Lyme Disease Often Missed as a Cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

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Lyme Disease Often Missed as a Cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

_http://www.hormoneandlongevitycenter.com/lymedisease/_

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Lyme disease is caused by a spiral shaped bacteria (spirochete) called

Borrelia burgdorferi. They can be transmitted by tics, but also by mosquitoes.

The spirochets have been called “the great imitators†because they can

mimic virtually any disease, which is why they are often misdiagnosed. Anyone

with chronic illness and especially those with chronic fatigue syndrome and

fibromyalgia need to consider Lyme disease as the cause.

Patients with chronic Lyme disease most commonly have fatigue, joint and

muscle pain, sleep disorders and cognitive problems (brain fog). In addition,

infection with Borrelia often results in a low grade encephalopathy

(infection of the brain) that can result in depression, bipolar disorder, panic

attacks, numbness, tingling, burning, weakness, twitching and is associated

with neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, dementia such as

Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s

disease). In addition, this infection often results in hormonal

deficiencies, abnormal activation of coagulation and immune dysfunction, which

potentiate the symptoms. Patients with chronic Lyme disease often complain of

“

strange†or “weird†symptoms that that cannot be explained even after

going

to numerous doctors and often results in the patient being told that it must

be psychological. Patients are often told that they are hypochondriacs and

are referred to psychiatrists and counselors.

Because the symptoms are so variable, patients are usually not even

considered for testing or treatment. Even if testing is done, however, standard

testing will miss over 90% of cases of chronic Lyme disease. The standard

testing is an immunoassay test of IgG and IgM antibodies and then a Western

blot for confirmation. The problem is that these tests were designed to

detect acute Lyme disease and are very poor at detecting chronic Lyme disease.

In addition, doctors (infectious disease, internists, family practice, etc)

most often use the Center for Disease Control (CDC) criteria to define a

positive test. This criteria was never meant to be used for diagnosis, but

rather for epidemiological surveillance (tracking data). If one uses an

expanded Western blot with revised requirement criteria for diagnosis, studies

have demonstrated an improved sensitivity of detection and a low

false-positive rate.

There are also a number of coinfections that are commonly transmitted

along with the Lyme bacterium, including Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichia and

others. There are also different species in different parts of the country,

making testing difficult and insensitive. As with Borrelia, the coinfections

have a very high percentage of false-negative results (test negative despite

infection being present).

Treatment of chronic Lyme disease can also be very problematic as the

Borrelia bacteria can transform from the standard cell wall form to a non-cell

wall form (l-form) and also into a treatment resistant cyst. Standard

antibiotic treatments are only effective against the cell wall form and are

ineffective against the L-forms and cystic forms that are usually present in

chronic Lyme disease. Consequently, the usual 2-4 weeks of intravenous or oral

antibiotics can be of little benefit. Even the use of longer courses of

oral or intravenous antibiotics for months or years can be ineffective as

well if used a the sole major therapy. A multi-system integrative approach

can, however, dramatically increase the likelihood of successful treatment.

This includes using a combination of synergistic antibiotics that are

effective against the l-forms and cystic forms, immune modulators, directed

anti-Lyme nutriceuticals, anticoagulants, hormonal therapies and prescription

lysosomotropics (medications that increase the effectiveness and penetration of

antibiotics into the various forms of the Borrelia spirochete). To

adequately detect and treat chronic Lyme disease, physicians must understand

that

standard testing will miss the majority of these patients and standard

treatment will fail the majority of time. One must undergo more specialized

testing and treatment to achieve success in the majority of these patients.