Post by ascnat on Nov 20, 2019 13:31:23 GMT 1
Infectious diseases have been identified for centuries and medicine has created various treatments to combat them. Integrative medicine is no exception, although it has a different approach by preventing the disease and then incorporating naturopathic treatments to heal it.
In this article, we discuss Lyme disease, an infectious disease that causes great discomfort and serious symptoms for the infected. We look at the cause of the disease in details along with its prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Lyme disease is an infection transmitted to humans through the bite of Blacklegged tick (deer tick), which is infected to bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.
The infected tick can transmit other tick-borne diseases as well, such as Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Borrelia mayonii, Borrelia miyamotoi and Powassan that are rare but severe infections with life-threatening symptoms.
Lyme disease has symptoms according to the stage of infection. Initial symptoms start at the early localized stage with a distinguished skin rash called erythema migrans at the site of the tick’s bit, but expands to a large area of almost 12 inches and sometimes it takes the shape of a bull’s eye with a center and a circle around it. It has no pain or itching and indicates that bacteria are multiplying in the bloodstream. EM rash is often present in 80% of patients.
In the second stage or early disseminated Lyme disease, fever, chills, fatigue, headache, and swollen lymph nodes appear because bacteria are spreading throughout the body. The rash might appear as well in other areas of the body.
If Lyme disease is left untreated in stage 1 or 2, the third or late disseminated stage can spread to brain, nervous system, heart and joints causing repeated episodes of severe headaches, new skin rashes, facial palsy (Bell’s palsy), arthritis with shooting joint pains, tingling and swelling in the arms and legs, irregular heartbeat, nerve pain, and inflammation of spinal cord or brain, even years later.
It is worth mentioning that some patients have no visible symptoms and yet carry the infection for years without their knowledge.
Lyme disease has been nicknamed The Great Imitator because it has symptoms similar to many diseases and due to these similarities, it is commonly overlooked, and the symptoms are attributed to other illnesses such as fibromyalgia, mononucleosis, chronic fatigue, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.
CDC reports that 300,000 people in the United States are infected by Lyme disease every year.
How Lyme disease is diagnosed?
Lyme disease is diagnosed based on observed symptoms, skin rash and the possibility of infected ticks being present in patient’s environment. Then specialty Lab testing is used, which has a conventional method and a GLD technique.
Conventional laboratory testing for Lyme disease is performed by collecting blood samples and looking for antibodies, which made in response to an infection. The test is done in two steps in which only positive (or indeterminate) result of the first step can lead to performing the second step. If positive result repeats, it will indicate an overall positive result and infection.
The problem with the conventional test is that antibodies are made weeks after initial infection; therefore, immediately after the bite; the test result might be false negative! On the other hand, antibodies remain in the blood for months or even years after infection; therefore, they cannot be an indication of current infection, and the test result is just a false positive. The diversity of species and strains of Borrelia bacteria across North America is greater than borrelia burgdoferi; therefore, most test results are false negative and if a patient interests in tests for multiple strains, it is too expensive to afford. Also, some other infectious or even autoimmune diseases cause the same antibody responses, which can provide false positive results for Lyme disease!
The two-tiered lab test can only detect 56% of people with Lyme infection, which is much lower than 95% gold standard for screening tests.
Due to these insufficiencies and misdiagnosis of the current two-tier diagnostic approach for Lyme disease, Global Lyme Diagnostics’ team of scientists has created GLD breakthrough specialty test. GLD test is based in science and aims to accurately detect Lyme infection at early stages within days after the actual bite and decrease current misdiagnosis of people along with offering accurate tests for common Lyme co-infections.
GLD incorporates a breakthrough technology called chimeritopes that increases sensitivity by eliminating proteins not relevant to a Lyme infection (non-OsPC targets). GLD novel chimeritope (chimeric proteins) technology is sequenced to be used as a vaccinogen or as a diagnostic antigen. Each chimeritope is derived from multiple diverse outer surface C protein (OsPC) variants, strains, and species of borrelia across the North American spectrum; therefore, it reduces false negatives in GLD test results.
It is worth noting that the outer surface proteins on borrelia spirochetes are regulated to OsPC at the time of the bite, and the resulting antibodies to OsPC are released earlier in the infection, which results in fewer false negatives. But it doesn’t mean the GLD test is only effective for early detection, on the contrary, it can be used to detect Lyme infection at every stage.
The exciting part is that all variants are screened in one test; therefore, it is an affordable option for all.
The earlier the diagnosis is, the less chance for infection to progress throughout the body.
In this article, we discuss Lyme disease, an infectious disease that causes great discomfort and serious symptoms for the infected. We look at the cause of the disease in details along with its prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Lyme disease is an infection transmitted to humans through the bite of Blacklegged tick (deer tick), which is infected to bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.
The infected tick can transmit other tick-borne diseases as well, such as Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Borrelia mayonii, Borrelia miyamotoi and Powassan that are rare but severe infections with life-threatening symptoms.
Lyme disease has symptoms according to the stage of infection. Initial symptoms start at the early localized stage with a distinguished skin rash called erythema migrans at the site of the tick’s bit, but expands to a large area of almost 12 inches and sometimes it takes the shape of a bull’s eye with a center and a circle around it. It has no pain or itching and indicates that bacteria are multiplying in the bloodstream. EM rash is often present in 80% of patients.
In the second stage or early disseminated Lyme disease, fever, chills, fatigue, headache, and swollen lymph nodes appear because bacteria are spreading throughout the body. The rash might appear as well in other areas of the body.
If Lyme disease is left untreated in stage 1 or 2, the third or late disseminated stage can spread to brain, nervous system, heart and joints causing repeated episodes of severe headaches, new skin rashes, facial palsy (Bell’s palsy), arthritis with shooting joint pains, tingling and swelling in the arms and legs, irregular heartbeat, nerve pain, and inflammation of spinal cord or brain, even years later.
It is worth mentioning that some patients have no visible symptoms and yet carry the infection for years without their knowledge.
Lyme disease has been nicknamed The Great Imitator because it has symptoms similar to many diseases and due to these similarities, it is commonly overlooked, and the symptoms are attributed to other illnesses such as fibromyalgia, mononucleosis, chronic fatigue, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.
CDC reports that 300,000 people in the United States are infected by Lyme disease every year.
How Lyme disease is diagnosed?
Lyme disease is diagnosed based on observed symptoms, skin rash and the possibility of infected ticks being present in patient’s environment. Then specialty Lab testing is used, which has a conventional method and a GLD technique.
Conventional laboratory testing for Lyme disease is performed by collecting blood samples and looking for antibodies, which made in response to an infection. The test is done in two steps in which only positive (or indeterminate) result of the first step can lead to performing the second step. If positive result repeats, it will indicate an overall positive result and infection.
The problem with the conventional test is that antibodies are made weeks after initial infection; therefore, immediately after the bite; the test result might be false negative! On the other hand, antibodies remain in the blood for months or even years after infection; therefore, they cannot be an indication of current infection, and the test result is just a false positive. The diversity of species and strains of Borrelia bacteria across North America is greater than borrelia burgdoferi; therefore, most test results are false negative and if a patient interests in tests for multiple strains, it is too expensive to afford. Also, some other infectious or even autoimmune diseases cause the same antibody responses, which can provide false positive results for Lyme disease!
The two-tiered lab test can only detect 56% of people with Lyme infection, which is much lower than 95% gold standard for screening tests.
Due to these insufficiencies and misdiagnosis of the current two-tier diagnostic approach for Lyme disease, Global Lyme Diagnostics’ team of scientists has created GLD breakthrough specialty test. GLD test is based in science and aims to accurately detect Lyme infection at early stages within days after the actual bite and decrease current misdiagnosis of people along with offering accurate tests for common Lyme co-infections.
GLD incorporates a breakthrough technology called chimeritopes that increases sensitivity by eliminating proteins not relevant to a Lyme infection (non-OsPC targets). GLD novel chimeritope (chimeric proteins) technology is sequenced to be used as a vaccinogen or as a diagnostic antigen. Each chimeritope is derived from multiple diverse outer surface C protein (OsPC) variants, strains, and species of borrelia across the North American spectrum; therefore, it reduces false negatives in GLD test results.
It is worth noting that the outer surface proteins on borrelia spirochetes are regulated to OsPC at the time of the bite, and the resulting antibodies to OsPC are released earlier in the infection, which results in fewer false negatives. But it doesn’t mean the GLD test is only effective for early detection, on the contrary, it can be used to detect Lyme infection at every stage.
The exciting part is that all variants are screened in one test; therefore, it is an affordable option for all.
The earlier the diagnosis is, the less chance for infection to progress throughout the body.