Can anyone tell me about EBV VCA IGG levels?

I've been feeling horrible for weeks lately and got an unexpected test result back for EBV.

My IGM is negative, but my IGG VCA is a value of 4.19. Which I was told was high. I haven't recovered at all in the month I've been hit down and I'm wondering just how high my IGG is and if I should be concerned with this being a long term CFS situation?
My doctor said you have mono and should expect feeling bad and just rest it out, but I'm negative for IGM and I have no sore throat or fever. What should I make of this and what course of action can I take to understand my condition better. Also is my value of 4.19 equal to a 4,000 IGG, I'm a little confused with the numbers

John thank you very much for your reply, I really appreciate the advice and I will look further into the information you have given me. Again thank you so much for replying.

best wishes, Dan

I have had EBV for 14 weeks, ( bedridden for 11 weeks) and have thankfully started to feel a bit bettter and wanted to share what I've done in order to get back to a semi-normal life. I have been completely frustrated with the treatment for EBV....doctors just say, "Go home and sleep". This is not a good enough answer for me. I am fortunate enough to have good health insurance and I just wanted to share and hopefully help anyone who is suffering from this virus. I searched and searched for answers and believe me...there is really not much out there except for out dated and conflicting advice.

First, I have never in my life experienced anything like this virus and my struggle is still continuing. Thankfully, the bad days have started to become less and less. But, in the beginning, I really thought I was dying or going crazy. For the first 2 weeks, I could not move or eat. I finally got the diagnosis when I went to an internist and begged him to test me for everything. My EBV was 1522 and DHEA was 1342. I'm a 37 year old healthy female, the only problems I was having before this were hormonal issues and I was also in severe pain after working out (of course, people responded "you just need to work out more".....in my case, not so.)

My second lab test (about week 5 or 6 of virus onset) the EBV elevated to 2338. I finally broke down and started Valtrex, and it honestly helped ME alot. I wish I would have gotten the precription for Valtrex at the first diagnosis, but I'm hard headed and I'm not a big supporter of pharmaceuticals. But, with all honesty, they have helped me.

The early symptoms I had:
*fatique so bad, like the blood in my body wasn't even flowing; a complete energy crisis
*Dizziness & tunnel vision that both lead to nausea
*Extreme Muscle pain (especially in neck, back and legs)
*Insomnia
*Heart Palpatations
*Unable to think, eat, almost dulsional
* I had to force water into my body
*Weakness and tightness in muscles (for a week it was hard to walk and when I did get up it was like I was drunk)
*Migranes
*Major anxiety
*Sensitivity to noise and light
*Heartburn, constipation, severe stomach aches
*ear aches & buzzing in ears
*Mild fever
*Lots of tears, frustrations, bouts of anger

I'm about 75%. I still suffer from muscle aches and tightness, spasms, migranes and fatique. But, I am not bedridden everyday like I was for the first 11 weeks.

I read the book "From Fatique to Fantastic" and I'm following the vitamin supplementation in the book. It's alot of pills to swallow, but I will to anything to kick this virus. I do believe it has helped. I had low Vitamin D, so also I've added it 2 X a day. I would highly recommend Vitamin D if you are in bedridden. I wish I would have started it in the beginning of the virus.

I am doing restorative yoga just about everyday or when I can move or feel like it. I started a few dvd's about 4 weeks before I got sick and whenever I can do 5 minutes just to stretch my muscles I feel better. I highly recommend "Candlelight Yoga" and "Meditation for Beginners" they are both gentle and relaxing. I rented them from Netflix, then I liked them so much I bought them both from Amazon.

I am taking the following RX:
AM: Wellbutrin, Celexa, Valtrex (500 mg)
PM: Valtrex (500 mg), Ambien CR (12.5 mg)

Before I got the EBV onset, I was taking no rx drugs.

I have also changed my diet in MAJOR ways. I flew from CA to Portland, Oregon 4 weeks ago, around week 10 of virus (it was an very painful & tearful flight). The doctor did a blood test to find foods that were inflammitory and that my body was reacting to. Among the list were thing that I was eating alot of and I thought were healthy. On the list were eggs, all beans, flax, dairy, and others. I cut them out and I'm not having the bad stomach problems and pain. I know this is not for everyone. But, I am determined to not eat anything processed or in a box. This is out of sheer determination to heal my body and be healthy.

I now only ocassionally eat meat and my diet consist of mostly veggies and fruit. I use our juicer ALOT (atleast once daily, mostly 2 times a day). And...those of you that say eating healthy is expensive, I swear, it's not! At Costco, you can get in HUGE amounts organic carrots, celery, grapes, apples, oranges, berries, kiwi, plums. I am able to load up for around $55 for the entire week. This also provides enough fruit and veggies for my husband and daughter.

I hope that anyone that is reading this this that has EBV is surrounded by love, compassion and understanding. It is an unexplainable experience and I wish I could say that it has been easy. My only advise is to listen to what your body is telling you and give it what it needs. I can't tell you the things I have done will help anyone else, but I have reached out to many doctors and I recieved no real answers. I wasted alot of energy to try and find "the answer" at a time when I had very little energy available. I have a new found compassion for people with chronic illnesses. I hope that by sharing what I went thru, I can help anyone who is able to find this information.

Amy,
Did you get glutathione/ATP injections from your doctor? I was just diagnosed with Chronic Epstein Barr/Mono and just started my injections and am praying for the best. I, as you, have spent much money on many doctors with no answers or seemingly compassion for my plight. My psychiatrist even told me I was a hypochondriac (he's been fired). I won't know if these injections will help me or not but I've been told my new doctor, who discovered this diagnosis, is the best around the Houston area, to deal with this problem. I thank God I found her. Best of luck to you. Seek out the injections if you haven't already.

Boppys

Yo_EBV and others,

Are you all recovering? I am on week 22 of EBV and I too have levels >8.0. Drives me insane that there is no answers to this disease. I am really active and healthy so not sure why it is taking so long to beat this. I am doing everything you can think of...accupuncture, massage, chiro, vitamins, water, valtrex and lot's of fruits and vegetables. Things are up and down but constantly have foggy head, back aches, fatigue and stomach aches. I played basketball the other day and when I finished I had a hard time focusing my eyes. All these symptoms are bizarre and have caused me to be paranoid that something else is wrong especially since it has gone on for so long. Would love to hear how everyone is recovering.

Winding down

Sounds like you might have lyme. Bad reactions to antibiotic is a flag. It's called a herx reaction, or healing crisis when dying bacteria emit toxins. Have you bee tested? A ID doc won't treat you, they don't believe in chronic lyme. You have to go to a lyme literate doctor. That's what I would do.

My doctor appointment isn't for another two weeks the tests I got back was automatically released to my medical website so I don't have any numbers but everything is positive and reactive except for one and I don't know what that means? ITS THE EBV VCAIGM part that is neg any help me with that? Thank you

It's good that you had your genetic testing done. That is important sine it's so hard to clear toxins when you have the mutation. It's also possible that you can't clear the EBV virus because of lyme dragging down your immune system. If you can't afford a LLMD, then you could consult with a herbalist or holistic provider and treat that way. LDN is often used with lyme to control pain, but it doesn't clear infections. If you get a negative lyme test, I would treat with herbals at the very least if you can afford that.

I am looking for more information on this as well, but it seems like I have more info than most, so here goes.

(Fair warning: I am an engineer and a literal genius, so I have a tendency to try to dissect everything. This explanation may get way too detailed, and end up being either catastrophically wrong or right on-the-nose - it's anyone's guess).

I believe that the index levels depend on the test and are unitless. You may be able to directly compare indices that were calculated based on the same test, but, otherwise, you would need to know what constants and formulas went into calculating the index number before you can compare it to any other index or unit. However, I would posit that the positivity threshold in all results are based off of the same fixed incidence of antibodies, so you may be able to get an idea of the relationship between the results of different tests through comparison of "threshold" values - i.e., which numbers indicate a positive, negative, and equivocal result.

I have had two tests, taken about 7 months apart after separate episodes of what a doctor has diagnosed as a recurring epstein barr infection.

The first test used unitless index values. The result was 4.10. Under the results, the only threshold value that I am given is 0.90, meaning that any index value over 0.90 (0.91 or above) indicates a positive result. (In my research, it seems like this is a common threshold value for a EBV ab VCA IGG testing kit, but I am not sure that it is the only one, as I have found what appear to be other testing instructions from other kits that have different threshold numbers).

The second test that I had uses actual units in its results - U/mL - although, "U" just stands for "unit" and I am not told what the "U" is units of. I would assume that the unit is the antibody itself, meaning that 100 U/mL = 100 antibodies detected in mL of either the blood, or the mixed sample that was used in the test. My results from this test were >600 U/mL (meaning that the resulting value was literally off the charts). The threshold values that I have for this test are: Negative < 18.0, Equivocal between 18.0 - 21.9, and Positive > 21.9. Obviously, I was a little high.

What I have been trying to figure out is whether my second test shows higher antibody levels than my first test. A high level of the VCA IGG antibodies does not, by itself, indicate that your infection is intense or recent. The high number could just be your usual, daily number after an infection from years earlier. However, I keep getting these blood tests well after the onset of what appears to be a re-activation, so it is too late to catch the IGM antibodies, which typically appear in the early stages or re-activation, and disappear after about a month. The IGM antibodies are what indicate an active infection (if the IGG antibodies are not present) or current re-activation (if the IGG antibodies are concurrently present). However, I would expect that much higher levels of the IGG antibody after a second episode would be significant and indicate that I did, in actuality, experience a re-activation at some point between the two tests. I don't know any other reason why my IGG antibodies would suddenly increase. (Though, of course, I am not a doctor XD).

What I did was directly compare the upper, positive, threshold limits between the two tests in order to figure out where the "1.0" index value might be, under the semi-supported assumption that the index value is a ratio:

22.0 (U/mL) / 0.91 = 20.02 U/mL.

Therefore, multiplying the index number result from my first test by 20.02 U/mL might give me those results in U/mL, so that I can directly compare them to results of my second test:

20.02 (U/mL) x 4.10 = 82.08 U/mL

Since 82.08 U/mL < 600 U/mL, this would indicate that my antibody levels went up by a LOT, and I likely experienced a re-activation in between.

Now, that seems like an incredible leap in antibodies, considering that I have had many recurring episodes before either test. So, I'm not sure if this is really accurate. The best way to find out is to get a few more tests that gives results in U/mL and compare. In the meantime, though, I hope that this helps a bit in coming up with a definitive answer. Does anyone happen to know a medical lab tech?

I hope you guys can find help in this:

All chronic illness is a collection of multiple bacterial, viral, parasites, fungal, molds, and environmental such as heavy metal toxicity and or chemical exposures.

It's HIGHLY probable that SINCE you've got active EBV, you have either Lyme disease plus it's Co-infections, environmental toxicity, or reactivation of the human herpes virus 6;

It takes only 1 of those scenarios to CAUSE your past ebv infection to 'RE-infect'

The MTFHR gene mutations is a result of reactivation of HHV6= the virus has a 'gene re-shuffling' ability!

Ultraviolet blood irradiation through an I.V mode and antiviral, with supplemental glutathione are our ONLY hope but will not reverse the damage already done to the genes-UGH!

@alymn1224---

I was diagnosed with mono at the end of April 2015. This was a huge surprise to me since I had mono back in 1983 as a teenager. Needless to say it is been a very long summer. I have worked most of the time since diagnosis in April. However, three weeks ago I did go see an infectious disease specialist. I am now on my 3rd week off from work. We are still doing testing to rule out all sorts of possible other issues. Many people will tell you to just wait it out. If you have good insurance go see a specialist and if you can take time off from work do it.

I am trying to stay positive. Hoping you feel better soon.

hi I have been following the discussions on EBV tonight I have been told I have fibromyalgia, CFS, EBV, Bipolar, Crazy you name it. then I came back negative for lyme on quest labs then first igenex was inconclusive, then second one 2 years later was positive. Since there is so much overlap in symptoms, I know I have either EBV, CMV or HHV 6 that is active. I just started Famvir and I just now feeling a little difference in couple of days. I have read where it takes 3 months to see any significant change. Someone said it is a multi system disease. well I think all these diseases are. I do have the MTHFR gene mutation, I have a fatty liver since I have been sick so long, and after reading this I need to get back on glutathione. B 12 shots help too.

I had infected teeth, untreated Hashimoto's, heavy metals, leaky gut, and severe emotional trauma which I think got me so sick. I just got out of an abusive relationship I was in on and off for 15 years. I have spent 3 years in treatment for lyme but antibiotics really have not helped much other than azithromycin and bactrim. I don't have any co infections that I know of I have been tested.

Iv peroxide and Iv ozone got me functioning again. I am taking supplements and antivirals.

I have been reading the medical medium book by anthony williams. I was skeptical at first but he makes a lot of sense when it comes to EBV. I also was interested in his views on lyme disease.

I pulled all the mercury out of my mouth. already pulled one root canal that was infected. two more to go. I had 3 implants done. finally got the right treatment for my thyroid. my gut is better I am getting ready to start juicing and using the sauna at the gym. I have recently read where people with EBV have low hydrochloric acid and many are infected with h pylori. some have other infections too I can't remember all now. many say take tons of zinc and vitamin C. so much information I have read I can't retain it all. I am considering going to nashville and getting high dose Vitamin C which helps many with the herpes viruses.

I am on the fence whether I had lyme all this time or if I indeed have been suffering with chronic EBV for years. I do know Dr lerner well known for his studies on EBV states if you have a positive or high IGG then you have an active EBV virus.

Hi. I just read your post, and am having similar issues. I have flu like aches and chills and shivers, but no fever. I was told via labs, that I have the flu (3 weeks ago?). I have some markers of lymes (18, 45 and 58). I also am being tested for EBV RA and Lupus. Waiting of results. I have EBV labs from 2 yrs ago, that were very high, so we will compare the new ones. I am told I have a virus, and to wait it out. I ache and am chilled and weak, constantly. Prior to 3 weeks ago, I worked out every day for 30 years. I am trying to work and take care of my kids, but this is getting me anxious and depressed. I don't know if it's Lymes, EBV or still the flu, but nothing is changing. I need any support or advice anyone can give me.

Thanks