\u2019re infected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are two ways the infection expresses itself:<br><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">First-stage (acute) infection<\/span> can cause flulike symptoms, joint pain, fatigue, and possibly a rash\u2014all easy to mistake as a bad cold. Furthermore, not everyone experiences these symptoms. Bb also can cause (but doesn\u2019t always) a variety of rashes, one classic example being erythema migrans, which looks like a red target. Far more common, however, are rashes that don\u2019t look exactly like a target. The Lyme rash is short-lived, going away quietly on its own. Little wonder fewer than half of people diagnosed with Lyme disease even notice a rash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Untreated Lyme infection<\/span> smolders under the radar, adapting to the tissues where it lives, protecting itself with those slimy biofilms and cysts. Importantly, Lyme also suppresses the immune system so it\u2019s difficult for your body to fight back. For this reason lab tests are often negative on even the sickest Lyme patients, because their suppressed immune systems can&#8217;t mount a response that would show on a test.\u00a0An untreated Lyme infection or infections (remember, there are more than 100 different Borrelia strains) leads to chronic disease in 34% to 62% of patients. Significantly, symptoms including anxiety, severe fatigue, joint pain, and headaches often mimic symptoms of other chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndromes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ninds.nih.gov\/disorders\/postural_tachycardia_syndrome\/postural_tachycardia_syndrome.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)<\/a>, and mood disorders like anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next week: how Lyme is diagnosed and treated. Prevention too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be well,<br><em>David Edelberg, MD<\/em><br><em>Casey Kelley, MD<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019d guess that Lyme disease nears the top of the \u201cmore info please\u201d requests I receive from both Health Tip readers and WholeHealth Chicago patients. There are three good reasons for this concern: Lyme disease is definitely on the upswing, both actual patient numbers and geographic spread. Treatment, especially for chronic Lyme, can be a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,314,104],"tags":[1624,175,1691,1692,155,106],"class_list":["post-6460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-knowledge-base","category-l","category-lyme-disease-morgellons","tag-borrelia-burgdorferi","tag-fatigue","tag-flulike-symptoms","tag-immune-suppression","tag-joint-pain","tag-lyme-disease"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Lyme: The Latest<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When it\u2019s discovered early--within a couple weeks of the tick bite--and treated correctly, Lyme disease is no big deal.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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