Hello, and welcome to the Lyme Disease Research Database.We started the LDRD to help educate people about Lyme disease. New developments in the quest to understand and defeat Lyme disease are continually coming along to replace old news and attitudes that have led to much suffering. The LDRD aims to serve Lyme patients, the people who love them, and health care providers by providing this portal to new discoveries about Lyme disease. Here you will find an ongoing database of the latest research, news and therapies. You will also find healthy lifestyle support resources.
Sign up for the LDRD newsletter Signing up to for the LDRD newsletter gives you access to important information about Lyme symptoms, prevention, tests and treatments. Gain immediate access to over 100 research studies and articles. You will also receive all of our blog posts for the week in your email every Saturday morning. Just enter your email address to receive immediate access.
Become a member and receive expanded resources Being a member gives you access to all the free resources, plus additional, unique resources, including the Lyme expert interview audio series and the Lyme success stories audio interview series.
on Lyme disease symptoms, treatment, diagnosis and prevention.
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Introduction to Lyme Disease
What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme disease is a multi-system inflammatory disease that affects all the systems of the body, including the brain. Although every case is different, left untreated, Lyme disease can be devastating.
Lyme can cause fever, headaches, body aches and crushing fatigue. Some patients develop a characteristic bull's eye skin rash at the location of the tick bite. Lyme can also affect the cardiac system and the brain, causing arrhythmia, vertigo, speech impairments such as stammering, and poor concentration. Palsy and facial paralysis are also symptoms of Lyme. It is not uncommon for patients to suffer mood swings, depression, and psychotic episodes such as hallucinations.
However, some people who have the disease do not develop symptoms immediately after being infected. It may take years for some people to become symptomatic. Some who have been exposed may never develop Lyme disease symptoms, and further, is not yet known how long the bacteria may lie dormant.
Currently, the recommended diagnostic tests for detecting Lyme disease are the Western Blot analysis, used to identify particular antibodies, and the ELISA, a general antibody test. Tests for the disease are unreliable. Negative clinical test results do not necessarily mean that the patient is free of Lyme or its co-infections. The bacteria appears to evade the body's immune system, as it is capable of changing into two, three or more shapes as it spreads throughout the body.
Unfortunately, it is common for people with Lyme to receive a misdiagnoses and thus remain untreated. The medical profession’s nickname for chronic Lyme disease is the Great Imitator, because symptoms mimic hundreds of other conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Epstein-Barr virus, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Lyme Treatment
Lyme disease
is treatable with antibiotics. However, the strength and length of
prescription of antibiotics is at the core of controversy in the
medical community. Antibiotics given immediately after infection seem
to work for most Lyme patients. During later stages of the disease,
some patients have responded to extended courses of antibiotics, but
extended courses are not sanctioned by the Centers of Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) or the Infectious Diseases Society of America
(IDSA). Current guidelines for treatment of Lyme published by the
International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) state that
it is reasonable to continue antibiotic therapy, in some cases,
beyond the arbitrary 30-day course recommended by the IDSA.
Experts
familiar with the complicated nature of diagnosing Lyme advise that
if a person has had a tick bite, or exhibits symptoms characteristic
of Lyme, they consult a Lyme literate medical doctor (LLMD) and begin
treatment, even if test results are negative or pending.
Alternative
Medicine
Increasingly, LLMDs are treating patients
successfully with alternative protocols, such as pharmaceutical and
herbal antimicrobials combined, and other non-invasive methods, such
as hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Further, doctors are seeing fewer cases
of relapse in patients who are treated with some of these alternative
protocols.
For Patients
People suffering the
symptoms and stress of Lyme disease need accessible information that
helps them make sound decisions about the course of their own
treatment. The Lyme Disease Research Database aims to be a resource
for patients seeking education about prevention of the disease,
support for identifying and alleviating Lyme symptoms, and news of
current treatments, both conventional and alternative.
For
Health Professionals
The Lyme Disease Research Database (LDRD) helps provide a platform for health professionals, LLMDs, researchers, patients, medical experts and other licensed health care practitioners to speak directly to others in the Lyme community. Health professionals share up-to-date information about therapies that are effective for their patients with Lyme disease. In addition, LDRD also showcases stories of patients who are successfully overcoming Lyme disease.
- Conversations with Lyme Experts. A special series of interviews with medical doctors and others working to find reliable diagnostic methods and healing protocols for Lyme disease sufferers. Hear the details about the latest in Lyme treatments from the experts themselves.
- Proactive healthy lifestyle resources. Learn about activities that support you as you regain health.
- Proactive nutrition and diet resources. Many of the Lyme experts we consult with are also board-certified Nutritionists. Discover their recommendations about the foods you eat while beating Lyme disease.
- Beating Lyme success stories. Hear from former Lyme sufferers who are symptom-free, and living full and balanced lives again. Learn how they did it, and how you can do it too.
- Personal email attention from the LDRD staff.
- This allows us to answer your questions about Lyme without subjecting you or the LDRD to spam.
- And many more benefits to be added.
Please help us help you. With your membership we can maintain and continue to improve the LDRD. With your support we can better aid you in your quest to beat Lyme disease.
$9.95 (per month)
We accept credit cards, debit cards and online checks. You will receive immediate access. You will be billed $9.95 per month for the duration of your membership.