A fourth-year medical student condemned “chronic Lyme” believers
This is not apologetics. I just want everything to be handled in its place and to take the facts into account. And don’t school others if you haven’t finished school yourself.
The lady complains that simple “rheumatoid arthritis” and “multiple sclerosis” patients receive the answer from doctors and therapists practicing functional medicine for their condition that shows problems at the level of the body systems (i.e., almost all Lyme symptoms).
She says, “It’s also well known that some people have long-term symptoms and damage from Lyme disease, sometimes referred to as post-Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). It’s not a chronic infection, but it takes the body more time to return to the starting point.” Then she explains how tests can be positive even in this state, and of course there is some truth in this, but she forgets that there are no longer only serological tests, but just as there is a test in Europe that directly detects the pathogen, direct tests are already used in the USA.
She then goes on to say that “chronic Lyme disease” is not a defined term, but she uses the term PTLDS without any problems. Obviously, you haven’t read the 2019 article in the journal Antibiotics (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6963229/ ) since its publication, the authors of which are obviously also university students (no), and the list of references of which is over 200. However, she knows by heart (unfortunately not) that PTLDS is a remaining diagnosis that is made on an exclusion basis.
What I find very interesting in this is that she does not analyze in such depth what tests and how they would like to verify the disappearance of Lyme disease. Because the laboratory tests are only listed as proof of the previous Lyme in the PTLDS publication (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666991925001848?via%3Dihub ), obviously written by French “university students”. Talking about exclusion, how can I rule out Lyme disease and its co-infections? What is needed to rule out Lyme in PTLDS: 1. previous Lyme diagnosis, 2. the patient received the prescribed course of treatment (i.e. 2-3 weeks of doxycycline), 3. the treatment was taken appropriately. I do not know of any other disease in which the due completion of the treatment would exclude the residual disease or recurrence!
Imagine that a mother with breast cancer is operated on. When a lump forms in the breast again, it would not be removed, it would not be examined again, because “your breast cancer has already been operated, it will be something else!”
And if the health care system has failed, then the unfortunate patient really goes to a “quack” and collects what he can say and give. And the author also writes that it is often contaminated with bacteria and heavy metals (yikes, I’m going to get it now, but let’s say the same as some of the vaccines? – No, I’m not anti-vaccine, only the facts show it).
And then she comes up with the solution herself: that an alternative diagnosis is indeed made in “chronic” cases: rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, “degenerative spine disease”, etc. And the author calls them known diseases, and she can cure them! Unfortunately, these diseases are autoimmune processes of unknown origin, which may be caused by infection. What I know for sure is that I have seen a lot of cases where these conditions were cured with a Lyme treatment: combined antibiotics.
And yes, dear Madam, this is frustrating for the patient, for the doctor. And for me too. But not that chronic symptoms are mistakenly diagnosed as Lyme disease, but that there is a solution, but even a university graduate has not learned critical thinking. Unfortunately, medicine does NOT even develop with generational change.
P.S. It is useless to attack me for pushing the cart of the term “chronic-Lyme”. No, I don’t think it’s completely well defined either. My colleagues have long come up with the term that I like to use and that does not cause controversy: “Lyme disease with chronic symptoms”. But I also hack the other term where possible: PTLDS, because no one can prove that Lyme is not the cause of the symptoms after the Lyme treatment.
Luckily, in Europe, DualDur exist for proving Borrelia presence.
The source of debate: https://www.syracuse.com/opinion/2026/02/the-myth-the-legend-the-truth-about-chronic-lyme-disease-guest-opinion-by-samantha-ballas.html
