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Lyme and Crohns?

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Posted 4/16/2015 1:31 PM (GMT 0)
Hey everyone -first of all just want to share that my lyme symptoms are subsiding quite a bit. I'm doing a lot better lately, more energy, less pain, less flu symptoms which used to be daily for me for years...doing better on bee venom, herbs, supplements, diet and detox.

Second...I've had some pretty awful GI symptoms for 2+ years now, had an ovarian surgery and things were never right from there. Terrible bloating and indigestion constantly, plus a flareup of something every 3 months or so that felt a lot like a ruptured ovarian cyst which is what we always thought it was.

I've seen SIX GI specialists, none wanted to do testing because "I'm young and healthy" so it must just be IBS. Finally I find one who wants to do a colonoscopy - turns out I have 5 ulcers in my small intestine - they're thinking it's Crohn's but I'm waiting for biopsy results I guess to confirm it.

Funny - when I told a couple people about that they were all like "Oh Crohn's is serious!" ...from the same people who never validate how seriously Lyme is. But anyway...

....anyone else in the same boat?
I'm pretty stressed about having another condition, especially since it imposes more dietary restrictions...but at least I have some hope that I might be able to find some relief now.

Since this all started right when I had finally recovered from Lyme and it can cause a lot of pain and fatigue symptoms, I wonder how much of the last 2 years has been Lyme and how much could've been this!

Any thoughts are appreciated, my head is spinning a bit!
Posted 4/16/2015 2:11 PM (GMT 0)
borderlyme, I am glad to hear that you are doing better. isn't it strange about those flare ups every few months? I have them too and for me they usually happen just as I am beginning to feel better.

Anyways, I thought I would reply to your post because GI issues are one of my strongest Lyme & Co issues for me as well. As a matter of fact, they were one of my first ones.

I had a colonoscopy done about a month or so ago because of pain in my lower right abdomen. It came back clear and so my doctors (PCP and GI) cannot explain the ulcer pains that I have in the upper GI tract, the sharp electrical pains in the anal area or why my fecal matter is greenish/grayish in color. My GI doctor said that it is probably due to the antibiotics and other medication (herbs) that I am taking and that my problems should stop once I stop taking them. Well duh! if I stop taking it, it's because Lyme is cured and if it's cured I shouldn't have any more issues right?

about the Crohn's disease; I stopped eating gluten because it gives me anxiety and depression attacks. Something about gluten triggering my immune system to attack my thyroid and thus the symptoms. I don't know if this is Crohn's disease, something that I have not been tested for but that my doctor suspects.

Since the doctors can't find anything definitive, I've been doing some testing on my own and have found that my abdominal pains happen a day after I eat dairy. Anything that I eat with chocolate, vinegar, citrus or with acidity triggers horrible ulcer pains, huge bloating pains (feels like I swallowed a watermelon), acid coming up my esophagus during the day as I walk and some diarrhea/loose stools.

I have tried many different probiotics (yeast and bacterial) but they worsen my Lyme symptoms and my brain acts weird on them.
Posted 4/16/2015 3:57 PM (GMT 0)
Most articles talk about how Lyme can mimic Crohn's, but this one says:
"The GI tract is especially vulnerable to machinations of such co-infections as bartonellosis, mycoplasmosis, human anaplasmosis (HA), and human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME). Syndromes exactly similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Crohn's Disease, and cholecystitis, for example, may not have readily suggested a borrelial etiology to the diagnostician but Lyme increasingly is known to be a potential contributor to each."

www.thehumansideoflyme.net/viewarticle.php?aid=62
Posted 4/16/2015 4:10 PM (GMT 0)
Crohn's is caused by mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis this site is a good place to start.

http://www.mad-cow.org/00/paraTB.html

MAP is a known pathogen in every animal it infects but for some reason they don't think it is a problem in humans.... This is another cover up probably just as big as lyme. Also I don't believe that this has to be a coinfection with lyme but you can have it by itself.
The medical community will admit that 86% of people with crohn's have it while around 75% of people with IBS also have it. The problem is the only way to test for it is with PCR of biopsied tissue. Most labs don't do this plus you run the risk of the biopsy being taken from an area with no current infection. There are a lot of good articles you can google about using antibiotics for crohn's.
MAP bacteria is in dairy and it doesn't die with pasteurization, also you can get it from meat so if you do find away to get rid of it you would have to give up all dairy as well as only eat meat that has been boiled. Last it takes many many months of antibiotics to get rid of it just like lyme, many of the antibiotics are the same for both lyme and MAP. Greg
Posted 4/16/2015 8:00 PM (GMT 0)
Hi border, I've had Crohn's for the last 10 years and have been diagnosed with Lyme in the last year. It's been really hard to try and distinguish between symptoms and their source. I'm now wondering how many of the symptoms in my most recent flare (Aug 2012-present) could have been due to Lyme.

The cause of Crohn's is actually unknown. Many people believe it is the MAP bacteria that Greg mentions, but that is only the leading candidate in a large pool.

I'm switching off my main Crohn's treatment (Remicade), which is a biologic and immuno-suppressant, in hopes it will help me recover.
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