Lyme Disease: A Must-Read Issue

Think you have read everything about Lyme disease? Think again. In this issue, Dr. James Schaller’s “2013 Lyme Disease Checklist” challenges what you think that your patient is suffering from. How about these signs of Lyme disease: Low vitamin D level. Low DHEA. Low free T3 level. Low WBC count.Skin lesions with purple coloration. Light-headedness upon standing. Poor short-term memory. Sleeping in excess of nine hours. Insomnia. Buzzing and ringing in ears. Bladder dysfunction. Heart valve problems. Chest pains. Air hunger. Multiple joint defects. Exposure to ticks and history of tick bite in past. Take Schaller’s Lyme disease quiz and find out if you need to do diagnostic testing.

Nancy Faass’s interview of Eric Gordon, MD, and Wayne Anderson, ND, emphatically tells us to not use western blot testing from the conventional labs. The reagents are weak and generally read normal in patients with chronic Lyme disease. The testing provided by IGeneX have “reagents more sensitive to the pathogen,” providing a much better test. Best yet is the development of an accurate culture test for diagnosing Borrelia. Gordon thinks that the culture method provides convincing evidence that Lyme disease is present.

Once you have confirmed the Lyme disease diagnosis, oral and IV antibiotics may be administered. But Gordon and Anderson caution strongly against using antibiotics initially in chronic Lyme disease. Patients who have acute Lyme disease should be treated with oral antibiotics. For chronic patients, herbal therapies should be employed first to start a process of bolstering the immune system and improving liver and kidney functioning. Only after the patient’s systems are improved with herbal therapies should antibiotics be considered. Gordon and Anderson will use both oral and IV antibiotics but they prefer to pulse their treatment, several days on, and several days off, rather than maintaining antibiotics continuously.

And our interview with Chinese medicine specialists Cynthia Quattro, DAOM, and Bob Quinn, DAOM, suggest a “gentle medicine” approach to Lyme disease. The articles on Lyme disease are all a must-read in this issue.

Jonathan Collin, MD