Jun 30, 2021

Lyme vs Lupus

Many autoimmune disorders continue to be a mystery to the medical community. We do understand that in some people their immune system malfunctions and starts acting against a certain organ system. We try to look for different markers to figure out the presence and the severity for the autoimmune disorder as well as looking for ways to suppress the malfunctioning immune system. That is the way current medicine is being practiced.

There is of course a question of why autoimmune disorders occur in certain patient populations in the first place. Is it genetic, environmental, inflammatory or infectious?

In my practice I have seen some parallels between certain autoimmune disorders with neurologic/psychiatric manifestations and tick borne disorders.

Lupus is an autoimmune disorder that may present with some of the following symptoms: Although Tick Borne Diseases can cause other symptoms not listed in this chart, the overlap between the two conditions is quite obvious. Lupus is a clinical diagnosis which is typically supported by some blood work that is not specific for the disease. A kidney biopsy helps to establish a diagnosis in patients with kidney involvement.

These two conditions are treated very differently: Lupus with symptomatic and immune suppressive therapies and Tick Borne Diseases are treated with Antibiotics and symptomatic relief.

Explore the possibility of an infectious etiology of your autoimmune disease with your doctor as your treatment options will be vastly different and so will your outcomes.