Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is the fastest growing vector-borne infectious disease in the US
If you have been living with with chronic Lyme disease, I can imagine that you probably feel incredibly frustrated. Not only are you sick and tired of being sick and tired, but you have most likely spent a lot of money on treatments already and are still left without any quality of life. I know where you are because I have been there too.
I was misdiagnosed for many years and became completely debilitated from Lyme. Hyperthermia treatment was the first treatment that my body actually responded to and gave me my life back. If you would like to find out more information about whether this treatment is the right option for you, we would be happy to set up a free consultation to see if it’s a match.
how is lyme disease treated?
If detected in its early stage, Lyme disease can often be treated with an appropriate course of antibiotic therapy. If undetected, untreated, or if not given a long enough dose of antibiotics, then the bacteria replicates and the disease can become chronic. During Chronic Lyme disease, biofilms form around the Lyme bacteria, and antibiotics cannot penetrate through the biofilm to reach the infection. However, hyperthermia breaks down biofilms, and reaches high enough temperatures to kill the Lyme bacteria.
Where is Lyme Disease Found?
Lyme disease has been found on every continent except Antarctica. It has been spread to all 50 states, with a particularly high incidence in the East, Midwest, and West Coast. Rates have increased substantially over time.
How is Lyme Disease Diagnosed?
Lyme disease is often clinical diagnosis—based on your medical history, symptoms, and exposure to ticks. As the current two-tier testing model for Lyme Disease recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) misses over 1/2 of actual cases. More reliable tests can be found at Armin Labs, IGeneX, Fry Labs, Galaxy Diagnostics, and DNA Connexions.
What are the symptoms of Lyme Disease?
There are over a hundred different symptoms of Lyme disease recorded. Symptoms can also change over time, as the bacteria spreads throughout the body. Often the infection will attack wherever the patient is genetically weak. Lyme disease can affect almost any organ of your body, including the brain, nervous system, muscles and joints, and the heart. Symptoms can overlap those of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, depression and Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, many patients with Lyme report being misdiagnosed with a different condition before being properly diagnosed with Lyme disease. For a more complete list of symptoms click here.
What are co-infections?
“Vectors” such as ticks, mosquitos, and fleas transmit Lyme and co-infections from animals like mice, rats, and squirrels to humans when they bite. Ticks can carry many bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoans all at the same time and transmit them in a single bite. Some common infections carried by a tick other than Lyme disease include bartonella, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, relapsing fever, tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF). A person infected with co-infections generally experience more severe symptoms and a longer recovery.
Ten Basic Lyme Disease Facts
- Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete, which is a spiral shaped bacterium. The kind of spirochete that causes Lyme disease is known as Borrelia. There are a number of different types of Borrelia that are identified as the cause of Lyme borreliosis. The organism that is the most common in the United States is known as Borrelia burgdorfi (Bb).
- Borrelia burgdorferi is one of the most complex bacterium known to science. There are 5 subspecies of Bb, more than 100 strains in the US, and 300 stains worldwide. Bb takes different forms to evade the immune system and antibiotics. The forms are the spiral shape (spirochete) that has a cell wall, the cell-wall-deficient form, and the cyst form. Biofilms can also form around spirochetes.
- Lyme disease is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the United States, and it widespread all around the world. Ticks have no limits and do not discriminate, affecting people in every state in the US.
- Lyme disease is known as “The Great Imitator.” It can affect any organ in the body, and cause over 150 symptoms. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Meningitis, MS, ALS, Alzheimer’s, Autism, ADHD, Parkinson’s, and Dystonia should all be considered as possible Lyme. It can mirror any neurological, cardiac, psychiatric, and arthritic multisystem disorder.
- Deer ticks are not the only species that transmit Lyme disease. Live spirochetes have been found in fleas, mites, lice, mosquitoes, and biting flies. Deer, birds, mammals, and rodents can all be carriers of Lyme. Animal studies indicate that transmissions can take place in under 24 hours. It is also believed that after infecting another host, if the tick is carrying the bacteria in its salivary gland as opposed to its mid-gut, bacteria could be directly transmitted.
- Due to the lack of sufficient testing Lyme is extremely under-reported. It is estimated that there are 427,000 new cases of Lyme Disease each year. Less than 50 to 75% people with Lyme recall a tick bite, or develop a rash. While the bull’s eye rash is associated with Lyme, uncharacteristic forms of a rash are much more common.
- The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implemented surveillance criteria for Lyme disease. However as sited on their website, it was “never intended to be used as diagnostic criteria, nor were they meant to define the entire scope of Lyme disease.”
- Tests for Lyme disease are unreliable. IGeneX Lab in Palo Alto, California is one of the most highly recommended lab in detecting tick borne diseases. Fry Labs, Galaxy Diagnostics, DNA Connexions, and Armin Labs are all cutting edge for testing and identifying Lyme and co-infections. Even if you do not receive a positive result back from your blood work, it does not mean that you do not have Lyme disease. That is why Lyme is a clinical diagnosis.
- The Elisa test misses at least 35% of positive Lyme cases. On the Western Blot analysis 20-30% show up seronegative for patients with acute culture-proven Lyme disease. The antibody titers decline the longer the patient is sick, contributing to the decline in accuracy for the chronically ill patient. For “epidemiological purposes” the CDC removed from the Western Blot test, the analysis of bands 31 and 34. However, while these bands are not considered in commercial Lyme tests, they are extremely specific of borrelia burgdorferi exposure.
- Sometimes a bigger issue than Lyme, is the co-infections. Bartonella, Babesia, and Erlichiosis, are the more common co-infections. Treatment becomes more complicated when co-infections are involved. If co-infections are left untreated, symptoms can escalate into a serious health threats, and patients can become increasingly ill.
Lyme
Lyme disease is the fastest growing vector-borne infectious disease in the U.S.
Hyperthermia
Hyperthermia is an alternative treatment that actually works.
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