10 Things We Learned From Infectious Disease Expert Michael Osterholm On Joe Rogan Experience

A large section of this episode centred around Rogan's curiosity towards Lyme disease in the U.S.

For those who aren't aware, Lyme disease is carried by ticks and as of this moment there isn't a vaccine readily available to counter the infection - though there was at one point but that actually ended up giving people the disease.

Osterholm has worked with Lyme disease since its early discovery in the 80's and spoke of how even though it was discovered in the east of the U.S. the disease itself probably originated in the upper mid-west.

In his words Lyme disease is an 'important disease' and the challenge they're currently facing is that a lot of people feel they have 'chronic Lyme disease'. Yet, data doesn't really support that these people are 'chronically' infected. Instead they are more than likely experiencing an immune response which sets off a 'trigger'. So, these people are actually sick, but what makes it difficult to treat is the fact that their own body's immune system is attacking itself.

The frightening fact is that experts still aren't exactly sure what or why this is happening and what needs to be done in order to 'shut off' this 'chronic Lyme disease'.