There are over 100 symptoms listed with a tick borne illness and many people don’t even recall having had a tick bite!  Some practitioners feel like this is a silent epidemic and advances are slow.   The classic “bull’s eye rash” that is described as the hallmark sign of a tick borne infection is rare and unfortunately therefore the random symptoms associated with a tick borne illness get dismissed.  In addition, some of the co-infections can come from fleas, sand flies, lice and mosquitos!

There are so many reasons for the difficulty in diagnosing lyme or one of the co-infections:

  1. Testing: One of the biggest issues is our standard testing is really not up to par. There are thought to be at least (if not more) 50 species of Borrelia alone with about 29 of these in a relapsing fever category and the others in a Lyme disease group.  Then you dive into co-infections which often travel with Borrelia and include Bartonella with more than 30 species, Babesia with over 100 species and other co-infections like Ehrlichia, Anaplasma and Rickettsia like Rocky mountain spotted fever.  Standard testing looks at one species and most of the time the co-infections are not tested at all and if so, also one species.
  2. Once you are infected it may take up to 6 weeks to actually test positive! Also,

neurological lyme will often be missed as spinal fluid is needed to evaluate for this.

  1. Symptoms can be so vague that they don’t appear until months later long after you have been bitten and already forgot about any type of bite at all.

There are some nuances of testing that can get very complicated so for now I am going to focus on the symptoms and some key things to consider when testing as well as some amazing treatment options.  READ ON to learn the varied symptoms and an cutting edge treatment option that we are now offering!

Also, for a very limited time we are offering two tick-borne testing panels to anyone who is curious for the first 10 callers.  You do NOT have to be our patient and there is no obligation to be our patient after the review.

Symptoms vary by stage of infection.  Symptoms of Borrelia burgdorferi often include the following:

3-30 days after tick bite

  • Rash: red, expanding rash so called “bull’s eye” in appearance
  • Flu-like symptoms:
    • Fever
    • Chills
    • Fatigue
    • Headache
    • Muscle/joint pain
    • Swollen lymph nodes
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Days to weeks after bite

  • Rash can spread and be multiple
  • Neurological symptoms including:
    • Facial palsy
    • Meningitis with severe headaches
    • Nerve pain/numbness
  • Heart symptoms
    • Dizziness, irregular heartbeat

Months to years later

  • Arthritis especially large joints
  • Chronic neurological symptoms
    • Memory issues
    • Concentration issues
    • Sleep problems
    • Numbness/tingling in hands and feet

From this list you can tell that a lot of different issues can cause these symptoms so tick-borne illness is just one of the possibilities that needs to be thought of.  Sometimes you may be diagnosed with autoimmune conditions like RA, lupus, etc but what is the CAUSE of these conditions?   Certainly tick-borne or viral issues are something to consider!

If you have any of these symptoms that persist (even for years) then you should be tested…but not with the standard testing as it will miss it.  There are a few really good labs available now that go deeper than traditional testing.  Quest/DLO/Labcorp will miss many cases of tick-borne illnesses.  Just because you have been tested in the past and it was normal does not mean you don’t have a tick borne illness!

We offer three different labs that are testing for more species as well as looking at more detailed markers to help flush out the possibility of a tick-borne issue.

What if I am diagnosed with lyme or tick borne illness? Traditional therapies include long-term use of antibiotics and I have referred many people out of state for treatments as there are just not any lyme versed physicians in our state that go the extra mile for these difficult conditions.

However, there is a treatment that has been on the horizon now for several years that is super exciting called Q-restrain.  This is an IV treatment that basically takes your blood and extracts a sequence from the associated infection that when injected back into the person it inhibits the expression of proteins which are essential for the survival of the infection therefore shutting down replication.  The results can be life-changing!

Viruses and infections that can be targeted include:

Target therapies for infections include:

  • HSV- Herpes simplex virus 1 and 2
  • VZV- Varicella zoster
  • EBV- Epstein Barr virus.
  • HPV- human papilloma virus
  • HBV- Hepatitis B
  • HCV- Hepatitis C
  • Coxsackie
  • Lyme:  Borrelia
  • Bartonella
  • Babesia
  • Anaplasma
  • Rickettsia
  • Ehrlichia

If you have persistent symptoms that you have done everything then perhaps you should do some of these tick-borne or viral tests we offer!

To your health,

Laura