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New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

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Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#51

On a related note, the Trump administration frozen more than $790 million in federal funding for NU because of "ongoing federal antisemitism investigations": https://dailynorthwestern.com/2025/05/05/lateststories/by-th...

This is what the "fight" with "elite" universities is really about: No longer funding research.

That's the most important aspect of this thing. Every other aspect of this is a sideshow to the main event. And the main event very much is the de-funding of scientific research.

No longer funding this research is a huge change. And one that will eventually have far-reaching consequences for everyone.

Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#52
My mother got a tick bite and felt off and the doctor told her she had allergies and sinus infection due to high pollen. Luckily my younger brother is a physician and told her to go back and ask for a Lyme disease test. They said okay but said Lyme disease is really rare and wasn’t necessary. Long story short she was positive but was caught early enough that 30 days Doxy was all she needed.

That same year I was bitten and had a super itchy spot near my private regions. It was crazy itch and made a bullseye rash. I went to a clinic and they said they had never seen the bullseye rash and it was textbook Lyme disease (or one other common tick disease). Same was treated with Doxy and was fine. It’s an strange disease because if caught early super cheap antibiotics work well… but if has spread through your body it can take years to recover and be quite serious!

Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be pedantic, Bell's Palsy is the name of the condition not the cause. So it was Bell's Palsy caused by Lyme disease. I have noticed that the line between condition and cause is often overlooked, even by doctors. For example this leads to people thinking Pinkeye/conjunctivitis is highly contagious, when it is still conjunctivitis if it is caused by getting something in your eye. I think that holds for everythi…

Do you have trouble reading other people's emotions?

No, I could clearly tell they were angry. I just never understood why some people get angry about minor corrections.

Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#55

I contracted Lyme disease while on vacation in Cape Cod last year. The first symptom was left-side facial paralysis, which my physician diagnosed as Bell's Palsy, so I spent two weeks on steroids before we figured out the real issue. Three weeks of doxycycline cured the Lyme but left feeling pretty wrecked for more than a month afterwards! I seem to have avoided the chronic symptoms some people experience, but a low-…

Doxycycline is my favorite antibiotic and the most effective against chronic sinusitis and chronic prostatitis for me. I only take it maybe once a year, but it does wonders for a good long time.

It also cured my nearly lifelong IBS-D about a decade ago. I had a small re-occurrence of IBS-D last year after so many years without it. I was able to convince the doc that it fixed it for me in the past, so he prescribed me doxycycline again. Boom! All fixed just like before.

I have no idea why that particular antibiotic does the trick, but I've taken so many others from amoxicillin line, bactrim, even cipro, flagyl (gross) etc. and only doxy is the silver bullet for me it seems.

Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Long Lyme certainly exists. I appear to have it as do numerous acquaintances. I wrote "appear to have it" because a blood test for Borrelia returns negative. However, just two weeks ago a doctor told me that Borrelia can evade a blood test by infecting the nervous system. That was news to me so I found this from NIH in the USA. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8870494/ Borrelia can cross over to the C…

> I wrote "appear to have it" because a blood test for Borrelia returns negative. However, just two weeks ago a doctor told me that Borrelia can evade a blood test by infecting the nervous system. The theory of persistent infection hasn't really held up. There were a few researchers who claimed to have some evidence, but it hasn't really been replicated. It's largely been dismissed from mainstream research. Sadly, it…

Is there a reason you refer to alternative medical communities in response to my comment? Considering I made no reference to using alternative medicine, what does it have to do with my comment? Do you have an agenda? I know that I don't have one and neither did my comment.

Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Long Lyme certainly exists. I appear to have it as do numerous acquaintances. I wrote "appear to have it" because a blood test for Borrelia returns negative. However, just two weeks ago a doctor told me that Borrelia can evade a blood test by infecting the nervous system. That was news to me so I found this from NIH in the USA. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8870494/ Borrelia can cross over to the C…

What symptoms? How can you say your symptoms are from long Lyme, and not something else, or just getting old?

My symptoms are spot on with Acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrodermatitis_chronica_atroph... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK563289/

Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#58
Good time to remind people that right next to the town of Lyme CT is Plum Island Animal Disease Center, who happened to be researching tick based disease transmission when Lyme disease was first discovered (named after the town that had the first case). Crazy coincidence.

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2019/07/did-us-invent-lym...

Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#59
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple of years ago I had about 10 tick bites and one of them resulted in the signature bull’s-eye rash. Thankfully, I was aware of the ticks and I was checking for the bull’s-eye rash to appear and it got treated with doxycycline. Many people face symptoms months after the bite or they might not remember getting bitten by a tick so it’s common that it is misdiagnosed and they get all kinds of ineffective and / or…

> was checking for the bull’s-eye rash to appear Note that the absence of that wouldn't mean you didn't get lyme disease. Where I live, most of the ticks carry lyme disease, yet not that many people get infected: if you pull it out quickly, you greatly reduce the chance of getting infected. Of the people I know, perhaps 20% had lyme disease (and knew about it, I must add).

1 in 5 people had Lyme disease where you live? Where is that??

Re: New studies offer insight into Lyme disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms

#60

On a related note, the Trump administration frozen more than $790 million in federal funding for NU because of "ongoing federal antisemitism investigations": https://dailynorthwestern.com/2025/05/05/lateststories/by-th...

This is what the "fight" with "elite" universities is really about: No longer funding research. That's the most important aspect of this thing. Every other aspect of this is a sideshow to the main event. And the main event very much is the de-funding of scientific research. No longer funding this research is a huge change. And one that will eventually have far-reaching consequences for everyone.

I think it is even broader than that. It is removing any potential opposition. That opposition is independent institutions, such as universities, but also the truth itself. If there's no one to research things, then how will you know if something is "true" or not? If there's no one to communicate those findings, how will anyone find out? Etc.
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