Lyme disease is the most well known tick borne illness. It is also one of the fastest growing infectious disease in the United States. Per the CDC 400,000 individuals are diagnosed with Lyme Disease annually. It is caused by Lyme Borreliae bacteria ( spirochete) carried by ticks.
I am not an infectious disease physician but an integrative physician who treats Lyme . I have a special interest in Lyme as my son has had Lyme since age 19. I want to discuss the testing. Generally Lyme disease is diagnosed by a two - tier approach involving an ELISA followed by a western blot. Unfortunately the sensitivity if these commercially available testing is poor. I use only two labs within the United States to make a diagnosis. These are Stony Brook Laboratories and IGeneX.
IGeneX has developed several Lyme tests that provide higher sensitivity to detect more Borreliae. When use din conjunction with symptoms and patient history, these tests are better I utilize them all the time. The treatment varies from patient to patient. I will discuss the various treatments in other blogs but involves antibiotics, herbal medicines., IV therapies, referral to the StemAid Institute and bee venom therapy.