Lyme Science Blog

Chronic Lyme Disease Pain A new study has revealed alarming trends in chronic pain across America — prevalence jumped from 21% in 2019 to 24% in 2023, now affecting 60 million adults. While researchers attributed about 13% of this increase to long-COVID, a significant portion remains unexplained. As a physician specializing in tick-borne diseases, I […]

Spinal Taps for Lyme Disease: Do You Really Need One? Spinal Taps: A Troubling Trend I’ve noticed a troubling trend in Lyme disease care. Some patients are being told they need a spinal tap (lumbar puncture) to “rule out neurological Lyme disease.” While spinal taps are important in cases like suspected meningitis, their role in

Lyme Rash Misdiagnosis: Not Always a Bull’s-Eye A bull’s-eye rash is often associated with Lyme disease, but the opposite problem is common — Lyme rash misdiagnosis. Many patients with Lyme disease never develop the classic bull’s-eye pattern. When clinicians rely on that textbook image alone, early infection can be overlooked. When people search for “bullseye

Why Medicine Must Not Abandon Lyme Patients This discussion highlights ethical failures that occur when patients are dismissed in the face of diagnostic uncertainty. Abandoning Lyme patients violates the core principles of medical ethics. A woman in her 40’s came to me after months of searching for answers. She had been a successful business executive,

Lyme Disease and Exercise: How to Start Safely Why Lyme Disease and Exercise Deserve a Second Look In my clinical practice, I’ve worked with patients who could barely walk across the room—let alone exercise. But I’ve also seen those same patients regain strength, mobility, and hope when we introduced the right kind of movement at

Gender bias in Lyme disease What gender bias in Lyme disease can look like She first came to me after two exhausting years of symptoms that refused to show up on routine tests. Her knees and shoulders ached unpredictably. Her neck was stiff. The fatigue hit her like a wall every afternoon—“bone-deep,” she called it.

Why Lyme Patients Delay Care Some Lyme patients delay care for a few days. Others for decades. And it’s not always for the reasons doctors assume. In fact, the behavioral barriers to timely Lyme disease care—uncertainty, fear, dismissal, logistics, stigma—are also seen in other serious but preventable conditions. Understanding why Lyme patients delay care is

Lyme Disease and Working Sick: The Hidden Cost After 37 years treating Lyme disease, I’ve seen patients struggling with Lyme disease and working sick as an all-too-common scenario. They feel forced to push through fatigue, pain, and brain fog just to keep their jobs. Many describe it as a daily balancing act—choosing between financial survival,

New Lyme Blood Test LymeSeek Promises Earlier, More Accurate Diagnosis A New Approach to Lyme Disease Testing Lyme disease is one of the few infections where patients are often diagnosed too late—not because they waited, but because testing could not detect the infection until later stages, if at all. A new Lyme blood test called

Lyme Disease Overlooked in Gastroparesis Patient In their article, “Unique Case of Gastroparesis in a Chronic Lyme Disease Patient,” Qasawa et al. discuss the case of a patient diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, who suffered from gastrointestinal complications including gastroparesis. Her symptoms were so severe that she required IV nutrition to maintain her weight—making gastroparesis