Live data from Hacker News

15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

bostonglobe.com

71–80 of 175 posts

Re: 15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

#71

I didn’t discover that ticks were a problem until I was in my mid 20s, and had been rolling around in deer-filled brush for years. Either I got very lucky, or have a chronic tick-borne disease. I’ve been battling unexplained anxiety, fatigue, poor sleep and cognitive decline throughout my 30s. I’ve had every blood test under the sun, numerous sleep studies and tried every vitamin. I’ve had no answers and no change. S…

Signed up to post this. So I have been on this journey with my daughter for the last 7 years, she is now 25, but only got a Lyme diagnosis less than 2 years ago, has been suffering since she was 18. It’s not just ticks, mosquitos and spiders can apparently carry the bacteria (there is not a lot of consensus about the causes of Lyme, there is the bacterial school of thought and a viral theory). This if the fringe of science, theory’s matter but results matter more. My daughter had a range of symptoms, fatigue, body aches, circulation issues her feet would change colour blue, red, purple, brain fog. She had been 5 years on this path trying to deal with this, before the Lyme test was done (we live in nz which lyme is rare, and she likely caught it in Australia which doesn’t acknowledge its existence). Anyway we headed to Germany for hyperthermia treatment. It wasn’t cheap for us, and almost an act of faith in choosing this. I had reservations, at the frontier of medicine everything looks different. People are pursuing options that are unconventional, because the conventional options have been exhausted. At some point everything that is considered mainstream now, once looked unconventional. I know that could be used to justify anything. We spent 3 weeks at St George clinic in Germany.

The theory of Lyme is that is a really slowly replicating bacteria, once every 24 hours vs 20 minutes typical for most. It does respond to antibiotics but the slow replication rate means you would need antibiotics in your system for a much much longer period to have the same number of kill opportunities (it is during replication that bacteria will absorb antibiotics and be killed as I understand it). Roughly you would need antibiotics for 3x24 as long as a typical antibiotic treatment (over 2 years of antibiotics which would ruin the rest of your body). The hyperthermia treatment is intense, it is designed to mimic a fever. One of our bodies approaches to killing bacteria, is getting them hot enough to rupture their cells. It wasnt an easy or a quick fix after treatment, which was disheartening at times. But a year on she has just noticed she is feeling better, has little to no pain and just the other day took a run along the beach. Anyway I just wanted to endorse a plan you were already thinking about. I acknowledge that a chronic health issue is hard, hard in a way that those of us who a generally healthy can’t even comprehend. I wish you all the best

Re: 15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

#72

I didn’t discover that ticks were a problem until I was in my mid 20s, and had been rolling around in deer-filled brush for years. Either I got very lucky, or have a chronic tick-borne disease. I’ve been battling unexplained anxiety, fatigue, poor sleep and cognitive decline throughout my 30s. I’ve had every blood test under the sun, numerous sleep studies and tried every vitamin. I’ve had no answers and no change. S…

Signed up to post this. So I have been on this journey with my daughter for the last 7 years, she is now 25, but only got a Lyme diagnosis less than 2 years ago, has been suffering since she was 18. It’s not just ticks, mosquitos and spiders can apparently carry the bacteria (there is not a lot of consensus about the causes of Lyme, there is the bacterial school of thought and a viral theory). This if the fringe of s…

Thank you for taking the time to sign up and write this. I'm glad your daughter is feeling better, and I wish her a continued recovery. I will consider this treatment more seriously, but the cost is significant, especially only to hope for results.

Re: 15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

#73

I didn’t discover that ticks were a problem until I was in my mid 20s, and had been rolling around in deer-filled brush for years. Either I got very lucky, or have a chronic tick-borne disease. I’ve been battling unexplained anxiety, fatigue, poor sleep and cognitive decline throughout my 30s. I’ve had every blood test under the sun, numerous sleep studies and tried every vitamin. I’ve had no answers and no change. S…

Re: hypothermia, watch this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwtPtlcNXEs

Yes, thank you! I am a subscriber to his channel, and I was surprised to watch his video. I have mixed feelings about the treatment. It is one of these "very expensive fix everyone is looking for, but results aren't guaranteed" things that makes me suspect of the whole thing. I've read several reports of people who had no results, and very few from people with positive results.

Sometimes a treatment, perhaps especially one like that, you have to believe in. And I don't take paracetamol because every time I've taken it I don't really feel any better, than had I not taken any at all. So if the treatment needs me to believe in it, that THIS TIME, once and for all, that it's finally going to cure me, because I've ponied up 30,000 EUR, so it HAS to work, then I'm probably not the right candidate. Once I went to a spiritual healer who asked me to leave half way through because I wasn't playing along.

Re: 15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

#74
Growing up in the UK, I never thought about ticks, ever. I then moved to Poland, and remember thinking the Poles were crazy for worrying about tall grass all the time. It was a huge 'wtf are you doing lol?' moment... Then a friend of a friend got fucked over by Lyme disease.

Now I've developed a case of Polish paranoia and tuck my trousers in socks, even if it's 35 degs :/

Re: 15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

#75

I didn’t discover that ticks were a problem until I was in my mid 20s, and had been rolling around in deer-filled brush for years. Either I got very lucky, or have a chronic tick-borne disease. I’ve been battling unexplained anxiety, fatigue, poor sleep and cognitive decline throughout my 30s. I’ve had every blood test under the sun, numerous sleep studies and tried every vitamin. I’ve had no answers and no change. S…

That's rough. Same symptoms of low testosterone, which a blood test can measure. This can be caused (even in younger men) through daily exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) like BPA and phthalates, heavy metals, and pesticides. Poor lifestyle exposures such as chronic stress, lack of sleep, and high ambient air pollution also significantly suppress hormone production.

Not just T. Low thyroid hormone levels as well. I just had that diagnosed, after a year or two of feeling “worn out”. I thought it might be T (I’m almost 50 now) but turns out my thyroid was under-active. Relatively easy diagnosis and fix.

Re: 15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

#76
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you drink coffee?

Yes. I've tried avoiding caffeine during my year off. When I don't (even after weeks of abstinence) I sleep 12-14 hours a night and still need a nap during the day, which is incompatible with having both a day job and something approaching a well-lived life involving laundry. So I drink caffeine, to be compatible with the labour market.

Have tired ADHD diagnosis?

Re: 15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

#78

Growing up in the UK, I never thought about ticks, ever. I then moved to Poland, and remember thinking the Poles were crazy for worrying about tall grass all the time. It was a huge 'wtf are you doing lol?' moment... Then a friend of a friend got fucked over by Lyme disease. Now I've developed a case of Polish paranoia and tuck my trousers in socks, even if it's 35 degs :/

We stopped burning grass and got ticks infestation. I used work and play in tall grass as a 7 year old in my grapa farm. Never got a tick. 30 years later I found 7 ticks on my cloths after 2 hours walk on the same farm.

Re: 15-minute at-home Lyme disease tick test

#80
post #67

I didn’t discover that ticks were a problem until I was in my mid 20s, and had been rolling around in deer-filled brush for years. Either I got very lucky, or have a chronic tick-borne disease. I’ve been battling unexplained anxiety, fatigue, poor sleep and cognitive decline throughout my 30s. I’ve had every blood test under the sun, numerous sleep studies and tried every vitamin. I’ve had no answers and no change. S…

fwiw; I had unexplained anxiety, fatigue, poor sleep and cognitive decline as a post-COVID induced histamine intolerance with a few bonus attributes. High amounts of histamine would accumulate in my mast cells then get released in 3-5am, undermining sleep and also inhibiting serotonin. It took me about four years to fully understand my condition. Hope you figure out what is bothering you. The body is incredibly compl…

What did you do about this? Is it at all related to allergy levels? How do you measure your histamine level on a daily basis?
Post reply on HN