Fatigue & insomnia

Lyme disease — could it be causing your fatigue?

Low-grade Lyme disease can persist for years without being diagnosed, and often presents as chronic fatigue. This is a significant issue because the incidence of Lyme disease has grown rapidly, has now spread to almost every state, and is often undiagnosed even after specific tests.

Various tests have been developed to detect Lyme disease, but equivocal or false results are not uncommon with conventional Lyme titers and Western blot testing. A more sensitive test called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is available in some areas. PCR testing identifies DNA found in the Lyme bacteria, but it only tells you whether the Lyme bacteria have been or are present. It is unable to verify the presence of active infection, and it has not yet been standardized for routine diagnosis.

Another confounding feature of Lyme disease is that although the majority of cases respond well to antibiotic treatment, symptoms may continue or recur in some treated patients, requiring further antibiotic treatment. In some cases, patients develop chronic symptomatology and permanent damage to the joints and nervous system. Some scientists theorize that treatment with certain antibiotics can even enhance survival of the Lyme bacterium under certain conditions in some patients. That is why, if you think you’ve been infected, it’s so important for you to see a practitioner who has familiarity with this disease.

Full recovery from energy-sapping infections such as Lyme disease and Epstein–Barr virus may take a long time, even though you may feel a lot better after your initial diagnosis and treatment course. We’ll talk more in future articles about immunologically–mediated symptom “constellation” conditions such as these that feature fatigue as a major player. For now, suffice it to say that we do not have all the answers, and while these conditions are complex, they are not hopeless — but you have to want to be well to get well.

See our more comprehensive article on fatigue.

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References & further reading on lyme disease and fatigue

 

Last Modified: 02/16/2010