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Lyme Disease - The Unknown Epidemic
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LYME DISEASE
THE UNKNOWN EPIDEMIC
Millions of people who are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia,
Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue syndromeand other degenerative diseases could have
causing or contributing to their condition.
BY D. J. FLETCHER AND TOM KLABER
Forget just about everything you think you know about Lyme disease. It is not a
rare disease, it is epidemic. It is not just tick-borne; it can also be
transmitted by other insects, including fleas, mosquitoes and mites--and by
human-to-human contact. Neither is Lyme usually indicated by a bull's-eye rash;
this is found in only a minority of cases. And, except when it is diagnosed at
a very early stage, Lyme is rarely cured by a simple course of antibiotics.
Finally, Lyme is not just a disease that makes you "tired and achy"--it can
utterly destroy a person's life and ultimately be fatal.
Lyme disease, in fact, might be the most insidious--and least
understood--infectious disease of our day. "If it weren't for AIDS," says Nick
Harris, Ph.D., President of IgeneX, Inc., a research and testing laboratory in
Palo Alto, California, "Lyme would be the number one infectious disease in the
United States and Western Europe."
Lyme disease was first recognized in the United States in 1975, after a
mysterious outbreak of arthritis near Lyme, Connecticut. It wasn't until 1982
that the spirochete that causes Lyme was identified. It was subsequently named
Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), in honor of Willy Burgdorfer, Ph.D., a pioneer
researcher. Many now see the disease, also called Lyme borreliosis, as more
than a simple infection, but rather as a complex illness that can consist of
other co-infections, especially of the parasitic pathogens Babesia and
Ehrlichia.
ANIMAL STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT IN LESS THAN
A WEEK AFTER BEING INFECTED, THE LYME SPIROCHETE CAN BE DEEPLY EMBEDDED INSIDE
TENDONS, MUSCLES, TISSUE, THE HEART AND THE BRAIN
All the other clinicians with whom the authors spoke agreed that Lyme has
reached epidemic proportions. How is this possible? Obviously 25% of Americans
haven't been bitten by one of a select few species of ticks. The answer is that
Lyme is not transmitted just by ticks.
[From top left: Katrina Tang, M.D., H.M.D.; W. Lee Cowden, M.D.; JoAnne
Whitaker, M.D.; Charles Ray Jones, M.D. Second row: Marylynn S. Barkley, Ph.D.,
M.D.; Nick Harris, Ph.D.; Steven Bock, M.D.]
"Of the more than 5,000 children I've treated, 240 have been born with the
disease," says Dr. Jones, who specializes in Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
"Twelve children who've been {*filter*}-fed have subsequently developed Lyme. Bb
can be transmitted transplacentally, even with in vitro fertilization; I've
seen eight children infected in this way. People from Asia who come to me with
the classic Lyme rash have been infected by fleas and gnats."
Gregory Bach, D.O., presented a study on transmission via {*filter*} at the American
Psychiatric Association meeting in November, 2000. He confirmed Bb DNA in {*filter*}
using the PCR test (Polymerase Chain Reaction). Dr. Bach calls Bb "a brother"
to the syphilis spirochete because of their genetic similarities. For that
reason, when he treats a Lyme patient in a relationship, he often treats the
spouse; otherwise, he says, they can just pass the Bb back and forth,
reinfecting each other.
Dr. Tang adds other avenues of infection: "Transmission may also occur via
{*filter*} transfusion and through the bite of mosquitoes or other insects." Dr.
Cowden contends that unpasteurized goat or cow milk can infect a person with
Bb.
UNRELIABLE TESTING
What is the reason for the discrepancy between the government's statistics and
the experience of front-line physicians? Says Dr. Jones, "The CDC criteria was
developed only for surveillance; it was never meant for diagnosis. Lyme is a
clinical diagnosis. The test evidence may be used to support a clinical
diagnosis, but it doesn't prove one has Lyme. About 50% of patients I've seen
have been seronegative [{*filter*} test negative] for Lyme but meet all the clinical
criteria."
Most of the standard tests used to detect Lyme are notoriously unreliable.
Explains Dr. Harris, "The initial thing patients usually get is a Western Blot
antibody test. This test is not positive immediately after Bb exposure, and
only 60% or 70% of people ever show antibodies to Bb."
Dr. Cowden favors two tests developed respectively by Dr. Whitaker and by Lida
Mattman, Ph.D., Director of the Nelson Medical Research Institute in Warren,
Michigan. However, both of these tests have yet to win FDA approval for
diagnostic use. Explains Dr. Whitaker, "We have developed the Rapid
Identification of Bb (RIBb) test. A highly purified fluorescent antibody stain
specific for Bb is used to detect the organism. This test provides results in
20 to 30 minutes, a key to getting the right treatment started quickly."
Dr. Mattman's culture test also uses a fluorescent antibody staining technique
which allows her to study live cultures under a fluorescent microscope. "When a
person is sick," says Dr. Mattman, "antibodies get tied up in the tissues, in
what is called an immune complex, and are not detected in the patient's {*filter*}
plasma. So it's not that the antibody isn't there or hasn't been produced; it
just isn't detectable. Thus, the tests which are based on detecting antibodies
give false negatives." The tests of Drs. Whitaker and Mattman do not look for
antibodies but look for the organism, in the same way that tuberculosis is
diagnosed.
WHEN DR. JONES TREATS A LYME PATIENT WHO'S IN A RELATIONSHIP, HE OFTEN TREATS
THE SPOUSE AS WELL; OTHERWISE, HE SAYS, THEY CAN JUST PASS THE Bb BACK AND
FORTH, REINFECTING EACH OTHER.
There are several reasons why Lyme is so difficult to test for--and difficult
to treat. Take, for instance, the bull's-eye rash--called Erythma migrans--that
is supposed to appear after being bitten by a tick carrying the Lyme
spirochete. Every doctor with whom the authors spoke said that this rash
appears in only 30% to 40% of infected people. Dr. Jones said that fewer than
10% of the infected children he sees exhibit the rash.
A MASTER OF ELUSIVENESS
More importantly, Lyme can disseminate throughout the body remarkably rapidly.
In its classic spir ochete form, the bacteria can contract like a large muscle
and twist to propel itself forward: because of this spring-like action it can
actually swim better in tissue than in {*filter*}. It can travel through {*filter*}
vessel walls and through connective tissue. Animal studies have shown that in
less than a week after being infected, the Lyme spirochete can be deeply
embedded inside tendons, muscle, the heart and the brain. It invades tissue,
replicates and destroys its host cell as it emerges. Sometimes the cell wall
collapses around the bacterium, forming a cloaking device, allowing it to evade
detection by many tests and by the body's immune system.
[The Lyme spirochete (Bb) is pleomorphic, meaning that it can radically change
form. The photo on the left shows a colony of Bb both in spirochete and round
cell wall deficient (CWD) forms. In the CWD form, the Lyme organism can lack
the membrane information necessary for the immune system and antibiotics to
recognize and attack it. Dr. Lida Mattman states that cell wall deficient
organisms are more properly called cell wall divergent. The Lyme spirochete can
not only change from the classic spiral into a round form, but can change back
again into a spiral. The middle photo shows this process occurring in the area
shown by the arrow. The photo on the bottom shows fully formed spirochetes
emerging from a giant CWD form.]
But the main reason that Lyme is so resistant to detection and therapy is that
it can radically change form--it is pleomorphic. Explains Dr. Whitaker, "We
have examined {*filter*} samples from over 800 patients with clinically diagnosed
Lyme disease with the RiBb test and have rarely seen Bb in anything but a cell
wall deficient (CWD) form. The problem is that a CWD organism doesn't have a
fixed exterior membrane presenting information--a target--that would allow our
immune systems or {*filter*} to attack it, or allow most current tests to detect
it."
As a CWD organism, says Dr. Mattman, Bb is extremely diverse in its appearance,
its activity and its vulnerability. Adds Dr. Cowden, "Because Bb is very
pleomorphic, you can't expect any one antibiotic to be effective. Also,
bacteria share genetic material with one another, so the offspring of the next
bug can have a new genetic sequence that can resist the antibiotic."
CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS
The doctors the authors interviewed all had their own testing preferences, but
each insisted that Lyme was a clinical diagnosis, only supported by
testing--and retesting.
"We look at the patient's history and symptoms, genetic tendencies, metabolism,
past immune function problems or infection," explains Dr. Bock, "as well as
history and duration of antibiotic treatment, co-infection, nutritional and
micronutritional status and also psychospiritual factors." Dr. Tang uses all of
the above, but also analyzes the {*filter*} using darkfield microscopy--although she
cautions that not spotting the spirochete doesn't mean that the patient does
not have Lyme disease. Dr. Cowden also employs muscle testing and electrodermal
screening. Dr. Burrascano has developed a weighted list of diagnostic criteria
and an exhaustive symptom checklist.
"In pediatric screening especially," says Dr. Jones, "we ask about sudden,
sometimes subtle, changes in behavior or cognitive function--such as losing
skills or losing the ability to learn new material; not wanting to play or go
outside; running a fever; being sensitive to light or noise. If one has joint
phenomena, we know that an inflammatory or
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GOOD New Article: Lyme Disease the Unknown Epidemic from alternative medicine magazine