I've read the WB explanations and understand the bands. My question is how does the CDC and/or IDSA explain antibodies being present if they consider this a negative test?
Why would someone produce antibodies if they've never been exposed to the bacteria (I did read the IGeneX note about the affect of vaccinations on bands 31 and 34).
Maybe I missed it in my reading, so please point me in the right direction! I have a tendency to glaze over when reading medical stuff
Husband is seeing LLMD beginning of August for the mega treatment plan (lyme, babesia, mycoplasma, etc.).
As always, thanks for your help!
Smjkoj
Posts: 26 | From Virginia | Registered: Apr 2008
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posted
I've spent a lot of time looking into this myself....even asked the CDC directly and of course didn't get a straight answer.
The jist of it is, some of these antibodies can cross-react with other things (infectious/non-infectious). The CDC had a number of things that they knew of that could cross-react with band 41 but didn't offer me any specifics with regard to what can cross-react with band 23 and 39.
There have been MANY studies done that support that multiple bands show up when someone has lyme. Problem is, the 'criteria' for establishing someone has lyme to begin with, right?? So, if you take a population of people who have suspected lyme and exclude out those who only respond to 1 or 2 bands as not having lyme, then the study only evaluates those individuals who have lyme and have a significant immune response.
There are some interesting studies out there where the compare antibody responses of healthy individuals, versus those with lyme, versus those with RA, syphilis, etc.
Europe has done some great studies looking closely at the antibody response (band specific). Problem is, it doesn't necessarily translate to us in the US as they are primarily dealing with different species and are evaluating different antibody bands.
Sorry for the ramble...I don't have any good answers to your questions...the available literature will likely have you asking more questions....
Kristin
Posts: 561 | From mass | Registered: Jul 2007
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