May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month

The month of May is known as Lyme Disease Awareness Month. Experts on Minnesota’s most common tick-borne disease spoke to Lakeland News about why it is one of the most undiagnosed diseases across the U.S.

In 2022, the Minnesota Department of Health reported close to 2,700 probable cases of Lyme disease. Minnesota is considered one of the worst areas for the disease, and with a warmer spring and summer expected across all the state, this season is expected to be worse than normal.

“Lyme disease is a disease caused by exposure to a family of infections called Borrelia, and it’s most commonly transmitted through tick exposure,” explained Dr. Daniel Warren, Envita Medical Center Assistant Manager and a Lyme disease expert. “It’s variable in terms of how it presents, but in mostly affects the neurological system because that’s where the majority of infection lives.”

Because the disease can present itself differently with different people, a wide variety of symptoms can be noticed.

“There’s some systemic symptoms that are very common, things like fatigue and sleep issues,” Warren stated. “So you see a lot of brain fog, memory issues, cognitive-type symptoms, neuropathies, numbness and tingling, nerve pain. Migraines are also very common, and then it can also affect the gastrointestinal system very commonly. So you can see a lot of abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting, those kind of symptoms, muscle joint issues. Those are very common as well.”

This long list of symptoms can make it very challenging for doctors to diagnose patients with Lyme disease, making the disease largely undiagnosed in the U.S. and sometimes misdiagnosed.

“A lot of times it starts, for some people, it’s like an instantaneous thing,” said Lyme disease patient Sarah Schlichte. “They know they are having multiple symptoms. For a lot of people, it’s just ongoing fatigue.”

“It is often misdiagnosed because the criteria for diagnosis for the conventional testing are very stringent,” added Warren. “And so a lot of times what happens is that people who have Lyme disease, who are looking to get tested, they’ll do the conventional testing. They will come back negative not only because the criteria are stringent, but also because … most of the tests are dependent on looking at how the immune system’s responding to those infections. That’s why it’s so important to have not only the right tests, but also to have multiple tests. Just in case, you know, one particular test might come back negative.”

Historically, there hasn’t been a lot of money put into Lyme disease research, but experts are hopeful for what’s to come.

“There has been some recent research that’s really interesting that’s looking at certain proteins that are found in individuals,” Warren said. “And depending on whether those proteins are present, then that increases the chance for a patient contracting Lyme disease. So historically, it was thought that the factors that really went into whether one person gets Lyme versus another are things like immune function and metabolism and some of these other factors.”

He continued, “So there’s actually some, I think, phase 3 clinical trials currently to try and develop some products that have some of these proteins in them. For those individuals that are lacking those proteins that are more susceptible to getting Lyme disease, that might actually decrease the chance of them contracting it, which is pretty exciting.”

If you believe you are experiencing any symptoms of Lyme disease, it is recommended that go see a physician familiar with the disease to hopefully avoid any misdiagnosis.