Could Lyme Disease Be the Cause of Your Health Condition?
by Michael Karlfeldt, N.D., Ph.D.
Lyme disease is the fastest spreading infectious disease in the United States, with an estimated
200,000 new cases per year. Lyme is a complex disease that can be highly difficult to diagnose. Currently there is no reliable
test to determine if someone has contracted Lyme disease or is cured of it. People with chronic Lyme can have many debilitating
symptoms, including severe fatigue, anxiety, headaches, and joint pain. Lyme disease is not just an "East Coast"
problem. In fact, in the last ten years, ticks known to carry Lyme disease have been identified in all 50 states and worldwide.
Ticks can vary in size from a poppy-seed size nymphal tick to a sesame-seed size adult tick. The ticks can carry other infectious
agents besides the spirochete that causes Lyme disease. The same tick that carries the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease,
can also transmit other illnesses. The most common are Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, and Bartonella henselae.
The bull's eye rash is the most well-known indicator of infection,
but there are many other types of rashes associated with Lyme disease. Many people react differently to the infection and
experience fatigue, headaches, irritability, anxiety, crying, sleep disturbance, poor memory and concentration, chest pain,
palpitations, lightheadedness, joint pain, numbness and tingling. Chronic Lyme disease is called the "great imitator"
because it is often misdiagnosed as another condition such as Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or anxiety.
Lyme disease may play a role in causing
autism according to a recent study published in Medical Hypothesis, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Charles Ray Jones,
M.D., considered the nation's leading pediatric Lyme specialist explained "I've treated over 10,000 children with Lyme
disease," Jones said during his presentation. "A good many of the children, we've found, have had autism-spectrum
disorder." Warren Levin, M.D., an expert in autism, described the case of "a terribly ill autistic kid...who tested
positive for Lyme disease." Subsequent to that case, Dr. Levin "started screening all autistic patients...and nine
in a row tested positive for Lyme disease." In their book, Tami Duncan and Bryan Rosner describe a correlation between
the geographic incidences of the two diseases. "The ten states with the highest incidence of Lyme disease are the same
states with the highest incidence of autism," Duncan says.
"Research also suggests that Lyme disease can be congenitally transferred from mother to child during pregnancy,
even if the mother is unaware that she is infected," Duncan continues. "This can account for the early onset of
Lyme-induced autism in young children."
Lyme Disease is very complicated to diagnose because:
· Lyme bacteria are not always
detectable in the whole blood, even in active disease. The bacteria like to hide and travel in the body through the connective
tissue rather than the in blood.
· Every patient responds differently to an infection.
· Antibodies may only be present for a short time after the infection.
Most of the clinical manifestations of Lyme disease are due
to the local presence of the causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi, in the affected tissues. However, the precise means of
tissue damage are not well understood and there is no proof that the organism, live or dead, is always present. An understanding
of the complex interaction between the organism, the immune response elicited by the organism, and the host can explain manifestations
of the disease and persistence of symptoms and signs after the antibiotic-induced death of the organism. It is possible that
dead spirochetes, or fragments thereof may persist and act as a focus of ongoing inflammation. Vascular changes induced by
the infection, either by local infection or the effects of cytokines on the vessel wall, may underlie tissue pathology. Finally,
the immune response to B. burgdorferi may elicit the production of antibodies capable of recognizing and damaging or modifying
normal host tissues.
Neurologist Prof.
J. Faust MD, PhD of the Albert-Ludwig University in Freiburg, Germany related many neurological and psychiatric illnesses
to spirochete infections as early as the 1960s. He could based on the symptoms exhibited by the patient determine which neighborhood
in Germany the patient lived, showing that the spirochetes can mutate and adapt to its environment. It appears that many patients
with MS, ALS, Parkinson's disease, autism, joint arthritis, chronic fatigue, sarcoidosis and even cancer are infected with
Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb).
Regular
lab parameters possibly indicating Lyme:
· Abnormal lipid profile (moderate cholesterol elevation with significant
LDL elevation)
· Insulin resistance
· Borderline low WBC, normal SED rate and CRP
· Normal
thyroid hormone tests but positive Barnes test and excellent response to giving T3
· Type 2 (high cortisol, low
DHEA) or type 3 adrenal failure (low cortisol and DHEA)
· Low testosterone and DHEA
·
Low alkaline phosphatase (indicating low zinc levels, usually from Lyme associated kryptopyrole disorder)
·
Decreased urine concentration (low specific gravity)
· Complex changes in cytokines, interferones, NK cells, white
blood cell indicators, etc.
Bb tends to infect the B-lymphocytes and other components of the immune system which
are responsible for creating the antibodies, which are then measured by an ELISA test or Western Blot test. Since antibody
production is greatly compromised in infected individuals, it makes no sense to use these tests as the gold standard or benchmark
for the presence of Bb. We also are aware that in endemic areas in the US up to 22% of stinging flies and mosquitoes are carriers
of Bb and co-infections. In South East Germany and Eastern Europe 12 % of mosquitoes have been shown to be infected. Also
many spiders, flees, lice and other stinging insects carry spirochetes and co-infections.
Having taken another route altogether, we have recognized that today many if not most Americans
are carriers of the infection. Most infected people are symptomatic, but the severity and type of the symptoms varies greatly.
The microbes often invade tissues that had been injured: your chronic neck pain or sciatica really may be a Bb infection.
The same may be true for your chronic TMJ problem, your adrenal fatigue, your thyroid dysfunction, your GERD and many other
seemingly unrelated symptoms. Many Bb symptoms are mistaken for problems of natural or premature aging.
The severity of symptoms correlates most closely with the
overall summation or body burden of coexisting conditions and with the genetically determined ability to excrete neurotoxins.
Other factors, such as diet and food allergies, past toxic and electromagnetic exposures, emotional factors and unhealed ancestral
trauma, scar interference fields and occlusal jaw and bite problems are also important. The severity of symptoms is not related
to the number of spirochetes in the system but rather to the individual's immune responses.
The group suffering most is newborn babies and young children, who rarely are diagnosed correctly
and therefore are not treated appropriately. They often carry the labels ADHD, autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), seizure disorder
and others.
Lyme disease has three
components, which should be recognized and addressed with treatment:
Component #1: The presence of spirochete infection
and co-infections
The co-infections
are bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic. Since the spirochetes paralyze multiple aspects of the immune system, the organism
is without defenses against many microbes.
Component
#2: the illness producing effect of microbial exo- and endotoxins and toxins produced by the host in response to microbial
trigger
Most of these are neurotoxins,
some appear to be carcinogenic as well, others block the T3 receptor on the cell wall, etc. Decreased hormonal output of the
gonads and adrenals is a commonly observed toxin mediated problem in Lyme patients. Central inhibition of the pineal gland,
hypothalamus and pituitary gland is almost always an issue that has to be resolved somewhat independently from treating the
infection. Furthermore, biotoxins from the infectious agents have a synergistic effect with heavy metals, xenobiotics and
thioethers from cavitations and NICO lesions in the jaw and from root filled teeth.
Component #3: The immune reactions provoked by the presence of both toxins and microbes
The immune reactions are largely depending
on host factors, such as genetics, prior illnesses, mental-emotional baggage, early childhood traumatization, current exposure
to electromagnetic fields (sleeping location, use of cell phones, poor wiring in car or home, etc), food allergies and diet,
socio-economic background, marital stress etc.
The treatment of Lyme disease requires 4 distinctive steps:
1. Decreasing toxic body burden/unloading
the system - supporting the body's pathways of elimination (liver/gallbladder, colon, kidneys, lungs, and skin); reducing
heavy metal, chemical, electro-magnetic, and microwave exposure.
2. Improving disturbed physiology
- correcting nutritional deficiencies, balancing hormones, neurotransmitters, and repairing weak tissue
3.
Decreasing microbial count - using proper broad based agents at high enough of a dosage and for long enough to support
the reduction of Borrelia and it's co-infections.
4. Immunemodulation - reduce an over reactive response
by the immune system to the presence of the bugs. It is believed that it is this response that creates more tissue damage
than the actual presence of the bugs. A very effective technique to do this is Applied PsychoNeurobiology (APN) developed
by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt.
Michael Karlfeldt, N.D., Ph.D., uses ART testing (autonomic response testing), which
is the most advanced and scientifically validated method of muscle testing developed by Dr. Klinghardt, to determine what
is stressing the body and what nutritional protocol would best restore balance. Dr. Karlfeldt has been trained by Dr. Klinghardt,
one of the world's foremost authority in the treatment of Lyme Disease.
Dr. Michael Karlfeldt, 668 N. 9th St., Boise, ID 83701, 208-338-8902
www.swedishnaturopathic.com
