vol. 6, issue 7 investigating lyme disease & chronic ... · lyme disease is the most common...
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Vol. 6, Issue 7 Investigating Lyme Disease & Chronic Illnesses in the USA July 2011
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Elizabeth Chalker c/o Dr. Corey Cameron
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by Jerry Leonard
"Never would I have deemed itpossible that a group of med-ical people would work so vig-orously and with such maliceagainst a group of desperatelyill people. But, here it is."-Lyme victim/activist (personally requestedanonymity, for fear of reprisal)
Lyme disease is themost common tick-borne dis-ease in the NorthernHemisphere. In addition tocrippling arthritis, it can causesevere and disabling neuro-cognitive disorders that are dif-ficult -- if not impossible -- tocure.
I know first-hand ofLyme disease because I caughtit in 2006 and still have notbeen able to eradicate theeffects. This is true in spite oflong-term antibiotics adminis-tration from an expert (I wasone of the lucky ones) withinseveral months of the bite.
Like I once did, you maythink Lyme disease is some-thing that you catch from a tickwhile taking a walk in thewoods and that it can be readi-ly cured with antibiotics.
That is the spin of U.S.authorities. But they're lying tous. They are also systematicallyputting doctors (like mine) outof business for successfullytreating Lyme patients (like me)with long-term antibiotics.
What's going on here?
"Who could imagine the gov-ernment, all the way up to theSurgeon General of the UnitedStates, deliberately allowing agroup of its citizens to die froma terrible disease for the sakeof an ill-conceived experi-ment?"
--Commentary on theTuskegee Experiment
Lyme disease is causedby one of the most complexbacteria known to man, calledBorrelia burgdorferi. The bac-teria is named after a biowar-fare researcher named WillyBurgdorfer, who first identifiedthe causative Lyme organism in1981 in Ixodid ticks sent to himfrom the East Coast while he
was working in a NationalInstitutes of Health (NIH)biowarfare lab in Montana(Rocky Mountain Labs).Burgdorfer readily recognizedthe borrelia bacteria infectingthe Ixodid ticks because hehimself had already beeninjecting Ixodid ticks with vari-ous strains of borrelia through-out the 1950s, and publishinghis production-infection meth-ods.
The Ixodid ticks sent toBurgdorfer's biowarfare lab hadbeen collected from the areasurrounding an East Coastbiowarfare lab that conductedoutdoor tick experiments 20miles from Lyme, Connecticut-the epicenter of the LymeEpidemic. These ticks were sentto Burgdorfer by Jorge Benach,a member of the Centers forDisease Control andPrevention's (CDC) elite biowar-fare defense unit, known as theEpidemic Intelligence Service(EIS).
The bacterium thatcauses Lyme disease (which isnotoriously difficult to grow incell cultures) was first propa-gated in cell cultures inBurgdorfer's biowarfare lab byAlan Barbour, also a member ofthe CDC's biodefense unit.Barbour was able to rapidlypropagate the extremely diffi-cult-to-cultivate Lyme borreliain cell cultures because, priorto the breakout of Lyme dis-ease, he had been busy cultur-ing borrelia organisms. He sub-sequently wrote articles sum-marizing strange-soundinghuman experiments with bor-relia strains that were propa-gated in mice, prior to injectionback into humans.
Barbour went on to cre-ate so-called mutant strains ofBorrelia burgdorferi, and waseventually rewarded with thedirectorship of a biowarfare labat the University of California,Irvine. Barbour has also pub-lished articles identifying seg-ments within the DNA of theBorrelia burgdorferi bacteriafound outside of the PlumIsland biowarfare lab nearLyme, Connecticut. Strangelyenough, these bacteria havetelomeric "sequence similari-ties" to a biowarfare virus(African Swine Fever Virus)being investigated and geneti-
cally engineered inside PlumIsland labs, the proximate loca-tion of the ticks Benach hadsent to Burgdorfer's biowar lab.
"It's possible to see the mod-ern history of Lyme as a stringof events with an EIS memberat every crucial node."
-Elena Cook, "Lyme Is aBiowarfare Issue"
Borrelia organisms wereof interest to the militarybecause of their ability tocause both mentally and physi-cally disabling infections thatwere capable of relapsing, evenafter treatment with antibi-otics. This was due to theorganism's ability to not onlyrapidly evolve in a manner thatfrustrated antibiotics adminis-tration, but also to rapidly dis-seminate throughout everyorgan in the body. Anotherform of self-protection is theorganism's ability to formbiofilms and protective "cysts"when confronted with a hostileenvironment, only to reconvertfrom dormancy to active infec-tion once a friendly environ-ment was again encountered(for example, when any admin-istered antibiotics were gone).This protective dormancy capa-bility, which is shared byanthrax (a biowarfare agentalso studied by Barbour beforeLyme broke out ), would behighly useful for real-worldbiowarfare exercises.
In addition to weaponsthat could kill quickly, thePentagon was interested inweapons that could incapaci-tate - like Rift Valley fever. AsMichael Carroll relates in hisbook Lab 257:
"Pentagon scientistsbriefed President Dwight D.Eisenhower on using Rift Valleyfever as a nonlethal biologicalweapon that would 'incapaci-tate' the enemy, rather than killhim. Used correctly, it coulddeter and demoralize theenemy and, at the same time,spare buildings and infrastruc-ture from incendiary bombs.The president approved fund-ing in this new area of weapon-ry, calling it a 'splendid idea.'Research on incapacitatinggerm agents began." [emphasisadded]
The staggering benefitsof Lyme disease as such anincapacitating infection weresummarized by Mark Sanborne,author of the report "TheMystery of Plum Island":
"Lyme's ability to evadedetection on routine medicaltests, its myriad presentationswhich can baffle doctors bymimicking 100 different dis-eases, its amazing abilities toevade the immune system andantibiotic treatment, wouldmake it an attractive choice tobioweaponeers looking for anincapacitating agent. Lyme'sabilities as 'the great imitator'might mean that an attackcould be misinterpreted as sim-ply a rise in the incidence ofdifferent, naturally occurringdiseases such as autism, MS,lupus and chronic fatigue syn-drome (M.E.). Borrelia's inher-ent ability to swap outer sur-face proteins, which may alsovary widely from strain tostrain, would make the produc-tion of an effective vaccineextremely difficult. ... Finally,the delay before the appear-ance of the most incapacitatingsymptoms would allow plenty
of time for an attacker to moveaway from the scene, as well aspreventing people in a contam-inated zone from realizing theyhad been infected and seekingtreatment."
Incapacitating bacteriaare now infecting people in theU.S. en masse, causing a majorepidemic of chronic illness. Anestimated 20,000 to 200,000people get Lyme disease everyyear alone. And even the high-er number may understate thenumber of cases due to thenon-specific nature of many ofthe symptoms of Lyme diseaseand the poor accuracy of theavailable tests.
"The more we do to you, theless you seem to believe weare doing it."- Joseph Mengele
Just as sinister as thedisease itself, from the earliestdays victims have been system-atically denied accurate diagno-sis and helpful treatment withantibiotics by various individu-als who all too often have con-nections to the biowarfare
“Tuskegee 2” ...cont’d pg 3
The Lyme Disease Epidemic:CDC Tuskegee Experiment, Phase II
Experiment Covertly Continued by the CDC Through the Biowarfare Research Establishment
Jerry Leonard
By Peter J. Muran, MD, ABIHM
Let's summarize ourprior two articles beforelaunching into the final in thisseries on the extraordinaryimmune and gut relationship.The immune system is the mostpowerful means the body hasto fight infection and its centralrole applies to Lyme disease aswell.
Part one discussed howthe immune system is dividedinto two types of subsystems,the innate and the adaptiveimmune system. The innatesystem is a more primitive typeof system and is seen in mostlife forms. The innate system ismore generalized in its detec-tion of a foreign substance. Itsimmediate response would beto destroy the substance byexposing harsh chemicals to theforeign substance. Major com-ponents of the innate systemare dendritic cells,macrophages and natural killercells. The adaptive immunesystem is seen in higher lifeforms and is more sophisticatedin its specific reaction to anoffending agent. The twomajor pathways of the adaptivepathways involve two differenttypes of white blood cells orlymphocytes. These lympho-cytes are known as B-cells andT-cells. The B-cells form anti-bodies. The T-cells can developinto a variety of forms depend-ing on how they are pro-grammed. The adaptiveimmune system is mostly pro-grammed by the dendritic cells,a major component of theinnate immune system.
Part two discussed howthe gastrointestinal tract, GItract, is a major contributor tothe response of the immunesystem. Something foreign orirritating to the cells of the GItract will trigger the innateimmune system, causing alocalized inflammatoryresponse. If the localizedinflammation is not kept undercontrol it will progress to causean inflammatory responsethroughout the whole body.This whole body or systemicresponse is caused by theinnate immune system's pro-gramming the T-cell lympho-cytes to release pro-inflamma-tory chemical messengerscalled cytokines. The pro-inflammatory cytokines aremanaged by another type ofprogrammed T-cell know as Tregulatory cells. It is when ourimmune system cannot be con-trolled or it gets "stuck" in an
expression of a repeatinginflammatory response that tis-sue destruction occurs and it isfelt as pain. The messengers forthis chronic inflammatoryresponse are certain cytokineexpressions from specific T lym-phocytes, Th1/Th17. An exam-ple of the over expression ofTh1/Th17 is the joint pain anddestruction seen in Lyme dis-ease.
In view of the impor-tance of the immune systemand its intricacy it is clear thatthe management of a compli-cated disease such as Lymerequires utilization of a healthyimmune system. A healthyimmune system is dependenton a healthy gut. A healthy gutis dependent on a healthy bac-terial flora and consumption offoods that are not inflammato-ry. An over-stimulated inflam-matory response as a result ofpoor GI health can result in theimmune system getting "stuck"in a pro-inflammatory mode.The healthy immune systemwould benefit in balancing outthe pro-inflammatory mode toa non-inflammatory modethrough regulation or modula-tion of the immune system.
The over-usage ofantibiotics will change the nor-mal GI bacterial flora, whichcan lead to dysregulation of theimmune system as describedabove. The dysregulation of theimmune system will causesymptoms that are sometimesconfused with that of Lyme dis-ease. While antibiotics shouldbe considered as a part of thetreatment program for Lymedisease, it is important to main-tain the delicate balancebetween the use of antibioticsand a healthy gut bacterialflora. Development of bacterialstrains that are optimal for anindividual's GI tract and immu-nity is one of the hottest topicsundergoing investigationalresearch. Today, we can onlyguess that we are improvingthe healthy flora in the selec-tion of the specific probioticsselected for an individual. Asresearch develops we look for-ward to being able to select theexact strains required by anindividual.
What we eat has a greatinfluence on our immune sys-tem response. Inflammatoryfoods or food sensitivitiesgreatly change the internalmilieu or environment of the GItract. It can lead to severe dys-regulation of the immune sys-tem, whereas a proper diet willlead to proper regulation ofimmune modulation by sup-porting and promoting regula-tory T cells.
Note that food sensitivi-ties are not the same as foodallergies. Not all food sensitivi-ties develop antibodies. Asdescribed above, the pro-inflammatory T-cell lympho-cytes can be triggered off with-out developing antibodies. Thisresponse covers many situa-tions where a person is just notgetting better because of theirdiet. The problem is the
reliance on a food to antibodytest result. The test resultscould be negative yet the foodsensitivity persists.Unfortunately, this misunder-standing leads to the misman-agement of individuals whohave treatment directed only atinflammatory response and notthe causes of the inflammation.
An example of this mis-guided treatment is similar tosomeone who develops anintermittent autoimmuneresponse. This person has asensitivity to dairy and glutenbut does not show an antibodyresponse. Frequently, themain focus of treatment is adisease-modifying anti-rheu-matic drugs, DMARDs (e.g.CellCept or Mobic), which arepro-inflammatory, initiated byTh1/Th17 immune-blockingdrugs. There is no direction bythe physician to tell the personto stop their routine consump-tion of dairy and foods whichare contributing to the flare-uptheir T-cell response.
It is important to reducethe cause of an out-of-control Tcell response in tandem withimmune regulation whichreduces the recurrence of auto-immune flare-ups. The use ofsuch medications should beconsidered a secondary aid intreatment of an out-of-controlimmune system. The primarytreatment should be the elimi-nation of the irritant to the GItract, in this case dairy andgluten, while supporting thecompetency of the digestivecapacity.
A large portion of theimmune system is affected bythe GI tract. The managementof Lyme disease is best directedat increasing the natural anti-body/antigen response, theadaptive immune system, whilepreventing an out-of-controlinflammatory T cell response.Reducing a misdirectedimmune response sourced atthe GI tract improves thedirected immune response tomanagement of Lyme disease.
Case Study
Toni was a 37-year-oldtop commercial banking execu-tive with a specialty in acquisi-tions. She has a past medicalhistory of progressive jointpain, which started approxi-mately 2 years prior and wasleft untreated. The joint painswere debilitating and migratorywith associated fatigue. Shehad developed significantfatigue to where she could notget out of bed four days out ofthe week. She also had associ-ated with her illness significantmuscle pain, insomnia and cog-nitive changes.
The noticeable cognitivechanges include difficulty inthinking and concentrating,short-term memory loss, disori-entation, reversing numbers,word finding problems, anddepression. The patient alsostates that she has had feverand night sweats; swollen andtender neck lymph glands;
unexplained menstrual irregu-larity, PMS and loss of libido;stomach discomfort associatedwith bloating and daily diar-rhea; heart palpitations withsevere swollen ankles and feet;neck discomfort which includesstiffness, cracks and pain; andheadaches with a slight dizzi-ness similar to vertigo typesymptoms. Her past medicalhistory includes ongoing sinusi-tis and human herpetic viralinfections with prior increasedliver enzymes and a history ofasthma, which was triggered offby mold and pollution.
Skin problems includedmild acne on the face with longstanding history of treatmentwith doxycycline; bumps on theupper arms; increased cellulite;moderate amount of dark cir-cles under her eyes; easy bruis-ing; lackluster pale skin; sensi-tivity to bites; strong bodyorder and thick calluses on feet. She has noticed an intoleranceto milk and gluten productsassociated with nausea andsevere upper abdominal pain.
She went to several topspecialists and although someof the tests were positive forLyme disease she did not fit theexact criteria and Lyme diseasewas excluded from her diagno-sis.
She did start treatmentwith a Lyme literate physicianwho began treatment withNeurontin and Trileptal for jointand muscle pain; Trazadone forinsomnia and Claritin for sinus-es. She was to begin the antibi-otic therapy in 2 weeks withthe use of three antibiotics(Omnicef, azithromycin andminocycline) to be stepped upquickly with the inclusion ofFlagyl in two weeks. She washaving difficulty in managingthe above medication treat-ment and sought other medicaladvice.
Prior positive labs included:2009 - Elisa and Western blotIgM for positive for Bb; totalporphyrin elevated 173August 2010 - CD57 @ 20/ul ;human herpetic viruses (HHV)#1, #2, #3 and #6; D3@ 34 ;and C4a elevated at 4285.
Recent positive labs were asfollows:Infectious disease - Borreliaburgdorferi, HHV 1,2,3 and 6.Negative for typical co-infec-tions and Chlamydia pneumo-niaGastrointestinal tract - The GItract with small intestinal bac-terial overgrowth (SIBO). Largeintestine with Helicobacterpylori, yeast 2+/4+ and glutensensitivity. Immune system - The IL-6, C4aand the erythrocyte sedimenta-tion rate (ESR) was mildly ele-vated. The fibrinogen, CCPantibodies and vascularendothelial growth factor werenormal, CD57 @ 16/ul. Coagulation profile -Plasminogen activator inhibitortype I (PAI-1) gene heterozy
“LD Management...pg 10”
Public HealthAlert
The PHA is committed to research-ing and investigating Lyme Diseaseand other chronic illnesses in theUnited States. We have joined ourforces with local and nationwidesupport group leaders. These groupsinclude the chronic illnesses ofMultiple Sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’sDisease (ALS), Lupus, ChronicFatigue, Fibromyalgia, HeartDisease, Cancer and various otherillnesses of unknown origins.
PHA seeks to bring informationand awareness about these illnessesto the public’s attention. We seek tomake sure that anyone strugglingwith these diseases has proper sup-port emotionally, physically, spiritu-ally and medically.
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Lyme Disease Management:Immune Health Part 3
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community. This large-scaletreatment-denial effort haslargely been implemented by agroup of doctors of the so-called “Steere camp philoso-phy” of Lyme disease. Thisgroup is named after AllenSteere, who headed the initialinvestigation into the cause ofLyme disease while at YaleUniversity, shortly after gradu-ating from the CDC's elitebiowarfare defense group, theEIS. Yale itself is an influentialdefense contractor that hasworked hand-in-glove with thenearby Plum Island biowarfarelab.
There is a strange andtelling history behind the rag-ing controversy over providingLyme victims with antibiotics.Steere's group at Yale at firstclaimed that antibiotics wereuseless against the bacterium,in spite of the evidence pre-sented to him by doctors whowere making significantprogress treating some symp-toms of Lyme disease withthem.
However, when it couldno longer be denied that dis-ease symptoms could respondto treatment with appropriateantibiotics (as other doctorsaround him had shown),Steere's group inexplicablydeclared that antibiotics wereextremely effective against thedisease -so effective that sever-al days or weeks of antibioticswere all that was needed to killa cyst-forming organism thatcould quickly spread through
the bloodstream to every organin the body, including the brain,where blood flow is low. Theinitial, strident denial of theeffectiveness of antibiotics atall, and the subsequent claimsof the near-miraculouseffectiveness of short-term antibiotics have acommon theme: Bothare rationales for deny-ing treatment with thelong-term antibioticregimens that are oftenrequired to bring Lymevictims back to somesemblance of a normallife.
Steere-campdoctors cynically invent-ed a syndrome called"post-Lyme syndrome"to allow them to writeoff patients whoremained ill after short-term care rather thanadmit an ongoing infec-tion their simplistictreatment had failed tokill.
The Steere-campresearchers' denial ofthe Lyme bacterium'sability to persist,despite aggressiveantibiotic treatment,has created a cata-strophically destructiverift in the medical communitythat has caused hundreds ofthousands of patients to sufferand many doctors to lose theirpractices.
In recent months, arti-cles have been published in
various journals revealing thattreatment guidelines by theInfectious Diseases Society ofAmerica (IDSA), despitepompous posturing to the con-trary, are based mostly on
nothing but opinion, and canbe more fatal than treatmentsadministered outside of theguidelines.
Attorney RichardWolfram has documented thegrowing influence of treatment
guidelines over doctors whotreat Lyme disease. QuotingWolfram:
"Physicians who offerlonger term treatmentapproaches run the risk of los-
ing hospital privileges,being denied malprac-tice insurance or hav-ing to pay higher ratesfor this insurance,being terminatedfrom insurance net-works, and facing pro-fessional misconductactions."
The AttorneyGeneral ofConnecticut investi-gated specifically theIDSA's treatmentguidelines for Lymedisease and found theprocess by which theywere drafted to beriddled with conflictsof interest and biasedselection criteria -something Lyme vic-tims have known foryears.
In spite of theirobvious flaws anddeadly impact, theIDSA's treatmentguidelines have beendrafted and imple-mented with the help
of the CDC and its biowarfareunit, the Epidemic IntelligenceService. They have been veryeffective at preventing desper-ately ill patients from gettingantibiotic therapy by providinga tobacco-science rationale for
insurance companies to denyexpensive treatment coverageand for allowing state medicalboards to put doctors whotreat against the guidelines outof business. (These medicalboards are relying on false tickinfection-rate data by state epi-demiologists, which are, inturn, dominated by EIS gradu-ates. )
This behavior has result-ed in a tragic state for Lymesufferers. Quoting RichardWolfram, again:
"…in the case of long-term treatment of Lyme dis-ease, complainants estimatefewer than 150 physicians inthe United States are willing toendure the pressures from theIDSA and from insurance com-panies (by their refusal to coverlong-term antibiotic treat-ment). This number is downconsiderably from previous lev-els."
The CDC's extensive anddestructive involvement in pre-venting patients who fall victimto the Lyme bacterium fromgetting treatment brings tomind the CDC's other effort toprevent patients getting treat-ment from a bacterial infec-tion-the infamous TuskegeeExperiment. It was this experi-ment in which unwitting blackmen were systematicallydenied treatment for syphilisinfections over a period ofdecades, so that the "naturalcourse" of the disease could bemonitored through the
“Tuskegee 2” ...cont’d pg 5
“Tuskegee Phase 2”...cont’d from pg 1
"So now we have… a pan-demic fueled by politicalmotives coupled with aconsummate disregardfor public health, and apandemic which, whenthe sources, motives, andactions that led to the …pandemic come to light,will be incomprehensiblein its amorality and fool-ishness."
-Medical doctor(personally requested anonymi-ty, for fear of reprisal)
by Joan Vetter
"We the jury find thedefendant, Mary ElizabethForsythe, guilty on all counts."The words brought an end toMary's life on the fast track ofworldly success and sent her toprison, where she learned thedifficult but glorious lessons oftrue transformation.
Growing up in ruralwestern Kentucky, Marydreamt of a life of glamour andsuccess in a big city. With thenatural-born instincts of anentrepreneur, Mary workedtoward accumulating wealthfirst by selling homemadelemonade, and then by making
her first stock market purchaseat age 13. By the time shegraduated college with a phar-macy degree and settled inDallas, Texas, Mary was on herway to fulfilling her dream.Soon, she owned her own drugstore and applied to become agovernment-approved distribu-tor of AZT for AIDS patients.
Following an audit bythe Texas Department ofHealth and Human Resources,Mary's pharmacy fell underclose scrutiny. As Mary realizedthe seriousness of the investi-gation, she figured she couldsimply write the government acheck to cover the inventorydiscrepancy. Little did sheknow her life was about to beturned upside down. Afterbeing found guilty by a jury,she was sentenced to five yearsat a women's prison in Texas. Her entire outlook began tochange as her pride and self-confidence began to break andshe sincerely requested God'shelp.
One day Mary wascalled to the visitation areawhere a stranger named Garyasked her, "Do you want toreceive the baptism of the HolySpirit?" She had never heard
of that, but she rememberedasking for God's help, so sheanswered, "Yes." Mary did notunderstand what happenednext. As Gary gently touchedher forehead, she fell to theground in a loving and peacefulmanifestation of the HolySpirit's presence.
After this amazingencounter, the Holy Spiritbegan to teach her how to liveby the Word of God. Her first"class" was "forgiveness andblessing." He led her to forgive
and bless the judge, the juryand all the people who prose-cuted her. Mary acknowledges,"I prayed for them until theattitude of my heart matchedthe words of my mouth, until Igenuinely felt forgiveness andcompassion for them and trulywanted the Lord to bless theirlives."
She endured intensehumiliation and adversitybehind bars, but her spirit grewstrong as she witnessedwomen come to the Lord,
receive emotional and physicalhealings, and grow in Christ’slikeness. She also found free-dom in her heart and learnedto develop an intimate relation-ship with the Holy Spirit.
After serving five yearsin prison, she is now presidentof Kingdom Living Ministriesand desires to advance God'sKingdom everywhere she goes.
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A Rose to Remember
No, it isn't just a rose,This souvenir I keep,
It once was vibrant, like our love,Anointed with mystique.
Its beauty, heightened by the handThat gave this gift to me,
A hand that also gave a heartFrom which I'm never free.
A throbbing pulse of feelingGoes through me when I touch,This old, de-petaled faded rose,
I love so very much.
Waiting
The saddest part of any life,When living with another,
Is just to sit, unrecognized,And wait to be discovered.
One glance, one look, that clearly says,I know you're in the room,
Some spark, delineating you,From status of a broom!
I guess I'll wait, I see no signOf stardom on this stage,
Hope springs eternal, so they say,So, HOPE, let's turn the page!
Poetry Corner
Nawanna Rodgers-Gazin is a talentedartist who worked for many years as head ofthe Graphic Arts Department at William RaineyHarper College in Palatine, Illinois. She retiredin 1986 and moved to Arizona.
After her retirement, Nawanna designeda line of greeting cards and homemade jewelryand sold her wares at craft shows for twentyyears. She has enjoyed writing poetry, playingthe piano and singing professionally since shewas very young.
At age 88, she is still a wife, mother andactive homemaker, who prepares all meals anddoes her own housekeeping. Contact:[email protected].
Finding Freedom Behind the Bars
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Tuskegee Phase 2... cont’d from pg 3patients' deaths and post-mortem examinations.
"Who could imagine the gov-ernment, all the way up to theSurgeon General of the UnitedStates, deliberately allowing agroup of its citizens to die froma terrible disease for the sakeof an ill-conceived experi-ment?"
--Commentary on theTuskegee Experiment
In addition to the simi-larities in treatment denial (thecurrent phase of the experi-ment being a more sophisticat-ed and global program usingthe medical system as a wholethrough enforcement of fraud-ulent treatment guidelines),the similarities between thespirochete that causes syphilisand the spirochete that causesLyme disease (borrelia organ-isms are a type of spirochete)reinforce this association. AsLyme "expert" Allen Steeresummarized: "Lyme disease islike syphilis in its multisysteminvolvement, occurrence instages, and mimicry of otherdiseases."
"… the Lyme disease spiro-chete, Borrelia burgdorferi, isamazingly similar to the spiro-chete, Treponema pallidum,that causes syphilis."
--Stephen F. Porcella; Journalof Clinical Investigation.March 15, 2001.
One hypothesis is thatthe CDC has used the Steere-camp philosophy to continue anew type of TuskegeeExperiment under the cover ofbiological warfare researchthrough its secretive EISbranch, using deliberately inef-fective treatment guidelinesput out by the IDSA instead ofgeographical isolation to pre-vent victims from getting effec-tive antibiotic treatment.(Curiously, the Lyme Epidemicand associated treatment-denial rationales began ramp-ing up just as the first phase ofthe Tuskegee Experiment wasbeing ramped down. )
"Our practice is restricted byhigher authorities, like theCDC."--Dr. Muddasar Chaudry, ontreating Lyme patients
Consistent with thishypothesis is the fact that theauthors of the justifiablymaligned treatment guidelinesare disproportionately populat-ed by biowarfare researchers.Notably, the lead author of theIDSA Lyme disease treatment
guidelines, Dr. Gary Wormser,also lectures as a biowarfareexpert.
Also of interest is thedegree to which "science" hasbeen twisted to support theSteere-camp positions thathave been institutionalized inthe IDSA guidelines. Over theyears, this group has invented anon-existent Lyme virus and anon-existent species of Ixodidtick to justify the denial ofantibiotics to unfortunate Lymevictims. (They receive millionsof dollars of government grantsto search for an elusive auto-immune mechanism whichwould explain chronic Lymedisease symptoms, independ-ent of a well-documented,ongoing infection.)
Just as the Phase ITuskegee Experiment was con-ducted under the pretext ofdeveloping treatments and vac-cines, this Phase II LymeEpidemic is being conductedunder the same pretext.
In other words, vaccinepolitics. Use the public asguinea pigs to test treatmentsfor a created disease that oneday might be used against realor declared enemies - or per-haps be used by a real enemyagainst us. Since Steere'sdefense-contractor employerultimately developed andlicensed the first vaccineagainst the disease (Phase IIIvaccine trials were personallyled by Steere, and his lab did allthe testing during the trials),and Steere created the ideolo-gy that was useful for develop-ing this vaccine (it allowed himand his employer to map outthe immune response to thedisease in untreated controlswho were denied antibioticsunder one guise or another, inwhat Steere referred to as a"natural experiment" in onepublication ), vaccine politicsgo a long way toward explain-ing the disaster currentlybefalling the public.
"As of 2007, not a single U.S.government researcher hadbeen prosecuted for humanexperimentation, and many ofthe victims of U.S. governmentexperiments have not receivedcompensation, or in manycases, acknowledgment ofwhat was done to them."
-Wikipedia.org (Unethicalhuman experimentation in theUnited States)
Vaccine politics has aflip side: funneling profits tothe pharmaceutical industry.Indeed, in addition to using theepidemic as a vaccine develop-ment vehicle, the CDC/Steere-camp philosophy can be seen
as a marketing methodology tomake Lyme vaccines cost-effec-tive. A paper published in 1999by CDC authors summarizedhow the cost-effectiveness ofthe vaccine could be improved(increasing "the cost per caseaverted") by increasing theprobability of contracting Lymedisease:
"Since few communitieshave average annual incidencesof Lyme disease >0.005, eco-nomic benefits will be greatestwhen vaccination is used onthe basis of individual risk,specifically, in persons whoseprobability of contracting Lymedisease is >0.01."
Increasing the probabili-ty of persons contracting Lymedisease and decreasing theprobability that they will beaccurately diagnosed and effec-tively treated are not onlyparameters in the cost-benefitmodel presented in this shock-ing CDC paper. They appear tobe the central explanatory prin-ciple behind the disastrouspolicies of the Steere-camp ofLyme disease.
Letting the epidemicrage out of control creates anever-increasing market for thenext vaccine. Perhaps these tri-als will also be overseen by aCDC biowarfare expert.
So here we are.Benefiting on one end is thebiowarfare establishment.Waiting to cash in on the otherend is the pharma industry(which covertly runs thebiowarfare industry). Stuck inthe middle is an unwitting -and untreated - public thatstands to gain nothing at all.
I don't buy being yetanother guinea pig for thehealth and military establish-ment. And neither should you.
It's time the pharma-ceuticals companies and theCDC were held accountable forexperimenting on the public.An investigation is certainlydue. But who should conductthe investigation?
As The Lancet recentlyreported, in the wake of thelatest revelations on the natureof the syphilis experimentationin the U.S. and Guatemala,'President Obama asked thePresidential Commission forthe Study of Bioethical Issuesto undertake a "thoroughreview of human subjects' pro-tection to determine if Federalregulations and internationalstandards adequately guard thehealth and well being of partici-pants in scientific studies sup-ported by the Federal govern-ment."'
President Obama had toform an independentPresidential Commission toinvestigate the latest Phase I
Tuskegee revelations becausethe government-sanctionedwatchdog agency - the Instituteof Medicine -- was too involvedin the research to investigateitself!
Such an independentinvestigation on human experi-mentation with the Lyme dis-ease spirochete is certainlywarranted. Why? Because thevery essence of the establish-ment itself-the CDC and thebiowarfare community-is con-ducting this newest version ofunethical research.
Since the CDC and NIHare obviously involved in coor-dinating the experimentation inPhase II of the TuskegeeExperiment, through upholdingthe treatment guidelines (ormore appropriately: "treat-ment-denial guidelines"), weneed to insist on an independ-ent investigation into Lyme dis-ease treatment-denial.
"If this were fiction, thestudy's investigators wouldhave been the archetypal madscientists. But the study wasconducted by no less presti-gious a group than the UnitedStates Public Health Serviceand funded by the NationalInstitutes of Health (NIH), aspart of a program to test theeffectiveness of penicillin fordisease prevention.'" --Nellie Bristol, Commentaryon Tuskegee Experimentation
As a result of the use oftreatment guidelines to denytreatment, America's mostegregious example of medicalmalpractice through treatment-denial is now an everyday reali-ty, conducted on a grand scale,and run with the complicity ofthe CDC and other public agen-cies, which are exploiting thepublic instead of protectingthem.
While governmentspokesmen deny the possibilityof ongoing Tuskegee experi-mentation, the reality is quitedifferent.
NIH Director FrancisCollins has recently stated:"I want to emphasise thattoday, the regulations that gov-ern research funded by theUnited States government,whether conducted domestical-ly or internationally, wouldabsolutely prohibit this type ofstudy."
Continuing, she stated "Today, researchers must fullyexplain the risks associatedwith their study to all researchparticipants, and participantsmust indicate their informedconsent."
Unfortunately, it doesn'twork that way. As long as you
create treatment guidelines tojustify your experimentation,and as long as you have themoney and influence toenforce them and build afraudulent science base to cre-ate a manufactured scientificconsensus to justify them-which the pharmaceuticalsindustry has, you can conductexperiments on an internation-al basis with complete immuni-ty.
This is what is happen-ing. The Tuskegee Experimenthas been institutionalized.
As a result, the newestversion of the TuskegeeExperiment is not only far morewidespread than Phase I, but italso is far more insidious,because it takes place throughthe creation and enforcementof ghost-written treatmentguidelines that are rapidlybecoming the standard way bywhich "Big Pharma" legislatesprofits through the medical sys-tem and the government.
I believe 80 years ofTuskegee experimentation isenough! We need to investi-gate the Lyme treatment-denialscenario. But we also need toinvestigate the mechanismsused to carry it out.
There are millions ofsick Lyme patients in desperateneed of antibiotics that theirdoctors can't give thembecause of the CDC's policiesregarding pharma's treatmentguidelines.
But there is more atstake. The methodology usedto run this state-sanctionedexperiment in treatment-denialfor Lyme patients could beused in the "non-treatment" ofother diseases-potentially cre-ating billions of future victims.
We desperately need tounderstand how treatmentguidelines are being createdand enforced by the pharma-ceuticals industry with thecomplicity of public healthagencies, to the detriment ofpublic health. We also needlaws to protect us so that thisinsidious, covert experimenta-tion is never perpetrated onthe American public again.
phaaphaa[Editor’s Note: Due to theextensive documentation inthis article, there was notenough space to print the 7pages, single spaced, 10 pointfont references. Please go tothe PHA website for the textversion of this article whichwill include the full documen-tation and citations for theresearch in this article.]
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MEDICAL PERSPECTIVES
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Share Their Healing StrategiesGinger Savely, DNP: Part 3
by Connie StrasheimAvailable fromwww.LymeBook.com or by call-ing (530) 573-0190
Chapter 4: Ginger Savely, DNPPart 3 of 3
About this article:The following is an
excerpt from the book, InsightsInto Lyme Disease Treatment:13 Lyme-Literate Health CarePractitioners Share TheirHealing Strategies, by ConnieStrasheim. The book is 443pages and retails for $39.95; itis available from BioMedPublishing Group by calling530.573.0190 or online atwww.LymeBook.com. The bookis based on interviews with 13
Lyme-Literate health care prac-titioners. Each doctor is giventheir own chapter in which toexplain their Lyme diseasetreatments. This chapter focus-es on the treatments of GingerSavely, DNP, of San Francisco,CA. Note: This book excerpt hasbeen broken up into multipleissues of Public Health Alertdue to space constraints, so besure to visit the PHA website toread the first two installments! (continued from previous issueof PHA)…
Patient and PractitionerChallenges and Roadblocks toHealing
One of my greatestchallenges as a practitioner isgetting my patients to keepplugging away at their treat-ments, because they get veryfrustrated and want to give up.It's really hard, because whenthey don't see any change intheir symptom picture, it's as ifthey can't "see the forest forthe trees." If I can help them toget through their treatments,they are often then able tolook back and realize that theyare getting better, but in gener-al, it's very hard for them to"hang in there." Providing reas-surance is one of the best
things that practitioners can dofor Lyme disease patients, how-ever, and a great majority oftheir job involves being cheer-leaders or psychologists.
Another challenge that Ihave is coming up with individ-ualized treatment plans for mypatients, because they are allso different and I never knowwhat's going to work for them.For instance, I have some peo-ple for whom artemisininmakes all the difference in theworld, and other people forwhom it doesn't do a thing.There is so much that we aspractitioners don't know abouttreating Lyme disease. Furthercomplicating things is the factthat there are so many differ-ent strains of Borrelia andother infections going aroundthat we don't know about,which means that we don'tnecessarily know how or whatwe are treating.
Patients don't alwaysunderstand this, either.Occasionally, they will get reallyangry with me because theythink that a treatment thatworked for another personshould have worked for them,and it didn't. Lyme sufferers areconstantly talking to oneanother and giving advice overthe Internet, too. They are des-
perate and are constantly com-ing in to my office and tellingme things like, "I heard on theInternet that this is the bestmethod for treating Lyme, so Iwant you to do this treatment."This can sometimes complicatethings because what worksbest for one person doesn'talways work best for another.
So when patients writeme angry letters and say thingslike, "You withheld this treat-ment from me. It would havehelped me!" I want to tell themthat they might be the one inmillion that that particulartreatment would have helped.Interestingly enough, some ofthese people are intelligent andwell-educated, and they do endup finding things that work bet-ter for them than antibiotics.Problem is, they end up accus-ing me of being incompetent,even though, as a health careprovider, I am making decisionsbased on statistics all of thetime. I have to first givepatients the treatment thatworks the best for the majority.I can't know whether the nextperson that I am treating isgoing to be part of the minorityof people for whom a treat-ment isn't going to work, butsome people get angry overthis issue, anyway. Of course,
when people are sick, theyaren't at their best.
Really, though, it's sohard treating Lyme disease! It'sno wonder that most doctorsdon't want to touch this dis-ease with a ten-foot pole. It's avery iffy, wishy-washy disease,and most doctors are morecomfortable with conditionsthat they know exactly how totreat, and in fact, the treat-ment approach to other mal-adies is often more standard-ized. I'm always telling nursepractitioners at national confer-ences that we (nurse practi-tioners) are actually the perfecttype of practitioner for treatingLyme because our style of tak-ing care of people is muchmore individualized and holisticthan that of physicians'. It's agood area for us. We are morecomfortable with this type ofthing, whereas medical doctorstend to dislike situations wherethey are not sure what's goingon.
If I knew of a remedythat was the "key" to every-one's healing, then yes, I wouldbe shouting about it from therooftops. This is the thing thatdrives me so crazy, though.Every time I think that I'vefound something that is "it" for
“Savely”...cont’d pg 8
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MEDICAL PERSPECTIVES
everyone, I find patients forwhom it doesn't work.
For example, I some-times recommend the mush-room Coriolus to my patients,because I notice that it raisesCD-57 levels like crazy. Some ofmy patients take it and say, "Ifeel so much better on this!",whereas it doesn't seem tohelp others at all. It's alwaysinteresting how people responddifferently to things. As anoth-er example, I have patientswho use an herbal treatmentcalled burbur, and some willswear that it ameliorates theirHerxheimer reactions, whileothers claim that it doesn't doanything to improve theirsymptoms. For those that ithelps, I don't know how muchof it is the placebo effect, butI'm never going to tell peoplenot to try something if it makesthem feel better. I have a fewthings that I would always say"No" to, such as intravenoushydrogen peroxide, but for themost part, if patients ask,"Should I try this?" I will tellthem, "Sure, go ahead, trywhatever works."
I find that my patientsalmost always respond posi-tively to my Lyme disease treat-ments, but the question is, howmuch? For those that onlyimprove somewhat, the rea-sons are multiple. They mighthave a resistant strain of theorganism, a genetic predisposi-tion that blocks their healing,or other infections that are pri-mary in their symptom picture.As well, there may be otherunknown factors involved andwhich keep them from healingfully.
Patients often ask meabout the importance of treat-ing viral infections, and if Iwere to check viral titers onmost of my Lyme patients, Iwould find that they all havehigh titers for other infections,but I think that such infectionsare opportunistic. That is, theyare infections that show up intest results and become activebecause of Lyme disease. I thentell my patients that these willtend to go away once we treattheir Lyme.
Lyme Disease vs. ChronicFatigue Syndrome
There is some debate in thechronic fatigue world aboutwhether Lyme disease itselfmay be the primary cause ofchronic fatigue syndrome. Thequestion is very hard to answer.Sometimes, a person may havechronic mold, or another issuethat is causing their symptoms,even if Lyme is present as abackground problem.
On the other hand, Iused to be very involved in thechronic fatigue world, and atsome point, I began to realizethat CFS was caused, in manycases, by Lyme disease, and forthat reason, I became moreinvolved in treating Lyme dis-ease.
Those who present withclassic CFS symptoms such aschronic fatigue and brain fogare often the most difficult totreat. There is sometimes verylittle response to treatment inthis type of patient, so whoknows what this really means?
In the end, however, I'ma big proponent of presentingevery treatment to my patientsas though it was going to work,
even though I have colleagueswho disagree with thisapproach. They say that doingthis is akin to "pulling the woolover someone's eyes," andthink that it's better to be frankwith patients, but I look at thematter differently. I think thatpatients' healing is aided signif-icantly when they believe thatthey are going to get better. Apractitioner who says, "Do this,and you will get better" willhave patients who tend to getbetter. A practitioner who tellspatients: "You have a 50/50chance of healing" might endup discouraging them. Besides,what's the worst that can hap-pen if the person doesn't getbetter? People don't tend tocome back and scream, "Yousaid this was going to work!"So in my practice, I look mypatients in the eye and tellthem, "We're going to do thistreatment and you are going toget better." And I can do thisand say with all honesty that Ifeel they are going to get bet-ter, because most of the time,they do, and in hindsight, theywill often say, "That is the bestthing you could have said tome." People need hope, and Idon't believe in false hope. Youhave to give people hope.That's what gets them throughthis.
Patient Roadblocks to Healing
I find that my toughestpatients are those with PTSD(post-traumatic stress disor-der). There's a lot going onwith them emotionally andtheir healing is complicated.Sometimes they don't seem toget well, and I don't know howmuch of this is tied into theiremotions. All Lyme doctorshave patients that don't seemto get better, but in reality,these are few. It is unfortunate,though, because I hear about alot of negative conversation onthe Internet Lyme disease sup-port groups. People ask, "Is itworth it to treat Lyme? I haveread that people don't get bet-ter, anyway."
Are you kidding? Iwouldn't treat this if peopledidn't get better-it would becruel and unfair to take theirmoney and time! Not to men-tion depressing. The fun andwonderful part of treatingLyme disease is seeing peopleget their lives back. It's a veryexciting and powerful thing,and I think that's what keepsme doing this (fighting the reg-ulatory boards and administer-ing difficult treatments)because I get to watch mypatients come back to lifebefore my very eyes.
So people do get better.As for healing and my proto-cols, I find that those who havebeen sick for less than a yeartend to get better after about ayear. Most of my patients withchronic Lyme disease, however,need two years, at minimum,to heal, and on average, twoand a half to three years, occa-sionally a little longer. A verysmall percentage, perhaps 5%,as well as those who have beensick for twenty years or longerneed more time, sometimesfive years or more, to heal. Butthose who have been sick thatlong do get better. It just takestime.
Do Antibiotics Work?
There is a perception onthe Internet that people don'tget better with antibiotics.
It seems to me, howev-er, that the people on theInternet support groups are theones who don't get better.They get a skewed view, or per-ception of the Lyme world.Those who heal from Lyme dis-ease aren't on the Internet,because they move on withtheir lives once they get better.I often tell my patients thatInternet chat rooms are benefi-cial in some ways, but they canalso be depressing. Those whotend to linger there are thoserare people who don't get bet-ter. Some are cynical and/ordepressed, and so tend to bringothers down. They are not afair representation of thosewho heal from Lyme-perhapsthey represent a number assmall as 1% of the Lyme dis-ease population.
Again, all of us whotreat Lyme disease wouldn't doit if patients didn't get better. Imean, how depressing!Imagine treating and treatingand your patients never gettingbetter. We do this becausepeople do get better. It's unfor-tunate that those with Lymewho are just learning about thedisease and trying to findanswers on the Internet getdiscouraged by what theylearn.
It's true, though, thatthere are some people whocan't take antibiotics. Thesepeople might be "permanentHerxers." Their Herxing neverstops and so they have to findother solutions for healing.
Also, no amount oftreatment can bring peoplewith irreversible damage intheir bodies, such as those withALS, back to full health. I musttell them that yes, it is possiblethat they have Lyme disease,and maybe Lyme was the initialtrigger for their ALS, but thedamage to their bodies hasalready been done. We may beable to halt progression of thedisease temporarily, but wecan't bring them back to fullhealth.
I am, by the way, inti-mately involved with this dis-ease. I have had Lyme, as havemy two daughters and mymother. Also, my son has gesta-tional Lyme and my sister diedfrom Lyme and ALS. I havefound that those practitionerswho have had personal experi-ence with this disease are moreempathetic, and tend to "getit" more than those whohaven't-and it turns out thatmost Lyme doctors or theirfamily members have in factdealt with Lyme disease them-selves. They may not admit it,but most of them have. That iswhy they are so ahead of thecurve of conventional medicalknowledge.
Treating Relapses with Dr.Burrascano's Pulse Protocol
Every now and again,my patients will relapse after Istop their antibiotic treat-ments. If they do, I apply Dr.Burrascano's pulsing protocol,which involves pulsing antibi-otics for six to eight weeks. Ifpatients are going to relapse, itis usually six months to a yearafter stopping treatments.Whenever that happens, I hit
their infections again withanother pulse treatment, but Imust wait until they completely"crash", because Burrascano'stheory is that patients have towait until they hit rock bottombefore practitioners can "hit"them again with another pulsetreatment. They can't just havebeginning signs of returningsymptoms, or else the protocolwon't work well; they mustcrash entirely. After mypatients have gone into remis-sion, if they relapse, I usuallyhave to do only one pulse, andoccasionally, two. Dr.Burrascano says that three isthe maximum number of pulsetreatments that are usuallyrequired for patients to getcompletely well and I havenever had to do more than twoof these pulses, because afterthat, I find that my patients areabsolutely better.
Profiling the Person that Healsfrom Lyme Disease
Smokers will never getbetter. It's amazing how manyLyme sufferers drink, smokeand do drugs. When mypatients do things that teardown their immune systems,they don't tend to heal. Thosewho do what it takes, eat theright food, adhere to treat-ments and so on, are the oneswho get better.
Also, I have consistentlyseen that people who are ableto get rid of their anger heal.Those who are eaten up withanger and resentment, as wellas those who get depressedand ask questions like, "Whyme?" don't tend to heal. Thosethat have a calmer, less fatalis-tic perspective and say thingslike, "I know this happened fora reason. I may not know thatreason, but I accept it", tend todo better. I have patients whoare sick as dogs, but they main-tain their sense of humanityand humor. They crack jokesand they laugh. They are theones who heal. People gothrough grieving stages whenthey first get sick, and it's notuntil they finally arrive at aplace of acceptance of their ill-ness that they really start toheal. Those who are angry,those who are kicking, fightingand screaming, and living their
lives as though the illness was-n't there, tend to be hinderedin their healing. They pushthrough their activities andthink, "By golly, this isn't goingto get me down". They contin-ue to work full time and ignoretheir symptoms, but theirsymptoms don't go away. It'ssurprising how many peoplejust keep pushing themselves intheir daily activities, and yetthey are sicker than dogs. Itblows my mind. It's like theyare in denial and running awayfrom the disease. Teenagersare very much this way. Theyrefuse to let it stop them.Those who accept their newsituation, and say, "Okay, this isthe new me. What can I do inthis situation?" get better.Once patients are able to relaxand accept their illness, thenthey start to heal.
Stress Reduction and BehaviorModification
Western medicine isbeginning to realize that it isn'tpossible to separate the mindfrom the body in the healingprocess. People have oftenbeen told that their illness is allin their head, and in a way, itis! Tick-borne diseases infectthe brain and cause malfunc-tion in the limbic system, a partof the brain that receives allkinds of inputs from the exter-nal world (emotional, physicaland otherwise) and "translates"them into body functions. Tosay that stress reduction andbehavior modification will helppatients' physical conditiondoes not mean that part oftheir problem is psychosomat-ic. It means that their limbicsystem is highly sensitive tostress, and, as is the case withmany physical problems, willhave a better chance of healingitself when the burdens ofstress are removed from it.
Strategies for Stress ReductionBiofeedback
This therapy teachesthose with Lyme to identifywhen and where their bodiesare reacting to stress and howto let go of that stress. Mentalhealth provider networks haveinformation on practitioners
“Savely”...cont’d pg 10
“Savely” ...cont’d from pg 6
Ginger Savely, DNP
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Contact: Earis Corman13904 F Rio Hondo Circle
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gous for the 4G/5G. This signifies a decrease
in fibrinolytic activity leading topersistent clot formation whichcould be associated withincreased difficulty in breakingdown Lyme's biofilm.Intermittent porphyuria whenphysiologically stressed
Endocrine system - T3(total) 77 ng/dl: T3 (reverse)52.5 ng/dl; cortisol saliva test(showing an 18 hour cyclic pat-tern -6am through 12am) wasbelow the lower limits of nor-mal throughout the whole day;estrogen levels were sufficientfor the luteal phase of the cycleyet progesterone deficiencylevels were suggestive ofanovulatory menstrual cycles.
General working diagnosis iscomposed of:
1. Infectious disease2. GI dysbiosis with inflamma-tion and leaky gut syndromeresulting in over-stimulation ofthe Th1/Th17 response withover-production of pro-inflam-matory cytokines3. Difficulties with hepatic andcellular detoxification4. Biotoxin histocompatability5. Genetically impaired fibrinor clot break down, whichincreased difficulty with theLyme biofilm breakdown6. Hormonal imbalance 7. Euthyroid sick syndrome,poor metabolism of T4 toT3(active) secondary to inflam-mation8. Adrenal fatigue resultingfrom a chronic inflammatorystate9. Dysregulation of sex hor-mones, including estrogen,
testosterone and progesterone.
The approach to such acomplicated patient is to beginwith correcting the GI tract atthe same time as balancing outthe hormones. The GI tract hadseveral variables which neededto be addressed. Gluten sensi-tivity treatment would be tostop all gluten products includ-ing food and personal hygieneproducts.
Toni has a propensityfor high yeast growth in thelarge intestine, Candida albi-cans. This factor needs to bebrought under control prior tostarting any antibiotics. Ifignored, a bloom of theCandida with its subsequenttoxic release would confuse theinfectious profile. Treatmentwith nystatin, diet change, andprobiotics were institutedimmediately. Zinc carnosinewas used to eliminate H. pylori.There is significant research outof Japan showing that this is aneffective method without caus-ing additional imbalance of theGI flora.
Properly balancing thehormones increased herresilience and management ofimmunological stress. Theimmune system was balancedby first addressing the cortisollevels. Hydrocortisone was uti-lized to maintain physiologiclevels of cortisol throughoutthe day. After one week ofsupplementing hydrocortisone,Cytomel, T3 active, was alsointroduced taking care that thepatient was not symptomatic ofthe T3 active excess in view ofpossible low cortisol levels. Thehormonal balancing helped to
improve her fatigue in conjunc-tion with the length and qualityof sleep.
The pain and depres-sion medications, Neurontinand Trazadone, were transi-tioned to Lyrica and a serotoninbased SSRI, Zoloft. 5-HTP wasadded to help increase theserotonin production. Thedepression resolved, and themuscle and joint pain started tolessen shortly thereafter.
After the GI tract wasstaged for control of an exacer-bation of a possible fungalovergrowth, antibiotics wereintroduced. She had significantdifficulty with the antibioticswhich required them to beslowly introduced. This wasaccomplished over a 2.5 monthprogression until tolerating atherapeutic daily intake ofantibiotics, Azithromycin andminocycline. With the antibi-otics in place and the GI tractand hormonal system support-ed it was time to add thefibrolytic, lumbrokinase, tostart breaking down any fibrinencasement protecting the Bb.
During this timemetronidazole, Flagyl, wasintroduced. After one monthof using metronidazole shedeveloped thrush, nausea andvomiting, and ankle swelling.The liver enzymes started toelevate slightly out of normalrange. The metronidazole wasdiscontinued and her symp-toms improved. Focus wasdirected towards improving herphase 1 and 2 liver detoxifica-tion and elimination whilemaintaining proper GI balance.Once accomplished, the Flagylwas reintroduced without any
problem.After four months she
was taking daily walks andsaunas with drinking plenty ofwater. The swelling in the legswere gone. The pain medica-tion was reduced as the dis-comfort subsided. Muscleweakness improved. Cognitiveimprovements continued with"feeling better to almost beingback to "herself".
She had continuedimprovement of the muscleand joint pain yet the fatigueremained a continued problem.Using a scale of 1 to 10, with10 representing the mostsevere, joint pain, dental pain,and muscle pain completelyresolved from a 9 to a 3 out of10. The antibiotics were thenpulsed and she continued toimprove.
The swelling resolvedand the fatigue had improvedfrom a score of 9 to a 5 out of10. She only felt a little achywith excess activity. The puls-ing the antibiotics revealed anassociated cyclical pattern ofincreased cognitive difficultieswould worsen to an 8 out of 10with diarrhea, and without theantibiotics, cognitive difficultiesimproved to a 3 out 10 withoutdiarrhea. The antibiotics werediscontinued. The antibioticsleveled the playing field. It wastime to move from the antibi-otics to a more naturopathicregimen.
The antibiotics weretransitioned to an herbal andhomeopathic program whilecontinuing to maintain GI bal-ance and immune modulation.
Currently, the patient isoff all pain medications; she is
exercising to the level of notcausing fatigue; the cognitivechanges have improved, hermenstrual cycles have returnedto normal w/o any PMS symp-toms and no GI issues. Sheremains on primarily a naturo-pathic regimen and is improv-ing every day, without any GIproblems. The only symptomsare a little fatigue at the end ofthe day, which she contributesto spending 60% of her day inhelping her elderly parentsrelocate to their new home.The fatigue continuallyimproves.
The success in the Lymetreatment for Toni was basedon optimizing the immune sys-tem, balancing the major hor-mones and removing inflam-mation in the GI tract. The GItract is the most forgotten yetmost influential in absorptionof nutrients, improvement ofimmune response and thepathway to health.
For any further informa-tion please visit our websitepage on Lyme disease:http://www.alternativemedi-cinehealthcare.com/immune-health/lyme-disease. Peter J.Muran, MD, practicesIntegrative Medicine in San LuisObispo, CA, specializing inimmune conditions such asLyme disease.
www.longevityhealthcare.comTel: (888) 315-4777
phaaphaa
Lyme Disease Management...cont’d from pg 2
and places where this type oftherapy can be done.
Cognitive Behavior TherapyThis therapy helps those
with Lyme to identify the unre-alistic thought patterns thatcause them stress and anxietyand to adopt new mind setsthat enable them to be easieron themselves. It can alsoteach them to set limits, let goof guilt, blaming and the needto be in control, as well as howto accentuate the positiveaspects of their lives, and soon. Patients can call therapistsin their insurance plan to see ifany of them specialize in thistype of therapy.
HumorIt has been said that
laughter is the best medicine.It's good for those with Lyme tosurround themselves with light-hearted people, to find humorin their current situation and tonot take themselves or their ill-nesses too seriously. It's alsobeneficial for patients to watchfunny TV shows or movies,while avoiding the "heavy"ones.
Lifestyle AdjustmentsThose with Lyme should
analyze their life situation andlist all of the things in theirlives that are causing themstress, and then decide to elim-inate as many of these thingsas possible. If they can reducetheir work schedule to part-time, for example, this can bebeneficial, as can quitting theirjob if they are financially ableto (See below).
Financial SupportFor many people with
Lyme, financial worries are atthe top of their list of stressors.It can be beneficial for them tofile for disability paymentsthrough their employer's dis-ability insurance program (ifthe employer has one) or filefor disability benefits under theSocial Security DisabilityIncome program (SSDI). TheSSDI process is difficult andthere are many roadblocks. Ihighly recommend that thosewith Lyme enlist the help of adisability counselor if theydecide to apply for this income.The standard fee charged bydisability lawyers is 25% ofwhat the client wins in backpay, with a maximum fee of$5,300. This is the standard feefor all disability lawyers andcounselors and is regulated bythe Social SecurityAdministration. There is no feecharged to clients if they don'twin their case, except for asmall service fee because thelawyers work on a contingencybasis.
Balancing Rest and PhysicalConditioning
People with Lyme areoften perplexed because theyfeel as though they're gettingtwo opposite messages fromtheir health care provider: rest,but get up and move! The factis, they need to find a balancebetween both. Too much restcan lead to de-conditioning ofthe body, which will makethem feel even weaker, as wellas more tired and depressed.Too much activity, however,
will lead to an exacerbation oftheir symptoms and longerrecovery time. Ideally, thosewith Lyme should try to dosome form of mild to moderateexercise every day. Some Lymedisease sufferers who are read-ing this might be thinking, "Ibarely have enough energy toget through the day, let aloneexercise!" The idea is to dodaily reconditioning, but start-ing off slow and easy, and pro-gressing so gradually that theynever become frustrated orexhausted. They should neverexercise aerobically, butresearch has shown that thosewith Lyme improve by doingother forms of mild to moder-ate exercise.
Activities That People withLyme Should Do
1. Every day, take ahalf-hour (no more!) nap in theafternoon. More than a half -hour leads to grogginess, dueto the body coming out of adeeper sleep.
2. Pay attention to thebody! Learn to recognize signsof fatigue and then get somerest before becoming drop-dead tired.
3. Plan a regular timeevery day to do "movementtherapy". (I don't use the "E"word!). People should do thiseven if they can only manage afew stretches, and they shouldmake it a habit. Also, it's impor-tant that they keep their expec-tations low, and forget themotto, "No pain, no gain!"They should start their firstweek of "movement therapy"with a very low goal in mind
(i.e.; walking to the mailboxand back). It's also beneficial todo some mild stretching beforethe "movement therapy", aswell as afterwards. Beginningyoga is great for those withLyme, but they shouldn't signup for a challenging class! Itaught myself to do yoga withRichard Hittleman's, Yoga 28-Day Exercise Plan. Swimming isalso an ideal, gentle exercise totry.
Other activities thatthose with Lyme can do fortheir daily "movement therapy"include walking, Pilates, work-ing with light hand weights,and cycling on flat surfaces at aslow to moderate pace. Theyshould avoid running, jogging,aerobic classes, heavy weights,or any sport that increases theheart rate.
What Friends and FamilyMembers Can Do to Help theSick
While it's important forloved ones to be there for sickfriends and/or family members,it's also important for caretak-ers to be supported becauseit's really hard to be a parent orspouse of someone who hasLyme disease. They suffer, too.For instance, one thing that'shard about taking care of Lymepatients is that they are so sen-sitive to everything. You wantto hug your loved ones withLyme, but they are so hyper-sensitive that it hurts for themto receive a hug or be touched.
Also, it would help ifloved ones could try to learn asmuch as they can about Lymedisease, so that they know
what their sick family membersare going through. Because thebiggest problem with this dis-ease, unlike any other illnesssuch as cancer, for instance, isthat people wonder, even if it'sjust a little, if the Lyme suffereris really sick. People think,"Well, c'mon, can't you justsnap out of it? Can't you justpush yourself a little?" I seerelationships break up over thisand I see dissention in families,because family members refuseto believe that there is any-thing wrong with the sick per-son. He or she just looks sonormal!
Last WordsWhile treating Lyme dis-
ease is a great challenge, forme, it's so exciting to watchpeople get their lives back.There's nothing like it.Watching the transformation ofthose who once lost it all, werein the dumps, couldn't functionand who felt like their liveswere over, is wonderful andwhat makes my job worth thesacrifice.
How to Contact Ginger Savely,DNPGinger Savely, DNPEmail: [email protected]
Note: This book excerpt has beenbroken up into multiple issues ofPublic Health Alert due to space con-straints, so be sure to visit the PHAwebsite to read the first two install-ments! Also, visitwww.LymeBook.com to read anotherfree chapter from the book "InsightsInto Lyme Disease Treatment: 13Lyme Literate Health CarePractitioners Share Their HealingStrategies."
“Savely”...cont’d from pg 8
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