It is really important with Lyme Disease to get diagnosed quickly. There are different stages for Lyme Disease and it’s crucial to get it taken care of in the first stage, which unfortunately only gives you about a month time frame. Once it has passed this time slot, it has likely disseminated throughout your body and might become a more persistant infection, harder to get rid of. Unfortunately, many times the first symptoms are flu like symptoms, which leads to many people mistakenly thinking they only have a flu that will take care of itself. Doctors and patients might mistake the first symptoms as only being the flu.
The CDC says:
“CDC currently recommends a two-step process when testing blood for evidence of antibodies against the Lyme disease bacteria. Both steps can be done using the same blood sample.
The first step uses a testing procedure called “EIA” (enzyme immunoassay) or rarely, an “IFA” (indirect immunofluorescence assay). If this first step is negative, no further testing of the specimen is recommended. If the first step is positive or indeterminate (sometimes called “equivocal”), the second step should be performed. The second step uses a test called an immunoblot test, commonly, a “Western blot” test. Results are considered positive only if the EIA/IFA and the immunoblot are both positive.”
Ok so the CDC recommends an Elisa test first, correct? Well why? when it has been proven to be highly inaccurate? And what about the Western Blot, is that any better? Read these following research papers and articles and make up your own mind.
Explanation of a Western Blot and Why they don’t always Work
Thomas Grier’s, “Confusion Over Lyme Testing”
Reasons for False Negative (Seronegative) Test Results in Lyme Disease
Discovery of New Lyme Strains Invalidates New Tests
The Problem is the Dearborn/Dressler IgG Standard
The Need for Clinical Judgement for the Diagnosis of Lyme Disease
Why Lyme Tests are not always Accurate
Which Tests are the Best Tests To Get
Borrelia Bissettii~ A different Lyme Species That May Produce False Negatives
The Strategy of Morphological Variation in Borrelia burgdorferi & Other Spirochetes
Seronegativity in Lyme borreliosis and Other Spirochetal Infections
Serologic Tests for Lyme Disease Yield Disparate Results
PCR evidence for Borrelia burgdorferi DNA in synovium in absence of positive serology
So there is a lot of articles and research papers all written to the contrary of what the CDC says.
So you may ask yourself, what can you do?
1. Educate yourself about other testing options.
2. Offer your doctor research papers on the more accurate testing methods.
3. You may have to find a doctor or Naturpath who is open to other labs for testing.
4. Fight the insurance companies. Unfortunately you may have to pay out of pocket, but several Lyme patients have been fighting the insurance companies to pay for these more accurate testing methods. So see if your doctor or naturopath will work on you with this, or find other Lyme friends that have gone through this and ask them for tips. It’s worth a try.
5. Find financial assistance to help pay for testing.
5. Sometimes you need to just seek out a Lyme literate doctor. Many of these doctors will diagnose you based on your history, exposure to ticks, other tests ruling out other conditions, and your symptoms.
If you know of anymore research or if you would like to share your opinion, please do in the comments below.
~Lisa Hilton
