Despite growing rates of Lyme Disease, patients are still fighting to get properly diagnosed and treated.
One man was travelling abroad when he got bit. He saw the tick, recognized the rash, identified the symptoms. Straightforward, right? He could have received treatment within a week of infection, which would have minimized his chances for lasting damage (Lyme Disease causes a ton of inflammation: most commonly it damages and causes pain in joints, but it can also affect organs like the heart and brain).
But nooope. The American test to diagnose Lyme Disease has two big flaws: 1) it doesn’t often pick the disease up in the early stages (the optimal time for treatment), and 2) it doesn’t test for foreign strains.
Instead, this poor patient went through increasingly harrowing, expensive treatment and tests over the course of a year before he finally convinced a doctor to treat him for Lyme Disease (which is as simple as an antibiotic—good for the doctors not just prescribing them willy nilly, but bad on them for not listening to a patient).
Whether you’re hiking in your own back yard or walking abroad, make sure you do tick checks (and subsequent rash checks). In the US, Lyme Disease is mostly in the east (although there are other tick borne illnesses as you go west).
And since keeping track of your health only goes so far, try and cultivate a good relationship with our doctor. Good doctors 1) like patients who ask questions 2) who are proactive and informed about their health. Don’t let yourself be the guy who saw a tick, a bullseye rash, and standard Lyme Disease symptoms and couldn’t convince his doctor he had Lyme Disease!
While there are third party testing options you can ask for, many of them are unproven and yield false positives. If you think you have Lyme Disease and can’t convince a doctor, just do your best to support your immune system until enough time has passed that you can get a positive Lyme Disease test (how horrible that anyone should have to bide their time being sick).
1) Make sure you eat well. Fruits and veggies are full of lots of good antioxidants to help fight the inflammation caused by Lyme Disease. You can also up your intake by using a multivitamin.
2) Drink lots of water, which is good to do any day of the week, but especially when you’re sick.
3) Support your immune system with a colloid like MesoSilver.
4) Rest up so your body can focus on fighting pathogens.
Appalled? What are your tips for working with doctors?
