Aa
Am i have Lyme
Hi All ,
I am from India - Chennai , First of all i never heard about Lyme , Few weeks before , i went outside normally , suddenl i feel itching in my stomach , when i checked there were red round flat rash ( But not looks like bulls eye rash) red round inside small bump , i really dont know whether that is tick or not , because i couldn't able to see any insects , i thought a small insects bite , i applied some neem oil daily in few days rash got settled down , but still i have black mark.
couple of days ago , i have headache all the time ( i thought its summer in india so bcz of Hot weather) , I have muscle vibration all over my body ( face, arm, leg , back , shoulder, right side of my head) , i too have Right leg knee and left hand knee pain . feeling always tired., heart beating fastly.
Below are my questions
1) Will that RASH automatically goes of without treatment?
2) above scenario and symptoms , am i bitten by any tick , will that be visible in naked eye?
3) Is there any test to find out Lyme?
I am from India - Chennai , First of all i never heard about Lyme , Few weeks before , i went outside normally , suddenl i feel itching in my stomach , when i checked there were red round flat rash ( But not looks like bulls eye rash) red round inside small bump , i really dont know whether that is tick or not , because i couldn't able to see any insects , i thought a small insects bite , i applied some neem oil daily in few days rash got settled down , but still i have black mark.
couple of days ago , i have headache all the time ( i thought its summer in india so bcz of Hot weather) , I have muscle vibration all over my body ( face, arm, leg , back , shoulder, right side of my head) , i too have Right leg knee and left hand knee pain . feeling always tired., heart beating fastly.
Below are my questions
1) Will that RASH automatically goes of without treatment?
2) above scenario and symptoms , am i bitten by any tick , will that be visible in naked eye?
3) Is there any test to find out Lyme?
I'm sorry about confusing the Canadian paper as being printed in India! There is much resistance by the Canadian medical establishment against taking Lyme seriously, and I didn't read the link, so I don't know what point of view they are taking. Apologies!
You may be able to get Lyme testing done even in India -- there are tests done by IGeneX Laboratories in the U.S. which good Lyme physicians often use. Until recent years, only the Western blot and ELISA tests were available; they can be helpful, but they look only for your immune system response to Lyme -- and the Lyme bacteria are able to *suppress* your immune reaction, thus giving a 'false negative' result on the test, when really you could have Lyme.)
More recently, another lab (IgeneX Laboratories in California) has created a test called PCR (polymerase chain reaction), which looks not for your immune system reaction to the presence of Lyme bacteria, but instead looks for *DNA* of the Lyme bacteria. That is a direct test not involving measurement of your immune system's reaction.
There are different strains of the Lyme bacteria, so try with your physician to figure out which strains you may have been exposed to, so that you will know whether the tests you want to take will be sensitive to your particular strain.
I just did a search on Google for
-- lyme disease india treatment --
and found some very interesting links. I would encourage you to review them and see what the possibilities are and where you might find a knowledgeable physician or get a referral to a physician near you who is knowledgeable about Lyme.
Best wishes! Let us know how you do.
You may be able to get Lyme testing done even in India -- there are tests done by IGeneX Laboratories in the U.S. which good Lyme physicians often use. Until recent years, only the Western blot and ELISA tests were available; they can be helpful, but they look only for your immune system response to Lyme -- and the Lyme bacteria are able to *suppress* your immune reaction, thus giving a 'false negative' result on the test, when really you could have Lyme.)
More recently, another lab (IgeneX Laboratories in California) has created a test called PCR (polymerase chain reaction), which looks not for your immune system reaction to the presence of Lyme bacteria, but instead looks for *DNA* of the Lyme bacteria. That is a direct test not involving measurement of your immune system's reaction.
There are different strains of the Lyme bacteria, so try with your physician to figure out which strains you may have been exposed to, so that you will know whether the tests you want to take will be sensitive to your particular strain.
I just did a search on Google for
-- lyme disease india treatment --
and found some very interesting links. I would encourage you to review them and see what the possibilities are and where you might find a knowledgeable physician or get a referral to a physician near you who is knowledgeable about Lyme.
Best wishes! Let us know how you do.
I read the document , Its named as INDIAN TIME but located in Canada. Any way i ll give a check for that tick . Lyme Disease can give anxiety but my real problem is HIV PHOBIA , started with HIV and i have done plenty of testing till 8 weeks then started worrying about HEP once i did the test , i searched Muscle tingling in Google ,then i found Lyme , also the some bite in HIP so i started worrying about Lyme , I dont what causing my problem , the doctor said its vitamin down problem , i am doing doing all type of test , the bad news you said we cant find the Lyme via testing :( , if tats s there , i ll do that test right now and ruled out Lyme.
Some people have Lyme but have no rash. Other people have Lyme with a rash that is not circular. Many doctors do not understand that Lyme does not always have a 'bulls-eye' shape, and many of us never see a rash at all.
I just searched online for ---- lyme disease india ---- and got some very interesting results.
Here is a link to an Indian newspaper:
[www] indiantime [dot] net/story/2013/06/27/health/lyme-disease/10494 [dot] html
If you change the 'www' and 'dot' so that it makes an internet address that will work, it should take you to an article from last year about Lyme disease in India.
About anxiety: Lyme disease often causes anxiety, because the human endocrine system can be strongly affected by Lyme. Emotions and thought process can be affected as well.
Many doctors/MDs do not understand this about Lyme, but if I were in your situation, I would try to contact the author of that article and ask if s/he knows of any Lyme specialists near you.
If you have Lyme, it will not go away without treatment. Please keep trying! Let us know how you do. With best wishes --
I just searched online for ---- lyme disease india ---- and got some very interesting results.
Here is a link to an Indian newspaper:
[www] indiantime [dot] net/story/2013/06/27/health/lyme-disease/10494 [dot] html
If you change the 'www' and 'dot' so that it makes an internet address that will work, it should take you to an article from last year about Lyme disease in India.
About anxiety: Lyme disease often causes anxiety, because the human endocrine system can be strongly affected by Lyme. Emotions and thought process can be affected as well.
Many doctors/MDs do not understand this about Lyme, but if I were in your situation, I would try to contact the author of that article and ask if s/he knows of any Lyme specialists near you.
If you have Lyme, it will not go away without treatment. Please keep trying! Let us know how you do. With best wishes --
Thanks for the detailed reply. I checked with my GP , i have shown the rash also , he said its not look like Lyme rash , i am depressed bcz of HIV phobia for last 2 months , he doubted , whether i have vitamin deficiency or anxiety cause all the above issue also he suggested
"You can rule out it by IgG antibody titre ..It does not give so much false neg"
My point is in my area , no one has suffered with Lyme. Let see how it goes.
"You can rule out it by IgG antibody titre ..It does not give so much false neg"
My point is in my area , no one has suffered with Lyme. Let see how it goes.
Welcome to MedHelp Lyme --
You are asking the right questions, and your observations of the rash and your symptoms are important clues. No one here is medically trained, but we are glad to share with you what we have learned about Lyme. Here are some quick answers to your specific questions:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You ask:
"1) Will that RASH automatically goes of without treatment?"
A Lyme tick is very tiny and is often overlooked, so the rash is the first thing many people notice -- though there are many of us who never saw a rash either. If you have a cell phone camera, you might take some pictures of the rash to show a physician later.
A Lyme rash often starts as a small red spot, and sometimes you can see part of the tiny tick in the center of the spot. (Lyme ticks are the size of a poppy seed, so they are often overlooked.) As the tick ***** blood from the host (whether human or animal), the bacteria carried by the tick will move into the host, and the irritation caused by the infection looks like a flat red rash. The rash will gradually spread outward, and the center of the round rash will clear so that your normal skin tone returns inside the now-circular rash, except for a tiny spot in the middle -- which is the tick, still imbedded in your skin. (This rash is often called a ‘bullseye’ rash, because of its concentric circles.)
At some point, the tick will be full of blood it has taken from you, and the tick may fall off. The bacteria injected into your skin by the tick begin to move throughout your body, and you may develop other symptoms even as the original rash fades. The Lyme bacteria have the ability to hide in your body in places that the immune system cannot find, and so the infection often continues indefinitely.
Others of us had Lyme, but saw no rash or tiny tick -- I was that way. I felt like I had a mild but constant case of influenza that did not go away, but I had no idea I had Lyme. I was just tired and slightly confused all of the time. These are the more neurological symptoms of Lyme, but not everyone has them -- some have more joint pain (because the bacteria like to hide in cartilage). Everyone's symptoms are different, and that is part of what confuses the physicians.
A Lyme *rash* may go away even without treatment, BUT the bacteria causing the rash will likely still be with you, hiding in cartilage and other areas of the body where the immune system does not easily reach. Treatment (usually with antibiotics) is necessary to cure Lyme. There are some alternative treatments, but I have not used them myself.
"3) Is there any test to find out Lyme?"
Yes, but nothing about Lyme is simple, including the testing. The older, basic tests are called Western blot and ELISA. They are useful, but they have serious flaws: Lyme bacteria can suppress your immune system, but the W.blot and ELISA tests are designed to look for your body's immune reaction to Lyme.
As a result, you can have a true and serious case of Lyme disease, but the tests can say you don’t have it (a false negative result), because the Lyme bacteria stop your immune system from creating antibodies! Many physicians rely entirely on these tests, however, and as a result, too many patients with Lyme are told they do not have Lyme and must have something else, such as emotional problems or family problems unrelated to any infection.
Another misplaced diagnosis is the new 'fibromyalgia', which literally means 'painful fibers' that have no known cause. Not very helpful, eh. I think what happens is that physicians who think Lyme disease is uncommon do not have any other ideas but the syndrome [a collection of symptoms with unknown cause] called 'fibromyalgia.'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a voluntary organization of physicians particularly interested in Lyme disease and the other infection the 'Lyme' ticks often carry:
the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society
(acronym: ILADS, usually pronounced 'EYE-lads')
The ILADS-oriented physicians understand that the earlier determination that Lyme is ‘rare, hard to get, and easy to cure’ has now been shown to be mostly wrong. Unfortunately, those earlier physicians made assumptions about Lyme are now unwilling to change, even with the newer understanding of Lyme and better testing and treatments for Lyme.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately, however, there are other physicians who have broader ideas about Lyme disease and the other infections often carried by the 'Lyme' ticks. It is one of these physicians who diagnosed and treated me and one of my family members. We are now both healthy again, several years after treatment with antibiotics.
Specific antibiotics are needed, depending on whether the patient has only Lyme or also has other infections the ticks may carry. The most important step to take, in my view, is to find one of the physicians who truly understands Lyme and treats it aggressively over a period of months. This kind of physician would take a careful history of symptoms, order some laboratory tests, and then decide how to treat any infections that are found.
If Lyme is diagnosed very soon after you are infected, then the antibiotic doxycycline may work to kill the bacteria and prevent them from hiding in your body where the immune system cannot find the bacteria -- but it is sometimes difficult to know when we were first bitten. This may have been your first bite, or there may have been others previously. This is why accurate testing and a wise physician are so important.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You ask: "2) above scenario and symptoms , am i bitten by any tick , will that be visible in naked eye?"
-- Perhaps. If you are bitten on the scalp (for example), you may not see the rash because the hair will hide it -- or there may not even BE a rash. If you have a visible rash, it is a significant sign, but many of us with Lyme (including me) never had a rash, but I definitely had Lyme disease.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"i have headache all the time ( i thought its summer in india so bcz of Hot weather) , I have muscle vibration all over my body ( face, arm, leg , back , shoulder, right side of my head) , i too have Right leg knee and left hand knee pain . feeling always tired., heart beating fastly."
These symptoms are common in Lyme disease. Some of this may be caused by low magnesium (Mg) levels, because Lyme bacteria use Mg in their reproductive process, and as a result, you can have low Mg levels, resulting in twitching and aching muscles. The heart also a muscle, so Lyme could affect the heart also. Be sure to tell your physician about these symptoms.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let us know if we can help further -- do look at the ILADS [dot] org website, and particularly 'Dr Burrascano's Treatment Guidelines' at that website.
Best wishes!
You are asking the right questions, and your observations of the rash and your symptoms are important clues. No one here is medically trained, but we are glad to share with you what we have learned about Lyme. Here are some quick answers to your specific questions:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You ask:
"1) Will that RASH automatically goes of without treatment?"
A Lyme tick is very tiny and is often overlooked, so the rash is the first thing many people notice -- though there are many of us who never saw a rash either. If you have a cell phone camera, you might take some pictures of the rash to show a physician later.
A Lyme rash often starts as a small red spot, and sometimes you can see part of the tiny tick in the center of the spot. (Lyme ticks are the size of a poppy seed, so they are often overlooked.) As the tick ***** blood from the host (whether human or animal), the bacteria carried by the tick will move into the host, and the irritation caused by the infection looks like a flat red rash. The rash will gradually spread outward, and the center of the round rash will clear so that your normal skin tone returns inside the now-circular rash, except for a tiny spot in the middle -- which is the tick, still imbedded in your skin. (This rash is often called a ‘bullseye’ rash, because of its concentric circles.)
At some point, the tick will be full of blood it has taken from you, and the tick may fall off. The bacteria injected into your skin by the tick begin to move throughout your body, and you may develop other symptoms even as the original rash fades. The Lyme bacteria have the ability to hide in your body in places that the immune system cannot find, and so the infection often continues indefinitely.
Others of us had Lyme, but saw no rash or tiny tick -- I was that way. I felt like I had a mild but constant case of influenza that did not go away, but I had no idea I had Lyme. I was just tired and slightly confused all of the time. These are the more neurological symptoms of Lyme, but not everyone has them -- some have more joint pain (because the bacteria like to hide in cartilage). Everyone's symptoms are different, and that is part of what confuses the physicians.
A Lyme *rash* may go away even without treatment, BUT the bacteria causing the rash will likely still be with you, hiding in cartilage and other areas of the body where the immune system does not easily reach. Treatment (usually with antibiotics) is necessary to cure Lyme. There are some alternative treatments, but I have not used them myself.
"3) Is there any test to find out Lyme?"
Yes, but nothing about Lyme is simple, including the testing. The older, basic tests are called Western blot and ELISA. They are useful, but they have serious flaws: Lyme bacteria can suppress your immune system, but the W.blot and ELISA tests are designed to look for your body's immune reaction to Lyme.
As a result, you can have a true and serious case of Lyme disease, but the tests can say you don’t have it (a false negative result), because the Lyme bacteria stop your immune system from creating antibodies! Many physicians rely entirely on these tests, however, and as a result, too many patients with Lyme are told they do not have Lyme and must have something else, such as emotional problems or family problems unrelated to any infection.
Another misplaced diagnosis is the new 'fibromyalgia', which literally means 'painful fibers' that have no known cause. Not very helpful, eh. I think what happens is that physicians who think Lyme disease is uncommon do not have any other ideas but the syndrome [a collection of symptoms with unknown cause] called 'fibromyalgia.'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a voluntary organization of physicians particularly interested in Lyme disease and the other infection the 'Lyme' ticks often carry:
the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society
(acronym: ILADS, usually pronounced 'EYE-lads')
The ILADS-oriented physicians understand that the earlier determination that Lyme is ‘rare, hard to get, and easy to cure’ has now been shown to be mostly wrong. Unfortunately, those earlier physicians made assumptions about Lyme are now unwilling to change, even with the newer understanding of Lyme and better testing and treatments for Lyme.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately, however, there are other physicians who have broader ideas about Lyme disease and the other infections often carried by the 'Lyme' ticks. It is one of these physicians who diagnosed and treated me and one of my family members. We are now both healthy again, several years after treatment with antibiotics.
Specific antibiotics are needed, depending on whether the patient has only Lyme or also has other infections the ticks may carry. The most important step to take, in my view, is to find one of the physicians who truly understands Lyme and treats it aggressively over a period of months. This kind of physician would take a careful history of symptoms, order some laboratory tests, and then decide how to treat any infections that are found.
If Lyme is diagnosed very soon after you are infected, then the antibiotic doxycycline may work to kill the bacteria and prevent them from hiding in your body where the immune system cannot find the bacteria -- but it is sometimes difficult to know when we were first bitten. This may have been your first bite, or there may have been others previously. This is why accurate testing and a wise physician are so important.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You ask: "2) above scenario and symptoms , am i bitten by any tick , will that be visible in naked eye?"
-- Perhaps. If you are bitten on the scalp (for example), you may not see the rash because the hair will hide it -- or there may not even BE a rash. If you have a visible rash, it is a significant sign, but many of us with Lyme (including me) never had a rash, but I definitely had Lyme disease.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"i have headache all the time ( i thought its summer in india so bcz of Hot weather) , I have muscle vibration all over my body ( face, arm, leg , back , shoulder, right side of my head) , i too have Right leg knee and left hand knee pain . feeling always tired., heart beating fastly."
These symptoms are common in Lyme disease. Some of this may be caused by low magnesium (Mg) levels, because Lyme bacteria use Mg in their reproductive process, and as a result, you can have low Mg levels, resulting in twitching and aching muscles. The heart also a muscle, so Lyme could affect the heart also. Be sure to tell your physician about these symptoms.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let us know if we can help further -- do look at the ILADS [dot] org website, and particularly 'Dr Burrascano's Treatment Guidelines' at that website.
Best wishes!
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