Lyme Lab Question and LLMD

Hello,

Well band 41 is specific to Lyme. I only had that band positive IGG on my western blot and my Lyme doc immediately started treating me.

I would definitely seek treatment if I were you. I have a whole list of NY docs I will e-mail you... not sure if they are near you or not.

Welcome to the forum schyer30! It is overwhelming when you're new to Lyme disease and it's a lot of information to take in, especially if your brain is sluggish like mine. As time passes, that feeling will ease up. Just re-read that thread about Lyme once in a while so more will sink in.

You should go to a Lyme literate doctor since they are trained to diagnose and treat it. Too many people with Lyme go through several doctors before going to a LLMD or LLND and don't get good help until they do. There are some exceptions to that, though, such as herbalists.

Probiotics are very important for going after the infection, as is a good, basic diet. Staying away from sugar and limiting your fruits and carbs will help too. That would just be a good place for you to start while you wait to see a doctor.

I'm sorry to disagree, but band 41 is NOT Lyme specific. There is no scientific evidence that supports that at this point in time. If I have missed something with this - new research, I hope someone corrects me.

With that being said, what it does indicate is the tail of the type of bacteria that is the same as the Lyme bacteria, known as a spirochete. So it could be an indicator of Lyme, but is not Lyme specific.

I am curious where you got the testing done. The fact that they only tested for 3 Igm bands rather then 10 bands tells me you should probably get evaluated by an LLMD and get a more thorough testing done.

Lyme is also associated with Hashimotos, we have members on here that have both.

Wow, I missed that you were only tested for 3 IgM bands!! That's odd.

Bioreference labs says this on their own site:"The laboratory tests available are the Western blot and ELISA, but neither is a reliable indicator: test results vary between labs and within the same lab, false positives and false negatives are common and the two tests are not always in agreement. In cases of chronic Lyme disease, diagnosis must take all factors into account (tick bite exposure, symptom history, etc..) and will continue to be problematic until a more reliable test is developed."

Although their claim that false positives are common is false(they aren't if they would have done their research), they understand and admit to a lot more than most! It's baffling why they only run 3 bands.

They should be testing for all the known bands - which is around 16 if I'm counting right. Even if they were only testing for the Lyme specific bands, it should still include at minimum 8 bands.

What bands came back positive on your test? Band 41 is the tail end of the bacteria and can be found with other infections besides Lyme. Band 45 is for Ehrlichia from the research that I've seen.

Even if you have no bands that are specific to Lyme that come back as positive, if you have enough symptoms, you should be evaluated for these infections. The testing leaves a lot to be desired still.

The most commonly used testing currently looks only for the immune response, which is compromised in Lyme patients - and should they also be infected with Babesia or Bartonella, the immune response will be even further depressed.

There are at least 300 different strains of Lyme disease. Current testing only looks at 4 or 5 strains at the most, so anyone with one of the other 295 strains won't test positive.