It's a little slow around here so I figured I would just put a new post.I here some posters say:
"A small percentage of folk who get lyme have effects beyond the initial infection. of those most get better within year or two. There are a few who have additional complications, but that is not because of active infection."
"They ground up joint tissue from antibiotic-treated mice in buffer and applied the homogenate to cultured mouse macrophages. The macrophages responded by producing TNF, a key cytokine that promotes inflammation. The more tissue that was added, the more TNF that was produced by the macrophages. In contrast, joint tissue from uninfected mice did not promote TNF production by the macrophages. Therefore, the deposits had the potential to spark inflammation, even after motile spirochetes were eliminated by antibiotics. The debris would continue to inflame the tissues even after antibiotics killed all live spirochetes, explaining why symptoms persist in ~10% of Lyme arthritis cases even after antibiotic treament."
Dr Bochenstedt is a first class researcher from Yale.You hear all this BS about how Yale is part of some grand conspiracy with insurance companies,it's just not true.
It is also the reason PTLDS is often best treated by Rheumatologists. Everyone of the "symptoms" can be related to TNF The theory makes a tom of sense in that most if they don't fry their immune system (and more) with antibiotics eventually do get well.
A rheumatologists entire career is based on fighting TNF (tumor necrosis factor ) it is the primary protein responsible for acute phase reactions in illness.
Once a patient has been treated for Lyme with the initial antibiotic round, that usually takes care of the actual Lyme bacteria. However, a few people (like most that post here) will continue to have weird symptoms like pain, forgetfulness, or symptoms of inflammatory disease. the thought is that the exposure to Lyme increases the risk of inflammatory conditions. So those folks who say that they had Lyme years ago, and now are having recurring symptoms have likely develiped some sort of inflammatory autoimmune disease or fibromyalgia that is secondary to the initial Lyme infection. In those cases, patients do really well when treated for the new condition. The problem is that there are "practioners" out there that continue to treat patients with long-term antibiotics that they don't actually need, instead of treating for what they really have. The misinformation about Lyme is stunning.
Cindylouwho said:
What's the longest anyone had Lyme before diagnosis? I had bullseye rash and onset if symptoms 25 years ago and was recently diagnosed...