As fall brings leaf piles and hidden tick dangers, Alice revisits this powerful conversation with Nicole Bell of Galaxy Diagnostics to highlight the rising risk of Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses—especially when misdiagnosed as mental health or neurological decline. This updated episode includes new insights on testing, advocacy, and how early awareness can save both human and pet lives.
In this powerful episode, we sit down with Nicole, whose family was forever changed by a hidden battle with tick-borne illness—specifically, Lyme disease, and its devastating neurological effects. What began as subtle mood changes and anxiety in her husband slowly escalated into cognitive decline, misdiagnosis, and a desperate search for answers within a fragmented healthcare system.
Nicole courageously shares how tick-borne pathogens like Lyme and Bartonella can mimic depression, anxiety, dementia—even Alzheimer’s—often leaving patients dismissed, untreated, or misdiagnosed. She exposes the limitations of standard antibody testing, the importance of direct pathogen detection, and the urgent need for patient advocacy in navigating chronic and complex illnesses.
We also explore the overlooked role of pets as potential sentinels for disease, compounded family health risks, and how personal tragedy fueled Nicole’s mission to push for better diagnostics, research funding, and awareness in the Lyme community.
This episode is a call to action—for better testing, deeper listening, and a healthcare system that sees the full picture for both pets and humans.
Episode Chapters
00:00 – Introduction: The Hidden Epidemic
05:52 – Why Lyme Testing Fails
11:57 – Pets, Ticks & Family Exposure
18:03 – A Family Forever Changed
26:05 – When Symptoms Turn Neurological
34:27 – Pathogens & Mental Health
39:37 – Advocacy in a Broken System
linkedin.com/in/nicoledaniellebell
https://www.galaxydx.com/
https://capcvet.org/
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Support our sponsor for this episode Blue Buffalo by visiting bluebuffalo.com. BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet formulas offer the natural alternative in nutritional therapy. At Blue Buffalo, we have an in-house Research & Development (R&D) team with over 300 years’ experience in well-pet and veterinary therapeutic diets, over 600 scientific publications, and over 50 U.S. patents. At Blue Buffalo, we have an in-house Research & Development (R&D) team with over 300 years’ experience in well-pet and veterinary therapeutic diets, over 600 scientific publications, and over 50 U.S. patents.
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All footage is owned by SLA Video Productions.