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Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

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Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#81

Post by cogman10 »

llamataboot wrote: post #34

I may or may not have had chronic lyme disease. I definitely had many many ticks. (Never cared about em, just pulled them off). And I definitely was sick for over a decade. And I definitely tested positive on the Western Blot multiple times. (And chronic lyme is definitely a bit of a catch-all diagnosis for a host of auto-immune stuff we don't quite understand yet) It was awful, something I wouldn't wish on anyone. I…

Just a note, Chronic lyme disease isn't really a thing.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4477530/

This isn't to say you haven't been dealing with a lot of garbage, just that you might need to seek different medical care if your doctors are telling you that you have chronic lyme disease.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#82

Post by stupidboy »

Surprised to see Lyme disease on HN, since bringing affordable DNA testing for B. burgdorferi & other pathogens to the public is the startup I've been working on since 2014.

Relevant Plug: https://www.tickcheck.com/

As mentioned in other comments, serological tests fall short in various ways (accuracy, time). If you keep the tick that bit you, we can test it for the presence Lyme, and several other pathogens. If negative, we can effectively rule out much of the risk. Super quick & accurate, too.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#83

Post by dheera »

stupidboy wrote: post #82

Surprised to see Lyme disease on HN, since bringing affordable DNA testing for B. burgdorferi & other pathogens to the public is the startup I've been working on since 2014. Relevant Plug: https://www.tickcheck.com/ As mentioned in other comments, serological tests fall short in various ways (accuracy, time). If you keep the tick that bit you, we can test it for the presence Lyme, and several other pathogens. If nega…

Interesting. I got bit by 2 blacklegged ticks in the past 3 months but I couldn't find any free tick tests, so I never had them tested. Both were within a few hours so I assumed based on CDC advice that I was still in the green zone. It sounds like one of those things that health insurance companies would be out of their minds to not cover.

Separately: Bay Area hikers beware -- change your clothes immediately after getting home, do complete body checks after hiking -- ideally, shower immediately.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#85

Post by archarios »

cogman10 wrote: post #81
llamataboot wrote: post #34

I may or may not have had chronic lyme disease. I definitely had many many ticks. (Never cared about em, just pulled them off). And I definitely was sick for over a decade. And I definitely tested positive on the Western Blot multiple times. (And chronic lyme is definitely a bit of a catch-all diagnosis for a host of auto-immune stuff we don't quite understand yet) It was awful, something I wouldn't wish on anyone. I…

Just a note, Chronic lyme disease isn't really a thing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4477530/ This isn't to say you haven't been dealing with a lot of garbage, just that you might need to seek different medical care if your doctors are telling you that you have chronic lyme disease.

Well they noted that "chronic lyme" is used as a catch all for a variety of issues. If this person is being told they have chronic lyme, they are already seeing an alternative doctor of some sort and are most likely very aware of what you're saying. Traditional "western" doctors won't really recognize chronic lyme as a thing. There are a lot of people out there who are experiencing chronic fatigue issues and other problems that our medical system doesn't really have answers for. A lot of those people end up seeking alternative solutions if they can afford it because they need SOMETHING.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#86

Post by asmithmd1 »

wazoox wrote: post #51

I've got ticks a few times a year just running in the woods (the last one was Saturday). During holidays in the Pyrenees with my family, we had to scan our bodies for ticks every day, and every day we found several -- up to a dozen -- on each of us. Now the article is very light on the main question: why did ticks multiply that much recently?

My theory is the discontinuation of large scale DDT spraying. When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s in the northeast of the US I would see maybe 1 tick a summer and I never saw an eagle or a hawk. Now I see plenty of both. Maybe we could resume DDT spraying for a year or two and knock the ticks back

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#87

Post by idlewords »

robolange wrote: post #31

My father nearly died of [what we believe to be] Lyme disease. A few years ago he started getting awful bouts of pain all over his body. He couldn't eat, was losing weight, was losing muscle mass fast. It got the the point where he was using a walker (he was less than 60 years old at the time) and could barely lift a 5 pound weight. He went to a bunch of different doctors, had all kinds of scans run, and only kept ge…

My mom just got Lyme disease with similar alarming symptoms, and has responded rapidly to antibiotics. I'm glad your father got the diagnosis in time.

One thing I learned in the process is that the bullseye rash is often just a broad, flat red area, and in some people (as you point out) doesn't show at all. Any summertime flulike symptoms in tick country should lead you to suspect Lyme disease (or the group of similar related tick-borne infections).

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#88

Post by stupidboy »

dheera wrote: post #83
stupidboy wrote: post #82

Surprised to see Lyme disease on HN, since bringing affordable DNA testing for B. burgdorferi & other pathogens to the public is the startup I've been working on since 2014. Relevant Plug: https://www.tickcheck.com/ As mentioned in other comments, serological tests fall short in various ways (accuracy, time). If you keep the tick that bit you, we can test it for the presence Lyme, and several other pathogens. If nega…

Interesting. I got bit by 2 blacklegged ticks in the past 3 months but I couldn't find any free tick tests, so I never had them tested. Both were within a few hours so I assumed based on CDC advice that I was still in the green zone. It sounds like one of those things that health insurance companies would be out of their minds to not cover. Separately: Bay Area hikers beware -- change your clothes immediately after g…

We can't get reimbursed by health insurance because we aren't a medical facility, but rather a DNA lab. I'm sure in some regard, it's a downside. However, it does force us to compete intensely on price, value & service. And I'm happy with that because consumers win.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#89

Post by lkrubner »

I was bit by a tick and I got sick. No doctor could figure out what was wrong. I tested negative for Lyme. I took antibiotics (Biaxin) and 3 months later I was fine. I stopped taking antibiotics. Within 2 months I was sick again. I took Biaxin for 6 months. I felt great. I stopped antibiotics. Within 2 months I was sick again. I took Biaxin for a year. I felt great. I stopped taking antibiotics. Within 2 months I was sick again.

This time, the symptoms were completely different. I assumed it was a new illness. Doctors were mystified. One said it was psychosomatic. I was off antibiotics for more than 6 months. I got sicker and sicker. I was in bad shape when I decided this illness was the same as the previous illness. I took a combination of Cipro and Zithromax for 1 year. I got better. Then I stopped. I got sick again.

I was eager to get back to my career so I tried a few antibiotics that might be light, cheap, easy and sustainable. A friend of mine, as a teenager, had acne and the doctors had them on antibiotics for 4 years to deal with the acne. They’d taken something similar to doxycycline. I tried it but it did nothing for me. I tried hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which gave me great energy but did not cure me. Then I tried Amoxicillin. That worked great. I took that for 11 years. Then I quit and got sick again. I went back to Biaxin, and took that for another 2 years. My business was going well so I could not focus on my health. I was busy. The simplest thing was to take antibiotics, which kept me healthy so I could focus on work. So long as I took antibiotics the illness kept its distance. In that sense, the illness was similar to leprosy — I could live a normal life but only if I took antibiotics every day.

But I was irritated with my business partner (I’ve written about that elsewhere). So I sold my share of the business.

Now I had time to focus on my health. What had I not yet tried? What about fasting?

I went 2 weeks without food. I took antibiotics the first week but not the second. I felt sick. The fast ended. I had a vegetarian meal. I fell asleep. I woke up the next day and had a large vegetarian meal. That night I felt funny. The feeling was similar to that moment, if you have a flu, when the fever breaks. With a flu, you get sicker and sicker till a moment the fever breaks and then you know that your immune system has kicked in. That was exactly the feeling that I had then.

I have not taken any antibiotics since that fast, and I’ve been blessed with excellent health.

Re: Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding

#90

Post by switch007 »

A few years ago I got bitten by something after being close to a deer but never saw any kind of insect. I had a large inflamed area (one circle IIRC) for a while, experienced mild flu symptoms for a few weeks, and then some wrist pains a few weeks after that. Doctor wouldn't give me antibiotics.

I haven't had any physical symptoms since, but I'm pretty sure my mood and cognitive ability has taken a hit. There are of course so many factors not controlled for, but it's always at the back of my mind.

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