9 times out of 10, when you hear someone say that they have some chronic or long-term

version of Lyme disease or by some alternative health practitioner like a naturopath or chiropractor,

because there's no such thing.

Except for that one time out of the 10, where science tells the skeptics not so fast,

Lyme disease isn't necessarily as simple as you think.

Lyme disease is today on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid.

I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Diagnosing chronic Lyme disease.

Controversy seems to be just about everywhere these days, even in something as innocuous as

an easily treatable infection you can get from a tick bite.

In this case, we have claims from outside the medical community of a new and unrecognized

form of Lyme disease distinct from the familiar version.

Rapped and conspiratorial claims that its existence is denied and suppressed by a dogmatic mainstream

of scientists and doctors.

Today, we're going to point the skeptical eye at chronic Lyme disease, which you may

have heard of, and may have heard that it's not a condition that everyone recognizes.

We're going to find out who does, who doesn't, and why.

The typical skeptical treatment given to Lyme disease is that there are two kinds.

Real Lyme disease caused by a bacterial infection from a tick bite, easily treated and cured

with a simple course of antibiotics, and so-called chronic Lyme disease, which is non-existent,

pseudo-scientific, and diagnosed only in the world of alternative medicine.

...