WASHINGTON —

Lyme disease can cause serious harm, but so can bogus tests and treatments.

The complexity of diagnosing the tick-borne disease has given rise to an entire industry of unapproved tests and unproven alternative treatments that experts say should be avoided, including lasers, herbal remedies and electromagnets. Latest Forecast

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"It really is a buyer-beware situation," said Dr. Robert Smith, a Lyme specialist at MaineHealth Institute for Research.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to diagnosing Lyme. Doctors use a combination of visual clues, information reported by their patients, and the standard medical test, which has a number of limitations.

When patients show the classic symptoms — including a bull's-eye ras

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