Spilling The Green Tea

Lyme Disease (and other tick-borne illnesses) and its causes and symptoms seem to have been neck-deep in controversy for a long time. Why? There are all sorts of reasons:

• ignorance within the medical field (FACT 1)
• faulty blood tests that do not accurately reveal the presence of the Borrelia itself (FACT 2)
• tick infection symptoms can mimic many other health conditions and are often misdiagnosed (FACT 3)
• the treatment of a tick infection is too time-consuming (FACT 4)

FACT 1: Ignorance Within The Medical Field

According to ILADS: “The so-called controversy of Lyme disease is simple. On one hand, there is a sea of ignorance within the medical profession, and an ongoing denial by doctors that this tick-borne zoonosis exists. On the other hand, there is a concentration camp full of patients who can’t get prompt diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, the majority of patients become chronic, and can’t go to school or can’t work. The medical establishment refuses to accept the fact that the Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, sequesters and hides in deep-seated tissue, such as ligaments, tendons, bone, brain, eye, and scar tissue. This stealth pathogen is persistent in the body, and is hard to treat.”

I know when I fought day to day with my symptoms and had appointments with various doctors not one of them suggested Lyme. At one appointment with a general doctor, I had asked if he could test for Lyme and if he knew anything about it. The look on his face was priceless. He looked insulted and just said I didn’t have Lyme and that was that.

Even the CDC encourages medical doctors to test for Lyme if a patient’s symptoms match those of Lyme disease, but it is not a requirement and because Lyme is controversial, many doctors never venture into finding out about Lyme itself nor do they properly test their patients.

From reading various articles and blogs, I don’t understand why doctors would be ignorant. If you had a patient come to you in such pain or any debilitating symptom that prevents them from working or even leaving the house, wouldn’t you be expected to be open minded about everything? Lyme is nothing new. It’s been around for a long time, but because Lyme doesn’t fit in a square box or is black and white, it is not properly diagnosed, leaving the person fighting the infection to lose hope on ever feeling better.

FACT 2: Faulty Blood Tests

If your doctor wishes to test you for Lyme, a blood test is performed checking for an increase in antibodies; however, it can take at least six weeks before the body’s immune system can react to the initial infection. Taking said test too early will most likely result in a negative result.

There has been no improvements on blood testing for Lyme; the same blood tests have been administered for the last forty years. Not much research has been done in improving these tests and/or researching on new ways to test the blood for Lyme. Per NBC News, ” A review of eight studies that evaluated the effectiveness of these tests revealed that they miss more cases than they diagnose. The result is that many people go undiagnosed and misdiagnosed, leading to a life that can be devastatingly altered or worse.”

The reason for these fallible blood tests is because the tests only check your antibody levels against the bacteria, and not the bacteria itself. Sadly, not much research and development goes into Lyme research. There are over 300,000 new cases of Lyme in the US each year. Don’t you think with that many people being affected each year, we would be doing better to understand and implement better testing, better education for our medical field and better treatments?

FACT 3: Tick Infection Symptoms Can Mimic Other Conditions

Because the symptoms of Lyme can mimic other conditions, it gets grossly misdiagnosed. Some of the conditions it mimics are:

• Fibromyalgia
• ALS
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Depression
• Insomnia
• Flu
• Cellulitis
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Leukemia

One notorious symptom of Lyme is the red bullseye rash that develops shortly after being bitten. Although some people do exhibit that rash it is important to understand that the majority of people bitten by a tick do not exhibit the rash. In fact 20-30% of people never develop the rash.

The symptoms of Lyme and other tick-borne infections include:

• Fever
• Chills
• Headache
• Muscle Aches
• Joint Aches
• Fatigue
• Swollen Lymph Nodes
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Brain Fog
• Dizziness
• Fainting
• Shortness of Breath
• Numbness
• Paralysis
• Heart Palpitations
• Neuropathy
• Thyroid Issues
• Brain and Spinal Inflammation

Without the proper tools and research to differentiate between Lyme and other debilitating health issues, many people will continue to be misdiagnosed. That is why it is imperative to rally for better funding and research into Lyme and all of its infections and better research in microbiology.

Furthermore, I can’t stress this enough, but if YOU are exhibiting any of the above symptoms and doctors can’t seem to help you, I encourage you to reach out to a holistic or naturopathic doctor in your area. They are well versed in tick infections and can introduce you to homeopathic remedies that can help to get your life back on track.

FACT 4: Treatment For A Tick Infection Is Too Time Consuming

When my holistic doctor prescribed me a round of liquid tinctures and various supplements to combat my double infections of Babesia and Bartonella, I took them for a year. The original plan was to take them for 9 months; however, just as a precaution he decided to keep me on them for a full year even though I was feeling so much better.

Battling a tick infection is not like fighting a cold where you can take some OTC medicines, rest, drink plenty of fluids and you know within 3-5 days you will be feeling better. The duration of 3-5 days sounds wonderful compared to 12 months doesn’t it?

My regime was a slow process but from the start and with each passing day I could feel myself start to feel better, slowly but surely! There were bad days peppered in those 12 months, but, with God’s help, I got through them.

We live in a world where everything has to be quick and instant. There is already a shortage of doctors and appointments for doctors are overbooked so you either have to wait months to see a doctor or, when you do, you are given a short limited time to talk with your doctor. Your doctor visit may be only for 10 minutes and then when the bill comes in the mail, you are in shock that you are paying that much for a 10 minute conversation. I know, I have been there! It is very frustrating.

Doctors want to be quickly reimbursed for their services. They don’t want to take time to really dig to find out what is wrong with you. I am sorry if I sound so pessimistic, but from what I have been through, it leaves a poor taste in my mouth when it comes to discussing this area.

I have come to realize that it was all to make a profit and not to help me. It is a sad reality we live in, but there are resources out there that can truly help us. If you would like to learn more I highly encourage you to visit the International Lyme and Associated Diseases website. It has a host of information that may be able to help you.

Also, I have created a Supplements page that lists various supplements I took when combatting my tick-borne illnesses.

It is imperative that we educate ourselves with the facts. Don’t get tossed between appointment after appointment, medical bill upon medical bill and yet feeling like you are no better. You deserve health and with the proper tools, you can achieve health!