M any Lyme disease patients report severe chronic pain, numbness, and tingling, even after they have supposedly “completed” treatment for Lyme disease.
But up until recently, there hasn’t been an objective way to measure those symptoms. You had to report them to the doctor, hoping he or she would take you at your word about what you were feeling.
New research suggests such sensations may be caused by nerve damage. Additional findings show that decreased blood flow in the brain may also be contributing to dysautonomia—which is dysfunction of the system that regulates bodily functions such as blood pressure, digestion, and sweating.
Now, a groundbreaking study provides quantifiable, physiological reasons for these chronic symptoms that continue to plague a subset of patients despite treatment for Lyme disease.
Lyme Disease and Small Fiber Neuropathy
This new Lyme disease and neuropathy study is from Dr. Peter Novak and colleagues at Harvard Medical School. They set out to determine whether symptoms such as fatigue, cognitive impairment, and widespread pain that remain following treatment for Lyme disease are associated with a condition called Small Fiber Neuropathy (SFN).
SFN is caused by damage to nerves that convey pain and temperature sensations from the skin to the brain, as well as those involved in breathing, heartbeat, digestion, and bladder control.
Even when Lyme is treated early, the CDC states that 10–20% of patients will be left with prolonged, sometimes disabling, symptoms. If not treated until later in the illness, the recovery rate is even worse, with estimates of up to 50% of patients remaining ill.
When such symptoms as brain fog, widespread pain, and fatigue continue for longer than six months after treatment, some researchers call it Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS).
[Editor’s note: LymeDisease.org recommends dropping PTLDS as a diagnostic term. Read more here.]
How Does Lyme Disease Affect the Nervous System?
….Join or login below to continue reading.
You must be a LymeDisease.org member to access this content.
If you are already a member, log in below. Otherwise, become a member today to access the full content of this article and the full library of Lyme Times articles.
* Physician Directory Memberships do not have access to the Lyme Times.