A New Diagnostic Tool And A New Drug Therapy Provide Major Weapons Against The S

[Guest guest]

A New Diagnostic Tool And A New Drug Therapy Provide Major Weapons Against

The Surging Epidemic of Post-Lyme Syndrome

_http://www.chronicneurotoxins.com/learnmore/lymedisease.cfm_

(http://www.chronicneurotoxins.com/learnmore/lymedisease.cfm)

 

 

Although most people don*t realize it, the vector of one of the most

debilitating diseases of the modern world can often be found crawling around in

the hedges, shrubs and tall grasses of the typical American backyard.

 

 

Carried by several common species of tick, Lyme Disease - which leaves

many of victims struggling with long-term chronic illness, Post-Lyme Disease

(PLD) - is one of the fastest-growing infectious-disease epidemics both here

and abroad, according to recent research.

 

 

How widespread is the current U.S. outbreak of this bacteria-triggered

illness - which leaves many of its victims struggling for years with fatigue,

headache, mental confusion, memory impairment, shortness of breath,

sensitivity to bright light, abdominal pain, chronic muscle and joint pain and

several other nasty complaints? (Symptoms can vary, but most PLD victims

experience from four to six of the eight listed here.) While some estimates put

the total number of new cases each year at 300,000, the actual spread of

Lyme is extremely difficult to measure. There is disagreement among the

nation*s physicians over the duration of the disease. According to some

influential physicians, the bacterial infection can be cured in three weeks with

heavy doses of antibiotics. Conventional wisdom dictates that if we drive out

the Lyme bacteria (a spirochete named Borrelia burgdorferi) with

germ-killing drugs, the painful symptoms of the disease will rapidly leave the

patient.

 

 

But this assertion regarding the duration of PLD is now being challenged

by thousands of Family Practice physicians around the country. Increasingly,

the Family Practice docs are grappling with cases in which the major

symptoms of Chronic Lyme persist for years, despite proper antibiotic treatment

in patients.

 

 

Many physicians feel that diagnostic tests for Lyme are unreliable, due to

differences between strains of the bacteria, and the potential for

co-infections with Babesia or Ehrlichia. There are no chemical tests for the

disease-causing toxin B. burgdorferi produces and release into human body, even

as antibiotics are killing the bacteria. Without such tests, the medical

debate over whether or not Lyme can be quickly cured has surged in recent

years, provoking frequent battles in which physicians have attacked each

other's credibility and integrity (and in a few cases, even their medical

licenses).

 

 

All too often, suffering patients have been left in the middle,

essentially ignored by doctors who contend that their long-term symptoms aren*t

the

result of Chronic Lyme, but of **fibromyalgia,** **depression,** or

**irritable bowel syndrome.** These more familiar disorders allow the doctor to

make a speedier diagnosis of an ailment for which there will be no **positive**

lab test, either. In this way, patients can be quickly **helped out the

door** - after the doc scribbles a prescription for an anti-depressant, or

maybe an acid-blocker. Already struggling with the debilitating symptoms of

their tick-borne disease, Post-Lyme sufferers are patronized with insulting

regularity by physicians who don*t understand the biochemistry involved in

chronic, neurotoxin-mediated illnesses, of which PLD is only one. As a

result, these frustrated patients often wind up bouncing from physician to

naturopath to herbalist to acupuncturist, among other **non-traditional

healers.** Along the way, they frequently spend tens of thousands of dollars on

useless treatments.

 

 

But that situation is about to change, as more and more Family Practice

physicians like Dr. Shoemaker find themselves treating Chronic Lyme in

patients who tell them about their **years of brutal headaches and aching

joints,** while also describing themselves as **desperate to find a cure.**

 

 

Why have so many medical researchers failed to understand the chronic

aspect of Lyme disease?

 

 

In many cases, the problem has been that they simply don*t understand the

dynamics involved in the movement of organic neurotoxins throughout the

human body.

 

 

Like the microorganisms that produce other toxin-linked diseases - such as

the dinoflagellates Ciguatera and Pfiesteria, and the fungi that cause

Sick Building Syndrome - Borrelia bacteria likely manufactures a nasty suite

of neurotoxins which circulate in human fatty tissues, such as those found

in nerve, muscle, brain, lung and bile, rather than in the bloodstream (as

happens with more common illnesses such as pneumonia). Because these

bacterial poisons are moving through the body*s fat storage system and bile,

they

cannot be reached by the **antibodies** that search out and destroy

invading microorganisms in the bloodstream. Instead, they continue to travel

throughout the tissues for years at a time, triggering such classic symptoms of

Lyme Disease as fatigue, headaches, shortness of breath, joint aches and

short-term memory impairment.

 

 

Frequently found today in the backyards or playgrounds of America's

fast-spreading suburbs, the deer and Lone Star ticks that spread Lyme disease

(named for the Connecticut town where it was discovered a few decades ago),

take in the disease-causing Borrelia while ingesting the blood of deer or

mice. When they later bite humans, the bacteria move from the mid-gut of the

arachnid - now found commonly in all 50 states - into their human host.

Within a matter of days, these spirochetes begin producing the brain-damaging

neurotoxin(s) that cause the blurred vision and the muscle fatigue so

commonly seen in cases of Chronic Lyme.

 

 

While treating hundreds of Chronic Lyme patients in my Maryland-based

Family Practice in recent years, I was fortunate to come upon an already

existing but little noticed physiologic test of neurologic function in the

visual

system- the **Visual Contrast Sensitivity** test, or VCS - that can tell a

physician in five minutes whether or not the patient is suffering from the

harmful effects of neurotoxins on the brain*s ability to distinguish

contrast between black, white and gray. The deficit in the visual pathways

mirrors the adverse effect the neurotoxins are causing throughout the body. The

good news for Lyme patients everywhere is that VCS now gives the physician

a reproducibly reliable, inexpensive and non-invasive test (it takes only

five minutes) that makes a virtually foolproof diagnosis of Chronic Lyme

readily available.

 

 

Once the VCS test pinpoints the diagnosis, PLD can be effectively treated

with a toxin-binding drug (**cholestyramine,** or CSM) that filters the

offending neurotoxins out of bile in the lower intestine. It was Dr.

Shoemaker*s good fortune to be able to demonstrate as much, while presenting the

first scientific paper in the world*s medical literature on **Treatment of

Chronic Lyme Disease Using VCS and Toxin-Binding Therapy** in April, 2000, at a

meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. That paper showed that

VCS was a better test for confirming the presence of Lyme neurotoxins than

any blood, urine or DNA test for the organism, itself.

 

 

Moreover, the VCS Test showed improvement with CSM treatment as symptoms

abated.

 

 

A follow up study, first presented in the Biotoxin Symposium chaired by

Dr. Hudnell*s during the 8th International Symposium on Neurobehavioral

Methods and Effects in Occupational and Environmental Health, Brescia, Italy,

June, 2002, shows a 92-percent improvement rate in more than 200 patients

with PLD. Their case histories prove conclusively that Chronic Lyme can be

diagnosed effectively with VCS - and that it can be treated effectively with

drug therapy, provided that it takes place under the rigorous supervision of

a clinical physician expert in management of CSM therapy and drugs to

downregulate proinflammatory cytokines.

 

 

Patients should never take this drug on their own, because it can trigger

intensification of symptoms in the absence of pre-treatment by a physician

to manage the cytokines. As each summer's tick-and-Chronic-Lyme season

begins in earnest, it*s important to remember that you can catch this highly

infectious and debilitating disease right in your own backyard. It*s also

important to understand that you can't prevent tick bites by **rolling up your

pant legs** or applying a standard insect repellant, which has no effect on

arachnids such as ticks. (The blunt fact is that the usual public health

recommendations for preventing tick bites simply don't work.) Remember,

also, that more than 30 percent of Lyme patients don*t get a rash, never even

realize they*d been bitten by a tick - since many bites from these tiny

parasites go unnoticed. If you do get sick (and many people will, as the

epidemic continues to spread), ask your physician about using the VCS Test as a

diagnostic tool.

 

 

These days, the good news for Chronic Lyme sufferers is that the list of

physicians who understand the links between long-term illness and

neurotoxins is growing rapidly.

 

 

Why suffer needlessly from the painful symptoms of this debilitating

disease? Instead, why not take the step of obtaining an inexpensive,

five-minute

diagnostic test? Then go get the toxin-binding therapy you need to resume

a healthy and productive life.

 

 

 

 

----------

----

(http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm)