Lyme Disease: The Silent Destroyer of Lives
Dr Terri Dluhy
Lyme disease is known to wreck lives and strike when people least expect it. Transmitted from ticks, it can take years to diagnose, leaving people suffering painful symptoms doctors are unable to explain.The oldest known case was discovered in the Copper age, and it is now one of the fastest-growing diseases in the Western world.
Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete; a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi that consists of more than 20 sub-species, five of which can cause disease in humans. Lyme is called “The Great Imitator,” because its symptoms mimic many other diseases. Many Lyme symptoms, such as fatigue, cognitive impairment, joint pain, poor sleep, mood problems, muscle pain, and neurological presentations also occur in other diseases. Hence, the symptoms of Lyme disease significantly overlap those of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, depression and Alzheimer’s disease thus making it hard to diagnose.It can affect any organ of the body, including the brain and nervous system, muscles and joints, and the heart. Although, it is not unusual for someone who is diagnosed with Lyme disease to have these concurrent diseases due to a lowered immune system trying to fight the bacterium leaving the body open to other pathogens and illnesses.
Lyme disease, which was first recognized in the US in the early 1970’s among patients in Lyme, Connecticut, is one of the fastest growing diseases in the Western world: the threat it poses has become increasingly apparent in recent years. Estimates suggest that more than 300,000 people are diagnosed with the disease each year in the US and more than 65,000 cases a year are diagnosed in Europe. However, the true number of people affected is probably underestimated due to under-reporting and the limitations of current tests to diagnose the illness. Borrelia can flourish inside the tick, where they migrate from the gut to the saliva glands.When the tick takes a blood meal from humans, the bacteria can penetrate our skin and travel around our body in our bloodstream.And the bacteriamutates in a number of ways to become invisible to the host’s immune system so we become infected with it. The main way the bacteria is transmitted in Europe is the deer tick, Ixodes ricinus - but other species of the same tick carry the microbes in the US and Asia.Humans can become infected after being bitten by an infected tick. This is because it is one possible illness among the potentially large number of infections that may have been contracted as a result of the tick bite, meaning it often goes untreated. But it’s not just ticks we have to worry about. Lice, fleas, and mosquitoes have also been found to contain Borrelia.Recent research suggests that the Borrelia bacteria may also be transmitted from person to person through saliva, organ transplants, blood transfusions, sexual contact or breast milk.
Currently, western medicine has no cure. Unfortunately, there is currently no vaccine available against Lyme. Western medicine suggests that it is also important to be treated with antibiotics as quickly as possible to prevent illness and avoid long-lasting symptoms in its early stages, but patients with the chronic variant may require months or even years of treatment before it resolves.Unfortunately, long term antibiotic treatment causes its own set of symptoms, and diseases,particularly of the gut as the antibiotics cause an imbalance in the gut flora. The gut is where most of the immune system is so this sets up a cycle of chronic illnesses over time. Some physicians still view antibiotics as the only solution to this disease, but chronically infected patients require multidisciplinary care. Fortunately, Holistic medicine has found successful diagnosis and treatment for Lyme disease; not only the causative bacteria, but also the concurrent pathogens, and the resultant debilitation that arises from long term suffering along with the rebuilding of the immune system and the total health of the patient.
The Sentient Temple Healing Center uses a combination of herbal and nutrients products, and along with other therapies can help the body destroy the spirochete organism and any other concurrent pathogens; some of which actually live on the spirochete and are released when the spirochete is killed, along with rebuilding the body’s immune system and bringing the body back to health and vitality.
Ref: Lymedisease.org, Dr Hany Elsheikha, Univerity of Nottingham