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<\/a>By Jim Coufal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n(Cazenovia, NY \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
No wonder there are so many misdiagnoses.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Other sources describe doctors being ostracized by their colleagues for successfully treating Lyme disease patients by going beyond the approved protocol \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Associate Professor of Microbiology Holly Ahern, has boldly said, “Lyme disease is absolutely an epidemic.”<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
It’s starting to be taken seriously, but the previous sentence indicates we still have real problem.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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?)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Research this (or any) topic and use your vote.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Jim Coufal of Cazenovia is a part-time philosopher and full-time observer of global trends. He can be reached at madnews@m3pmedia.com.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Here & Back Again By Jim Coufal (Cazenovia, NY \u2013 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}