Fatigue and Inflammation

According to http://medicine.ucalgary.ca/files/med/InflammationPaperPFDSwainDmello.pdf it is possible for inflammation in specific locations in the body (such as joints as in Rheumatoid Arthritis, the gut in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, etc.) to trigger white blood cells to enter the brain and cause fatigue (and probably also brain fog).

I know with Lyme/coinfections, it is often the inflammation in the body that causes many of our symptoms.  So not only does the Lyme bacteria itself go into the brain, there is also an immune mechanism that brings white blood cells into the brain (and this may facilitate more microbes getting into the brain than otherwise would).

Keephope, when I first saw LLMD, my sed rate was abnormally low. I learned this means I had hypercoagulation which is common with lyme. My blood was very thick.

I've never understood this, since I was also achy and I thought was a sign of inflammation.

Later I had a C-Reactive protein test which shows inflammation and mine was very low. ie. no inflammation. Still wonder why I ache.

Vitamin D3 is good for reducing inflammation. I think it's helped me.

Sed Rate refers to the Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), which is the rate at which the red blood cells in a test tube of blood fall over 1 hour of time. This test is not run as part of a CBC (Complete Blood Count), it is a test that must be requested separately.

Low ESR means low/no inflammation in the body. ESR can be falsly elevated (mildly so) if one is anemic.

From http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/complete-blood-count-cbc ~

MCV is Mean Corpuscular Volume, or the size of the red blood cells.

MCH is Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin, or the amount of hemoglobin in each red blood cell.

High MCV & MCH can occur in Vitamin B12 deficiency, Folic Acid deficiency, liver disease, medication side-effects, etc. See http://www.drkaslow.com/html/blood_cell_counts.html for more details.

There are no test results that are proven to point specifically to Lyme other than the Lyme tests themselves. However, many with Lyme may find they have low or high total WBC counts (indicating inflammation and/or suppressed immune system), anemia, and/or other abnormalities. And some physicians use the CD-57 test (CD-57 is a type of white blood cell) as additional supporting evidence of Lyme Disease, although not all LLMD's agree with doing so.

I hope this helps - take care,

Razzle is right. SED refers to Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate. The blood test measures how quickly red blood cells (erythrocytes), settle in a test tube in one hour. The more red blood cells that fall to the bottom of the test tube in one hour, the higher the sed rate. When inflammation is present in the body, certain proteins cause red blood cells to stick together and fall more quickly to the bottom of the tube.

www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/sedimentation-rate

My white blood cells and sed rate were high.

Razzle - This is EXACTLY what I keep telling my doctors..."I feel 'inflamed' and exhausted." The fatigue/exhaustion was one of my very first symptoms years ago and now it's back with a vengence. And, according to all my ridiculous new test results, everything points to an "ongoing inflammatory process".