🎙️ Babesiosis Symptoms You Shouldn’t Ignore | Dr. Jill Carnahan

Duration: 4:09 684 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

Babesia is an intracellular parasite that infects red blood cells and is transmitted by the same ticks responsible for Lyme disease, yet it remains a frequently overlooked condition in the United States. While approximately 30% of ticks carry both Lyme bacteria and Babesia species such as *Babesia microti* on the East Coast and *Babesia duncani* on the West Coast, a newer strain known as *Babesia odocoilei* is also emerging as a significant concern. This parasite distinguishes itself from bacterial infections like Lyme because it resides inside human red blood cells, which are responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body. Consequently, its presence disrupts oxygen delivery to tissues and small capillaries, potentially affecting virtually every organ system, including the heart, lungs, and brain, as evidenced by studies in animals showing compromised blood flow to critical areas. The clinical presentation of Babesia infection often mimics other common ailments, leading to significant diagnostic challenges for patients suffering from unexplained fatigue, exhaustion, headaches, night sweats, and gastrointestinal issues like nausea or vomiting. A particularly telling symptom is "air hunger" or shortness of breath that worsens at high altitudes, a direct result of the parasite's interference with oxygen transport. Because standard medical tests often fail to detect this specific infection, many patients receive negative results despite experiencing severe symptoms. Traditional laboratory panels and immunoglobulin tests for common strains typically return negative findings, even when the patient is actively infected, which frequently leads to misdiagnosis or a lack of appropriate treatment. Detecting Babesia requires specialized testing methods that go beyond standard blood work, as conventional Complete Blood Counts may only show vague signs like low platelets, low white blood cell counts, or evidence of hemolysis without confirming the parasite itself. Dr. Carnahan recommends advanced diagnostic approaches such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization), which can identify the specific RNA markers of the parasite under a microscope. These specialized tests are crucial because they can detect strains like *Babesia odocoilei* that standard assays miss, especially since this particular strain tends to hide within fibrin nests on blood vessel walls, making it resistant to typical antimalarial drugs used for treatment. Given the rising prevalence of these tick-borne infections and the limitations of current diagnostic tools, individuals experiencing persistent fatigue, non-menopausal night sweats, air hunger, or unresolved gastrointestinal symptoms should consider seeking out specialty testing rather than relying on routine labs. The inability of standard Quest or traditional lab tests to identify Babesia means that patients must advocate for themselves by requesting specific PCR and FISH analyses from laboratories equipped to handle these complex cases. By understanding the unique nature of this intracellular parasite and its ability to evade detection, patients can move toward accurate diagnosis and effective management of their health issues before the infection causes further damage to their organ systems.

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Hey guys, what if your unexplained fatigue and headaches, sometimes shortness of breath or air hunger, was caused by an intracellular parasite? If you guys haven't heard about Babesia yet, I want to talk to you today about Babesia as I go ahead and organize and arrange my flowers. So, Babesia is an intracellular parasite. It is not a bacterium like Lyme disease, but it can be transmitted by the same tick. And now in the US, we think about 30% of ticks are not only infected with Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, but also Babesia. Babesia duncani, Babesia microti. Duncani is often more on the West Coast. Microti is often more on the East Coast. And there's a new kid on the block called Babesia odocoilei. Why does that matter? That matters because there are no current tests that are easy to access that test for this blood-borne parasite. And many of my patients will have unexplained fatigue, exhaustion. It can really affect the mitochondria in the red blood cells. And they'll also notice things like headaches or night sweats, unexplained shortness of breath or air hunger. They often do worse at altitude. And one of the reasons I'm here today to talk about it is I've had several patients recently that have a ton of GI symptoms including anorexia, nausea, vomiting for no other reason. Babesia, like I said, is an intracellular parasite in the red blood cells that carry oxygen. So, as you can imagine, this parasite can affect oxygen delivery to the tissues, to the small capillaries, and it can really affect any organ system. We've seen lots of studies in animals, especially dogs, that show brain issues, small capillary brain blood delivery. They've shown many other things inside the organs including heart and lungs and other tissues because of course if it's in the blood it affects all tissues. But Babesia odocoilei in particular not only is very hard to detect because standard tests do not detect it um but it also uh can cause more nest and fibrin accumulation in the blood vessels where this organism hides on the vessel wall in these fibrin nests so it's hard to treat with the antimalarial drugs that we typically use. So this is becoming more and more prevalent. Um the kinds of testing I recommend, your typical CBC is probably not going to show it although this infection can cause low platelets, uh low white blood count, or signs of hemolysis, even liver enzyme elevation. So you might see some abnormalities in your blood work. Um but the other standardized tests like immunoglobulins to the Babesia odocoilei or microti typically do not show up. They're almost always negative. So if your doctor's has ordered a traditional lab or quest test, it's very very likely even if you're suffering from this infection that it would be negative. The kind of testing that I use is a lab called Igenex. I do immunoblot for Lyme, Bartonella, and Babesia and then I do PCR, polymerase chain reaction, and FISH which is in situ hybridization is these little markers that tag the RNA of the Babesia in your blood and you can actually see a a lucency when you look under a microscopy. So all that means is you need some specialty testing and I like to do PCR and FISH testing when I'm looking for Babesia. Now what's interesting is on the Igenex it's non-strain specific so even if it's this strain strange odocoilei you can often pick it up. Um I'm also using T-lab and Galaxy Lab which are more specific for these types of strains. So if you are suffering from unexplained fatigue, night sweats that are not menopausal, air hunger, or unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms that are not resolving, um you may want to check for this infection. It's an intracellular parasite called Babesia. It is a tick-borne infection and many people are unaware that they're suffering from this disease. So, hopefully that was helpful today. Now, I'm getting ready to put these flowers into my vase. I'll see you next time.