Sudden tearfulness

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.