Sudden weepiness, tearfulness, crying at commercials – all
for no apparent reason is a common complaint amongst those suffering with Lyme
disease. Why does this occur?
It is easy to find lengthy symptom lists for: Lyme disease,
confections, Babesia, Bartonella, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia,
gluten sensitivity, adrenal fatigue and other overlapping conditions.
Many symptoms on the various lists are repeated over and
over frequently leading to more confusion.
It is not possible to diagnose a coinfection based on a
single symptom.
However, some symptoms – particularly when seen in
constellations along with other symptoms, may be fairly specific for a
particular coinfection syndrome.
Sudden unexpected tearfulness seems to fall within this category.
Babesia?
Classic symptoms are night sweats, air hunger, recurring
flulike symptoms, low grade fevers, chills, dry cough, headaches, muscle pain
and depression.
I think weepiness can be added to this basic symptom list.
I have found a striking correlation between this symptom and
Babesiosis.
With treatment, Babesia symptoms can appear and disappear in
any order. Usually tearfulness resolves more quickly than other symptoms. Air
hunger can remain after the disappearance of night sweats or vice-e-versa.
Some symptoms are easy to explain. Babesia is a blood
parasite, similar to Malaria, it causes periodic rupture of red blood cells
leading to a specific inflammatory response hence we see constitutional
symptoms like flulike symptoms and night sweats. Air hunger may be the result of pulmonary
inflammation suggested by a mouse model with B. duncani but not B. microti. Usually
we makes lists of symptoms without trying to understanding why they occur. I
like to try to find explanations. These explanations are speculative.
There is an anatomic center in the brain responsible for
rapid changes in emotional responses. How this center is affected is unknown. Interestingly,
emotional lability and tearfulness may be seen in patients with a history of
traumatic brain injury, pseudobulbar palsy and certain stroke syndromes. Why
Babesia causes this reaction is unknown.
Other cerebral parasites may affect the brain in strange, unexpected
ways. Infection with toxoplasmosis is
considered benign, without consequences, but patient so infected have a higher
incidence of car accidents and suicide per published studies.
It may be worthwhile to pay attention to this, perhaps,
specific symptom: sudden crying for no good reason.