Lyme disease is probably one of our most common diseases we treat in our office. So many people that suffer end up having undiagnosed or misdiagnosed Lyme disease. This is partially because blood tests are so unreliable!

According to http://lymestats.org/ 50% of the blood tests results in a false negative! Because of these unreliable test results many famous Lyme doctors see Lyme disease now as a clinical diagnosis rather than a diagnosis through medical tests. 

Partially why the tests are so hard is because there are many different Lyme bacteria, that can spread not only through ticks, but also through mosquito or even flee bites. 

So many people that have Lyme disease don’t remember an actual tick bite. A common misconception is also that patients must have gotten a bulls eye rash in order to have Lyme disease! Only 20% of the Lyme patients we personally see remembers an actual bulls eye rash.

Each flea, mosquito or tick can carry up to 61 different bacteria that can result into Lyme disease! See the exhibit on the right for all the different bacteria that a tick can carry. 

Most blood tests only test for the most common bacteria, but since there are 61 different possible bacterias to test for, it is only logical that many people will be misdiagnosed. It is almost as if Lyme can be 61×61 different diseases. No wonder doctors have such a hard time diagnosing and treating this disease, if they don’t know what exactly is going on!

Because there are so many different Lyme bacteria, symptoms can vary greatly per patient. Some people feel just really tired, while others have heart problems, some people might have seizures, memory loss, brain fog, twitches, stomach pain, food sensitivities, joint pains, neck pains, sleep issues, depression, muscle pain, cognitive issues, neuropathy, headaches, ringing of the ears, dizziness, vertigo, endocarditis, bacillary angiomatosis, and peliosis hepatis, fever, thyroid issues, maculopapular rashes, conjunctivitis, hyperaesthesia of the shins, splenomegaly, arthralgia.

As you can see above with all these different symptoms, many Lyme patients will have a range of different symptoms, and are often misdiagnosed. Common (mis)diagnoses for Lyme disease are MS, ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Crohn’s disease, fibromyalgia, Adrenal fatigue, Thyroid issues, Hashimoto, Dementia, Bell’s Palsy, Depression. Many of our patients that come in for these issues end up having actually undiagnosed Lyme disease. 

So even if you had a blood test done that told you you do not have Lyme disease, you might still have Lyme disease, because the tests are unfortunately very unreliable. We had patients had 11 – 13  negative blood tests before finally receiving a positive blood test!

The CDC estimates there are about 421,000 new cases of Lyme disease discovered each year in the United States. It’s also estimated that 20% of the population will have a tick-borne disease, and up to 35% in some areas. The East Coast, including Connecticut, is endemic for tick-borne illness, so this area falls under the 35% statistic. 

With help of Applied Kinesiology (AK) we can easier pinpoint what bacteria cause your Lyme disease, and therefore start treating you in a far more personalized manner. Not all Lyme disease requires the same treatment, based on the combination of bacteria a patient has.

Some other interesting Lyme stats. 20% of our patients got Lyme disease through their pet! So if you have pets, be mindful of picking up fleas or ticks from them. 40% of our patients got Lyme disease from their own yard! We can advise you on what products to use in your yard to get rid of fleas and ticks and Lyme disease, to avoid getting reinfected.