Hello everyone,

My last Newsletter provided some early Autumn advice regarding protection from the oncoming coughs and cold/flu, and I hope you’ve all avoided the worst of the early-season lurgy.

For those of you who missed that information, it is available on my website in the News and Webinars section, which I'm hoping to shortly update with the talk I gave at the Yes to Life conference and an episode on the Spotify platform called Meta-Conscious Leaders.

https://drsharmadiagnostics.com/newsletters/

In this Newsletter, I would like to comment on chronic fatigue, unexplained symptoms and Lyme Disease.

This subject gained attention in the news towards the end of the summer when the superstar Justin Timberlake was forced to cancel several shows on his 15-month World Tour due to an inexplicable inability to recover from what was considered ‘flu’. It proved to be chronic Lyme Disease.

Lyme Disease and several “co-infections” are contracted from the bite of the Black-legged Deer Tick (Ixodes ricinus), found worldwide and increasingly so in the UK. The initial symptoms are usually a characteristic rash called “erythema migrans”, a red expanding bulls-eye rash, and flu-like symptoms: fever, chills, sweats, muscle and joint pains, headache and neck stiffness.

If untreated, or treatment is delayed, later symptoms may include joint pain and swelling, heart and other organ issues, neurological problems ranging from numbness, paralysis, mental symptoms and even meningitis.

Chronic (long-term) symptoms after Lyme are less pronounced but may be equally debilitating and often get placed under the same umbrella label of Myalgic encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). It is hard to differentiate between the symptoms, including ongoing fatigue, cognitive difficulties (“brain fog”), muscle aches, nerve-type pains, and general malaise.

This year, I have seen an increase in my practice of Lyme and Co-infection based on identification by expansive testing done by a European laboratory, but the concept of persistent active infection remains controversial in the UK medical literature. This is despite the incidence of new cases of Lyme disease in the UK estimated between 2000–2018 to have risen from 2.55 to 9.33 in that period.

Published studies do not show a clear benefit from long-term/prolonged antibiotic therapy for chronic symptoms and note safety concerns, so guidelines generally do not support extended antibiotic courses for non-resolving symptoms.

Differentiating between such infections, CFS/ME and other unexplained long-term issues is an important option. I consider that the overlap may be due to mitochondrial dysfunction caused by infection or the stress effects of previous infection.

If interested, please review my Lyme Disease and CFS pages on my website

https://drsharmadiagnostics.com/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/

https://drsharmadiagnostics.com/lyme-disease/

I will next be at The Hale Clinic in London on 26th November.
I am at Holmedale Health in Exeter each Friday.
I am available for Complementary/Integrated medical advice on most other days, of course.
If you would like to make an appointment, please call our main number 01202 744747.