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The Lymebrary is a project of the Lyme Disease Digital Library. We are committed to maintaining a public library of quality information on Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and we are willing to employ multiple methods to provide this information to you.

The Lymebrary is both a physical collection of books and materials located in Auburn, Maine, and an online, searchable database of links to Internet pages and online documents. You can read more on the About Us page. The Lyme Quote of the Week link is on the right to connect you to quotes on the topic of tick-borne diseases from many points of view. We hope it will inform, amuse, intrigue, or inspire you.

The Subscriber pages will enable you to look for articles in our archive. You will need to register for a “library card,” but registration is free.  You may also search the offsite portion of the archive at http://del.icio.us/lymebrarian 

Don’t see what you want? Please Contact Us and we will see what we can do to locate what you are looking for. Our physical collection in Auburn, Maine is available to the public by appointment – just drop us an email if you would like to visit, or just to let us know how we’re doing.

Disclaimer: The Lyme Disease Digital Library provides this material to you for your information only. It is not comprehensive, nor is it to be considered medical advice. The library staff is not qualified to diagnose illness or recommend treatment. Please consult with your licensed healthcare professional for specific situations.

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Rhode Island:
Rhode Island Support Group
Rhode Island Support: Yahoo group

South Carolina:
Lyme Disease Network of South Carolina

Tennessee:
Lyme Disease Network of Middle Tennessee

Texas:
TX Lyme: Yahoo group

Vermont:
Vermont Lyme Information Resource
Vermont Lyme: Yahoo group

Washington:
Washington State Lyme Online Support: Yahoo group

Wiscosin:
Southeastern Wisconsin & Illinois Lyme Leagues

The West Regional:
West Coast Connection

National:
Lyme Disease Association
ILADS
Lyme Disease Foundation

International:

Australia:
The Road Back Organization

Canada:
Lyme Disease Association of Ontario
Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation
Lyme Disease Society of Saskatchewan

Europe:
Euro Support Group
France Support Group
British Lyme Foundation

International Websites:

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Alabama:
LD Support Group of Alabama

Arizona:
Arizona LD Support Group: Yahoo Group
Arizona Lyme disease Association

California:
Lyme Disease Resource Center
North CA Lymers: Yahoo group
Butte County Lyme Support Group: Yahoo group
Marin County: Yahoo group 
Orange/Los Angeles County Lyme Support Group
North Coast Lyme Support Group
Bay Area Lyme Support Group Pages
East Bay Lyme: Yahoo group
Sonoma County: Yahoo group
Santa Cruz Lyme Support Group: Yahoo group
California Lyme: Yahoo group

Conneticut:
Lyme Disease Information and Support

Florida:
Florida Lyme Network: Yahoo group
Tampa Bay Support Group: Yahoo group

Illinois:
East Central, IL Lyme group
Northern Illinois Lyme Resource Webpage

Iowa:
Iowa LD Association

Kansas:
LDA of Greater Kansas City

Maine:
Maine LD Group:  Yahoo group
Southern Maine: Yahoo group

Massachusetts:
Lyme Association of MA

Michigan:
Michigan Lyme Disease Association

Minnesota:
Minnesota Lyme Disease Groups

New York:
Finger Lakes Lyme: Yahoo group
Long Island: Yahoo group
Upstate New York: Yahoo group

North Carolina:
North Carolina Lyme Disease Foundation

Ohio:
Lyme Disease Association of Ohio

Oregon:
Oregon Lyme Disease Network
OLDN Online Support

Pennsylvania:
Ticked Off and Fed Up: Gettysburg
LDA of SEPA

Rhode Island:

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LYMEPOLICYWONK: Researcher finds IDSA treatment guidelines long on opinion and short on science

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For people, a vaccine that was on the market a few years ago was pulled off after lackluster effectiveness was reported.

But the dog vaccine has 90% effectiveness, Chaffin said, and even dogs falling in the 10% margin of failure for the vaccine face greatly reduced symptoms easy to treat.

Other tick prevention methods can be marginally successful, but are best paired with the vaccine for the best results.

Though misinformation about Lyme disease keeps some dogs from getting vaccinated, the cost of the vaccine will not. A yearly dose is under $20, pocket change compared to the money spent treating a dog afflicted with the disease and the misery of watching it suffer.  

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Deer ticks. The kind that carry Lyme disease. They live in the woods, and it’s too cold for them anyway, right?

Wrong. And it’s a dangerous misconception to have.

For city-dwellers deer ticks have long seemed like a nonissue as long as pets and people are not romping in the woods and grasslands of rural Winona.

That may be true for large metropolitan areas with miles of concrete separating them from wildlife. But such is not the case in Winona where an encroaching deer and deer mouse population is channeling infected ticks right downtown.

Just ask Veterinarian Ken Chaffin at Companion Animal Care who saw between 20 and 30 cases a month of Lyme infected dogs over the summer, city dogs whose farthest venture was to the lawn outside to do their business.

Or just ask this reporter, whose own city-dwelling dog is at home suffering greatly with Lyme disease after his owner bought into all those misconceptions and skipped the vaccine and preventative treatments as unnecessary.

It’s a common story, Chaffin said, and one he even bought into a few years ago when Lyme disease was primarily thought to be for hunting dogs, hunters, and other outdoor enthusiasts.

“I didn’t always recommend the vaccine for city dogs,” Chaffin said, “but then I started to see more and more dogs coming in who live right in town, bichons and poodles who never go in the woods. Now I recommend it for all of them.” Chaffin, a dog owner himself, didn’t think the vaccine was necessary for his own pet, but a stream of infected city dogs and their bewildered owners taught him otherwise.

Perhaps because of climate, the Mississippi River Valley is a hotbed for Lyme disease cases in both people and pets. A Minnesota map that shows a black dot for each confirmed case is solid black from a region just south of the Twin Cities through the Winona area, Chaffin said, and it’s the misconceptions that keep the black dots coming.

The first is that Lyme disease is rare in people and pets because few deer ticks actually carry the bacteria. That may be true for the U.S. population as a whole, but in this region it is anything but.

The second is that deer ticks only live in the woods on deer. The fact is they can live anywhere on any mammal, often carried by mice and other creatures that make their way into populated areas.

The third is that people will notice the tick on them. But at the size of the head of a pin, they are very seldom spotted, especially on pets.

Humans do have the frequently seen telltale sign of a bulls eye rash where they were bitten, but not always. Dogs sometimes just seem a little sick for a few days, with the real trouble starting weeks or months later.

One of the greatest misconceptions is that ticks go dormant by mid-fall for the winter. The fact is, Chaffin said, that he advises people to continue tick prevention well into December. “If the temperature is above 35 degrees, they are mobile,” he said. And mobile means looking for a host, even if the temperature rises for just a few days.

For reasons unknown to science, cats appear to be immune to the bacteria that creates Lyme disease, though they can be bitten by ticks.

But for people and dogs, the effects of the bacteria, if left untreated, can be devastating.

Shortly after being bitten, a person may show a bulls eye rash and have flu-like symptoms that include fever, chills, headache, muscle and joint pain and fatigue.

But left unchecked, within days or weeks those symptoms can evolve to facial paralysis, irregular heart beat, weakness or numbness and pain. Untreated over the course of weeks or months, arthritis, nervous system problems and persistent weakness and fatigue can plague victims, with the effects long-lasting even after treatment is sought.

But for dogs, untreated Lyme disease can be a death sentence.

Early symptoms can be deceiving, Chaffin said, as a dog might appear mildly stiff, sore or unwell but not sick enough to cause considerable worry. Sometimes they exhibit pain in one leg, then a different leg the next day, a hallmark of the inflammation Lyme disease is causing in their joints.

Sometimes the dog becomes acutely sick right away, other times they seem to bounce back and then gradually get sick over the ensuing weeks and months. Ultimately, they will often stop eating, experience increasing pain with movement and eventually go into kidney failure and die.

Once diagnosed, antibiotics are a highly effective treatment for people and dogs alike, particularly in cases where infection is caught early.

For disease that has lingered undetected in people, longer courses of antibiotics may reverse the symptoms. For dogs with infections not detected early, the prognosis is not good. Permanent arthritis can be a complication for dogs of any age with advanced Lyme disease, and dogs already in renal failure face the darkest prognosis of all.

For people, a vaccine that was on the market a

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Opinion within the medical community is deeply divided regarding the best approach for treating Lyme disease, particularly persistent Lyme disease that is not cured by short-term protocols. Some physician groups recommend short term antibiotic therapy; if symptoms persist, they assume that these reflect a self-perpetuating autoimmune response. [1] Others assume that the persistent symptoms reflect on-going infection and gauge the duration of treatment by the patient's individual clinical response. The latter believe that there is insufficient evidence at this point to adopt standardized treatment protocols. [2]

The central difficulties in the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease stem from the lack of sufficiently sensitive and reliable biological markers of the disease. The complexity of the disease is also at question; many who treat patients regularly believe that much remains to be learned. Without something as basic as markers for disease status, it is difficult to determine who has the disease, the effectiveness of a course of treatment, and the end point of treatment. [3-5]

The scientific evidence supporting either viewpoint is unresolved and in dispute. Outcomes research is limited and conflicting. The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has only funded three double-blind, placebo-controlled treatment outcome studies for long-term treatment of persistent Lyme disease. The findings of two studies (Klempner and Krupp) are contradictory.[6-8] The preliminary results of the recently completely third NIAID-funded study support continued antibiotic treatment.[9] The findings of five non-controlled studies support continued treatment.[1, 10-13]

Insurance companies have a history of placing the full weight of their economic clout behind the less expensive short-term treatment protocols. More expensive longer-term treatment options are discredited as "experimental" or "not evidence-based." We would suggest that such logic is self serving to the insurer, as it is estimated that only 20% of medicine practiced today is rooted in double-blind studies.[14] Furthermore, evidence-based medicine requires only that medicine be practiced in accordance with the evidence that currently exists, not that treatment be withheld pending research. Insurance companies have adopted guidelines reflecting short-term treatment approaches. However, the legal standard of care for treating a condition is determined by the consensus of physicians who actually treat patients, not by treatment guidelines.[15] It is a sad irony that the group of individuals who craft the Lyme Guidelines for the IDSA rarely treat the sort of complex patients for whom they prescribe guidelines for care; to wit, the patient complexity is certainly not reflected in their reports, and the lines between acute and chronic illness are blurred.

In the treatment of Lyme borreliosis, a number of surveys have found a fairly even split among treating physicians between longer and shorter treatment. (6, 16-18) All jurisdictions that have considered the matter have found two standards of care in the treatment of Lyme disease.[19] When more than one standard of care exists, the critical question becomes who decides the appropriate course of treatment for the patient. Under the medical ethical principle of autonomy, the treatment decision belongs to the patient. Hence, the American Medical Association (AMA) requires that the physician disclose and discuss with the patient not only the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment, but also the risks and benefits of available alternative treatments (regardless of their cost or the extent to which the treatment options are covered by health insurance).[20]

As with certain other diseases (for example, prostate cancer), scientific uncertainty about Lyme disease has resulted in more than one treatment approach. We agree with the AMA, the American College of Physicians, and other professional medical organizations interested in promoting informed patient consent. We need to ensure that:

• Physicians, insurers, patients and governmental agencies understand that two treatment approaches exist;
• Physicians give patients sufficient information about treatment options to enable patients to make a meaningfully informed choice and respect the autonomy of that choice;
• Insurance reimbursement be provided for treatment rendered in accordance with either standard of care; and
• Government agencies provide unbiased information and remain neutral regarding both standards of care and treatment approaches.

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A TODDLER who was taken to hospital after a tick burrowed under his skin, ended up being treated by a vet.

Vanessa Marsden took her 19-month-old son, Daniel, to the children’s accident and emergency department at the Royal Bolton Hospital after discovering the blood-sucking parasite on his head.

Ticks normally live on animals but can attach themselves to humans and cause Lyme disease, which can have serious effects.

But while a nurse was working out how to deal with the rare problem, Mrs Marsden contacted a veterinary surgery, where bosses agreed to treat her son.

Hospital chiefs said the tick would have been dealt with by their staff had Mrs Marsden waited.

Mrs Marsden, aged 38, of Saltram Close, Bradley Fold, said: “I feel upset because you expect to be in the best hands at the hospital but we more or less sorted it ourselves.

“They didn’t seem to know what to do but the nurse at the vets was fantastic.”

Mrs Marsden’s husband, Gary, aged 44, added: “When Vanessa rang me and said she had taken Daniel to the vets I thought she was joking.

“Daniel got better service there than at the hospital.”

The couple, who also have a four-year-old son, Matthew, believe Daniel may have picked up the tick on a recent trip to Center Parcs in Cumbria. The parasites live in tall grass and trees.

Mrs Marsden spotted the tick in the back of Daniel’s head and took him to hospital where he was seen straight away but she claims the nurse did not know what to do. She decided to ring Darley House Veterinary Surgery, in Farnworth, who said they would see Daniel.

Mrs Marsden said: “Darley House were absolutely fantastic. We were in and out in 10 minutes and there was no charge.

“I want to share our story to raise awareness about ticks and how to deal with them.”

Daniel is recovering well after his ordeal and his parents are keeping a close eye on him.

Heather Edwards, head of communications at the hospital, said: “The nurse involved had not seen a tick bite before while working in our department but this is not surprising as it is not common in Bolton.

“We do see tick bites though and can manage them within the department.

“The nurse did the correct thing in asking for advice from one of the doctors, looking it up on a information website and waiting for the patient to be seen by one of the doctors.

“The relatives contacted a vet while waiting to be seen and decided to go to there. This was not on the advice of our staff as it would have been dealt with correctly when the patient was seen by the doctor.”

Darley House veterinary nurse Gemma Yates said: “This is something we would expect the hospital to be able to deal with although they won’t see it very regularly. We were only too happy to help but it’s rare for us to treat humans instead of animals.”

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“The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Thursday that the state epidemiologist, Dr. Megan Davies, is getting word to doctors, who have been reluctant to even test patients for Lyme disease.  "What we're trying to communicate to physicians is that it's possible to acquire Lyme in North Carolina, so don't hold to an old belief," Davies said, adding that she and others are meeting with infectious disease doctors at the state's medical schools to spread the word. State health officials soon will test 19,000 ticks for pathogens.”

http://www.myfox8.com/wghp-story-lyme-disease-091001,0,4548295.story

http://www.myfox8.com/wghp-story-lyme-disease-091001,0,4548295.story

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Lyme Disease may be ‘caught’ in NC……………….  From the N&O in Raleigh this week…………….

After years of denial and obstructionist public policy positions by the NCDPH, and after years of often hostile and insulting treatment of desperate patients in NC  by the medical academic institutions of NC and by the ID docs around the state (characterized most dramatically by Janelle Rhyne, past President of the North Carolina Medical Board), we get this announcement today from the NCPHD.  Why now?  Because, without question, Dr. Davies……who cannot be faulted in her new role as state epidemiologist…… is following explicit instructions from the CDC to make this announcement at this time through her new boss, the CDC puppet Engel, former state epidemiologist and current director of the NCPHD.   The tireless work of NC citizens David Tierney, Beth Jordan and Marcia Hermann-Giddens has generated overwhelming arguments and data supporting the presence of Bb in ticks and native infections with Bb in NC,  arguments and data which have now forced the CDC and Engel into this action so as to limit further embarrassment and potential liability for the years of denial, mixed messages, repeated use of gratuitous and circular logic, and, when that didn’t work……. non-communication.  For the CDC, Engel, and the others to protect themselves for years of inexcusable conduct, they will begin to promote excuses for delays in the planned research, and/or just offer bits and pieces of  junk or incomplete science while they decide their best course of evasive action.  So expect the NC Lyme issue to be slow played, shielded, and massaged by those in control in their effort to make it digestible and even comfortable to the citizens of NC, and to allow enough time for the ooze of shame to evaporate from the hides of those guilty of this unethical and fraudulent distortion of the truth on unsuspecting citizens and most doctors in NC.  In my view, ongoing manipulation of public health information by those entrusted with this responsibility, which can be shown to have adversely affected the public health,  should be a federally prosecutable offense.

The policies put forth for years by the above referenced ‘usual suspects’ has resulted in the ignoring of thousands of NC citizens as they suffered from a complex, chronic and often debilitating illness.  There is no amount of money or other recompense by which those responsible can make amends for their role in the incalculable suffering of so many, the shattered relationships due to illness unrecognized, and the wasting of unfulfilled lives………..   At this point my heart wants total accountability and a full display of the truth from the CDC and NCPHD, and the ID doctors in NC and around the country, whose stifling arrogance has left a stench that will last for decades.  My heart wants a full willingness from committed souls to learn the nuances of this pandemic, a pandemic which has already inalterably affected the human condition forever; I want this at this time so that the suffering can begin to end and the healing begin to start now, not when the perpetrators feel safe by virtue of the distance and cushion of time passed.    I am not concerned with what happens to them.  Others will make that decision.    Having said that,  I have no doubt that matters will not end well for any of them.

As a footnote, the IDSA Panel for Review of the Lyme Disease Guidelines met July 31, 2009 in Washington DC.   A decision on Guideline changes is due by the end of December.   I suspect that the CDC has received some early news of the Panel’s displeasure with the IDSA’s manipulation of the pandemic and is reacting accordingly in anticipatory fashion……   We shall see…….J

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Dr. Joseph Jemsek, renowned ILADS doctor treating Lyme Disease Patients, is relocating his practice to Washington, D.C.  His office will be in the Foggy Bottom area of Washington across from the Fairmont Hotel.  Dr. Jemsek is planning to begin seeing patients the first part of November. 

Dr. Jemsek will be speaking at the Welcome Presentation hosted by National Capital Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Association on November 1, 2009.  Location:  Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington.  All invited to attend.

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Implications of gender in chronic Lyme disease - Source: Journal of Womens Health, Jun 2009 by Gary P Wormser, MD, Eugene D Shapiro, MD

Background:

"Post-Lyme disease syndrome" refers to prolonged subjective symptoms after antibiotic treatment and resolution of an objective manifestation of Borrelia burgdorferi infection (Lyme disease).

"Chronic Lyme disease" is a vaguely defined term that has been applied to patients with unexplained prolonged subjective symptoms, whether or not there was or is evidence of B. burgdorferi infection.

Methods: Data on gender were compiled in this cross-sectional study based on a systematic review of published studies of antibiotic treatment in United States patients with post-Lyme disease syndrome (n = 184) or chronic Lyme disease (n = 490), and on cases of adults with Lyme disease reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2003 to 2005 (n = 43,282).

Results: Patients with chronic Lyme disease were significantly more likely to be female than were patients diagnosed with either Lyme disease (odds ratio [OR] 2.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.98-2.94, p

Conclusions: Patients with chronic Lyme disease differ with regard to gender from those with either B. burgdorferi infection or post-Lyme disease syndrome.

This finding suggests that illnesses with a female preponderance, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, or depression, may be misdiagnosed as chronic Lyme disease.

Source: Journal of Womens Health, Jun 2009;18(6):831-4. PMID: 19514824 by Wormser GP, Shapiro ED. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York; Departments of Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Public Health, and Investigative Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New Haven, Connecticut. USA.

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Excerpted From the Writings of Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, Ph.D., edited by Eve Greenberg, LPC, CN, Explore Staff Reporter and Director of the Klinghardt Academy of Neurobiology

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n the last decade the majority of outcome-oriented physicians observed a major shift: we realized that it was neither the lack of vitamins or growth hormone that made our patients ill. We discovered that toxicity and chronic infections were most often at the core of the client’s suffering.

We watched the discussion, which infection may be the primary one: mycoplasma, stealth viruses, HHV-6, trichomonas, Chlamydia pneumoniae, leptospirosis, mutated strep, or what else?

The new kid on the block is Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) and some of us have looked at it for a long time as possibly being the bug that opens the door for all the other infections to enter the system. Another one is Lyme disease, which has become a buzzword in the alternative medical field.

Since none of the recommended treatments are specific to either one of the microbes, we can never assume that we really know what we treated once a patient has recovered.

Microbiologist Gitte Jensen, PhD, had shown that the older you get, the more foreign DNA is attached to your own DNA. Somewhere along the line, pathogenic microbes invade the host’s DNA and become a permanent part of it. Since you use only 2 percent of your DNA, it may not be a problem. In fact, it may make you who you finally become. It may also cause a number of symptoms and chronic illness.

Genius Guenther Enderlein’s discoveries take us off the hook: if one microbe can change into another given the right environment, why bother to find out who we are infected with? The book “Lab 257” suggests that Bb is an escaped man-made US military bio-warfare organism (just like myoplasma incognitus and HHV 6).

Other authors suggest that different subtypes of Borrelia, which cause illness in humans, such as B. afzelii and B.garinii have probably existed longer than B.burgdorferi and occur naturally and have been with us for a long time, maybe centuries or much longer than that.

Making the Diagnosis

It appears that many patients with MS, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, autism, joint arthritis, chronic fatigue, sarcoidosis, and even cancer, are infected with Borrelia burgdorferi. But is the infection causing the illness or is it an opportunistic infection simply occurring in people weakened by other illnesses?

My experience is based on:

a) Using direct microscopic proof of the presence of Borrelia burgdoferi (Bb) and other spirochetes (4, 5)

b) The information many affected clients have brought to me

c) My own clinical training and experience (30 years in Medical practice, 15 years Bb cognizant)

d) ART testing (autonomic response testing), which is the most advanced and scientifically validated method of muscle testing (6)

e) Regular lab parameters affected by Lyme:

• Abnormal lipid profile (moderate cholesterol elevation with significant LDL elevation)
• Insulin resistance
• Borderline low white blood cells, normal SED rate and CRP
• Normal thyroid hormone tests but positive Barnes test and excellent response to giving T3
• Type 2 (high cortisol, low DHEA) or type 3 adrenal failure (low cortisol and DHEA)
• Low testosterone and DHEA
• Decreased urine concentration (low specific gravity)
• Complex changes in cytokines, interferones, NK cells, white blood cell indicators, etc.

Bb tends to infect the B-lymphocytes and other components of the immune system that are responsible for creating the antibodies, which are then measured by an ELISA test or Western Blot test. Since antibody production is greatly compromised in infected individuals, it makes no sense to use these tests as the gold standard or benchmark for the presence of Bb (7).

We also are aware that in endemic areas in the US up to 22 percent of stinging flies and mosquitoes (2, 8, 9, and 10) are carriers of Bb and co-infections. In South East Germany and Eastern Europe 12 percent of mosquitoes have been shown to be infected. In addition, many spiders, flees, lice and other stinging insects carry spirochetes and co-infections. Making the history of a tick bite a condition for a physician to be willing to even consider the possibility of a Bb infection seems cynical and cruel.

To use conventional diagnostic tests such as the Western Blot, one has to think in paradoxes: the patient has to be treated with an effective treatment modality first before the patient recovers enough to produce the antibodies, which then are looked for in the test. A positive Western Blot proves that the treatment given worked to some degree. A negative Western Blot does not and cannot prove the absence of the infection.

Having taken another route altogether, we have recognized that today many if not most Americans are carriers of the infection. Most infected people are symptomatic, but the severity and type of the symptoms varies greatly.

The microbes often invade tissues that had been injured: your chronic neck pain or sciatica really may be a Bb infection. The same may be true for your chronic TMJ problem, your adrenal fatigue, your thyroid dysfunction, your GERD and many other seemingly unrelated symptoms.

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Many Bb symptoms are mistaken for problems of natural or premature aging.

In most places the diagnosis of an active Bb infection is made only if the symptoms are severe, persistent, obvious, and many non-specific and fruitless avenues of treatment have been exhausted. Acute new “typical” cases of Bb infection are rare in my practice. Symptoms tend to get stranger and more obscure every year.

Frequently, if the patient is fortunate enough to see a practitioner who is “Lyme cognizant”, the diagnosis of a supposedly fresh case of symptomatic Lyme disease is made when a significant tissue toxin level has been reached (threshold phenomenon) or when a new co-infection has occurred recently.

The symptoms can mimic any other existing medical, psychological or psychiatric condition.

Common Co-Infections

The list of significant co-infections is limited: roundworms, tapeworms, threadworms, toxoplasmosis, giardia and amoebas, clostridia, the herpes virus family, parvovirus B 19, active measles (in the small intestine), leptospirosis, chronic strep infections and their mutations, Babesia, Brucella, Ehrlichiosis, Bartonella, mycoplasma, Rickettsia, Bartonella and a few others.

Molds and fungi are always part of the picture.

The pattern of co-infections and the other preexisting conditions such as mercury toxicity determine the symptom-picture but not the severity.

What Influences the Severity of Your Symptoms?

The severity of symptoms correlates most closely with the overall summation or body burden of coexisting conditions and with the genetically determined ability to excrete neurotoxins.

The genes coding for the glutathione S-transferase and for the different alleles of apolipoprotein E (E2, E3 and E4) play a major role. E2 can carry twice as much sulfhydryl-affinitive toxins (such as mercury and lead) out of the cell as the E3 subtype, E4 carries out none.

Trouble in the methylation, acetylation and sulfation pathways is also common. Other factors, such as diet and food allergies, past toxic and electromagnetic exposures, emotional factors and unhealed ancestral trauma, scar interference fields and occlusal jaw and bite problems are also important (6).

The severity of symptoms is not related to the number of spirochetes in your system but rather to your individual immune response.

Taking all of the above into account, we do not distinguish between people who have the Bb infection and those who don’t. Instead, we distinguish between people who have Lyme disease and those who do not.

a) Patients who are infected with any type of Borrelia and are symptomatic have “Lyme” disease

b) Healthy people who are not symptomatic often already have a spirochete infection as well. They may or may not be disasters waiting to happen. But they do not (yet) have Lyme “disease”.

Most often several of the “co-infections” are already present prior to the infection with Bb or other spirochetes.

In treatment we focus on exploring the difference between symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers. We treat what the symptomatic person is missing (such as enough magnesium in the diet) or has extra (such as mercury) compared to the asymptomatic one.

The group suffering most is newborn babies and young children, who rarely are diagnosed correctly and therefore are not treated appropriately. They often carry the labels ADHD, autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), seizure disorder and others. Detoxifying these kids with transdermal DMPS and treating the chronic infections is often curative.

The Three Components of Lyme disease

Lyme disease has three components, which should be recognized and addressed with treatment:

Component #1: The presence of spirochete infection and co-infections

The co-infections are bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic. Since the spirochetes paralyze multiple aspects of your immune system, the organism is without defenses against many microbes. Many -- if not most -- of the co-infections are really a consequence of the spirochete infection and not truly a simultaneously occurring “co-infection”.

For treatment options, see below.

Component #2: the illness producing effect of microbial exo- and endotoxins and toxins produced by the host in response to microbial trigger

Most of these are neurotoxins.Some appear to be carcinogenic as well; others block the T3 receptor on the cell wall, etc. Decreased hormonal output of the gonads and adrenals is a commonly observed toxin mediated problem in Lyme patients.

Central inhibition of the pineal gland, hypothalamus and pituitary gland is almost always an issue that has to be resolved somewhat independently from treating the infection.

Furthermore, biotoxins from the infectious agents have a synergistic effect with heavy metals, xenobiotics and thioethers from cavitations and NICO lesions in the jaw and from root filled teeth.

My published neurotoxin elimination protocol can be downloaded for free (6).

We use toxin binding agents such as fiber-rich ground up raw vegetables, chlorella (14), cholestyramine (13), beta-Sitosterol, propolis powder, apple pectin and Mucuna bean powder (14).

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A solid heavy metal detoxification program should be used simultaneously with the first phases of the Lyme treatment. Safe toxic metal elimination is an art unto itself. However, the information is widely available now (15).

The more difficult objective is to choose agents and methods to trigger the release of neurotoxins from their respective binding sites. Only then can they be transported to your liver, be processed, and enter your small intestine from where they can be carried out by the binding agents.

The toxins occupying the T3 receptor are competitively displaced by oral T3 -- cycled with the Wilson protocol (available at most compounding pharmacies). The toxins blocking the cortisol receptor are mobilized with the herb forskolin. CGF chlorella -- a sophisticated mix of chlorella and chlorella growth factor -- and cilantro given together with a non-irradiated Mucuna bean powder mobilize most everything else.

I also use alternate-day dosing of an energetically enhanced phospholipid/EDTA/Alpha-Lipoic acid mix (“PhosphoLipid Exchange” which is currently the most tolerated and effective form of phospholipids for the Lyme patient.

The KMT microcurrent frequencies dramatically increase the speed of toxin mobilization and access body compartments the biochemical compounds cannot .

Psychotherapeutic intervention to uncover and treat old trauma is most profoundly effective in triggering a neurotoxin release when none of the other methods appear to work anymore.

After each APN session we pre-medicate the patient with CGF-chlorella. Sometimes the extraction of a devitalized tooth or the injection of one of the facial/cervical ganglia with glutathione or another detox agent can trigger a major neurotoxin release.

Lymph drainage in combination with colon hydrotherapy accesses toxins stored in the lymphatic body-compartment. German practitioners have pioneered the combination of oral cilantro and the “Toxaway” microcurrent footbath.

Component #3: The immune reactions provoked by the presence of both toxins and microbes (there are three sub-possibilities, which have to be recognized and addressed).

Your immune reactions are largely depending on factors such as genetics, prior illnesses, mental-emotional baggage, early childhood traumatization, current exposure to electromagnetic fields (sleeping location, use of cell phones, poor wiring in car or home, etc), food allergies and diet, socio-economic background, marital stress etc.

A multitude of biochemical serum markers is used today to determine the status of the infection (see below). A subset of NK killer cells, CD 57+ is emerging as a valid marker for activity of the illness (lower counts indicate worsening).

1: Anergy -- the absence of reaction due to the successful evasion of the host-defenses.

One of the more known mechanisms the microbes use to create anergy is hyper coagulation. The microbes tend to live in your endothelium where the food is most abundant. There they trigger the coagulation mechanism to lay down a layer of fibrin on top of them to evade recognition by your immune system, etc. For this aspect we use three techniques:

a) The KMT-microcurrent technology and homeopathics to wake up and entrain the immune system

b) Rechtsregulat (“right rotatory fluid” which is an enzyme-rich extract of fermented fruits and vegetables (14). It has outperformed the s.c. injection of heparin in our own trials and frequently leads to rapid subjective improvement.

Lumbrokinase is far more effective than Nattokinase,but both appear weak when compared to Rechtsregulat.

We also work on recognizing and eliminating those factors that block the client’s system (geopathic stress, EM stress, food allergies, emotional factors, interference fields such as scars and disturbed ganglia and we substitute vitamins and minerals based on ART testing).

c) The Enderlein remedies (especially the haptens) from Pleomorphic-Sanum

2: Allergy -- appropriate or exaggerated immune reactions (both cellular TH1-reaction and TH2-cytokine activation).

In Lyme disease oftentimes (but not always), TH-1 is overly active early in the illness and can easily be downregulated by fluconazole. Later TH2 becomes overly active.

Nothing works better then the APN-desensitization procedure (15): while the patient is exposed to the allergen (we use a glass-carrier fixated culture of the offending microbes) the ANS is kept in a state of equilibrium using tapping of acupuncture-points, hypnotherapeutic trauma-recall and intervention techniques, and our proprietary psycho kinesiology (muscle-biofeedback psychotherapy).

A very effective and yet simple technique to re-regulate TH1 and TH2 back is auto-urine therapy. The patient’s urine concentrates the antigens (disposed cell walls and cell fragments of offending microbes which the immune system has successfully eliminated). By passing the client’s urine through a micro pore filter and injecting it intra-muscularly, the lymphocytes on patrol in the connective tissue are brought in contact with the antigen and quickly mount a specific and appropriate immune response.

We use 2 ml of filtered urine once weekly for 12 weeks. All other similar approaches (autohemotherapy, homeopathic autonosodes, manipulating the immune system with supplements) are far less effective.

3: Autoimmunity -- the toxins and microbes often act as haptens -- marking the cell, cell wall or tissue in which they are hiding as foreign and therefore for destruction. This happens especially against a backdrop of pre existing heavy metal toxicity, which has to be addressed aggressively and prior to treating the micro

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We use the MELISA test (memory lymphocyte immune-stimulation assay) to establish which metals the patient is reactive to. The same lab in Bremen, Germany also offers the most sensitive Bb test.

The KMT microcurrent technology is very effective in recognition entrainment, helping your immune cells to mount a specific and targeted attack on the invaders, sparing your body’s own tissues. It breaks through one of the prime mechanisms the offending germs are using: molecular mimicry (the pathogens present antigens on their surface that are indistinguishable from a normal body tissue).

The technique also breaks another trick the spirochetes have developed: the molecular interaction that occurs between a specific Lyme virulence factor (OspE) and a host protein fH (factor H). Some surface antigens in the spirochete are identical to myelin. This explains why anti-myelin antibodies are often present.

The novice in the field tends to treat component #1 only. We have only rarely observed lasting improvement when course after course of antibiotics was given. Because of the defense mechanisms inherent in the Bb and co-infections, current wisdom suggests that 18 months of antibiotics would be curative in many cases (25). But instead we have observed severe, lasting and unacceptable side effects from this approach,such as tinnitus, kidney failure, intractable immune system breakdown and others.

By using the synergistic effect between treatment-modalities that simultaneously address the three issues outlined above, lasting improvements are the norm rather than the exception.

By using the synergy principle and abandoning the arrogant idea of being able to eradicate all of the microbes in the system “for good”, chronic Lyme patients can often live a normal healthy life again. The use of herbs alone or in combination with antibiotics has emerged as the most important core strategy.

The Importance of Minerals

To feed, fuel and perk up the cells of the immune system (especially NK cells and macrophages) numerous interventions have been attempted, mostly based on orthomolecular and herbal medicine principles. We found that amongst those approaches, abundant mineral substitution based on the red cell mineral analysis is most rewarding.

Rarely should medical drugs be used.

Amazingly, the most depleted minerals in our Lyme patients are often copper, magnesium, manganese (in Lyme) and iron (in Babesiosis).

Bb and Bartonella need magnesium to duplicate and deplete the host’s body rapidly. Copper and iron have all but disappeared from most of our supplements based on faulty interpretation of hair analysis. Your immune system uses those two metals in the process of phagocytosis. They are the main constituent of the enzymes (or “bullets” your immune cells use in the battle against the invaders.

Oxidized used-up iron and copper get displaced into the extracellular compartment and body fluids, and appears in your hair and skin as that’s your body’s most efficient way of excreting toxins without damaging your kidneys.

This has led to the dangerous, and in its consequence, catastrophic assumption that these metals are the enemy and need to be restricted.

It is true that oxidized metals pose a danger and have to be reduced (=substitution of electrons) or eliminated. However, when copper and iron are needed and substituted appropriately, major improvements have been observed. Appropriate antioxidant treatment can reduce these metals.

Homeopathic copper and iron leads to beneficial redistribution of these metals and makes them bio-available again.

Lithium-orotate or aspartate in low doses (15 mg/day) has been shown to protect your CNS structures from neurotoxin damage.

Patients also almost always benefit clinically from frequent treatment with parenteral magnesium. It is most meaningfully given in a modified Meyer’s cocktail. We also use a 5:2 ratio of folic acid (not folinic) and hydroxycobolamine (not methyl- or cyano-) sublingually several times/day.

In addition methyl-cobolamine is givenintra-muscularly twice weekly and is important in the methylation/restoration of reduced glutathione. Hydroxy-B12 protects your brain from nitric oxide induced damage.

Many Lyme patients suffer from Pyrroluria, a metabolic illness where abnormal porphyrins carry out significant amounts of needed zinc and vitamin B6. Diagnosis is made with the appropriate test at Vitamin Diagnostics in New Jersey. Even though it is assumed that this illness is hereditary, I have my doubts, since most Lyme sufferers have a degree of it. I suspect that the appearance of kryptopyrroles in the urine is induced by the illness.

However, I am careful with excessive substitution of zinc. Zinc has a synergistic effect with mercury in the brain and also promotes the growth of the herpes viruses.

If clients show abnormal high losses of sex steroid hormones in the urine, the patient may be cobalt deficient. The urine hormone test and cobalt drops are available at the Tahoma Clinic Renton, WA. For a while selenium should be given in high doses to suppress viral replication and render bioavailable mercury non-reactive.

The most critical element in the Lyme patient, however, is iodine. A two inch square of Lugol’s iodine is painted on the patient’s skin and should remain visible for 24 hours. The sooner it is absorbed the more deficient the patient. An oral form of Lugol’s is available under the name Iodoral (Optimox, Torrance, Ca).

Filling up your body’s mineral reserves has always been the most essential part of our heavy metal detox program. It is also the most essential part of our Lyme tr

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Sequencing of Effective Treatment

There is an inherent order in which the microbes should be treated. If the order is correct, gentle methods work.

Treatment should always combine electromagnetic interventions, using specific microbial inhibition frequencies (KMT technology) with the appropriate herb, antibiotic or other antimicrobial strategy.

It should also always be combined with a toxin elimination program, good psychotherapy, and general life style hygiene.

Most clients will need some support for several years before they have found and adapted to a new life style in which the symptoms are absent.

Lyme disease is marked by cyclic rhythms and unexpected returns of the symptom from time to time. Once a patient has figured out what works best, most of my patients learn how to manage their illness with very little help.

Klinghardt Lyme Disease Protocol

Biological treatment of Lyme disease and chronic infections: (based on over 900 successful treatment cases)

The treatment of Lyme disease requires 4 distinctive steps:

1. Decreasing toxic body burden/unloading the system
2. Improving disturbed physiology
3. Decreasing microbial count
4. Immune modulation

Decreasing toxic body burden/unloading the system

• Proper sleep
• Low EMF (turn off all fuses, sleep sanctuary, turquoise light/photon wave to increase melatonin and non-rem Delta sleep)
• Non-toxic/allergenic bedding material (cave: flame retardants/PBDEs)
• Avoid light/noise pollution at night

Freeze dried garlic (against microbes, toxins, sulfur), chlorella (viruses, bacteria, toxins, nutrients), cilantro (bacteria, viruses, toxins) and fish oil (for microcirculation and cell wall flexibility)

The Long Form of Healing

Toxin elimination:

• Remove intestinal biofilm: 1 tsp clay followed by 1 tbsp fiber laxative for 6 weeks, prior to do anything else
• Address genetic glitches (methylation, sulfation, acetylation – B12, B2, Folic acid, SAM-e, Methionine, Taurine, MSM)
• Mercury and metal detox -- Phospholipid Exchange (EDTA, phospholipids, alpha lipoic, magnesium, energy), Matrix Metals, CVE and CGF, DMEP(OR, sound cracked chlorella, nanonized chlorella and cilantro, EDTA, DMSA, DMPS
• Solvent and carbon based detox: glycine, laser-or homeopathy aided detox
• Consider the UNDA remedies (243 is best)

Self Help:

• Colon hydrotherapy and lymphatic drainage, rhythmic cranial and liver compression
• Dry skin brushing and warm/cold showers
• Swedish sauna and Toxaway ionic foot bath

Detect and resolve interference fields:

• Scars
• Jaw infections and devitalized teeth
• Chronic localized infections (tonsils, appendix, sinuses, etc)
• Dysfunctional autonomic ganglia (superior cervical, sphenopalatine, pelvic ganglia, etc.)

Remove “allergenic triggers” from your environment

• Food allergies
• Volatile organic compounds from carpets, furniture and paints
• New car smell (phthalates)
• Newspaper and office printing ink
• Work/profession related compounds

Removing psychological toxins

• 20 minute writing exercise to overcome past trauma
• Family constellation work to resolve trans-generational issues
• Applied Psycho-Neurobiology to resolve conflicts and severe trauma
• Regular time spent in healthy nature
• Regular massage
• Qi Gong, Tai Chi or Meditation

Removing structural blockages

• Optimize the dental occlusion to restore cranial lymphatic pump
• Craniosacral therapy to improve fluid dynamics in CNS
• Visceral manipulation to improve organ function

2. Improving disturbed physiology and biochemistry (vitality, detox, immune responses, tissue repair)

Biochemistry

• Always start with KPU urine test and address it!
• Assessment via lab work or ART -- correct what is missing and what is too much (hormones, minerals and electrolytes, glutathione, sulfur, etc.)
• Genetic testing: find minimal bypass nutrition to correct for SNPs or gene deletions/mutations
• Diet: gluten and casein free diet, Specific carbohydrate diet, Metabolic typing, blood group diet or ART based diet
• Common deficiencies in Lyme: magnesium: has to be given transdermal or via injection. Oral Magnesium feeds spirochetes
• Copper, zinc and iron are spent by macrophages and appear in oxidized form in hair and serum, giving the wrong appearance of excess

Improving disturbed biochemistry and physiology: KPU/HPU

• Over 80 percent of our Lyme patients have developed HPU (hemo-pyrrol-lactam-uria). The term falsely used in most US literature is KPU (krypto-pyrrol-uria)
• HPU disarms the immune system by catastrophic depletion of zinc, manganese, arachidonic acid, histamin, taurine.
• These losses are hard to detect with any current technology (only bone and CNS biopsies are reliable.
• Labs to consider:
• 
  

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KPU urine test (Vitamin Diagnostics)

• alkaline phosphatase low normal
• copper: zinc ration greater than 1 in hair and urine
• low Omega 6 in red cell membrane fatty acid test
• white blood cell zinc, red cell copper level

If KPU is treated first and the system is restored to normal levels (4-8 months), Borrelia, Bartonella-like organisms and Babesia respond to much milder interventions without significant Herxes or problems.

Neurophysiology

• Gives your brain healthy rhythms: KMT technology
• Listen to Lyme entrainment CDs
• Spend time in nature
• Avoid EMF’s (cordless phones, cell phones, wireless technology, home near airport (radar), computer

Exercise

• Stretching
• Weight lifting
• Movement (dance, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, etc.)
• Aerobic exercise -- avoid post exercise fatigue and pain

3. Rizols (ozonated castor oil treated with high voltage electrolysis) decrease microbial count. Rizols have strong and specific anti-microbial properties, no known adverse long term effects, are relatively inexpensive and are pleasant to take.

They have been used successfully since 1905. (You’ll find the recipes below.)

1: treat parasites, mold and anaerobes

Rizol Gamma (effective dose: 15-20 drops tid)

2: treat both RNA (Borna, etc.) and DNA (HHV-6, EBV, etc.) viruses: Rizol Zeta (20 drops tid)

3: when on full dose of Gamma and Zeta, treat Babesia:

After 2 months on full treatment: stop or reduce Rizol Gamma and treat Bartonella: Rizol My (20 drops tid).

After 2 months reduce dose of rizols Zeta and My to 10 drops tid and treat spirochetes: add Rizol Epsilon and Jota, 10 drops tid each.

Always follow rizol with adsorbent (biosorption): chlorella (20 tbl), chitosan (1-2 caps), zeolite (1 tsp) or charcoal (2 caps)

Rizol-Gamma

70 percent Rizol-raw material (ozonated castor oil treated with high voltage electrolysis)

10 percent clove oil

10 percent oil of artemesia

10 percent black walnut oil

Rizol-Zeta

69.3 percent Rizol-raw material

10.0 percent oil of artemesia annua

10.0 percent clove oil

5.0 percent black cumin oil

3.0 percent moxa oil

1.8 percent walnut oil

0.9 percent oil of majoram

Biological effects, according to the Steidl/Carstens studies:

• The ozonides transfer oxygen and change the environment in which anaerobic pathogenic germs live, making it aerobic
• This prevents anaerobic germs, such as Clostridia, from multiplying
• The oil is surface-active and, with its active substances, moistens your intestinal mucous membrane where nests of fungi and bacteria and parasites might be located
• Rizol constituents have been found intracellularly and in the matrix (indicating anti-microbial activity both intra-and extracellularly)

Cell toxicology studies:

• Mitochondria are not damaged,
• OECD test for mutagenicity produced the result: not mutagenic.
• Normal human cells are guided into apoptosis (beneficial and genetically pre-programmed cell death)
• Previously damaged and tumor cells are destroyed
• No adverse pharmacological effects were found in numerous cell culture tests

4. Immune modulation

• Use the CD 57 test (Labcorp – Stricker panel) to monitor immune status
• Enderlein remedies: treat immune responses to mold: Pleo Nig, Not, Muc, Fort, Pef, Ut and UT-S, Lat
• Auto-hemotherapy or auto-urine therapy (2 ml biw)
• Buhner herbs (Quintessence from BioPure) 8-10 dropperfull in 1 liter water
• Adjunctive physics based immune modulation tools:

1. KMT frequency-based biofield treatment
2. Health Light super LED treatment of focal areas
3. Valkion: singlet oxygen energy delivery via inhaled air or drinking water
4. Photon Wave or Jae Laser immune modulation

Medical drugs: Occasionally the use of medical antimicrobials is beneficial in addition to this program (ILADS recommendations). Top of the list:

• anti-virals (Valtrex and Valcyte)
• anti-fungals (itra- and voriconazole)
• anti-parasitics (Alinia and Biltricide)
• antibiotics (with above program, minocycline, and anti-Malarials work again!)
• Lime Disease As A Messenger
  

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In the course of conquering this illness there has been a lot of personal growth and a lot of learning.

There has been much speculation as to why Lyme disease seems to be increasingly common. The book “Lab 257” is an investigative report on the issues involved.

The insects which are the vectors for these microbes thrive in warmer climates. I have no doubt that to a large degree the greenhouse effect is responsible and will be confronting us with the onslaught of more and more aggressive microbes.

The partial pressure of oxygen on the earth at sea level has decreased from 30 percent 150 years ago to 19 percent today. The oxygen producing algae in the oceans are dying…

The response of the public health system so far has been denial and anger towards those who try to uncover the puzzle and help the afflicted patients. This will certainly change in the near future.

I expect that by the time the institutions discover Lyme disease as a far more important factor in chronic illness than is currently acknowledged, we will be confronted with new, far more dangerous microbes.

Antibiotics have disappointed in the treatment of Lyme disease as a single modality. Antibiotics alone will not help us to cope with the coming plagues.

All of us as practitioners have to start looking beyond antibiotics for help and for hope. The microbes have always been with us. They are not the enemy. It is us who have altered the environment so severely and in a way that facilitates the growth of lower evolved species like cell wall deficient microbes and viruses -- and ends the life for many more evolved species. Extinction may be forever.

Lyme disease is a messenger. If we don’t change, we may be on the endangered species list someday not too far from now.

Biological effects, according to the Steidl/Carstens studies:

• The ozonides transfer oxygen and change the environment in which anaerobic pathogenic germs live, making it aerobic
• This prevents anaerobic germs, such as Clostridia, from multiplying
• The oil is surface-active and, with its active substances, moistens your intestinal mucous membrane where nests of fungi and bacteria and parasites might be located
• Rizol constituents have been found intracellularly and in the matrix (indicating anti-microbial activity both intra-and extracellularly)

Cell toxicology studies:

• Mitochondria are not damaged,
• OECD test for mutagenicity produced the result: not mutagenic.
• Normal human cells are guided into apoptosis (beneficial and genetically pre-programmed cell death)
• Previously damaged and tumor cells are destroyed
• No adverse pharmacological effects were found in numerous cell culture tests

4. Immune modulation

• Use the CD 57 test (Labcorp – Stricker panel) to monitor immune status
• Enderlein remedies: treat immune responses to mold: Pleo Nig, Not, Muc, Fort, Pef, Ut and UT-S, Lat
• Auto-hemotherapy or auto-urine therapy (2 ml biw)
• Buhner herbs (Quintessence from BioPure) 8-10 dropperfull in 1 liter water
• Adjunctive physics based immune modulation tools:

1. KMT frequency-based biofield treatment
2. Health Light super LED treatment of focal areas
3. Valkion: singlet oxygen energy delivery via inhaled air or drinking water
4. Photon Wave or Jae Laser immune modulation

Medical drugs: Occasionally the use of medical antimicrobials is beneficial in addition to this program (ILADS recommendations). Top of the list:

• anti-virals (Valtrex and Valcyte)
• anti-fungals (itra- and voriconazole)
• anti-parasitics (Alinia and Biltricide)
• antibiotics (with above program, minocycline, and anti-Malarials work again!)

Lyme Disease as a Messenger

In the course of conquering this illness there has been a lot of personal growth and a lot of learning.

There has been much speculation as to why Lyme disease seems to be increasingly common. The book “Lab 257” is an investigative report on the issues involved.

The insects which are the vectors for these microbes thrive in warmer climates. I have no doubt that to a large degree the greenhouse effect is responsible and will be confronting us with the onslaught of more and more aggressive microbes.

The partial pressure of oxygen on the earth at sea level has decreased from 30 percent 150 years ago to 19 percent today. The oxygen producing algae in the oceans are dying…

The response of the public health system so far has been denial and anger towards those who try to uncover the puzzle and help the afflicted patients. This will certainly change in the near future.

I expect that by the time the institutions discover Lyme disease as a far more important factor in chronic illness than is currently acknowledged, we will be confronted with new, far more dangerous microbes.

Antibiotics have disappointed in the treatment of Lyme disease as a single modality. Antibiotics alone will not help us to cope with the coming plagues.

All of us as practitioners have to start looking beyond antibiotics for help and for hope. The microbes have always been with us. They are not the enemy. It is us who have altered the environment so severely and in a way that facilitates the growth of lower evolved species like cell wall deficient microbes and viruses -- and ends the life for many more evolved species. Extinction may be forever.

Lyme disease is a messenger. If we don’t change, we may be on the endangered species list someday not too far from now.

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Dr. Mercola's comments: I want to thank my good friend and mentor Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt for allowing me to post this thorough and in-depth review of Lyme disease and his expert treatment protocols.

Lyme disease was first recognized in the United States in 1975, after a mysterious outbreak of arthritis near Lyme, Connecticut. It wasn't until 1982 that the spirochete that causes Lyme was identified. It was subsequently named Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), in honor of pioneer researcher Willy Burgdorfer, Ph.D.

According to CDC statistics, reported cases of Lyme disease rose by nearly 38 percent between 2007 and 2008.

Some are now questioning whether Lyme disease might in fact be a silent epidemic.

Millions of people who are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue syndrome and other degenerative diseases could actually have Lyme disease causing or contributing to their condition.

Traditionally, signs and symptoms of Lyme disease include:

• A skin rash, often resembling a bulls-eye
• Fever
• Headache
• Muscle pain
• Stiff neck
• Swelling of your knees and other large joints

However, as discussed by Dr. Klinghardt above, there are numerous other symptoms not traditionally considered as signs of Lyme disease; everything from sciatica to chronic TMJ problems, adrenal fatigue, GERD, and other seemingly unrelated symptoms.

Unfortunately, many still believe Lyme disease is tick-borne only, which as it turns out, is incorrect. It can also be transmitted by other insects, including fleas, mosquitoes and mites -- and by human-to-human contact. So whether or not you’ve ever been bitten by a tick might not matter.

The Elusive Nature of Lyme Disease

Lyme can disseminate through your body with remarkable speed. In its classic spirochete form, the bacteria can contract like a spring and twist to propel itself forward. It can travel through your blood vessel walls as well as your connective tissue. (Because of its spring-like movement, it can actually swim better in tissue than in blood.)

Studies have shown that less than a week after being infected, the Lyme spirochete can be deeply embedded inside your tendons, muscle, heart, and brain.

It invades tissue, replicates, and then destroys its host cell as it emerges.

Sometimes the cell wall can collapse around the bacterium, forming a cloaking device that allows it to evade detection by many tests and by your body's immune system.

Why Drugs Don’t Work for This Mystery Illness

Adding further complexity, the Lyme spirochete (Bb) is pleomorphic, meaning it can radically change form, from spirochete to round cell wall deficient (CWD) forms, and back again!

This is partly why the conventional antibiotic treatments rarely work.

The problem is that a CWD organism does not have a fixed exterior membrane presenting information -- a target -- that would allow your immune system or drugs to attack it. This feature also effectively deters detection through many medical tests.

Additionally, because Bb is pleomorphic, you can't expect any one antibiotic to be effective. Bacteria share genetic material with one another, so the offspring of the next bug can have a new genetic sequence that can resist the antibiotic just given.

Lyme disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose and frequently even harder to treat. But as Dr. Klinghardt mentioned, drugs are rarely the way to go.

Another case in point: in 1999, SmithKline Beecham was sued over their Lyme disease vaccine as it turned out to cause an incurable form of autoimmune arthritis, and in many cases produced symptoms worse than those of the illness. SmithKline stopped producing the vaccine three years later, citing “insufficient consumer demand.”

Thankfully, experts like Dr. Klinghardt, who has dedicated over a decade to this disease, are finding gentler, safer, non-toxic alternatives so that you, or anyone you know who may be affected with Lyme disease, can finally take control of your health and return to living a pain free existence.

He is actually providing a world class seminar on this topic in the fall. My schedule prevents me from attending but it should be awesome.

You can go to his site for more information on how to register for this event, and learn even more about this important topic that was not covered above.

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LYME DISEASE (Borreliosis)

© Copyright 2004, Dr Scott Taylor, DVM, All rights Reserved

My objective for writing this report is to help inform the layman and the medical community about the extremely complex infection called Lyme disease. I have recently been infected with Lyme disease and I will share my experience and what I have learned about the complex nature of Lyme disease in this report. I continue to update this report and I foresee many revisions of it in the future as more information regarding Lyme disease surfaces. I have recently been introduced to a major medical breakthrough discovered by Dr. Trevor Marshall, research director at the Autoimmunity Research Foundation in Thousand Oaks, CA. I have updated this version of the report to include this vital information.

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Diagnostic challenges of early Lyme disease: Lessons from a community case series – Source: BMC Infectious Diseases, Jun 1, 2009

by John Aucott, et al.
June 3, 2009

[Note: the complete text of this open access article is available free at www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/9/79]

Background: Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne infection in North America, is increasingly reported. When the characteristic rash, erythema migrans, is not recognized and treated, delayed manifestations of disseminated infection may occur. The accuracy of diagnosis and treatment of early Lyme disease in the community is unknown.

Methods: A retrospective, consecutive case series of 165 patients presenting for possible early Lyme disease between August 1, 2002 and August 1, 2007 to a community-based Lyme referral practice in Maryland.

All patients had acute symptoms of less than or equal to 12 weeks duration. Patients were categorized according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria, and data were collected on presenting history, physical findings, laboratory serology, prior diagnoses and prior treatments.

Results:

The majority (61%) of patients in this case series were diagnosed [in this review of records] with early Lyme disease.

Of those diagnosed with early Lyme disease, 13% did not present with erythema migrans;

Of those not presenting with a rash, 54% had been previously misdiagnosed.

Among those with a rash, the diagnosis of erythema migrans was initially missed in 23% of patients whose rash was subsequently confirmed.

Of all patients previously misdiagnosed, 41% had received initial antibiotics likely to be ineffective against Lyme disease.

Conclusions: For community physicians practicing in high-risk geographic areas, the diagnosis of Lyme disease remains a challenge.

Failure to recognize erythema migrans or alternatively, viral-like presentations without a rash, can lead to missed or delayed diagnosis of Lyme disease, ineffective antibiotic treatment, and the potential for late manifestations.

Source: BMC Infectious Diseases, Jun 1, 2009;9(1):79. PMID: 19486523, by Aucott J, Morrison C, Munoz B, Rowe PC, Schwarzwalder A, West SK. Departments of Medicine, and Pediatrics and Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; Lyme Disease Research Foundation of Maryland, Lutherville, Maryland, USA.

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Two Videos from the Prohealth Newsletter
Videos I Made on My Life with Lyme

I put up a two part video describing my life with CFIDS and Lyme. I hope it helps some people. – C
See:
Lyme Disease/CFIDS/ME and My Life Part One

Lyme Disease/CFIDS/ME and My Life Part Two

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Two resources that are worthwhile. Lyme Disease -- An Overview http://www.jemsekspecialty.com/lyme_overview.php

Two standards of care: http://www.jemsekspecialty.com/twostandards.php

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25 May 2009

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To see the more Lyme rally information as well as the South Carolina's Lyme Disease Proclamation from Governor Mark Sanford, go to: http://www.BeatLymeDisease.com/LymeRally.htm

Perry Fields writes a free and sometimes controversial newsletter for Lyme patients, family and friends, available at http://www.BeatLymeDisease.com -H er highly anticipated book about Lyme Disease is due out this summer, details her experience from track star to Lyme patient and back.

Email arden (at) beatlyme (dot) com for more information.
http://www.BeatLymeDisease.com

###

BeatLyme.com
PL Fields
864-506-6581
http://prweb.com/pingpr.php/RW1wdC1JbnNlLUVtcHQtTWFnbi1TcXVhLUNvdXAtWmVybw==

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Engel said the blood tests, while not perfect, are the most accurate means of identifying Lyme. He said the tests also may help track a new tick-borne disease that is similar to Lyme but caused by a bacterium scientists have yet to identify.

That disease, called Southern Tick-associated Rash Illness, is carried by lone star ticks and could be responsible for dozens of illnesses in North Carolina that do not test positive for Lyme. But because it is so new, there is no accounting for STARI cases.

"We don't want to misclassify cases," Engel said. "That's the worst thing public health can do in terms of credibility."

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Warmer weather means more ticks that could carry Lyme diseaseLyme-carrying bugs spreading farther afield

As more Hudson Valley residents head outdoors, they are being reminded to be as vigilant as ever about those unwelcome little hangers-on from our woods and fields.

"This is the time of year that we're trying to engage people about checking themselves, because after a while people tend to tune out about tick-borne illnesses," said Jean Hudson, Orange County health commissioner.

Black-legged ticks, in particular, can carry the devastating Lyme disease, which can result in long-term joint pain or arthritis and major fatigue in some patients. The disease spreads through bacteria carried by the tick.

Tens of thousands of Lyme disease cases are reported each year in the U.S., with the majority of them in the Midwest and Northeast. The incidence of Lyme disease shot up in Sullivan and Ulster counties to 155 and 395 cases per 100,000 people in 2008, from 90 and 198 per 100,000, respectively, in 2007.

Orange County saw a drop from 136 to 104 per 100,000 people in that period, according to the state figures.

Concern is growing about the disease, as the area in which deer ticks are found continues to spread north and west in the state.

In the past 20 years, the ticks that carry Lyme disease have been found as far as north as Essex County and as far west as Onondaga and Tompkins counties. Recent tick surveys found them in regions where relatively few were found before.

"It is difficult to determine the exact cause or causes of this geographic spread, and multiple factors may be involved, but changes to the environment are likely contributors," said Beth Goldberg, a spokeswoman for state Department of Health.

Warmer winters mean ticks can survive longer and spread farther, and clearing the land to build homes can shift habitats, thus giving humans greater exposure to the ticks.

Deer ticks are commonly found in forests or fields, and particularly where these two habitats meet, but they can also be found on lawns.

jsullivan@th-record.com

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Controversial Treatment:http://www.columbia-lyme.org/

Insurance companies have placed their full weight of their economic clout behind the less expensive short term protocols. The longer term options are discredited as experimental or "Not evidence Based".

I am trying to go back to sleep now, hoping for a wonderful dream. In my dream, I am finally able to get admitted and cared for in a hospital. As I lay in bed, Hugh Laurie walks into my hospital room. (Of course, you know this is a dream, since I can't find a hospital that will take a "Lymie"). He walks over to the bed, says something obnoxious, rattles off instructions to his team, and moves towards the door. Before he leaves, he actually gives me a brief smile and I thank him. I am not sure he has constipation or he actually is responding to my gratitude. Then he says, over his shoulder as he walks away. "I am always right". Perhaps he took some instruction from the American Medical Association after all.

*Special thanks to Dr. Metzger and Harmony Women's Health for providing access to their research for this blog. http://www.harmonywomenshealth.com

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"Had I not tried everything, I wouldn't be in the position I am now. I'm healthier than I've ever been in my life, and my training is proving it," says Fields, who in February clocked 1,600 meters (just shy of a mile) in 4 minutes, 38 seconds.

Having seemingly licked the disease, Fields is eyeing elite competition again but feels compelled to continue fighting Lyme on a different level. She created a Web site (www.beatlymedisease.com) and is working on a book about her experience.

Fields' message to the public is basically threefold.

First, anyone who ventures out where deer live, especially in the warmer months of spring and summer, needs to check himself for ticks. Second, treat it early and don't rule out alternative therapies.

While the first two aren't atypical, the third is.

Perry strongly believes that people who have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, lupus and multiple sclerosis should be tested for Lyme disease, and she thinks that public records on Lyme disease are misleading.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the reported cases of Lyme in South Carolina in the past 15 years range from three in 1996 to 31 in 2007. Records consistently show that the Northeastern and upper Midwestern states have the highest prevalence of Lyme.

Nationally, reported cases of Lyme disease are climbing from about 10,000 in 1992 to 27,444 in 2007, the latter yield an average of 9.1 cases per 100,000 people. However, in the 10 states where Lyme is most common, the rate jumps to 34.7 per 100,000.

So should South Carolinians really worry about Lyme disease? Dr. Anbesaw W. Selassie, an epidemiologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, says yes.

"Although Lyme disease is endemic in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, both North Carolina and South Carolina have a zoonotic cycle (infection within the deer population) creating the possibility for human infection," says Selassie, agreeing that the risk increases when traveling to the mountains, as many Southerners do during the summer.

"Mountainous regions and woodsy areas increase the risk of tick bite and should be of concern to anyone camping, hiking, biking or any summer time leisure activities," says Selassie, adding that the risk of infection could be two to three times higher in North Carolina than in South Carolina.

Lyme disease 101

-- What is it? Lyme disease is a tick-borne, "spirochetal zoonotic" disease most prevalent in the Northeastern part of the United States. The causative bacteria is B. burgdorferi. Lyme disease is most common in the spring and summer months.

-- What carries it? The predominant carrier tick in the eastern United States is the Ixodes scapularis. Deer serve as the maintenance host for the vector tick. The spread of Lyme is linked to the repopulation of white-tailed deer in the eastern United States.

-- What are the symptoms? Initially, a lesion of about 5 centimeters (about 2 inches). The second stage includes a rash that looks like a bull's-eye. Other symptoms can include fever, headache, muscle and/or joint pain, and flulike symptoms such as fatigue.

-- What is the treatment? If diagnosed in the early stages, most people can be successfully treated with antibiotics.

-- What are preventive steps? If you visit an area that may have deer ticks, wear light-colored clothing so that ticks can be spotted easily and removed. Wear long-sleeved shirts and tuck pants legs into socks. Use an insect repellent that contains DEET. Because the transmission of bacteria is unlikely to occur in the first 36 hours of tick attachment, prompt removal will help prevent infection. The recommended removal method includes the use of needle-tipped tweezers.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/apr/20/yh_cover79157/

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Fields, now 30 and living in Clemson, was a track phenom at Spring Valley and Ridge View high schools in the 1990s, ran for West Point, Appalachian State and Clemson, and has been an Olympic trials competitor in middle distances.

In 2003, after running the mile at the Grandfather Mountain Scottish Highland Games, she sat in the wooded venue with dozens of other people listening to music and was bitten by a deer tick on the nape of her neck. After removing the tick, she soon suffered from a rash at the site of the bite and fatigue similar to a cold or flu.

But not knowing about Lyme, she simply brushed it off. She recalls, "I just thought I had really bad PMS and had been training too hard."

Those symptoms went away for two years, but resurfaced at the 2005 USA Outdoor Championships when her limbs went numb and cold in the second lap of the 800-meter race.

"That's when I knew I was in serious trouble," she says.

Fields was diagnosed with a "co-infection" of both Lyme and Rocky Mountain spotted tick fever, and the next three years were a true endurance challenge — a torturous series of symptoms that included muscle and joint pain, extreme sensitivity to light, touch and smells, debilitating chronic fatigue, vomiting and severe depression.

"I was on the cusp of being suicidal, and I had to work very hard to contain myself," she recalls.

Fields focused her efforts on getting well, trying everything from conventional treatments such as antibiotics to an unconventional holistic approach. She feels as though she has overcome the disease and is convinced it was the multipronged attack that helped her do it.

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Elite runner warns South Carolinians about dangers of illness

Lyme disease doesn't seem to be prevalent in South Carolina, but Perry Louis Fields, an elite track athlete who hails from Columbia, thinks it's more common than health records demonstrate.

And with the fervor of Lance Armstrong, she's making it her mission to raise awareness about it. It's all because Fields spent three years in the living hell of Lyme disease.

Marc C. Dolan
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The disease-carrying deer tick (Ixodes scapularis), adult and nymph.

Scott Bauer
USDA Agricultural Research Service/Bugwood.org

A female blacklegged tick can lay up to 3,000 eggs in her lifetime. Her offspring are key links in the transmission of Lyme disease, a flulike illness in humans that can become chronic and progressive if not treated.

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Viral Genetics Pursues Promising New Therapy For Lyme Disease With Grant From Time For Lyme, Inc.Main Category: Genetics
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 19 Apr 2009 - 0:00 PDT

    

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Lyme disease drained energy from local woman

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Special Guests Monday, April 20

 

Pamela Weintraub, author of Cure Unknown, Inside the Lyme Epidemic

Dr. Samuel Shor, Associate Clinical Professor at George Washington University and Internal

Medicine of Northern Virginia

Dr. Philip Baker, Executive Director of American Lyme Disease Foundation

Kathy Fowler, ABC-7 Medical reporter and Lyme disease patient

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Beautyberry Bush Banishes Bad Biting Bugs

Mother Earth News April-May 2009

You don’t have to use toxic DEET to repel bad bugs like the blacklegged tick that carry Bb, mosquitoes that carry West Nile, and a plethora of other rotten debilitating diseases. You can take the leaves of a Native American plant to repel these noxious pests. You can accomplish this with the beautyberry bush, Callicarpa Americana, a deciduous shrub of the south eastern woods known for its bracelet like clusters of purple berries that ripen in the fall. Compounds found in beautyberry leaves have fabulous pest repelling properties providing the worth of the centuries old traditions placing leaves under the mule harnesses to deter pests. In 2006, the Dept. of Agriculture’s Natural Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, Mississippi found that extract from the beautyberry leaves could match DEET for mosquito repellant properties. The next year experiments were conducted on the tick deterrent abilities of the beautyberry leaves. The active ingredients of the leaves callicarpenal and intermedeol provided 100% repellency of blacklegged ticks for three hours. The following year researchers showed that extracts from the American beautyberry bush repelled fire ants. So fresh green crushed leaves from Callicarpa Americana rubbed on people and pets work for a few hours to repel noxious pests.

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GREENWICH -- Growing up on Long Island in the late '70s, Derick Martini remembers his mother wrapping the bottoms of his pant legs and sleeves with duct tape to prevent tick bites before he went out to play on the lawn in their new Syosset, N.Y., development.

Martini uses the anecdote at the beginning of "Lymelife," a new film he co-wrote and directed featuring a star-studded cast that includes Alec Baldwin, Cynthia Nixon and Rory Culkin. While the movie centers on dysfunctional families in '70s suburbia, Lyme disease is a thread that runs through the film. One of the main characters, played by Timothy Hutton, suffers from the tick-borne illness, which, at the time, was still relatively mysterious.

The film will be celebrated tonight at Time for Lyme's biannual gala at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich. Culkin and Steven Martini, Derick's brother and co-writer of "Lymelife," are slated to join several notable guests, including French virologist Luc Montagnier, a Nobel Prize winner for his 1983 discovery of HIV.

Montagnier, whose current work may help scientists better understand infection by the bacteria that causes Lyme, is being honored by the Greenwich nonprofit, which advocates better research into and treatment of the disease.

Making "Lymelife" part of the gala helps promote the film -- which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and opened in limited release April 8 -- but it also highlights the need for awareness about Lyme disease, organizers say.

The disease, which can cause a range of neurological and physiological symptoms, still is somewhat mysterious to the mainstream public, Martini said. Hutton's character is partially based on a Martini family friend, who had Lyme disease and was misdiagnosed.

"It was a story that has not been told in film," said Derick Martini during a recent phone interview. "To me, it was important to tell a truthful story about this character and his plight. . . . I think that it's only going to help spread the word and bring awareness to a disease that is still obscure."

Culkin, the younger brother of actor Macaulay Culkin, said he's been learning more about the disease since filming and publicizing "Lymelife."

"I'm glad the film has brought awareness for it," Culkin said by phone this week, "but I didn't sign on to the film knowing that we were bringing attention to it."

Diane Blanchard, co-president and co-founder of Time for Lyme, said tonight's fundraising gala features many dynamic elements that will help boost people's awareness.

Actor Lou Diamond Phillips, who portrayed '50s singer Ritchie Valens in the 1987 movie "La Bamba," also will be honored tonight. He has agreed to start working with immigrants to inform them about Lyme disease.

The gala includes a performance by the Young People's Chorus, a New York City children's singing group founded by Francisco Nunez, who has two close friends with Lyme disease.

"We're delighted about that to help get the word out," Blanchard said of "Lymelife." "It helps underscore the point that this disease needs more attention."

There are still many more questions about the disease than answers, Blanchard said. One of the main problems lies with the unreliable test for Lyme, which looks for the presence of the antibody, not the bacteria. Also, some people only have mild symptoms, while others are chronically sick. Having an accurate test can lead to better treatment and possibly a cure, Blanchard said.

"It's really not a science at this point," Blanchard said. "It's really more like an art form."

Cathy Rubin, co-chairwoman of Time for Lyme's 2009 gala and vice president of marketing for the organization, said the event's collection of actors, scientists and musicians brings the disease some needed advocacy, comparing it to the celebrities that have raised money for research into HIV and AIDS.

"It takes many different voices to raise awareness and to get the science where the science needs to be," said Rubin, whose husband was recently diagnosed with Lyme disease. "To have that kind of knowledge and that kind of expertise and that kind of talent, who isn't going to sit up and listen?"

-- http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_12167264?source=most_emailed

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Rep. Hall seeks $100 million to fight, prevent Lyme disease

By Mid-Hudson News Network

WAPPINGERS FALLS — Noting that Dutchess County has one of the highest instances of Lyme disease in the state, U.S. Rep. John Hall is co-sponsoring legislation that would provide $100 million over five years to prevent Lyme disease infections, educate doctors and the public and advance research to fight the infections.

Hall, D-Dover Plains, chose as a backdrop for his announcement on Friday a park pavilion overlooking the Hudson River in Wappingers Falls.

More than 220,000 Americans per year develop Lyme disease, which most commonly is spread by deer ticks is characterized by a rash, a fever, headaches and fatigue and. In extreme cases, it can lead to nervous system damage and death.

Lyme disease is most prevalent in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic region and the Wisconsin-Minnesota area. Dutchess County ranks third-highest in the nation in terms of new Lyme cases per year.

“This is a disease that is a chameleon that can show up and be misdiagnosed as a number of other things,” Hall said, “and our medical professionals need to be taught how to recognize it better because the disease can manifest in a number of different ways.”

Jill Auerbach, chairwoman of the Hudson Valley Lyme Disease Association, had the disease for 10 years before medical professionals were able to diagnosis.

 http://dailyfreeman.com/articles/2009/04/19/news/doc49eaa6a1138ee125504196.txt

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page 8 of 8)

On the day I visit, Jones sits at his desk in a big leather swivel chair. On the desk are neat stacks of patient files. For the hearing, which he calls variously a "conspiracy," a "witch hunt," and an "inquisition," his accusers have subpoenaed many of his charts. "I'm considered the great Satan," he says with a gentle smile, "which always amuses me."

"This is not a malpractice suit," he notes. "If the charges were serious, it would be malpractice." He goes so far as to label the charges "trivial."

In his office suite are five rooms filled with patient files: 10,000 children, all the way back to the beginning. "Seventy-five percent of them are cured," he claims. For his legal defense fund, almost a million dollars has been raised by his patients' parents and, in some cases, by his patients themselves. "This little boy," he says, pointing to a photo of a cherub-faced youngster, "had a lemonade stand this summer, and he raised $33. Another little boy, 6 years old, came in with 21 cents in a paper cup."

Hundreds of parents have crowded the Hartford hearing room in support of this aging doctor, a widower of 12 years, who in any other life would be retired. "A lot of people who dealt in Lyme are no longer doing it," he says. "It's a high-risk trade. But I'm less encumbered."

Opponents debate Jones's figures, maintaining that many of these children don't have Lyme disease. If they succeed in wresting his license from him, the Lyme community will have lost perhaps the only physician left who's willing to treat these children long-term -- some of whom, he says, would end up in institutions without proper treatment.

Clearly, the new diagnostic and treatment guidelines and the reduction in the number of physicians willing to see chronic Lyme patients will have a huge impact on the disease's future -- and the lives of the people suffering its ravages.

I realized in talking with these people that my own Lyme disease is ongoing. At the time I was diagnosed, not only was I so unfamiliar with the disease that I didn't recognize the symptoms, but I was also confused by the massive amount of contradictory information available. And I was scared of what it all might end up costing. I'd already spent $731 out of pocket on tests and treatments. So I've ignored many of the painful problems I've experienced since my visit to that island paradise five years ago. Today my health hangs in the balance of a government and a medical system apparently unwilling not only to care for their constituents and patients but perhaps to take responsibility for an epidemic as well -- a scourge that I am convinced can be traced to a scruffy little island at the eastern end of Long Island Sound.

Ferries loaded with cars and passengers pass it up to 30 times a day. Fishing boats pull catch just off its shores, and the big, bright lens at the top of the old lighthouse sweeps the water, night after night, year after year, warning passing ships away from its rocky edges.

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Page 7

And as it spreads, physicians and researchers continue to squabble among themselves: Some say that long-term antibiotics are the only way to treat Lyme, while the more conventional among them advocate only short doses of antibiotics -- and believe that if a patient needs a longer protocol, the illness must not be Lyme. Insurance coverage is often denied.

One way to stop an epidemic is to redefine it. Recent guidelines issued by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) have narrowed the disease's diagnostic criteria so tightly that it's hard for any chronically ill Lyme patient to fit the profile -- leaving thousands of people robbed of an answer.

And one way to control an outbreak is to determine which doctors can treat it and which ones cannot. According to the Lyme Disease Association, since the early 1990s more than 30 Lyme specialist physicians in 10 states have been brought before state medical boards under charges of overdiagnosing Lyme and overtreating with antibiotics. This, of course, is a chilling development for doctors who want to treat Lyme patients.

Charles Ray Jones, M.D., is a 78-year-old pediatrician whose New Haven practice has embraced 10,000 children with Lyme since 1968. "I didn't know I was treating Lyme patients at the time. There was no such thing," Jones says. In fact, he's not only the world's foremost pediatric chronic Lyme disease specialist, he's virtually the only one.

I've come to see him on a rainy Sunday afternoon, the only day of the week he doesn't see patients. A humble man, Jones lives in an apartment in an unremarkable high-rise. His commute to his office is a flight of stairs.

His patients come from all over the country to his office, just down the street from Yale's School of Medicine. In addition to seeing patients all day long, for the past year he's been driving north on a regular basis to a Hartford hearing room, trundling a wheeled suitcase filled with papers relating to the case against him, which may rob him of his license to practice.

He greets me in the courtly manner of his generation, almost bowing. In placid tones, he explains his life with Lyme. In the 1960s, he was a staff physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. During that time, he and his wife began to look to the Connecticut countryside as a better place to raise their children. In 1968, they moved to Hamden, then a sleepy hamlet beside the Quinnipiac River, and he set up his practice.

"I started seeing children in clusters with what we thought was juvenile rheumatoid arthritis," he says. "This was very rare. But it wasn't really JRA. It didn't fit the whole picture. The clusters were not just in Lyme; they were all around. And there were many of them. Polly [Murray] was instrumental because she demanded they do something about this."

Along with Allen Steere and Eugene Shapiro, M.D., who now sits on the opposite side of the hearing room, Jones worked to solve the puzzle of this peculiar, crippling ailment. "Sure, we were colleagues at first," he notes. "We were all trying to figure it out. You could say we were mired in a lack of understanding." For Jones, this search for knowledge transformed into his specialty. He became an LLMD, Lyme literate by evolution.

"At what point did all this become contentious?" I ask.

"I was never part of that," he says. "I heard things, but I was busy. I just figured that was their problem."

Now it's his problem, too. Jones has been charged with diagnosing two children in Nevada with Lyme disease before examining them, and with prescribing antibiotics for them over the phone. Shapiro, his former colleague, a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at Yale's medical school, not only brought the charges against Jones but also helped write the guidelines that have narrowed the disease's diagnostic and treatment guidelines. The Hartford Courant once quoted Shapiro as saying that he had had calls from physicians in Connecticut "begging me to see their patients so they don't have to see Dr. Jones."

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(page 6 of 8)

I knew what Rita meant by the "strange energy" surrounding Lyme. When I visited Georgina Scholl and asked her to explain the controversy, she covered my tape recorder with her hand and whispered, "Please!" And then she said, as if in mediation, "Why do we have to have this disagreement? Let's just get rid of Lyme!" Kirby Stafford and Peter Rand both told me they wouldn't answer questions about the "biopolitical" aspect of Lyme. What did they mean by that? I wondered. What was there about this disease that could not be discussed?

And then I met Marjorie Tietjen, a sweet-natured woman who lives with her husband and son in a house in the woods of Killingworth, Connecticut. Marjorie, who has suffered from Lyme since 1989, calls herself a Lyme activist. I'd read her articles on the Web and was impressed by her wealth of information. She welcomed me to her home. Like almost every other Lyme patient I'd visited, she had stacks of papers and folders piled on the dining room table.

Marjorie had her own story to tell me, but she also had a book she wanted to give me: Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory by Michael Christopher Carroll (HarperCollins, 2004).

Carroll discovered that Plum Island, which sits in eastern Long Island Sound, was set up after World War II with the help of Erich Traub, a German germ warfare expert. During the war, Traub had operated a lab on an island in the Baltic Sea. Islands, it was thought, were ideal for such research, as they're self-limiting. But we know now that that's an illusion. As Carroll points out: "Plum Island lies in the middle of the Atlantic flyway, the bird migration highway that runs between breeding grounds and winter homes from the Caribbean to the Florida coast, up the East Coast to the icy reaches of Greenland. In addition, deer swim back and forth between the island and the mainland."

Compiling information received through the Freedom of Information Act, Carroll details Plum Island's shadowy netherworld: virus outbreaks, biological meltdowns, infected workers, contaminated raw waste flushed into the Sound ... and experimental tick colonies, bred for research on vector-borne diseases.

As the big white ferry New London pushes forward into deep water, steel-gray clouds hide the sky. The trip to Long Island takes about an hour and a half, and midway through our journey, on the port side, Plum Island appears, crowned with a water tower and edged with large, flat-roofed buildings. Off the island's shores, fishing boats and pleasure craft bob. At its tip, a picturesque granite-based lighthouse sits, like a photo on a postcard.

On the map, Plum Island lies like an arrow, one end pointing toward the Connecticut coast and other toward Long Island's North Fork. At the same time that Polly Murray and many others in that area were beginning to experience bizarre symptoms, Plum Island's germ research was up and running. Birds, stopping on Plum Island, often flew next to either Montauk (on the South Fork) or Lyme, where the rich estuaries of the terminus of the Connecticut River lured them. Initially, the highest incidences of the disease were in Lyme and surrounding towns, and at the tip of Long Island.

Lab 257 has been shut down, but other labs on the island perk along. If infected ticks did escape from this island, they've long since done the damage and nothing can stop them now; Borrelia burgdorferi is out and about, doing its job, making people sick.

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page 5 of 8)

"We moved here to be in the country," she explains. "We built a treehouse for our sons at the edge of the field, and that of course is where the ticks are. And then we found out about Lyme. We had no idea." Georgina is a neurologist; her husband is an immunologist. "The problem is, we've got too many deer," she adds. "Why would anyone tolerate a problem that's destroying the woodlands, causing fatal car accidents, and spreading disease?"

Last summer, Georgina and her husband took a trip to Maine and stayed on Monhegan Island, where there are few ticks. "It was wonderful to be somewhere where they weren't," she notes. But it wasn't always so.

On Monhegan Island, a little rock of a place 10 miles out in the ocean off the coast of Maine, Peter Rand, M.D., and his band of fellow sleuths at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute have spent almost 20 years studying the relationships among deer, rats, and ticks, and how their population levels correlate with the spread of Lyme disease. "Oh, I'd love to write a book about all this," says Rand, a handsome man in his 70s, with a full head of white hair and a patrician bearing. From his office in South Portland, he loves to tell the story, an adventurous tale of trips to the island on the high seas, collecting ticks in the snow, and late-night sessions around a roaring fire, the team talking about the future of their research. "The beauty of the island was that it was contained," Rand explains. A scientist's dream.

For part of that time, most of the 75 full-time residents of Monhegan acted as guinea pigs; the island's little general store became their makeshift clinic. "The people would come down and put their arms on the meat counter, and we'd draw blood," Rand recalls. Dogs and cats were tested, too. He sometimes felt as though he were on the set of M*A*S*H.

His team worked like that for 13 years: "We found that as the years went on, up to 13 percent of the island's residents had Lyme." The local fear was that the presence of the disease would scare away visitors, who provide Monhegan with vital revenue. And so, after furious debate, residents agreed to have all the deer killed. Between 1996 and 1999, more than 100 deer were shot and their carcasses processed (the meat was donated to food banks), effectively removing the most active tick host from that island. And now, six years later, Lyme is rare on Monhegan. Rand's study was a triumph in the annals of Lyme disease prevention.

One comment I heard more than once is that Lyme doesn't kill you -- but you wish it would. In Brunswick, Maine, I visited Rita Losee, a little fireball of a redhead who was once a nurse and a triathlete. Bitten by a tick while hiking the Appalachian Trail, she was diagnosed quickly, but when she'd finished the recommended course of antibiotics, her symptoms returned. "There were three or four times when the pain was so awful, I was within days of killing myself," she remembers. Her doctor changed her diagnosis to chronic fatigue syndrome. At first she believed him -- but then she started researching on her own. "I convinced my doctor to put me back on antibiotics," she says, "and I started to feel better again."

The mysteries of Lyme haunt her: "One of the things that really puzzles me is that so many doctors refuse to know about Lyme. I was in touch with one doctor, and he and his family all had Lyme. I called him up and he said, 'I don't want to talk about this on the phone,' and he invited me over. I felt as if I were in a Kafka novel. I've never felt anything like this, the strange energy that surrounds Lyme. I asked him about it, and he talked about the denial that exists around Lyme. And then he told me that there was a writer for Newsday who started investigating, and he traced the whole thing to a little island off Long Island where the United States has a biological factory, and that this Lyme bug was an escapee."

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He shrugs: "Migrating birds. There's no sure way to know. The movement of deer and the way people travel to tick-infested areas with their pets -- all can be factors. But it's widely believed that birds played a role in a lot of this." He shows me the tick's life cycle, which involves at least four critical stages. "It's like a mechanism that needs all the parts to function," he explains.

Having thought of the tick as an indestructible machine, I suddenly think it's a miracle that any tick survives with so many bridges to cross until it reaches the final stage on the back of a moving deer. "What about reducing the number of deer?" I ask.

"We've been wrestling with that for a number of years," Stafford replies. "We've done studies, and we've found that it can help substantially. But people get kind of exercised about hunting deer."

"Imagine virtually eliminating Lyme in five years! I've been living in the epicenter of the Lyme world for four years already. We could be almost done by now."

In her clipped British accent, Georgina Scholl, M.D., is talking about her passion: killing deer to save people. Slender, auburn-haired, dressed in linen, she's the vice chair of the Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance, a group that provides residents with a "deer hotline" and information on hired hunters. These towns, which suffer the highest incidence of Lyme disease, are trying everything they can to contain this epidemic.

Outside the French doors of her kitchen in Redding, Georgina looks out on a wildflower meadow that slopes gently toward the woods. The turquoise waters of the family's pool ripple in the breeze. This bucolic scene, once their paradise, is now a kind of no-man's-land for her family -- what she calls "no child left outside."

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Lyme Disease: One Woman's Journey Into Tick Country

(page 3 of 8)

Eventually, doctors suggested a complete workup, including a psychiatric evaluation, at New England Medical Center in Boston. After three weeks of tests and observation, Polly came home with sleeping pills and antidepressants. But she continued recording all that was happening to her. And what was happening to her didn't stop.

She discovered that other people in the shore area were experiencing the same ailments. She compared notes with Judith Mensch, who lived in Old Lyme, and in October 1975 they called the state health department to report the plethora of symptoms that were plaguing them, their families, and now their neighbors. Polly asked for an investigation. When she told her doctor what she'd done, he was furious and accused her of "stirring up trouble."

Nevertheless, on November 20, 1975, she was referred to Yale University to consult Allen Steere -- a rheumatologist who had spent his first two years out of medical school working for the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EI, an arm of the CDC. Steere showed a deep interest in her case and wanted all her notes. She also gave him the names of other people she knew who were suffering as well.

By early in the new year, Steere had recorded 39 children and 12 adults from the Lyme area who were experiencing these symptoms -- all of which he connected to the bite of a tick, and which he collectively called "Lyme arthritis," a term that was later broadened to "Lyme disease."

On a national television news show, Steere explained the epidemic. Irate that their town was now on the map for unwelcome reasons, Lyme residents accosted Polly again and again. Fear spread that the town's real estate values would plummet.

From that small circle grew an epidemic of similar stories -- people with elusive symptoms that could not be conclusively diagnosed. Doctors surmised that they had fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), lupus, and sometimes Parkinson's. Yet this mystifying tick-borne illness was little known outside the growing number of Connecticut and Long Island shoreline communities where it was prevalent.

In April 1979, a dramatic increase in the number of ticks was recorded in Lyme and its environs. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, however, was inexplicably quoted as saying that ticks were "new to the state." They certainly were not new to Polly and her neighbors. By then, they had been plagued by ticks for more than 20 years.

Polly's experience sounded alarmingly like Lauren Lemay's. But I had to remind myself that a half century had passed in the meantime. I shook myself back into the present and drove to New Haven to see a tick specialist.

Kirby C. Stafford III, Ph.D., the Connecticut state entomologist, sits in his office at the Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, more than willing to talk about his favorite subject. A picture of a deer tick (Ixodes scapularis, also known as I. dammini, or the black-legged tick), blown up to almost human proportions, adorns his wall. Under magnification, the creature looks powerful and indestructible, like a prehistoric tank. It is, he tells me with almost paternal glee, "the ideal parasite."

Stafford gestures to his wall of filing cabinets: "Ticks, Lyme disease -- I've been in it 19 years. The Polly Murray thing happened in the mid-'70s. Allen Steere published his first paper in 1977, and the organism itself was discovered in 1982. After that, things proceeded rapidly." He's telling me about the cause of the diease: Borrelia burgdorferi, the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that spirals its way into humans from the mouths of ticks. 

The mustachioed Stafford has a calm, precise demeanor, and with pens and eyeglasses case stuffed into his shirt pocket, is the very picture of a dedicated scientist. He continues: "At that time, the only place in the country you could be tested for Lyme was right here. Dr. Louis Magnarelli developed the test."

Even as we talk, researchers in a lab near Stafford's office are opening up envelopes and removing ticks mailed to them for analysis. Some 6,000 ticks arrive here each year. Scientists grind them up and test them for the spirochete bacterium that has bored its way into hundreds of thousands of Americans to date, and even deeper into their consciousness.

Stafford is the author of the Tick Management Handbook, a booklet that is distributed throughout southern Connecticut. (It's also available online at caes.state.ct.us.) In it, he discusses tick biology, tick-borne illnesses (Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, encephalitis, tularemia, Lyme disease), prevention, chemical control, and landscaping methods to reduce the Ixodes population -- in part by managing the numbers of deer, white-footed mice, and chipmunks (all principal hosts of disease-bearing ticks) on one's property.

"It's not going away," he says confidently. He shows me the CDC's incidence map, noting how the disease has spread from those early days in Lyme -- the concentrations now radiating like a dark stain all the way out into the Northeast. Indeed, 49 states in the Union have now reported cases. There are a number of places where Stafford and his researchers have been collecting ticks for many years, including Polly Murray's backyard.

"How does Lyme spread?" I ask.

He shrugs: "Migrating birds. There's no sure way to know. The movement of deer and the way people travel to tick-infested areas with their pets -- all can be factors. But it's widely believed that birds played a role in a lot o

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Lyme Disease: One Woman's Journey Into Tick CountryAlso find resources and tips on how to protect yourself and petsby Edie Clark

In July 2002, having spent an idyllic week's vacation on one of the Elizabeth Islands off Cape Cod, I came home to New Hampshire. The island -- a glorious, wild place marked by ancient beech forests, kettle ponds, and open grasslands -- is also crawling with ticks, which at the time seemed only a minor obstacle to enjoying the abundant gifts it offers. Within a month of my return, however, I would begin to learn a bitter lesson -- in the history, ethics, and politics of a debilitating disease, and the mystery that has surrounded it for more than 50 years.

Like many others who visit New England's islands, I was bitten by ticks, more than once. Ten days after getting home, on a very hot day, I felt cold. I put on sweaters and heavy socks and lay down under a pile of blankets. I shivered and shook. My head pounded. More than anything, I craved sleep. I lay in bed, shivering and sweating. I finally found the strength to call my doctor, who waved away my suggestion that I might have Lyme disease.

Some days later, bruises appeared on my legs, first one and then another, and within another day, my entire body was covered in them. A friend, a nurse, saw the deep blue marks and said, "You have Lyme disease! Get to a doctor right away!" How she knew I have no idea -- because they didn't look like the pictures of the bull's-eye rash I'd seen in books.

My doctor ordered blood tests. Indeed, I had Lyme. Soon my doctor was talking with specialists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. I was a rare case. I had all four of the identifying factors: a verified tick bite, flulike symptoms, a positive blood test, and a bruiselike rash, known medically as erythema migrans, or EM. My doctor prescribed four weeks of a powerful antibiotic, doxycycline, and when the symptoms hadn't completely subsided in that time, an additional two weeks.

The antibiotics cleared the rash immediately. The fever was subdued, but not my fear. I Googled "Lyme disease" on my computer. More than a million results came up, and to my dismay, many of them were in remarkable disagreement about almost everything. There were scores of "Lyme disease associations" to consult. Which ones were useful? I had no way to tell. I read dozens of personal stories -- all with the same theme. The treatment was as perplexing as its cause.

I read about Allen C. Steere, M.D., the physician who first gave the disease its name -- and who later received death threats and refused to make public appearances without security guards. I read about doctors who had been hauled before their state medical boards for prescribing long-term antibiotics, risking suspension of their licenses. I was mystified. This was beginning to sound like a John le Carre novel. My journey down the information highway had left me with more questions than ever.

Some of the Web sites I visited, such as lyme-rage.info, appeared to be outlets for fury against the medical establishment and the insurance companies. I could relate to that. My health insurance had expired just two weeks before I was diagnosed. A cancer survivor, I was in the midst of applying to insurance companies when I received the Lyme diagnosis. And so, on the next application, I dutifully reported my past history -- not only with cancer but now with Lyme. That application was denied. The reason stated? Lyme disease. I thought, "How could Lyme" -- which I thought of then as merely an achy, flulike illness -- "be worse than cancer?"

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10th District Frank Wolf Congressman in Va has a Lyme thing on his website. http://wolf.house.gov/?sectionid=223&sectiontree=7,223 

Ashley Miller tossed a pack of needles and syringes onto a table while a nurse took notes on a sheet of paper.

“What’s your pain level today?” the nurse asked, looking for a number between one and 10, with 10 being the worst.

“About an eight,” Miller said, arranging her 100-pound, 5-foot-3-inch frame into a reclining chair.

“Where does it hurt?”

“My jaw, neck, knees and wrists,” Miller said.

“Still using the wheelchair around school?”

“Yes.”

Miller, a 20-year-old student at Methodist University, suffers from Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness that’s wreaked havoc on her joints and nerves and caused her to have seizures.

While the disease itself is a certainty — Miller has tested positive for the bacteria that causes it — the idea of long-term, or chronic, Lyme disease is hotly disputed in the medical community.

As a result, Miller’s insurance doesn’t pay for her medical visits or the 20-plus pills she takes every day.

It’s also why her doctor, after trying to help for two years, has nearly given up.

“He’s either running out of ideas, or he thinks I’m beyond the scope of his practice,” she said.

Every week, Miller goes to Home Choice Partners to have the needle changed on an intravenous port that has been surgically implanted into her skin, just under her right collarbone.

She receives medicine and needles in the mail once a week so she can inject herself daily with antibiotics.

Miller thinks she contracted the disease while conducting a science experiment in the woods near her high school, Reid Ross Classical.

Since then, her condition has worsened. Her joints and muscles have become so weak that she uses a portable wheelchair to get to classes on campus.

Miller is one of thousands of people across the country in a similar situation, said Pat Smith, president of the Lyme Disease Association, a New Jersey-based advocacy group for Lyme disease patients and the doctors who treat them.

Smith said treating Lyme disease for longer than a few weeks can put doctors into tricky territory, one in which insurers won’t pay and doctors can lose their licenses for over-treating patients.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America, which sets the guidelines for the treatment of Lyme disease, advises doctors against long-term antibiotic therapy, saying it’s unproven, potentially dangerous and expensive.

Once the guidelines were set, most of the medical community and insurance companies followed suit.

“The guidelines became a de facto law,” Smith said.

Basically, Smith said, “the guidelines say there is no such thing as chronic Lyme disease.”

It also means there’s not an approved treatment, either.

But some patients, such as Miller, believe the long-term antibiotic therapy — and other treatments not included in the guidelines — could be the only hope they have for a cure.

“There are so few doctors nationwide willing to take risks,” Smith said. “There’s a huge amount of risk for treating Lyme disease long-term.”

For several years, battles about the definition, diagnosis and treatment of chronic Lyme disease have been waged in medical journals, courtrooms, boardrooms and legislatures.

Lyme disease was discovered in the 1970s by Dr. Allan Steere, a rheumatologist at Yale University who interviewed several adults and children suffering from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Steere eventually found the patients had a disease caused by bacteria transmitted by a tick. He named it Lyme arthritis, and later Lyme disease, after Lyme and Old Lyme, Conn., where the disease was first found.

Since then, thousands have been diagnosed with the disease, which can be cured with antibiotics if discovered in its early stages.

The disease often is characterized by a round rash that appears a few days after the initial bite and spreads over time, sometimes forming into the shape of a bull’s eye, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doctors also can diagnose Lyme disease based on other symptoms, such as facial palsy, arthritis, and a history of possible exposure to infected ticks, the CDC sayd.

Some laboratory tests help, but they aren’t always reliable, said Dr. Megan Davies, a medical epidemiologist at the N.C. Division of Public Health.

If not caught early, symptoms can become murkier and include muscle and joint pain, arthritis, cognitive defects, sleep disturbance or fatigue, the CDC says.

In the eastern United States, black-legged ticks transmit the disease, usually in their nymphal stage in spring or early summer, Davies said.

North Carolina reports a relatively small number of Lyme disease cases every year, compared with states in the Northeast, where thousands of cases are found.

The largest number of cases North Carolina has seen was in 2003, when 156 were reported to the CDC.

Last year, 50 cases were reported, Davies said.

Part of the reason for lower numbers could be under-reporting and under-diagnosis, but it’s also a result of the ecology, Davies said.

In the South, the nymphal stage of the black-legged tick tends to feed on reptiles rather than rodents or small mammals.

Reptiles are not good hosts for the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. As a result, bacteria don’t survive as easily and are less likely

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There is a Lyme Disease Explosion In Central Va

Concerns Over Lyme Disease04/08/09 11:00 pm    reporter: Margaret Clevenstine   producer: Amy Foster VIDEO

Across the ABC 13 Viewing Area - It's a problem local veterinarians say is here for good—deer ticks spreading Lyme Disease. In fact, vets say it's so common they now recommend people vaccinate their dogs for the disease.

It's not just pet owners who need to worry, because if Lyme Disease is on the rise in our dogs, you can bet humans are being affected too.

What was once thought to be a problem only in the Northeast, has hitched a ride on the deer population express and made a new home in Central Virginia.

Dr. Albert Henry, Peaks View Animal Hospital - "The disease that we didn't have to deal with in Lynchburg that we're having to deal with now is Lyme Disease."

Local veterinarian Dr. Albert Henry says it's a big problem caused by a little insect.

Dr. Henry - "Six years ago, we saw 1 or 2 a year and over six years now we have 18% of the dog population testing positive for lyme."

And it's not just dogs, it's something Dr. Henry worries about every time he takes a walk in the woods.

"Why is that scary? Well, if our dogs have 18 percent Lyme Disease that same bug is there waiting to get into people."

So what can you do to keep protect yourself and your pet? You can start by going to your vet for a tick collar like Preventic or a treatment like Frontline.

Pet Owner - "Frontline, a little old stuff you put right on here and it'll last for a month."

Although vets say they aren't 100 percent effective.

Dr. Henry - "Just nothing is potent enough that's safe for the dog."

Even the Lyme Disease vaccine, which Dr. Henry recommends, isn't guaranteed. So watch your pet and more importantly, keep those six legged pests off yourself to be safe.

Dr. Henry - "We need to pay attention to our pets, but I say, wow, I also need to pay attention to myself because the bug is here and is probably going to be here for good."

An entomologist with Lynchburg College (web) says the wet spring we've had may mean this will be a bad year for ticks.  To protect yourself keep your lawn mowed, make a distinct barrier between your yard and woodsy areas, keep wood piles and things that harbor rodents away from your house, use a product containing DEET like Deep Woods Off or try sprinkling powdered sulfur on your pant legs and socks because it will also repel chiggers.

http://www.wset.com/news/stories/0409/611767.html?ref=rs

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Cases of Lyme Disease Soar In Region

By Ashley Halsey III
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 8, 2009; B01

The black-legged tick nymphs that have caused Lyme disease reports in the Washington region to soar will emerge with the spring flowers this month, and one thing is certain: They are hungry.

The most recent statistics show that Lyme disease reports more than doubled in Virginia and Maryland from 2006 to 2007, the last year for which data are available. They have nearly doubled in the District, tripled in Howard County and quadrupled in Montgomery County. Loudoun County recorded half of all cases in Virginia.

"The black-legged tick is really coming down and taking hold in the Potomac region," said David Goodfriend, the Loudoun County health director. "There are a great many more ticks in the area than there were a number of years ago."

Goodfriend has had to become an expert on the disease, which takes its name from the town in Connecticut where a cluster of cases was first recognized in 1975. Since then, the disease has grown more prevalent along the East Coast, spreading south and west from Connecticut, with a number of mid-Atlantic states reporting an exponential growth in cases as the ticks rapidly multiply.

The ticks that carry the disease, which can result in heart and joint problems as well as Bell's palsy if not caught early, have been commonly called deer ticks because deer are the vehicles that are the Johnny Appleseeds in spreading the disease. But the unseen culprit in delivering the disease to humans is the white-footed mouse or another of his rodent friends.

The ticks need just three meals in their normal two-year life cycle. As larvae, they get their first feeding on the backs of rodents, which are disease carriers. The larvae grow into infected nymphs that drop off the rodent in the woods or someone's back yard.

"There they will crawl up on a piece of grass and wait until an animal brushes up against them, and the cycle continues," said Paul Mead, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That cycle continues with meal number two on that animal. And the nymph, which is the size of a pencil point, is much less likely to be noticed if it is feeding on, and infecting, a human.

If that nymph gets its meal and grows into an adult tick, it would like to hop onto a deer next.

"The adult ticks prefer to feed on deer, which are immune to the disease," Mead said. "Deer are the adult mating bars for black-legged ticks. That's where they like to meet their mates, and then they drop off to lay their eggs."

The spread of infected ticks in the Washington region has been dramatic as more farmland has been developed and deer have become ever more common roaming through back yards and parks.

"What used to be an occasional case now has come to be commonplace," said Karen Kingry, a pediatrician who treats children at Nighttime Care facilities in Montgomery, Howard and Anne Arundel counties. "For example, when we see a single swollen, not very painful, knee, it's almost always going to be Lyme disease."

She points out that the number of cases in children might be even higher were it not for a single fact: Most young children, in the course of an average year, have some other illness that requires the same antibiotic treatment used for Lyme disease. So, the drugs administered for an earache might also combat an unnoticed case of Lyme disease.

Although early treatment in many cases can resolve the illness quickly, even that is not guaranteed.

Washington lawyer Andrew E. Falk said he noticed the bull's-eye rash on his chest in the bathroom mirror late last August.

"Then I started getting really spooky pains" in his hip, knee and wrist, he said. "It was almost like invasion of the body snatchers."

The blood test for Lyme disease came back negative, but his doctor suspected that that was the problem and prescribed the normal three-week course of antibiotics.

"But after three weeks, I didn't feel particularly better," said Falk, who spends a lot of time outdoors at his Davidsonville home. "I couldn't go out. I couldn't exercise even a little bit. It was like somebody had taken my battery out."

He went to a Lyme disease specialist, who said he should consider an extended course of antibiotics. But Falk's brother, an emergency room doctor, persuaded him that spending months on antibiotics wasn't the answer.

Seven months later, without additional antibiotics, Falk feels fully recovered, but he worries about encountering another black-legged nymph this season.

"The next time you go into your yard, you could get it again," he said. "What can you do unless you live like an indoor gnome?"

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Lyme Disease In The West?

Nearly 15% of horses living in the NW US have been exposed to Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. First recognized in CT, during the 1970s, Lyme disease in horses has been associated with chronic weight loss, sporadic lameness, laminitis, joint swelling, muscle weakness and uveitis. Because these signs can be subtle or transient, and not all horses exposed to the bacteria become ill, diagnosis of Lyme in horses is difficult. B. burgdorferi is transmitted to horses by deer ticks, which are prevalent in the NE states. In fact, studies have found that 45.1% of horses in the NE test positive for the organism. Recently, however, researchers tested the blood of 196 asymptomatic horses in NW Oregon for B.burgdorfei. The results showed 14.8% of the horses had been exposed. These findings. the researchers conclude, suggest the disease is more prevalent in the NW than previously thought, and that exposure to Bb "should be considered in horses presenting with undiagnosed musculoskeletal or neurological disease."

"The prevalence of antibodies against Borrelia burdorferi found in horses residing in the northwestern United States," Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, October 2008.

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Click here to see the interview ABC 13's Len Stevens did with Noreen.

Click here to see the interview Noreen did with Dr. Norton Fishman.

Click here to see the interview Noreen did with Dr. Robert Brennan.

Click here to see the interview Noreen did with Lyme Disease Patient Sarah Epps.

Have a comment or question about this series?
Click here to email us. lyme at wset.com

Here are some informational links for Lyme Disease:

• Click here to print out a list of symptoms to help your doctor make a diagnosis.

• Click here to learn more about the ILADS position on Lyme Disease diagnosis and treatment.

• Click here to learn the Infectious Diseases Society's position on Lyme Disease diagnosis and treatment.

• Click here to learn more about Lyme Disease and research and doctor referrals.

• Click here to learn more about CDC reporting, statistics, guidelines, and recommendations.

• Click here for online support.

• Click here to learn more about IGeneX Lab and its procedures for testing.

• Click here to see the trailer for Open Eye Pictures' upcoming documentary.

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The is a great documentary about Lyme disease.

http://cfc.wset.com/external.cfm?p=lyme

It may be one of the most misdiagnosed medical problems today and left untreated, it can attack your joints, heart, nervous system.  It’s not some mystery illness.  It's Lyme Disease.  And it has become a politicized nightmare with stories of suffering, misdiagnosis, and a seemingly futile search for answers.

There are thousands of Virginians with the same symptoms -- unexplained aches and pains, low grade fever, fatigue.  ABC 13 News Anchor Noreen Turyn is one of them.  She takes us through her journey and the long road for others in
The Lyme Controversy.

   

The Lyme Controversy - Part 1

The Lyme Controversy - Part 2

The Lyme Controversy - Part 3

Update: The Lyme Controversy

 

Lyme News Updates:

Central Virginia Lyme Support Group

February 14

Time: 2:00PM

Location: Central Virginia Community College

Facility: Campbell Building, Room 4207

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has entered into an agreement with the Attorney General of Connecticut.  Click here to read the full release.

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This is a great blog by a Lyme Literate MD, or LLMD.

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