Heather Callaghan
Activist Post
What have you heard about tickborne Lyme for the last 30 years? That it’s rare, scary, acute, treatable? The government warns about its spread and implores people to go to a doctor upon seeing the telltale bulls-eye rash.
So, what happens when they actually do?
Many have researched the controversial beginnings of Lyme disease, but this article focuses on what happens to victims when they contract it, and the ongoing cover-up in the mainstream medical community and the CDC itself.
Under Our Skin is a documentary that lends a voice to the many who in fact suffer from chronic Lyme and are victims of a greater abomination.
Why do conventional doctors tell them it’s in their head? Why won’t they quickly test for it? Treat it? Acknowledge it? Why do medical boards shut down doctors who can treat and cure Lyme?
Lyme’s Disease is Not Rare – It is Bigger Than AIDS
In the late ’70s, a Lyme, Connecticut mom reported a mysterious new disease sweeping the town, leaving its people with debilitating, chronic symptoms. In 1981, Dr. Willy Burgdorfer discovered the Lyme bacteria, called Borrelia burgdorferi.
The bacteria spirochetes closely resemble syphilis in their make up. While a carrier tick is feeding, its backwash enters the host and transmits Lyme. The corkscrew spirochetes wreak havoc, drilling into any healthy cells and tissue. They create painful, crippling neurological and immunological damage.
In the beginning, doctors only knew that it resembled syphilis, but remained unaware of its wide spread, how to proceed, and the political-medical clash that awaited them.
In recent years, the CDC has reported over 35,000 new Lyme cases annually, but admits that since symptoms are so overlooked the actual number may be 12 times higher, up to 420,000 cases each year.
Think of how much more likely it is to contract Lyme than the media-touted fear of West Nile virus, which is only reported at around 1,300 cases annually. If the actual number of Lyme cases is even just a modest amount above the CDC’s 35,000, then Lyme is far more prevalent than AIDS, reported at 39,000 cases annually.
Since 1982, the number of cases continues to climb and spike prompting media reports and health officials to label it an epidemic as early as 1989. Reported cases have tripled since 1992. Every summer we hear the same cautionary reports. Yet, doctors constantly tell their patients: “You don’t have Lyme,” or “Lyme only happens in such-and-such state, not here.”
Lyme is a national health crisis in every state and has traveled the globe!
Since this infectious disease is viewed with eyes that won’t see and hands that won’t treat, the miniscule 35,000 reported cases are unquestionably a mere fraction of people sick with Lyme.
Patients often look normal and are told they have M.S., Lou Gehrig’s, psychological disorders, Parkinson’s, ADHD but not Lyme. Therefore, many walk around with Lyme and have no clue why they are so ill, why treatments don’t work and are left to wonder. Many are left to die.
Without Early Eradication Lyme is Chronic, Expensive, Does Not Leave Easily
Lyme patients often state that they’ve seen an average of 30 doctors, spent over $100,000 in medical care and waited up to 15 years for a Lyme diagnosis. Why??
Lyme disease antibodies can be detected early with a blood test. If caught early it can be treated with an inexpensive bottle of antibiotics. But that is rarely the case. Patients are told it’s not Lyme, it won’t be tested for, it’s something else and so the struggle begins….
When the patient remains ill, why, it couldn’t possibly be chronic Lyme because doctors view it as acute and are not allowed to believe chronic Lyme exists. If “acute” Lyme isn’t cured with two weeks of antibiotics, which it won’t be if the bacteria has taken hold due to waiting, then the patient is told it must be something else and years of sickness, pain, and ineffective treatments ensue.
Talk to someone who’s been through this battle. They will most likely tell you they were dismissed and referred to psychiatrists and multiple specialists.
Lyme can attack any area of the body and manifest endless symptoms. Lyme patients have seen specialists for chronic pain, arthritis, Chrohn’s, iritis, organ failure, brain and neurological problems, dyslexia, insomnia . . . you name it. All for one disease that could have been treated early. But no one will believe them, and after seeing so many specialists they are often labeled crazy, hypochondriacs, attention loving, and depressed.
The spirochetes can cleverly avoid the antibiotics and hide from the immune system. It’s frightening to think that specialists often prescribe immune suppressive drugs – the most counterproductive plan for Lyme patients.
The CDC now hints at chronic Lyme with sarcastic quotation marks and insists that it be called Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS). They openly admit that the first round of conventional treatment might not bring a cure, and that the patient is in for a long ride of pain and sometimes years of antibiotics — the only recognized conventional treatment.
They lie and state that there is no credible scientific evidence that PTLDS is caused by persistent infection, that it must be residual damage, that the Lyme is gone. They also make a big point in telling people to avoid their own research on the Internet; not to believe the inaccurate information out there, just keep seeing the doctor who left them untreated for so long.
The CDC says before PTLDS treatment takes place, confirm the diagnosis – fat chance that will happen.
So how did that fiasco begin?
Stay tuned for part 2 of this series….
Sources:
Under Our Skin (2008), available on Netflix
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/postLDS/index.html
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-galland-md/lyme-disease-symptoms_b_876096.html
http://www.lymenet.org/SupportGroups/UnitedStates/
http://www.lymecommunity.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2711
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-204_162-10007902.html?tag=page
This series is dedicated to Lyme patients everywhere.
Read Part 2: The Establishment Cover-up of Chronic Lyme
Read Part 3: Effectively Treating Lyme
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