Lyme disease patients frequently experience debilitating symptoms that compromise quality of life. Fatigue, arthralgias, memory issues and sleep disturbances may mimic chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia.
Serum antibody testing is highly accurate for diagnosing early Lyme neuroborreliosis in extracutaneous symptoms. Asymptomatic seropositivity does not represent a current infection and should not necessitate antibiotic treatment.
Symptoms
Most cases of Lyme disease result from being bitten by ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, but some individuals still develop persistent symptoms after treatment such as fatigue, joint pain and cognitive difficulties; this condition is sometimes known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) but researchers are yet to ascertain its source.
If you suspect Lyme disease, visit your physician immediately for a blood test to check for traces of bacteria. If positive results emerge, treatment with antibiotics like Doxycycline will likely be prescribed; as it kills the organisms that cause Lyme. However, completion of all prescribed courses of antibiotics to avoid potential recurrences or reinfection.
Some patients may experience a Herxheimer reaction during treatment, in which bacteria die faster than the body can eliminate them. While this may temporarily worsen symptoms, it’s an indicator that antibiotics are working effectively and is an indicator that treatment has begun working effectively.
Antibiotics may not always be successful at treating Lyme disease as the bacteria mutate into new forms resistant to certain antibiotics. When this happens, your physician may suggest an alternate antibiotic such as piperacillin which helps preserve body’s microbiome while effectively treating Lyme without producing Herxheimer reactions.
Sound therapy can provide relief and bolster immunity for individuals suffering from persistent symptoms. This form of therapy uses specific sounds and vibrations to encourage healing in the body.
Sound therapy offers many potential methods of relieving symptoms associated with Lyme Disease, including binaural beats and sound baths. Sound therapy may help alleviate stress while improving sleep quality – two additional advantages that make sound therapy a vital addition to any treatment plan for Lyme disease.
At Oasis Medical Institute, sound therapy is part of an integrative approach to treating Lyme Disease. Under Francisco Contreras MD’s leadership, our team can customize a treatment plan including sound therapy as well as other holistic healing approaches tailored specifically for you.
Treatment
Lyme disease treatment options range from antibiotics and holistic approaches, with antibiotics typically being the go-to choice, in order to alleviate symptoms and prevent recurrences. If symptoms do not improve after initial rounds of antibiotic treatment, further rounds may need to be administered as necessary.
Doxycycline has proven its efficacy in clinical studies as an antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease, with treatment usually lasting seven-14 days, although patients who present neurologic manifestations may require additional courses of antibiotics.
Other treatment strategies may include diet modifications and natural therapies as part of an overall regimen, which may help to decrease fatigue, pain and inflammation in the body while simultaneously strengthening immunity and speeding healing.
Individuals living with chronic Lyme Disease frequently struggle with sleep disturbances. Sound therapy can improve quality of restful slumber by encouraging relaxation and stress reduction – this may help them overcome its effects and enhance quality of life.
Persistent symptoms after Lyme disease infection could be related to any number of conditions, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and somatization disorder. A comprehensive evaluation should be completed prior to diagnosing persistent Lyme disease symptoms in any individual patient.
Emergence of persistent Lyme disease in endemic regions has created significant difficulties in diagnosing and treating it within communities, with numerous hypothesized mechanisms leading to illness such as microbial persistence, host immune dysregulation through inflammation or secondary autoimmunity pathways, altered neural networks as central sensitization being among them.
Physicians seeking to diagnose PTLD must conduct a complete physical exam and review laboratory tests in order to confirm an authentic tick-borne infection. They should obtain a CSF index, which measures antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid. CSF index measurements can help physicians ascertain if an active neuroborreliosis condition exists that doesn’t respond to antibiotic treatment; furthermore, brain and spinal imaging in suspected PTLD cases could help rule out other potential causes, such as brain tumors.
Side Effects
For patients experiencing persistent symptoms related to Lyme disease, the ILADS guideline offers various treatment options that may help such as antibiotics tailored specifically for that person’s dosage needs, cognitive therapy and physical/occupational therapies. Furthermore, established therapeutic interventions for other rheumatic conditions like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome which have similar clinical characteristics are also suggested in this treatment plan.
Persistent Lyme disease symptomatology is an extremely complex phenomenon for which no definitive etiology can be identified. Although various hypotheses have been proposed as possible sources, one persistent theme appears to be immunological dysfunction and/or infection-induced autoimmunity among some patients. As a result, “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome” (PTLDS) has come to define symptoms which cannot easily be linked with one pathophysiologic mechanism.
This group of patients, which may or may not have previously been treated, may become symptomatic shortly after taking antibiotics. It’s likely that the combination of host genetic factors and B. burgdorferi factors contributes to immune dysregulation or infection-induced autoimmune mechanisms resulting in persistent musculoskeletal or neurological symptoms attributed to PTLD or its causes.
Patients suffering from PTLD often co-infection with tick-borne microorganisms like Babesia, Ehrlichia, and Bartonella that spread via ticks. Left untreated, these coinfections can increase morbidity and mortality rates significantly – though diagnosing such coinfections can often be challenging as available laboratory tests often have different performance parameters and do not detect all strains of these organisms.
ILADS Guidelines have released a more inclusive definition of CLD which may not meet IDSA PTLDS criteria due to lack of functional impairment or weak evidence for prior Lyme disease. When this occurs, clinicians should take into account patient preferences when prescribing oral antibiotics as well as considering synovial proliferation versus joint swelling severity and consider an increased course based on patient preference and consideration of joint swelling severity. Furthermore, clinicians are strongly encouraged to ensure their diagnostic laboratories offer FDA-cleared tests with demonstrated analytical and clinical validity against an appropriate reference standard.
Prevention
Lyme disease is the most widespread vector-borne infectious illness afflicting temperate regions across North America and Eurasia. Caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex spirochetes transmitted via Ixodes tick bites, symptoms may range from flu-like symptoms to neurologic complaints; early diagnosis and treatment reduce the risk of Post Treatment Lyme Disease Disorder (PTLD), which may arise after recovering from initial illness.
In areas with an elevated Lyme disease risk, physicians should suspect Lyme disease when patients present with the classic erythema migrans rash or tick bite symptoms. Patients should be advised to search for and promptly remove attached ticks, especially nymphal ticks. Identification of tick species that transmit B. burgdorferi may help narrow down possible false positive results from laboratory testing that could result in unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, potentially contributing to resistant strains of B. burgdorferi infection.
Diagnosis of Lyme disease involves considering its history, physical exam and laboratory findings. A course of tetracycline or doxycycline for 21 days should be prescribed if there has been a tick bite with symptoms consistent with bull’s-eye erythema migrans rash; longer antibiotic courses may be needed in some instances due to neurological manifestations or possible exposure to infected ticks.
Patients should be advised to avoid outdoor activities during tick-active times and conduct routine tick checks. When one is found, it should be removed quickly with one of the many devices designed for this purpose; proper tick removal reduces transmission rates significantly by grasping and pulling its mouthparts at their closest points of attachment to skin.
As part of their Lyme disease treatment regimen, patients should also undergo evaluation for possible coinfection with other tick-borne pathogens such as Babesia, Anaplasma and Ehrlichia. Studies suggest coinfection increases risk for more severe and disseminated illness; detection requires additional laboratory testing that includes antigen and antibody detection as well as culture and CSF PCR to confirm.
