Yes, a proper diet can reduce Lyme symptoms and lead to recovery. Please see this article for more information on proper dieting when battling Lyme disease.
Yes, Lyme disease presents differently in women, and some studies have shown that women test positive for Lyme in a greater percentage than men. Lyme can also impact reproductive health. Please see this article for more about women and Lyme.
There are approximately 476,000 cases of Lyme disease per year according to the CDC.
ImmunoBlots, IgXSpot, Western Blots, IFA, LSA, PCR, LDA, BCA, and cePCR. See features and pricing in the IGeneX Test Directory.
Borrelia burgdorferi group. The most well-known species in the USA is Borrelia burgdorferi 297 and b31, and in Europe it is Borrelia afzelii.
Yes, studies have shown that Lyme disease can be transmitted through sex. The Lyme spirochete resembles the agent of syphilis, long recognized as the epitome of sexually transmitted diseases.
A clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease simply means that your doctor is the ultimate decider in diagnosing Lyme disease, regardless of testing outcomes. Your doctor will take your symptoms, test results, and entire medical history into account when making the diagnosis.
Yes, you can get Lyme disease more than once. Either through re-infection, where you are bitten by a tick carrying Lyme disease, and the disease is transmitted to you again, or in any other way Lyme disease may be transmitted.
Lyme disease was first recognized in 1975 after researchers investigated why unusually large numbers of children were being diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in Lyme, Connecticut, and two neighboring towns.
Most tests for Lyme disease are antibody tests, blood tests that measure the body’s response to infection. These “indirect” tests do not detect pathogens themselves, but rather antibodies produced by the immune system to fight off infection. Two commonly used tests are the ELISA and Western blot.
However, these tests have severe limitations. First, they are prone to false negatives, because it can take days to weeks for the immune system to produce enough antibodies to show up on a test. Additionally, these tests use lab cultures rather than clinical specimens, which can lead to problems with test accuracy. Finally, most ELISA and Western blot tests are designed to detect only one or two types of bacteria that cause Lyme, even though in the nearly 30 years since the tests were developed, scientists have discovered up to 18 distinct types of Borrelia.
IGeneX has developed testing that is much more accurate and sensitive, able to detect all strains and species of Borrelia prevalent in the U.S. and Europe. Learn more about the IGeneX ImmunoBlot.
Though blood tests such as the ImmunoBlot, ELISA, and Western blot are the most common, they are not the only kinds of Lyme tests. Others include:
Learn about all the Lyme disease panels available at IGeneX.
As mentioned above, Lyme disease may first cause fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and a ring-shaped erythema migrans rash 3-30 days after a tick bite.
As the disease progresses, symptoms can evolve and migrate to different parts of the body. Later symptoms may include more severe headaches, neck stiffness, additional EM rashes, facial palsy (paralysis of one side of the face), arthritis with severe swelling (especially of the knee or other large joints), intermittent pain in tendons/muscles/joints/bones, heart palpitations or irregular heartbeats, dizziness, shortness of breath, inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, nerve pain, and shooting pains or numbness in the hands or feet.
Eventually, Lyme disease can also lead to neurological and psychiatric symptoms that can cause, resemble, or exacerbate mental health issues.
Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics. The most common antibiotic treatment for early localized Lyme disease is doxycycline, though alternatives are used for children under eight and women who are pregnant.
However, once Lyme disease develops past the early stages, it becomes much harder to treat with antibiotics. At later stages, it can infect the central nervous system and the heart, and/or develop into chronic Lyme disease. Chronic Lyme may or may not manifest in neurological, psychiatric, or cardiac symptoms, many of which are debilitating and some of which can even be life-threatening. This is why it is so important to get a prompt diagnosis through early, accurate testing.
Learn more about IGeneX’s tests for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.
Yes, ticks can be tested for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. If you find a tick on you, save it in a plastic tube or small plastic bag. You can then seal it in an envelope and send it to IGeneX to be tested for pathogens that cause the following diseases:
The earliest signs of Lyme disease may include fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes. Early Lyme may also cause a bull’s-eye-shaped rash called erythema migrans (EM), though many people do not experience this rash. These symptoms may appear 3-30 days after a tick bite.
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For the most up to date and accurate information and articles about ticks and tick-borne diseases, please visit Tick Talk Resource.
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