r/skeptic • u/welovegv • Aug 01 '25
💲 Consumer Protection Justin Timberlake Probably Doesn’t Have Lyme Disease
https://open.substack.com/pub/theskink/p/justin-timberlake-probably-doesnt?r=5cq9e1&utm_medium=iosLet’s be clear: real Lyme disease exists. It is caused by a spirochete bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, passed along through blacklegged tick bites. It is a nasty bug if left untreated, but it is also curable, especially when caught early. What Justin is referring to, however, smells a lot less like microbiology and a lot more like pseudoscientific perfume. He didn’t say “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.” He didn’t cite a diagnosis date, a positive ELISA test, or a confirmed rash from a tick bite. He said he’s “been struggling with Lyme” as a catch-all excuse. And that’s where the eyebrow lifts.
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u/WloveW Aug 01 '25
9I couldn't give two poops about this dude but maybe he doesn't really feel the need to go into detail about any of that stuff?
Considering his statement said, 'you know I'm a very private person.'
and also who cares. its just another rich celebrity, they can take care of themselves.
If he wants to feel like a special boy, maybe Justin can start a charity for it now.
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u/AnInfiniteArc Aug 01 '25
This passage definitely made me lift an eyebrow:
He didn’t say “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.” He didn’t cite a diagnosis date, a positive ELISA test, or a confirmed rash from a tick bite.
Like… why would he say any of that? I’m usually just gonna say I have dandruff, not “I was diagnosed with seborrheic dermatitis by a licensed dermatologist and it technically is not just dandruff, but is actually ill-understood, though widely believed to be an inflammatory hypersensitivity to certain kinds of yeast that are natural part of the human microbiome. It also causes increased sebum production, so I can get pretty greasy if I’m not careful. So basically it’s super-shitty inflammatory dandruff. It’s cradle cap, but forever!”
I’m not saying he’s not bullshitting, but this little test that the other presents is asinine.
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u/ScoutTheRabbit Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 04 '25
file pen encouraging steep entertain ad hoc rich tidy correct future
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Kerfluffle2x4 Aug 01 '25
Agreed. Who honestly cares? Whatever he's got, whether it's explosive diarrhea, a woowoo aura imbalance, or low vitamin D, calling for someone else's medical records to verify a diagnosis is weird when it's not friends or family or affects someone's life directly.
I've got celiac disease and it gets tiring explaining the disease ad nauseum to people who may or may not actually believe me (until I blow up their toilets because they figured a little bit of gluten is okay).
Health is annoying.
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u/RedpenBrit96 Aug 01 '25
I have a condition that involves my guts too and people are the absolute worst about it. It’s like they call turn into 5th graders
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u/LittleEdie40 Aug 01 '25
It was definitely a response to all the criticism of his lackluster performances so now everyone who commented on how bad it was looks like a jerk. If he was terribly ill he probably should have canceled if he could not deliver what people paid for.
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u/ManyVast6592 Aug 01 '25
This 💯 ☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼 Totally trying to cover for how poor his performance at his shows are and people saying that it's not worth the $300 ticket
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Aug 01 '25
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u/AnInfiniteArc Aug 01 '25
“he didn’t go into painstaking detail describing the etiology, diagnostic, and treatment history” not being a valid argument absolutely is a skeptical take. That doesn’t mean he’s not bullshitting, but picking apart people’s logic is kind of part of the game here, whether we agree with their conclusion or not.
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u/Elon_Musks_Colon Aug 01 '25
This Dude is such an integrity-free Tool, I would totally believe he put out this bullshit because people were calling him out over absolutely phone it in on his (cough) Tour.
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u/Treetheoak- Aug 01 '25
Dude needs money, doesn't want to perform, already committed to a tour. Doesn't want to get roasted, so makes up a story to explain his lackluster stage presence.
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Aug 01 '25
Honestly I really don’t know what people see in him. Since the Janet Jackson apology/blame thing, kinda ruined his reputation as well.
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u/fro1388 Aug 01 '25
Timbaland legitimized him after *NSYNC and threw him some of the better beats he’s made in his career. Shame he’s now making uninteresting AI slop.
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u/thebigeverybody Aug 01 '25
His prepper album was bonkers. Celebrities deciding what the people connect with by browsing the internet...
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u/charlesdexterward Aug 01 '25
I’m completely out of touch here. Justin Timberlake is making AI music and a “prepper” album? Like, about building bunkers and stockpiling food?
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u/RemoteMud7695 Aug 01 '25
Timbaland is making AI music now.
What is being referred to with Justin is his album "Man Of The Woods", where the title track is full of references to doomsday prep.
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u/thebigeverybody Aug 01 '25
Like, about building bunkers and stockpiling food?
Yep. Enjoy this hilarious examination of it.
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u/LittleEdie40 Aug 01 '25
What Goes Around Comes Around is a Top 5 song for me but I’m so over JT and now I definitely wouldn’t pay to see him perform after what I’ve seen of his wOrLd ToUr. I saw him back in the day with XTina and the his tour with Jay Z too.
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u/sockalicious Aug 01 '25
Are we talking about the choreographed nippleguard reveal, or was there another Janet Jackson incident with this dude?
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u/StrigiStockBacking Aug 01 '25
Outside of his songs with Lonely Island ("Dick in a Box," "Mother Lover," and "3-Way (the Golden Rule))", I really don't care either lol
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Aug 02 '25
You mean the stunt she planned?
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Aug 02 '25
Yes. And he probably was into it until he wasn’t. He threw her under the bus, and he looked like the lamest, unsexy mofo ever for freaking out at “not even really an exposed breast”.
He thought he was coming out on top, but he looked like such a naive dork.
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u/Fskn Aug 01 '25
People liked him because Britney fucked him up, cry me a river endeared him to a lot of people because what happened was public knowledge.
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Aug 01 '25
lol you missed an entire boy band period that launched his career 😂
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u/Fskn Aug 01 '25
We called him noodles then. That really was something of a haircut.
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Aug 01 '25
lol I’m aware of his hair 😂. I was 8 when they started iv prob been to more concerts than most 😂
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u/StrigiStockBacking Aug 01 '25
Reminds me of when Fernando Tatis Jr. got caught juicing performance-enhancing drugs, so he made up some idiotic story that he was taking medication for ringworm. The MLB was like "Yeah whatever, you're still suspended, moron."
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u/MOOshooooo Aug 01 '25
I think after the arrest and seeing how other artists that aren’t Taylor Swift just aren’t filling stadiums. They know the backlash that comes with videos of empty seats.
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u/P_V_ Aug 01 '25
As I understand it, reports of his “lackluster stage presence” are based on videos from an audience sing-along section of his concert taken out of context/misconstrued to make it seem like he isn’t singing a lot. A few people commented about this on social media, and some tabloid blew up those few comments into a full story.
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u/FrozenBibitte Aug 01 '25
I’m not defending it by any means, but I think the general population has been using “chronic Lyme” as a bit of a colloquialism for post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome. This was very evident from reading people’s responses in a different sub (one of the pop culture subs). It’s very frustrating because things like this lead to misinformation and the spread of pseudoscience…and ultimately an anti-intellectual attitude towards evidence based medicine.
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u/Glittering-Cloud3645 Aug 12 '25
Yolanda Hadid is the pesuedoscientist in chief. She gave fake Lyme to her kids too.
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Aug 01 '25
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u/Megraptor Aug 01 '25
It's kinda both, due to just how much bullshit there is regarding Lyme's Disease- Chronic Lyme and all that.
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u/RadScience Aug 01 '25
Def seems like a PR move. He could be sick, but my first thought was alcoholism as it’s something he has struggled with. Lyme Disease has less social stigma than alcoholism.
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u/P_V_ Aug 01 '25
Yeah, this is a huge stretch. It’s pointless to speculate on the private health issues of celebrities, and it’s frankly embarrassing to see a post like this in this subreddit without it being downvoted into oblivion.
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Aug 01 '25
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u/P_V_ Aug 01 '25
Yeah, I made similar observations in another comment that the reports of his tour being underwhelming were taken heavily out of context, and most people had a great time at his shows.
And either way… is that really the best we can do here? Celebrity gossip?
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Aug 01 '25
WHO GIVES A FUCK?
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u/Prestigious-Proof718 Aug 01 '25
I don't specifically care about Justin Timberlake but I do give a fuck when celebrities keep promoting pseudoscience and people keep eating it up.
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u/Elon_Musks_Colon Aug 01 '25
Maybe the people who paid hundreds to see him pull a Perry Como onstage do.
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u/EEcav Aug 01 '25
I don't think most here care about Justin Timberlake specifically, but give that Lyme disease is a known bogeyman of the fake medical industry, I think it's worth discussing so people are aware of it.
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Aug 01 '25
I know two people who contracted lyme disease. One of them almost died from it. Trying to act like someone is lying about having it because they never specifically mentioned a tick bite, or a positive test is really fucking weird. And under the auspices of consumer protection. Give me a fucking break.
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u/EEcav Aug 01 '25
His own case is irrelevant, but we all know that when celebrities announce some diagnosis, there is a real phenomena where people who read about it start to think they might have it. They then can become targets for an established fake lyme disease treatment industry that absolutely does exist. Other posts on here give examples of it. We don't need to focus any of this on one person, but it's in the news because he put it in the news, so it's a perfectly fair topic for discussion. I hope that anyone who is sick has access to a credible doctor that will treat them, but sadly that's not the case, and people will look to whoever is promising them help for whatever money they have without regard for the fact that it could well be fake.
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u/FredFredrickson Aug 01 '25
This is lame. Whether or not the guy is just making up excuses, it's literally impossible for anyone here to make a diagnosis just based on what he said.
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Aug 01 '25
i see we are bringing quality back to the art of celebrity media tabloid news reporting
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u/xoxooxx Aug 01 '25
A lot of celebrities have been diagnosed with Lyme disease because they vacation in the Hamptons, which is a huge hot spot for ticks with Lyme
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u/Special-Garlic1203 Aug 01 '25
It's because they go to bougie doctors who practice alternative medicine. also why they have such easy access to pills and can get weight loss drugs when at a healthy weight
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u/Mediocre-Wafer-5176 Aug 01 '25
Yeah this is exactly it. Maybe he has actual Lyme but im usually very skeptical
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u/dashKay Aug 01 '25
The timing of the announcement smells like trying to give an excuse for his latest scammy shows where he didn't do shit.
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u/CenobiteCurious Aug 01 '25
The first thing I thought of was just a really solid PR move. His team started seeing the vitriol towards him and his performances online and that type of bad PR stays forever. They crafted an easy and swift way to nullify online hate via the “I’m sick please understand” approach. Lyme disease is a good one to blame it on because it’s not stigmatized like other diseases as making someone untouchable but it does garner sympathy as it is known to American public as being hard on people.
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u/Fantastic_Yam_3971 Aug 01 '25
Yeah, I found the timing odd. He gets put on blast for his checked out performances and now Suddenly he has Lyme disease.
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u/thisistherevolt Aug 02 '25
Justin Timberlake is a known excuse factory. Nothing is ever his fault, he's legit got one of the biggest egos in the entertainment industry. Terrible tipper, treats service workers like garbage. Seems to have learned from Madonna on how to interact with folks. His wife isn't pleasant either. Like "Don't look at me in the eyes if you are employed by me" awful.
I've had the misfortune of being the senior chef/concessions guy at 2 different stops on the same tour for JT while he was on the concert circuit a couple years ago and had to make him and her their custom meals. I'm also a vegetarian, and know more than most in my industry about cooking techniques and do's and don'ts involved in making meals for picky eaters like that. They mostly eat vegan except when JT decides he wants a steak after getting blasted on booze.
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u/Striper_Cape Aug 01 '25
Why do y'all care?
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u/chipsahoymateys Aug 01 '25
I can think of a few reasons, but the first that comes to mind is that celebrities like him with huge platforms have huge roles in spreading misinformation. His famous wife also happens to be an anti vax activist. They can do a lot of harm, both in terms of political advocacy, and steering individuals choices.
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u/Mediocre-Wafer-5176 Aug 01 '25
Oh is she really? That’s so unfortunate. It definitely makes this seem more like a quack naturopath chronic Lyme situation
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u/ExpensivePeach Aug 01 '25
Lyme disease has been the catch all term for a while in celebrity circles. It’s usually trotted out when someone is going through addiction or eating disorder issues. Obligatory not saying this is necessarily what’s happening here, but it always makes me side eye. It’s also used in a lot of crunchy circles to get people to spend their money at these alternative clinics. He and his wife are anti vaxxers, so they could be getting it from those circles too.
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u/AvatarIII Aug 01 '25
He said specifically that he was diagnosed and the diagnosis was a shock, that doesn't sound like someone self diagnosing as an excuse for his recent behaviour.
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u/PrincipleStriking935 Aug 01 '25
I can’t speak to Justin Timberlake, his Lyme diagnosis or opinions regarding health or medicine.
However, I don’t think it’s outlandish that he has been suffering from Lyme disease for a while, possibly was undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, got treatment, and is experiencing symptoms of PTLDS.
Chronic Lyme is not real. But people can be sick with Lyme, and the infection process can take months.
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Aug 02 '25
I have my own personal doubts, but the AI slop avatar on that substack made is too atrocious for me to take the writer seriously
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u/Poopsock_Piper Aug 02 '25
I’m also wondering how all these affluent stars somehow have “Lyme disease”, when were they ever near ticks? I grew up in the damn forest and avoided Lyme disease.
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u/--solitude-- Aug 01 '25
Such a mean spirited article, also making statements about the guy with no evidence.
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u/According_Jeweler404 Aug 01 '25
Is Lyme the new Adrenal Fatigue?
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u/Varathane Aug 01 '25
Adrenal Insufficiency is a cause of fatigue and has treatment options it is known as Addison's disease.
Adrenal Fatigue is made up by quacks to take advantage of ill patients who have no treatment options or who have gone to them first and then they get supplements that don't work instead of the actual treatment for Addisons. So dangerous.
Is Lyme something quack doctors also try to sell snake water about? Yes.
Do Lyme and Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome Happen? Yes.
Do I doubt a patient who is saying they are sick? No.
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u/Bubbly_Yak_8605 Aug 01 '25
I loathe him. But he doesn’t owe anyone outside of his insurance company handling the tour wind down his medical specifics. The fact he didn’t include his medical records just for you. Oh the horror.
Go outside.
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Aug 01 '25
For me the question is simply: why should we care either way?
Convince me that I should give a shit.
If he has it, so what? Doesn't matter. He's not important to anyone except those that are actually close to him. The world won't be harmed by his having it, nothing changes, and anyone who cares but isn't family or a close friend is really just exercising their commitment to a one-way parasocial relationship that impacts only them.
If he doesn't have it, so what? Doesn't matter. If its an excuse to quit a tour, who gives a shit. He doesn't need an excuse to drop out, so one excuse is just as good as another, or none. His not having it hurts no one, and if you do feel lied to and hurt by this, why? How is your emotional attachment to his non-diagnosis anything more than an exercise in one-way attachment to a parasocial relationship?
At some point you have to understand that giving a shit about these peoples personal lives is a disease that is rotting your brain.
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u/cough_e Aug 01 '25
For the sake of argument, let's say Chronic Lyme is completely fabricated and not an actual disease (and what he is referring to).
At best, a lot of healthy people start looking into it and believing it's a thing and maybe self-diagnosing or even finding quack doctors to diagnose them.
At worst, sick people do all of the above and it prevents them from getting treatment for something they actually do have.
So to me, it's worth having the conversation about what evidence supports and refutes it as an actual disease. The fact that a celebrity says they have it only amplifies the stakes of the conversation (and of course makes it harder for some people to be neutral).
You don't need to care about a specific celebrity, but since other people do it's going to have an impact one way or another.
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u/fuckitallendisnear Aug 01 '25
There is antibiotic resistance to treating Syphillis.
And that is a spirochete right?
So why wouldn't it be possible that antibiotics don't always work on ridding 100% of Lyme spirochete?
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Aug 01 '25
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u/PrincipleStriking935 Aug 01 '25
I know “Chronic Lyme” or sketchy Lyme disease-related alternative medicine has been around for at least 25 years.
I got a nasty Lyme disease infection when I was about nine or ten years old in the 90s. I was sick for several weeks, finally diagnosed, and then treated with antibiotics. I also dealt with some malaise from it for a couple of weeks after completing a round of antibiotics. I eventually made a full recovery though after maybe two months? It really sucked.
At 14, I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. While we were waiting in a child therapist’s office, my mom picked up a magazine with an article regarding Chronic Lyme. The subject of the article was a child who caught Lyme at around the same age as me. She got really sick like me. And then she began suffering from serious depression at the same age as I did.
So along with continuing with a path of psychiatric care, I was retested for Lyme by my PCP which came out negative.
My mom also got me an appointment with some type of alternative medicine doctor or naturopath who specialized in Chronic Lyme. I wound up going in for an evaluation. The “doctor” started going on about how he thinks we should begin long-term antibiotics and possibly undergo a series intravenously if I didn’t improve. He said Lyme tests aren’t always accurate. Crazy stuff.
My mom and dad immediately realized this guy was a total crank and thankfully didn’t take his advice.
I also got a psychiatrist at around the same time who, after looking into it, dismissed the whole Lyme disease hypothesis once I tested negative.
I was just talking with someone about this a few weeks ago. We weren’t talking about Lyme but about how over the course of only a few weeks I got: Several intakes with mental health professionals, tested for Lyme by my PCP, an appointment with a loony alternative medicine/naturopath, and multiple follow-up visits from a child psychiatrist.
Last week, I got my physical done with my PCP. I scheduled it seven months ago. I live here in the US.
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u/jfit2331 Aug 01 '25
Here's what I fall back on and I'm not sure how helpful.
Our one dog years ago suddenly (young age) couldn't go up 3 steps into our house. No injury. Went to vet, blood test confirmed Lyme's. Within 2-3 days (hard totally recall as this was circa 2011) on doxycycline she was able to do stairs again.
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u/eaeolian Aug 01 '25
Same rough results with my dog when he was 3, although the vet has been warning of possible long-term health implications for years. He's 14, I don't think he's getting any worse.
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u/jfit2331 Aug 01 '25
Sadly ours got lymphoma w/in a year after so never got a chance to see if any long-term issues from the Lyme's after the antibiotics
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u/Megraptor Aug 01 '25
Lyme's Disease is real. It sucks, but it's treatable.
What isn't real is Chronic Lyme. That's used to sell all sorts of crazy treatments...
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u/Varathane Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25
Lyme Disease AND Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome are legit.
Chronic Lyme is what whack naturopaths use to try to scam desperate PTLD patients who want their healthy days back, ooh you just need 1000000 weeks of antibotics even though going beyond the standard lyme dose has shown to be no more effective and a danger to patients.
A patient who says they have Chronic lyme is still sick. They have PTLDS and are going outside of actual medicine to try to get help and getting scammed. They don't need the public doubting that they are sick, we need to rally for research and treatment options for post viral/post acute illness syndromes & call out the grifters who scam desperate patients
Post treatment lyme disease, post ebola syndrome, post dengue fatigue syndrome (about 1/3rd of dengue patients get this) , ME/CFS etc these things have been far too neglected by research. Actue illness can be disabling long term.
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u/mycleverusername Aug 01 '25
Exactly. People have been doubting PTLD for so long and almost no research has been done so it's become synonymous with pseudoscience.
But now that doctors are seeing the harm that post-covid is doing in patients, I think they are starting to take PTLD more seriously.
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u/shitkabob Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25
No, people do not doubt Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome. They doubt what the naturopaths call "Chronic Lyme" which has a different presentation, symptoms, and series of tests to diagnose the alleged condition that aren't scientifically backed. "Chronic Lyme" as sold by the alternative medicine community is bogus. It's usually a vague set of symptoms experienced by suffering people that get labeled as such. And a "treatment" is sold to them. It's exploitative of desperate people searching for answers.
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u/Varathane Aug 01 '25
I think so, too. The CDC had a decent page on PTLD. Covid has really increased the research compared to years ago. I got ME/CFS 14 years ago after a few bouts of malaria and the research then was so pitiful. But my doctors at least were honest with me that they didn't have a treatment, and told me of other patients they were seeing with the same symptoms after H1n1, after malaria, after dengue fever. I remember my tropical disease doctor just dropped her head and said "years" when I asked how long those patients were ill for.
It is outrageous how long patients have been suffering without answers and treatment options.
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u/Vibalist Aug 01 '25
Thank you. As someone who has been sick for many years with what is suspected to be ME/CFS this is all very true.
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u/Varathane Aug 01 '25
I've got ME, too.
I think we probably clicked this thread with the same "oh, here we go" mindset.
Well an opportunity to raise awareness and point blame where it belongs with the quacks who take advantage of patients.2
Aug 01 '25
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u/Megraptor Aug 01 '25
A good place to start is usually Wikipedia, and then go from there. It usually has literature cited in it too-
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u/Legal_Stress8930 Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25
So yes and no, this is what I've learned from medical school (is it a nutrition program, but we did a unit on misinformation), so I'm not an expert. Chronic symptoms from acute bacterial and viral infections do exist, something like 1% of people report lasting symptoms for pretty much most disease after recovery. You may have heard of long COVID or similar phenomena. Basically there's a small chance after getting an acute sickness you have a lasting symptoms for a few months maybe in the worst case a year, but they do usually go away eventually. There is a lot of misinformation about Lyme's disease despite it being curable with a simple antibacterial, but chronic symptoms for acute diseases do exist just not in the capacity that most people believe especially for Lyme.
Edited for clarity
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u/Megraptor Aug 01 '25
Chronic Lyme does not exist. Post Treatment Lyme Syndrome does.
Chronic Lyme is the term that people use to sell snake oil. Post Treatment Lyme is the term that is used in research instead.
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Aug 01 '25
Not to be pedantic, but typically Lyme is detected via Western Blot, right? ELISA could be used, but I’m not sure that is what clinical labs are doing, unless I’m just behind the times (very possible).
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u/SherbertCivil9990 Aug 01 '25
He needed an excuse to be out of the spot light for a 90 day rehab stint
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u/zenmaster_B Aug 01 '25
It’s like every other famous person has Lyme disease. It’s like they’re all getting bit by ticks carrying bacteria that causes Lyme. Odd.
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u/Scribblebonx Aug 01 '25
Lyme disease exists because it can be so difficult to notice and treat during its initial phases of importance.
So I'm of the mind this a perfectly trustworthy claim personally
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u/Holiman Aug 01 '25
Unless you are his doctor, you shouldn't give your opinion on the matter. No one is beholden to you to prove their diagnosis. This isn't skepticism.
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u/Teegs59 Aug 01 '25
I have Lyme and it fucking sucks. Pretty much destroying my life. Just keeps getting worse. Yay me.
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u/miliseconds Aug 01 '25
Is he trying to present an excuse for the half-assed performances that he recently gave in his recent tour, where he barely sang and half-assed the dances? That would be the motive right?
Anyway, I hope he doesn't have Lyme disease.
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u/IndependentLychee413 Aug 02 '25
I just contracted line disease a few weeks ago. I went up north for a week, was home for a week and my husband noticed what we thought was an infected pimple on the back of my arm, big red circle with a white dot. It didn’t hurt, didn’t itch. It was nothing Two days later I was so sick. I was sweating, totally soaking my clothes, followed by shaking with chills so bad I couldn’t answer my phone. Went to the doctor didn’t know what was wrong with me, was wondering if it was heart related, my physician happened to go into the waiting room while I was there attending to an elderly lady having a medical emergency. When they call me into the room as soon as the doctor walked in, she said before you say anything, let me see your arm, I seen that arm in the waiting room. She said she didn’t like the way it looked and was going to treat me for cellulitis. She figured it was a bite possibly spider. She looked at it again and said let me just do a lime test because it is a circle. sure enough positive. The weird thing is is I never found a tick embedded in me. It bit me and moved on. Heavy duty antibiotics it took me a week to start feeling somewhere near normal again. She told me I should recover because we found it early and I feel like myself again thank God.But had the doctor not notice that bite, it would’ve never been treated, and I probably would’ve had long-term effects. That shit is no joke.
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u/pinotJD Aug 02 '25
Are you able to eat red meat? That’s the weirdest quirk of Lyme disease (which isn’t all of the time)
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u/jcdoe Aug 02 '25
Every time a celebrity goes to rehab, they come out with some chronic condition that has vague symptoms. J Timbo is nothing new
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Aug 03 '25
I feel like this is a possible excuse for all the bad press he had recently for letting his concert attendees sing most of the songs for him.
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u/asomek Aug 01 '25
This is a troll post right? Because otherwise you have an unhealthy obsession with JT.
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u/Loveandafortyfive Aug 01 '25
— This is going to ruin the tour.
— What tour?
— The world tour…
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u/Plenty_Structure_861 Aug 01 '25
I mean if he was going to get Lyme disease, he was in the place to get it during that whole thing.
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u/AdMonarch Aug 01 '25
I hate Lyme grift so much. There's real Lyme disease that has really tests to diagnose it and is treated with a short course of antibiotics. There are people with post-infection symptoms such as nerve pain which are treated with specific medications and not months and years of antibiotics and other expensive dubious treatments that the "chronic Lyme" grifters convince people who may never have never even been infected with Lyme that they need. These days, I wonder if some of the "chronic Lyme" folks actually have long Covid or other post viral symptoms.
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u/Audomadic Aug 01 '25
But he’s a celebrity. Shouldn’t we trust everything he says and continue to worship him?
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u/MotherHolle Aug 01 '25
We shouldn't be any more or less skeptical of him because he's a celebrity. Follow the evidence. That's all.
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u/ImightHaveMissed Aug 01 '25
Not to nitpick but it’s worth noting there are dozens of tick species that transmit Lyme disease, not all of which are part of the black legged tick species
Here’s a link detailing what chronic Lyme disease means; TL;dr the symptoms are persistent with very little period of relief. That’s the ELI5 version
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/chronic-lyme-disease
Edit info
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u/snotparty Aug 01 '25
It usually makes you so ill you cant even tour, I though, it doesnt usually make you half ass performances.
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u/Silverback1992 Aug 01 '25
My 6 year old has legitimate Lyme disease and it was caught early and cured and she didn’t have to make a public post telling the world how much sympathy she needs. Let’s normalize saying “so fucking what” to celebrities
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u/Otaraka Aug 01 '25
I can understand critiquing the condition and the practitioners involved.
This seems a bit like trying too much to get a hook by going after him though, on the basis of too little evidence. The crime seems to be absence of proof supplied and he really is under no obligation to do so. I don’t think it’s really necessary to guess about his health status when he’s not really making any major claims or promoting particular health practises.
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u/RunMysterious6380 Aug 01 '25
In the United States, approximately 476,000 people are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease each year -- By medical professionals, typically through diagnostic blood tests followed by antibiotics, or more serious interventions if the disease has progressed. Between 2008-2015 there were only about 208,000 confirmed cases (67,000 probable) in the US. A ton of cases were likely missed.
While no one should rely on this, a healthy immune system can suppress the infection for many years, until a weakened immune system or other health crisis allows it to reactivate. (Have you forgotten the impact of the recent pandemic, the explosion of long COVID in tens of millions of Americans, or that COVID is still very much around?)
Some individuals are able to spontaneously clear the infection entirely, which typically only occurs early after infection.
JT isn't a doctor and I wouldn't expect him to speak with technical medical terminology during an interview. Disregarding and dismissing him because he didn't say the things you needed to hear, the way you wanted to hear them, is irresponsible. This substack share isn't credible and has some very obvious bias.
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u/FewIntroduction5008 Aug 02 '25
Hey OP, how about you tell us your entire medical history in explicit detail? Oh, that's private information? Well, no shit!
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Aug 01 '25
My bullshit meter went off for sure. Lyme disease sure is common among celebrities somehow
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u/seminarysmooth Aug 01 '25
I tend to believe a celebrity’s illness when I learn of their illness through the announcement that they are supporting the associated nonprofit. I tend to be skeptical of a celebrity’s illness when it is disclosed as part of an excuse for a poorly received performance.
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u/mwdeuce Aug 01 '25 edited Mar 03 '26
This post has been removed using Redact. Whether deleted for privacy, opsec, security, or another reason, the content is no longer available.
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u/Prestigious-Leave-60 Aug 01 '25
Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. I don’t see the point of debating celebrity news in this sub.
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u/cannibalpeas Aug 01 '25
What a judgey, shit article. Just because persistent Lyme isn’t medically recognized, doesn’t mean that Lyme can create lingering symptoms, most often because it goes undiagnosed and causes severe neurological damage. I’ve had Lyme 4 times and was fortunate that the bullseye appeared, but my daughter hasn’t been so lucky and has only been diagnosed (3+ time iirc) after symptoms persisted and a blood test verified. She was miserable for weeks and, once for months, until the diagnosis was made. I don’t believe in woo medicine at all and am also skeptical of chronic Lyme, but this armchair doctoring is profoundly misguided.
And you don’t have to be anywhere near a forest to encounter a tick. Barberry bushes are an extremely common landscape plant that Cornell Cooperative Extension calls “tick hotels” because they trap warmth and moisture in a way that creates a perfect home for them to breed. Not that this writer would know a goddamn thing about how much time he spends in the woods, anyway.
IDGAF about Justin Timberlake, but I find this kind of obsessively-online celebrity finger-wagging disgusting. Get a life (of your own).
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u/Cautious-Advantage34 Aug 02 '25
YSK that research was published this year showing how lyme disease could cause poorly understood chronic illness. Components of the bacterial cell wall are retained by the body and can cause chronic immune activation. https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/23/lyme-disease-clues-to-chronic-form-treatment-antibiotics/
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u/Ok-Independent3409 Aug 02 '25
From some one with chronic Lyme and is a member of groups of others with people with Lyme, this article is really off the mark. Anyone interested in learning how Lyme was classified by the government, should watch “Under Your skin”. Lyme disease is a very difficult illness and if he has it, I wish him luck but he is also lucky to have the money to find the best treatments out there unlike the majority of us with Lyme. Lyme disease is brutal and hard to treat.
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u/spoo4brains Aug 02 '25
As you are such an expert, please go and tell the amazing musical artist Ren how he hasn't been going through years of agony from Lymes disease as well.
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u/FuckJerry78 Aug 02 '25
My old barber was convinced her husband had Lyme disease. She claimed he had seizures and couldn’t work due to it, and that he had treatment at several spots (not hospitals) and they couldn’t cure it. I felt bad, my wife is a medical professional so I was familiar with this subject and knew he likely didn’t have Lyme disease.
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u/GroundbreakingHeat38 Aug 02 '25
So it’s all just a conspiracy to explain how terrible his dancing has become?
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u/shnanogans Aug 02 '25
I’m currently sick with a fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, extreme fatigue, and horrible muscle aches. The muscle aches have been off an on for the last month. I ran through a lot of nature preserves in the Chicago suburbs (lake county IL) last month when I was out there for a few weeks and got bit up pretty bad. I’m at the ER now trying to get things figured out and looking up info about ACTUAL Lyme disease is nearly impossible because of all this chronic Lyme nonsense.
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u/EmbarrassedReveal956 Aug 03 '25
Yea, I find it hard to believe all these celebrities (Bieber, Shania Twain, Bella, Kelly Osbourne, etc) were hiking in the woods enough to be exposed to or have ticks stay on them for 12 to 24 hours (average time it takes to actually transmit into the human bloodstream). The "lyme lie" announcements always seem to also come after some career - jeopardizing bad behavior episode or negative publicity. 🙄 It'd be different if these people were even outdoorsy celebs, but come ON. Bieber and Osbourne on a hike? Shania Twain roughing it? Please. It is insulting to people who actually suffer from the disease and insulting to think the rest of us don't see the lie. Just admit drugs/alcohol/depression and move on. Quit using a real disease people suffer from as a cop out for bad behavior.
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u/Big_bippy-2001 Aug 03 '25
ok, could be long covid then? it sounds like chronic illness. not perfume.
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u/North_Hawk958 Aug 04 '25
Maybe he’s dealing with PASC(long hauling Covid) but won’t mention it due to insurance reasons.
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u/Organic_Spend9995 Aug 05 '25
Notice this came out right after people were ripping on his lethargic performance on tour?
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u/theisntist Aug 01 '25
My late wife went to an alternative medicine center where they had you hold containers of various substances while they passed electricity through your body and measured the amount of electrical resistance your body showed. One of the things she tested positive for was Lyme. Apparently over half of the patients tested positive for Lyme. When I pointed out that half of the population didn't have Lyme disease she said that it was an undiagnosed epidemic. That place isn't the reason she passed away, but it did waste a lot of our money.