The Disabling Of A Nation-Old but good

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http://lymefighters.org/powerful_articlesThe Disabling Of A NationBy Marjorie TietjenDirector For Lyme Disease ConcernsCommon Cause Medical Research Foundationdaystar1952 http://www.congregator.net/medicalnews/tietjen/disabl.htmlJune 6, 2003 Our Nation is becoming disabled; physically, economically, morally and spiritually. This is not happening by chance or natural evolution. Over the past hundred years or so there has been a concerted effort by the bureaucratic elite, to slowly degrade our country and take it over from within. Included below are several important quotes. "The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one world government combining Super Capitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control. Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do, I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent." Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviets. "The high office of President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American's freedom and before I leave office I must inform the Citizen of his plight." President John F. Kennedy ( 10 days before he was murdered ) Given in a speech at Columbia University. "Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glastnost and Perestroika and Democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep." Mikail Gorbachev speaking to the Politburo in the 1980s In Oct. 1917, we parted with the old world, rejecting it once and for all. We are moving toward a new world, a world of communism. We shall never turn off that road". Mikail Gorbachev It is extremely interesting to note that the Headquarters for The Gorbachev Foundation is now located at NorthEastern University in Boston. How could this be? For more information concerning this subject see , www.rense.com/general12/gobie.htm In this article I will focus mainly on the physical deterioration of our population, as that is where I have the most direct experience. I am a chronic Lyme sufferer who was misdiagnosed for 8 years with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. As a result I was not treated with appropriate antibiotics and the disease became deeply embedded in my central nervous system. As with Syphilis ( a close spirochetal cousin of Lyme ), systemic involvement can make this disease very tenacious and difficult to treat. Often, open ended antibiotic treatment is required. Even with persistent antibiotics, one may never be totally cured. H Supporting your immune system with natural substances and good diet, is also necessary in overcoming Lyme and other chronic illnesses. Every time we turn around there is a new condition or disease, many times with a readymade corresponding drug or vaccine. If there are no immediately available drugs to ease the symptoms of a "new" disease, you can be assured that the pharmaceutical companies and the vaccine industry are very busy working on the whole process. Many times fear and panic must be created first in order to develop a sure market for these new products. It appears as though this may be the case with West Nile Virus. For more information concerning this "epidemic", I have included the link to a very comprehensive article below http://baltech.org/lederman/816proof.html I am not implying that these diseases are not real but I do think , many times, that perhaps the more "innocent" diseases are being emphasized to the hilt, in the media, in order to further specific agendas. Those diseases that are truly disabling our population, such as Lyme, CFS, GWI, Fibromyalgia, M.S, etc, and possibly causing a progressive degenerative process, are being allowed to quietly spread through our population. In the meantime we are being denied curative treatment and are told that many of these diseases are all in our head. Govt. documents list criteria for an effective biowarfare agent. There are germs that kill and there are ones that disable. When trying to disrupt and take over a country discreetly, it is considered more effective to use disabling agents, especially ones that make it appear as though a patient is malingering. Patients are dismissed as hypochondriacs while the disease is allowed to pass slowly but steadily through the population. In this scenario, people are not dying off left and right with a highly contagious lethal disease, so no one suspects what is really happening and therefore no action is taken to curb the spread of disease. With so many people Dr. Donald MacArthur, who was in charge of the development and testing of biological weapons for the Pentagon, spoke at a hearing before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations in 1969. MacArthur puts it like this. " Incapacitating agents are a more recent development and are largely in the R & D phase ( in 1969 ). In fact, the prime emphasis in agent R & D is on developing better incapacitating agents. We are synthesizing new compounds and testing them in animals. I should mention that there is a rule of thumb we use. Before an agent can be classified as an incapacitant, we feel that the mortality should be very low. Therefore, the ratio of the lethal dose to the incapacitating dose has to be very high. Now this is a very technical job. We have some of the top scientists in the country It is becoming highly suspected that the media scares concerning smallpox, anthrax, West Nile Virus, SARS, etc. are : 1.) being used as a smokescreen to divert our attention away from the more invisible incapacitating epidemics already in our midst. 2.) To create fear and panic for the purpose of marketing drugs and vaccines. 3.) To manipulate the population into accepting loss of liberty in the name of "Homeland Security" Our attention is definitely being diverted in the case of Gulf War Illness. GWI is real. It is not caused by stress as the government would have us believe. The American people have not been told that over 16,000 Vets have already died. Many children of the GW Veterans have been born deformed. Spouses and children have become ill with the same symptoms of GWI. Even some of the doctors who treated the Vets and their wives, have become ill. It appears that GWI is spreading through the general population in the form of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, M.S. , etc. The symptoms of all these diseases are very similar to GWI. A genetically altered strain of mycoplasma has been isolated from the above patient populations, including GWI. As I mentioned in a previous article "Living Next Door To Plum Island", the U.S Army funded inventor Shyh-Ching Lo's invention.. a pathogenic mycoplasma named mycoplasma fermentens incognitus. This is the same pathogen that has been isolated from the blood of patients with the above diseases. This invention was patented in 1993 and the patent number assigned to it is 5,242,820. I will take the opportunity here to quote from part of a paragraph in this patent. "The mycoplasma fermentens incognitus pathogen is useful for the detection of antibodies in the sera of patients or animals infected with mycoplasma fermentens incognitus. Some of these patients or animals infected with mycoplasma fermentens incognitos, will be patients who have been diagnosed as having AIDS or ARC, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Wegeners Disease, Sarcoidosis, Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Kibuchi's Disease, autoimmune diseases such as Collagen Vascular Disease and Lupus and chronic debilitating diseases such as Alszheimer's Disease." In other words, the Army knows what segments of the population are infected with this pathogen. Recently, our Lyme disease support group invited a Red Cross pathologist to speak concerning blood screening for Lyme disease and babesiosis ( another "new and emerging" tick borne disease in the Northeast ). He told us that it has been found that babesiosis can be passed on through the blood supply and they do screen donors for this organism. The pathologist told us that they are not sure if the lyme spirochete can be spread through the blood supply but they supposedly do not take blood from those who have a documented active infection. I then asked the pathologist what restrictions were placed on GW Veterans when they came back from the war. He [article cut off] Why aren't our health departments and doctors being educated concerning this obviously crucial matter? Why aren't they being told to test and treat for this mycoplasma in the chronic illness population? Antibiotics work and help improve the health of many of these patients. I was told by a very well respected microbiologist that the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has even published that antibiotics can be successfully used to treat mycoplasma fermentens infections. Evidently this information is not readily available to the public. Some may argue that just because this organism is found in many of these chronic illnesses, doesn't mean that it is the main cause. This is a valid point. Mycoplasma fermentens may be just an opportunistic infection or it could cause a co-morbid state. However, I was told by this same microbiologist that this is mainly an academic argument and that no matter what the organism's role is in a specific disease, it is still quite important and must be successfully treated in order for patients with such infections to fully recover. Why are we experiencing such an intense influx of "emerging diseases" in general? No one seems to question where all these new "conditions" are coming from. Most people just trustingly accept the explanations from the mainstream media such as; global warming, the chopping down of the rainforests, increased air travel, bugs traveling in old tires, or chemicals in the environment. The mainstream media never mentions that, for example, West Nile virus could have escaped from Yale, Plum Island, or Rockefeller University , where the organism that causes WNV I realize that environmental chemicals, poor diet, etc. do play an important role in our health or should I say lack of health. They can lower our body's immunity and therefore make us more susceptible to disease. In fact, pesticide spraying has been found to actually increase the number of insects with a certain disease and it also makes us more susceptible to the disease itself by lowering the effectiveness of our immune system.. Pesticides increase the incidence of miscarriages,,infertility and hormone disruption. Why then did the mayor of N.Y.C insist on repeatedly spraying certain sections of the city for West Nile Virus? The U.S.Government has quite a history of experimentation on it's own citizens without their knowledge or consent. There have been several T.V specials documenting these past experiments. Why do people think the experimenting has stopped? Media only covers or admits to sinister events after a certain number of years have passed since the crime was committed. I have a government document called, " Biological Testing Involving Human Subjects". It is hundreds of pages long and lists where these experiments took place, when they took place and what simulants were used. The Tuskegee Experiment is a very famous example of one of the more controlled government experiments. This was a "study" where black men with syphilis were denied antibiotic treatment to see what would eventually happen to them. Of course they all died prematurely and suffered many horrible side effects. Borrelia Burgdorferi, the causative spirochete in Lyme disease, behaves in a similar way to the syphilis spirochete. Chronic Lyme patients, like Gulf War Illness patients and Tuskegee Experiment participants, are also being denied appropriate antibiotic treatment. In fact, the lyme literate doctors who are treating these patients, according to their clinical judgement (testing is very inaccurate), are being persecuted and some have had their licenses removed. There are very few doctors who treat chronic lyme and there are even fewer who still accept insurance. 60% of Lyme patients are coinfected with mycoplasmas. Some microbiologists feel that there appears to be something "different" about the lyme spirochete and that this "difference" may {sentence is cut off...}Many are beginning to suspect that the lyme disease epidemic, and the nonsensical controversy over treatment and diagnoses, may possibly be reminiscent of the Tuskegee Experiment, only on a much larger scale. Korean War Veterans, who had been trained in bacteriological weapons and who specifically worked with a crystalline form of brucellosis, were given an interesting document when they were discharged. It stated that " Veterans with multiple sclerosis developing to a degree of 10% or more disability within 2 years after separation from active service may be presumed to be service connectedÖ.for disability compensation." Does it sound as though the government may know what causes multiple sclerosis? Logically, we can presume that whatever biological agents are developed would have to have antidotes, cures or corresponding vaccines. I would like you to think about some of the ramifications involved here. We are not talking about the publicized disease threats such as Anthrax , Smallpox, West Nile Virus or SARS. We are looking at what may be genetically altered organisms that are currently causing untold suffering. Try naming the many chronic and disabling conditions which are plaguing our citizens and then think about how many of these diseases have cures available. I have only noticed symptomatic treatments being offered. The U.S. CODE, SEC. 50, tells us that it is legal to test biological and chemical substances on unwitting populations. Listed in this document are the many excuses that can be used for the purpose of experimenting on the American public without their knowledge or consent. Millions of Americans have been used as long term test subjects as a result of the essentially mandatory national vaccine program. How can anyone claim to know the long term consequences of combining one vaccine after another. Can the vaccine companies prove that all the illnesses which plague our nation's children, are not caused by vaccines? 31% of the children in the U.S. suffer from a chronic condition. This is shocking! I don't hear anyone in the media questioning why so many of our children are s Should we be trusting the health of our children, who are our nation's future, to the whims of the pharmaceutical companies? It is an obvious fact that the sicker people are, the more money these companies will make. It is not easy to prove without a shadow of a doubt, that these vaccines are causing severe health problems down the road. The vaccine manufacturers know this! I have personally witnessed the deception with the recent Lyme vaccine. The pharmaceutical company that marketed this vaccine, knew ahead of time that 30% of those receiving the vaccine could acquire a form of arthritis for which there is no cure. Somewhere in the fine print, this fact was mentioned. Most people, however, did not have access to this information. In order to try and warn as many people as possible I actually stood outside of a chain grocery store, several times, handing out information that explained the risks of this vaccine. The vaccine was being s"> I know of several people , who received the vaccine and were healthy to start with, that have now been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, CFS, or arthritis. To them the connection is obvious, but how can they ever prove it. Mycoplasmas are known to be a very common vaccine contaminant. Monkeys, when injected with mycoplasma fermentens, begin to waste away and die 7 to 9 months later. The anthrax vaccines given to the Gulf War Veterans, were found to be contaminated with mycoplasma fermentens. The French soldiers , who did not receive these vaccines, were the only ones that did not come down with Gulf War Syndrome. The sick Gulf War Veterans filed a lawsuit against Tanox Biosystems of Houston, which produced the anthrax vaccine. President H. W. Bush was supposedly a major shareholder in Tannox. What president do we now find promoting anthrax and or smallpox vaccines for everyone? Why would the government give known disabling vaccines to our military? Is this part of Gorbachev's plan to disarm the Americans? Is he working together with certain factions of our government to accomplish this goal? Let's assume for a minute that certain government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and the bureaucratic elite are playing a negative role concerning all our emerging conditions and diseases. Who would we then turn to for investigations into these illnesses? Surely not the very institutions who may be responsible for the problem. Certainly there are many good intelligent people who work for these institutions. It is mainly those at the very top who are privy to all the information. Jobs today are very compartimentalized. This is especially evident within the medical system. How can anyone be expected to see the whole picture when we are taught only to be concerned with our little piece of the puzzle? Therefore, we must take the time to educate ourselves in a broader manner. I've found it very helpful to not dismiss anything but to keep all information in the back of one's mind for future reference. Much of what I used to consider craz "United we stand, divided we fall". I don't see this to mean that we must blindly follow any leader, no matter what the cost. To me it means resisting the media propaganda which tries to convince us all to be fearful and distrustful of each other. This manipulation is what divides us, if we allow ourselves to believe the lies presented to us. I acquired Senate Report 94-755, which is approx. 1,000 pages. It is entitled COINTELPRO: The FBI's Covert Action Programs Against American Citizens. I want to share several quotes "COINTELPRO is the FBI acronym for a series of covert action programs directed against domestic groups. In those programs, the bureau went beyond the collection of intelligence to secret action designed to "disrupt" and "neutralize" target groups and individuals.In the intervening 15 years, the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Ammendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas, would protect the national security and deter violence. Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that. The unexpressed major premise of the programs was that a law enforcement agency has the duty to do whatever is necessary to combat perceived threats to the existing social and political order. "From December 1963 until his death, Martin Luther King Jr. was the target of an intensive campaign by the FBI to "neutralize" him as an effective civil rights leader." Many of the FBI's targets were supporters of peaceful social change such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Inter-University Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy "Thus, the Bureau's self imposed role as protector of the existing political and social order blurred the line between targeting criminal activity and constitutionally protected acts and advocacy." Many groups that today perhaps threaten the existing agendas held by the current administration, are being labeled, "hate groups", "extremeists", "terrorists", etc. We are told that we are to be very leary and fearful of all these different groups and that we need more and more "protection" from all these "dangerous" people. More often than not, this "protection" is in the form of more surveillance and loss of rights for everyone. Modern technology is making it increasingly possible to totally control a society. We must become vigilant. We must begin asking questions and not trustingly believe all we are told. It is not the good decent people of our nation nor our country's cherished ideals, set forth in the U.S Constitution, that we are questioning here. We are questioning the intentions of a mighty military industrial complex that is growing more and more powerful with every passing day. America needs to wake up before it's too late. We need to approach this overwhelming array of disturbing situations with firmness , wisdom, and most of all, with an open heart. We musn't react with hate, revenge or fear. Reacting with these emotions will only throw us deeper into the pit of hopelessness. We can all become informed and then inform others. An informed population is much more difficult to manipulate. Who are the real terrorists here? Where does the real axis of evil lie? Many times the real culprits are those doing the fingerpointing. The Media is becoming a monopoly, is totally controlled and is being used to create fear and manipulate the American people. If the media was doing it's job, I wouldn't have to be writing this article. The following I feel are very important quotes to contemplate. "We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries." David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission in a speech at the meeting of the "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore Roosevelt in response to Woodrow Wilson's crackdown on dissent following America's entry into World war 1 "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell " They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." Benjamin Franklin Don't believe for a minute that questioning our government makes you a traitor or a terrorist. Keeping track of our government and making it answer for it's actions, should be the duty of every patriotic American. Our forefathers repeatedly warned us of what extreme danger there is to freedom when a government becomes too large and powerful. For more information on mycoplasma, lyme disease,Gulf War Illness, testing and treatment, please visit http://www.immed.org Marjorie Tietjen writes for The Journal Of Degenerative Disease, a nonprofit quarterly magazine of The Common Cause Medical Research Foundation. Her primary focus is on investigation into why there are so many emerging diseases, why the symptoms of these diseases overlap to such a degree, why there are no cures, only treatments and what role Governments and corporations play in all this. All of her major essays can be viewed at http://www.congregator.net/medicalnews/tietjen/index.html. She may be contacted via E-mail at daystar1952 She encourages reproduction of this material provided it remains intact, including this statement.

 

 

 

 

excellent article found on the website of Lymefighters.org]The Body PoliticGerm WarfareDoctors are clashing (and some are even forfeiting their licenses) over how to treat Lyme disease, the infection that takes a licking but appears to keep on ticking.http://nymag.com/nymetro/health/columns/bodypolitic/2225/By Rusty UngerPublished Feb 21, 2000Type "Lyme disease" into your computer's search engine and you'll find yourself in Oliver Stone territory: There are literally hundreds of belligerent chat rooms and support groups for patients who think they were misdiagnosed or insist their Lyme disease just never went away. That an awful lot of people are out there suffering isn't news. But dissension has reached the highest levels, with doctors and researchers dividing into two vengeful and bitter camps about how to cure Lyme.In one corner is a group of those predominantly university-based physicians who develop drugs, receive research grants from federal health agencies, and often advise insurance companies. They contend that Lyme is usually simple to diagnose and easily curable with two to four weeks of oral antibiotics. Chronic Lyme, they say, is extremely rare, not a disease but merely a group of symptoms remaining after the initial infection is treated that usually disperse.In the other corner stands a group of primary-care doctors, those on the front lines who see Lyme patients every day, and a number of other scientists -- all of whom maintain that the illness is far more complicated. Late-term or lingering cases of Lyme disease, they say, may require six months or more of oral antibiotic therapy and intense intravenous therapy -- which some like to administer in a hyperbaric chamber. They believe that the increased oxygen of the chamber helps kill the tenacious spirochetes -- known as Borrelia burgdorferi -- deposited by the blood-sucking deer tick. Burrowing rapidly into the tissues, joints, and central nervous system, borrelia slightly resembles the syphilis spirochete in the way it feeds, sleeps, and reproduces.Detractors have accused the more aggressive camp of overdiagnosing and overtreating patients. But lately, they're going even further: Some of the fourteen "Lyme literate" M.D.'s (as they're known to their supporters) in five states who have been targeted for investigation by state health departments have already lost their licenses. Others may be about to. Insurance companies have taken to not covering the treatments, and doctors are thinking twice before accepting any patient with Lyme symptoms.By far the most renowned of the fourteen is Dr. Joseph Burrascano, of East Hampton, who for the past fifteen years has treated thousands of Lyme patients from all over the world. Having openly attacked the conservative academic coalition for what he sees as its failure to come to terms with the realities of the disease, Burrascano has made few friends within the Lyme Establishment. That's why, he believes, he's now been put on notice by the New York State Department of Health's Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC), where investigators are preparing for an as-yet-unscheduled disciplinary hearing. Aside from the general accusation of professional misconduct, Burrascano has still not been informed of the specific charges against him.No one disputes the classic symptoms and treatment of early Lyme disease: The patient has recently been near a woodsy area and sometimes develops a bull's-eye-shaped rash two inches or more in diameter and flulike symptoms. A blood test shows evidence of borrelia, and a short course of oral antibiotics is administered.But there are those who don't fit this model: Since borrelia lives in tissues, not blood fluids, the two standard blood tests -- elisa and the Western Blot -- can measure the body's reaction to the germ only by finding antibodies and not the germ itself. Too often, there are false positives or negatives; some say the rate of inaccuracy on both tests can be as high as 40 percent.Those who do receive the basic treatment for Lyme disease -- and appear to be cured -- have been known to become ill again. But is this a relapse? A reinfection? An entirely different syndrome? Doctors can't seem to agree on whether it's 5 percent or 20 percent of all Lyme patients who go on to manifest chronic symptoms.People whose blood tests are repeatedly negative and who don't manifest standard symptoms simply don't have Lyme, say the more conservative doctors. But Burrascano and his colleagues note that victims whose symptoms don't match the classic criteria are left out of National Institute of Health studies and omitted from vital Centers for Disease Control statistics.Later-stage Lyme patients may be told they've been cured but are now suffering from post-Lyme syndrome, a lingering set of autoimmune symptoms triggered by the original, defunct infection. Antibiotics are not prescribed for this condition. Doctors like Burrascano say "post-Lyme syndrome" is nonsense: The infection simply never went away and requires more antibiotics. (Of course, insurance companies prefer the post-Lyme diagnosis, which requires that no further drugs be administered.) Patients who continue to deteriorate and have negative blood tests may be told to see a shrink.Pat Pepper says she was never initially treated for any Lyme infection. Suffering from a sore throat and intense headaches, the blonde former mayor of West Palm Beach who now divides her time between Miami and New York was growing progressively weaker. Pepper consulted more than 30 leading neurologists and internists. All the doctors told her she had incurable, fatal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) and had only two to five years to live; after all, she'd had seven negative Lyme tests.Pepper eventually took more expensive, more exacting tests that looked for the presence of spirochete DNA or the outer membranes shed by spirochetes. These tests immediately revealed rampant borrelia infection. (Animal inoculation, which is injecting an animal with fluid from the Lyme victim, then analyzing its tissues in an autopsy or biopsy, is another method.) Pat Pepper was finally wheeled into Dr. Burrascano's office, nearly quadriplegic.Burrascano warns patients that their symptoms may get much worse during his treatment before they get better because spirochetes put up a nasty fight. Spirochetes in the dormant phase of their reproductive cycle (ranging from ten months to fourteen years) survive the antibiotics, which is why it takes many courses to obliterate them all, says Burrascano. Though his treatment usually takes from one to six months, it was a year before the spirochetes completely disappeared from Pepper's blood tests."Since July of '98, when I first saw Dr. Burrascano, my health, for the first time in seven years, has been improving," says Pepper, who recently graduated from her wheelchair to a walker.Lyme disease was identified by Yale University's Dr. Allen Steere in 1975. An epidemiologist with a background in rheumatology, Steere studied a group of Lyme, Connecticut, children who seemed to have a new kind of arthritis.Six years later, "Lyme arthritis" was instead proved to be a bacterial infection. But by that time, the NIH had assigned Lyme's research funding to its arthritis branch. Critics say this branch remains biased toward research related to arthritis, inflammatory conditions, and auto-immune disorders; doctors and scientists pursuing Lyme research related to infectious diseases find it difficult to receive NIH funding.Dr. Raymond Dattwyler, professor of medicine and chief of Stony Brook University Medical Center's Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology as well as of its Lyme Disease Center, insists, "There has been no clinical trial that demonstrates long-term treatment of Lyme is beneficial.""There's a bibliography of over 60 different scientific studies in worldwide medical literature," counters Burrascano, a boyish 48-year-old, "showing that in people who are still sick after the standard treatment, when you do these more advanced tests, you find that, by and large, they're still infected."Some argue that Burrascano's tests are no more statistically reliable than the standard ones. Further, there are risks associated with lengthy antibiotic treatment -- phlebitis, sepsis, colitis, allergies, gallstones, and liver damage. Patients feel better after the hyperbaric chamber because they're high on all that oxygen.People who complain they have continuing symptoms may think they have chronic Lyme because out of eleven blood tests, one showed a weak positive result, according to one Manhattan physician who sees a lot of Lyme. But the truth is that this result is most likely a false positive. "Prescribing long-term antibiotics would be like giving them chemotherapy for high blood pressure," says this physician, who's seen patients diagnosed with Lyme when they actually had Parkinson's or MS: "It was terrible to disappoint them." The doctor spoke under the condition of anonymity because "the whole field of Lyme disease is way too political."Studies cited by the conservative doctors have run in publications like the JAMA; Burrascano and his colleagues quote distinguished yet less familiar journals, many of them foreign. "There are three spirochetes that cause Lyme disease in Europe, only one of which exists here in North America," says Dattwyler. "That's why you can't directly correlate this European research to North America." Clearly, there isn't enough definitive research to tip the balance in either direction. But an ethics probe probably can.Dr. Perry Orens expanded his general and cardiac Great Neck practice to include Lyme patients after his daughter contracted the disease (and was cured by Burrascano in 1986). He lost his license to practice medicine in November after an OPMC hearing; protestors showed up with placards outside. "Ordering excessive tests and/or treatment and inaccurate patient records" were among the hearing's findings, typical charges in such cases. (Orens was also found guilty of gross negligence and fraud.) Dr. Dattwyler, who testified as a Lyme-disease expert, says the finding of misconduct "had nothing to do with Lyme. . . . It was about inappropriately medicating a chronic Lyme patient who almost died as a result."In 1993, Burrascano accused NIH and CDC Lyme-disease grant recipients of improprieties at a Senate committee hearing on Lyme research. Funding was being directed toward rheumatologic and arthritic autoimmune problems he alleged, and some post-Lyme-syndrome advocates who were taking the grants had worked as paid medical consultants for insurance companies. Shortly thereafter, the OPMC began investigating Burrascano; he has had to turn over his records three times and submit to formal interviews twice. Each time, the investigation was left open -- which many say is highly unusual.For Burrascano's defense, his lawyers may cite two new NIH grants for research toward determining why some patients don't recover after the standard antibiotic treatment. One of the grantees is Arthur Weinstein, a conservative physician and professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Rheumatic Diseases and Immunology at New York Medical College. Weinstein helped develop current standards for Lyme testing. "Lyme patients claim to feel better on antibiotics and relapse when they stop," Weinstein has said. "But this is not typical in treating other infections."He'll try to discover whether the bugs are hiding and start growing again when the antibiotics are stopped, or patients are really just experiencing a placebo effect. It's also possible that protracted antibiotic use doesn't kill bugs but merely has some other chemical effect on the brain.Burrascano isn't pleased that a member of the conservative faction is running this study. But he does agree that this commission is notionally helpful, confirming that there is some debate about what this illness is and what its treatment should be. "Everything I do is based on articles and literature and my observations and those of my colleagues," he says. "I don't do crazy things. I don't sell drugs or get kickbacks from the companies promoting the drugs. I do it because it's right."Find this article at:http://www.nymag.com/nymetro/health/columns/bodypolitic/2225