Lyme Disease is on the Rise

Since national surveillance began in 1982, the number of annual Lyme cases reported has increased nearly 25-fold and the Lyme is also spreading out geographically.

Between 1993 and 1997, 43 counties across the US had a high incidence of Lyme disease. By 2012, the number of hotspots had skyrocketed to 182.

Eliminating Predators Have Allowed Lyme Disease to Spread and to Become More Prevalent:

While deer usually get the blame for spreading tick-borne disease, rodents are actually the primary source, particularly mice. Ticks are not born with the Lyme spirochetes. They pick up the bacteria when feeding on an infected host. Research indicates that white-footed mice infect 75-95% of larval ticks that feed on them, while deer only infect about 1%.

Urban sprawl and hunting has eliminated many of the natural predators of mice, allowing populations to grow and with them comes infected ticks.

The CDC has identified high-risk counties in 17 states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota.

What Is Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease refers to illnesses associated with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, a “cousin” to the spirochete bacterium that causes syphilis.
According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, who is one the leading authorities on Lyme disease, the bacteria can be spread by ticks, but also by other biting or blood-sucking insects, including mosquitoes, spiders, fleas and mites.
Common side effects of tick bites include an itchy “bull’s eye” rash, pain, fever and inflammation.

You don’t have to get the hallmark “bull’s eye” rash, which occurs only in about half of those who get infected.

Symptoms of Lyme disease typically start out with:

1. Unrelenting fatigue
2. Recurring fever
3. Headaches / migraines
4. Achy muscles and/or joints

If left untreated, the disease may progress to muscle spasms, loss of motor coordination, intermittent paralysis, meningitis or heart problems.

A printable symptom checklist can be found at www.Lymedisease.org
The B. burgdorferi spirochete is shaped like a corkscrew, which allows it to burrow into and hide in a variety of your body’s tissues. It can also live inside of your cells, which allows it to evade antibiotics.

For this reason, some doctors recommend giving antibiotics along with Plaquenil, in order to change the intracellular pH. The organisms are difficult to eliminate, since they can also take up residence in biofilms or in an encoated “cyst” form.

Lyme is also known as “the great imitator,” as it can mimic many other disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS), arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, ALS, ADHD and Alzheimer’s disease.

When nothing unusual shows up on blood tests, some patients are even told their problems are “all in their head” and may be referred to a psychologist.

One of the reasons blood tests are so unreliable as indicators of Lyme infection is that the spirochete is capable of infecting your white blood cells. Lab tests rely on the normal function of these cells to produce the antibodies they measure. If your white cells are infected, they will not respond to an infection appropriately. The worse your Borrelia infection is, the less likely it will show up on a blood test.

In order for Lyme tests to be useful, you actually have to be treated first. Once your immune system begins to respond normally, the antibodies will then show up on a blood test. This is called the “Lyme Paradox”, since you have to be treated before a proper diagnosis can be made.

Dr. Mercola recommends the specialized lab called IGeneX because they test for more outer surface proteins (bands) and can often detect Lyme while standard blood tests cannot. IGeneX also tests for a few strains of co-infections such as Babesia and Erhlichia. A negative on the IGeneX test for these co-infections does not necessarily mean you are not infected, as there are many more strains than tests can currently detect.

Dr. Mercola also strongly recommends taking these preventive measures:

1. Avoid tick-infested areas, such as leaf piles around trees. Walk in the middle of trails, and avoid brushing against long grasses path edgings. Don’t sit on logs or wooden stumps.

2. Wear light-colored long pants and long sleeves, to make it easier to see the ticks.

3. Tuck your pants into socks, and wear closed shoes and a hat, especially if venturing out into wooded areas. Also tuck your shirt into your pants.

4. Ticks, especially nymphal ticks, are very tiny, so do a thorough tick check upon returning inside and keep checking for several days following exposure. Also check your bedding for several days following exposure. Ticks must typically remain attached for at least 24 hours for the Lyme disease bacteria to be transmitted into your blood stream, so early removal is important.

5. If you have Japanese barberry on your property, you may want to consider getting rid of it, since they are a perfect environment for ticks.

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