Why Don’t More Practitioners Know About Lyme & Tick-Borne Illnesses?

by | Functional & Integrative Medicine, ISEAI, Lyme Disease & Atypical Infections

Why Don’t More Practitioners Know About Lyme & Tick-Borne Illnesses?

 

There are 3 common ticks in Western North Carolina;

  1. Black legged Tick Ixodes scapularis
  2. Lone Star Tick Amblyomma Americanum
  3. American Dog Tick Dermacentor variabilis

Illnesses carried by these ticks include[i]

  1. Anaplasmosis Anaplasma phagocytophilum (virus)
  2. Babesiosis (Microtus bacteria)
  3. Cat Scratch Fever Bartonella (bacteria, numerous species)
  4. Lyme Disease Borrelia burgdorferi (Spirochete)
  5. Ehrlichiosis Ehrlichia chaffeensis (obligate intracellular, Gram-negative bacteria)
  6. Lyme Disease Borrelia burgdorferi (Spirochete/bacteria)
  7. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Rickettsia rickettsii, (Gram-negative, intracellular)
  8. Tularemia Francisella tularensis (Gram Negative bacteria)

If this news isn’t bad enough, there’s more…

Infections that were formerly known as “tick-borne” are now being transmitted by fleas and other biting insects as we learned at the most recent International Society of Environmentally Acquired illness (ISEAI).

Medical School Education on Tick-Borne Illnesses;

Typical Medical School education in tick-borne illnesses are that “these illnesses will present with a rash at some point in their course, there will probably, but not always be a history of an insect bite at some point prior to the illness.  The patient may complain of fevers, chills, joint pains, muscle aches, treatment is simple enough; 2-3 weeks of tetracycline or doxycycline will heal the tick-borne illnesses.

Simple, simplistic & wrong.

There may be no rash at all.  In fact, estimates are that between 27-85% of cases of Lyme occur without the rash[ii]

The erythema chronicum migrans rash that is supposed to be the “tell tale” for Lyme may thus never appear at all.

Borrelia is a member of the of the Family Spirochaetaceae[iii], another notable member of this Family is Treponema pallidum, the organism that causes syphilis.   The great Sir William Osler MD famously stated that “to know syphilis is to know medicine”[iv] due to the large variety of illnesses and complications it produces.

Common knowledge among physicians is that when treating infections one should never interrupt the antibiotics to prevent development of a resistant strain of the organism.

They hide…

To further confuse the situation, a simple 2-3-week course of antibiotics may put the disease into a “hidden” cystic state.  These organisms can morph into the cystic state which protects them from antibiotics when they are under pressure from antibiotics.[v]

To adequately treat these organisms it’s recommended to counterintuitively take  breaks from antimicrobial therapy, known as “pulsed dose therapy” which the organisms respond to lack of antimicrobial pressure by starting to grow again and leave the dormant stage—thus becoming susceptible to antimicrobial therapy.

Notice the change in terms from antibiotic to antimicrobial above. 

It turns out that antibiotics are not always as effective as combinations of antimicrobial botanical/herbal preparations—natural cure for natural infection.  “It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature!”.   These preparations contain “cocktails” of various herbs that work together—in ways we may not fully understand—but we certainly accept what benefits our patients!

Willie Burgdorferii was recruited by the US Dept of Defense, conducted experiments on Plum Island off of the coast of CT involving Lyme as a bioweapon.[vi]

Tick-borne illnesses are best described as a “covert epidemic” that few practitioners recognize:

  1. The CDC only counts reported cases—many go unreported[vii]
  2. The organism can present initially in so many different ways; arthritis, heart disease, various forms of brain inflammation and symptoms including ear ringing, word-finding difficulty…
  3. “Wandering” joint and other aches and pains are a HUGE clue.
  4. Rashes may or may not appear in a variety of patterns.
  5. Long latency (symptom-free) period followed by strange, seemingly totally unrelated symptoms involving every organ system.
  6. Totally unreliable lab work—most practitioners rely HEAVILY on labs!
    1. One study showed a false negative rate of 67%–those that had the disease despite a lab report stating that they did NOT have it.
  7. “Co-Morbidities/Co-Infections” a given bite can give you more than one infection. The Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever rash disappears within days of 2-3 weeks of antibiotics—then years later unusual symptoms of another illness appear
  8. If you have a variety of unusual symptoms that your prior practitioners have been unable to help, take the FREE screening tests, to go www.AppWell.net, choose Patient Pre-Visit Forms at the topàMedical FormsàFree Lyme Screening.
  9. There are actually two different groups each with different diagnostic criteria for Lyme Disease.There are actually two different groups each with different diagnostic criteria for Lyme Disease.
    1. The International Lyme Associated Diseases (ILADS.org) is favored among “Lyme Literate” physicians such as myself.
    2. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSociety.org) which has much more restrictive criteria for diagnosis and treatment—thus missing many caseLet’s find your problem & fix it!

      [i] https://igenex.com/tick-talk/your-lyme-disease-test-results-are-negative-but-your-symptoms-say-otherwise/

[i]https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickbornediseases/index.html

[ii]https://www.lymedisease.org/lymepolicywonk-how-many-of-those-with-lyme-disease-have-the-rash-estimates-range-from-27-80-2/#:~:text=Without%20a%20rash%2C%20their%20cases,87%25%20depending%20on%20the%20state.

[iii]https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/spirochaetaceae

[iv][iv] https://bjcardio.co.uk/2011/04/he-who-knows-syphilis-knows-medicine-the-return-of-an-old-friend/#:~:text=Podcasts-,%E2%80%9CHe%20who%20knows%20syphilis%20knows%20medicine%E2%80%9D%20%E2%80%93%20the,return%20of%20an%20old%20friend&text=He%20who%20knows%20syphilis%20knows%20medicine%E2%80%9D%20said%20Father%20of%20Modern,to%20its%20myriad%20clinical%20presentations.

[v]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2564911/

[vi] Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons Book by Kris Newby

[vii]https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/humancases.html

Dr. Raymond Oenbrink
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