Resources for Lyme Disease for Healthcare Providers and Patients

Below are some web resources that can help the healthcare professional stay informed, and inform his or her patients.

The Centers for Disease Control

The Centers for Disease Control provides extensive and authoritative information for both professionals and patients. Here you will find discussion of epidemiology, signs and symptoms, testing, treatment, and prevention. Highlights of CDC resources include:

• Educational materials, brochures, and fact sheets designed for patients, including children’s resources. Fact sheets are available in English, Spanish, Brazilian, Portuguese, and Tagalog. Do you maintain a website for your practice? The CDC provides a code for a free Flash widget you can post to your site.
• Extensive discussions for healthcare professionals on treatment and testing, as well as a 52-page manual on tick-borne diseases of the United States. There are also four expert-commentary videos on Lyme carditis, southern tick-associated rash illness, PCR testing, and testing procedures to minimize false-positive and false-negative results.
• The CDC has a wide-ranging discussion of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome and “chronic Lyme disease,” as well as related guides to help patients understand and make informed choices about conflicting health-related information.
• A page of statistics, graphs, and maps provides a fascinating look at the spread of Lyme disease over the past two decades.
• A video describing the issues with a chronic Lyme diagnosis, intended for patients.
• The Lyme Disease Resources Tool Kit.
• Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Lyme Disease.
• NIAID Views on Chronic Lyme Disease.
• CDC Views on Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Symptoms, Often Called Chronic Lyme Disease.
• The Pain of Chronic Lyme Disease: Moving the Discourse in Different Direction.
• Unorthodox Alternative Therapies Marketed to Treat Lyme Disease.
• Is it Possible to Make a correct Diagnosis of Lyme Disease on Symptoms Alone? Review of Key Issues and Public Health Implications.
• Straight Talk About Chronic Lyme Disease.
• The Clinical Relevance of Studies on Borrelia burgdorferi Persisters.
• False and Misleading Information About Lyme Disease.
• Treatment trials for Post-Lyme Disease Symptoms Revisited.
• Recommendations for Patients after a Tick Bite.
• Is it Possible to Make a Correct Diagnosis of Lyme Disease on Symptoms Alone? A Review of Key Issues and Public Health Implications.
• The Challenge of Diagnosing Lyme Disease.

Lyme Disease Case Studies

• A Case Study Revealing the Natural History of Untreated Lyme Disease.
• Anchoring Bias, Lyme Disease, and the Diagnosis Conundrum.

The Infectious Disease Society of America

The IDSA presents materials on Lyme disease for patients, professionals, policy officials, and the press. Highlights include:

• Practice guidelines on assessment, treatment, and prevention of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.
• A practice parameter on treatment of nervous system Lyme disease, from the American Academy of Neurology and endorsed by the IDSA.

Lyme Disease Library

Chronic Lyme Disease

• Chronic Lyme Disease Ways to Outsmart a Smart Disease by Gigi Guthrine, M.S.W.
• In the Crucible of Chronic Lyme Disease by Kenneth B. Liegner, M.D.
• Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme & Chronic Disease by Richard I. Horowitz, M.D.
• How Can I Get Better? An Action Plan for Treating Lyme Resistant Lyme & Chronic Disease by Richard I. Horowitz, M.D.
• Healing Chronic Illness by Connie Strashem.
• Treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease: Fifty-one Case Reports and Essays in Their Regard by Burton Waisbren SR, M.D.
• Nature’s Dirty Needle by Mara Williams, RN, M.S.N.

Unlocking Lyme: Myths, Truths, and Practical Solutions for Chronic Lyme Disease by William Rawls, M.D.

Diagnosis and Treatment

• Beating Lyme: Understanding and Treating This Complex and Often Misdiagnosed Disease by Constance A. Bean with Lesley Ann Fein, M.D.
• Coping with Lyme Disease: A Practical Guide to Dealing with Diagnosis and Treatment by Denise Lang and Kenneth Liegner M.D.
• Life After Lyme by Kristin Reihman, M.D.
• Combating Biofilms Why Your Antibiotics and Antifungals Fail by James Schaller, M.D. and Kimberly Mountjoy.
• The Diagnosis and Treatment of Babesia: Lyme’s Cruel Cousin-The Other Tick-Borne Infection by James Schaller, M.D.
• Lyme Loonies by David Skidmore.
• The Lyme Disease Solution by Kenneth B. Singleton M.D.
• Insights into Lyme Disease Treatment: 13 Lyme-Literate Health Care Practitioners Share Their Healing Strategies by Connie Strasheim.
• Compendium of Tick-Borne Disease A Thousand Pearls by K. Spreen.

First Person Stories About Coping with Lyme Disease

• Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease by Yolanda Hadid.
• Bite Me: How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood, Made Me Crazy, and Almost Killed Me by Ally Hilfiger.
• Gone in a Heartbeat: A Physician’s Search for True Healing by Neil Spector, M.D.
• Suffering the Silence by Allie Cashel.
• The Gratitude Curve: Using the lessons of chronic illness to reach personal empowerment by Gregg Kirk.
• The Tick Slayer Battling Lyme Disease and Winning by Perry Louis Fields.
• The Widening Circle: A Lyme Disease Pioneer Tells Her Story by Polly Murray.

Diet and Nutrition

• The Lyme Diet: Nutritional Strategies for Healing from Lyme Disease by Nicola McFadzean, N.D.
• Nourish, Heal, Thrive: A Comprehensive and Holistic Approach to Living with Lyme Disease by Rika Keck.
• Recipes for Repair: A Lyme Disease Cookbook by Gail & Laura Piazza.

Integrative and Alternative Medicine

• Healing Lyme: Natural Healing And Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis And Its Co-infections by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
• Healing Lyme Disease Coinfections Complementary and Holistic Treatments for Bartonella and Mycoplasma by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
• The Top 10 Lyme Disease Treatments: Defeat Lyme Disease with the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine by Bryan Rosner.
• When Antibiotics Fail: Lyme Disease and Rife Machines with Critical Evaluation of Leading Alternative Therapies by Bryan Rosner.
• Beyond Lyme Disease by Connie Strasheim.

Parenting

• Lyme Disease: A Mother’s Perspective by Karen Angotti.
• When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide by Sandy Barenbaum and Dorothy Leland.
• Paris in Oakland by Eliza Q. Hemenway.

ChildrenBooks

• Little Bite, BIG Trouble: A Bird’s-Eye View of Chronic Lyme Disease by Sarah Schlichte Sanchez.
• Nick, the No Good, Icky Tick by Karen Gloyer.
• Hide and Seek: No Ticks, Please by Nancy Fox.
• No Ticks, Please/No Garrapatas, Por Favor by Nancy Fox.

Documentaries and Videos

• Documentaries and Videos from Fox5NY.
• Under Our Skin a documentary film about Lyme disease.

Accureference’s lab tests for Lyme Disease

S413	Lyme AB, IgG
285	Lyme AB IgG & IgM , EIA with reflex by Western Blot IgG,IgM
S444	Lyme AB, IgM
M305	Lyme Disease (Borrelia Species by PCR)
3583	Lyme Disease Co-Infection Panel