May Marks Lyme Disease Awareness Month: Is Lyme Disease The Next Tsunami Fact or Fiction?

May 2007 is Lyme Disease Awareness Month. Christine N. Cibula, M.S. of Living With Lyme, A Division of Strategic Living, Inc. sheds light on the lesser known facts and widely accepted fiction surrounding Lyme disease that perpetuates the improper diagnosis, testing, and treatment of Lyme Disease patients Nationwide and Worldwide. You decide whether Lyme disease as the next tsunami is fact or fiction.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) May 2, 2007 -- In honor of May 2007 Lyme Disease awareness month, Christine N. Cibula, M.S., founder of Living with Lyme™ (www.LivingWithLyme.com and www.LivingWithLymeBlog.com), a Division of Strategic Living, Inc. (www.Strategic-Living.com), shares little known facts while demystifying the fiction surrounding Lyme Disease.

Christine Cibula said, "There are millions of people worldwide who are 'Living With Lyme' and don't know it because they have been misdiagnosed with another disease or they are silently suffering after they've heard their physicians say, 'Lyme disease does not exist in (City, State).' This is simply not true. I've opted to shed light on this topic by sharing medically and scientifically documented fact in the hopes that the facts will replace the fiction in the medical community and that Lyme patients will begin to receive the appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care as the norm rather than the exception."

FACT: It takes one to three days for the Lyme spirochete, a worm-shaped bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), to migrate from the site of the tick bite to the heart, joints, and central and peripheral nervous system.

FACT: A microscopically small bacterial load of 500 Bb can populate an entire human host.

FACT: Animals that can harbor active Lyme disease infections include the well-known deer and mice, but the list includes wild animals such as elk, migrating birds, rabbits, rats and domestic animals such as horses and dogs. Wild animals migrate and some travel long distances. Domestic animals travel and some are shipped to and from locations, such as domestic pets or animals that travel for competitions. Therefore, even if the area where you live is not considered "endemic" for Lyme disease, exposure is still possible or you may have momentarily traveled to an "endemic" area and been exposed without realizing it.    

FACT: While ticks are the primary vectors for the transmission of Lyme disease, Bb has been found in the blood of horse flies, fleas, chiggers, mites, etc. Some patients who present with symptoms of Lyme disease report never having been bitten by a tick, but do remember the onset of symptoms after being bitten by another vector that has been found to carry the bacteria in its blood.

FACT: Ticks carry on average 13 different bacteria, viruses, and mycoplasma. Patients with Persistent Chronic Lyme disease are often co-infected with other bacteria, viruses, and mycoplasma that have gone untreated if a physician has only treated the Lyme disease itself. These include but are not limited to Babesia, Bartonella, Erlichia, H. pylori, Mycoplasma, Tularemia, HIV, HPV, Q Fever, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Morgellon's patients are typically co-infected with Lyme disease and improve significantly with antibiotic therapy.

FACT: The testing for Lyme disease is two-tiered, starting with an ELISA. For every 100 true positive patients who have Lyme disease, 51-67 patients presenting with early stage Lyme disease are told that they do not have it and 21 patients presenting with late stage Lyme disease are told that they do not have it based on ELISA tests that are not sensitive enough for accurate detection.

FACT: The current Lyme Western Blot used by most laboratories across the country was developed using samples of patients who had Lyme disease for 5 months or less which does not include samples from patients with mid or late stage Lyme disease, is not capable of detecting STARI, also known as Master's Disease, and are analyzed by "autonomic densitometers" (i.e., machines rather than human technicians). As a result 33 out of 100 true positive Lyme patients will be told based on poor Lyme Western Blot testing measures that they do not have Lyme disease when in fact they do. These patients go on to often be misdiagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Lupus, Myesthenia Gravis, Bell's Palsy, Paralysis, ALS, Delusions, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Dementia and Alzheimer's. Borrelia burgdorferi has been found to mimic each of these diseases as well as many more and therefore should be ruled out as a differential diagnosis.

FACT: Lyme disease is a spirochete much like syphilis. It has been found in every organ and every bodily fluid in the body. It has been found to pass from mother to fetus as Gestational Lyme. In babies born with Lyme disease, 75% show Neuropsychiatric Symptoms including Autism (9%) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (56%) and 63% have Neurological Sensory Integration Problems and Hypersensitivities. Just like with syphilis, people with Bb in the body may be asymptomatic for Lyme disease for years and in some cases longer than a decade before they show signs and symptoms of late stage disseminated Lyme disease. During this time they could be unknowingly passing the disease between sexual partners and from mother to fetus.

FACT: Borrelia burgdorferi has several forms - spirochete, cyst, blebs, intracellular and extracellular, with cell walls and without cell walls, and can morph and splice its DNA and combine with the DNA of the human or animal host and hides from the human immune system. It takes a host of combination antibiotic therapy protocols to effectively treat all its forms. International Lyme and Associated Diseases Lyme Literate Medical Doctors (ILADS LLMDs) are well-versed in these treatment protocols.

FACT: Borrelia burgdorferi migrates to joint and synovial fluids, cardiac tissue, reproductive tissue, and the brain, spinal cord, and nerve fibers, which directly affects the central and peripheral nervous system. In short, it damages every organ system of the body.

FICTION: Lyme disease does not exist in (City, State).
FICTION: Lyme disease is being over diagnosed and over treated.
FICTION: Lyme disease patients are attention seeking excuse makers.
FICTION: Lyme disease is cured by a 10-day dose of Doxicycline.
FICTION: Persistent Chronic Lyme cannot be treated with antibiotic therapy.
FICTION: The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Treatment Guidelines are sufficient and curative.
FICTION: Lyme disease can't kill you.

Is Lyme disease the next tsunami fact or fiction? You be the judge. Living with Lyme will be providing more free educational information about Lyme disease awareness throughout May 2007. To learn more about how to safeguard and protect your family visit www.livingwithlyme.com/lyme_awareness_may_2007.html. Living With Lyme will be providing patient education on symptoms and differential diagnosis, the one laboratory in the country that has highly sensitive and specific testing, and how to find an ILADS LLMD to oversee your ongoing treatment and care.

About Living With Lyme: Christine N. Cibula, M.S. founded Living With Lyme (www.LivingWithLyme.com and www.LivingWithLymeBlog.com) in 1999 after being diagnosed wtih Lyme disease and realizing she had been suffereing with Lyme for 11 years prior to being accurately diagnosed. Her symptoms resolved after year of high dose antibiotic therapy. As she read the research she discovered that the basic information most people know about Lyme disease is just the tip of the iceberg. In response she created Living With Lyme to get Lyme patients up to speed quickly with everything they need to know and nothing they don't. To sign up for her Free Living With Lyme Ezine and enjoy a Free Teleseminar Lyme Educational Series in May 2007, visit www.LivingWithLyme.com/lyme_awareness_may_2007.html and sign up today!

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