Lyme borreliosis better known as Lyme disease is caused by the Borrelia bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi), and is often spread by ticks. B. burgdorferi can also be transmitted by bites from an infected ticks who got infected after feeding on infected birds, deer or mice.
What is Lyme Disease?
Most people with Lyme disease have no recollection of tick bites even though a tick must be present on skin for 1 or 2 days to transmit the infection. The transmittable disease was first diagnosed in the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut in the year 1975. Since then it has become the most common diagnosed tick-borne disease in Europe and North America. People living with domesticated animals have a higher risk of acquiring Lyme disease but people who like the outdoors or or spend time in wooded areas also have a higher risk of getting this illness.
Symptoms of Lyme Disease
For many parts of the North America and Eastern Europe, Lyme disease season is coming to a close. But for some people who spent time in woodlands, parks, or working in their gardens during the summer and autumn, symptoms of chronic Lyme disease have just begun to present themselves. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that between 10% and 20% percent of patients who undergo antibiotic treatment will develop persistent Lyme disease. Chronic Lyme disease symptoms include:
- Fatigue
- Joint pain
- Muscle aches
- Cognitive dysfunction and/or Brain Fog
These can persist for as much as six months and, in some cases, even longer. They can become severe enough to impede the patient’s ability to perform normal activities and cause considerable emotional distress. While most people do recover from chronic Lyme disease within a year, there are cases where treatment for chronic Lyme disease must continue beyond this time frame.[1]
Chronic Lyme disease
Lyme disease becomes chronic when it resists antibiotic treatment. Lyme disease can also develop when someone hasn’t realized they’ve been bitten by a tick until months later when the more serious symptoms emerge. This phase is also known as persistent Lyme disease or post-treatment Lyme disease. When the disease resists antibiotics, treatment of chronic Lyme disease may need to shift to more advanced methods.
Why some people develop chronic Lyme disease while others do not is still unknown. Equally unclear is what triggers the particular symptoms of persistent Lyme. What is understood is that treatment for chronic Lyme disease needs to be highly personalized, according to the patient’s particular history and the combination of symptoms that are present.
How Lyme Disease is Contracted?
Tick bites are by far the most common way to contract Lyme, though medical experts believe there are rare cases in which other biting insect species may carry the bacteria that are responsible for the disease. Not all ticks are infected with the bacterial strain Borrelia burgdorferi. The most common type of tick that spreads Lyme disease is the black-legged tick, also known as the deer tick.[2]
Black-legged ticks are not the originators of Lyme disease. They receive the bacteria when they bite a host that’s infected, such as a deer or mouse. When an infected tick makes its way to you and bites, the bacteria is passed on.
How Lyme Disease Develops into Chronic Lyme Disease
The exact reason why chronic Lyme disease develops is not yet understood. Some medical experts believe it may be due to Borrelia burgdorferi not being entirely eradicated in some people during the antibiotic regimen. Others think the damage to the immune system and the body’s tissues that was caused by the disease persists even after the bacteria have been fully eliminated. They believe chronic Lyme disease is actually the immune system continuing to respond to the damage as if the infection is still present.
Risk Factors for Acquiring Lyme Disease
Of course, risk factors for developing chronic Lyme disease begin with the bite of an infected tick. So your first best defense against the disease becoming chronic is to thoroughly check yourself, loved ones, and pets for ticks after spending time outdoors.
Not receiving the recommended antibiotics for Lyme treatment may also increase your risk. With that in mind, however, there is a percentage of patients who will develop chronic Lyme disease even with the proper antibiotic regimen. Generally speaking, symptoms of chronic Lyme disease are very similar to those of the earlier stages. The main difference is the persistent nature of chronic Lyme disease symptoms.[3] These include:
- Fatigue
- Restlessness during sleep
- Body pain
- Achy joints or muscles
- Painful and/or swollen connective joints, such as those of the knee, shoulder, or hips.
Chronic Lyme disease symptoms may progress to include:
- A decrease in short-term memory
- Difficulty in concentration
- Trouble with speech
- Mobility problems
Chronic Lyme disease can result in symptoms that become debilitating and cause extreme changes to the patient’s lifestyle.
Diagnosis of Chronic Lyme Disease
In order to plan the right treatment for chronic Lyme disease, the patient undergoes a test to check antibody levels in the blood. Antibodies are what the body produces when confronted with disease-causing bacteria. The two most commonly used blood tests are the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test and the Western blot test.
Additionally, your physician may order certain tests and exams that address the specific chronic Lyme disease symptoms that are being expressed. These may include:
- Electrocardiogram or echocardiogram to determine heart function (patients with heart disease or previous heart attack)
- Spinal tap to inspect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to observe neurological conditions
Important points
- Most tests for Lyme disease are only designed to detect antibodies made by our body in response to an infection.
- Antibodies in a patient normally persist in the bloodstream for months or sometimes years after the initial infection is gone
- Antibodies can also take several weeks to slowly develop, so some patients might test negative if recently infected
- Some Lyme disease tests give results for two kinds of antibodies, IgG and IgM. A positive IgM results should be disregarded if the patient has been sick for longer than 30 days.
- Infections with other diseases, including some types of tickborne diseases, or viral, autoimmune diseases such as MG with anti-MuSK antibodies or bacterial related disease can result in a false positive test result or be misdiagnosed
Treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease
As mentioned above, the best weapon against of Lyme disease is early intervention. Catching the disease in its early stages before it becomes persistent.
Can lyme disease be cured?
For most patients, this early intervention requires a 2 to 3 week course of oral antibiotics. The three antibiotics generally used are amoxicillin, doxycycline and cefuroxime axetil. But actual treatment will depends on each person health and the types of symptoms being experienced.[4]
Lyme Disease Breakthrough
When it comes to treating persistent Lyme disease, stem cell therapy has quickly emerged as one of the most advanced treatments to date. Since chronic Lyme disease exhibits many symptoms similar to autoimmune conditions, it is believed that stem cell therapy works by repairing and rejuvenating damaged cells, nerves, and tissues. Stem cell therapy is also gaining in popularity among physicians because it is a non-pharmaceutical based natural therapy as prolonged use of prescription medications and antibiotics can cause other complications.
What is CVID Syndrome?
Common variable immunodeficiency or CVID is considered a primary immune deficiency disease and is characterized by very low levels of protecting antibodies which increases the risk of getting infections. The disease usually is diagnosed in adults, but can also occur in children. Patients with CVID , often have chronic ear infections, infections in the sinuses and respiratory infections that can lead to COPD or pulmonary fibrosis.
How MSC+ Stem Cells Can Reduce the Neurological Effects of Lyme Disease
If left undiagnosed for too long, the neurological effects of Lyme disease can be difficult to treat with conventional medicine. But the real tragedy is the life-altering difficulties these symptoms can cause those afflicted and their loved ones. However, regenerative medical techniques like stem cell therapy is opening up promising possibilities for those suffering from neurological Lyme disease symptoms.
Stem cells are a natural product of the body. Among their functions, stem cells are what the body uses to help heal tissue and organ damage. For example, when you experience a cut to the skin, stem cells are the cellular “EMS” and “medical crews” that help in the healing of tissue and blood vessels. They also promote the healing of muscles and stimulate cell re-growth. Stem cells have also been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of neurological conditions such as brain injuries, ALS, MND and multiple sclerosis.
Benefits of Stem Cells for Lyme Disease
The long-term effects of Lyme disease are hard to address and just as difficult to live with, which is why stem cell therapy for Lyme disease offers such a promising solution for immunomodulatory and reversal of immunosuppressive effects. The Borrelia bacterias effect on an adaptive immune is due largely to its ability to evade our immune system checkpoints by hiding in protected niches in the body such intracellular compartments and biofilms.
Lyme disease is also associated with killing of circulating lymphocytes and immunodeficiency syndromes, because humoral immunity and immunoglobulin production has been suppressed after a Borrelia burgdorferi infection. Other infections like Mycoplasma and Bartonella (bartonellosis) are also frequently associated with immunological dysfunctions. Mycoplasmas are also often found to interact with B cells in the body and affects the production of antibodies.[5]
Circulating stem cells in the body and are what helps the body heal from injury, disease or infections by targeting the antibody deficiency. If you cut yourself, the body would release chemical signals to recruit stem cells to help the skin, tissues, blood vessels, and muscles heal and regrow completing the regenerative cycle. Stem cell therapy involves using autologous stem cells the body or allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells for cord tissue or placenta. This stem cells and tissue specific growth factors are then delivered back to the body in areas that need healing. This regenerative process is used to help speed recovery following surgery or medical therapies or to speed healing from a sports injury or other illnesses or injuries that the body has sustained.
Stem cells Lyme disease therapy is focused on new applications for these powerhouse cells that can help all the Lyme disease patients who suffered advanced cases and are now left with life-altering effects. Stem cells being used in testing for Lyme disease cell therapy can be taken from the patient’s own body or matched to the patient so there is little to no risk of negative side effects of the therapy.
The Outlook of Living with Chronic Lyme Disease
The majority of patients diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease will eventually recover from their symptoms. It is not unusual for people to experience them for months and sometimes years. However, the advancements being made in regenerative medicine methods like stem cell therapy point to speedier recoveries for many people.
Preventing Lyme Disease
Following practices that lower your risk of tick bites is always your first and best defense against chronic Lyme disease. Below are several recommendations for Lyme disease prevention:
- Use pest control for your lawn areas.
- Use insect repellent while spending time in woody or grassy areas. The repellent should be applied to both clothing and exposed skin.
- When using hiking trails, stay in the center of the trails to prevent brushing up against shrubs, trees, and grass.
- Immediately change your clothes after spending time in the outdoors. Take the clothes immediately to the laundry room, wash them and expose them to high dryer heat.
- Do a thorough exam of your skin and scalp for ticks.
- Examine all pets for ticks.
- Use permethrin to treat clothes and footwear. This is an insect repellant that stays active through several washings.
If You Suspect Exposure From a Tick
If you find an attached tick or think an insect bite may be from one, notify your doctor of possible infection. Your doctor will likely advise you to be on alert for symptoms for 30 days. Symptoms of early Lyme disease include:
- A rash at the site of the bite. It sometimes resembles a bull’s-eye.
- Fatigue
- Chills or general feeling of illness similar to the flu
- Itching
- Headaches
- Dizziness or feeling faint
- Aching muscles or joints
- Swollen joints
- Neck stiffness
- Enlarged lymph nodes
The Regeneration Center offers minimally invasive procedures via MSC+ stem cells. Our procedures are safe and have exceptionally low risk for side effects. Using isolated and enhanced stem cells and cell growth factors, The Regen Center protocol offers a concentrated amount of mesenchymal stem cells that are both exceptionally potent and abundant.
Effective management of lyme disease in 2024
For over 15 years the Regeneration center has been very successful in treating similar neurological conditions such as FMS, Strokes, ataxia and Parkinson’s. Our stem cell therapy for patients with Lyme disease is ideal for those with advanced neurological symptoms. The goal our our treatment is to heal the body from the neurological damage caused by Lyme disease and Borrelia burgdorferi bacterial infections.
Our results have been very promising and patients report far better energy, a far-reaching decrease in severe symptoms, a reduction in the overall number of symptoms (Antibiotic‐refractory Lyme arthritis), and impressive improvement in their general health. The majority of Regeneration Center patients report improvement a few days after therapy begins and get verified using updated immunoglobulin level tests. Treatment recommendations are based on patient needs and might require multiple treatment stages over the course of approximately two weeks. In general, our unique protocol has shown to be the most effective in reaching the full potential of the therapy.
Published Clinical Citations
[1] ^ Ross Russell, A. L., Dryden, M. S., Pinto, A. A., & Lovett, J. K. (2018). Lyme disease: diagnosis and management. Practical neurology, 18(6), 455–464. https://doi.org/10.1136/practneurol-2018-001998
[2] ^ Ji, Z., Jian, M., Yue, P., Cao, W., Xu, X., Zhang, Y., Pan, Y., Yang, J., Chen, J., Liu, M., Fan, Y., Su, X., Wen, S., Kong, J., Li, B., Dong, Y., Zhou, G., Liu, A., & Bao, F. (2022). Prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodidae Tick around Asia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland), 11(2), 143. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11020143
[3] ^ Zhao, H., Liu, A., Shen, L., Xu, C., Zhu, Z., Yang, J., Han, X., Bao, F., & Yang, W. (2017). Isoforskolin downregulates proinflammatory responses induced by Borrelia burgdorferi basic membrane protein A. Experimental and therapeutic medicine, 14(6), 5974–5980. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2017.5300
[4] ^Horowitz R, Freeman PR. Improvement of common variable immunodeficiency using embryonic stem cell therapy in a patient with lyme disease: a clinical case report. Clin Case Rep. 2018 May 2;6(6):1166-1171. doi: 10.1002/ccr3.1556. PMID: 29881587; PMCID: PMC5986024.
[5] ^Krause, P. J., Telford, S. R., 3rd, Spielman, A., Sikand, V., Ryan, R., Christianson, D., Burke, G., Brassard, P., Pollack, R., Peck, J., & Persing, D. H. (1996). Concurrent Lyme disease and babesiosis. Evidence for increased severity and duration of illness. JAMA, 275(21), 1657–1660.