Lyme Disease Blog

Chronic Lyme Disease – Dr. Phil – April 2012

Pam Dodd — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:39:49 +0000

Songbirds Disperse Lyme Ticks Across North America

Pam Dodd — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:49:23 +0000

Canadian Lyme researcher John D. Scott’s studies of songbirds in Ontario, Canada have found that ground-foraging birds such as sparrows, warblers, wrens, juncos, and thrushes (including the American Robin) are often infested with Lyme disease ticks. In a study between 2007 and 2009, Scott reported that 481 ticks were collected from 211 songbirds in Canada. [...]

Lyme Disease on NBC Nightly News

Pam Dodd — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:36:10 +0000

What’s an LLMD?

Pam Dodd — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:26:35 +0000

LLMD stands for Lyme-Literate Medical Doctor. Any kind of licensed medical doctor can be called an LLMD. They don’t all belong to the same medical specialty. Earning the unofficial LLMD designation comes with practicing medicine according to the diagnostic and treatment guidelines of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (or ILADS). There are also [...]

Just How Complex Lyme Disease Really Is

Pam Dodd — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:49:32 +0000

Guest post by Doug M, New York State. Lyme disease continues to amaze me with its astonishingly varied and complex combinations of symptoms. Perhaps it might be helpful if I described my own journey. I first complained to my doctor in 1988 about shoulder pain. “Bursitis” he said, and wrote it in my record as [...]

Babesiosis Can Be Spread Through Blood Transfusions

Pam Dodd — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:07:16 +0000

Many Lyme patients also have Babesiosis (or Babesia), a malaria-like infection that lives in red blood cells and can be fatal. While Lyme doctors have known about Babesia and test and treat for it, there hasn’t been much said about it in the press. That’s why articles like this one in the New York Times [...]

Lyme Disease: What’s Luck Got to Do With It?

Pam Dodd — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:19:57 +0000

Having Lyme disease is often a life-altering experience, like no other health problem you’ve ever had or could imagine ever having. If it’s not caught and treated early, Lyme produces a wide-range of debilitating symptoms. No two Lyme sufferers have exactly the same complaints. Lyme is tricky to diagnose. It’s harder to treat, especially because [...]

Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction in Lyme Disease

Pam Dodd — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:48:16 +0000

The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction (or herx for short) is an inflammatory response to antibiotic treatment for certain diseases (although some non-antibiotic treatments can produce the reaction). It’s also referred to as a “healing crisis” or “die-off,” meaning a detoxification of dead or dying bacteria and other pathogenic organisms in the body. A Herxheimer reaction feels like [...]

You Could Have Chlamydia Pneumoniae and Not Know It

Pam Dodd — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:58:21 +0000

Chlamydia pneumoniae (now called Chlamydophila pneumoniae) is one of three Chlamydia species that can cause pneumonia in humans. They are Gram-negative cocci bacteria present throughout nature. Untreated, these infections can become chronic. The more familiar Chlamydia trachomatis (what most people think of when they hear the word Chlamydia) is associated with sexually transmitted diseases trachoma, [...]

Mycoplasma Is An Overlooked Lyme Co-Infection

Pam Dodd — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:06:42 +0000

Mycoplasma infections are commonly found in people with Lyme Disease. But most doctors don’t know to test for them. These are the smallest organisms that can live independently. Of the over 100 known species, more than a dozen are found in humans. Many of them cause disease. They don’t have a cell wall or cell nucleus, [...]