Press
Articles by Dr. Lehman
Methylene blue–a new/old drug for treating Lyme disease
LymeDisease.org – March 27, 2024
By Dr. Erica Lehman
Excerpt: “This revolutionary medication has gained a positive reputation in the world of tick-borne diseases, similar to when disulfiram was repurposed for Lyme disease in 2016. I have found clinical success in using MB for many symptoms of Lyme disease, including fatigue, depression, brain fog, anxiety and much more. With its antimicrobial properties, using MB has enabled me to minimize the use of antibiotics and therefore avoid their potential side effects.”
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Interviews with Dr. Lehman
“When a tick bites you, it has an anesthetic in its saliva that actually numbs the surface of your skin so you don’t feel the bite, and that’s why people don’t know that a tick is latched onto them and is biting them,” says Dr. Erica Lehman, a tick-borne disease specialist.
"If bitten, early symptoms include headaches, nausea, numbness, muscle aches, extreme fatigue and Bell’s palsy,” Lehman says of the manifestations on the more minor side of the spectrum. Severe symptoms include dementia and arthritis. It can affect people physically, cognitively and psychologically.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 25,000 Americans were diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2013, but Lehman says this number is “significantly underestimated” due to factors such as imperfect testing and symptoms that mimic those of Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and lupus."
HelloGiggles Magazine, August 2017
"Dr. Erica Lehman, a California-based physician and tick-borne disease specialist says that as Lyme goes untreated, there are a host of frightening and debilitating symptoms reported by patients, including swollen glands, light sensitivity, sound and smell sensitivity, heart palpitations, muscle and joint stiffness, psychological manifestations such as depression, panic attacks, anxiety, and suicidal ideations, twitching of muscles, Bell’s palsy, brain fog, forgetfulness, poor short term memory disorientation, word finding problems, tremors, seizures, blurry vision, vertigo, tingling, numbness, stabbing sensations, chronic cough, sweats, weight loss, weight gain, hormone imbalances, poor digestion, changes in bowel habits, chronic yeast infections, and poor immune function.”
“Integrative physician Erica Lehman, MD, is another practitioner who now treads more softly in her treatment of Lyme patients. “A decade ago, I was more heavy-handed with antibiotics,” she recalls. But a retrospective analysis of her patients’ outcomes has made her rethink her approach.
She still uses antibiotics, including IV treatment to reduce the load of infection, but then she switches to lower doses and herbs as soon as possible. “Slow and steady wins the race,” Lehman says.
Years of experience have helped her recognize patient clusters: those with neurologic disease versus illness that hits the gut, the endocrine system, joint tissue, and more. Each cluster has a different treatment protocol and separate path to wellness; though their problem may have started with a tick-borne disease, they face other issues now. (Much of her approach is informed by MyLymeData, a patient-powered Lyme-disease research project.)
Because no two chronic-Lyme patients are the same, treatments must be highly individualized.”