Lyme Disease

What symptoms should you be looking for or what conditions could be caused by Lyme disease?

A bullseye rash following a tick bite is a recognisable sign of infection and can lead to early diagnosis and antibiotic treatment, which can be effective in eliminating the bacteria. However, not all infected bites produce a rash (only about 1 in 4).

Early symptoms can be flu-like to begin with and slow to develop, leading to a gradual decline in health.

The bacterial infection can them become systemic; spreading to different tissues in the body and affecting multiple systems, often causing debilitating symptoms including:

• Skin rash (like a bullseye) around the bite
• Arthritis and migrating joint pain
• Chronic fatigue
• Migratory numbness and tingling, tinnitus, night sweats and chills
• Skin rash (like a bullseye) around the bite
• Arthritis and migrating joint pain
• Chronic fatigue
• Migratory numbness and tingling, tinnitus, night sweats and chills

Advanced symptoms can be neurological and systemic throughout the body, affecting joints, digestion, the nervous system and heart. Due to the complexity of the disease, symptoms can also overlap with other conditions such as:

• ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Dementia
• Depression and anxiety
• MS and other autoimmune condition, such as lupus, Rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto’s
• Fibromyalgia
• Migraine
• Labyrinthitis
• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and other autoimmune diseases

Causes

Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete—a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Borrelia Burgdorferi (BB). It is passed on to humans via a bite from an infected tick, and can also be passed from mother to baby too.

Treatments

At Mi Healthcare, we have a team of highly-experienced practitioners who specialise in working with people who have or may suspect Lyme disease.

How we identify Lyme disease

1. We take a very detailed case history using extensive forms.
2. We use detailed specific Lyme questionnaires.
3. Comprehensive Bacteria bio survey.
4. Differential bio surveys to rule out any other conditions that may be present.

How we identify Lyme disease

We treat Lyme as we would any other condition by using the functional medicine approach. This involves understanding which of the bodies systems and processes are not functioning correctly and why. By working with diet, supplements and herbal medicine we are able to improve the function of these systems. After making the body stronger we can then target the Borrelia Burgdorferi and the co-infections.

The approach we take is individualised to each patient, but we pay particular attention to gastrointestinal function, detoxification and immunity. We also have to consider overlapping factors such as heavy metal toxicity, bowel toxemia, nutrient deficiencies, endocrine abnormalities, environmental toxins, sleep disorders and mitochondrial dysfunction.

With additional services such as Intra Venous laser therapy, silver, and immune boosting intravenous cocktails; we aim to be a one-stop shop for all lyme disease and associated conditions. Using the above approach we have been getting very good results with patients – even those who have failed other regimens.

Why is Lyme disease routinely missed?

1. GPs do not have the requisite training to look for Lyme Disease
2. There is the assumption that you have to have a bullseye rash when bitten by a tick. Wrong. Only 25% of bites produce a rash.
3. The conventional treatment is 2 weeks antibiotics but this will not address chronic Lyme disease.
4. The standard tests of the Western Blot and ELISA test often produce false negative results.
5. There are few Lyme literate Doctors practicing in the UK currently
6. Lyme is accompanied routinely by co-infections such as Epstein Barr virus, Babesia, Chlamydia Pneumonaie, or Yersinia.
7. Misdiagnosis with other diseases is incredibly common. For example a diagnosis of MS is often given and the lesions on an MRI appear the same for both diseases.