How to Test for Lyme Disease at Home: Best Tests and More
Steps to Test for Lyme Disease at Home
While the vast majority of people go to their doctor to receive testing, standardized testing from your doctor is hugely flawed. The primary issue is their accuracy—these tests are less than 50% reliable. Both the ELISA and Western Blot are indirect tests, meaning they measure the immune system’s response to an infectious agent rather than detecting the presence of the bacteria itself. Lyme Disease is known for evading the immune system so this type of testing leads to high levels of false negatives. Thankfully you can now get a Lyme Disease diagnosis at home.
False negatives are alarmingly common, occurring in 50% to 80% of cases depending on the study. The CDC itself advises that test results should be interpreted in the broader context of a person’s illness, medical history, exposure likelihood, and other test results. Unfortunately, this recommendation is often overlooked in clinical practice.
Understanding Lyme Disease Symptoms Before Testing
Many people find themselves looking for home Lyme Disease testing because they have been exposed repeatedly to tick bites or they have on-going symptoms that align with Lyme Disease but might be testing negative.
Lyme Disease symptoms are very hard to pinpoint because they can be just about any symptom and they tend to eb and flow.
Some of the most commonly reported Lyme Disease symptoms are:
Joint pain / Muscle pain
Fatigue
Fever
Sleep issues
Cognitive changes
Panic/anxiety disorders
and more. See our more extensive list of Lyme Disease symptoms and a questionnaire developed by a leading Lyme Doctor to identify if your symptoms could be Lyme Disease.
High Accuracy Lyme Disease Tests: A Better Approach
The good news is some of the leading tests are now available as home tests. See our Lyme Disease home test kits below.
Two leading labs, IgeneX and Vibrant Wellness Labs, offer advanced testing that can be ordered from home and provide a more reliable diagnosis.
Vibrant is the easier home test as it is a urine test and can be 100% done from home. Igenex is equally as reputable but would require visiting a lab for a blood draw.
Vibrant Wellness Labs
Vibrant Wellness Labs is another top contender in the field of Lyme disease testing. In 2018, they launched a revolutionary test that detects Lyme and other co-infections at a much more sensitive level than competitors, making it one of the most accurate tick-borne infection tests available today. Vibrant’s tests are run on a silicon micro-array platform, which provides unparalleled specificity and sensitivity in detecting tick-borne diseases. This cutting-edge technology allows for the detection of multiple pathogens from a single blood sample, increasing the likelihood of an accurate diagnosis. Please note that Vibrant Wellness Labs currently only ships within the US and is unavailable in the state of New York.
IgeneX
IgeneX is one of the most trusted names in Lyme disease testing. Their tests are based on the latest research and are designed to detect more species of Borrelia than any other lab. This means that IgeneX tests are better equipped to identify the various strains of Borrelia that traditional tests might miss. IgeneX offers a basic panel, which you can order directly, or you can work with your Lyme-literate medical doctor (LLMD) for more advanced testing options.
What to Do After Testing for Lyme Disease at Home
After submitting your Lyme Testing, most tests are usually returned in 1-2 weeks depending with lab testing you utilized. During that time it is important to be aware of your symptoms particularly if you are experiencing changes and report any issues to your medical provider.
Next Steps if Your Lyme Disease Test is Positive
If you receive a positive test, not to worry, we have tons of resources for navigating Lyme Disease.
The #1 place we recommend starting is dropping your email at the bottom of this page and signing up for our patient resources. You will get emails to your inbox with everything we wish we had known about navigating Lyme Disease from start to finish.
You can also find resources by exploring our site for pages including: Lyme Disease Treatment Options, How to find a Lyme Literate Doctor, and more.
Consulting a Doctor After Home Testing for Lyme Disease
One of the biggest challenges of Lyme Disease is that a chronic infection is not recognized by the CDC and therefore the majority of western medicine doctors. The bacteria is hard to detect by standard testing and hard to study and has yet to be recognized as a condition by major institutions aside from research & study.
You may seek the care of a primary care or infectious disease doctor but individuals in our community report extremely low success rates working with these practitioners.
The doctors we recommend for chronic Lyme Disease is called a LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor). Unlike infectious disease specialists who may not have extensive experience with Lyme, LLMDs are physicians who have dedicated time and effort to understanding Lyme disease. Lyme disease can manifest in many ways, and they are better equipped to recognize these diverse presentations.
Ticks that carry Lyme disease can also transmit other illnesses. LLMDs are aware of these co-infections and can screen for them. Lyme disease can progress through different stages, each with its own set of challenges. LLMDs understand the complexities of the disease over time.
Many patients with Lyme disease report feeling unheard by traditional doctors. LLMDs often take a more open-minded approach to patient experiences and may be more willing to consider a wider range of possibilities when making a diagnosis.