Editorial policy

Our sources

Facts about Lyme disease symptoms, testing, treatment and prevention come from primary, authoritative sources, in roughly this order:

1. U.S. public health agencies, mainly the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
2. Published clinical practice guidelines, such as the 2020 Lyme disease guideline from the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Academy of Neurology and the American College of Rheumatology
3. Peer-reviewed research and state health departments

Every guide lists the sources it relies on. When we quote numbers, we say where they come from and what year they describe.

Two voices, clearly labelled

Many pages include two kinds of boxes. “What the guidelines say” summarizes official guidance. “What patients tell us” shares personal experiences submitted to us with permission. We never present a personal experience as medical evidence or advice.

Patient stories

• Every story is real and submitted directly by the person who lived it, with written permission to publish.
• We never write, invent or pay for stories or testimonials.
• We may edit for length, clarity and privacy. We remove other people’s names and identifying details.
• We remove claims that a specific product, supplement or unproven treatment cured Lyme, and we never publish stories as advertising.
• Anyone can ask us to remove their story at any time.

When experts disagree

Some Lyme topics are genuinely contested, especially symptoms that last after treatment. On those topics we describe what CDC and mainstream guidelines say, describe the main alternative views and who holds them, and explain where the evidence is strong or weak. We aim to be fair to patients without overstating what is known.

Medical review

Our content is written and fact-checked by the Beat Lyme editorial team. It is not currently reviewed by a licensed clinician. If that changes, we will name the reviewer and their credentials on each page they review.

Tools we use

We may use software tools, including AI writing tools, to help research and draft pages. A person checks every page against its listed sources before it is published, and we are responsible for everything we publish.

Listings and money

Any provider listings are based on public information and are not endorsements. If we ever accept payment for a featured listing, it will be labelled “Featured” or “Sponsored” and will never be presented as a ranking or recommendation. Payments never influence our medical content.

Showing both approaches

For many decisions, such as how long to treat or what to do when symptoms continue, two sets of guidelines exist: the 2020 IDSA/AAN/ACR guideline, whose recommendations CDC’s treatment guidance is consistent with, and the 2014 ILADS guideline, followed by some clinicians. Wherever they differ, we show them side by side in an “at a glance” box, checked against both documents. We don’t endorse either. See IDSA vs ILADS.

Patient-reported data

We sometimes cite surveys and registries, such as LymeDisease.org’s MyLymeData. We always say that these figures are reported by patients who chose to take part, and we don’t present them as statistics for everyone with Lyme.

Corrections and updates

Every guide shows the date it was last updated. We review every correction request we receive.

• How to send one: email [email protected] or use our contact form. Tell us the page, what you think is wrong, and, if you can, a source.
• What we do: we check the claim against primary sources. If we were wrong, we fix the page and update its date.
• Significant corrections: when a correction changes the meaning of medical information, we add a short note at the end of the page saying what changed and when.
• Disagreements: if the evidence is genuinely contested, we may add the other view rather than remove ours, and say clearly where the evidence is strong or weak.

We also review pages regularly, especially when CDC, the FDA or the major guideline groups publish new information.