Turun Sanomat 20.10.013
Borrelioositapaukset nousussa
Punkinpuremasta alkunsa saava borrelioosi on Yhdysvalloissa oletettua huomattavasti yleisempi sairaus. Tartuntatautivirasto CDC:n tuoreen arvion mukaan maassa sairastuu vuositttain borreliosiin jopa 300 000 ihmistä vaikka varmistettuja tautitapauksia rekisteröidään vuosittain vain noin 30 000.
- Tämä uusi alustava arvio vahvistaa sen, että borrelioosi on huomattava julkisen terveydenhuollon ongelma, totesi CDC:n johtaja Paul Mead viraston tiedotteessa. Viraston mukaan vain noin joka kymmenes tartunnoista löydetään ja diagnostisoidaan oikein.
Tieto punkinpuremien aiheuttamasta taudista on levinnyt Yhdysvalloissa varsin hitaasti.
Lääkärit eivät yleensä osaa epäillä borrelioosia, jos potilas valittaa epämääräisiä särkyjä ja niveloireita eikä ole nähnyt punkinpuremaa tai siitä usein muodostuvaa rengasmaista ihottumaa.
Lisäksi taudin havaitsemiseksi kehitetyt testit ovat varsin epäluotettavia.
- Mieheni joutui ensiapuun korkean kuumeen ja särkyjen vuoksi, ja minun oli vaadittava tiukkaan sävyyn punkkikokeita ennen kuin lääkäri suostui tekemään testit, kertoi marylandilainen Yvette Moore. Hän on sairaanhoitaja ja osasi siksi epäillä borrelioosia.
Ei vieläkään rokotetta
Oikeaa diagnoosia on entistä vaikeampi saada, jos ei asu varsinaisella punkkialueella, eli Yhdysvaltojen pohjoisosissa. Borrelioosia tavataan kuitenkin lähes koko maassa Kaliforniaa myöden.
Tartuntoja levittää Yhdysvalloissa eurooppalaisen punkin lähisukulainen.
Yhdysvalloissa levitäjää nimitetään yleisesti mustajallkapunkiksi tai peurapunkiksi, koska sen uskotaan leviävän erityisesti peurojen välityksellä.
Yhtenä syynä taudin yleistymiseen pidetäänkin sitä, että peurat viihtyvät nykyään esikaupunkialueilla ja kanta on voimakkaassa kasvussa.
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USA:ssa on 10x arvioitua enemmän borrelioositapauksia vuosittain. CDC:n uuden arvion mukaan uusia tapauksia on liki 500 000/v.
Saksalainen lääkäri Nicolaus (luento Turun Borrelioosikonferenssissa elokuussa 2013) kertoi Saksassa olevan, vakuutusyhtiöiden tilastojen mukaan, n. 800 000 uutta borreliatapausta vuosittain. USA:n tapausmäärät saattavat siis olla yllämainittua selvästi suuremmat.
Health officials: Lyme disease an epidemic as big as AIDS
Some health officials say Lyme Disease is an epidemic as widespread as AIDS — and without greater awareness, the disease may prove just as destructive.
Last week CDC officials said Lyme Disease affects ten times as many people — up to 300,000 across the United States — than previously known. The organization cited Pennsylvania as the leading state for reported cases nationwide.
“They finally admitted it,” said Dr. Leo J. Shea III, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. “It was the same thing with AIDS. For years, it was not acknowledged as a real thing and for years, people died.”
Despite the growing population of infected, the healthcare industry — from physicians to insurance companies and researchers — remains divided on how to treat the chronic disease.
Shea says ILADS, a non-profit dedicated to creating an industry-wide treatment standard, formed a decade ago after the CDC and other health officials dismissed long-term, reoccurring symptoms of Lyme patients.
The lack of consensus means some patients, like 26-year-old Nichele Bonsanto of Carlisle, spend years bouncing between dozens of doctors before receiving a diagnosis or treatment.
“I’ve probably been to 20 or 30 doctors,” she said. “Something was always seriously wrong and nobody could ever give me any real answer.”
Bonsanto says she found a tick on her head as a 6-year-old living in suburban New Jersey and spent the rest of her childhood battling one illness after another — including bronchitis, migraines and laryngitis. As a teenager, she developed joint pain, insomnia and depression. By the time she was in her mid-twenties, Bonsanto says she lost the ability to walk and has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital five times.
“There’s a whole lot of people with this disease and we’re all dealing with the same things,” she said. “We’ve all been to so many doctors. It’s being ignored and brushed aside and we are being told we are crazy.”
Dr. Daniel Cameron, an internist and epidemiologist based in West Chester County in upstate New York, attributed the universal negative experiences of Lyme patients to ignorance within the medical community regarding the varied symptoms related to the disease.
“At least 20 to 40 percent of Lyme patients are still sick long-term after initial treatment,” he said. “A lot of doctors don’t see the complexities of Lyme in their offices on a regular basis.”
Shea says less than one-quarter of all Lyme patients report the tell-tale bull's-eye rash associated with the disease. The rash remains the only symptom to distinguish Lyme disease from a flu or other virus, meaning many patients never receive proper treatment until the disease progresses to the chronic stage.
“Someone with Lyme will often have a wide ranging and significant symptoms that affect their work, their education, their family function,” Cameron said. “The symptoms that we are typically looking for, as experienced physicians, are severe fatigue, poor memory and sleep disturbances.”
Shea says increasing awareness and enforcing educational standards for healthcare providers will improve treatment for Lyme patients. He encourages state lawmakers to draft legislation requiring physicians to receive Lyme Disease education as an element of continuing education to maintain their licenses.
Until then, Shea recommends people living in endemic areas — such as the Midstate — remain cognizant of sudden onset of illness or summer flus that don’t go away.
“Visit your doctor if you are feeling flu-like symptoms or are extremely fatigued,” he said. “If you find a tick on you, you can keep it and bring it to a doctor for testing.”
Bonsanto says Lyme Disease should become standard for every medical practice so that the disease can be caught and treated with antibiotics before “destroying lives” like her own.
“Iim very blessed to have my doctor who I have now,” she said. “There’s a lot of people out there who don’t have that. It really needs to change.”
Bonsanto says her doctor diagnosed her with Lyme and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in May — two years after she tested negative for both conditions. Now, she takes about 40 pills every day, including herbal supplements and antibiotics, and hopes her symptoms will eventually subside.
“It’s a full-time job just taking the medication,” she said. “It’s not supposed to be chronic. It’s really destroyed my youth and my 20s. There’s a lot of other people out there just like me and I just want to get the word out.”
Editor's Note: This article was edited on Aug. 28 at 8:25 a.m.
Borrelioositapauksia 10x arvioitua enemmän
Valvojat:Jatta1001, Borrelioosiyhdistys, Waltari, Bb
Re: Borrelioositapauksia 10x arvioitua enemmän
"CDC myöntää viimein että uusia borrelioositapauksia on vuosittain vähintää 10x arviotua enemmän.
Oireeni alkoivat yhä pahenevalla kantapääkivulla johon ei löytynyt selvää syytä. Lopulta kipuja esiintyi myös muualla jaloissa ja käsissä. Oireideni syyn selvittäminen kesti 2 1/2 v. Sinä aikana opin että borrelioosi ei välttämättä aiheuta tyypillisiä oireita joten borreliatestejä ei tehdä. Jos testi tehdään se on usein virheellisesti negatiivinen.
Mikäli kärsit oudoista oireista, pydä borreliatestiin. Jos tulos on negatiivinen mutta oireet jatkuvat, hakeudu Borreliioosiin erikoistuneen ILADS:in näkemystä edustavn lääkärin vastaanotolle. Kyse on sinun terveydestäsi. Älä jätä yhtään kiveä kääntämättä."
" If you’re experiencing mysterious symptoms like mine, or the ones listed here, ask your doc for a Lyme test. If it comes back negative, but your symptoms linger and you’ve ruled out other diseases, consider seeking out a Lyme-literate doctor affiliated with ILADS. When it comes to your health, leave no stone unturned.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that about 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year—a number based on data from insurance claims, clinical laboratory records, and self-reported cases from patients. It’s much higher than previous estimates, and media outlets chimed in with sensational headlines like, “Lyme Disease is 10x More Common than Once Thought!”
My reaction: Well, duh. And in my non-scientific opinion, it’s probably even higher.
Who am I to make this claim? Well, let’s just say that during the two and a half years it took me to receive my own Lyme disease diagnosis, I became painfully aware of two things: 1) People infected with Lyme don’t always display the classic symptoms, so they never think to get tested; and 2) diagnostic tests often result in false negatives, so people are slipping through the cracks.
Personally, I don’t remember a tick bite, and like 30% of all Lyme sufferers, I never got the “classic” bull’s eye rash. What I experienced was gradually worsening ankle pain with no apparent cause. After an MRI, I was told I had tendonitis in my left ankle and that physical therapy would help. But it didn’t. So I began getting second, third, and fourth opinions. I travelled up and down Manhattan seeing orthopedists, rheumatologists, physiatrists, and pain management specialists. They ordered MRIs of my joints and brain; nerve conduction tests; and blood tests for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and yes, even Lyme disease. Other than a little swelling, everything came up clean. In the words of my least favorite doctor, “There’s nothing else we can do.”
The pain didn’t stop. Eventually, it made its way to my right ankle, knees, and arms. My muscles felt fatigued after just seconds of standing, and I developed a tingling pins-and-needles sensation in my feet and shooting pains up my legs. Any progress I made from resting was negated when I reintroduced physical activity—a harsh reality for someone who used to run four miles a day. With no answers in sight—and not being able to stand up or walk long enough to get to the subway, go grocery shopping, or even just make myself dinner—I quit my job and moved in with my parents.
More from Prevention: What You Need to Know About Lyme Disease
Luckily, the universe decided to throw me a bone. My new physical therapist mentioned that a former patient with similar symptoms finally got relief after being treated for Lyme disease. At first I dismissed this, saying I’d already been tested, but he then went on to explain that standard Lyme tests at the doctor's office (Western Blot, Elisa) miss an alarming amount of Lyme cases—they’re often only 45 to 65% accurate. “Lyme-literate” doctors, on the other hand, will look at your entire medical history, not just individual symptoms, and send blood samples to labs specializing in Lyme testing, like IGeneX.
With nothing left to lose, I booked an appointment with a doctor affiliated with the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). After relaying my lengthy medical history to him, he was almost convinced I had Lyme. The results of my blood tests made him certain.
That was 10 months ago, and since then, I’ve been on a combination of antibiotics to treat what’s considered “chronic Lyme”—a term used for Lyme disease that’s gone untreated for months or years, or that persists despite treatment. The use of long-term antibiotics is controversial, but from my experience, it’s been life changing. After the first three months, I had less pain; after six months, I could walk around the block; and today, I can go on three-mile hikes. I’m still not 100%, but I’m close.
So here’s my advice as tick season winds down: If you’re experiencing mysterious symptoms like mine, or the ones listed here, ask your doc for a Lyme test. If it comes back negative, but your symptoms linger and you’ve ruled out other diseases, consider seeking out a Lyme-literate doctor affiliated with ILADS. When it comes to your health, leave no stone unturned. I’m so glad I didn’t.
More from Prevention: Is Your Spider Bite Lyme Disease?
Oireeni alkoivat yhä pahenevalla kantapääkivulla johon ei löytynyt selvää syytä. Lopulta kipuja esiintyi myös muualla jaloissa ja käsissä. Oireideni syyn selvittäminen kesti 2 1/2 v. Sinä aikana opin että borrelioosi ei välttämättä aiheuta tyypillisiä oireita joten borreliatestejä ei tehdä. Jos testi tehdään se on usein virheellisesti negatiivinen.
Mikäli kärsit oudoista oireista, pydä borreliatestiin. Jos tulos on negatiivinen mutta oireet jatkuvat, hakeudu Borreliioosiin erikoistuneen ILADS:in näkemystä edustavn lääkärin vastaanotolle. Kyse on sinun terveydestäsi. Älä jätä yhtään kiveä kääntämättä."
" If you’re experiencing mysterious symptoms like mine, or the ones listed here, ask your doc for a Lyme test. If it comes back negative, but your symptoms linger and you’ve ruled out other diseases, consider seeking out a Lyme-literate doctor affiliated with ILADS. When it comes to your health, leave no stone unturned.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that about 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year—a number based on data from insurance claims, clinical laboratory records, and self-reported cases from patients. It’s much higher than previous estimates, and media outlets chimed in with sensational headlines like, “Lyme Disease is 10x More Common than Once Thought!”
My reaction: Well, duh. And in my non-scientific opinion, it’s probably even higher.
Who am I to make this claim? Well, let’s just say that during the two and a half years it took me to receive my own Lyme disease diagnosis, I became painfully aware of two things: 1) People infected with Lyme don’t always display the classic symptoms, so they never think to get tested; and 2) diagnostic tests often result in false negatives, so people are slipping through the cracks.
Personally, I don’t remember a tick bite, and like 30% of all Lyme sufferers, I never got the “classic” bull’s eye rash. What I experienced was gradually worsening ankle pain with no apparent cause. After an MRI, I was told I had tendonitis in my left ankle and that physical therapy would help. But it didn’t. So I began getting second, third, and fourth opinions. I travelled up and down Manhattan seeing orthopedists, rheumatologists, physiatrists, and pain management specialists. They ordered MRIs of my joints and brain; nerve conduction tests; and blood tests for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and yes, even Lyme disease. Other than a little swelling, everything came up clean. In the words of my least favorite doctor, “There’s nothing else we can do.”
The pain didn’t stop. Eventually, it made its way to my right ankle, knees, and arms. My muscles felt fatigued after just seconds of standing, and I developed a tingling pins-and-needles sensation in my feet and shooting pains up my legs. Any progress I made from resting was negated when I reintroduced physical activity—a harsh reality for someone who used to run four miles a day. With no answers in sight—and not being able to stand up or walk long enough to get to the subway, go grocery shopping, or even just make myself dinner—I quit my job and moved in with my parents.
More from Prevention: What You Need to Know About Lyme Disease
Luckily, the universe decided to throw me a bone. My new physical therapist mentioned that a former patient with similar symptoms finally got relief after being treated for Lyme disease. At first I dismissed this, saying I’d already been tested, but he then went on to explain that standard Lyme tests at the doctor's office (Western Blot, Elisa) miss an alarming amount of Lyme cases—they’re often only 45 to 65% accurate. “Lyme-literate” doctors, on the other hand, will look at your entire medical history, not just individual symptoms, and send blood samples to labs specializing in Lyme testing, like IGeneX.
With nothing left to lose, I booked an appointment with a doctor affiliated with the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). After relaying my lengthy medical history to him, he was almost convinced I had Lyme. The results of my blood tests made him certain.
That was 10 months ago, and since then, I’ve been on a combination of antibiotics to treat what’s considered “chronic Lyme”—a term used for Lyme disease that’s gone untreated for months or years, or that persists despite treatment. The use of long-term antibiotics is controversial, but from my experience, it’s been life changing. After the first three months, I had less pain; after six months, I could walk around the block; and today, I can go on three-mile hikes. I’m still not 100%, but I’m close.
So here’s my advice as tick season winds down: If you’re experiencing mysterious symptoms like mine, or the ones listed here, ask your doc for a Lyme test. If it comes back negative, but your symptoms linger and you’ve ruled out other diseases, consider seeking out a Lyme-literate doctor affiliated with ILADS. When it comes to your health, leave no stone unturned. I’m so glad I didn’t.
More from Prevention: Is Your Spider Bite Lyme Disease?
Re: Borrelioositapauksia 10x arvioitua enemmän
Krooninen tulehdustila on useimpien kroonisten sairauksien taustalla, kuten MS, Parkinson, krooninen väsymysoireyhtymä, sydänlihas tulehdus
Prevalence of Lyme Disease in the US Is 10-Times Higher Than Previously Reported
September 04, 2013
By Dr. Mercola
It’s now been fairly well-established that chronic inflammation is an underlying factor in most chronic illnesses. Diseases, such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, cardiomyopathy, gastritis, and chronic fatigue, are all turning out to be expressions of chronic infections.
Lyme disease appears to be a major, yet oftentimes hidden, player. This may sound shocking to you, but diagnosing Lyme is very difficult, so the actual number of cases is high relative to reporting.
According to preliminary statistics1, 2 just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 300,000 new cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed in the US each year. This is about 10 times higher than the officially reported number of cases, indicating that the disease is being vastly underreported.
The data was presented by CDC officials at the 2013 International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and Other Tick-Borne Diseases in Boston in the middle of August. As reported in the featured article by Medical News Today3:
“This agrees with studies reported in the 1990s that showed the actual number of Lyme diseases cases in the US was likely to be three to twelve times higher than reported... Lyme disease is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the US.”
What Is Lyme disease?
Lyme disease was named after the East Coast town of Lyme, Connecticut, where the disease was first identified in 1975.4 The disease was first referred to as "Lyme arthritis" due to the presentation of atypical arthritic symptoms in children that lived in that city. By 1977, the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer tick) was linked to transmission of the infection.
Then in 1982, Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, discovered the bacterium responsible for the infection: the spirochete, named after him, Borrelia burgdorferi,5 is a cousin to the spirochete bacterium that causes syphilis.
In fact, the two look almost identical under a microscope. B. burgdorferi's corkscrew-shaped form allows it to burrow into and hide in a variety of your body's tissues, which is why it causes such wide-ranging multisystem involvement.
Borrelia burgdorferi does not just exist as a spirochete; it has the ability to live intracellularly (inside your cells) as an “L-form” and also encoated as a “cyst” form. These different morphologies explain why treatment is so difficult and recurrence of symptoms occurs after standard antibiotic protocols.
Adding to the difficulty in treating Lyme, the organisms may live in biofilm communities, which are basically a colony of germs surrounded by a slimy glue-like substance that is hard to unravel. For these reasons you will often see Lyme referred to as “stealth.”
No doubt about it, this clever maneuvering and the pleomorphism of the germ helps it hide and survive despite the most aggressive antibiotics of our time. Furthermore, as reported in the featured article:
“The Lyme disease bacterium has a quirky feature for survival. It can exist without iron, which most other living organisms require to make proteins and enzymes. Instead of iron, B. burgdorferi uses manganese, thus eluding immune system defenses that destroy pathogens by starving them of iron.”
You May Never See the Tick That Bites You
You can be host to the Lyme germ. The tick, which feeds off deer, birds, animals (including your pet), then gets on you. It numbs your skin so you won’t feel it. It prefers dark, crevices such as your armpit or behind your ear, or your scalp. Depending on the season, the tick may be a baby, termed a nymph.
It attaches to you (the host) and you may not see it since nymphs are no bigger than a poppy seed. Once it attaches itself to you it feeds on you (they are blood-suckers). At some point, and it may be an hour or a couple of days, it will ‘spit’ its bacterial load into you. The bacteria are released into your blood from the infected tick via saliva. We now know there are five subspecies of Borrelia burgdorferi, more than 100 strains in the U.S. and 300 worldwide, many of which have developed resistance to our various antibiotics.
It’s worth noting that while many still attribute Lyme transmission exclusively to ticks, Dr. Deitrich Klinghardt, one of the leading authorities on Lyme disease, warns that the bacteria can also be spread by other insects, including mosquitoes, spiders, fleas, and mites. This may be the reason so few Lyme sufferers recall being bitten by a tick. The other reason of course, is that you don’t feel the bite, and usually don’t see the tick!
In fact, fewer than half of Lyme patients recall ever getting a tick bite. Many Lyme patients don't remember such an event because the tick numbs your skin before biting so it is never felt. In some studies,this number is as low as 15 percent. So, if you don't recall seeing a tick on your body, that doesn't rule out the possibility of Lyme disease. There’s even some evidence pointing to Lyme disease being capable of sexual and congenital transmission...
To add confusion to the story of Lyme disease, ticks usually transmit more than the Borrelia organism. They could simultaneously infect you with Bartonella, Rickettsia, Ehrlichia and Babesia. Any or all of these organisms can travel with Borrelia burgdorferi (the causative agent of Lyme) and each causes a different set of symptoms. When a person has Lyme, they often have some co-infections. Simply put, you can have one tick bite, and wind up with five different infections. Each patient with “Lyme disease” presents differently based upon their co-infections, making a standard treatment plan impossible. Treatment is based upon presentation of symptoms.
Lyme Disease: 'The Great Imitator'
Many Lyme patients who battle this disease on a daily basis appear healthy, which is why Lyme disease has been called "the invisible illness." They often "look good," and their routine blood work appears normal, but their internal experience is a far different story. Several people close to me, including my girlfriend Erin and a loved one of Suzy Cohen, R. Ph, have struggled with Lyme disease for between 15 and 20 years. Both recently tested positive through the GeneX blood test discussed below. This is actually a common scenario for many Lyme patients.
The problem of misdiagnosis is typical for many Lyme patients because conventional labs are not good at detecting the causative agent (Borrelia burgdroferi) or it's co-infecting pathogens. Additionally, physicians have been told for years that Lyme does not occur in some states which is incorrect. Lyme is in every state, and in fact worldwide.
With Lyme, the most disabling symptoms are always invisible. You never feel completely well, there is always some issue to deal with, and as soon as one symptom retreats, another appears. The dial is spinning all the time. The constant and sometimes disabling symptoms leave you physically depleted and spiritually weakened. Complicating matters further, Lyme disease is also notoriously difficult to diagnose, and laboratory tests are known to be unreliable. It’s difficult to test for Lyme for a variety of reasons, but one of the main ones is that there are so many species of the germ, and only a handful of strains are detectable with current lab science technology.
It Can Happen to Anyone
Because Lyme and all of its co-infections cause so many constant symptoms, it easily mimics disorders, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), arthritis, Parkinson’s, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, ALS, ADHD and Alzheimer's disease. The only distinctive hallmark unique to Lyme disease is the "bull’s-eye" rash known as Erythema Migrans,6 a red rash with an expanding red ring around it and this occurs soon after the tick bite. After it clears up, this bull’s-eye rash is gone.
And for the record, it’s not even always in the shape of a bull’s eye. Perhaps now you understand why the cases reported to the CDC have been woefully low. But as just mentioned, less than half of all cases of Lyme can be traced to a tick bite, so this hallmark rash is absent in many of those infected.
So how do you know if you have Lyme disease? Besides the rash, some of the first symptoms of Lyme disease may include a flu-like condition with fever, chills, headache, stiff neck, achiness and fatigue. Treatment at this point is crucial because it may help you avoid chronic Lyme. If you don’t see the tick and remove it, it can progress to ailments like arthritis, facial palsy, nervous system and heart problems and a hundred other symptoms. For a more extensive list of symptoms, refer to the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance7 (TBDA), but some of the more frequent symptoms include the following:
Muscle and joint pain
Neurological problems
Heart involvement
Vision and hearing problems
Migraines
To give you an example, recently the College of Charleston President George Benson was hospitalized for Lyme disease according to an email he addressed to campus members. Prior to this, he had been hospitalized for severe back pain, but no one was sure of the exact cause. His possible successor, Republican Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell was also ill from Lyme disease last year according to The Associated Press. Lyme is everywhere, I suspect that even the most recent numbers reported by the CDC (300,000 cases) is lower than the actual real-life cases. For more real-life examples, see the discussion below, featuring two Lyme patients, and this recent CNN Health article8 by Erik Nivison, producer for HLN's "In Session,” who was recently diagnosed with Lyme disease after 2 years of symptoms.
This video may not be viewable on mobile devices.
Controversy Surrounding Lyme Disease
There’s a load of controversy around Lyme disease. In the past, sufferers were told their ailments were “all in their head,” and the disease was largely swept under the rug. Sadly, this still occurs today and this is frequently missed. The controversy for the most part today largely revolves around whether or not antibiotics are effective against chronic Lyme disease, and whether there even is such a thing as chronic Lyme.
According to Suzy Cohen, doctors that belong to the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) do not believe in chronic Lyme and typically will not treat a Lyme patient beyond four weeks. Some medical doctors and practitioners belong to the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society9 (ILADS) group, which does believe that Lyme can and often persists beyond a few weeks, and are willing to treat you beyond the four-week period.
I can tell you, chronic Lyme does exist, and no matter how long you’ve had it, there is always hope for a full recovery. It baffles me as to how physicians can deny infection when these organisms are stealth and evade detection and standard treatment protocols. As described by investigative journalist Beth Daley in the PBS interview10 above:
“It's a very controversial disease, in large part because there are so many questions about treatment and lingering symptoms of people with Lyme and if people actually have Lyme disease who are sick... [T]raditionally, you get bit by a tick, you might see a rash or feel a fever or you go to the doctor. They sort of diagnose you through tests or clinically. And you would probably get three to four weeks of oral antibiotics. And that is -- most people agree, is usually enough to knock the disease from your system completely. Sometimes, it goes a little bit longer if it's more involved, but short courses of antibiotics overall.
However, a large segment of people believe that their symptoms linger for years sometimes, and the only way to treat them is to use long-course antibiotics, often through intravenously or orally, for years on end to -- so they can live, so they can really get out of bed in the morning. And that is a controversy. The medical establishment says, listen, there's no proof this longer course of antibiotics work at all. And these Lyme patients say, yes, it does... And a lot of the debate centers on, a lot of insurance companies won't pay for those antibiotics. As a result, lots of people go bankrupt...”
According to Daley, there’s little discussion within the medical community to determine whether patients with lingering symptoms actually benefit from long-course antibiotics or not. However, some researchers are looking into the matter. Researchers at Yale, for example, are investigating whether the killed-off bacteria might be leaving protein residues behind, causing long-term symptoms. Other research being performed at Tufts suggests that the bacteria can indeed survive, at least in animal studies, and that this weakened bacteria might still contribute to problems. Daley also points out that these latest statistics really bring Lyme disease to the fore politically:
“If you just consider Massachusetts, which is -- where The Boston Globe is, we spend $10 million a year and more on mosquito control. We spend $60,000 on tick-borne diseases. The disparity is great. And as Lyme disease burden grows on public health, hopefully -- I think people are hoping that the political forces will come to bear, that they will start seeing money to eradicate ticks in the environment or help people learn more about them.”
I personally believe that long term antibiotic treatment is not a wise choice for most, and that every natural alternative should be considered prior to that strategy as there is a major danger for impairing your beneficial bacteria and developing a yeast or fungal co-infections, which are already common in the disease.
The use of antifungals like fluconazole and nystatin may certainly be appropriate and helpful when a secondary yeast infection is present, and it often is present in cases of Lyme disease. In an ideal world, you would boost your immune function with a healthy diet, antioxidants such as astaxanthin and even a compounded drug called low-dose naltrexone (LDN), known to help your body fight harder. A gentler solution to conventional antibiotics that can strip your body of needed probiotics and cause a myriad of symptoms is the Nutramedix line of herbal antimicrobials. This was developed by my friend Dr. Lee Cowden and is often termed the “Cowden Protocol.” It is not thought to cause resistance because this protocol cycles various herbal antimicrobials.
Is There Such a Thing as Chronic Lyme Disease?
Slate Magazine11 ran an article earlier this summer highlighting the controversy surrounding chronic Lyme disease, also referred to as “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome” (PTLDS). According to some studies,12 PTLDS affects 0.5 to 13 percent of patients treated for Lyme:
“Doctors divide chronic Lyme disease into two categories, broadly speaking. The first involves patients who have a known history of infection by Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete responsible for Lyme disease. A small subgroup of patients treated for the disease experiences aches, fatigue, and other nonspecific symptoms more than a year after the infection clears. Whether these symptoms have anything to do with the initial infection or treatment is a subject of controversy among mainstream doctors, because we don’t have enough data to make a judgment.
Then there are patients with no proven history of actual infection, who represent the overwhelming majority of people claiming to suffer from chronic Lyme. This form of chronic Lyme is controversial in the same sense that rhinoceros horn therapy is controversial: There’s no reliable data to support it.”
While some patients do report success on long-term antibiotic treatments, there are clearly risks associated with such a strategy. For one, you raise your risk of developing antibiotic-resistant disease, and antibiotics kill off both good and bad bacteria, making it virtually impossible to maintain optimal gut health without rigorous reseeding of probiotics. By disrupting your gut flora, you then expose yourself to a whole host of other pathologies. This is an important point, and a major part of the overall controversy. So should you be treated with long-term antibiotics if you do not have a history of active Lyme infection? I believe the side effects of taking antibiotics long-term are detrimental enough to consider your alternatives. And remember, Lyme organisms can exist in three different forms (cyst, spirochete and L-form) so they are really very good at hiding from antibiotics anyway.
If you are one of those people that are sensitive to alcohol, medications, antibiotics or perfume, this is a sign that you likely have a methylation defect in your genetics. The methylation pathway is a detoxification pathway in your body that clears toxins. Lyme disease sufferers often have a methylation problem, especially those people with neurological symptoms that are unresponsive to conventional treatments. Suzy Cohen wrote a detailed article about methylation and explains how to naturally circumvent this problem if you have Lyme disease, and ease your symptoms. For that article click here.13
Tests and Treatment Protocols for Lyme Disease
One of the reasons blood tests are so unreliable as indicators of Lyme infection is that the spirochete has found a way to infect your white blood cells. Lab tests rely on the normal function of these cells to produce the antibodies they measure. If your white cells are infected, they don't respond to an infection appropriately. And the worse your Borrelia infection is, the less likely it will show up on a blood test. So, in order for Lyme tests to be useful, you have to be treated first. Once your immune system begins to respond normally, only then will the antibodies show up...
If your blood test comes back with positive IgM antibodies, take this as a positive confirmation of active Lyme in your body. I tell you this because many physicians will dismiss a positive IgM antibody and tell you that you do not have an active infection. They will tell you it is a false positive and not to worry, and not to treat. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because of a process called antigenic variation, the proteins on the outer surface of the Lyme germ move around, causing your body to see the germ as new and different, even if it's been living inside your body for decades. This is what causes the positive IgM years after the initial infection. It's also called "epitope switching." So I want you to know that if you have a blood test that shows positive IgM antibodies, I would consider this a positive test, and you are best served by getting treatment, especially if you have symptoms of Lyme.
Another reason is because a vaccine was developed years ago, and conventional testing does not identify the most popular surface proteins or “bands” as they are sometimes called because those were in the original vaccine (Lymerix) now removed from the market. So if you can’t test for the most common bands of Lyme, how will you find the infection in people? This is yet another reason Lyme is so underreported. If you take a standard “Western Blot” blood test for it, your test is likely to be negative even if you have full-blown Lyme disease.
For this reason, I recommend the specialized lab called Igenex because they test for more outer surface proteins (bands), and can often detect Lyme while standard blood tests cannot. Igenex also tests for a few strains of co-infections such as Babesia and Erhlichia. That said, a negative on the Igenex test for these co-infections doesn’t necessarily mean you are not infected, there are many more strains than they can test for.
Below are the five steps Dr. Klinghardt recommends to consider when treating Lyme Disease:
Evaluation of all external factors. External factors include electrosmog, EMF, microwave radiation from wireless technologies, and molds. For more information on mold, see Ritchie Shoemaker's website.
Remediation and mitigation of external factors. Once external factors have been assessed, they're remediated and mitigated. (Please refer to our previous article on mold remediation.) To mitigate microwave radiation, Dr. Klinghardt recommends shielding the outside of your home with a graphite paint called Y Shield. Inside, he uses a special silver-coated cloth for your curtains. Patients are instructed to remove all cordless telephones and turn off all the fuses at night, until they have recovered from Lyme disease.
Addressing emotional issues. Emotional components of the disease are addressed using Energy Psychology tools, including psychokinesiology (PK), which is similar to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but more refined and advanced.
Addressing parasitic, bacterial and viral infections. Dr. Klinghardt addresses the parasites first, followed by the bacteria and the viruses. The "Klinghardt antimicrobial cocktail," which includes wormwood (artemisinin), phospholipids, vitamin C, and various herbs, is an integral part of this treatment. He addresses viral infections with Viressence (by BioPure), which is a tincture of Native American herbs.
Addressing other lifestyle factors. Nutritional considerations and supplements are addressed.
Also, the following table lists a variety of different treatment strategies that have been found to be useful in Lyme disease by those embracing natural methods.
Probiotics to improve immunity and restore microflora during and after antibiotics Curcumin is helpful at reducing neurological toxins and brain swelling
Astaxanthin to neutralize toxins, improve vision & relieve joint pain, common in Lyme Whey protein concentrate may help with nutrition, often poor in Lyme patients who don’t feel well enough to eat properly
Grapefruit seed extract may treat the cyst form of Borrelia Krill oil to reduce inflammation
Cilantro as a natural chelator for heavy metals Serrapeptase helps to break biofilms
Resveratrol may treat Bartonella, a co-infection and also helps detoxification GABA and melatonin to help with insomnia
Artemisinin and Andrographis, two herbs that may treat Babesia, a common co-infection CoQ10 to support cardiac health and reduce muscle pain and brain fog
Quercetin reduces histamine (often high in Lyme) Transfer factors can help boost immune function
Tips for Preventing Lyme Disease
Clearly, preventing infection is your best strategy. To avoid tick and other insect bites, make sure to tuck your pants into socks and wear closed shoes and a hat—especially if venturing out into wooded areas. The CDC also recommends cutting down your risk of Lyme and other tickborne diseases by following these steps14:
Check for ticks daily, on yourself, your child and pets Bathe or shower soon after being outdoors (preferably within two hours) to wash off and more easily find any lingering ticks or tick bites If you’ve been in a tick-infested area, do a careful full body check. Use a mirror to view all parts of your body
Check for ticks in your child’s hair, under the arms, in and around the ears, the belly button, between the legs, around the waist, and behind the knees Inspect clothing for ticks. Tumble clothes on high heat for an hour to kill ticks you may have missed See a doctor if you develop a telltale “bull’s-eye” rash
Additional Resources
In Dr. Klinghardt's experience, the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society15 (ILADS) is by far the best and most responsible group. The following are some other resources you might find helpful:
"Under Our Skin" website16
Tick-Borne Disease Alliance17 (TBDA)
Lymedisease.org18 (formerly CALDA)
Another leading Lyme disease expert Richard Horowitz, MD and author of the new book, Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Disease, has stated:
“This condition is better termed Lyme MSIDS, short for Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome. MSIDS is like Pandora’s Box because it includes many infections, co-infections and secondary infections. Treatment should be tailored to each patient individually.”
Prevalence of Lyme Disease in the US Is 10-Times Higher Than Previously Reported
September 04, 2013
By Dr. Mercola
It’s now been fairly well-established that chronic inflammation is an underlying factor in most chronic illnesses. Diseases, such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, cardiomyopathy, gastritis, and chronic fatigue, are all turning out to be expressions of chronic infections.
Lyme disease appears to be a major, yet oftentimes hidden, player. This may sound shocking to you, but diagnosing Lyme is very difficult, so the actual number of cases is high relative to reporting.
According to preliminary statistics1, 2 just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 300,000 new cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed in the US each year. This is about 10 times higher than the officially reported number of cases, indicating that the disease is being vastly underreported.
The data was presented by CDC officials at the 2013 International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and Other Tick-Borne Diseases in Boston in the middle of August. As reported in the featured article by Medical News Today3:
“This agrees with studies reported in the 1990s that showed the actual number of Lyme diseases cases in the US was likely to be three to twelve times higher than reported... Lyme disease is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the US.”
What Is Lyme disease?
Lyme disease was named after the East Coast town of Lyme, Connecticut, where the disease was first identified in 1975.4 The disease was first referred to as "Lyme arthritis" due to the presentation of atypical arthritic symptoms in children that lived in that city. By 1977, the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer tick) was linked to transmission of the infection.
Then in 1982, Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, discovered the bacterium responsible for the infection: the spirochete, named after him, Borrelia burgdorferi,5 is a cousin to the spirochete bacterium that causes syphilis.
In fact, the two look almost identical under a microscope. B. burgdorferi's corkscrew-shaped form allows it to burrow into and hide in a variety of your body's tissues, which is why it causes such wide-ranging multisystem involvement.
Borrelia burgdorferi does not just exist as a spirochete; it has the ability to live intracellularly (inside your cells) as an “L-form” and also encoated as a “cyst” form. These different morphologies explain why treatment is so difficult and recurrence of symptoms occurs after standard antibiotic protocols.
Adding to the difficulty in treating Lyme, the organisms may live in biofilm communities, which are basically a colony of germs surrounded by a slimy glue-like substance that is hard to unravel. For these reasons you will often see Lyme referred to as “stealth.”
No doubt about it, this clever maneuvering and the pleomorphism of the germ helps it hide and survive despite the most aggressive antibiotics of our time. Furthermore, as reported in the featured article:
“The Lyme disease bacterium has a quirky feature for survival. It can exist without iron, which most other living organisms require to make proteins and enzymes. Instead of iron, B. burgdorferi uses manganese, thus eluding immune system defenses that destroy pathogens by starving them of iron.”
You May Never See the Tick That Bites You
You can be host to the Lyme germ. The tick, which feeds off deer, birds, animals (including your pet), then gets on you. It numbs your skin so you won’t feel it. It prefers dark, crevices such as your armpit or behind your ear, or your scalp. Depending on the season, the tick may be a baby, termed a nymph.
It attaches to you (the host) and you may not see it since nymphs are no bigger than a poppy seed. Once it attaches itself to you it feeds on you (they are blood-suckers). At some point, and it may be an hour or a couple of days, it will ‘spit’ its bacterial load into you. The bacteria are released into your blood from the infected tick via saliva. We now know there are five subspecies of Borrelia burgdorferi, more than 100 strains in the U.S. and 300 worldwide, many of which have developed resistance to our various antibiotics.
It’s worth noting that while many still attribute Lyme transmission exclusively to ticks, Dr. Deitrich Klinghardt, one of the leading authorities on Lyme disease, warns that the bacteria can also be spread by other insects, including mosquitoes, spiders, fleas, and mites. This may be the reason so few Lyme sufferers recall being bitten by a tick. The other reason of course, is that you don’t feel the bite, and usually don’t see the tick!
In fact, fewer than half of Lyme patients recall ever getting a tick bite. Many Lyme patients don't remember such an event because the tick numbs your skin before biting so it is never felt. In some studies,this number is as low as 15 percent. So, if you don't recall seeing a tick on your body, that doesn't rule out the possibility of Lyme disease. There’s even some evidence pointing to Lyme disease being capable of sexual and congenital transmission...
To add confusion to the story of Lyme disease, ticks usually transmit more than the Borrelia organism. They could simultaneously infect you with Bartonella, Rickettsia, Ehrlichia and Babesia. Any or all of these organisms can travel with Borrelia burgdorferi (the causative agent of Lyme) and each causes a different set of symptoms. When a person has Lyme, they often have some co-infections. Simply put, you can have one tick bite, and wind up with five different infections. Each patient with “Lyme disease” presents differently based upon their co-infections, making a standard treatment plan impossible. Treatment is based upon presentation of symptoms.
Lyme Disease: 'The Great Imitator'
Many Lyme patients who battle this disease on a daily basis appear healthy, which is why Lyme disease has been called "the invisible illness." They often "look good," and their routine blood work appears normal, but their internal experience is a far different story. Several people close to me, including my girlfriend Erin and a loved one of Suzy Cohen, R. Ph, have struggled with Lyme disease for between 15 and 20 years. Both recently tested positive through the GeneX blood test discussed below. This is actually a common scenario for many Lyme patients.
The problem of misdiagnosis is typical for many Lyme patients because conventional labs are not good at detecting the causative agent (Borrelia burgdroferi) or it's co-infecting pathogens. Additionally, physicians have been told for years that Lyme does not occur in some states which is incorrect. Lyme is in every state, and in fact worldwide.
With Lyme, the most disabling symptoms are always invisible. You never feel completely well, there is always some issue to deal with, and as soon as one symptom retreats, another appears. The dial is spinning all the time. The constant and sometimes disabling symptoms leave you physically depleted and spiritually weakened. Complicating matters further, Lyme disease is also notoriously difficult to diagnose, and laboratory tests are known to be unreliable. It’s difficult to test for Lyme for a variety of reasons, but one of the main ones is that there are so many species of the germ, and only a handful of strains are detectable with current lab science technology.
It Can Happen to Anyone
Because Lyme and all of its co-infections cause so many constant symptoms, it easily mimics disorders, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), arthritis, Parkinson’s, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, ALS, ADHD and Alzheimer's disease. The only distinctive hallmark unique to Lyme disease is the "bull’s-eye" rash known as Erythema Migrans,6 a red rash with an expanding red ring around it and this occurs soon after the tick bite. After it clears up, this bull’s-eye rash is gone.
And for the record, it’s not even always in the shape of a bull’s eye. Perhaps now you understand why the cases reported to the CDC have been woefully low. But as just mentioned, less than half of all cases of Lyme can be traced to a tick bite, so this hallmark rash is absent in many of those infected.
So how do you know if you have Lyme disease? Besides the rash, some of the first symptoms of Lyme disease may include a flu-like condition with fever, chills, headache, stiff neck, achiness and fatigue. Treatment at this point is crucial because it may help you avoid chronic Lyme. If you don’t see the tick and remove it, it can progress to ailments like arthritis, facial palsy, nervous system and heart problems and a hundred other symptoms. For a more extensive list of symptoms, refer to the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance7 (TBDA), but some of the more frequent symptoms include the following:
Muscle and joint pain
Neurological problems
Heart involvement
Vision and hearing problems
Migraines
To give you an example, recently the College of Charleston President George Benson was hospitalized for Lyme disease according to an email he addressed to campus members. Prior to this, he had been hospitalized for severe back pain, but no one was sure of the exact cause. His possible successor, Republican Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell was also ill from Lyme disease last year according to The Associated Press. Lyme is everywhere, I suspect that even the most recent numbers reported by the CDC (300,000 cases) is lower than the actual real-life cases. For more real-life examples, see the discussion below, featuring two Lyme patients, and this recent CNN Health article8 by Erik Nivison, producer for HLN's "In Session,” who was recently diagnosed with Lyme disease after 2 years of symptoms.
This video may not be viewable on mobile devices.
Controversy Surrounding Lyme Disease
There’s a load of controversy around Lyme disease. In the past, sufferers were told their ailments were “all in their head,” and the disease was largely swept under the rug. Sadly, this still occurs today and this is frequently missed. The controversy for the most part today largely revolves around whether or not antibiotics are effective against chronic Lyme disease, and whether there even is such a thing as chronic Lyme.
According to Suzy Cohen, doctors that belong to the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) do not believe in chronic Lyme and typically will not treat a Lyme patient beyond four weeks. Some medical doctors and practitioners belong to the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society9 (ILADS) group, which does believe that Lyme can and often persists beyond a few weeks, and are willing to treat you beyond the four-week period.
I can tell you, chronic Lyme does exist, and no matter how long you’ve had it, there is always hope for a full recovery. It baffles me as to how physicians can deny infection when these organisms are stealth and evade detection and standard treatment protocols. As described by investigative journalist Beth Daley in the PBS interview10 above:
“It's a very controversial disease, in large part because there are so many questions about treatment and lingering symptoms of people with Lyme and if people actually have Lyme disease who are sick... [T]raditionally, you get bit by a tick, you might see a rash or feel a fever or you go to the doctor. They sort of diagnose you through tests or clinically. And you would probably get three to four weeks of oral antibiotics. And that is -- most people agree, is usually enough to knock the disease from your system completely. Sometimes, it goes a little bit longer if it's more involved, but short courses of antibiotics overall.
However, a large segment of people believe that their symptoms linger for years sometimes, and the only way to treat them is to use long-course antibiotics, often through intravenously or orally, for years on end to -- so they can live, so they can really get out of bed in the morning. And that is a controversy. The medical establishment says, listen, there's no proof this longer course of antibiotics work at all. And these Lyme patients say, yes, it does... And a lot of the debate centers on, a lot of insurance companies won't pay for those antibiotics. As a result, lots of people go bankrupt...”
According to Daley, there’s little discussion within the medical community to determine whether patients with lingering symptoms actually benefit from long-course antibiotics or not. However, some researchers are looking into the matter. Researchers at Yale, for example, are investigating whether the killed-off bacteria might be leaving protein residues behind, causing long-term symptoms. Other research being performed at Tufts suggests that the bacteria can indeed survive, at least in animal studies, and that this weakened bacteria might still contribute to problems. Daley also points out that these latest statistics really bring Lyme disease to the fore politically:
“If you just consider Massachusetts, which is -- where The Boston Globe is, we spend $10 million a year and more on mosquito control. We spend $60,000 on tick-borne diseases. The disparity is great. And as Lyme disease burden grows on public health, hopefully -- I think people are hoping that the political forces will come to bear, that they will start seeing money to eradicate ticks in the environment or help people learn more about them.”
I personally believe that long term antibiotic treatment is not a wise choice for most, and that every natural alternative should be considered prior to that strategy as there is a major danger for impairing your beneficial bacteria and developing a yeast or fungal co-infections, which are already common in the disease.
The use of antifungals like fluconazole and nystatin may certainly be appropriate and helpful when a secondary yeast infection is present, and it often is present in cases of Lyme disease. In an ideal world, you would boost your immune function with a healthy diet, antioxidants such as astaxanthin and even a compounded drug called low-dose naltrexone (LDN), known to help your body fight harder. A gentler solution to conventional antibiotics that can strip your body of needed probiotics and cause a myriad of symptoms is the Nutramedix line of herbal antimicrobials. This was developed by my friend Dr. Lee Cowden and is often termed the “Cowden Protocol.” It is not thought to cause resistance because this protocol cycles various herbal antimicrobials.
Is There Such a Thing as Chronic Lyme Disease?
Slate Magazine11 ran an article earlier this summer highlighting the controversy surrounding chronic Lyme disease, also referred to as “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome” (PTLDS). According to some studies,12 PTLDS affects 0.5 to 13 percent of patients treated for Lyme:
“Doctors divide chronic Lyme disease into two categories, broadly speaking. The first involves patients who have a known history of infection by Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete responsible for Lyme disease. A small subgroup of patients treated for the disease experiences aches, fatigue, and other nonspecific symptoms more than a year after the infection clears. Whether these symptoms have anything to do with the initial infection or treatment is a subject of controversy among mainstream doctors, because we don’t have enough data to make a judgment.
Then there are patients with no proven history of actual infection, who represent the overwhelming majority of people claiming to suffer from chronic Lyme. This form of chronic Lyme is controversial in the same sense that rhinoceros horn therapy is controversial: There’s no reliable data to support it.”
While some patients do report success on long-term antibiotic treatments, there are clearly risks associated with such a strategy. For one, you raise your risk of developing antibiotic-resistant disease, and antibiotics kill off both good and bad bacteria, making it virtually impossible to maintain optimal gut health without rigorous reseeding of probiotics. By disrupting your gut flora, you then expose yourself to a whole host of other pathologies. This is an important point, and a major part of the overall controversy. So should you be treated with long-term antibiotics if you do not have a history of active Lyme infection? I believe the side effects of taking antibiotics long-term are detrimental enough to consider your alternatives. And remember, Lyme organisms can exist in three different forms (cyst, spirochete and L-form) so they are really very good at hiding from antibiotics anyway.
If you are one of those people that are sensitive to alcohol, medications, antibiotics or perfume, this is a sign that you likely have a methylation defect in your genetics. The methylation pathway is a detoxification pathway in your body that clears toxins. Lyme disease sufferers often have a methylation problem, especially those people with neurological symptoms that are unresponsive to conventional treatments. Suzy Cohen wrote a detailed article about methylation and explains how to naturally circumvent this problem if you have Lyme disease, and ease your symptoms. For that article click here.13
Tests and Treatment Protocols for Lyme Disease
One of the reasons blood tests are so unreliable as indicators of Lyme infection is that the spirochete has found a way to infect your white blood cells. Lab tests rely on the normal function of these cells to produce the antibodies they measure. If your white cells are infected, they don't respond to an infection appropriately. And the worse your Borrelia infection is, the less likely it will show up on a blood test. So, in order for Lyme tests to be useful, you have to be treated first. Once your immune system begins to respond normally, only then will the antibodies show up...
If your blood test comes back with positive IgM antibodies, take this as a positive confirmation of active Lyme in your body. I tell you this because many physicians will dismiss a positive IgM antibody and tell you that you do not have an active infection. They will tell you it is a false positive and not to worry, and not to treat. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because of a process called antigenic variation, the proteins on the outer surface of the Lyme germ move around, causing your body to see the germ as new and different, even if it's been living inside your body for decades. This is what causes the positive IgM years after the initial infection. It's also called "epitope switching." So I want you to know that if you have a blood test that shows positive IgM antibodies, I would consider this a positive test, and you are best served by getting treatment, especially if you have symptoms of Lyme.
Another reason is because a vaccine was developed years ago, and conventional testing does not identify the most popular surface proteins or “bands” as they are sometimes called because those were in the original vaccine (Lymerix) now removed from the market. So if you can’t test for the most common bands of Lyme, how will you find the infection in people? This is yet another reason Lyme is so underreported. If you take a standard “Western Blot” blood test for it, your test is likely to be negative even if you have full-blown Lyme disease.
For this reason, I recommend the specialized lab called Igenex because they test for more outer surface proteins (bands), and can often detect Lyme while standard blood tests cannot. Igenex also tests for a few strains of co-infections such as Babesia and Erhlichia. That said, a negative on the Igenex test for these co-infections doesn’t necessarily mean you are not infected, there are many more strains than they can test for.
Below are the five steps Dr. Klinghardt recommends to consider when treating Lyme Disease:
Evaluation of all external factors. External factors include electrosmog, EMF, microwave radiation from wireless technologies, and molds. For more information on mold, see Ritchie Shoemaker's website.
Remediation and mitigation of external factors. Once external factors have been assessed, they're remediated and mitigated. (Please refer to our previous article on mold remediation.) To mitigate microwave radiation, Dr. Klinghardt recommends shielding the outside of your home with a graphite paint called Y Shield. Inside, he uses a special silver-coated cloth for your curtains. Patients are instructed to remove all cordless telephones and turn off all the fuses at night, until they have recovered from Lyme disease.
Addressing emotional issues. Emotional components of the disease are addressed using Energy Psychology tools, including psychokinesiology (PK), which is similar to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but more refined and advanced.
Addressing parasitic, bacterial and viral infections. Dr. Klinghardt addresses the parasites first, followed by the bacteria and the viruses. The "Klinghardt antimicrobial cocktail," which includes wormwood (artemisinin), phospholipids, vitamin C, and various herbs, is an integral part of this treatment. He addresses viral infections with Viressence (by BioPure), which is a tincture of Native American herbs.
Addressing other lifestyle factors. Nutritional considerations and supplements are addressed.
Also, the following table lists a variety of different treatment strategies that have been found to be useful in Lyme disease by those embracing natural methods.
Probiotics to improve immunity and restore microflora during and after antibiotics Curcumin is helpful at reducing neurological toxins and brain swelling
Astaxanthin to neutralize toxins, improve vision & relieve joint pain, common in Lyme Whey protein concentrate may help with nutrition, often poor in Lyme patients who don’t feel well enough to eat properly
Grapefruit seed extract may treat the cyst form of Borrelia Krill oil to reduce inflammation
Cilantro as a natural chelator for heavy metals Serrapeptase helps to break biofilms
Resveratrol may treat Bartonella, a co-infection and also helps detoxification GABA and melatonin to help with insomnia
Artemisinin and Andrographis, two herbs that may treat Babesia, a common co-infection CoQ10 to support cardiac health and reduce muscle pain and brain fog
Quercetin reduces histamine (often high in Lyme) Transfer factors can help boost immune function
Tips for Preventing Lyme Disease
Clearly, preventing infection is your best strategy. To avoid tick and other insect bites, make sure to tuck your pants into socks and wear closed shoes and a hat—especially if venturing out into wooded areas. The CDC also recommends cutting down your risk of Lyme and other tickborne diseases by following these steps14:
Check for ticks daily, on yourself, your child and pets Bathe or shower soon after being outdoors (preferably within two hours) to wash off and more easily find any lingering ticks or tick bites If you’ve been in a tick-infested area, do a careful full body check. Use a mirror to view all parts of your body
Check for ticks in your child’s hair, under the arms, in and around the ears, the belly button, between the legs, around the waist, and behind the knees Inspect clothing for ticks. Tumble clothes on high heat for an hour to kill ticks you may have missed See a doctor if you develop a telltale “bull’s-eye” rash
Additional Resources
In Dr. Klinghardt's experience, the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society15 (ILADS) is by far the best and most responsible group. The following are some other resources you might find helpful:
"Under Our Skin" website16
Tick-Borne Disease Alliance17 (TBDA)
Lymedisease.org18 (formerly CALDA)
Another leading Lyme disease expert Richard Horowitz, MD and author of the new book, Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Disease, has stated:
“This condition is better termed Lyme MSIDS, short for Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome. MSIDS is like Pandora’s Box because it includes many infections, co-infections and secondary infections. Treatment should be tailored to each patient individually.”
Re: Borrelioositapauksia 10x arvioitua enemmän
Suomen tilanne Oksin mukaan = 5000 - 6000 tapausta/v mutta rannikolla jopa 10x suurempi eli 1000/100 000 asukasta.
TÄMÄ TIETO SIIS VUODELTA 2013, NYKYISIN ARVIO JOPA 8000.
http://lymedisease.org/news/lyme_diseas ... nland.html
What is the annual incidence of Lyme disease in Finland and in Europe at large?
Jarmo: Laboratory reports on Lyme Borreliosis cases (based on positive serology) have doubled in 10 years and are now about 1,500. The estimated number of Lyme Borreliosis infection cases is about four times this number — i.e. estimated incidence in Finland is 5,000-6,000 annually (population 5.5 million), which is about 100 per 100,000 inhabitants per year. However there are areas in the Southwestern Archipelago with incidence of 1000 per 100,000 inhabitants per year.
- See more at: http://lymedisease.org/news/lyme_diseas ... QZw3R.dpuf
TÄMÄ TIETO SIIS VUODELTA 2013, NYKYISIN ARVIO JOPA 8000.
http://lymedisease.org/news/lyme_diseas ... nland.html
What is the annual incidence of Lyme disease in Finland and in Europe at large?
Jarmo: Laboratory reports on Lyme Borreliosis cases (based on positive serology) have doubled in 10 years and are now about 1,500. The estimated number of Lyme Borreliosis infection cases is about four times this number — i.e. estimated incidence in Finland is 5,000-6,000 annually (population 5.5 million), which is about 100 per 100,000 inhabitants per year. However there are areas in the Southwestern Archipelago with incidence of 1000 per 100,000 inhabitants per year.
- See more at: http://lymedisease.org/news/lyme_diseas ... QZw3R.dpuf