[vanderZwan]

Yeah, the Lyme disease story checks out. My aunt had a mysterious disorder that left her in constant pain for years. She lived in Canada. Then, during one of her visits to us in the Netherlands, one of my uncles (her oldest brother, a neurosurgeon) suggested that her symptoms were very similar to Lyme disease. Even knowing the likely cause of the disease, the first two doctors she visited flat-out refused to have her tested for it and told her that she was just being hysterical.

Note: she was a head nurse and the textbook definition of "walk it off".

[sjg007]

You can't treat lyme disease years after the initial infection. So they really only test if you see the bulls eye rash and prescribed antibiotics. I think they might just prescribe the antibiotics if they see the rash. The knee swelling and pain comes much later. So what the doctors said was in fact correct.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lyme-disease/...

[vimy]

This is incorrect and based on outdated research. The research that shows persistent Lyme is real is piling up but the medical community seems slow to accept this fact.

[sjg007]

Citation? The CDC and NIH disagree with you.

https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/postlds/index.html

[vimy]

They are wrong and are severely mismanaging Lyme. For example, the blood test endorsed by the CDC shows a 53 % sensitivity yet they claim testing is adequate. In reality, it's not much better than flipping a coin. They also claim there is no persisent Lyme. Here are two recent studies that contradict what they are saying. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The Emerging Role of Microbial Biofilm in Lyme Neuroborreliosis[1]: "The early treatment with oral antimicrobials is effective in the majority of patients with LNB. Nevertheless, persistent forms of LNB are relatively common, despite targeted antibiotic therapy. It has been observed that the antibiotic resistance and the reoccurrence of Lyme disease are associated with biofilm-like aggregates in B. burgdorferi, B. afzelii, and B. garinii, both in vitro and in vivo, allowing Borrelia spp. to resist to adverse environmental conditions. Indeed, the increased tolerance to antibiotics described in the persisting forms of Borrelia spp., is strongly reminiscent of biofilm growing bacteria, suggesting a possible role of biofilm aggregates in the development of the different manifestations of Lyme disease including LNB."

Persistent Borrelia Infection in Patients with Ongoing Symptoms of Lyme Disease[2]: "Using multiple corroborative detection methods, we showed that patients with persistent Lyme disease symptoms may have ongoing spirochetal infection despite antibiotic treatment, similar to findings in non-human primates. The optimal treatment for persistent Borrelia infection remains to be determined."

If you want to know more, here's a thorough critique of the current Lyme policies.[3]

[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6287027/ [2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29662016 [3]https://waset.org/Publications/obstruction-to-treatments-mee...

[sjg007]

I don’t think your citations are sufficient evidence to discredit the CDC and NIH at this time.

[vimy]

The National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services responsible for providing the most up-to-date clinical guidelines to physicians. The NGC also removes clinical guidelines that are no longer relevant, that do not meet the Institute of Medicine’s standards for clinical practice guidelines, including a systematic review of the evidence, or that have not been revised in the past five years.

In January 2016, the NGC removed the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines on Lyme disease for these reasons. In a scathing report on the standard of clinical guidelines in North America, the Institute of Medicine specifically referenced the IDSA guidelines on Lyme disease as a prime example of what not to do. Now, the only evidence-based, peer-reviewed guidelines on Lyme disease that conform to (and exceed) the Institute of Medicine’s clinical guideline standards and are available on the NGC website, are the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society guidelines for Lyme disease (ILADS). ILADS guidelines recognize persistent Lyme and have cured thousands of patients.

Meanwhile, the CDC is still promoting the ISDA guidelines that deny the evidence of persistent Lyme Disease. The CDC claims that these 2006 guidelines represent the "best science" and "the best synthesis of the available evidence". They do not provide the reference or criteria to substantiate this claim. And they are ignoring over 700 peer-reviewed articles that support the persistent Lyme theory.[1]

[1]https://www.ilads.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/CLDList-ILA...

[asveikau]

Both this article and the mayo clinic one say that post Lyme disease syndrome is real and without a cure. So if she did have PLDS and the commenter is correct and that the doctors simply called her "hysterical" and left it at that then it cannot be said that they were correct.