I saw a naturopath the other day and as he reviewed my lab results he mentioned I had tested positive for Epstein Barr (not that I have it now but at some point in life was exposed).
He said something about it cross reacting w/ lyme test results (or something like that??).
I meant to ask for clarification but forgot to. Any thoughts on this?
Posted by seekhelp (Member # 15067) on :
EVERYONE tests positive for EBV nearly. At least 95% of the public. No big deal, but it can be a chronic issue if titers are very high. If you look up Timaca and EBV, she mentioned something about this cross-reactivity months ago ONLY on the IgM side of the Western Blot.
Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :
I know over the 9 yrs on this site, it is quite the norm to have positive EBV past/present infection with lyme & co.
I know after a couple months of my PCP treating with doxy, amox, ampicillian, and even combos of abx, he starting doing bloodwork to find out why I wasn't improving with what we thought was early tx?
I tested EBV + and he said aha...that's why you are still dragging and sick. It takes months sometimes to recover from EBV.
He said stop abx. Rest, no work. I stayed off maybe 4-6 weeks. Went back to work, still very ill and within 2 mths of stopping abx...
I had 45 sx of lyme disease. I told him there's no doubt it's lyme. Back on abx. I started remembering all the sx that I had for several months before the flu-like illness from hell happened.
I was acute, most likely chronic when that struck. Testing was Labcorp...3 negative ELISA for lyme, RMSF, etc and all they found was EBV????
Of course Igenex lab 2 yrs later told the rest of the story.
Do a search on this site for EBV and read years worth of people being told it's EBV.
Pam
Posted by Lymeorsomething (Member # 16359) on :
EBV probably just facilitates lyme's dissemination. My issues started after mono, which is acute EBV infection.
Once lyme gains that window of access, it can take over quickly. They're probably both enablers in a way. They take the immune system down a notch and the other can assert itself.
Consider EBV a coinfection with lyme being the main prob most likely. Valtrex can be run along side abx and often has some action against EBV if numbers warrant its use.
Oh, and only certain bands are susceptible to cross-reaction if I remember correctly. Igenex can help determine this through use of the band 31 confirmation if that is one of your + bands...
Posted by AnnaOD20 (Member # 29942) on :
Thank you! Helpful info!
Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :