CHRONIC ILLNESS LINKED TO LYME'S DISEASE
It is estimated that 50% of chronically ill patients have LYME'S DISEASE, a disease discovered in 1975 in Lyme Connecticut by Dr. Steere after an outbreak of what looked like juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Chronic Lyme disease is responsible for a range of medically unexplained symptoms. The disease affects every tissue and every major organ system in the body and is widely under reported.
TRANSMISSION
Spirochetes that resemble syphilis were found in the gut of ticks. They were named Borrelia Burgdorferer (Bb). The Borellia is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected ticks from deer and dog ticks. The disease can be carried and transmitted by fleas, mosquitoes, mites, PETS, blood transfusions, and by humans. It can be in raw foods of animal origin, and infected dairy animals.
Ticks are bloodsucking external parasites that feed on humans, wild and domestic mammals, and birds. They are not insects; they uncoil. The spirochetes hide their flagella from the host. Ticks are carried by a number of different host animals as deer, fox, coyote, dogs, cats, cattle, rabbits, skunks, raccoons, rats, and squirrels. Cases of LD being contracted from infected pets bringing infected ticks into their homes. are well documented.
STAGES OF BORRELIA
Borrelia exists in three different life stages: 1) the cyst, 2) the spheroplast which doesn’t have a cell wall (commonly called: cell wall deficient (CWD)), and 3) the typical spiral-shaped bacteria form that has a cell wall and flagella. Humans can be hosts for all three stages of ticks.
The spirochete travels through all the tissues of the body. By rotating their axial filament (endoflagella), the spirochetes move in a corkscrew fashion. They literally "screw" themselves into and through the tissues of the body. Spirochetes hide their flagella from the host’s immune defenses,
SYMPTOMS
Lyme disease causes well over 100 different symptoms. They can cause joint pain, muscle pain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and autoimmune problems. The disease initially begins with flu-like symptoms that progress to an arthritic and fibromyalgic condition. It is frequently misdiagnosed.
LAB TESTING
Lab testing for the spirochete often fails. Borrelia organisms are difficult to isolate, grow, and study in the laboratory. The bacteria are fat-soluble and hide in the liver, gall bladder, and fatty tissue. The Western Blot is currently the best test, but no clinical laboratory test exists that can definitively diagnose Lyme disease. Although Lyme is a mandatory reportable disease, physicians will often treat patients with early Lyme without getting positive serology tests and thus avoid reporting it to the Dept. of Public Health.
BACTERIAL LIPOPROTEINS (BLPs)
An inflammatory response is triggered by the bacterial lipoproteins (BLPs) produced by the spiral-shaped bacteria called Borrelia. The molecular components of the pathogen that appears to initiate the problems are the bacterial lipoproteins (BLPs). They are found within the outer surface proteins of the borrelia cell membrane.
BLPs are fat-soluble toxins that are part protein and part lipid. They are often a structural part of the borrelia cell membrane and can be found within the outer surface proteins of borrelia. They are very potent immuno-modulators, even in small amounts. Thus, a few borrelia can produce enough BLPs to initiate significant disease.
These BLPs trigger many harmful responses in any of the tissues and organ system of the human body. They produce complex symptoms of fibromyalgia, arthritis, neurological and psychiatric disorders, immunologic dysfunctions, and endocrine deficiencies. At the molecular level, the BLPs cause a dysfunction in the immune system by triggering a complex imbalance of chemical immune mediators (cytokines). These cytokines regulate the immune system. When over stimulated, they produce harmful reactions from the immune system, such as pain, inflammation, and even apoptosis (cell death).
The innate immune system and the acquired immune system are strongly triggered by the presence of the borrelia BLPs. The inflammation triggered by the fat-soluble BLPs toxins is responsible for most, if not all symptoms of borreliosis.
DANGERS OF CORTISONE TREATMENT
The therapy most often prescribed, that is extremely contraindicated, is the use of cortisone. Treating these patients with steroids reduces the pain and inflammation. Unfortunately, steroidal therapy is very harmful to Lyme patients because it suppresses the patient’s immune system causing the immune system to tolerate the presence of Borrelia instead of attacking and killing it.
TREATMENT
A basic treatment for chronic Lyme disease usually requires at least an 8 -16-month period of appropriate antibiotics. A diet of seed, nuts, eggs, omega 3 oil, potatoes and green vegetables is helpful. Acupuncture and light therapy have been successful in relieving pain symptoms and stimulating immune factors.
CONTROVERSY OF CHRONIC LYME'S DISEASE
Wrong diagnosis leads to wrong treatments and life-long illness. Months, years, and often-indefinite antibiotic therapy may be necessary to manage the disease. Antibiotic resistance, allergic reactions, and numerous side affects results.
We have been thinking too simplistically about finding whole organisms replicating in chronic diseases. It is highly likely that there is no single cause for these illnesses. It's more likely that there are multiple causes-- different organisms and viruses causing the same final set of symptoms. Researchers need a better algorithm to study these fatiguing illnesses. There needs to be more inclusiveness, rather than trying to separate the illnesses. Sometimes in medicine, if an illness is too complex to study, research interest dwindles, as in chronic Lyme disease.
There are two camps when it comes to discussing chronic Lyme disease. One side believes there is such a condition while the other questions its existence. The controversy makes deciding how to treat patients with "chronic Lyme disease" symptoms complicated.
What is chronic Lyme disease, according to experts? Is it the same as late-stage Lyme disease? Doctors and patients who believe chronic Lyme disease is a real condition have formed societies and support groups and seek legal support for their cause.
Researchers who support its existence are often criticized. But where does that leave the patient who just wants to get well? What's the harm in naming it chronic Lyme disease?
On a clinical basis, one can’t tell chronic Lyme disease from "chronic fatigue syndrome" or "fibromyalgia" from chronic Lyme disease. Lyme Disease may be a frequent cause of fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue. One can have a virus working in harmony with a virulent bacteria.
The debate rages on the validity of "chronic Lyme disease". With inflammatory reactions in heart disease, CPR inflammatory markers in cholesterol testing, and over 80 medical diseases that we in medicine have no clue how to treat as well as the causes, Lymes may well be an important player. Anyone with joint pain, chronic pain that gets worse from cortisone, cortisone inhaler reactions for asthma and chronic obstructive disease, and failed cortisone epidurals, should consider Lymes disease in their treatment program. Truly, Borrelia is today’s unrecognized great medical imposter.
Sources: Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, Medline Plus (NIH),
Mayo Clinic Newsletter
No comments:
Post a Comment