- Cancer and lyme disease brain fog treatment driver#
- Cancer and lyme disease brain fog treatment trial#
However, antibody tests indicate the immune system has mounted an attack against a virus or bacteria, but can’t determine whether there is an active infection. Serology tests, which look for antibodies in the blood, are the best available method for diagnosing Lyme, experts say. “One tick turned my life upside down." Why diagnosing Lyme is so difficultĪs the geographic spread of Lyme ticks intensifies, there’s an urgent need for more accurate tests that can pick up infection at its earliest stages, researchers and health officials acknowledge. “I’m essentially still putting Band-Aids on all of my symptoms,” she said. The most debilitating symptoms of her Lyme disease have been the psychiatric effects, including severe anxiety, depression and hallucinations, she said. Antibody tests soon showed Greenberg had been infected with Lyme and two other bacterial infections, babesiosis and bartonella.Įven now, she’s still dealing with fatigue and nerve pain. It wasn’t until 2011, after Greenberg’s mom posted to Facebook about her daughter’s mystery illness that a pediatrician friend suggested Lyme disease. Her symptoms eventually became so severe she stopped attending school and required a wheelchair. Those doctors weren’t much help either, Greenberg said. Courtesy Rebecca Greenbergĭoctors told Greenberg her symptoms were likely hormonal, and when Greenberg landed in the emergency room unable to move the left side of her body, they prescribed anti-anxiety medication and suggested she see a neurologist. “My muscles would hurt, my joints would hurt and I’d get these migraines.” Rebecca Greenberg. “I was so tired I would tell my mom I couldn’t wake up for school anymore,” said Greenberg, who grew up in upstate New York but now lives in South Florida. About 10% experience symptoms like fatigue and brain fog along with muscle, joint and nerve pain that persists even after treatment. For most, the infection is mild and easily treated with antibiotics.
CDCĪnywhere from 30,000 up to 500,000 people develop Lyme disease from a tick bite each year, according to the C DC. Male and female adult black-legged ticks, Ixodes scapularis, on a sesame seed bun to show their relative size.
Cancer and lyme disease brain fog treatment trial#
A larger clinical trial would be needed to affirm the connection. The study was small, including 79 people diagnosed with Lyme disease, and found only a link between the higher interferon-alpha levels and the persistent Lyme disease symptoms, not that the immune marker was itself causing the lasting symptoms. And since a number of drugs are already approved to lower interferon-alpha, he suggested the research could mean a possible treatment option for lingering Lyme symptoms.
Cancer and lyme disease brain fog treatment driver#
“We think this is a possible driver of persistent symptoms,” Strle said. In patients with high levels of interferon-alpha, the immune response to the Lyme bacteria may cause chronic inflammation, even once the infection is gone, said Klemen Strle, an assistant research professor of molecular biology and microbiology at Tufts University and an author of the new study. If the blood levels are too high, the immune system can overact, causing pain, swelling and fatigue - symptoms often seen with Lyme disease. Medications include methylphenidate, donepezil, modafinil, luteolin, nicotinamide riboside, vitamin C or probiotic supplementation, monoclonal antibodies, or adaptogens.Ĭognitive behavioral therapy, graded exercise therapy, pacing, and rehabilitation are also potentially helpful.ĭoctors who have been close to long COVID through research or patient care offers the same advice:Įvery time you get COVID is another chance to get long COVID - and the brain fog that comes with it.Interferon-alpha is one of a handful of key signaling proteins the body makes to tell immune cells to fight off bacteria or viruses. “We don’t have a lot of treatments,” cautioned Butt.Ī list of some medications and therapies that are being tried out on the treatment front was published in psychiatric recently. We need more human studies to better understand the pathology,” he added.įor now, managing the symptoms is all that can be done. There are many symptoms and brain fog is just one. “We are just discovering the burden and extent of long COVID. While initial reports suggested 30% of the population might get long COVID, current estimates put it closer to 50%, said Butt.
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