DOES CHRONIC LYME DISEASE EXIST?

There is a continued raging debate as to whether Lyme disease can be chronic. The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) firmly contends that there is no such thing as Chronic Lyme Disease. Lyme patients, some researchers, and Lyme literate doctors repeatedly see the evidence of the chonicity of Lyme disease. There are many studies which show that Lyme disease has several mechanisms with which to evade the immune system, current testing AND antibiotics. The IDSA seems not to be aware of these studies OR they choose to ingnore them. As a result of their inadequate treatment guidelines, millions are suffering, going undiagnosed, undertreated and misdiagnosed. When this happens, sufferers are labeled with irrelevant disease labels which supposedly have no known definitive tests, causes or cures...only sympotmatic treatments. By the way, treating with symptomatic treatments instead of treating the cause... equals more profits for the drug companies, more visits to specialists, and more money for those who do medical testing

The mainstream medical cartel tends to give the impression that antibiotic treatment for Lyme has to be expensive and dangerous. The impression is given that most patients are treated with IV antibiotics and  the attending consequences are enormous. The truth is that most lyme patients are given relatively inexpensive oral antibiotics, such as doxycycline. In high enough doses doxycycline can cross the blood brain barrier and reach the neurological symptoms which originate in the brain. I had severe neuro lyme because I was misdiagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for 8 years. I was never treated with IV antibiotics but only with antimalarial drugs for babesia, and a rotating schedule of doxycycline alone and then Biaxin combined with Plaquenil. The Lyme disease organism is a pleomorphic microbe...which means it changes form, which allows it to possess different properties in order to survive the agents it senses are harmful to it. Different antibiotics kill different forms of the lyme microbe.

We are often told how dangerous antibiotics are. Evidently IV antibiotics are more dangerous than the orals and can cause more side effects...however, when the IV antibiotics are used, it is usually because the patient is deathly ill and deteriorating.People do die from Lyme disease, especially when left untreated or undertreated. One has to weigh the dangers of IV antibiotics against the dangers of becoming bedridden or of dying. Often people with Multiple Sclerosis are misdiagnosed and really have Lyme disease and sometimes they also harbor the familiar co-infections , such as babesia, mycoplasma, bartonella...etc. What about the long term steroids used for legitimate M.S and M.S that is caused  by Lyme disease? Steroids have multiple serious side effects but we don't hear a debate about that in the media. Steroids can weaken the immune system, so if a patient has an underlying infectious disease ..such as lyme or brucellosis...that is causing the M.S like symptoms, then there is a very real danger of lessening the body's ability to fight off the underlying infection.

Then we have cancer....and we all know how dangerous chemotherapy is. We could go on and on talking about diseases and their dangerous treatments. Lyme disease seems to be the only disease where a fairly inexpensive drug...is denied to the patient for longterm treatment. We are told that antibiotics can cause antibiotic resistance. I know many people with chronic Lyme who have NOT developed resistance to their antibiotics. Again, one has to weigh the severity of the disease and the treatment side effects. I know that with doxycycline....I have to stay out of the sun in the summer and make sure I take the drug with food....so my stomach doesn't get upset. Those don't seem like such dangerous symptoms.....especially considering that I am no longer bedridden and I have my life back. Most people who take long term antibiotics make sure that they also take probiotics...to replace the good germs which are killed off by the antibiotics.

If there are any doctors, researchers,and  politicans reading this....or patients labeled with disease names, which only describe the symptoms and no cause is known.....please check out the studies below....and become familiar with the extensive symptom list of Lyme disease. Lyme disease is not just arthritic. It can affect every system of the body and is known as the great imitator....as is its close cousin syphilis. Also keep in mind the different ways that syphilis is transmitted. Seems as if more studies AND legitimate studies need to be conducted on how Lyme disease can be transmitted from person to person, including intercourse, casual transmission (such as touching) ......  and the blood supply. See this link to read a study that shows Lyme can be transmitted through touching. So....perhaps one doesn't have to live in a tick endemic area in order to acquire Lyme disease.
http://tinyurl.com/36odwzo

http://www.lymeinfo.net/lymefiles.html  .......  70 studies that show Chronic Relapsing Lyme Disease DOES exist.

BOOKS ON LYME DISEASE http://astore.amazon.com/thelymdissenb-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=2