Oct
13
Under Our Skin: The Untold Story of Lyme Disease
Filed Under Main Content, Other News | Leave a Comment
Under Our Skin - Theatrical Trailer from Open Eye Pictures on Vimeo.
By Dr. Mercola
Unrelenting pain. Headaches, muscle aches, swollen joints, rashes. Loss of coordination and muscle spasms. Intermittent paralysis. Cycles of disabling symptoms that persist for years, causing ceaseless suffering and frustration for patients and their families.
This is the picture of chronic Lyme disease. And yet, many physicians tell their patients there is "no such thing," referring them to psychiatrists, misdiagnosing them, or even accusing them of fabricating an illness or simply seeking attention.
"Under Our Skin," a critically acclaimed documentary and Oscar semi-finalist exposes the hidden story of Lyme disease, one of the most serious and controversial epidemics of our time. Slant Magazine calls it "head-spinning...riveting...a rigorously researched and highly thorough piece of investigative reporting."
Each year, thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, often told their symptoms are all in their heads. "Under Our Skin" brings into focus a troubling picture of a health care system that is far too willing to put profits ahead of patients. The Chicago Daily Herald calls it "a ripping indictment of the medical establishment's failure to uphold its oath."
The History and Discovery of Lyme Disease
Lyme disease rates are escalating at breakneck speed, among humans as well as animals. Today, Lyme disease is the most common vector borne disease in the U.S., far more common and dangerous to the average American than West Nile virus. In fact, there were almost 40,000 reported cases of Lyme in 2009,1 which by all accounts is a gross underestimate.
The CDC estimates the real number of cases may be up to 12 times higher, suggesting as high as 480,000, making Lyme far more prevalent than AIDS. The number of Lyme cases reported annually has increased nearly 25-fold since national surveillance began in 1982.2
Lyme disease was named after the East Coast town of Lyme, Connecticut, where the disease was first identified in 1975.3 The disease was first referred to as "Lyme arthritis" due to the presentation of atypical arthritic symptoms. By 1977, the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer tick) was linked to transmission of the disease.
Then in 1982, Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, discovered the bacterium responsible for the infection: Borrelia burgdorferi. The bacteria are released into your blood from the infected tick, while the tick is drinking your blood.
We now know there are five subspecies of Borrelia burgdorferi, more than 100 strains in the U.S. and 300 worldwide, many of which have developed resistance to our various antibiotics. Although many still attribute transmission exclusively to ticks, according to Dr. Deitrich Klinghardt, one of the leading authorities on Lyme disease, the bacteria can also be spread by other insects, including mosquitoes, spiders, fleas, and mites. This may be the reason so few Lyme sufferers recall being bitten by a tick. There is also increasing evidence that Lyme disease may be transmitted sexually and congenitally.
Borrelia burgdorferi is a spirochete,4 a cousin to the spirochete bacterium that causes syphilis. In fact, they look almost identical under a microscope. B. burgdorferi's corkscrew-shaped form allows it to burrow into and hide in a variety of your body's tissues, which is why it causes such wide-ranging multisystem involvement.
The Invisible Illness
Many Lyme patients who battle this disease on a daily basis appear healthy, which is why Lyme disease has been called "the invisible illness." They often "look good," and their blood work appears normal, but their internal experience is a far different story. Patients struggling with Lyme disease usually become adept at hiding their pain from others as a way to cope and restore some degree of normalcy to their lives.
Part of the problem with diagnosing and treating Lyme disease is that it is so easy to misdiagnose.
Lyme disease is called "the great imitator,"5 mimicking other disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS), arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, ALS, ADHD and Alzheimer's disease. In some cases, Lyme patients can even develop paralysis or slip into a coma. The only distinctive hallmark unique to Lyme disease is the "bulls eye" rash, but this is absent in nearly half of those infected. Laboratory tests are notoriously unreliable.
Fewer than half of Lyme patients recall a tick bite. In some studies, this number is as low as 15 percent. So, if you don't recall seeing a tick on your body, that doesn't rule out the possibility of Lyme disease. According to TBDA3:
"Although the bulls eye red rash is considered the classic sign to look for, it is not even the most common dermatologic manifestation of early Lyme infection. Atypical forms of this rash are seen far more commonly. It is important to know that the Erythema Migrans rash is a clear, unequivocal sign of Lyme disease..."
Besides the rash, some of the first symptoms of Lyme disease may include a flu-like condition with fever, chills, headache, stiff neck, achiness and fatigue. For a complete list of symptoms, refer to the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance6 (TBDA), but some of the more frequent symptoms include the following2:
- Muscle and joint pain
- Neurological problems
- Heart involvement
- Vision and hearing problems
- Migraines
The "Lyme Paradox"
Dr. Klinghardt believes one of the factors that has led to increased Borrelia virulence is the dramatic increase in electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and microwave radiation from cell phones and towers, wireless Internet, power lines, household electrical wiring, etc. Reduction of exposure to these fields is a key part of his Lyme treatment protocol, which I'll be discussing shortly.
One of the reasons blood tests are so unreliable as indicators of Lyme infection is that the spirochete has found a way to infect your white blood cells. Lab tests rely on the normal function of these cells to produce the antibodies they measure.
If your white cells are infected, they don't respond to an infection appropriately. And the worse your Borrelia infection is, the less likely it will show up on a blood test. In order for Lyme tests to be useful, you have to be treated first. Once your immune system begins to respond normally, only then will the antibodies show up. This is called the "Lyme Paradox" – treatment before diagnosis.
Dr. MacDonald's Syphilis Model
The behavior of Borrelia may be more similar to its cousin Treponemapallidum, the spirochete responsible for syphilis. Both take different forms in your body (cystic forms, granular forms, and cell wall deficient forms), depending on what conditions they need to accommodate. This clever maneuvering helps them to hide and survive.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence for Borrelia as a far greater player than previously thought comes from the work of Alan MacDonald, MD, who's been studying parallels between Lyme disease and syphilis for the past 30 years. MacDonald found the DNA of Borrelia in seven out of ten brain specimens from people who died of Alzheimer's disease.7
Astonishingly, the DNA was "fused" with human DNA, into one molecule! Syphilis is well known for causing symptoms across multiple body systems, including neurosyphilis, the psychiatric form of the illness.
Syphilis remains relatively easy to treat, as long as it's diagnosed early. But its cousin Borrelia seems to be upping the ante. Dr. Klinghardt stated in one of our interviews that he's never had a single patient with Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis who tested negative for Borrelia. Those are all diseases with no known cause. Could Lyme disease be the missing link? And if it is, why hasn't there been a stampede of researchers in pursuit of the truth?
Attorney General Finds IDSA Lyme Guidelines Flawed and Panel Corrupted
A handful of people are the gatekeepers for information about Lyme disease. Most of those occupy positions within the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), which publishes guidelines for a number of infectious diseases, one of which is Lyme.
In the IDSA's most recent clinical practice guidelines for Lyme disease8 the authors claim Lyme is easily cured with, typically, two weeks of antibiotics, requiring 28 days in rare cases. They also claim there is no scientific evidence for chronic Borrelia infection. However, the studies they reference clearly reflect their bias. Of the 400 references cited, half are based on articles written by guidelines authors themselves.
Their literature review in no way represents the total body of science related to the study of Lyme disease.
Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal has long been a strong advocate for people with Lyme disease.9 While he was Connecticut, Attorney General Blumenthal conducted an investigation into the IDSA's panel members and 2006 Lyme disease guidelines.
These guidelines have sweeping impacts on Lyme disease medical care. They are commonly applied by insurance companies to restrict coverage for long-term treatment and strongly influence physicians' treatment decisions. Insurance companies have denied coverage for long-term treatment, citing these guidelines as justification that chronic Lyme disease is a myth. Blumenthal's investigation found conflicts of interest were rampant in the IDSA, with numerous undisclosed financial interests among its most powerful panelists.
The IDSA agreed to create a new panel to review the ethics of the 2006 IDSA panel, overseen by Blumenthal's office. But this ended up being nothing more than a pacifier. The end result was a Final Report published on the IDSA site10 finding the original guidelines "based on the highest-quality medical/scientific evidence available," stating the authors "did not fail to consider or cite any relevant data." Senator Blumenthal continues to fight the establishment, however, and has taken his battle to the U.S. Senate8.
Dr. Klinghardt's Treatment Protocol for Lyme Disease
Conventional treatment of chronic Lyme, by the physicians who believe in it, hinges on long-term use of antibiotics. While this treatment can indeed be effective, there are many reasons to opt for alternatives such as those detailed by Dr. Klinghardt, as antibiotics will disrupt your gut flora, thereby exposing you to a whole host of other pathologies.
Total Video Length: 1:35:03 Download Interview Transcript
Dr. Klinghardt's basic treatment strategies are summarized below. His full treatment protocol is too complex to include here, but if you want details, I recommend reading our 2009 article that focuses on those specific Lyme treatment strategies. You can also visit Dr. Klinghardt's website, where he posts his treatment protocols and recipes. There are five basic steps:
- Evaluation of all external factors. External factors include electrosmog, EMF, microwave radiation from wireless technologies, and molds. (For more information on mold, go to Ritchie Shoemaker's website11).
- Remediation and mitigation of external factors. Once external factors have been assessed, they're remediated and mitigated. (Please refer to our previous article on mold remediation.) To mitigate microwave radiation, Dr. Klinghardt recommends shielding the outside of your home with a graphite paint called Y Shield. Inside, he uses a special silver-coated cloth for your curtains. Patients are instructed to remove all cordless telephones and turn off all the fuses at night, until they have recovered from Lyme disease.
- Addressing emotional issues. Emotional components of the disease are addressed using Energy Psychology tools, including psychokinesiology (PK), which is similar to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but more refined and advanced.
- Addressing parasitic, bacterial and viral infections. Dr. Klinghardt addresses the parasites first, followed by the bacteria and the viruses. The "Klinghardt antimicrobial cocktail," which includes wormwood (artemisinin), phospholipids, vitamin C, and various herbs, is an integral part of this treatment. He addresses viral infections with Viressence (by BioPure), which is a tincture of Native American herbs.
- Addressing other lifestyle factors. Nutritional considerations and supplements are addressed.
Other Resources
In Dr. Klinghardt's experience, the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) is by far the best and most responsible group.The following are some other resources you might find helpful:
- "Under Our Skin" website
- Tick-Borne Disease Alliance (TBDA)
- Lymedisease.org (formerly CALDA)
Leading Lyme disease expert Joseph J. Burrascano, MD, wrote what is essentially a manual for managing Lyme disease, entitled "Advanced Topics in Lyme Disease," which is worth adding to your resource files. Realize that his treatment focus is long-term antibiotics, which I believe should not be your first choice. Nevertheless, there is some good information in this publication.
Related Articles:
A New Explanation for the Steep Rise in Lyme Infections Why Was This Ancient Spice Given to People Building the Pyramids? Zinc Deficiency is a Global ConcernSep
15
The Ecology of Disease – How Environmental Sustainability Can Make or Break Animal and Human Health
Filed Under Main Content, Other News | Leave a Comment
By Dr. Mercola
The featured article is a rare gem that highlights the interrelatedness of humans with the environment, pointing out that most epidemics, such as AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, SARS, and Lyme disease, just to name a few, are a direct result of man's failure to live in harmony with nature. By severely disrupting our environment, we create our own demise.
A project financed by the United States Agency for International Development has made its goal to determine the ecology of disease – a project that, if successful, will aid health officials in determining where the next disease outbreak may occur. While lack of food sources, water and sanitation play a key part in disease, they know that in developing countries disease also hinges heavily on the types of wildlife in an area, destruction of wildlife and forest areas, and the diseases and bacteria the wildlife may be carrying.
As reported by the New York Times:1
"There's a term biologists and economists use these days – ecosystem services – which refers to the many ways nature supports the human endeavor. Forests filter the water we drink, for example, and birds and bees pollinate crops, both of which have substantial economic as well as biological value.
...By mapping encroachment into the forest you can predict where the next disease could emerge, So we're going to the edge of villages, we're going to places where mines have just opened up, areas where new roads are being built. We are going to talk to people who live within these zones and saying, 'what you are doing is potentially a risk.'"
Project PREDICT
Our modern lifestyle has largely separated us from nature, and few stop to consider the immense impact environmental destruction has on our individual health. We simply cannot extricate ourselves from the symbiotic relationship we have with nature, and that includes both the environment and wildlife, big and small.
According to the featured article, some 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in the animal kingdom, and environmental destruction promotes this animal-to-human transfer of disease.
A new project called Predict, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, aims to determine where new diseases are likely to emerge, based on how the landscape is altered by human activities. The project will also study forest-, wildlife- and livestock management to prevent the spread of pandemic disease.
As the New York Times explains:
"The Nipah virus in South Asia, and the closely related Hendra virus in Australia, both in the genus of henipah viruses, are the most urgent examples of how disrupting an ecosystem can cause disease. The viruses originated with flying foxes, Pteropus vampyrus, also known as fruit bats...
[O]nce the virus breaks out of the bats and into species that haven't evolved with it, a horror show can occur, as one did in 1999 in rural Malaysia.It is likely that a bat dropped a piece of chewed fruit into a piggery in a forest. The pigs became infected with the virus, and amplified it, and it jumped to humans. It was startling in its lethality. Out of 276 people infected in Malaysia, 106 died, and many others suffered permanent and crippling neurological disorders."
According to experts, the answer to preventing these kinds of pandemics lies in understanding how leaving nature intact can protect against the emergence of disease. For example, according to a study cited in the featured article, a four percent increase in deforestation in the Amazon increased malaria by nearly 50 percent! The reason for this non-linear increase in disease in response to cutting down of forest is because disease-spreading mosquitoes thrive in a mix of water and sunlight, which is in ample supply in deforested areas.
Lyme disease is another disease produced by man's interference with nature. By reducing and fragmenting large swaths of forests, larger predators such as wolves, foxes, and hawks, for example, have been pushed out. As a result, certain kinds of mice that are the primary carriers of Lyme bacteria have been given free rein to multiply.
According to the New York Times:
"'When we do things in an ecosystem that erode biodiversity – we chop forests into bits or replace habitat with agricultural fields – we tend to get rid of species that serve a protective role,' [Lyme disease researcher] Dr. Ostfeld told me. 'There are a few species that are reservoirs and a lot of species that are not. The ones we encourage are the ones that play reservoir roles.'"
The One Health Initiative
In response to these findings, a worldwide program called the One Health Initiative2 launched a couple of years ago, involving a number of medical, veterinarian and agricultural organizations and federal agencies, along with more than 600 scientists and other professionals in both human and veterinary medicine. Its mission statement reads:
"Recognizing that human health (including mental health via the human-animal bond phenomenon), animal health, and ecosystem health are inextricably linked, One Health seeks to promote, improve, and defend the health and well-being of all species by enhancing cooperation and collaboration between physicians, veterinarians, other scientific health and environmental professionals and by promoting strengths in leadership and management to achieve these goals."
Sustainability is at the heart of this holistic view. And the creation of such a global program comes not a moment too late, as the ever increasing spread of genetically engineered crops and plants now threatens sustainability everywhere.
Genetically Engineered Plants – One of the Most Dire Threats to Sustainability
As explained by Dr. Don Huber – an expert in soil-borne diseases, microbial ecology, host-parasite relationships, and GE toxicity – it's essential to understand that agriculture is a complete system based on inter-related factors. In order to maintain ecological balance and health, you must understand how that system works as a whole. Any time you change one part of that system, you change the interaction of all the other components, because they work together.
It is simply impossible to change just one minor aspect without altering the entire system, and this is why genetically engineered crops pose such a dire threat not just to the environment, but also to wildlife, livestock, and humans, and do so in more ways than one.
Dr. Huber's research, which spans over 55 years, has been devoted to looking at how the agricultural system can be managed for more effective crop production, better disease control, improved nutrition, and safety. The introduction of genetically engineered crops has dramatically affected and changed all agricultural components:
- The plants
- The physical environment
- The dynamics of the biological environment, and
- Pests and diseases (plant, animal, and human diseases)
Food Quality is Related to Soil Quality
One of the major modifications done to genetically engineered (GE) food crops is the introduction of herbicide resistance. Monsanto is the leader in this field, with their patented Roundup Ready corn, cotton, soybean and sugar beets, which can survive otherwise lethal doses of glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup.
The introduction of glyphosate-resistance has had a direct impact on soil microbes, which in turn decreases the food quality. While the link between an herbicide (which is directed toward plants) and soil microbes may not be immediately apparent, this ripple effect occurs because, again, it's an inter-related system.
In a nutshell, herbicides are chelators that form a barrier around specific nutrients, preventing whatever life form is seeking to utilize that element from utilizing it properly. That applies both to plants and soil microbes – as well as animals and humans. This may actually be one of the primary reasons why genetically engineered foods appear to be able to cause such profound health problems in those who consume them. According to Dr. Huber, the nutritional efficiency of genetically engineered (GE) plants is profoundly compromised. Micronutrients such as iron, manganese and zinc can be reduced by as much as 80-90 percent in GE plants!
The quality of the food is almost always related to the quality of the soil. The most foundational and critical components of the soil are the microorganisms that thrive there – more so than the necessary nutrients, because it's the microorganisms that allow the plants to utilize those nutrients.
According to Dr. Huber:
"The plant can only utilize certain [reduced] forms of all the nutrients… The way that it becomes reduced in the soil is through those beneficial microorganisms. We also have microorganisms for legumes like soybeans, alfalfa, peas, or any of the other legumes that can fix up to 75 percent of their actual nitrogen for protein in amino acid synthesis that actually comes from the air through the microorganisms in the soil.
Glyphosate is extremely toxic to all of those organisms. What we see with our continued use and abuse of this powerful weed killer is that it is also totally eliminating many of those organisms from the soil. We no longer have the same balance that we used to have."
The result of this imbalance in soil organisms is disease – in plants, animals, and humans. As just one example, toxic botulism is now becoming a more common cause of death in dairy cows whereas such deaths used to be extremely rare. The reason it didn't occur before was because beneficial organisms served as natural controls to keep the Clostridium botulinum in check. Glyphosate, and glyphosate-resistant crops decimate beneficial organisms not just in soil, but also in animal and human intestines. As a result, the Clostridium botulinum is allowed to proliferate in the animal's intestines and produce lethal amounts of toxins.
Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth is... Some Food for Thought
As Dr. Huber states:
"When future historians come to write about our era they are not going to write about the tons of chemicals we did or didn't apply. When it comes to glyphosate they are going to write about our willingness to sacrifice our children and to jeopardize our very existence by risking the sustainability of our agriculture; all based upon failed promises and flawed science. The only benefit is that it affects the bottom-line of a few companies. There's no nutritional value."
Unfortunately, due to lack of labeling, many Americans are still unfamiliar with what genetically engineered foods are. We now have a great opportunity to change that, and I urge you to participate and to continue supporting the California ballot initiative – which will require labeling of genetically engineered foods and food ingredients, and eliminate the routine industry practice of labeling and marketing such foods as "natural."
The voting takes place in November. Remember, since California is the 8th largest economy in the world, a win for the California Initiative would be a huge step forward, and would likely affect ingredients and labeling nation-wide, as large companies are not likely going to label their products as genetically engineered when sold in California, but not when sold in other states. Doing so would be a PR disaster.
But it's an enormous ongoing battle, as the biotech industry will outspend us by 100 to 1, if not more, for their propaganda. Needless to say, the campaign needs funds, as there are no deep corporate pockets funding this citizen's initiative. So, please, if you have the ability, I strongly encourage you to make a donation.
Some good news: the California "Yes on 37" Right to Know campaign recently received the endorsement of the California Labor Federation and U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Mark Leno.
"Senator Boxer said, 'California consumers have the right to know if their food has been genetically engineered. This basic information should be available for consumers on the label the way it is in 50 other countries around the world.' The Digital Journal reported on July 27.3
State Senator Mark Leno said, 'The people of California want to know what's in their food. More than half the people in the world live in countries that already require labeling of genetically engineered foods. Californians deserve to have this information too.'
Steve Smith, Communications Director for the California Labor Federation, said, 'Working people deserve the right to know what is in the food we are feeding our families. Prop 37 is a commonsense measure that ensures our families are able to make educated choices about the food we purchase. We're proud to join with millions of Californians in supporting the right to know what's in our food.'"
I urge you to get involved and help in any way you can. Be assured that what happens in California will affect the remainder of the U.S. states, so please support this important state initiative, even if you do not live there!
For timely updates, please join the Organic Consumers Association on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.
- Join the CA RightToKnow campaign, and tell everyone you know in California to vote YES on Proposition 37.
- Whether you live in California or not, please donate money to this historic effort through the Organic Consumers Fund.
- Talk to organic producers and stores and ask them to actively support Proposition 37. It may be the only chance we have to label genetically engineered foods.
Related Articles:
Latest GMO News Decade-Long Feeding Study Reveals Significant Health Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods Seeds of FreedomFeb
5
Why is Lyme Disease Not JUST a Tick-Borne Disease Any More?
Filed Under Main Content, Other News | Leave a Comment
Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD is well known for his successful treatment of neurological illness and chronic pain with Integrative Medicine.
Here, he shares his latest insights into Lyme disease, including its causes, confounding factors that can make proper diagnosis elusive, and how to get around them, along with his own treatment protocol.
By Dr. Mercola
Some experts feel that almost everyone has been exposed to Lyme disease and may have it in one way, shape or form.
Whether that's true or not is up for debate, but clearly there are those who have it and are severely disabled by it.
Dr. Klinghardt?who is one of my earliest mentors in natural health and always on the leading edge?has actually suffered with Lyme disease himself, and as a result, he's passionate about finding effective natural treatments for Lyme.
The Ongoing Discovery of Lyme Disease
It's now been fairly well-established that chronic infection is an underlying factor in most chronic illnesses. Diseases such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue are all turning out to be expressions of chronic infections.
"Right at the center of that is the ongoing discovery of Lyme disease," Dr. Klinghardt says.
Lyme disease has recently received a new definition. It now refers to illnesses transferred by insects, as opposed to simply a tick-borne disease. Mosquitoes can carry Lyme disease and many other serious infections, as can spiders, fleas and mites.
"Today I take a very different approach to Lyme disease," Dr. Klinghardt says. "I look at it as nature mingling with our genes. They are trying to incorporate their genome into our genome? Most of the time it goes wrong but sometimes it goes well. This is like the point I want to make upfront; that I take this more evolutionary view of it.
? We know that Lyme spirochetes were around for a long time but something happened maybe 30-40 years ago, where the creatures became more aggressive, more penetrating, and more illness-producing than they were before. Some of us suspect it's a man-made element. Some of us suspect that the global warming may play a role in it.
I personally suspect that the exposure to electromagnetic fields in the home and the microwaves from cell phone radiation are driving the virulence of many of the microbes that are naturally in us, and makes them aggressive and illness producing. There is probably evidence for all sides of the discussion."
Why Lyme Disease is So Tough to Diagnose?
Lyme disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose using conventional tests. And there's great variation in the presentation of the disease as well, depending on where you contracted it, and whether or not you have any other coexisting infections. There is a group of seven or eight microbes that are the most common. The worst ones are Babesia microti and the different forms of Bartonella.
"Underneath that, there's often an infection with Mycoplasma. We still don't know if it's really transferred with the same bite or if the people had it all along and become symptomatic when the immune system is suppressed by the spirochetes," Dr. Klinghardt says.
Other than the co-infections, there is what I call the "opportunistic infections." The combined effect of the initial infection is an immune suppressive effect, and then the patient becomes vulnerable to all sorts of other things. The most common things people contract early on in the course if the illness are different forms of parasites, such as protozoa; Babesia itself being one of them.
There is Giardia, amoebas, Trichomonas, malaria, and different forms of infections that aren't labeled yet. There is a new one, called FL1953. Stephen Frye discovered that. It's a protozoan organism that's causing severe fatigue and illness in chronically ill people. It's almost always present in a patient with Lyme disease.
And then we find a lot of worms in people. They may be microscopic and they may be macroscopic. That means they may be visible in the stool or they may not be visible."
Common Presentations of Lyme Disease
The most simple presentation is the orthopedic forms of Lyme disease as they're typically more superficial, affecting the larger joints. Interestingly, Dr. Klinghardt injects ozone into the joint in these cases, which he claims is:
"100 percent effective if the Lyme disease or? whatever the microbe is, lives in the joint and is confined to the joint space. Simply putting ozone in the joint will kill the spirochetes, and often with one, sometimes two treatments, make the joint completely pain free. That's one form of the expression of Lyme."
When the microbes and the associated immune reactions are situated in the connective tissue, the infection presents as a "vague, dispersed pain," which oftentimes ends up being labeled as fibromyalgia by conventional doctors. The immunological expression of Lyme covers a wide variety of immune system disorders, typically with some aspect of autoimmunity.
"I did my thesis in 1976 on autoimmune diseases and how the autonomic nervous system interacts with the immune system," Dr. Klinghardt says. "We found then that the determining factor of the outcome of an autoimmune disease was the presence of microbes that were catastrophically unresponsive to antibiotics.
Any autoimmune disease, including rheumatoid arthritis, we suspect has an underlying level of Lyme disease that needs to be treated appropriately before the patient has a chance to recover from the illness."
The gastroenterological presentation, where you have constant stomach problems, constipation, recurring stomach ulcers and/or indigestion, is very common, especially with the Babesia infection. This is sometimes the direct outcome of pancreatitis or hepatitis, but it can also be due to parasites acquired after contracting Lyme disease. In these cases, aggressive treatment of the parasites typically resolves the problem.
"The most startling form of the expression of Lyme disease is a wide variety of neurological illnesses," Dr. Klinghardt says.
"That is what we specialize in? We see a lot of cases with multiple sclerosis (MS)? ALS? [and] everything in between: the chronic fatigued patients, the patient with vague, undistinguishable neurological symptoms, the feeling of buzzing in the head, buzzing on the skin, crawling under the skin?"
How to Diagnose Lyme Disease
Insomnia is one of the key symptoms in many cases of Lyme disease, along with neurological symptoms such as headaches and a wide variety of pain syndromes. But you cannot diagnose Lyme disease on symptoms alone, because they're so varied.
Testing is required, but even that is not a sure-shot?
Most commercial tests designed to detect chronic infections are based on measuring your immune reaction?the presence of antibodies?to the invading microbe. However, one of the primary cells that get infected with Lyme spirochetes are the white blood cells themselves, which is a bit of a game-changer? because if your white blood cells are infected, they lose the ability to produce antibodies.
Hence it is relatively common to get a negative test result?
Dr. Klinghardt refers to this as "the Lyme paradox," because in order to diagnose Lyme disease properly with one of the accepted commercial tests, you have to first treat the Lyme disease, in order for your white blood cells to be able to mount an appropriate immune response. Only then can a lab test be used to detect the presence of Lyme disease.
"An exception to that are the test based on direct microscopy, where you're not depending on the immune responses for the patient," he explains.
However, this too has its drawbacks and difficulties. For example, the FISH test for Babesia is done on blood. But Babesia lives in the central nervous system, joints, and connective tissue. It doesn't live in your blood stream, at least not in significant amounts, so it can easily be missed when looking at blood.
To get around the many testing conundrums surrounding Lyme, whenever he suspects Lyme, Dr. Klinghardt treats his patients for Lyme disease for at least six to eight weeks, followed by a Western blot test, which measures immune response. The treatment is initially based on the clinical symptoms presented, along with a form of muscle testing he developed, called autonomic response testing (ART), which incorporates both classical neurological testing and kinesiology.
"It's not related to the applied kinesiology system that's quite distinct," Dr. Klinghardt explains. "It... may look similar? [but] we're looking for very specific reflexes that are connected to very specific illnesses. We arrive at a tentative diagnosis through history taking, through looking at skin signs; palpating the tissues; testing the normal neurological reflexes; orthopedic tests, and then we add the muscle testing as an additional tool."
Tests and Lab Recommendations
Dr. Klinghardt exclusively uses the IGeneX Lab in Palo Alto for his blood tests, and Fry Labs in Arizona for direct microscopy testing.
"I don't have a financial investment in it, but it's the gold standard in our field," he says. "They use two different antigens. The commercial labs and hospitals and so forth, they use one antigen and are notorious in under-diagnosing Lyme disease. We recommend to rather not test it than get a false negative, which will sometimes lead the patient 20 years on the wrong track. With the other co-infections, the detection rate drops way down.
? We do the FISH test [for Borrelia] at IGeneX Lab. It's a direct microscopy test which has more false negatives than the western blot.
? The leading test for Bartonella that we use is Fry Labs in Arizona. Steven Fry, who does a wonderful direct microscopy test, often comes back positive with the diagnosis of hemobartonella. Hemo means simply blood ? Bartonella in the blood. Remember, he's testing the blood where the Bartonella typically does not live. It lives in the nervous system. So if you find it in the blood in small amounts it generally is an indicator that there is a high amount in other tissues in the body."
An indirect test is the CD57 test. "CD-57" is a specific group of natural killer cells that are particularly damaged by the Lyme spirochetes. Therefore, if your numbers drop to a certain level, it is an indirect indicator that you may have Lyme disease, because the only known infection to suppress CD57 is that of Borrelia burgdorferi.
Normally, your CD57 value should be over 100. If it's lower than that, you're infected with Borrelia. If it's below 60, you probably have both Borrelia and Mycoplasma, and, most likely, some other co-infections.
Dr. Klinghardt's Treatment Approach
Dr. Klinghardt takes microwave radiation and electromagnetic fields very seriously, as it can have a profound impact on Lyme disease.
"One of my primary treatments for Lyme disease is to put people in protective clothing that shields them from incoming microwaves," he says. "We shield the bedside. We turn off the wireless internet at home. We put shielding paint on the houses. That has been a more successful strategy to treating Lyme disease and to get people neurologically well than any of the antibiotics or any of the antimicrobial compounds."
He's convinced that the increased virulence we're now seeing is related to the dramatic increase in electromagnetic fields and microwave radiation from cell phones, cell towers, and all manner of wireless technologies. Therefore, EMF and microwave radiation mitigation are part of the standard protocol, as any subsequent treatment of Lyme disease will not be as effective unless these external factors are addressed.
Below is a summarized outline of Dr. Klinghardt's treatment for Lyme disease. For more information and details, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript.
- First, external factors that act upon the body 24/7 are evaluated.
This includes electrosmog, EMF, microwave radiation from wireless technologies, and molds. To test for the presence of mold, he uses the ERMI score, which is a semi-quantitative assessment of how much mold is in your home. The score should not exceed 2. However, most of his patients score between 15 and 20. For more information on mold, Dr. Klinghardt recommends www.SurvivingMold.com.- Once external influencing factors have been determined, they're remediated and mitigated. (For mold remediation, please refer to this previous article.)
To mitigate microwave radiation, Dr. Klinghardt recommends shielding your home with a graphite paint called Y Shield outside, and use special silver-coated cloth for your curtains. These measures will compromise your ability to receive cell phone calls, so depending on your situation, you may opt to shield just your bedroom, or shield your entire home and just use a landline.
All cordless telephones are removed, and patients are instructed to turn off all the fuses at night, until they have recovered from Lyme disease.- Next, the emotional component of the disease is addressed using Energy Psychology tools, including psychokinesiology (PK) which is similar to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but more refined and advanced...
- Dr. Klinghardt begins the treatment for Lyme disease by addressing parasites, followed by "the Klinghardt antimicrobial cocktail," which addresses the Lyme spirochetes, Babesia, and Bartonella. For more details and complete recipes to all his treatment cocktails, see www.KlinghardtAcademy.com or send an email to info@KlinghardtAcademy.com. Some of the ingredients in his formula include: wormwood (artemisinin)?which has been found to be extremely effective for malaria?combined with phospholipids; vitamin C, and specific herbs.
Lastly, viruses are addressed using a tincture of Native American herbs called Viressence, by BioPure.- Additional lifestyle factors are also addressed, including diet and vitamin supplementation.
A Word on Antibiotics
Conventional Lyme treatment hinges on long-term use of antibiotics. While this treatment can indeed be effective, there are many reasons to opt for alternatives such as those detailed by Dr. Klinghardt, as antibiotics will disrupt your gut flora, thereby exposing you to a whole host of other pathologies.
More Information
In Dr. Klinghardt's experience, the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) is by far the best and most responsible group, so to learn more about Lyme disease, see www.ILADS.org.
"Depending on where you live in the U.S., consider the treatment that is offered to you through a Lyme literate physician. Most of them have been through the training at ILADS and I do recommend that," Dr. Klinghardt says.
"But there is a level beyond that, which I'm hoping I'm introducing here. If you just do antibiotics, okay, you just do antibiotics. But if you think more holistically and do the things that I recommend, then you no longer will need to resort to antibiotics because you cover your system on so many other fronts. And with that you're not only treating Lyme disease but you're preventing cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease?you're preventing pretty much all the other things that we didn't know were associated with Lyme.
So by treating the mold, by getting electrosmog under control, by treating the infections, by treating insulin resistance, we are preparing the patient for a much happier, healthier, longer, and more productive life, which is of course what I'm hoping for?"
Again, Dr. Klinghardt provides free access to all his recipes on his web site, so to learn more about his treatment, please see www.KlinghardtAcademy.com.
Related Articles:
Dr. Klinghardt's Treatment of Lyme Disease (2009) Lyme Disease: The Unknown Epidemic Rheumatoid Arthritis And Lyme Disease And New Testing for Lyme DiseaseMay
12
The following testimonials have been sourced from a number of different blogs and informational reference points across the net, and are all from individuals not seeking financial remuneration from testimonials given. Rather, these are pieces of correspondence from other seekers of the truth, regaling us with their own personal experience with MMS.
…………………………………………………………………………………
Jane on June 10, 2008 at 6:23 pm
My daughter has a friend who used this to cure malaria after traveling abroad. I have personally met this woman. She lives in Canada.
She became aware that I had Lyme disease at 26 years old (I am now 53 Years old) and was never treated. I have some health problems that may be caused by Lyme disease. She suggested MMS may eliminate Lyme disease.
I am fortunate because I can stop in a shop and buy this in my city. I am impressed that it is sold at such a small price as compared to herbal remedies. According to my North American income, the cost of MMS is negligible which makes it even easier to try it.
I have been using MMS for about 3 weeks. I have never experienced nausea from it, but I do get really tired and I have diarrhea. I am taking 15 drops once a day. I am not planning to increase to twice a day because I work long hours in a stressful profession and I absolutely have to be functional during the day.
I wish I could say I have had great success so far but I have not. My joint pain immediately increased and as mentioned, I am tired a lot. However, I know something is happening because friends who see me about once a week have remarked that my skin looks terrific! Since I see myself daily in the mirror, I have not noticed this improvement myself.
I am committed to maintaining the present dosage for at least 3 months. Humble says even a few drops will work and that Lyme disease is extremely difficult to eradicate. I will reassess at 3 months to see how it is going and I would be pleased to keep you abreast of the results.
In the meantime, 3 of my friends have started using MMS. One of these was getting a nasty cold just as he started MMS and he states it eradicated the cold within HOURS. I have emailed Humble’s book part I to several people, including my 78 year old mother.
I purchased Humbles book part II and consider the cost to be a small contribution to the betterment of malaria victims worldwide. After all, it was a malaria victim - now cured - who passed the knowledge to me.
………………………………………………………………………………
The following account is of an individual who has Lyme disease, and is exploring the effects of trans – dermal delivery of MMS as an aid to deliver chlorine dioxide more quickly to the source of the problem.
Citric acid neutralizes MMS but to say you cannot take MMS with any kind of protein is not true. I’ve read the book and done some research on this product and nowhere have I read that protein interacts with MMS.
Fresh fruit juices are fine to use but any product containing citric acid will deactivate the MMS. Citric acid is used as a preservative in bottled fruit juices and canned fruits. If you are taking MMS be sure and check [read labels] everything you eat to make sure there is no CA.If you are taking MMS for cancer you should not activate it with vinegar because cancer cells thrive on vinegar.I am taking MMS but mixing it with DMSO to use in a trans-dermal preparation. DMSO is a great product in and of itself but it is also excellent as a carrier agent. It takes the MMS directly into the cells. When you use MMS in a trans-dermal preparation you can avoid the nausea and bad taste…you may get diarrhea but I never have. The set back is that it can burn the bejeesus out of your skin so you need to be careful.
I’m taking it for Lyme disease…so far MMS and DMSO has made me feel like a new person…physically and emotionally.
If you are sick or have a loved one who is…do your research…Google is our friend.
Here is a great start…
About MMS and Jim Humble: www.miraclemineral.org/index.php
MMS and DMSO Tran dermal Protocol: www.cancertutor.com/…/Chlorine_Dioxide.html
About DMSO: www.dmso.org/…/icu.htm
For the yahoo wanting peer reviewed research blah blah blah…apparently he has never had to deal with the Medical establishment for any length of time otherwise he’d have enough sense to know they and the FDA could care less about curing anyone of anything…it’s the big bucks baby…they want to keep you on the pharmaceutical teat for the rest of your life.
Here are some facts to chew on…In America the cure rate for cancer is 3%…in Germany the cure rate for cancer is over 90%. What is wrong with that picture?
Do you think the FDA cares about you? FDA suppression: [link to www.google.com]
Take your health into your own hands and get well.
…………………………………………………………………………
I’ve been using MMS for 7 weeks now… Started with one drop daily, currently at 20 drops… I ran into a little nausea at 8 and 11 drops, dropped down a drop for 3 days, then ramped back up….
These are the benefits I recognize so far from MMS…. I had 3 tiny painful sores on my tongue for about two years now, nothing I nor my doctor did helped… Trust me, these were very painful, eating spaghetti sauce became a thing of the past…. This past summer, the pain was at it’s worst… I was sure this was some kind of pathogen, but just couldn’t get rid of it, not in the least, the pain continued to worsen… When I started MMS, I decided I would take a sip and hold it in my mouth for a minute or so before swallowing…. I no longer have any sores on my tongue, the pain is completely gone… The only change in my treatment protocol was the addition of MMS….
Next and more important, I was dealing with the worst fatigue and brain fog for the past 6 months. Seven weeks of MMS and now my fatigue and brain fog are much better…. I can actually do some things again; walking to the mailbox is now something I can do anytime I wish. Before, most days I couldn’t make that short walk… I’ve been spending some time working out in my yard, something I haven’t done in the past 6 months…
I definitely feel there is a benefit for anyone with Lyme disease using MMS… I am under the care of a few doctors at the Mayo Clinic and just yesterday I had a physical exam of my thyroid, all was normal… I will test for TSH, T4 and T3 at the end of the month. But, for what this doctor can tell from all the past TSH tests done there, this too should be considered normal…
………………………………………………………………………………..
I tested positive for Lyme disease and tested negative for all co-
infections almost a year ago. I got tested at a reputable lab, but
I know all tests are not 100% reliable. My point here is, I believe
I had babesia and bartonella. Every morning I got out of bed, the
soles of my feet would be very sore and sometimes after being on
them for a long time. I understand this is a symptom of
bartonella. Since starting MMS, I’ve recently noticed the bottom of
my feet are not sore in the mornings. Also, the first day or two I
took MMS I had intense aching in the neck, shoulders, and between my
shoulder blades, which I never really experienced before, or at
least not as intense. Usually these aches would come and go
throughout a day, but this ache was constant all day long and lasted
into the next. Well, I haven’t experienced this ache since the
first day or two of MMS. I understand these is area babesia likes
to hang out. So, it looks like I’ve been killing bartonella and
babesia, which I didn’t think I had. Very interesting and amazing
it if is true.