CHRONIC LYME DISEASE IS A REAL THING, NOT BOGUS!
Image source: here
According to Wikipedia,
“Chronic Lyme disease is a generally unrecognized diagnosis that encompasses a broad array of illnesses or symptom complexes for which there is no reproducible or convincing scientific evidence of any relationship to B. Burgdorferi infection.
[1]There is no clinical evidence that “chronic” Lyme disease is caused by a persistent infection.
[2] It is distinct from post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, a set of lingering symptoms which may persist after successful treatment of infection with Lyme spirochetes. The symptoms of “Chronic Lyme” are generic and non-specific “symptoms of life“.
There is no doubt that the above definition was written by a healthcare professional working for the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) or abiding by its guidelines.
WHY THE CONTROVERSY?
The topic of Chronic Lyme disease treatment is very tendentious. The physicians abiding by the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) treatment guidelines, recognize it as persistent, active polymicrobial infection which require a long and repeated course of antibiotic therapy.
The medical community refuses to accept the evidence that Chronic Lyme disease exists, despite the fact that recent studies are revealing more and more proofs. They deny its existence and its severity. Their approach of ruling out an active infection, only exacerbates the problem. It leads to prolonged illnesses and a poor quality of life, causing limitations in the physical functioning of the patients.
Research has shown that Lyme disease spirochetes are able to survive the antibiotic therapy. There are studies and reviews presenting some of the survival mechanisms by which Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) evades the immune system of its hosts.
HOW DOES ALL THIS CONTROVERSY AFFECTS THE PATIENT?
By ruling out the existence of an active infection, the efforts to finding a Chronic Lyme disease cure are hindered. An early diagnosis may have better treatment outcomes, while a delayed diagnosis and treatment can have devastating consequences for the patient.
Most Lyme sufferers are not diagnosed with Lyme disease until they have reached a chronic phase of this illness, also called Late Stage Lyme Disease. They are victims of the lack of training or experience in recognizing Lyme disease symptoms.
Many Chronic Lyme disease sufferers are mistakenly thought to have a rheumatoid or a neurologic diagnosis. Most of them get diagnosed with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, degenerative disease of the spine, multiple sclerosis, demyelinating diseases, neuropathies, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or even dementia.
In order to get the proper treatment for Chronic Lyme disease it is recommended that you consult a Lyme disease literate doctor.
Here are other Lyme-related posts:
TOP 10 WORST SYMPTOMS OF LYME DISEASE
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF LYME DISEASE?
WHY IS LYME DISEASE TOUGH TO DIAGNOSE?
HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST TICK BITES?
JOURNEY TO SELF-DISCOVERY?
HOW I FOUND THE SILVER LINING OF LYME DISEASE?
9 WAYS TO KEEP A RELATIONSHIP GOING WHEN BOTH PARTNERS ARE ILL?
All of the above posts were written by me, as part of my Lyme Disease awareness campaign. They were originally published on my personal website A-ZLYME.COM .
If you would like to learn more about Lyme disease, visit A-ZLYME.COM. On my A-Z Lyme blog, I post weekly Lyme-related articles which I might re-post on Steemit, in order to increase the awareness about this infamous illness.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to resteemit or upvote it!
Please leave your feedback in the comments, I would love to hear your thoughts!
@2018 LaviPicu aka The Lyme Poet. All rights reserved.
art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics
I've had Lyme disease, untreated, since the 1960's, according to the Infectious Disease doctor I saw upon one of my many re-infections in 2008.
Mine manifested as neurological, and the damage is done. Some symptoms have improved, but mostly, I just deal with them hour to hour, day by day. I have not driven a car since 2001.
The main culprit was the very poor tests for dx'ing Lyme. I tested negative over and over until I got lucky after a re-infection in 2008. By that time I had used a wheelchair for 7 years if I left the house and had not driven a car since 2001 due to cognitive issues from the Lyme.
The ID doc requested as complete a medical history as I could provide. As she looked through it she kept saying, here, here, here, as possible re-infections.
I did 18 months of various antibiotic protocols, none of which had any effect whatsoever. By the time I was dx'd, I had already been treating what had tentatively been called CFIDS/myalgic encephalomyitis/all in your head with highly nutrient dense food and improved greatly over 8 months.
After 18 months of no results, I stopped the antibiotics and continued with the food. I am doing what I do today exclusively because of the best food I can raise. This is what has worked for me.
I am sorry to hear you had to go through all this. I am glad though you managed to get better. It is such a shame that doctors fail to recognize the symptoms and people get to suffer for decades due to the doctors' lack of knowledge. When the tests are unreliable, at least the doctors should pay more attention to the symptoms of the patients, instead of telling them they are crazy. Thank you for the comment and the resteem! Stay strong!
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Oh, I just love how doctors try to tell you "it's all in your head." Especially when it comes to women. Like we don't know when there is something really wrong with us. They said it about fibromyalgia. They said it about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. They "prescribed" Valium like candy mints ... maybe just to shut their patients up and keep them "tranquilized." I had no idea this was happening now with Lyme Disease. Just because you don't know what's wrong doesn't mean there isn't something.
If I would have stopped looking for answers when I was first told my symptoms were in my head, I might have ended up in a wheelchair or worse! I am lucky I had a great physician who believed me and tried as much as he could to help me find the root cause. Not all doctors are like him, though!
I did end up in a wheelchair, for 7 years...
I got out through my own efforts, not from anything any doctor did.
The only thing the doctors did was finally, conclusively, dx me with Lyme, then chronic Lyme dating back decades to my childhood.
I went through decades of "it's all in your head".
so horrible!!
I applaud your efforts in creating awareness about this disease. Those misdiagnosis are quite dangerous. Imagine how many people are being treated for the wrong ailment!?
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for reading and your kind words.
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Quite interesting but scary too..although i am not ok with medical terminogy but lyme diesease is bit of concern
It is scary because Lyme has turned into a global threat. Thanks for stopping by!
It's a two-pronged barrier: the risk-averse nature of the highly litigious medical community and the profit motive of Big Pharma and FDA.
Nice article.
Namaste,
JaiChai
You are right @jaichai! Unfortunately Big Pharma has its tentacles everywhere! As for the FDA, I don't even dare to open the topic.
Wow! What a shame that many people have to suffer because doctors would rather turn a blind eye and treat for something else instead of finding the actual problem.
Most of the doctors who are willing to look for the root cause and address it instead of treating the symptoms risk having their practice/ license removed or they get discredited by the medical community.
Thats just terrible! Why do you think that is?
Big Pharma has to profit. Otherwise how will they make money if people don't buy meds?
Well of course! But its to the point where doctors will have their licenses removed for treating Lyme Disease at early stages? It just doesnt make sense to me. I understand Big Pharma will do what it will to keep people buying meds and theres many doctors who are in the pocket of Big Pharma but I just dont see how they can lose their licenses from actually trying to cure the disease before it has detrimental effects on the person. I would hope that theres doctors who stand up for the right thing.
The medical community follows the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) guidelines when it comes to treatment for Lyme. They state that Lyme can be cured with a two weeks antibiotic treatment, which is not quite accurate. They do not recognize Lyme as a chronic illness. Thus the doctors who do not respect their guidelines and try to prescribe long-term antibiotic treatment get penalized.
was going through my lists and noticed you had delegated 2 sp instead of sending 2 sp to The Mothership.
You either need to send 2 steem or delegate 60 sp to be counted as on board.
thanks
also watch out for cheetah man.
How can I send the 2sp? I thought I have done it. Apparently not.
As for cheetah, is showing my own personal website where I posted the same article.
what you did was delegate it instead of just sending it. You see it is 60sp in delegation or 2 steem per month just transferred.
To send it you just make a transfer of 2 steem to @themothership