Ecoclimber
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A big dispute behind a tiny tick bite: What to call the lingering effects of Lyme disease?
An excerpt from the Washington Post By Janice Lynch Schuster
When I first heard Duke University physician and cancer researcher Neil Spector talk about his Lyme disease ordeal, my heart skipped a beat. Spector had gone undiagnosed for years, he said, which had led to persistent poor health and a rare but serious complication that resulted in a heart transplant.
His story scared me. Earlier that week — this happened last spring — I’d picked up my daughter from college. Her bout of Lyme disease when she was 8 had gone undetected for a year, and although we had followed the prescribed treatment (a month of antibiotics), she would spend the next 12 years with seemingly disconnected and random aches and pains: Her joints would hurt, her eyes would blur, fatigue would overwhelm her. She suspected, she told me after leaving her dormitory, that she had chronic Lyme disease...
...The nation’s top medical experts, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, say that 10 to 20 percent of people treated for Lyme disease, which is transmitted by infected ticks, will later develop post-Lyme syndrome, an autoimmune response triggered by the initial tick bite. These patients may experience a host of ongoing symptoms, ranging from joint pain to fatigue to vision disturbances...
...Spector encountered similar challenges. When we first met, he told me how his doctors repeatedly dismissed his symptoms as stress-related...
...While on the antibiotic, Spector said, his arthritic symptoms disappeared, confirming for him that Lyme disease had been causing the arthritis. “When I told my doctors this was further evidence I had untreated Lyme, they told me the rapid resolution of my symptoms was merely a non-specific anti-inflammatory effect of that class of antibiotics,” he said. “I say that if it waddles and quacks, it’s a duck. In my case, I had an atypical story, and people just weren’t looking for it.”...
...The undiagnosed Lyme had taken a toll on Spector, leading to heart failure, a rare but known complication of the disease. Five years ago he had a transplant. Spector, 57, now heads the developmental therapeutics program at the Duke Cancer Institute...
For the entire article click on link in the heading above.
Related: Doctor diagnosed chronic Lyme disease, but many experts say it doesn’t exist
International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society
http://www.aldf.com/lyme.shtml#symptoms
I posted on a similar issue and the fact that researchers are finding additional Lyme disease Borrelia species:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...lyme-disease-eludes-doctors-for-a-year.31652/
This article and many similar that I have read over the past few years, demonstrates a resistance in changing long established 'ivory tower medical dogma' from many within the medical community on a variety of illnesses, when advancement in scientific technology and application of just plain common sense speak otherwise. Unfortunately, it is the patients and families who must suffer from such arrogance.
An excerpt from the Washington Post By Janice Lynch Schuster
When I first heard Duke University physician and cancer researcher Neil Spector talk about his Lyme disease ordeal, my heart skipped a beat. Spector had gone undiagnosed for years, he said, which had led to persistent poor health and a rare but serious complication that resulted in a heart transplant.
His story scared me. Earlier that week — this happened last spring — I’d picked up my daughter from college. Her bout of Lyme disease when she was 8 had gone undetected for a year, and although we had followed the prescribed treatment (a month of antibiotics), she would spend the next 12 years with seemingly disconnected and random aches and pains: Her joints would hurt, her eyes would blur, fatigue would overwhelm her. She suspected, she told me after leaving her dormitory, that she had chronic Lyme disease...
...The nation’s top medical experts, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, say that 10 to 20 percent of people treated for Lyme disease, which is transmitted by infected ticks, will later develop post-Lyme syndrome, an autoimmune response triggered by the initial tick bite. These patients may experience a host of ongoing symptoms, ranging from joint pain to fatigue to vision disturbances...
...Spector encountered similar challenges. When we first met, he told me how his doctors repeatedly dismissed his symptoms as stress-related...
...While on the antibiotic, Spector said, his arthritic symptoms disappeared, confirming for him that Lyme disease had been causing the arthritis. “When I told my doctors this was further evidence I had untreated Lyme, they told me the rapid resolution of my symptoms was merely a non-specific anti-inflammatory effect of that class of antibiotics,” he said. “I say that if it waddles and quacks, it’s a duck. In my case, I had an atypical story, and people just weren’t looking for it.”...
...The undiagnosed Lyme had taken a toll on Spector, leading to heart failure, a rare but known complication of the disease. Five years ago he had a transplant. Spector, 57, now heads the developmental therapeutics program at the Duke Cancer Institute...
For the entire article click on link in the heading above.
Related: Doctor diagnosed chronic Lyme disease, but many experts say it doesn’t exist
International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society
http://www.aldf.com/lyme.shtml#symptoms
I posted on a similar issue and the fact that researchers are finding additional Lyme disease Borrelia species:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...lyme-disease-eludes-doctors-for-a-year.31652/
This article and many similar that I have read over the past few years, demonstrates a resistance in changing long established 'ivory tower medical dogma' from many within the medical community on a variety of illnesses, when advancement in scientific technology and application of just plain common sense speak otherwise. Unfortunately, it is the patients and families who must suffer from such arrogance.
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