On death, any beneficiary can inherit your SIPP without inheritance tax if you die before age 75.

I’ve never understood why 75 given your partner could easily have another 25 years left and may be entirely reliant on your pension.

Seems arbitrary, but after 75 they still inherit, but have to pay income tax on it.

[A SIPP can be passed down the generations, i.e. your SIPP can be passed on to your spouse, and when they die, it can be passed on to whoever their beneficiaries are].

All these can change with any future government policies. IANAFA.

ISAs c/w SIPPs – Other considerations:
On death, your spouse can inherit your ISA and retain the tax free benefits.
On death, any beneficiary can inherit your SIPP without inheritance tax if you die before age 75.
If you die within 2 years of transferring a defined benefit pension to a SIPP it can be subject to inheritance tax.

He is not an expert in Lyme Disease. There are no Lyme Disease experts in the UK.

Dr Dryden is on video joking about Lyme Disease sufferers at a conference, with an audience of Drs laughing along.
Amazingly he was running the last attempt at a national Lyme Disease clinic – it closed due to lack of funding.
He was notorious for stating that anyone that didn’t respond to his regime did not have Lyme Disease and discharging them.
His regime differed from the latest NICE guidelines.
He invented/made-up a new syndrome for anyone who didn’t respond to his treatment – Chronic Arthropod-borne Neuropathy (CAN). He now seems to be an expert in CFS.

In 2013 he gave a Public Health England presentation where is showed this slide:
‘Chronic Lyme’ What is it?
 Post infectious pathology
 Immune system activation
 Persisting Borrelia burgdorferi infection
 Co existing infection
○ Babesia,
○ Anaplasma /Ehrlichia
 Another infection
○ Other strains of Borrelia spp.
○ Rickettsia spp.
○ Other chronic infection
 Non-organic component

He was open to it being a persistent BB infection then in his expert opinion.

The other consultant [Dr Logan] states that ‘in fact they have have a syndrome that is more in keeping with chronic fatigue syndrome’. She appears to have made this up. What syndrome [a collection of symptoms] is this. Where are the peer reviewed papers outlining it.

The latest NICE guidelines state that more research is needed into the best treatment and better testing, and that they don’t know how the disease progresses in people who have not responded to treatment. [Evidence for current tests is recognised as being of poor quality].

The ‘experts’ on the NICE committee are obviously not as sure as Dr Dryden and Dr Logan. They should phone NICE with their evidence.

I had similar on left forearm. It also tingled if you rubbed it.
Went to GP after a while and went all through the trapped nerve in neck/shoulder thing – exercises/hotwater bottles – with no success.
When he had exhausted all the simple stuff, he said possibly MS, but there’s nothing they can do so pointless giving a referral, and to see how it goes and go back to see him if it goes worse, or if it goes away and comes back .
It went away after a few months and has not reoccurred in last couple of years. Do I have MS – who knows.

I don’t know what the point would be to go to an IFA.
There is no way to get a 3% risk free [safe] return on £550k over a year. Their fee would just mean you would have to make more to get your 3%.

If it needs to be safe, just look at the best buy tables for 1 year fixed savings account and put it in there. [Even that is not ‘safe’ as it is greater than the FSCS compensation limit if the bank goes bust].
National Savings/Premium Bonds are the safe options.

If you are willing to accept risk, the world is your lobster.

Is the 40k limit on pension contribution before or after tax relief?

i.e. can I put 40k in and get 25% tax relief= 50k in pension
or
put 32k in, get 25% tax relief = 40k in pension

Always thought it was the latter, but I keep seeing it written as though it is the former.

That time isn’t constant.
That life started from a ‘primordial soup’ of chemicals.

Can’t get my head around these.

We did it 28 years ago. Local register office then went on holiday.
Planned to have a big party for all friends and family once we got back, but didn’t in the end due to peoples reaction, which we didn’t expect.
E.g. my wife’s mother and father haven’t spoken to her for 28 years.
I was surprised that my mates were upset – I did them out of a stag do!

Would do the same again.

Not the snip, but in the spirit of this thread:
With all surgery you are playing a numbers game. If you end up on the right side you are laughing. The wrong side and it can be a lifetime of pain/regrets.

I had a ‘necessary’ routine procedure and it went wrong and I will have a reduced quality of life now for the rest of my life. The odds were 1000’s:1. Surgeon who did it has never spoken to me since.
[It turns out the surgery may not have been ‘essential’. There may have been options I didn’t know enough about to ask about. The risk wasn’t explained as it is so unusual. I would have almost certainly followed advice and had it done even if I’d had known – the numbers game. I lost].

My advice is never have any unnecessary surgery. Why would you.

My SIPP provider has ring fenced the pot from which the 25% TFLS was taken. I won’t be able to take a further TFLS from any growth of this pot.
Any new contributions are put in a new separate ‘pot’, from where I will be able to take a TFLS in the future. This will then be ring fenced.
Also worth remembering is that if you take an income over and above the TFLS from your pension you are limited what you an pay into any future pensions. I think it is capped at £4k/yr.
Worth checking – I don’t think future contributions are subject to this lower cap if only TFLS is taken.

I’m sure I read you can’t get Channel 4 channels in HD on Freesat. Something about a fallout over charges. Worth checking out if thinking going down that route.

PVR’s. The choice is a lot more limited than it was. We have a Panasonic we were happy with but it started to play up after a few years. Bought a Humax – the clicking and whirring noises were too loud so had to send it back. Looking on the forums it seems some people have noisy ones, others run silent. [We are managing with the old Panasonic for now. Runs silently].

Edit: Beaten to it
Here

The SJP guy sent me files showing that in the past 7 years or so their managed pension funds have outperformed the FTSE 100 by about 20%, after charges.

Be careful with statistics. Some common trackers and Investment Trusts:
FTSE 100 1/1/12-1/1/19 up by 23% – SJP beat this by 20% – Did SJP account for dividends on the FTSE 100 [currently ~5%]?
FTSE 250 tracker, which can be had for peanuts, 1/1/12-1/1/19 up by 73% [Plus dividends]
RIT CAPITAL PARTNERS IT 1/1/12-1/1/19 up by 63% after trust charges. [Plus dividends]
City of London IT, 1/1/12-1/1/19 up by 70% after trust charges [Plus dividends]

[These do not include platform charges, but loads of choice, e.g. AJ Bell are £100/yr max on shares and IT’s in their SIPP]

Don’t really know much about SJP so after reading this thread had a quick look and all the funds I randomly clicked on had a 5% initial charge i.e. your fund had to make 5% just to break even. As far as I can see this is in addition to all the other charges. Why pay it?
Here

I’m not sure what advice your are looking for from an advisor, but just open a SIPP and pick funds that reflect your level of risk.
Vanguard even have funds that specify a retirement date and you just leave it to them to do the rebalancing/de-risking as time goes on. [Vanguard are planning their own SIPP platform sometime this year].
Here
and here

I’ve been looking at this recently with an IFA. They advised that the watchdog had recently issued new guidelines[?] for advising on these types of transfers. Basically the assumption is now that it is a bad idea to transfer out unless shown otherwise.
E.g. A pension is there to provide an income for life, not a tax free lump sum or a nest egg for spouse/kids.
If you want to leave your spouse/kids money, then take out a policy that pays out on your death. It’s not what pensions are for.

Be wary of advisors who tell you otherwise and steer you to their products and ongoing advice. They might not be acting in your best interest.
Plus remember, if you do transfer out to a DC scheme, you don’t need to stick with the advised and charged product from your advisor.

I ended up transferring out [special circumstances]. The advisor would not approve the transfer to one of my existing SIPPs as they had not conducted due diligence on them, so I specified that the scheme they transferred my fund to had to have no exit penalties or lock-in period, and no bid/offer spread, so that I could immediately transfer out the full value to my SIPP, which I did.

Be careful out there.

Not a ‘Brexiteer’, but I don’t understand this adulation of our fellow EU members attitude and the downer on the UK. None of us are perfect.

Has anyone noticed, for example, the Polish and Hungarian attitude to immigrants and asylum seekers? They are worse than us.

So we have Poland and Hungary telling the UK that we have to accept the self selecting immigrants from their country, and that it is a good thing for the UK, but they won’t co-operate with the EU’s plan to distribute refugees as it is a bad thing.

As for immigration into Poland from outside the EU of anyone with a brown face……….

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-migration-crisis-italy-spain-rebels-bulgaria-dublin-quotas-proposal/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/02/poles-dont-want-immigrants-they-dont-understand-them-dont-like-them

I think we all have a lot to learn.

Charlie Mullins is a big ‘Remainer’ – I think I read he funded the Gina Miller case.

ACR on Android works well.

Went for a walk last year and was bitten by a tick.
Has completely changed my life.

Check for ticks.

There has been some hopeful developments on MS lately. Stem cell treatment – reports of patients literally getting up out of wheelchairs and walking after years of suffering.
A BBC reporter, Caroline Wyatt, went to Mexico for the treatment >£60000. Not sure how it went. Probably a documentary to follow.
(Tom, there are NHS trails of the treatment, so hopefully not quackery 🙂 )

Yes, that NS article sums up the studies I’ve come across.

I can’t keep ‘pace’ with the conclusions/meanings of the PACE trial. Hopefully those that need to understand it are on it.
Hopefully the future money will go in the direction that the latest knowledge suggests.

PS: OP, hopefully your symptoms will sort themselves out sharpish.

Am I missing something. I thought that there were a number of recent well respected findings that pointed to a definite physiological cause of CFS – immune system &/or cell ‘energy cycle’ defects, cure/remission after treatment with Rituximab.

Also, hasn’t CBT & GET been discredited as treatment for CFS – PACE trial?

There is an ‘extended’, 45 minute edition, every Monday for those who want a bit more news.

If it wasn’t for those pesky patients……with their:

crazy expectations and ……spouting nonsense

Why don’t they go away and read up on their condition so that they don’t appear dim when talking to me?

[Hmmmm, if they did that though, I’d then label them as ‘anxious’…….]

But in the hospital, anxious takes on an entirely new meaning. Rather than a mere descriptor of a patient’s affect it fast becomes the prism through which the whole patient is viewed, and alas, often dismissed. An anxious patient can have a host of visible problems but the term anxious overshadows them all, detracting from better care of the ailments that may well have created the invisible anguish.

I am speaking about the average patient in hospital who is vulnerable, usually ill-informed, steeped in well-intentioned but fragmented medical care, who sheds a disconsolate tear or looks upset and is quick to be labelled anxious. And before you know it, the label is tossed from doctor to nurse (or the other way around), from one handover to the next, until the occupant of Bed 17 becomes “that anxious man” instead of the human being whose hip is broken, whose pain is mounting, who doesn’t speak English and whose family is out of sight.

Lesson to patients:
You can’t win, you can’t draw, but you’ve got to play!!!!

Some Drs didn’t get the ‘Patient Involvement’ email.

What, in the name of all that is holy, is there to not like about the current Demelza!! 😯
What is wrong with you lot?

…..and Elizabeth 😉

No problem.
I’m finding the subject fascinating, not just the medical aspect, but also the whole politics – ‘Lyme War’ – situation……and I’ve got skin in the game 🙂
And I want to raise awareness of the little B@st$%£* ticks!!

But, as a final question, which bio-film paper author are you referring to, as I didn’t get the impression there was too much controversy over the existence of it?
I’ve read papers/reports/articles by Sapi, MacDonald and Feng [Feng’s study was the combination abx one referred to before – i.e. the spirochetes formed ‘microcolonies’, which I take as biofilm]

I’m cured 😀

I don’t want to get into swapping links to papers showing persistence of culturable bacteria in treated [human] patients, they are there if you want to find them. .

But say for one minute that the evidence did exist, are you saying that bateria are now of a different form to their initial form, and therefore you don’t have the same infection/disease as before the antibiotics. e.g. in laymans terms, they are ‘inert’?

Another issues is terminology and the ‘stages’ of Lyme:
Acute, Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, Chronic Lyme, and you mention Chronic Post Lyme Stage.
I’m not sure whether we are discussing the same thing.

I’m not sure where I’m at, I’ve had some treatment, but not the full range available at the acute stage, but they have stopped treating me based on a ‘hunch’ 🙂
Have they decided I’m now in the PTLDS stage? If they have, I’d love to know on what evidence, as I’ve not had all the treatment available in the acute stage. The fact that there are further options at the acute stage suggests that the initial dose/course is not always successful!!

I don’t know what ‘clinically inactive’ means. Does it mean the bateria form a biofilm, and remain in the biofilm, and therefore have no effect on the ‘host’, i.e. they remain there and don’t ‘repopulate’ the host? [Genuine question].

Believe me, I don’t want Lyme, but I want to give it the best chance of being ‘sorted’ at the early stage if I can. I want science based treatment 😉

Tom,
This might [or might not] interest you.

Lyme Antibiotics

Watch from 31:00 to 33:45

The background is that the Canadian parliament passed a law that forced the federal government to hold a conference, within a year, to come up with a new federal framework for the treatment, etc of Lyme – why couldn’t our parliament do that?
Anyway it goes on for days. The clip above starts just after a well respected scientist, from a well respected University has answered a question on his recent research where he tested a number of antibiotics against lyme in-vitro.

The only single drug to eradicate the bugs was a really nasty one normally given as part of cancer chemotherapy, so not recommended.
No antibiotic worked 100%, so they tried combinations, and found there was only one combination that killed the bug in all forms [spirochete, cyst and biofilm], and one of the combination is one of the more specialist antibiotics. He then talks about further animal or human trails.
[As an aside, he found that, in-vitro, doxycycline, which is the first line antibiotic against Lyme, was the drug that most quickly ‘encouraged’ the bug to morph into the harder to treat cystic and biofilm forms – oh the irony].

Anyway, the clip starts with the bearded gent reacting to this. He just happens to be on the IDSA committee, on whose findings the CDC advice on Lyme is taken, and also heads up the ‘anti-microbial stewardship committee’ controlling the use of antibiotics. The CDC advice forms the basis for worldwide Lyme treatment.

It made me smile, but it goes to show the potential harm done by not treating it properly at the early stage when it most easly controlled, and letting it linger causing bigger problems down the line.

[There are 300,000 new lyme cases a year in the US]

Note: The scientist did find one more standard antibiotic that eradicated 100% of the bug, but that needed 4 separate unique doses or cycles.

Tom, I’m afraid you have got it completely the wrong way round. Your thinking is very confused – Have you got any recollection of being bitten by a tick recently – as Lyme can affect cognitive function? 🙂

The CDC, NHS,etc., are treating on a hunch. My GP and RIPL have stopped treatment on a hunch that I don’t have Lyme or any other tick-borne infection – they are playing the numbers game, they might be right, but it’s still a hunch.
ALL the science shows that the tests are unreliable and lyme and lyme bugs can persist after the basic antibiotic treatment.
There is NO evidence that antibiotics cure Lyme or kill all the bugs. .
It is accepted that there is no definitive cure for Lyme – we don’t know which is the best antibiotic, we don’t know how best to tackle the cyst or biofilm forms of the bug.

Your bluff and bluster does not make for good evidence based science, or discussion…..but this is STW 🙂

If you are saying that the medical world has made a decision to limit the use of antibiotics, and are taking the approach of saying that we can reduce the symptoms in most people with Lyme disease to an acceptable level with limited antibiotics, and the numbers that we can’t are an acceptable price to pay to stop overuse of antibiotics – then that’s another issue.

Anyway, thanks for the bump on a tick thread – If you don’t want to get caught up in the obviously emotive ‘Lyme Wars’…….CHECK FOR TICKS

I’m watching for what.. feeling generally crappy and energy-less these next few days?

I believe the average time for symptoms to appear is around 14 days, but can be a few months.

Symptoms can be – what you say, and/or muscle/joint pains, nausea, headaches, etc.
If you get these go to GP and mention you were bitten by a tick.

Me and my family have had fantastic treatment by the NHS. It is a wonderful thing. Thank-you for what you have done for me and mine.

Me and my family have also had poor treatment from the NHS, and ironically, it is when this has happened that you appreciate how wonderful it is, as you see what it might be like without it.

It is a mind-blowingly fantastic idea that should be funded, protected, cherished and improved for current and future generations. What could be a higher priority?

This made me think at the weekend: [Stay with it until the end]
Be careful what you take for granted

Swinley Forest[/url]

CHECK FOR TICKS

Thanks for the response G_L.
You’re right. I’ve had antibiotics from my GP.
[As said previously, I’ve no issues with my GP. He was upfront in not knowing about tick-borne infections, and has listened to what I’ve said, and up until the last appointment, after he’d spoken to RIPL, seemed interested reading up about it.]

I believe the next line from the NHS is IV antibiotic. [I’m NOT suggesting I need this!!!!]. It appears this is used if there are serious heart or central nervous system issues, and I’d like to think that if I started blacking out, or my heart started playing up, that the tick-bite would be taken into consideration, even without a positive test.

The conventional approach is that the short course of abx cures it, if not, then a second course, then if symptoms are really bad, the IV’s. [Straight to IVs with heart/CNS issues].

The general consensus seems to be that ~10% people don’t respond to the initial recommended course of abx. I’m not sure what the guidelines are at that point.

The ‘quack’ position is that if you still have symptoms, you still have an active infection, and you should continue taking abx until the symptoms disappear, and consider changing the abx if still not working. Also, that you should take more than one type of abx, as the bug exists in different ‘forms’.

As there seems to be loads of people online with ‘treatment failures’, this leaves a layman like me confused as what to do to prevent slipping into ‘Chronic Lyme’.

I’m one of those ‘complaining’ about test accuracy. although I didn’t think I was complaining, more just saying what is happening.
I put my experience up here in the hope that it encourages other like-minded outdoorsy types to check for ticks, and if someone more knowledgeable than me [and my GP] could chip in and give me some advice or shed some light on it, that would be a bonus.

The tests have been found to be least sensitive with early/acute Lyme. The sensistivity, i.e. how many times it gets the correct answer is around 50% at the early stage, i.e. in the realms of tossing a coin. The sensitivity increases as the disease progresses, and then, I think, drops off again.
The way the tests are tested for accuracy is infected blood/serum from animals and/or humans [infection confirmed by culturing the virus from the blood/serum] is tested and the number of correct, i.e. positive results counted.
So the test relied on by the NHS, and most other health ‘services’ around the world, mis-diagnoses around 50% of the time in the early stage. ~50% false negatives.

Also, in the very early stages the test can be useless as the body may not have produced any antibodies against the bug. The test measures the body’s reaction to the bug, not for the presence of the bug.
There are also a multitude of other reason why the test can give incorrect results.
This is why the guidelines say that Lyme is a clinical diagnosis, and the serology test should not be relied on.
Anecdotal evidence suggests this is not happening.

I was bitten by a tick and 7 days later started to experience a set of symptoms I’d never had before. A few options:
1. I picked up something from the tick.
2. The symptoms are totally independent of the tick bite.
3. The symptoms are psychosomatic [is that the right word? – all in my mind].

My preference would for it to be 3 then 2 then, a long way back 1. This would mean I haven’t got little bugs swimming round my system that can get into, and stuff, my joints, brain, eyes, heart, etc. i.e. I’m not looking for a Lyme disgnosis. I hope it is all in my mind.

The trouble that I face is that I have tested negative, but continue to have symptoms. The symptoms responded to a change in the antibiotic dose.
My GP/RIPL are ruling out Lyme disease based on a 50-50 test and stopped treating me.

My GP has referred me to a rheumatologist, ignoring the nausea, headaches, twitches, skin sensations, mind going blank, etc.

He has ruled out it being something other than Lyme I picked up from the tick – no referral to infectious disease/microbiology.
. Awaiting results.
.

The upshot is that I have had Lyme ruled out and treatment stopped on the basis of a 50-50 test.
The symptoms are ongoing. If I do/did have the Lyme bug, I’m now in the Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome stage.
At some arbitrary point in the future this may become the unrecognised ‘Chronic Lyme’.

What would you do?
[The longer the bugs, that I may or may not have, remain untreated, the harder they are to treat……….do I feel lucky?]

So, if you don’t want to get sucked into the ‘Lyme Loonie’ world…..
CHECK FOR TICKS……..and your dog too!!!

NHS Scotland Presentation

Thing that surprises me:
Slide 4 – 4.2% of blood donors tested positive for borreliosis burgdorferi, and donated blood isn’t screened, and it survives the storage conditions of donated blood.
[Plus how many false negatives?]

A different view from yesterdays Guardian:
Lyme Quackery

Lyme crops up about halfway down, and he goes after it with both barrels 🙂

In the spirit of trying to raise awareness, and to help other people who might be bitten by a tick, can I publicise the following to any health professionals on here:
RCGP Lyme Disease e-learning Course

It is FREE to ALL health professionals, and is worth 0.5 CPD credits. .

I’ve no idea what’s in it [it’s not accessible by the public], but its all official RCGP stuff – no conspiracy theories, etc 🙂

The NHS Choices page seems pretty comprehensive to me as lay person. It might be worth pointing your GP in this direction.

I my case the Dr and RIPL have decided it’s not Lyme, so unfortunately I’d be wasting my time. We are not on that page.
I did provide my GP with independent information, certified by “The Information Standard” as being a reliable and trustworthy source of health information, and referenced by Public Health England, but he did not look at it once he had spoken to RIPL. My GP initially expressed an interest in the information as he was not familiar with Lyme, but chose not to go down that route. So much for patient involvement.

NHS Choices:
“Blood tests can be carried out to confirm the diagnosis after a few weeks, but these can be negative in the early stages of the infection. You may need to be re-tested if Lyme disease is still suspected after a negative test result.
In the UK, two types of blood test are used to ensure Lyme disease is diagnosed accurately. This is because a single blood test can sometimes produce a positive result even when a person doesn’t have the infection.”

RIPL won’t do the second, more accurate, “type of blood test” unless you test positive on the “first type”, which has up 50% false negatives, so you can’t win.

NHS Choices:
“There’s currently no clear consensus on the best treatment for post-infectious Lyme disease because the underlying cause is not yet clear. Be wary of internet sites offering alternative diagnostic tests and treatments that may not be supported by scientific evidence.”

The NHS approach is not supported by scientific evidence.

NHS Choices:
“If you have post-infectious Lyme disease or long-lasting symptoms, you may see a specialist in microbiology or infectious diseases.”

Mentions “post-infectious Lyme disease” a couple of times, but to be considered as having that you need to have been diagnosed with Lyme, so as I have not been diagnosed, I am referred to a rheumatologist, not infectious diseases or microbiology. They have decided on the basis of insensitive/inaccurate tests that I don’t have Lyme or other tick-borne disease.

I sound that I’ve got a downer on my GP, but I haven’t. He doesn’t know about Lyme, which I see as a fault of the system, and he has listened to me and given be a longer course of treatment than minimum guidelines, but once he had spoken to RIPL I’m guessing his hands were tied, as they are the ‘specialists’.

Something doesn’t seem right about the approach to Lyme.

I understand that Drs don’t/can’t know everything, but with Lyme/tick-borne infection I feel it’s something more than that.

The standard tests are known to have a sensitivity of as low as 50%, with Lyme neuroborreliosis having a 77% sensitivity – meaning that between 23% and 50% will get an incorrect diagnosis. [Notwithstanding all the other possible reasons for negative test results].
Although Lyme can be clinically diagnosed, and there are no tests to rule it out, Drs seem to rely on these inaccurate tests to rule it out and stop treatment.

There are no primary care guidelines for the treatment of Lyme disease which does not present with the EM rash. GP’s are told to refer to ID specialist or contact RIPL for specialist advice.
After having 2 –ve tests, my GP phoned RIPL, who told him I can’t have Lyme after the –ve tests, and the antibiotics I had had to date would have cured me anyway.

The RIPL stance on the tests is untenable, but also, there is no evidence to support the RIPL’s statement on the antibiotics curing Lyme, but there are numerous papers/studies, that even I as a layman can understand, which show persisting Lyme disease after the short course of antibiotic given by the NHS, and no papers showing a cure after the short course of antbiotics

What is going on?

Even the Public Health England ‘Suggested referral pathway..” states that “Relapse has been documented”, which is an understatement if you read up on other research. But, as soon as PHE acknowledge that “Relapse has been documented”, it puts the RIPL position in doubt.

In my case I was given a single dose of antibiotic straight after the bite, this has a risk of, according to PHE, ”treatment with inadequate antibiotics or immunosuppressants abrogates the immune response and can explain a negative test result”. RIPL and my GP are totally ignoring this additional risk factor of test failure in my case and have decided on no further treatment.

I am now being referred to a Rheumatologist, the wait for which takes me way beyond the transition period from acute Lyme to ‘Chronic Lyme’, which in the UK medical establishments eyes, is untreatable – Anti-depressants, CBT and GET.

There was initiative, backed by a NHS body, to identify the top 10 unknowns in the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. Here are a few:
– How common is relapse and treatment failure?
– What is the optimal course of action if symptoms relapse?
– What is the best treatment for children and adults……..presenting without EM rash?
These are recognised unknowns, and the medical establishment are still making definitive statements and stopping treatment.

There are no Lyme specialist in the NHS. [Lyme is the fastest growing disease in the West].

NHS England don’t record all cases of Lyme in England, only positive tests carried out at Porton Down.
[It is a notifiable disease in Scotland, so all cases diagnosed by Drs are recorded].

RIPL use different test criteria to the Scottish test house.

The manufacturers of the test kit state that the tests should not be used to rule out an infection.

The NHS does not follow-up Lyme patients [even those they recognise as having Lyme] to monitor how effective the treatment is.

I don’t know what I’ve got. I was a healthy bloke who knew nothing about Lyme, and 7 days after being bitten by a tick was knocked sideways, and have ongoing symptoms 4 months later. All other ‘bloods’ are normal. I’m not doubting my GP wants me to get better, but I can’t understand his logic, and he can’t explain it to me – I have asked!!

All I am asking for is some evidence based medicine.

The evidence shows that Lyme persists and short courses of antibiotics don’t always cure it.
[Other evidence shows that the Lyme bug can change to an antibiotic resistant form when under attack from antibiotic and stays dormant until relapsing at a later date – The NHS doesn’t follow-up patients or collect data].

I understand that Lyme isn’t fully understood, and there is no recognised catch all cure. More research is needed, but if the UK establishment doesn’t recognise it as a problem, nothing will be done. I read somewhere that we are waiting for an answer to a question we haven’t asked yet.

There are Drs in the US who are treating 1000s of ‘Lyme’ patients, and claim to be reducing symptoms and improving their quality of life. I have seen doubts cast on the practices and motives of these Drs, but why doesn’t the NHS send a few Drs over there to find out if there is anything in it, or whether they are just Quacks – either way it will be a contribution the public health in the UK.

Believe me, in this case, prevention is easier than cure:
CHECK FOR TICKS