Have you (or someone you know) struggled with fatigue, headaches, joint or muscle pain, eye issues, skin problems, disrupted sleep, anxiety/depression or other complaints where your doctor told you that there is nothing wrong? All the labs came back "normal." They perhaps offered you an antidepressant, or referred you along to yet another specialist?
Many times, symptoms such as these will end up being related to chronic infections, especially tick borne infections. The term Lyme Disease refers to illness from a corkscrew shaped bacteria called Borrelia Burgdorferi. But it is almost never the only infection at play when you have these symptoms. There are a collection of bacteria, viruses and even parasites that seem to run together to result in this chronic illness often referred to as Lyme Disease.
Patients often think that since they have never been bitten by a tick (that they know of) that Lyme is not a possibility. The truth is that almost any biting insect can transmit these microbes, even mosquitos. It's just that ticks are very good at causing the infections because they attach to the skin for such a long time. The microbes will sit in the salivary glands of the tick and as blood comes in, they analyze the immune profile of that person and then once they swim out into the person, they are better equipped to evade immune surveillance.
In fact, many people have had these infections for years and felt reasonably well because the body was at a level of homeostasis. They will only start to develop symptoms when other stressors come into play and tip the balance.. These stressors could be in the form of family stress, financial stress, an injury, or another new infection such as Covid.
The other confounding issue is that because the symptoms are so variable from person to person, it is very difficult to diagnose Lyme Disease. This is because there are differences in people's immune responses to the microbes, and not everyone has the same collection of microbes. Also, the testing itself is very difficult because the infections often live deep in the tissues and not in the bloodstream. Plus, much of the testing is looking at the immune response to an infection, which is suppressed BY the infection.
So, if you are frustrated with mysterious symptoms and getting nowhere, it may be time to think outside the box and check for Lyme!