Medication
What is the treatment for Lyme disease? The first-line standard of care treatment for adults with Lyme disease is doxycycline, a tetracycline antibiotic. Other antibiotics that have activity against borrelia include the penicillin-like antibiotic, amoxicillin, and the second generation cephalosporin, Ceftin.
Nutrition
The information on Lyme disease presented on this web site has been reviewed and approved by one or more members of our Medical Leadership Board. There is significant controversy in science, medicine, and public policy regarding Lyme disease.
What is the best treatment for Lyme disease?
If you're considering any alternative treatments for Lyme disease, talk to your doctor first. You're likely to start by seeing your family doctor or a general practitioner who might refer you to a rheumatologist, infectious disease specialist or other specialist.
Is the information on Lyme disease approved by the Medical Leadership Board?
Research at our Center aims to understand the biologic drivers of all manifestations of Lyme disease so that diagnostics can be improved, and more effective personalized treatments can be developed to enhance patients’ health outcomes.
Should I talk to my doctor about alternative treatments for Lyme disease?
What is Lyme disease research?
Who will treat Lyme disease?
You're likely to start by seeing your family doctor or a general practitioner who might refer you to a rheumatologist, infectious disease specialist or other specialist.
What is the treatment of choice for Lyme disease?
For early Lyme disease, a short course of oral antibiotics, such as doxycycline or amoxicillin, cures the majority of cases. In more complicated cases, Lyme disease can usually be successfully treated with three to four weeks of antibiotic therapy.
What is the protocol for Lyme disease?
The standard protocol for diagnosed patients, as established by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and most recently updated in 2006, is the four-week regimen of antibiotics that Powers received. Experts agree that for most sufferers who catch it early on, this therapy is quite effective.
What is the gold standard for diagnosing Lyme disease?
Serologic tests are the gold standard Direct tests lack sensitivity for Lyme disease; hence, serologic tests remain the gold standard. Currently recommended is a standard 2-tier testing strategy using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) followed by Western blot for confirmation.
What is the best antibiotic for chronic Lyme disease?
Doxycycline is considered the first-line drug of choice for Lyme disease by most physicians.
Is Stage 3 Lyme disease curable?
Stage 3 (late disseminated) Lyme disease is also treated with various antibiotics: For Lyme disease that causes arthritis, 28 days of oral doxycycline, amoxicillin, or cefuroxime is prescribed. Additional courses of antibiotics may be necessary, depending on the severity and persistence of your symptoms.
Is it ever too late to treat Lyme disease?
No. Patients treated with antibiotics in the early stages of the infection usually recover rapidly and completely. Most patients who are treated in later stages of the disease also respond well to antibiotics, although some may have suffered long-term damage to the nervous system or joints.
Can Lyme disease remain dormant for years?
Lyme disease may lead to different symptoms at different times. Symptoms may develop quickly or not until many months or years later as the spirochete can evade the immune response and remain dormant in the human host for long periods.
What Happens If Lyme disease goes untreated for years?
Untreated, Lyme disease can spread to other parts of your body for several months to years after infection, causing arthritis and nervous system problems. Ticks can also transmit other illnesses, such as babesiosis and Colorado tick fever.
What is the most accurate test for Lyme disease?
A blood test does not only detect Lyme disease; it is the most accurate and preferred test for diagnosing the disease. If a patient with Lyme disease shows signs that the central nervous system has been affected by the disease, western blot testing on the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can be performed.
What is the second test for Lyme disease?
A doctor will test your blood for antibodies that are trying to fight the bacteria in your blood. One of these tests is called the ELISA test, and you'll often have a second test called the Western blot test to confirm you have Lyme disease. To treat Lyme disease, you may need to take antibiotics for up to a month.
What are the 2 stage testing methodology for Lyme disease?
The current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for serodiagnosis of Lyme disease is a 2-tiered algorithm, an initial enzyme immunoassay (EIA) followed by separate IgM and IgG Western blots if the first EIA test result is positive or borderline.
What is the ILADS treatment plan?
ILADS recommends individualized treatment based on the severity of symptoms, the presence of tick-borne coinfections and patient response to treatment. LDo believes that patients and their doctors should make Lyme disease treatment decisions together. This requires that patients be given sufficient information about the risks and benefits ...
What is the ILADS approach?
These physicians use treatment approaches employed for persistent infections like tuberculosis , including a combination of drugs and longer treatment durations.
Is lyme disease hard to catch?
The conflict makes it difficult for patients to be properly diagnosed and receive treatment. One medical society, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), regards Lyme disease as “hard to catch and easy to cure” with a short course of antibiotics. IDSA claims that spirochetal infection cannot persist in the body after a short course ...
Can a test determine if a patient has Lyme disease?
There is currently no test that can determine whether a patient has active infection or whether the infection has been eradicated by treatment. The IDSA thinks Lyme disease symptoms after treatment represent a possibly autoimmune, “post-Lyme syndrome” that is not responsive to antibiotics.
Is there a controversy about Lyme disease?
There is significant controversy in science, medicine, and public policy regarding Lyme disease. Two medical societies hold widely divergent views on the best approach to diagnosing and treating Lyme disease. The conflict makes it difficult for patients to be properly diagnosed and receive treatment.
Can lyme rash be treated?
They may treat a Lyme rash for a longer period of time than the IDSA recommends, to ensure that the disease does not progress. They are unlikely to withhold treatment pending laboratory test results.
What is lyme disease?
Lyme disease encompasses a range of biologic processes and disease manifestations. Patients are often referred to the Lyme Disease Research Center for evaluation of chronic Lyme disease, an umbrella term that encompasses many heterogeneous subsets of illness. Examples of defined Lyme disease subsets include Post Treatment Lyme Disease (PTLD), ...
How high is the risk of Lyme disease after treatment?
The rates of Post Treatment Lyme Disease after neurologic involvement may be as high as 20% or even higher. Other risk factors being investigated are genetic predispositions and immunologic variables.
How common is PTLD after lyme disease?
The rates of Post Treatment Lyme Disease after neurologic involvement may be as high as 20% or even higher.
What are the risk factors for lyme disease?
Risk factors for Post Treatment Lyme Disease include: 1 Delay in diagnosis 2 Increased severity of initial illness 3 Presence of neurologic symptoms
What antibiotics are used for borrelia?
Other antibiotics that have activity against borrelia include the penicillin-like antibiotic, amoxicillin, and the second generation cep halosporin, Ceftin. The mainstay of treatment is with oral (pill) antibiotics, but intravenous antibiotics are sometimes indicated for more difficult to treat cases of neurologic-Lyme disease, such as meningitis, ...
Can lyme disease be recurrent?
However, some patients suffer from ongoing or recurrent symptoms related to Lyme disease despite standard of care antibiotic therapy. The persistent symptoms in Lyme disease can have a large negative impact on an individual’s health and quality of life.
Is there a cure for lyme disease?
Currently there are no FDA approved treatments for the persistent symptoms in Lyme disease. Therefore, treatments must be individualized by addressing specific findings, symptoms, and circumstances for each individual.
What happens after Lyme disease treatment?
After treatment, a small number of people still have some symptoms, such as muscle aches and fatigue. The cause of these continuing symptoms, known as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, is unknown, and treating with more antibiotics doesn't help.
What to do if you don't have a lyme disease rash?
Lab tests to identify antibodies to the bacteria can help confirm or rule out the diagnosis. These tests are most reliable ...
What is the test for B. burgdorferi?
If the ELISA test is positive, this test is usually done to confirm the diagnosis. In this two-step approach, the Western blot detects antibodies to several proteins of B. burgdorferi.
What is the test used to detect lyme disease?
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test. The test used most often to detect Lyme disease, ELISA detects antibodies to B. burgdorferi. But because it can sometimes provide false-positive results, it's not used as the sole basis for diagnosis. This test might not be positive during the early stage of Lyme disease, ...
How long does it take for a central nervous system infection to go away?
Intravenous antibiotics. If the disease involves the central nervous system, your doctor might recommend treatment with an intravenous antibiotic for 14 to 28 days. This is effective in eliminating infection, although it may take you some time to recover from your symptoms. Intravenous antibiotics can cause various side effects, ...
What to do if you have been bitten by a tick?
Make a list of: Your symptoms, and when they began. All medications, vitamins and other supplements you take, including doses. Questions to ask your doctor.
Can a Western Blot test be positive for lyme disease?
This test might not be positive during the early stage of Lyme disease, but the rash is distinctive enough to make the diagnosis without further testing in people who live in areas infested with ticks that transmit Lyme disease. Western blot test. If the ELISA test is positive, this test is usually done to confirm the diagnosis.
What is the cause of lyme carditis?
Lyme carditis occurs when Lyme disease bacteria enter the tissues of the heart. This can interfere with the normal movement of electrical signals from the heart’s upper to lower chambers, a process that coordinates the beating of the heart.
Can you wait for lyme disease test results?
Treat patients with suspected Lyme carditis with appropriate antibiotics immediately – do not wait for Lyme disease test results. Patients with suspected severe Lyme carditis require immediate hospitalization for cardiac monitoring and intravenous antibiotics. Talk to patients about tick bite prevention.
Can lyme cause shortness of breath?
Lyme carditis can cause light-headedness, fainting, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, or chest pain. Patients with Lyme carditis usually have other symptoms such as fever and body aches, and they may have more specific symptoms of Lyme disease, such as the erythema migrans rash.
What is Lyme disease treatment?
It is designed to: protect and repair from the harmful effects of the infections and the herbal or prescription antibiotics. While the following Lyme disease treatment approach focuses on a limited number of areas, it may correct most of the problems like: immune compromise and suppression.
What is the protocol for lyme disease?
These are Lyme disease treatment guidelines to treat chronic Lyme and associated diseases. This protocol addresses most problems that keep a person from getting well. It is more comprehensive than the antibiotic focused Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS), and United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. While herbal and prescription antibiotics may decrease the germ load in chronic Lyme, they often do not correct the underlying problems that cause ongoing symptoms.
What is Ross Lyme Support Protocol?
The Ross Lyme Support Protocol is a set of Lyme disease treatment guidelines. Read or watch the following articles found on Treat Lyme for information about diagnosis, tests, and relapse prevention.
How long does it take to get rid of lyme disease?
Generally, it takes a minimum of six months to see if these treatments will help. Natural medicines can speed recovery, but treating Lyme still takes time. Once you have marked improvement, then you can likely stop many of these natural medicines except for probiotics, curcumin, ashwagandha, and a good multivitamin.
Can you treat lyme disease with antibiotics?
At the beginning of a Lyme disease treatment, often before antibiotics are started, it is essential to treat yeast. Doing so can limit the severity of Herxheimer die-off reactions from treating Lyme because removing yeast removes one source of inflammatory cytokine excess. Part 11. Lyme Infection Treatment.
Can you have a coinfection if you have lyme?
Continually review your symptoms to see if you have a coinfection that was missed. Treating Lyme is like peeling the layers of an onion. As you treat, it sometimes becomes more apparent which coinfections are present. In addition, it is possible to have coinfection relapses.
Does Ross Lyme support the immune system?
The entire Ross Lyme Support Protocol is designed to support and boost your immune system. Because of this, most people do not need to take specific immune system boosters. The Ross Lyme Support Protocol supports the immune system through:
What is the best treatment for lyme disease?
There are two antibiotics that can be used in the treatment of Lyme: doxycycline and amoxicillin.
What antibiotics are used for lyme disease?
Other antibiotics that can be used in the treatment of Lyme disease include cefuroxime axetil and macrolide antibiotics.
What is Lyme disease?
Angelica Bottaro. Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness caused by the family of Borrelia bacteria. When an infected tick transfers the disease via bite to a living host, the bacteria makes its way through the body to organs and tissues and wreaks havoc on the nervous system and proper function of the heart, brain, muscles, and joints.
What foods can help with lyme disease?
Foods rich in vitamin C, such as citrus fruits, spinach, and ginger, can all benefit the fight against Lyme disease. Some supplements are also good following antibiotic treatment, including probiotics; healthy gut bacteria may have suffered during treatment, and probiotics can help restore it.
How long does lyme disease last?
All instances of Lyme disease must be treated through an antibiotics course that lasts anywhere from two to three weeks depending on severity, so there are no alternative treatment therapies available for Lyme disease. The symptoms that occur in Lyme, however, can be treated through the use of alternative medicine.
What are the symptoms of lyme disease?
The early symptoms of Lyme present themselves as flu-like and include headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and a bullseye rash at the site of the bite. As the disease progresses, the symptoms become more severe and can include cardiac issues such as arrythmia, lowered cognitive function, chronic fatigue, and pain in the joints and muscles.
Is doxycycline safe for lyme disease?
Doxycycline is an especially popular choice in the treatment of Lyme disease because of its efficacy as well as its safety in terms of usage for a variety of patients. It also has the benefit of being effective when treating human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), which can often occur in people with early Lyme disease.
Treatment
Side effects
Prognosis
Roles
Specialist to consult
Research
- The first-line standard of care treatment for adults with Lyme disease is doxycycline, a tetracycline antibiotic. Other antibiotics that have activity against borrelia include the penicillin-like antibiotic, amoxicillin, and the cephalosporin, Ceftin. In children under the age of 12, amoxicillin is used because of the possible side effects of doxyc...
Terminology
- Antibiotics, like all medications, have the potential for side effects. Any antibiotic can cause skin rashes and if an itchy red rash develops while on antibiotics, a patient should see their physician. Sometimes symptoms worsen for the first few days on an antibiotic. This is called a Herxheimer reaction and occurs when the antibiotics start to kill the bacteria. In the first 24 to 48 hours, thes…
Diagnosis
- The prognosis after treatment of Lyme disease is generally very good. The majority of people are treated with antibiotics and return to their normal health. The prognosis is best when Lyme disease is diagnosed and treated early and worsens when diagnosis and treatment is delayed. Most patients with early Lyme disease infection recover with antibiotics and return to their norm…
Diagnosis
- The causes of PTLDS are not yet well understood but our Center is investigating the potential roles of:
Treatment
- Our research has validated PTLDS as a serious and impairing condition. However, the causes of PTLDS are not yet well understood or validated. The term PTLDS does not mean post-infection or imply an assumption of underlying biologic mechanisms. The roles of immune dysfunction, autoimmunity, persistent bacterial infection, neural network alteration, and other potential causa…
Alternative Medicine
- Patients are often referred to the Lyme Disease Research Center for evaluation of chronic Lyme disease, an umbrella term that encompasses many different subsets of illness. Examples of defined Lyme disease subsets are Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), and Antibiotic Refractory Late Lyme Arthritis. The mechanisms of these Lyme disease conditions ar…
Preparing For Your Appointment
- The symptoms of chronic Lyme disease are similar to and overlap with other conditions involving fatigue, pain, and cognitive symptoms. Therefore, rigorous diagnostic evaluation is necessary to determine if Lyme disease could be the trigger for ongoing disease processes or if some other disease processes are involved.