From Here & Back Again
By Jim Coufal
(Cazenovia, NY – Oct. 2014) Ebola continues to fill the news; Lyme disease is finally breaking into it. And the breakthrough brings startling and disheartening news. Because of copyright issues, I can’t quote a piece from the Vaughter Wellness website (owndoc.com) to any extent, but a well-referenced article reports that since 1911, multiple sclerosis has been known to be caused by the same bacterium as Lyme disease.
No wonder there are so many misdiagnoses.
The article takes big pharma, groups like the MS Society, support groups and the government to task for holding back work on Lyme disease. For example, it says big pharma sells symptom relief without significantly searching for prevention and cure protocols or better testing procedures.
Other sources describe doctors being ostracized by their colleagues for successfully treating Lyme disease patients by going beyond the approved protocol – not going out of the scope of modern medicine but beyond what those with power say should be done. Such sources also describe the poor tests used to diagnose Lyme disease (e.g., 50 and more percent failure rates), especially when much better tests are available but not legal or covered by insurance.
Lyme disease is not just a U.S. problem. France produced a video (see vimeo.com) called “A Silent Epidemic,” calling the ticks that transmit Lyme “modern vampires.” One Lyme patient describes 20 years of hell, finally capped by 37 medical visits in 10 months when her Lyme disease was finally diagnosed.
Fortunately for her, even after all those years without treatment for Lyme, she made a good recovery. Most people don’t, and Lyme is a long-term, debilitating disease that can even go underground for some time only to arise with a vengeance.
Another article headlines that Canada moves out of denial regarding Lyme. Northern climates were long held too cold for large tick populations. Yet, Canada now has the ticks and Lyme disease, and the hotbed of Lyme disease in the U.S. is Pennsylvania, New York and the New England and Mid-Atlantic states.
Associate Professor of Microbiology Holly Ahern, has boldly said, “Lyme disease is absolutely an epidemic.”
Research indicates it is diagnosed, even among the many misdiagnoses, at a rate of 10 to 50 times what public health statistics show. Estimates are that as many as one million people in the U.S. have Lyme disease. In 2013, a report was published, “Lyme Disease in Massachusetts: A Public Health Crisis.”
It’s starting to be taken seriously, but the previous sentence indicates we still have real problem.
Human bites from ticks are highest in the summer, with April through September the peak. But ticks practice host-questing down to 45 degrees, so it pays to remain aware and alert. High relative humidity and high precipitation also favor higher tick populations.
While white-footed mice, chipmunks and other small furries also carry ticks, the real problem is deer, hence the name, “deer ticks.” With increasing deer populations in suburban and rural areas, a key to controlling Lyme disease is to control the deer population. This has been difficult because animal-lovers want nothing but humane techniques used to do so. (Excuse me for asking, but what’s inhumane about sterilizing the deer?)
The preponderance of studies I have found indicate such methods as sterilization are expensive (as much as $1,000 per deer) and don’t work. On the other hand, recent long-term studies of lethal culling, in Connecticut and at Cornell had real success. The Cornell culling reduced deer herds by 87 percent and the tick population by 76 percent. There is still controversy over the various techniques, but this is where democracy comes into play.
Research this (or any) topic and use your vote.
I urge you to participate in our democratic process and call upon Gov. Coumo to sign the bill protecting doctors from retaliation when they use proper medical techniques that are outside the “approved” protocols.
Jim Coufal of Cazenovia is a part-time philosopher and full-time observer of global trends. He can be reached at madnews@m3pmedia.com.
well spoken
I don’t agree killing deer with solve much. Too many animals, birds etc. carrying ticks and too many diseases being spread by ticks not being addressed or acknowledged by our CDC and IDSA.
Good article. Most people believe the CDC about what states are potential risk states. Good example in Texas where Professor Maria Esteve Gassent has proven that Texas is far from low to no risk state but nothing has been done to change the statistics. One who doesnt ubderstand the velocity of this belief wouldnt understand the detriment of this statement. Example imagine a person works with abestos every day and goes.to the doctor for a continuing cough. The doctor would not even consider the potential or possibility of being more than just a cough(cancer from a abestos). Same thing with Lymes disease you go to the doctor with a varying symptoms and the Dr doesn’t think Lyme disease in the state of Texas because according to the CDC we don’t have it here which is not true
Interesting article. A few thoughts/comments:
1) While there has been some research into looking at Borrelia bacteria (which causes Lyme disease) as the trigger for multiple sclerosis, there have also been other evidence-based contenders on the table. For some time, viruses have been implicated in triggering MS:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS/What-Causes-MS/Viruses
This has yet to be confirmed. But even more recently, epsilon toxin, produced by spore-producing bacteria from foodborne illness has been implicated in causing MS and the evidence is stronger there than for the earlier viruses listed above:
http://www.asm.org/index.php/communications/92-news-room/press-releases/92742-bacterial-toxin-a-potential-trigger-for-multiple-sclerosis
It may be that there is more than one way to develop MS – I don’t know for sure. But that last link was based on more recent research, and published in Jan 2014 – certainly interesting.
2) Holly Ahern is right: Lyme disease has reached epidemic proportions. 300,000 people a year in the US, with 10-20% of those affected going on to have persisting symptoms with a wide array of outcomes. Some far worse off than others. Something needs to be done to help those people who continue to be incredibly ill after they are initially infected with Lyme disease. We need more research.
3) Killing the deer is not going to help as much as people think. Ticks will migrate to small mammals, and already thrive on mice. That’s why bait tubes are useful. But beyond this, a good oral vaccine for mice and other mammals would be good. Stop the mice from getting Lyme disease, and you cut the rate of infection down. If you want to be more proactive regarding preventing human tick bites in general – and not just vaccinate against Lyme – petition the Gates Foundation to fund research for ticks that works like the Kite Patch, which they are already funding to repel mosquitoes. See: http://www.kitepatch.com/
The same pathways found in mosquitoes which this patch works on also exists in ticks. How it might be different, I don’t know – that’s a question for skilled entomologists. But it would make sense to me to work on developing the same sort of patch based on the same principle for repelling ticks.