Borrelia is referred to as a great imitator. The clinical symptoms imitate many chronic diseases including motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

These chronic diseases are on the rise for reasons unknown. The Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier has stated “chronic diseases = chronic infections” as an increasing number of scientific papers are indicating.

Borreliosis has a myriad of symptoms. These symptoms can start a week after a tick bite or much later, and include sinusitis, stiff neck, sweat attacks, muscle twitches, muscle weakness, involuntary jerking of limbs, arthritis, Bell’s palsy, cramps, paralysis, depression, brain fog, insomnia, balance problems, light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, optic neuritis, nerve conduction defects, numbness, ECG (cardiac conduction) abnormalities, swallowing difficulties, tinnitus and more.

The symptoms don’t all occur at the same time.
Different symptoms can come and go.

For more information on Borreliosis symptoms visit: http://www.lyme-symptoms.com

Clinical Tests

Diagnosis of Borreliosis (Lyme/Lyme-like illness) from clinical symptoms can be missed, unless you are familiar with the clinical symptoms.

Diagnosis from blood tests to identify the bacteria in the patient is also difficult as Borrelia often does not reside in the blood but in tissues, heart, nervous system, in collagen and in joints.

The indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) relies on the host recognising Borrelia antigens to make antibodies. It is likely to provide more false negative results because Borrelia itself can supress the immune system and its production of antibodies. The Western Blot test is more sensitive as it detects more bacterial proteins then ELISA in the blood directly.

Currently tests for detecting Borrelia that are used in Australia are IFAT and ELISA. Only if a positive result from IFATS (or ELISA) is obtained will a Western Blot be conducted. Ideally Western Blot should be done first (Burrascano, 2008).

Another method of testing uses Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) which detects Borrelia DNA in blood and is highly specific. Not only can it detect Borrelia but is capable of differentiating between Borrelia species and strains and it does not rely on the patient's immune response.

The hazards associated with this test are selecting relevant primers (DNA recognition probes) and targeting the relevant section of DNA strand. The weakness of this test is that it can be so specific that it can miss a related strain of Borrelia.

Western Blot Example 1.pdf
Western Blot Example 2.pdf

TREATMENT

As the symptoms indicate, Borrelia can affect every single system in the body. Treatment should include antibiotics to kill the bacteria and also detoxification.

Borrelia bacteria release toxins from their outer coat and as the bacteria die they also release endotoxins which can make the patient feel worse. This is called a Herxheimer reaction and it is very important that the patient understands this aspect of the treatment. The higher the bacterial kill the worse the Herxheimer reaction.

Everyone has a different way of detoxing and if you do not eliminate the toxins, tissue damage can result and recovery may be retarded.

Antibiotics are usually taken for a long time – possibly 2.5 years, especially in chronic Borreliosis. If the majority of symptoms are neurological then intravenous antibiotics are advocated (Burrascano guidelines, 2008).

Treatment with three different antibiotics is required to address the three different forms: Beta-lactam to kill the spirochete stage; tetracyclines or macrolides to kill the intracellular form and the metronidazole, tinidazole and nitrofurantoin to kill the cyst form. Three-antibiotic treatment can also give rise to multiple side effects, so the dose and the frequency needs to be adjusted to the patient’s tolerance.

Given that the patient is sick and will get Herxheimer reactions, coupled with antibiotic side effects, it is an awful state to be in and the person must be monitored by a lyme-literate medical doctor (LLMD).

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