Lyme Science Blog

Teenage Lyme Disease: When Symptoms Don’t Match Teenage Lyme disease often looks nothing like the classic case doctors are trained to recognize. A 15-year-old student came to my office after months of headaches, fatigue, and joint pain. Her pediatrician had told her family, confidently, “Your symptoms don’t match Lyme.” But her symptoms began weeks after […]

The Chronic Lyme Disease Debate Explained For decades, patients with persistent symptoms after Lyme disease treatment have found themselves caught in the middle of the chronic Lyme disease debate. At the center of this debate is a single unresolved question: what explains ongoing illness after standard Lyme disease therapy? In clinical practice, I routinely see

Do All Ticks Carry Lyme Disease? Patients often ask me, “Do all ticks carry Lyme disease?” The short answer is no—but the full answer is more nuanced. In simple terms, only certain ticks can spread Lyme disease, and most tick bites do not lead to Lyme. Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.

The Chronic Lyme Disease Crisis: Why We Can’t Wait Chronic Lyme disease has quietly shifted from an isolated medical concern into a public health crisis, affecting individuals, families, and healthcare systems alike. We are not just seeing more Lyme disease cases—we are seeing more people who do not recover after standard treatment. Patients are getting

“It’s Too Cold for Ticks” — Why This Lyme Myth Is Dangerous When one of my patients developed Lyme disease symptoms in January, she was told, “It’s too cold for ticks — it can’t be Lyme.” That statement is one of the most common and dangerous Lyme disease misconceptions in tick-borne illness. The phrase “too

When Driving Becomes Difficult At first, the change was subtle. The road felt unfamiliar, even though nothing had changed. He found himself needing to concentrate in ways he never had before. Traffic felt overwhelming. He became anxious just thinking about getting behind the wheel. What once had been muscle memory became mentally exhausting. Over time,

Blue Hands and Feet in Lyme Disease: Why They Turn Cold and Change Color Blue or discolored hands and feet in Lyme disease are a common but frequently missed symptom, often accompanied by coldness, numbness, or mottling. These symptoms are often described as “cold hands,” but the key clinical feature is color change—pale, bluish, or

Lyme Disease Underfunded: Why Research Is Still Too Slow Lyme disease is underfunded—and patients are paying the price. Every day, I work with people living with this illness. I see the pain, the confusion, the fatigue, the brain fog—the profound disruption Lyme disease causes in a person’s life. As a physician who has treated thousands

Lyme Disease and Decision Making: When Cognition Gets in the Way Not every challenge in Lyme disease is physical. One of the most overlooked problems involves Lyme disease and decision making—when patients struggle to make choices not from lack of motivation, but because the illness has impaired memory, clarity, and cognitive function. This raises important

Lyme Disease Misconceptions That Contribute to Medical Dismissal Lyme disease misconceptions continue to influence how patients are evaluated, diagnosed, and treated in clinical practice. These misconceptions rarely arise from ill intent. They develop from simplified teaching models, reliance on laboratory testing, and the understandable desire for diagnostic certainty. When applied rigidly, they can contribute to