Matthew Goss's Lyme Disease Information

Herxheimer Reactions

 

Introduction

How I got it

Types of Ticks that Carry Disease

Definitions and Terminology

Symptoms and Tests

Drugs

Herxheimer Reactions

Vitamins, Nutritional Supplements, and Herbs

Bacteria and Yeast

Diet

Costs of Treatment

Is There a Cure?

Is it Sexually Transmitted?

Links

Printable Flyer

An unusual characteristic of this disease is what is known as a Herxheimer reaction (named after a guy named Herxheimer who discovered the phenomenon).

When treatment begins, the antibiotics or other drugs start to kill the bacteria. As the bacteria die off, they release neurotoxins which will actually cause the infected person to have symptoms much worse than they did before they started treatment.

Lyme patients refer to this reaction as a "herx" or as "herxing." Patients and doctors can use these reactions to determine how well a patient is responding to treatment.

A strong reaction says that the treatment is working well. Also, in cases where a diagnosis was made based on symptoms alone, with a negative test for the disease, a Herxheimer reaction can confirm that a person is actually infected with the disease.


The Matthew Goss Lyme Disease Information content is no longer being updated by Matthew Goss. A new home on the web for this information is provided by Melissa Kaplan's Anapsid.org Herp Care and CND & Lyme Information. Please report any webpage errors to Melissa Kaplan.

http://www.anapsid.org/lyme/matthewgoss/herxes.html
Last Update: 10/22/2004