http://www.willitsnews.com/ci_13453460
Living with Lyme: Bacterium can 'cloak' itself
By Dr. Jon Sterngold
Special for The Willits News
Posted: 09/30/2009 11:35:49 AM PDT
The bacterial cause of Lyme disease is called Borrelia burgdorferi, named after researcher Willy Burgdorfer, Ph.D, who first identified the germ in 1982.The spirochete, a corkscrew-shaped bacterium, is unique in the known bacterial realm because of the quantity of DNA it carries that enables it to evade detection and attack the human immune system. It can change its outer protein coat, cloaking itself from immune detection. It also can completely change form, becoming a treatment-resistant cyst, or shed its outer coat to enter our own cells to set up shop.
The success of antibiotic therapy generally depends on the activity level of a bacterium; how fast it grows and how often it reproduces. Most common bacterial diseases we encounter in medicine are from bugs that reproduce in less than 24 hours. When antibiotics "hit" the reproductive or active metabolic machinery of these germs, they die. This is why when we treat common illnesses such as pneumonia or urinary infections, people usually get better in a few days.The Lyme bacterium, however, has a reproduction cycle as short as a day but as long as about nine months. During a phase of prolonged inactivity, it is very hard to kill. This is one of the reasons an established Lyme infection can be hard to eliminate.
It also is thought, and there is real data to support this ,that the Lyme bacterium eventually takes up residence with other co-infecting bacteria, in what is called a biofilm community.On a microscopic level, the bacteria clump together in a gel-like secretion where they are insulated from our immune system and circulating antibiotics or antibodies. This is their bunker, from which they can wreak havoc by releasing the neurotoxic products of their metabolic life. It's an evolutionary match: they thrive in a body they modify to suit their needs. They can suppress our immune systems and alter other vital processes, making us ill, helping them thrive. They don't tend to kill us, though they sometimes do. It's a parasitic existence.
In addition to symptoms that stem from inflammation of the brain, nerves, heart, blood vessels, joints, and connective tissue, which the Lyme bacteria cause through multiple mechanisms, we also know the disease can induce another class of illness called autoimmune disease.Maladies such lupus, multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) can actually be caused by Lyme disease. These diseases are not considered to be curable, but there are many cases in which the autoimmune disease resolves completely when the Lyme disease has been treated ... always with long-term, high-dose antibiotics.
Tests to determine whether someone has Lyme disease are problematic. The common tests measure levels of antibodies we produce that are specific to the Lyme bacteria. But, if the bacteria can hide, change form, immunologically "cloak" itself, and suppress our ability to make antibodies, a person quite ill with Lyme can have totally negative tests. What commonly occurs is that after a year or so of antibiotic use,which can render some of the bacteria into fragments the immune system can recognize, the tests turn positive. The dilemma is that when someone is looking for a diagnosis, an answer to profound suffering, a physician who relies on initial test results may call it wrong, and the patient will have no answer and no effective treatment. This is part of what defines the difference between "Lyme-literate" MDs, who understand the problems with testing and treatment challenges, versus nonLyme-literate physicians who, for some very compelling reasons, can't or won't manage this disease.
The range and depth of this problem is immense, and will be discussed in the next article.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jon Sterngold is a Willits resident and physician.
Copyright © 2008 - The Willits News
HERBS FOR LYME DISEASE & GENERAL HEALTH
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1097153
I use the MMS Water and so far, (fingers crossed) I havent had so much as a runny nose or any kind of sniffel since I started using MMS Water.
ReplyDeleteI don't have Lyme Disease, however, when I stumbled accross "The Lyme Disease Sentinel Blog", I remembered reading about Lyme Disease at the MMS site. I don't have time to read the material at "The Lyme Disease Sentinel Blog" to find out if MMS Water has been investigated, but I do think it is my responsibility as a fellow Human to mention the MMS Water. It may or may not be of any help at all, BUT --- maybe. Links provided below.
Best Regards to all.
MMS is chlorine dioxide, an oxidizer that kills pathogens, but does not touch the rest of the body. It is totally different than the salt and vitamin C action. At this point I do not know anything that is guaranteed in handling lyme. MMS has proved effective depending upon the protocol and the person. It occurs to me that salt seems to drive the lyme out into the open, and the salt might work well with MMS. So the state of the lyme protocol is still being tested by many different people. But in my opinion, the best weapon so far is MMS and chemistry doesn’t have a better weapon even in theory. Visit www.miraclemineral.org, www.jimhumble.com and www.jimhumble.biz/ for more info.
Thankyou for reminding me about MMS. Actually I have some but have not tried it yet. Have heard the taste is really scary? I think I will go to Lymenet.org to the flash discussion and see what others have to say that have tried it. Thankyou for your comment
ReplyDeleteLyme sentinel said... "Have heard the taste is really scary"?
ReplyDeleteScary is not the word I would use. Compared to many, many other medications
I have been subjected to over the years, the MMS Water "taste" is Not That Bad.
On a scale from 1 to 10 - 1 being mild and 10 being horrible, the MMS Water
taste is about a 2 or 3 max. It's the "Smell" that scared me initially, here's why.
The house I was raised in had the lowest possible sewage hook up on the sewer system.
When the power went off at the lift station down the block from our house the sewage
always backed up in our basement. What a NIGHTMARE that was. I can remember three
times it happening. After the water receded the debris had to be scoop shoveled up and
disposed of properly. I will Not describe what we were scooping up, use your imagination.
When all the solid debris had been removed, my Father would mix chlorine bleach,
50/50 with water, then flood the basement again up to the level the sewage had reached
to kill any and all pathogens. The chlorine bleach smell was Horrible, and the piousness
fumes from the bleach was breathed in by everyone involved in the clean up. Needless
to say everyone involved suffered lung damage to some extent. To this day whenever
my wife uses chlorine bleach to do the laundry, I have to vacate the area ASAP as the
fumes from the chlorine bleach completely shuts down my throat and breathing at that
point is not an option. Long story I know, my point is, the "Smell" of the MMS Water as
it activates is "Identical" to the chlorine bleach smell that I cannot abide. Immediately I
started to vacate the room when to my great surprise my throat did NOT shut down as
with chlorine bleach smell. Now don't get me wrong here, I still have a very strong intense
dislike of the smell in question and that has been the problem I have had to overcome in
order to drink the MMS Water. For me it is the smell, not the taste that is bad. After the
MMS Water is activated and water is added the smell does dissipate enough for me to drink it.
Hope this helps.
Best regards to all