Condition guide
Lyme & Coinfections
Tick-borne illness, including Borrelia and co-infecting organisms, viewed within the whole clinical picture.
Overview
Understand the diagnosis. Then widen the lens.
Lyme disease follows infection with Borrelia burgdorferi and related organisms carried by ticks. Many patients also carry coinfections — Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichia, and others — that produce their own symptoms and complicate the picture.
Standard two-tier testing can miss infection, and symptoms often persist after standard antibiotic courses. A wider clinical review — exposure history, immune function, coinfections, and overlapping burdens — may better explain what is happening and what deserves attention.
Facial droop, a spreading rash, new cardiac or neurological symptoms, or a high fever need prompt medical assessment.
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The presentation can be wider than one system.
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Educational only. This is not a diagnosis or medical advice.
Factors we may explore
Not a checklist of causes. A map for better questions.
No single factor explains every case. These are clinical layers that may help organize the history and determine what deserves closer attention.
Infection and coinfections
Borrelia plus organisms like Bartonella, Babesia, and Ehrlichia can each contribute, and coinfections often explain symptoms that persist despite treatment.
Testing limits
Standard two-tier serology can be negative early on or later in illness, so results are interpreted alongside the exposure history and symptom pattern rather than on their own.
Biofilms and immune function
Biofilm structures and suppressed immune regulation can allow organisms to persist, which helps explain why short treatment courses sometimes fall short.
Overlapping burdens
Metal toxicity, parasites, mold and other exposures, and autonomic regulation may add to the total load and shape the sequence of care.
Another layer of information
Autonomic Response Testing (ART)
Lyme and its coinfections often sit alongside other burdens that routine testing misses. Autonomic Response Testing (ART) adds a structured, individualized layer of information — helping clarify which burdens appear to be active and what deserves attention first.
From Dr. McLaughlin
Watch: how my wife beat Lyme disease.
The story of a real case from our practice — what was tried first, what the evaluation found, and what led to recovery.
From the podcast
Why antibiotic-only plans often fall short.
Dr. McLaughlin reviews the limits of standard antibiotic courses, what herbal therapy research shows, and why restoring the body’s own functions before targeted treatment leads to better outcomes — including the roles of coinfections, biofilms, metal toxicity, and parasites.
Listen on SubstackEpisode 18: Holistic Approaches to Lyme Disease Treatment
Aquarian Insights · Dr. Brendan McLaughlin · 0:00
The Aquarian approach
Data becomes useful when it is interpreted in context.
For complex or persistent symptoms, The Reclamation Experience brings your history, existing records, targeted testing, ART, biological data, and nervous-system patterns into one clinical synthesis.
Investigate
Review what has already been done and identify meaningful gaps.
Synthesize
Cross-read the layers instead of treating each result as a separate story.
Sequence
Clarify what deserves attention first, what can wait, and how to reassess.
Testing
What the data shows
History
How the pattern developed
Symptoms
What you experience now
Environment
What surrounds your health
Regulation
How your system responds
One connected clinical picture
Your diagnosis is not your sequence
Start by understanding your case as a whole.
The Reclamation Experience is a comprehensive assessment and clinical-synthesis process for people who want investigation, guidance, and partnership.
Clinical review: Dr. Brendan McLaughlin
Reviewed September 2026
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Living with Lyme & Coinfections and unsure where to start?
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