Lyme disease is the latest epidemic in the United States, more specifically in the northeast, leaving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties as the prime location for contraction. But what really is Lyme disease? How do we get it? How do we know when we have it?
You can Google these questions and find a wide variety of answers, but take it from someone who has experienced it all herself, those answers are not exactly responses you want to completely rely on. So how much do you really know about Lyme disease?
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by the spirochetal bacteria Borrelia Burgdorferi, which is most often found in ticks. Although the most common way to contract Lyme is from the bite of a tick, there is scientific evidence that Lyme can be transmitted through the placenta. Recent studies have also found that other biting insects, such as mosquitoes, may also pass along Lyme disease.
The spirochete bacteria are shaped like corkscrews, therefore allowing them to drill into any organ or body tissue they please. Their shape gives them this distinct advantage over escaping antibiotics and quickly spreading to parts of the body where they may be more difficult to find and get rid of. Spirochetes also have the advantage of drilling deep into tissue, hibernating and hiding from medicine and diagnostic tests. It has been found that the spirochete’s safest place to hide is the brain.
It is said that the most significant sign of Lyme disease is the bulls-eye rash, but really only half of the population who contracts Lyme will exhibit any type of rash or skin irritation. Other initial signs of Lyme disease include flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, weakness, headaches and fever. Once again, these symptoms are not always present either. And finally, an ailment that most doctors will initially link to Lyme when no other cause is recognized is knee pain and stiffness, otherwise known as arthritis of the knees.
My suggestion is that, if you ever find a tick in your skin, remove it and go to the doctor to get tested—whether or not you experience a rash or sudden onset of symptoms. Lyme disease symptoms can take a few weeks to a few months before they kick in. If you really think you have Lyme disease and your test comes back negative, see a different doctor. The ELISA and Western Blot test for Lyme disease is set to certain guidelines that prevent diagnosis when appropriate. Better put, if you do not test “positive enough” for Lyme disease, you will simply be swept under the radar as Lyme-free when you actually are infected. This only leaves time for the bacteria to multiply and spread to other organs, causing you to become sicker later down the road.
If the diagnosis is missed, symptoms may (yet not always) advance to more serious issues. The list can be quite long, but some late-stage symptoms that I have experienced include neurological problems, heart complications and psychological issues. What many people are unaware of is that Lyme disease is often misdiagnosed for other illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, syphilis, mononucleosis, hypochondria, depression and fibromyalgia (just to name a few).
Lyme disease is typically treated with a four-week dose of antibiotics, most likely doxycycline. If symptoms persist, another 4 weeks may be administered. After that, many physicians will refuse to continue treating. It is at this point that they refer to the patient as having a “psychosomatic disorder” rather than Lyme disease. The controversy over whether or not chronic Lyme disease exists has become a very political and harsh battle. It is at this late-stage Lyme disease that many patients find it hard to receive treatment and proper care.
If you or someone you know is experiencing similar symptoms and/or misdiagnoses, it is in your best interest to see a different physician, and if possible a Lyme-literate doctor also known as “LLMD.” The following Web sites offer some insight and help:
There are particular "trigger points" that are used for diagnosing fibromyalgia. CFS is a diagnosis of exclusion, so make sure you've been tested correctly for Lyme before accept a CFS diagnosis.
I had lesions in the brain and it attacked my central nervous system through out the spine. I am lucky to be walking-though not well, all the time. My mind became mush and sometimes sharp then foggy! The brain took about 5 years to clear up. The T spine still has lesions(White markens) Spinal tap in 06 said MS and Lupus .I was hospitalized and given IV steroids which made me worse and could have killed anyone with Lyme because it places your immune system very low & the Lyme disease multiplies! You can have an over active mind that never shuts down and wants to explode.Any kind of stress can add to your symptoms. Everyone is different some the same.A good Doctor can tell and full blood work sent to IGENEX Lab in CA. IS THE BEST! Good luck
You may feel you have no patience for any nonsense and stay away from people who upset you, or are negative because you will get sicker. Other things are knee pain, twitching under the skin like something is biting you, electric shocks in your feet or legs,numbness in toes and feet, sensitivity under your skin like sunburn, walking unbalanced, saying the wrong things,losing words,spelling,directions,eye pain,ear stabbing pains all come and go, optic nerve inflamed,headaches,sensitivity to light & sound,respiratory and heart flutters,asthma,anxiety and extremely tired,lack of desire,compulsive disorder,hip,back pain tightness like cement is in your back around to the stomach area,sharp pain under ribs,Knee caps swell. All these things are from many Lyme people.I had many myself it is a rough long road. We can thank Plum Island & our Government for this GERM WARFARE. I will be on cable talking about what happened to me along with some great Doctors.We need to help one another & so many are walking around with Misdiagnosed illness,given Lupus med's when it isn't. Needing Hip surgery when it got better with a year and a half of antibiotics. We must network check out all the lymedisease.org sites and research and then you will help another person.Doctors especially Neurologists all run with the big funded diseases!Just remember that.Quest never picked it up in over 10 years on me! below is the best lab it is worth your money. http://igenex.com/Website/
Sorry to hear you have this terrible disease. I am getting stronger though another bite at the end of May. So I kinda know it takes 3 months to hit me. As soon as I took the tick off it was like the posion stopped going into my body but we know, it starts up again! Did you ever see that House TV show when the girl had a tick on her?Of course they over did it for TV. You had your gallbladder taking out? Did your Lyme symptons get worse after surgery? I am chicken to do it. I take something called Actigull by prescription and months of taken it,it cleared up the gallbladder. but long use of antibiotics we always check liver count. You take Care, may we stay health and stress free!!!!! Soon there will be a cure,heard China is intersted in Lyme Disease.I have more faith in other countries then our own...right now!
212-421-0440
It is common about the gallbladder. I feel that IV Rocephin is the best for many illness's. I hope you continue to keep the awareness going on Lyme Disease. I just wonder when the Politicians will wake up to this terrible disease. Fran what does Manhattan advanced medicine in NYC do? I find MANY Neurologists in Manhattan run with MS then neurological Lyme. Westchester IS the worse and like I said Quest lab is a joke! So many are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Please keep this going and sharing all Lyme links. Spreading the word will be peoples best bet!!!!all the best, lymie friends
Also, for labs, try the Lyme Center at SUNY Stony Brook. It's a good lab and will take most insurances, unlike Igenix.
Please don't buy into we must HUNT DEER BECAUSE THEY CARRY TICKS....This escaped from Plum Island on the tip of Long Island NY.....There aren't deers swimming across to CT. So it was passed on by birds. Please try to catch the TV show Jessie Ventura Conspiracy theory. We all must know HOW MUCH is covered up by Government wrong doing. Jessie tries to go over by boat to Plum Island and he can not even get close. He then talks to people in Government and YOU will be amazed the run around. Lyme has been around for I would say 40 years! I do not feel they will Cure it because keeping people sick, keeps business going. It is all about the mighty dollar. Though I have heard that China is now getting involved as other Countries. I have little faith in our country doing anything since I have experienced the CDC keeping numbers low! So let's hope and pray, another Country steps in. But it is not only deers! Take care all
When a larva hatches, it wait on the ground until a small mammal or bird brushes up against it so it can attach. They aren't born infected so they aren't a threat. Larvae transform into nymphs in the fall. and remain inactive until the next spring. In the spring, nymphs wait in vegetation. This stage is where most people get infected, because unfed nymphs are about the size of a poppy seed and go unnoticed until fully engorge, by which time the host has been infected. Peak season is late May through July. Once fully engorged, the nymph drops off its host and molts into an adult. Adults wait for hosts up to three feet above the ground. Adults prefer deer, but will latch onto other larger mammals. Since they're much larger — the size of an apple seed — people find and remove them before the spirochete transmission occurs. (It takes at least a day and a half before transmission.) That's why most people don't get infected at this stage. During the winter, unattached ticks become inactive. Once it's warm enough, they try to find a host, preferably a deer. In the spring, the adults feed again, then drop off the host and lay their eggs, with each female laying approximately 3000 eggs. And thus the two-year cycle begins anew. The bottom line is that without deer or other large mammals, the adults couldn't get enough blood to complete the cycle and would starve to death. That's why deer are such a problem.
This concurs with the conclusion of the UMDNJ Allergy and Immunology research team led by Dr.Dr Steven E Schutzer, which stated that "there is a misconception among most people that deer are the culprit. But no; it's really the mice." The American Lyme Disease Foundation has stated that it does not recommend killing deer as a way to control Lyme Disease. Dr. Salaki, Head of the Dept. of Infectious Diseases at Morristown Memorial Hospital said, “It’s not the deer!” Barbara Metzler, a member of the Center for Disease Control’s Lyme Disease Task Force in the Mendhams NJ, wrote: "The name 'deer tick' is a misnomer to begin with. These ticks can also be found on 49 bird species, and at least 30 species of mammal, including chipmunks, grey squirrels, voles, foxes, rabbits, and opossums, and even certain reptiles," and further reported that, "while deer and mice can both serve as hosts on which ticks harmlessly feed, only the mice can transmit the Lyme disease bacteria to ticks. The deer don’t." A CDC researcher of the community-based Lyme Disease Intervention Study in Mendham Township and Mendham Borough, stated, "We can’t target the deer for Lyme." The mice thrive in thick ground cover, and not on grounds where the soil is visible from above. Ironically deer thin this cover.
There are three different issues: how the ticks become carriers, how people get infected, and how Lyme disease spread. Larvae aren't born infected, so they become carriers through attaching to infected small mammals and birds. Nymphs are what infects most people. Infection at this stage goes both ways as well: a nymph may infect a deer and a deer may infect a nymph. Obviously, any nymph that's already attached isn't going to infect another creature. There are two problems associated with deer. One is that they serve as ideal hosts for adult ticks and therefore more ticks survive and propagate than would otherwise. The other is that deer travel, thereby spreading the ticks and serving as sites of infection to non-infected ticks.
When my whole left side stiffened up I suspected I had Lyme. The first 2 MDs I saw wouldn't treat me for Lyme because I had no rash. I went to a third MD and lied by saying I had a rash. He gave me antibiotics and I got worse - and then I started getting better. My hearing, vision, stiffness, pain etc - all were better after a month. Then the MD took me off antibiotics and refused to give me anymore. I was sick again in a few weeks. Luckily I was told about Dr Cameron in Mt Kisco. He used to run the National Task Force on aging and is no slouch. He talked to me for 90 minutes and had me answer 120 or so questions. When I saw one question was "Do you have blurry vision?" I knew I was in the right place. The first 2 MDs I saw said blurry vision isn't a symptom of Lyme. Cameron diagnosed me and after five years of treatment including IV I got better and off the antibiotics. That was 12 years ago. Thanks God people like Dr Cameron go the extra mile. I read about the jokers in Valhalla saying only a few weeks of medicine is needed and its criminal at this point because the knowledge is there to know better (but they don')
better tests to take or tests that might not work for 3 year olds best antiobiotics/ dose or other method? Please I'm very scared.
http://lymediseaseassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=277&Itemid=74 One antibiotic I don't like for Lyme is doxycycline because its bacteriostatic - it keeps bacteria from replicating but doesn't kill them. An antibiotic that's bactericidal (kills bacteria is amoxicillin. When I had Lyme in the 90's it was common for people who took doxycxcline to get sick again, and think they were getting a second case when it was really the fist case coming back. Until you find a doctor you can use some raw garlic (has to be raw and not cooked). The child would probably hate the taste of it but if you have a juicer you can juice a segment of garlic with parsley (kills off odor) and apples and other fruit. Garlic is known to me mild antibiotic. In the last year of my 4 year run using antibiotics I made my own colloidal silver and used myself as a guinea pig. The silver worked quite well as a substitute. The stuff in stores is junk. Small particles of silver (nanosilver) are well know to kill bacteria and they are used now in bandages for burn victims and those with MRSA . I used a maker from company called SOTA http://www.sota.com/default.aspx?page=silver_pulser Of course I say go to a lyme knowledgeable doctor first of all.
This was a very informative article on a real health problem that most people living in southern Westchester county overlook. The White Spotted Field Mouse is also a carried of Deer Ticks. One of the best solutions is control of Deer Tick. There are both traditional and Organic controls for ticks. If anyone would like more information on Deer Tick Controls, I will be at the Scarsdale Health Fair this Saturday from 10 AM to 3PM.
"Mow the lawn frequently and keep leaves raked."