Posted October 30, 2013. This is from Medscape News. So disheartening that the information still given to physicians is that chronic Lyme disease does not exist. Here’s the deal: You may need treatment longer than 21 days. 3 weeks or around that amount of time is not necessarily sufficient to kill the borrelia bergdorferi (Lyme bacteria). I was on antibiotics for one year. I have suffered no detrimental effects to my immune system or digestive system (secret is plenty of probiotics). So just be careful of any doctor who says you will be cured in 3 weeks. This is the kind of information they are getting. It is false. You should work with your LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor) and continue on the treatment that is appropriate for you. A very famous Lyme doc says to
Chronic Lyme Disease
keep up treatment until you are at least 2 months symptom free. Better to err on the side of over treating! I’m glad I did! I am still very strong and healthy, and I’ve been off antibiotics for 3 1/2 years now. Be smart, be your best advocate and make sure you have a good LLMD!
What your doctors are reading:
Post-Lyme Syndrome
There is no evidence to suggest that patients who receive recommended courses of antibiotics for Lyme disease have any residual spirochetes remaining in their body.
Data demonstrate that — after appropriate antibiotic therapy — patients with recurrent Lyme disease had reinfection as opposed to relapsed disease, which suggests that the standard recommended antibiotic courses are sufficient for complete eradication of B burgdorferi from the body. Although a small percentage of patients with Lyme disease who receive appropriate treatment continue to experience disabling, subjective symptoms, such as musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and neurocognitive difficulties, there is no evidence to indicate that this post-Lyme syndrome results from active infection. One study that compared treating this patient population with antibiotics for 3 months (parenteral ceftriaxone for 1 month followed by oral doxycycline for 2 months) with placebo found no differences in symptomatology at the end of the study period. As such, post-Lyme syndrome, which is often colloquially referred to as “chronic Lyme disease,” does not involve persistent or recalcitrant B burgdorferi infection. Long-term antibiotics are not warranted in these patients. Instead, they should be screened for other diseases, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, and offered symptomatic relief rather than antibiotics.
