'The Great Imitator" -- Lyme / Borrelia. History and Statistics Can Be Far Off. What's the Reality?

Finding the reality about the history and statistics about how many people actually have Lyme / Borrelia, "The Great Imitator" is very difficult because, well, it's a great imitator, for one thing. And because there are different 'camps' of beliefs about it. Please know going in that it's not an easy subject to study, but in my opinion it is imperative that all people today, whether they recognize it as a threat to them or not, know about it. Because it has affected massive numbers of people, who are mostly unwittingly hosting and transmitting it.

It does not have to be a disorder that causes the devastation and pain that it does, as well, so if people are aware and change their lifestyles, they can have tremendous impact on the outcome. People can die with it never having become anything that was affecting them enough that they even realized they had it! So I hope to lay out a preface here initially about the main aspects and then provide some detail and leads for good places to learn more.  

There is, like so many things anymore, the conventional, allopathic, 'system' group of believers, which are also being called 'organized medicine' now. A.k.a 'western medicine', conventional medicine.  I think everyone today knows that there's a lot of monkeybusiness in the organized medicine system. And many of those people have been aware of that for long enough that they're basically those making up the other group  --  the outside the box, non- 'organized' system people who are looking for the truth. These are providers and consumers who are putting in their time to figure Lyme/ Borrelia out because they have a 'horses in the race' typically.  

Yesterday I was involved in learning from a resource on Facebook with a woman who was studying hard about Lyme/ Borrelia in hopes to find new information that would help her son. She's been at it four years. He's gotten better, now relapsing a bit. I was trying to learn so that I could provide the information in this topic, which I was seeing a need to create and have available to people on the Internet who are looking. Often it's mothers who unwittingly gave Lyme / Borrelia to their child or children en utero, which is another route of transmission and I like to mention that early on so we get out of thinking 'ticks'.  It's other insects/ vectors too. And it's perhaps blood, tissue, saliva, and sexually transmitted.  There are various researchers, various beliefs. For now just hold that open as another 'anchor point' about Lyme / Borrelia to discover or study more about as you go. 

My 'horses' are many, but for starters I'll disclose that I suspect I've had it, perhaps from birth based on symptoms in infancy and since. And also for the memory of my father, who died four years ago this week, in September 2010. My childhood and moreso teens were very affected by his chronic fatigue and pain, which were basically all the usual symptoms of what would be described by organized medicine as 'fibromyalgia'. And in the 'catch 22' of a 'system', my health problems were partly due to the added burdens put upon me to help with as many things as I physically could help with. It was complicated by my mother also being affected and how she responded, which was to put more attention on her career and her friends than she might otherwise, since I was there doing more than the usual 'share' of work expected of a teenager. It was a relief to go to college and only work 2/3 time and take 2/3 of a load of classes! My health got better and I didn't know why. Until that is, I was 21 and got a vaccine required at that time by the state of Colorado if a woman was not with sufficient immune response to rubella. So Lyme in the overall, not just my case, 'dovetails' with the vaccine story. Again, something to put down in your mind as an 'anchor point' about learning about the history, statistics, and overall about Lyme / Borrelia. 

September is national pain awareness month, and my father had been in pain basically his whole life. Initially not so much physical pain as it was psychological pain from having irritable bowel, or having to wear wool clothing when it caused his skin to react and feel the 'noxious stimuli'. I'd call that pain, and it was bad enough he snuck a pair of cordouroy slacks to the alley and hid them and would change into them to go to school, and change back before he got to his apartment where his mother would think he went to school 'properly' dressed. So another point, since Lumigrate is coming from a functional and integrative standpoint always, is to recognize that there is the 'mind' part of stress in addition to the more 'body' and physical things we can tend to focus on when talking about microbiology's bugs such as Lyme / Borrelia.  There is also spiritual stress. 

All present when he passed in 2010 had some thought we verbalized at the moment we ascertained that he was indeed dead (which I was turned to due to my being a medical provider and having been around it some, though I'd never actually been there when someone passed and still wasn't as, no surprise, he passed when I was taking a fast shower as I'd not expected the end to come for another few hours).  

What came to my mind and lips was "he's finally out of pain". He wouldn't verbalize he had pain nor anxiety without encouragement -- he was so used to both, lifelong of 89 years, and I wonder if -- and when, and how -- he contracted Borrelia or another similar bacteria. Perhpas his biological mother passed it along to him. Had she been to Europe, or did the history of these things in the US track back far enough it might have infected her.  

This is where I'd get confused when learning this information, because some people speak with a voice of authority and were saying that 'we all know that Lyme started with Plum Island', but I didn't know that, I didn't agree with that, as it wasn't seeming to add up that way to me. And this was a leading person in the Lyme activism world who I was trying to learn from.  

So I want to say here that the Lyme community really needs to take a page from the HIV history books; they are very similar issues and the histories are very close to each other. HIV activists really learned the information and could speak about the history effectively, the statistics effectively, and etc. And I naturally am challenging myself to do as I say! 

Updating and editing in October 2015, I think that a July 2015 topic provided at Mercola.com is an excellent place to go for information. Here's the link:

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/07/29/lyme-disease-tick-epidemic.aspx

Much about Lyme is state- dependent or even country-dependent.  At the time of this writing, I'm a life-long resident of the state of Colorado, which is not 'know of' as a "Lyme state".  But, just as it's inaccurate to think there's a 'Lyme season', because someone might present outside that window of time and then not be suspected and tested/ treated when needed, I maintain it's harmful to think of states as being Lyme or NonLyme states! I've already specified how there are many people with Lyme / Borrelia in Colorado yet the information officially says there had not been a case ever reported (that was in a 2013 article I found from a Durango newspaper). 

Note/update: Upon further looking, the current information on September 7, 2014 was that there has never been one case of Lyme that originated in Colorado reported. As luck would have it, I'd called an office of a clinic in Colorado that treats Lyme (when you Search it came up) and they are only open early in the week so called back today (September 8) and this year alone, in just their clinic, they have had a handfull or so of cases, of newly diagnosed patients, ALL from ticks that were picked up on the person/into the person from the Colorado mountains -- some with a bulls-eye rash too (which we know only happens about half the time, the statistics vary but it's about half). So I asked 'what's the hold up?' and they said that the CDC and the State Health Department have very specific criteria that makes it so that the statistics can show zero for Colorado.  

So, I suggest you do your homework for your state. I suspect that most of the people that are my age (and people who are older and younger too, as I see the parents, the siblings, etc) from growing up in the mountains of Colorado are infected, or have been in the path of those who have been infected (which can perhaps include pets) that then become infected due to the ways it is transmitted by those who have unknowingly known they have Lyme or Lyme-like bacteria.

I have long suspected we all had thyroid problems, and many of us were eventually diagnosed and treated I would learn, and then I'd observe a lot of  this symptom and that symptom, and then I'd learn more about WHY those occur and things kept pointing to Lyme and Lyme-like conditions. So for what it's worth .... I offer what I know. When I know it. Do with it what you wish. 

Is it possible that the states with no or fewer reported cases of Lyme have fewer cases because there are fewer professionals or consumers who are aware to suspect symptoms presenting are from Lyme / Borrelia? And remember that the new research being widely accepted 'outside the box' is that the progressive neurological, chronic pain, and many 'autoimmune' disorders have Lyme / Borrelia as a cause or contributor. 80% of brains from people with Alzheimers that Dr MacDonald studied had Borrelia/ Lyme.  This is the light then put onto ALS, MS, dementia not otherwise specified, etcetera (it is a very long list but worth looking at).  So those are more points to 'anchor down' about related to this subject.   

Dr Martz, who was featured in the recent (2009ish for part I, part 2 just came out) documentary that really got 'this party started' about Lyme / Borrelia, Under Our Skin, is a Colorado Springs physician who was quite affected by what was diagnosed as ALS. He fortunately knew of Lyme and was diagnosed by another Colorado Springs physician who was Lyme literate. He had a good reversal of symptoms from using the antibiotics approach and began treating patients, and doing some research when he noticed that one S.E. Colorado town had a lot of patients coming to him who tested postiive for Lyme / Borrelia. So I ask, how is it none of that is in the statistics and people who look at 'the statistics' that are official say there's never been a reported case in Colorado?  I'm not necessarily going to have answers here for this, but hope to eventually. I hope you will do this similar sort of poking around for whatever state or area you live in if you're in a country that doesn't have 'states'. 

Beyond what is covered in Under our Skin, I've found the website of the clinic that is now directed by Dr Martz. In an interesting twist as any good story should have, the doctor who helped diagnose him and treat him went on to open a clinic and that allowed Dr Martz to step away from being so involved as a doctor. But then that doctor suddenly died, leaving a clinic doing good work with a NP that Dr Martz was familiar with supervising, so he agreed to come back to supervise the clinic as the medical director.  (I'm SO glad I went rooting around as it's good to know about that clinic in Colorado, and this terrific story I share! But this is the clinic I referred to in the grey blockquote, above and they are in the process of winding down and considering closing. They had 1,000 patients when he had his initial clinic, this clinic is now at 100. People I know who have CFS in C.S. (I know three) were unaware of the clinic, actually.)

So I'd been trying to find some information for our YOUsers (and for my own knowledge), and thinking about how I wanted to present it on Lumigrate. I'd like to invite YOUsers to go at this point to this link at Mercola dot com. It was the best overview for history and overall that I could find AND he routes to good places for more information, including Under Our Skin's trailer, etc. And at the very end he routes to a website for further information and also cautions very quickly that the provider prefers treating with patentable (not found in nature) antibiotics, which is not Dr Mercola's preference for a starting point for treatment, he says. And this has been where I have ended up after giving this quite a bit of thought, gut-feeling, etc., since 2010. Remember how to get back here though, and then pick up where we are leaving off! 

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/10/13/under-our-skin-documentary.aspx

From Colorado to Australia, and back to America's East Coast and New York State

Clearly, my home state having a celebrity like Dr Martz is a great starting point, but I also feel like we can be American-centric and I wanted to recognized Australia, as I know a lot of people with chronic illness from Australia through Facebook. And I saw more than one Facebook friend share the following story about a woman, 'mum' in Australia. Clearly their Facebook posting shows just how much they're excited to get this information out to the public. Similar to how it is in the US. 

Congratulations and thank you to Michelle Kelly (the organiser of the 2014 WWLAP Centennial Park event), for raising further awareness via this article in the latest edition of New Idea.

So how is it that people in Australia have a disorder which is notoriously named after the town in Connecticut, in the United States? This is why the main topic about Lyme / Borrelia at Lumigrate is titled about the various names you can give it, and the cofactors such as biofilm. It all swirls together but ultimately the Lyme name is not a great term. However, it has stuck and because of the 'lime' color, it does have 'bling' in that way. Hence, I try to repeatedly write it as Lyme / Borrelia. 

As you'll see at the following links for the more complete history, there were a lot of kids with symptoms of arthritis back in the 1970s. And parents / mothers got active about it. This has been a long, long 'fight' for a lot of people.  While I've been fighting symptoms my whole life, I now realize / suspect (as I said I've not opted to get tested), it's relatively new for me to put myself in the 'Lyme - light' and drop away from the identification of the allopathic label of 'fibromyalgia' that I was given in the late 1990s, or the other one given in the late 1980s (which was chronic fatigue, though in those days it was 'chronic Epstein-Barr virus', or CEBV.

I started out being suspicious of symptoms that were MS-like, and my physician agreed. My MRI and then follow up lumbar puncture were twenty years ago. This has been a long fight for me. And so I thank those pioneers who were in the trenches and figuring this out and getting the word out so that eventually I could pick it up after having Dr Spurlock raise my awareness that indeed you can be in Colorado and have Lyme / Borrelia. That was 2009/ 2010 when he became the MD expert about FMS/ fatigue / environmental illness. 

So how did I get it? I'm the apple not far from the paternal genetic tree on symptoms, so then how did my father get it (if he indeed had it)? Why is it that people had symptoms (and MS and etc.) before the time of the "Plum Island" experiment, the installation across a short span of ocean from Lyme, Connecticut doing biological weapons work using ticks? And did the government really try to say that it had come on birds flying from Africa? If that were the case, why didn't the kids in Key West, or Miami or somewhere way further south than Connecticut have the symptoms? And then could both things have happened? Why is it that so many people from my community of origin, which is notoriously depicted in the show South Park, seem to me to potentially have Lyme / Borrelia from what I know of their physical and behavioral symptoms? 

I found all of this  very confusing when trying to learn about Lyme, but I have been finding some resources that cover the history; simply put, it is believed that Borrelia, documented in Europe long ago, came to the US in the early part of the 20th century (1900s). 

And why is it that everyone's so thrilled that the CDC increased by 10x the number of cases in their statistics but it still seems that if I'm understanding things correctly and know the symptoms of many, many, MANY people in Colorado as well as elsewhere that are consistent with having Borrelia / Lyme, it seems like the CDC numbers are still low?  So I asked around the Lyme literate resources I have access to and found that many are operating off of the statistics that come in from the reportable sources.  There are a lot of flaws in that logic. 

I'll take myself for an example. I'm not captured in any statistics. I've actually not popped for the test because to me, I have so many symptoms of it and I'm not wanting to get antibiotics for it (personal choice that feels right for me), but there is a reliable list of symptoms out there which I've taken and it shows a pretty good chance that I have Borrelia. Now, recently one of the experts at Lumigrate from our recent history has been seen on Kevin MD with a topic about data mining from medical records.

Combine that with all the Facebook friends I have now who are in reality (in my opinion) about the possible repercussions of having your medical things in a computer that the government has access to, and those people are likely NOT going to seek out a diagnosis in a way that it would get captured in statistics.

And nobody's funding anyone to do a great big study of 100,000 people to see how many would have Lyme if they were thoroughly and properly investigated and tested, etc. So one has to root around and find smaller potatoes doing research. And I happened to find a gem last night and wanted to share it here. I learned in research class in OT school that you can do valid reserach with as few as 10 subjects. You just have to have your research plan tight and follow things correctly. Granted, it's better if you can have more than that and follow a tight plan closely but that's not always possible. It's quite a lot to do a study with 10, actually. And there are people who are specialists or who worked in research who have an easier time than others at sorting out what was valid research or not. Some of the bigger studies we hear about in the mainstream information sources can be outed pretty readily by those who know how, for having funkified things to get the results they got. So this just gets back to those key concepts I want to provide in this topic. That's another one. 

I'd found a good article at SpiroChicks dot com about costs and read the comments. In the comments someone said that a Holly Ahearn at SUNY had done some number crunching about costs for the state of New York and had found that there were WAY more actual cases than are reported. Here's the link, and the comment I'm referring to. " I think the 1.5 million number for people with Lyme is grossly underestimated. Dr. Holly Ahearn a microbiologist at the State University of New York calculated using the statistics from doctors offices, hospitals and an estimate of the percentage misdiagnoised and came up with 350,000 Lyme patients in New York State alone. If you contact her at SUNY she can verify and defend her number with medical statistics."

So I kept rooting around and found some really great resources from Holly Ahearn. And hopefully some FUN stuff too -- she'd seen a story about someone who she thought had been misdiagnosed in the news and she contacted the family and in fact, the girl did have Lyme/ Borrelia. Why she cares so much? She has a horse in the race, she has a personal story about Lyme, it's not just professional. I actually found her name and her daughter's (misspelled, I believe) in an article in The New Yorker. I'm not clear if she started studying Lyme / Borrelia after her daughter's situation or before, but I thought the New Yorker article was overall a good one for information (a few areas I feel are misleading or omitting details I think are important).  

Here's the link:   http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/01/the-lyme-wars AND then the SpiroChicks dot com link that I was referring to as well. 

www.spirochicks.com/2014/03/total-cost-of-illness-lyme-disease-may.html

Holly Ahearn's research project, per a video I saw, is using a community college, and some of the students opt to go on to four year colleges, with at least one having gotten a PhD in microbiology.  I just enjoy a good story, particularly when studying difficult material like chronic illness / Lyme / Borrelia , the CDC and ugly information about the corruption that has gone on that has affected millions of people negatively. Myself, perhaps, being one of them. YOU, somewhat to very likely too, as these are massive numbers of people! (And maybe you're reading this as one of the millions that has pursued testing through the false negatives that are so common and found out that you have chronic Lyme / Borrellia. I suspect you have more 'comrades' and 'cohorts' than the numbers out there reflect.... ) 

Holly Ahearn basically stated that in her state of New York, 80 times more people have Borrelia / Lyme than the reported case numbers reflect. And one might surmise that there's more awareness in NY State than other states, so in other states with the low reported numbers, it might be even more than 80x. Here's that link:

www.saratogian.com/general-news/20121007/suny-adirondack-professor-lyme-disease-an-epidemic

I also found a bunch of good  resources at SlideShare when searching on her name to find the statistics the reader at SpiroChicks was referring to (and some propaganda, or from 'organized medicine' or groups with information I found not good for people to be learning from and without knowing quite a lot you'd not be able to pick out the good from the not).  I think her short slide presentation is very good, the link is below (it's under 20 slides).

This is from 2012 and was not using the 80x factor I've referred to, above, but does a cost breakdown for the NY State and the US based on the more conservative numbers she goes with for the presentation. My guess is that she's done some informal research to come up with the 80x and doesn't feel she's gotten that nailed down well enough to present it in a 'formal presentation' just yet, such as this one put together and posted at SlideShare. The statistics are on slide 18 and 17, near the end, but I enjoyed the overview of her presentation, which I'll add here for you to see easily (but her slides are visually done well and the information is much better to take into the brain if you see her slideshow:  http://www.slideshare.net/.../holly-ahern-lyme-disease...

 Holly Ahern - Lyme Disease: What You Should Know...Presentation Transcript

• What you should know…. Holly Ahern MS, BS MT(ASCP) Associate Professor of Microbiology SUNY Adirondack, Queensbury, NY
• I say “LYME DISEASE,” you say….
• *Borrelia burgdorferi Other Borrelia Babesia Bartonella Ehrlichia Anaplasma Mycoplasma Viruses
• University of Rhode Island Tick Encounter Resource Center www.tickencounter.org/tick_testing
• Lyme disease is an acute infectious disease, transmitted by nymph stage deer ticks, caused by one species of a specific bacterium named Borrelia burgdorferi “Hard to catch and easy to cure”
• Tick must be attached for a minimum of 36 hours to transmit Lyme disease… Current IDSA/CDC “Standard of Care” Peer-reviewed evidence NOT included in the IDSA/CDC guidelines  Burgdorfer: transmission time for Borrelia is variable.  Other TBDs transmitted quickly; viruses in 15 min.  Borrelia may be sexually transmitted.  Borrelia, Babesia, Anaplasma are transfusion transmitted.
• Lyme disease is an acute infectious disease. Current IDSA/CDC “Standard of Care” Peer-reviewed evidence NOT included in the IDSA/CDC guidelines  Lyme disease may be an acute disease.  Lyme disease may also be a chronic disease.
• A single “FRONTAL” pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi, is responsible for Lyme disease symptoms.  Ticks carry and transmit multiple “STEALTH” microbes.  People infected with multiple pathogens have more severe disease. Current IDSA/CDC “Standard of Care” Peer-reviewed evidence NOT included in the IDSA/CDC guidelines
• Diagnostic algorithm (ACP) includes patient history of tick bite, “bulls-eye” rash, AND “laboratory evidence” of infection (usually this means a “two-tier” system of antibody based blood tests for Borrelia burgdorferi ONLY) Current IDSA/CDC “Standard of Care” Peer-reviewed evidence NOT included in the IDSA/CDC guidelines  Current diagnostic criteria EXCLUDE any form of the disease that does not meet the ACP/CDC/IDSA algorithm  Therefore, you may not be diagnosed with Lyme disease, EVEN IF YOU HAVE IT, if:  No “bulls-eye” at tick bite site  “First tier” test doesn’t meet a threshold level  “Second-tier” test doesn’t have enough “bands”  You were infected with more than one microbe by the tick
• Most infections resolve after short-term antibiotic treatment; 5% of patients may develop post-tx sequelae that are “autoimmune.”  CDC survey - 61% require more than recommended antibiotic treatment.  30 – 50% have chronic symptoms persisting after antibiotics.  Stealth pathogens are highly adapted survivors so persistent infection may be the cause.  Reactivation of growth of spirochetes shown in most recent study. Current IDSA/CDC “Standard of Care” Peer-reviewed evidence NOT included in the IDSA/CDC guidelines
• EASY to catch and HARD to cure! Ticks may transmit some pathogens RAPIDLY Study of Lyme patients: Only 50% developed any type of rash, of those, only 10% had a “bulls-eye” Symptoms may occur at ANY TIME of the year Symptoms are highly variable and may become CHRONIC Blood tests for Lyme disease are reliably INACCURATE 2-4 weeks of antibiotics MAY NOT cure Lyme disease
• Disease New cases (annual) NIH funding (FY 2012) Hepatitis C 1,300 $112 million West Nile Virus 5,700 $29 million HIV/AIDS * 56,000 $3 billion (11% total NIH budget) Influenza * 73,000 $251 million Lyme disease 312,000 $25 million Source: http://report.nih.gov/PFSummaryTable.aspx    *Considered “epidemic” by the CDC
• Financial Burden of Lyme disease, BEFORE CDC Case Estimate Revision (2012) New York State 2,590 $10,429 $27,011,110 United States 27,313 $10,429 $284,847,277 Financial Burden of Lyme disease, AFTER CDC Case Estimate Revision (2012) New York State 25,900 $10,429 $270 million United States 312,000 $10,429 $3.25 billion Financial Burden of Lyme disease, based on probable number of cases (2012) New York State 44,030 $10,429 $460 million United States 445,714 $10,429 $4.65 billion

Serendipitously, after her presentation slides were clicked through, it took me to this one, which I wanted people to know about as well, because it covers the history very well, of all the ethical issues and bad policy and procedure in the agencies that have lead to this being such a bunch of 'quicksand' to wade through when learning: 

http://www.slideshare.net/.../r-tfinpresentation...

The Subversion of Medicine Through Treatment Guidelines

www.slideshare.net

Here's a sample of what you'll find at the link: (It's a VERY long list, this is just a fraction of the information and it appeared very thorough and laid out well and fairly easy to glean the history). 

---

 

• Corruption and Public Harm In Drug Approval & Marketing Process… Leads To …Corruption and Public Harm Through The “Treatment Guideline” Process= Preventing Doctors From Administering Drugs for Patients
• Institutionalizing Pharma Crimes• Documented crimes in the drug approval process: – Rigged drug approval system, Complete lack of accountability: • selective publication of favorable information, • outright fraudulent studies, • rigged trials to discredit competing treatments, • 3rd party non-profit/pharma arrangements, • pharma funding & intimidating the FDA, • Congress owning pharma stock, • thought-leaders on-the-take, • bribery of doctors, • physician intimidation and prescription tracking,• Leads to corrupt process for enforcing medicating public – Formulation of “treatment guidelines” which can mandate the application of pharmaceuticals (another form of physician intimidation) by preventing the physician from treating root-cause – Punishment for straying from “treatment guidelines” (“evidence-based medicine”, “best- practices”)• Creation of an artificial/mandated increase in pharmaceuticals profits
• • Conflicts of interest in drug approval process leads to – Conflict of interest in treatment guidelines – Emphasis on symptom treatments, not underlying cause – Profits for pharmaceuticals industry
• • Doctors or regulators who fight the system are targeted and destroyed.
• ‘AN international drug companymade a hit list of doctors who had tobe "neutralised" or discreditedbecause they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceuticalgiant produced.’
• Part II
• Drug Marketing Strategy• The Drug Approval Process – Riddled with conflicts-of-interest• Mandating Treatment With Drugs Through “Treatment Protocols” – Riddled with conflicts-of-interest
• “Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption” In recent years, drug companies have perfected a new and highly effective method to expand their markets. Instead of promoting drugs to treat diseases, they have begun to promote diseases to fit their drugs. --Marcia Angell • New York Review of Books • Volume 56, Number 1 · January 15, 2009
• • “…they have begun to promote diseases to fit their drugs.” – Treatment guidelines are being used by drug companies to promote diseases to fit their drugs. – Treatment guidelines are based largely on the opinion of manufactured experts.
• “However, guidelines are not just summaries of the evidence. They are also interpretations of that evidence by guideline authors …”
• • Conclusions: More than half of the current recommendations of the IDSA are based on level III evidence (opinion) only.• Until more data from well-designed controlled clinical trials become available, physicians should remain cautious when using current guidelines as the sole source guiding patient care decisions.
• The Addiction To Drug Companies• “The overall influence of the industry is to emphasize drug treatment at the expense of other modalities: psychotherapy, social approaches, nutritional, herbal, and natural remedies, rehabilitation, general hygienic measures, non-patentable drugs, or other alternative approaches.• It focuses attention on disorders that are treatable by drugs, and may promote over diagnosis. It reinforces the practice of dealing with disease by treatment of symptoms, and diverts interest from prevention.” • Wortis, J., and Stone, A. The addiction to drug companies. Biol. Psychiatry 32:847-849, 1992
• How To Practice Medicine Without a License Pharmaceuticals Companies Insurance Companies $$$3rd Party Groups Treatment Guidelines $$$ Non-Profits “At the same time that medical guidelines have come to the fore in health care, there has also been an increasing number of Medical Societies revelations about financial conflicts of interest on the part of medical-guideline panelists, whose financial interests may have influenced their panels to reach incorrect or Medical Education Doctors suspect results.”& Communications --Richard Wolfram Companies (MECCs) Treatment “Guidelines … restrict clinical discretion… limit, if not eliminate, choice in the marketplace for medical treatment.” --Richard Wolfram
• Insurance Companies Benefit, Too
• Insurance-Friendly Treatment Guidelines• The disease can be devastating, both physically and financially. “The insurance has been a nightmare,” she said. Even though Motwani has insurance, she can’t get covered for her drugs.• But she said each time she submits a claim, Blue Shield comes back with some reason why they can’t cover it.
• Insurance Friendly Treatment Guidelines• Motwani is not alone. “There is an insurance problem,” said Dr. Christine Green, Mona’s specialist. Green said many advanced stage Lyme disease patients go through the same ordeal.• It has to do with the standard of care for Lyme set by the Infectious Disease Society of America and upheld by the Centers for Disease Control.• “If you look at the IDSA standard of care, that patient needs a month of antibiotics,” Green said.• For advanced stage Lyme disease, it’s just not enough. “The insurance companies as near as I can see have chosen the least expensive standard of care,” Green said.
• Application• Given the state of pharma corruption of the medical system (and medical literature)…• If you had a poorly understood disease – Complex infectious agent • Pleomorphic, stealth pathogen • Difficult to culture • Tests for which are ambiguous – Symptoms are non-specific, but plentiful and chronic• It would be relatively easy for industry-funded “thought-leaders” to create “treatment guidelines” for the disease, which allowed the infectious agent to go largely untouched, so that the symptoms could be profitably treated, in perpetuity (while insurance claims are denied).
• Application• This is the case with Lyme Disease• The 3rd-Party group peddling destructive treatment guidelines is the IDSA – Authors have numerous ties to insurance and pharmaceuticals companies (and the CDC)
• Conflicts Summary• A recent journal article entitled “A Critical Appraisal of ‘Chronic’ Lyme Disease,”[i] reveals how members of the so-called "Steere Camp"[ii] of Lyme disease research continue to perpetuate misinformation to further a profit-oriented agenda.• This agenda consists of commercializing Lyme disease under the pretext of treating it.• It is implemented by a handful of well-connected academic researchers who have created a fraudulent science base to allow the Lyme epidemic to quietly spiral out of control.[iii]• This has been accomplished by – denying the persistent, pervasive and pleomorphic nature of the extraordinarily complex borrelia organism that causes Lyme disease. – denying the plurality of devastating manifestations that often result from the deliberately ineffective treatment regimens recommended by the “Steere Camp” doctors.• Careful investigation reveals that the “Steere Camp” authors have numerous financial connections to industries that profit from allowing the causative agent of Lyme disease to propagate untreated.• A case is made that the positions adopted and enforced by members of the “Steere Camp” reflect this incestuous financial relationship on a point-by-point basis rather than their self-proclaimed interest in offering effective treatments to the public, which is actually suffering greatly from Steere-Camp policies. – It is the Steere Camp’s numerous connections to symptom-proliferation interests that defines its ideology, rather than an interest in eliminating the disease at its source. – This is why the Steere Camp is so at odds with the component of the scientific community concerned with symptom-elimination. The symptom-elimination professionals are a threat to the profits of the symptom- proliferation industries that hire and publish the “research” of the “Steere Camp” authors.
• Conflicts Summary• Let’s examine the paragraph describing the conflicts-of-interest of the authors of the Journal article that will serve as a rationale for not treating “chronic Lyme disease” by claiming that it doesn’t exist.[i] The paragraph states:• "Dr. Feder reports receiving lecture fees from Merck and serving as an expert witness in medical- malpractice cases related to Lyme disease.• Dr. Johnson reports holding patents on diagnostic antigens for Lyme disease.• Dr. OConnell reports serving as an expert witness related to Lyme disease issues in civil and criminal cases in England.• Dr. Shapiro reports serving as an expert witness in medical-malpractice cases related to Lyme disease, reviewing claims of disability related to Lyme disease for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and receiving speakers fees from Merck and Sanofi-Aventis.• Dr. Steere reports receiving a research grant from Viramed and fees from Novartis.• Dr. Wormser reports receiving research grants related to Lyme disease from Immunetics, Bio- Rad, and Biopeptides and education grants from Merck and AstraZeneca to New York Medical College for visiting lecturers for infectious-disease grand rounds, being part owner of Diaspex (a company that is now inactive with no products or services), owning equity in Abbott, serving as an expert witness in a medical-malpractice case, and being retained in other medical-malpractice cases involving Lyme disease. He may become a consultant to Biopeptides. No other potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported."[ii] [emphasis added]
• Conflicts Summary• Specifically, the conflict-of-interest paragraph above reveals that various authors of the article: – are paid as consultants by insurance companies that have a financial interest in Lyme disease not being effectively treated with expensive, long-term therapies[i] – are paid by pharmaceuticals companies that have a financial interest in Lyme disease not being effectively treated, because the myriad symptoms caused by chronic Lyme disease represent multiple, billion dollar markets[ii] – are paid by pharmaceuticals companies which have a financial interest in an expanding market for Lyme disease vaccines, which is abetted in numerous ways if Lyme disease goes untreated – have vested patent interests in certain test organisms and procedures for Lyme disease diagnosis being established as future standards – also conveniently serve as "expert" witnesses in orchestrated "malpractice" suits brought by state medical boards against highly experienced doctors who attempt to eliminate the disease at its source to improve the lives of their patients[iii]•
• Overview of Lyme Epidemic• This ambitious marketing effort is assisted by drug company consultants publishing as “independent scientists” in journals such as the NEJM. The goal of these crypto-lobbyists is to generate an artificial demand for pharmaceuticals products. This is accomplished through: – creating a man-made epidemic by printing misinformation about the contagious nature of a deadly disease – perpetuating the epidemic while appearing to treat it with deliberately ineffective treatment guidelines – creating a fraudulent science-base as an intellectual justification for perpetuating the ineffective treatment guidelines, which also aids in • limiting the supply of doctors capable of administering effective treatments to halt the epidemic; and correspondingly, • emphasizing the profitable treatment of symptoms over curing the disease at its source
• Lyme Bacterium: Complexity• “The spirochete, a corkscrew-shaped bacterium, is unique in the known bacterial realm because of the quantity of DNA it carries that enables it to evade detection and attack the human immune system.• It can change its outer protein coat, cloaking itself from immune detection. It also can completely change form, becoming a treatment-resistant cyst, or shed its outer coat to enter our own cells to set up shop.” • “Living with Lyme: Bacterium can cloak itself” – By Dr. Jon Sterngold/Special for The Willits News (9/30/2009)
• Lyme Infection Summary Symptom Generator“Lyme disease is a multisystem disorder withprotean manifestations.....” Benjamin J. Luft, ......Raymond J. Dattwyler, “Invasion of the Central Nervous System by Borrelia burgdorferi in Acute Disseminated Infection,” JAMA; 1992; 267:1364-1367.
• Lyme Infection Summary Symptom Generator“Human infection can result in neurologic,cardiovascular, or musculoskeletaldisorders.”
• The New Great Imitator
• The New Great Imitator• “Because of the difficulty in culturing Borrelia bacteria in the laboratory, diagnosis of Lyme disease is typically based on the clinical exam findings… Serological testing … is not diagnostic by itself.• The most widely used tests are serologies, which measure levels of specific antibodies in a patients blood. These tests may be negative in early infection, as the body may not have produced a significant quantity of antibodies...• The reliability of testing in diagnosis remains controversial…• Diagnosis of late-stage Lyme disease is often complicated by a multi-faceted appearance and non-specific symptoms, prompting one reviewer to call Lyme the new "great imitator."• Lyme disease may be misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), lupus, Crohns disease or other autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.”• Not to mention depression…
• Rx For Disaster (For Patients)• Poor tests, many non-specific symptoms, difficult diagnosis …
• Rx For Profits (For Pharma)• Poor tests, many non-specific symptoms, difficult diagnosis …
• How To Practice Medicine Without a License (And Make Lots of Money) “One way drug companies have marketed their products is by funding the implementation of guidelines…” --Civil Action No. 08 CA 11318 DPW Treatment Guidelines Symptom-Oriented Doctors Doctors Doctors Treatment I Treatment II Treatment IIISymptom A Symptom B Diseased Patients Symptom C Symptom D
• Proposed Model For Treatment Denial $$$ Pharmaceuticals Companies $$$ Insurance Companies“Cartel” NIH, FDA, CDC, EIS State Medical Boards Intellectual Cartel Information Cartel Treatment Guidelines Ivy League Professors Symptom-Oriented Medical Journals “Consigliere” Medical Societies Mass Media Continuing Education Doctors Doctors Doctors Treatment I Treatment II Treatment III Symptom A Symptom B Diseased Patients Symptom C Symptom D
• How To Practice Medicine Without a License $$$ Pharmaceuticals Companies $$$ Insurance Companies “LymeCartel” NIH, FDA, CDC, EIS State Medical Boards Intellectual Cartel Information Cartel Treatment Guidelines Ivy League Professors Symptom-Oriented Medical Journals “Consigliere” Medical Societies Mass Media Continuing Education Doctors Doctors Doctors Treatment I Treatment II Treatment III Symptom A Symptom B Diseased Patients Symptom C Symptom D
• The IDSA Guidelines & Lyme Disease: Effects• “… the guidelines effectively deny physicians the ability to use clinical discretion in diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, despite the IDSA’s general disclaimer that its guidelines are not mandatory.• The guidelines also provide no additional treatment options, apart from palliative care, for patients who fail to improve under treatments identified by the IDSA’s protocol.” – Richard Wolfram • Connecticut Attorney General Investigation and Settlement Highlights Possible Applicability of Antitrust Standard Setting Law to the Development of Clinical Practice Guidelines
• • A manufactured epidemic through the enforcement treatment guidelines…
• ‘Were in the midst of a terrifying epidemic, although you wouldn't know it to talk to most doctors and health specialists. The disease is growing at a rate faster than AIDS. From 2006 to 2008 alone, the numberof cases jumped a whopping 77 percent. …If any other disease had stricken so many people, the medical community would be scurrying for knowledge, scrambling for cures or rushing towarn patients. But thats not the case with Lyme disease -- a disease carried by ticks.‘
• Lyme Statistics• Reported cases of Lyme disease doubled from 1991 to 2007. In 2007, the CDC noted that – “Since Lyme disease became nationally notifiable in 1991, the annual number of reported cases has more than doubled.”• In 2007, the Boston Globe reported a similar doubling of Lyme cases in Massachusetts in one year: – “The number of Lyme disease cases reported in Massachusetts jumped by about 50 percent from 2004 to 2005, a single-year increase that prompted concerned state health officials to say they were stepping up efforts to educate the public about prevention of the disease.” • Felicia Mello, “Lyme cases in Mass. go up 50% in one year,” Boston Globe, June 15, 2007.
• “Only a very small numberof physicians in Connecticut-- the epicenter of Lyme disease -- diagnose and treat patients with the controversial chronic formof this tick-borne infection, a survey found.Among 285 primary care physicians surveyed, only about 2% treat chronic  Lyme disease…”
• Denying Care Through “Treatment Guidelines”• Lyme Disease patients are being denied long-term antibiotics, under various pretexts, by a very well-connected minority of academics with ties to the CDC (and the biowarfare-related research agencies) – IDSA Treatment Guidelines written by this group of academics (allegedly voluntary) are inappropriately used by insurance companies to deny treatment for patients (Non-Treatment under the pretext of treatment.) and to go after doctors who treat against the arbitrary “standard of care” they have dictated• One pretext is that antibiotics have dangerous side-effects, which preclude prolonged use: – "You're not going to withhold treatment for a potential side effect, which may never occur, and ignore a known infection that desperately needs to be treated.“ --Dr. Joseph Burrascano• Another is that long-term antibiotic treatments create drug-resistant strains of diseases – By not treating the Lyme disease infection to completion the “experts” are, in fact, creating drug-resistant strains of Lyme disease, under the pretext of preventing them.
• IDSA Guidelines: Effects• "Physicians who have cared for persons with chronic Lyme disease have faced harassment at a minimum and for some, their careers have been ruined.• Researchers who have seriously dedicated themselves to the scientific study of chronic Lyme disease in humans and/or animals have often found themselves attacked or marginalized.• To persist in their researches would have resulted in virtual career suicide and some have been forced, by exigencies of survival, to leave the field." --Kenneth B. Liegner, M.D.
• • Upward of 30 doctors, most of them in the Lyme-riddled northeastern states, have beensimilarly sanctioned in the past decade.• “A lot of physicians in our state are hesitant toget involved because of the medical debatethat’s raging about this disease,” says Monte Skall, president of the National Capital Lyme andTick-Borne Disease Association.’• “The doctor of last resort,” Beth Macy, TheRoanoke Times
• • ‘Among the establishment’s latest strategies, according to … Monte Skall:Pick a so-called “Lyme-literate” doctor, go after his or her records and createa chilling effect on other doctors who dare treat outside the IDSAguidelines, considered the gold standard of care.• “If you want to go into [treating Lyme], you have to go into it knowingthere’s a good chance that sooner or later somebody will file some kindof a complaint,” Dr. Geoffrey Gubb says.• “What’s difficult is to feel that I’m endangered when all I’m doing is thebest I know how to do.” Dr. Cathryn Harbor’ • “The doctor of last resort,” Beth Macy, The Roanoke Times
• CDC Mandates Non-Treatment• The CDC maintains that its Lyme protocol is not a mandate for clinicians. Echoing the IDSA guidelines, it recommends limiting antibiotic treatment with an eight-week ceiling but holds that the vast majority of Lyme cases are easily treated in two to four weeks.• Its case definition for Lyme is supposed to be used to confirm the spread of Lyme and then alert the public as necessary. But most doctors view the guidelines as “black and white and incontrovertible,” Monte Skall says.” • “The doctor of last resort,” Beth Macy, The Roanoke Times
• CDC Mandates Non-Treatment• ‘Most Western Virginia physicians side with CDC guidelines where chronic Lyme disease is concerned.• Dr. Jody Hershey, New River Health District director, says that doctors who follow the CDC’s narrow definition of Lyme fail to diagnose some patients with the disease.• In another case, a Lyme-positive veterinarian he’d already treated for 12 weeks returned for further treatment. But [Dr.] Chaudry refused, saying his hands were tied: – “Our practice is restricted by higher authorities, like the CDC.”’ • “The doctor of last resort,” Beth Macy, The Roanoke Times
• Doctor Persecution• In 2001, the New York Times reported that in • “…a final attempt to control standards of treatment and rein in the Lyme lobby, state medical boards have started to investigate doctors across the country for prescribing months and even years of antibiotics.” » NYT, Stalking Dr. Steere• The New York Times paraphrased Dr. Joseph Burrascano (a doctor who was persecuted for speaking the truth about Lyme disease “experts” to congress) as follows • “They were trying to resolve a medical dispute that had raged for years by simply annihilating doctors on the other side.”
• Lyme Doctors Singled Out Dr. Charles Jones• ‘Last week the Connecticut Medical Examining Board (CMEB) voted to discipline Dr. Charles Ray Jones, the 80-year-old pediatrician featured in UNDER OUR SKIN, for technical violations in the way he diagnosed and treated three children suspected of having tick-borne diseases.• …Last year the medical board punished 43 physicians for serious charges such as substance abuse, sexual misconduct, mental illness, and negligence; not one of these physicians received a fine larger than $5,000. And only one other physician, accused of drug abuse, received a longer supervised probation period than Dr. Jones – though this drug-addict doctor did not receive the additional $20,000 in fines levied on Dr. Jones.• None of Dr. Jones’ treatments resulted in patient harm and his medical decisions were motivated by his desire to begin the treatment of these very sick children as soon as possible.
• Dr. Charles Jones• ‘Irrespective of whether the punishment fits the “crime,” the medical board’s six-year investigation into Dr. Jones has sent a headline- grabbing message to every pediatrician in Connecticut – – If you treat children with Lyme disease with more than four weeks of antibiotics, you may lose your medical license and be treated as a pariah among your peers.• So, with Connecticut Lyme cases skyrocketing up 118% from 2006 to 2008, and the state desperately needing every Lyme specialist it can get, the children of Connecticut are the ones receiving a potential life sentence of suffering, if they acquire one or more tick-borne diseases.’
• Dr. Joseph Jemsek  “Over the last decade, a national debate has erupted concerning the treatment of Lyme disease. Patients that have suffered for years contend that treatment using the IDSA guidelines is not effective. Theyve opted, instead, to seek long-term treatment from doctors like Jemsek.  Last summer, the N.C. Medical Board disciplined Jemsek for his treatment of Lyme disease, ruling that his use of long-term IV antibiotics fell outside the prevailing standard of care. Additionally, while consent was obtained from every patient Jemsek treated, the board ruled that he had failed to adequately inform patients that his treatment differed from the norm.”
• Specialist Fights Insurance Company ... For some patients, then, the ambiguities surrounding diagnosis and treatment and the consequent sense of abandonment by medical professionals were among the most distressing aspects of the illness experience.” 

I chose to stop there, and I added the bold and underlining because this about patients and diestress was the experience I had in 2007 when we had created a live education group for people with fibromyalgia (who likely had Lyme / Borrelia but at that time nobody in Grand Junction that I am aware of was aware the Lyme was a factor, inside and outside the box of convention. When those who had gotten help from providers "outside the box" told their stories, they were not 'upset'; we'd share the ol' 'how many providers and what order did you get referred or seek them out' to show people how we had different symptoms sometimes, but we'd been through basically the same run-around.  

Even Oprah Winfrey stated on her show abou her thyroid problem, which was her first show to air in 2010, said that she'd been to many providers and she had a viewer or viewers who wrote to her saying 'I can see the tissue enlarged on your thyroid'. So Oprah on the Nth doctor said 'did you check thyroid' and --- none of them had! You have no idea how thrilled I was to see her covering thyroid for her first show of 2010, I thought she was on her way to covering 'fibromyalgia' but strangely, that never happened. It later was mentioned in passing on a couple of shows when they didn't edit out someone bringing it into the conversation when taking audience comments and questions. And maybe I'm now finally figuring out why that was (though she did start covering it via Dr Oz in her magazine and then he went on to have his own show and had experts on that recorded about fibromyalgia but then that was never included in what was put on the air to the viewers. The plot thickens, and is a very deep and wide plot too! 

However, once we advertised to conventional doctors in our building, about the live education seminars, they were sure to get the flyer into the hands of the patients that their minds thought of when they saw 'fibromyalgia', and so we had their most challenging patients present. And they hadn't had any providers knowing what to do for them, much. We actually were hoping the PROVIDERS would come, particularly when we had the guest presenters who were the providers known in the community by the chronic pain and fatigue population to be helping them. And these poor members of the community, medical consumers in our building, would cry in relief for finding a room with people, some providers, who 'understood'. We had to stop the group because it was really needing TWO weekly groups, one to process newcomers so they didn't emotionally drain the others in the group -- we were an education group, not support group and we really needed one of both.

I chose to focus on getting the website together and continued to work from 2009 to 2012 with providers to increase their education and connectivitiy in our geographic area through a group that could refer to each other and be more 'on the same page'. We also had a social media/ Facebook page.

Ultimately, being 'distressed' by the 'abandonment' of the medical system, when one knows how much pain and fatigue and angst is involved for most with these conditions, is a profound statement. And a great place to leave off and encourage you to go to the link and see all the information provided if you've enjoyed or found helpful what is above as a sample from that source / site.  Take a trip and go see the sites, as I say -- we just hope you want to come back to this one and Lumigrate and continue on.

This is a portion of a Facebook conversation that took place yesterday that helped me and others sort out what one of the Lyme educators I've found helpful on Facebook; a former medical researcher, patient with disabling illness and many in her family affected as well. She's in the US and has long-ago learned and figured this stuff out in terms of what adds up TO HER,  and been telling others; it's very complicated stuff and I truly feel sometimes like I'm at one of those dinner parties where there's a mystery to be solved. Complete with twists and turns and names and abbreviations and --- oy! But it's important to study and learn, at least enough to get the overall and basics. And I think everyone has had to study for a while in order to keep up, or MAYBE keep up with her, mentally. It would see she is recovered in terms of her cognition. I don't know that I agree with everything she says, but I think it bears sharing. 

Mostly, you'll find, as stated earlier, there are two camps right now in the Lyme literate community in terms of how to treat Borrelia / Lyme. Some believe it's appropriate to use pharmaceutical interventions for bacteria and virus'. Others believe in using more traditional means because the antibiotics cannot really affect the bacteria the way they would typically (much about why that is when you study some of the resources I've linked to in other topics about Lyme).   

Both camps agree that lifestyle changes are helpful. So I'm suggesting that everyone, whether you think you have Borrelia or not, take a good look at the importance of drinking safe water, eating safe foods (organic when at all possible), limit sugar, no artificial flavorings, colorings, etc. This becomes like the vaccine issue -- something everyone has to study enough to form an opinion for yourself, then be proactive based on what you believe is the right thing for you (or those you are responsible for on medical decisions).  But when you can see what two different camps agree upon, and it makes good sense, then that's as sure a bet as any of where to put your 'action' or 'proactivity'.  I personally like the video by Marty Ross, MD for Lyme / Autism and diet, it's very short and he simplifies things. And I like a topic at The Daniel Plan website which I've linked to off of our Load Theory topic, titled "Are You Loaded: Why (so many children through the elderly are ill now), by Dr Spurlock in our chronic pain/ fatigue section. 

Links:

 www.lumigrate.com/forum/6-practical-diet-recommendations-marty-ross-md-whether-you-have-bug-borne-disease-or-know-it-o

www.lumigrate.com/forum/are-you-loaded-what-i-see-causing-illnesses-soar-children-through-elderly

I hope this information at Lumigrate is of value to you and helps you find quality information that would be different than what you'd find if seeking out on your own.  And that it translates into reversal of symptoms if you have illness concerns, or a staving off / nipping in the bud and / or prevention if you're not yet with symptoms you'd identify as 'illness'. This is a massive situation, and I think, the next BIG wave on the medical front that will come to light with the masses. The recent ice bucket challenge about fundraising for ALS showed me how many people are now aware that Borrelia / Lyme is a factor in ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. But then again, does everyone agree with that? What do YOU think at this point? 

Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! ~~ Mardy

Another example of how researchers will not agree with everything that other researchers come up with and profess about. The 'main topic' about Lyme / Borrelia, titled about all the different names it is given, includes 'biofilm' and now I've found a source that disagrees with some of the findings and theories for application from Dr MacDonald and the woman who has continued on after his retirement. 

Kathleen Dickson is an activist about Lyme / Borrelia and the various injured groups -- MS, ALS, etc.  She formerly worked for Pfizer, became disabled while working there, and she believes her children are the best documented cases of congenital Lyme, so she also has that mother bear angle about things -- I've referred, above, to the 'horses in the race'. She's been at this a long time, is a scientist and created a website to house information. She appointed herself The Queen of Lyme and has humorous cartoons drawn up of such.

Here's a digested version of her getting on her soap box on Facebook with a couple of newer learners (myself being one) who were almost keeping up with her. The questions asked by the other 'more novice' gal helped clarify things and was one of the better summaries of the situation I've seen Kathleen punch out of a keypad to share and education others with from her vantagepoint. In order to preserve it, and allow others to see it, I offer this 'digested version', cleaned up of others' names, etc.

Kathleen is a sincere, unadulterated resource for learning, and as you know I try to find resources that are knowledgeable and valid, recognizing and REMINDING about varying opinions when people state them soundling like they're facts. I personally think it's important when you're an activist, educator, profess-or of things, to be in the habit of saying 'in my opinion' when you're outside of what is established fact. Sometimes people can be 'pragmatic'. End of the day: there different ways of looking at things so the consumer does have to study and decide what YOU believe. This is Lumigrate, I am going to work that concept in repeatedly about YOU being in charge! But it more difficult when the subject matter is more difficult for someone's mental abilities, their time or energy, or flat out 'tolerance' for having their brain in the game. Thankfully, Kathleen seems tireless and has shed a lot of different lights on this subject for me, which is good. The law of the lamp post: You have a narrow or wide beam and what's in that illuminated are is what the law of the hammer is about -- you swing your hammer at what is visible. So is that hammer going to be option A for treatment or option B? As I pointed out above, when the two camps overlap in agreement is where I'd suggest people start, as I said above where I provided the two links to Lumigrate topics.  

Here what Kathleen shares about her take on things: 

We all have EBV and the activation of it is what causes all these so-called diseases like chronic fatigue, alzheimers, etc.... the Lymerix vaccine actually activated EBV in people so it caused disease. we found out when LYMErix caused the same disease. Did not make a bit of sense since it was a recombinant antigen. THENCE we had to find out what it was.. we found out when the same structure was revealed to be the same thing as one the HIV gp120 triplicates:http://www.actionlyme.org/HIVLYMERIX_YES.gif

(Consolation Prize for Abused Lymies: If ever there is a Flu-monia pandemic like 1918, we will be the survivors. The people who died from that were people who had strong immune responses to a new fungal (mycoplasma pneumonia) infection. Us sickies are good. We won't (die) like the non-Lymies are at risk for. )

The spirochetes shed lipoproteins of the OspA or TLR2/1 agonist type which eventually shuts off the immune response as well as dumps a lot of IL-10. At the same time, once taken inside a cell, OspA inhibits apoptosis... as does EBV. So, they synergize. 

Stimulation of TLRs led to limited changes in EBV expression manifesting as increase of ZEBRA at mRNA level in cells treated with PolyI:C and Pam3CSK4. Stimulation with PolyI:C, Pam3CSK4 and LPS also lead to considerable increase of NF-kBp65, while increased levels of inflammatory cytokines were observed for IL-8, TNF and IL-6 in cells treated with PMA and MeV. In conclusion, the results of our experiments support the suggestion that TLRs stimulation with microbial ligands influences EBV virus replication."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24459828

 http://www.actionlyme.org/101016.htm

Immunology of Epstein-OspA-Borreliosis; the Signs of Tick-Acquired Immune Deficiency.

www.actionlyme.org

Index/HomeCryme Trainer; Outline for Indictments and the OCCUPY the USDOJ CPS & ...

  

 https://www.facebook.com/notes/kathleen-dickson/16-reports-including-programming-watson-show-ospa-and-the-2-kinds-of-autism-are-/806374316061457

16 Reports (including programming Watson) show OspA and the 2 kinds of Autism are linked (and not spirochetes)

 

Yea, the coinfections nonsense is nonsense. They're all bearers of TLR2-agonists, so it does not make any difference. What I hope is that everyone hangs on to their dollars til we have a REAL treatment. ILADS docs are having people take out second and even THIRD mortgages.

Recap/question: We all have EBV and the activation of it is what causes all these so-called diseases like chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, etc. If I get this, the Lymerix vaccine actually activated EBV in people so it caused disease.

First of all, Lyme is spirochetes, right, and everyone should be treated wth cef and like tetracycline and Biaxin (these treat the co-infections too), but after 3-4 months, really, quit the Abx and get some antivirals and like Rituximab. I mean let's face it, we're all in this place right now because we were not diagnosed early. So, what is late disease? Kinda like a leukemia, or AIDS-like. So, get fully treated for Lyme if you can, but if you're still sick, and you cant get Rituximab and anti-Virals, hang on til we get the crooks busted. And still, there is nothing to reverse TLR2-agonist tolerance, so the fatigue-causing mycoplasma will just grow right back.

Question/ recap from someone: "So as the OspA breaks off, the immune system goes after that and the rest of it is able to duplicate b/c the immune system is doing something else? "

"Many researchers believe that the secret to B. burgdorferi's infectivity and inflammatory capacity lies in the interaction of its surface proteins with the host's immunological system. Yale researcher Stephen Barthold, a veterinarian and professor of comparative medicine who developed the first mouse model of Lyme disease, studies the expression of B. burgdorferi surface proteins throughout various stages of the spirochete's life cycle.

He finds that during the early stages of infection, B. burgdorferi avoids immune detection by decreasing its expression of surface proteins or cloaking its expressed surface proteins under a layer of slime. "It's using some sort of stealth-bomber-type mechanism," he says. Or, using another diversionary tactic called blebbing, the spirochete can pinch off bits of its membrane in order to release its surface proteins. Explains Barbour: "It's like a bacterial Star Wars defense program," in which released surface proteins might intercept incoming host antibodies, keeping the spirochete safe from immunological attack."
Above quote from: http://www.actionlyme.org/BARBOURS_STEALTH_BOMBERS.htm

 

Kathleen goes on to say: It's more like flak, but having chronic Lyme is exactly like being vaccinated with LYMErix, since the bugs are shedding these all the time.

The ideal: Retraction of all their garbage from the journals, end of IDSA's and the IOM's participation in anything, CDC gets closed down, and we get the REAL vaccine failure data, so, in case there is more physiological data on how sick those people became....  ...... Also we'd be confiscating ALL of Yale's property, capital assets and endowment. (And then she has a plan in mind of how to move forward from there). 

Kathleen is organizing an "Occupy Dept of Justice" with a May 2015 date selected due to the weather at that time of year for being outside extensively for an 'occupy' event, though memebers of her group are seeing so many other pieces falling into place that would make their efforts be 'striking while the iron is hot' that they're suggesting they go now. My thought was "even in ideal weather it's ambitious to "occupy" in D.C., what ambition, and how can I help with that?." So I'm including this here at Lumigrate.  You can find more about this at her website and at Facebook.