This is news:
Dr. Jeffrey Klass and Dr. Jessica Sedita of Madison Connecticut offer to those of us fortunate enough to live in this area a holistic, complementary healing approach that works at both killing off the microbes (whether they be Babesia, erlichiosis or the Lyme spirochete), but also focuses on clearing and cleansing the toxins that create symptoms as debilitating as the diseases themselves. (For those of you in other areas of the country, please check internet sources for the same or similar resources, or check with me.) The area of “vibrational medicine” is a “new” and exciting adjunct to the healing of the person with Lyme disease (and the coinfections). When combined with the principles of naturopathic medicine, it offers a powerhouse of tools to add to the wellness approach that is at the foreforont of the treatment of Lyme and other coinfections. Here is a newsflash from Dr. Sedita that I am sure you will find enlightening and helpful:
Dr. Jessica Sedita, ND
Just a few years ago Lyme disease was only heard about once in a while; today the situation is much different. Today the chance of contracting Lyme disease has significantly increased, putting everyone in the northeast at great risk. This condition is becoming much more common than anyone could have ever imagined. Anyone afflicted with Lyme needs to fully understand the condition and its progression. Lyme is an organism in the spirochete family that is similar to syphilis. It is transmitted through a bite by an infected deer tick. Once infected, a person will experience flu like symptoms as the immune system attempts to fight off the invader.
One could assume that they would be sick for a few days or a week while the immune system fights of the infection then leading to a full recovery. Unfortunately this is not how the events unfold at all. The Lyme spirochete is able to evade the immune system so most of the time it is not completely killed off. This allows the Lyme to roam free and proliferate in the body undetected for years. The longer it is present in the system the more time it has to set up colonies all over the body. Once it has left the blood stream and traveled to multiple areas it is said to have progressed from acute to chronic Lyme. During periods of stress, physical or emotional, the immune system becomes suppressed and the Lyme is able to further advance and colonize new areas of the body. This is why many patients will notice a flare-up in symptoms during or shortly after even small periods of stress.
The array of symptoms Lyme can produce are so numerous and constantly changing many people think they are imaging it. Lyme can imitate almost any disease that exists and should be considered as a possible diagnosis of any condition that is not resolving with treatment. Lyme can mimic various conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, bells palsy, ADD, MS, ALS, RA, migraines and any other autoimmune diseases. Lyme produces a significant amount of inflammation in numerous areas and organ systems of the body. The majority of the inflammation is due to the secretion of a neurotoxin produced by the Lyme that travels around the body which puts stress on all organ systems. The Lyme and its neurotoxin can pass through to the brain with the potential to cause encephalopathy and meningitis, which is swelling and inflammation of the brain. The exposure to the neurotoxin over time can cause liver dysfunction, fatigue, headaches, mental confusion, muscle and joint pain. These symptoms can indicate possible dysfunction in other regulatory organs such as the thyroid, hypothalamus and adrenals. All of these symptoms can come and go just a quickly as they appeared or they may persist and there could even be periods that are symptom free. Many people think the symptom free periods are when they have finished their battle with Lyme and won. But that is not correct. Often when there is a remission in symptoms it can mean the immune system is not actively fighting off the Lyme. This leaves it free to travel around the body causing inflammation, dysfunction and then ultimately hiding so the immune system can not destroy it.
Many patients are lead to believe that after being infected with Lyme all that needs to be done is take antibiotics for a few months or even a few weeks and then they will be cured. This may have been enough to treat Lyme in the past but currently for most patients this often is not effective enough to provide a full and complete recovery. Antibiotics are commonly prescribed in all stage of Lyme disease. They can bring a person from acutely ill to a stable point. There are however a few drawbacks to treatment with antibiotics alone. They are often unable to kill off the disease completely. The presence of the antibiotics stimulates a defensive mechanism causing the Lyme to become dormant and will avoid being killed. This change to the dormant state is called the cystic form of Lyme. In this form, a protective coating is formed around a group of spirochetes. This coating protects the Lyme by not allowing the antibiotics to penetrate.
They are also only able to kill the Lyme when it is in the active form in the blood stream.
In the cystic form it is able to move deeper into the body and wait until it senses the absence of the antibiotics. Once the antibiotics have left the body the Lyme will become active again and move back into the blood stream and begin multiplying again. This migration
back to the active form can cause a sudden spike or relapse of intense symptoms. While the Lyme is in the cystic form a person can be symptomatic or still extremely ill. Since antibiotics are not able to access other areas well outside of the blood stream the cysts are left to hang out all over the body producing symptoms. The specific symptoms that are experienced are often dependent on what areas in the body the cysts have traveled to.
As if Lyme alone is not enough there are a myriad of other organisms that the tick can be harboring and transmitting during the bite. These other organisms consist of Mycoplasma, Ehrlichia, Babesia and Bartonella, known as the co-infections. The co-infections are commonly present in people with Lyme disease. They can add to the array of confusing symptoms by further stressing the immune system and increasing the overall number of pathogenic organisms in the body. In a large number of cases antibiotics are not able to eradicate any of these organisms from the system completely. They are able to hide in the body, mutate and evade the antibiotics and the immune system. Having all or even just one of these co-infections in addition to the Lyme can complicate the case significantly.
Guilford Holistic Health Practitioners
5 Durham Rd Bld 2, Suite B-6
Guilford, CT 06437
(203) 453-1906
Send any questions, or topic suggestions for future issues to: drsedita@gmail.com
Reference
Rosner, Bryan. When Antibiotics Fail…Lyme Disease and Rife Machines.
2004.
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Fibromyalgia is a tough condition to deal with. On one hand you experience so much pain that is difficult to deal with and at the other end the doctor tells you after all the tests that there seems nothing wrong with your body. The debate continues wheather it is a physiological condition or psychological.