The debilitating symptoms of Lyme disease are real. They include a myriad of problems, including rashes, fatigue, sleep issues, joint pain, and flu-like symptoms such as intermittent fever, body aches, and headache. However, some of the most devastating and hard-to-deal with symptoms are cognitive problems like brain fog, memory issues, forgetfulness, mood swings, and feeling anxious or depressed.
In a recent article in Science, Johns Hopkins Medical Center reports that even people who are successfully treated with antibiotics for Lyme disease still have symptoms years later. Fatigue and brain fog continue to be chronic and debilitating, and a brain scan of people with PTLDS (post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome) showed widespread brain inflammation. This shows that the brain fog that persists in these people has a physiological basis and is not only related to depression and anxiety, though these two symptoms can also be lingering after Lyme disease.
Previous studies of people with PTLDS have shown elevated inflammation markers, but scientists didn’t know exactly where that inflammation was situated. Using highly specialized scanning, researchers can now see that in these people, inflammation is affecting the entire brain and manifesting as symptoms such as fatigue and problems with memory and/or concentration.
The best thing to do is try your hardest not to get Lyme disease. Guidelines from the Minnesota Department of Health (one of the states hit hardest by Lyme disease) emphasize prevention. If you do get bitten, get to a doctor as soon as you can. Sometimes a course of antibiotics in those first critical days can help. However, ticks are small, and bites are not immediately noticeable. That’s often when Lyme disease becomes a lingering and difficult problem.
If you have lingering symptoms, many natural health remedies can be used to help. Herbs, homeopathics, nutritionals, changes to diet, etc., can improve your quality of life. Reach out to get the help you need.
Sugarhouse Holistic Health 