C4a levels are High????What is it?Concerned:(

Hi Dan -
Welcome to the forum - sorry you're here but glad you found us.

C4a is an inflammatory marker that some MDs test in order to understand what might be going on with your immune system as an indicator of infection load. So, yes, your number is HIGH! Although, MDs are finding less and less value in testing C4a levels because every person's body is so very different. They've found high levels in very healthy and asymptomatic people and low numbers in very sick people.

Sometimes insurance coverage benefits from tests types of tests.

Here is a good article:
www.publichealthalert.org/role-of-c3a-and-c4a-complement-proteins-in-chronic-lyme-disease.html

I think your take away is your body is suffering a significant amount of inflammation. It's tough to know if it's due to an infection (like Lyme or Bart) or from your immune system (which creates inflammation in tissues as a way to "punt" stuff out of there that isn't supposed to be there) but this can cause many autoimmune problems as well.

While you're waiting for more testing there are a few things you can do to help manage some symptoms - many of them are caused by inflammation, which you're clearly dealing with and toxin overload.

Detox
Not sure if you've done it yet - but as a new member here, it's invaluable for you to read the "New to Lyme?" thread at the top of the page - this will help you with your appts and next steps for testing, etc. And of course please don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have - we're here to help. But this thread also has good info for detoxing, which you should start ASAP regardless of what your diagnosis is. Might help with your symptoms but will help prepare you for treatment, too.

Inflammation
Hopefully others will be along to share their ideas for managing inflammation - I like japanese knotweed and for you, you might benefit from two herbal tinctures that help manage detoxing in the brain - Pinella and Bur Bur.

EBV
Regarding the EBV, this is a virus that 90% of adults carry by the time they are 30--but most people are asymptomatic and the virus lies dormant. In people who are very sick or whose immune systems are busy fighting off other microbes, EBV can rear its ugly head and come out of dormant stage to then start causing problems.

VIRAL load
I think it's GREAT that our MD tested for high viral load - many just start treating for lyme & co when the immune system can't handle all that treatment at once.

Neuro-psycho symptoms
I would do further testing of tick-born diseases, give the sudden onset of those specific symptoms. Here is a great video of a lyme specialist psychologist who explained why people who have lyme infections can develop those neuro-psycho symptoms:
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BbEBb-SzIE

Hope this is helpful and hope you find relief -

-p

Welcome Dan. I tested high as well, 15,0000 and some change. I also tested very high on the EBV, so much so that they didn't even give a number. Last test, it's come down some, so that's a good sign. But as P said, 90% of us have it, but the difference is whether it's active or not. Typically the immune system holds it in check, but when that goes awry, well, we can have issues. Personally, that was my first clue that something wasn't right. So, I looked further. I muscle tested positive for a few co-infections as well as blood tested positive for a few. So, while I have never had a positive Lyme test, some of the accompanying critters are present, so I'm just treating for everything.

Again, welcome.

Pamela,

Yes, C4a can be a sign of mold exposure. Check out Ritchie Shoemaker's work on mold illness at www.survivingmold.com. Shoemaker's work is science based and backed by lots of data. He has lots of FAQs on the site.