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Cure
For Lyme Disease
Lyme Disease: Controversy
Over Cure?
Medical experts are divided
on how to treat Lyme disease (LD) patients. In
order to find a cure, most people afflicted with the disease prefer to
seek out as much information as they can. Since there are few
guaranteed effective answers coming from the medical community,
patients must advocate for themselves to find a cure. Aside from the
confusion of choosing the right path for treatment, there is,
frequently, financial hardship. Expenditures everything from
antibiotics to herbs to body work are sudden and surprising. Even
medically-insured patients may find that they’re insurance
plans will only cover them for a minimum of treatment. Medical
insurance companies tend to align with the short-term AMA protocol,
frequently denying continued coverage for Lyme patients, even when the
primary physician recommends a longer course of antibiotics.
People suffering with symptoms in
any stage of the disease have three basic choices in treating and
finding a cure for Lyme disease:
•
The first choice is to seek help from a
conventionally-educated medical doctor, who will probably defer to the
standard protocol of thirty days of antibiotic treatment recommended by
the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Center for Disease
Control (CDC).
•
The second choice is to find a Lyme literate medical doctor
(LLMD) who is likely to have the patient follow a protocol of
antibiotics geared toward the individual’s needs. Currently,
LLMDs believe long-term use of antibiotics is necessary although they
differ about the specific amount of time and the types of antibiotics
used. Individual symptoms guide the LLMDs choices in finding an
effective and lasting cure.
•
Third, some patients opt for no antibiotics, seeking
alternative cures with an emphasis on homeopathic, dietary and vitamin
supplements and herbal remedies. Lyme sufferers may also prefer to
combine alternative therapies and pharmaceutical drugs.
Lyme Disease can be very
difficult to diagnose. Symptoms vary widely,
even the so-called “bulls-eye” rash is not
necessarily a good indicator of Lyme. Some people do not develop the
bulls-eye rash, but a different kind of skin lesion or ailment. Not all
people develop the malaise or flu-like symptoms widely associated with
LD. The list of symptoms is long and varied because the bacteria which
causes the disease affects every bodily system. Typically, the
elimination organs are invaded. These include the lungs, kidneys,
bladder, liver, skin and lymph glands. Lyme disease also affects the
cardiac system and the brain, causing arrhythmia, poor concentration,
mood swings and depression.
Symptoms don’t always develop immediately after infection;
Lyme bacteria may lie dormant. It is not yet
known how long the bacteria can remain latent, but stress seems to make
it become active. Some people who have been exposed may never develop
symptoms. Another factor making LD hard to diagnose and cure is that
negative clinical test results do not necessarily indicate that the
patient is free of Lyme or its co-infections. The bacteria can change
into two or more shapes and it appears to do so sometimes, in order to
evade detection by the body’s immune system.
The inconvenience of
difficult diagnoses is even further complicated because LD is a great
mimic of many other illnesses. LD patients are
often misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
(CFS), Epstein-Barr virus, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. Some
LLMDs estimate that as many as half of the patients who have been
diagnosed with auto-immune diseases have LD. Whether cause or
contribution, it adds to their suffering, especially when left
undetected.
Lyme disease
is caused by bacteria called spirochetes, which are pleomorphic.
They are spiral-shaped, but are capable of changing into a round ball,
then back into a spiral. LLMDs theorize that in this way the bacteria
move through the tissues and bloodstreams of the body. The
spirochetes’ pleomorphic nature tends to complicate testing
and make it even more difficult for LD sufferers to find a cure.
****
Please be aware that this information is provided to
supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended
nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL
YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A
MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other
qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with
any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © 2005 Suzanne Arthur. All rights reserved.
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