top of page

Lyme Disease Symptoms

Non-Specific Symptoms

 

Most Lyme Disease cases are missed when first seen by a doctor because symptoms are the same as the common cold and flu, and most cases don't present with erythema migrans (bulls-eye rash) or remember being bitten by a tick.   Furthermore, Lyme disease is spread by rodents and doesn't require a person to be in the woods to be infected.  Also, 25% are children according to surveys.

 

Initial reported symptoms include:

​

  • Fever

  • Sore Throat

  • Headache

  • Fatigue

  • Body Aches

  • Inflammation

  • Stomachache

  • Joint Pain

  • Neck Pain

​

Other symptoms include:

​

  • Fatigue

  • Sleep impairment

  • Muscle pain

  • Joint pain

  • Depression

  • Memory loss

  • Gognitive impairment

  • Nerve pain

  • Headaches

  • Twitching

  • Heart-related

​

Current diagnostics significantly underperform

 

Most Lyme diagnostic tests are designed to detect the body’s antibody response to the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria. However, it can take 2-4 weeks for the body to generate this antigenic response, if it occurs at all. This is why early testing for Lyme Disease is currently unreliable, and why current testing recommendations from the U.S. CDC (ELISA/Western Blot) have been shown to miss up to 60% of early acute Lyme Disease cases.(1) 

 

  • Most people don't remember being bitten by a tick

  • Most patients don't present with erythema migrans 

  • Most clinical symptoms are not specific to Lyme disease, making diagnosis difficult

  • The optimal time for treatment is during the acute phase, when patients first see a doctor, exactly where current tests fail

​

Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis

​

Examples of previous misdiagnosis include:

​​

  • Mood disorder

  • Chronic fatigue

  • Fibromyalgia

  • Rheumatoid arthritis

  • Multiple Sclerosis

  • Systematic Lupus

  • Motor neuron disease

​

Average time to diagnosis includes:

​

  • more than 2 years - 61%

  • within 2 years - 17%

  • within 6 months - 8%

  • within 3 months - 6%

  • within 1 month - 8%

​

Chronic Lyme disease quality of life assessment (good 0-100% poor):

​

  • Chronic Lyme disease - 73%

  • Congestive heart failure - 62%

  • Fibromyalgia - 59%

  • Multiple sclerosis - 37%

  • Depression - 32%

  • Arthritis - 31%

  • General popultion - 16%

​

bottom of page