Lyme disease is a multistage illness that attacks multiple systems in the body. Symptoms present as hundreds of other conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. Although widely known as presenting with a bullseye rash, a significant percentage of Lyme patients never develop the rash and instead complain of arthritic symptoms. Medical misdiagnoses are typical and even when a patient does get tested, test results are often unreliable. These factors have prolonged and intensified suffering that early diagnosis and treatment could have prevented.

Bacteria called spirochetes are responsible for the symptoms of Lyme disease. Spirochetes are pleomorphic; they can appear as two or more completely different organisms. This makes both diagnosis and treatment tricky because they are capable of shape-shifting and can fool both the body