There is always a debate going on whether all these people who are sick, with Lyme, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS, Lupus, Alzheimers, Rheumatoid Arthritis and many more.....really have Lyme Disease or some other infectious agent, virus, contaminant or parasite?
Let's first admit most of these diseases have similar symptoms and similar epidemiology. None of these disease have accurate testing and most of us who are chronically ill with "invisible diseases" have been diagnosed with several of these. See Charts Below.
Let's first admit most of these diseases have similar symptoms and similar epidemiology. None of these disease have accurate testing and most of us who are chronically ill with "invisible diseases" have been diagnosed with several of these. See Charts Below.
On my other website, whatislyme.com, I am working on a Global Chronic Lyme map right now. And as Im adding patient stories on there, I realize it starts with a tick bite for many people. Many stories starts with...."when my son got bit"...or "when I got bit fifteen yaers ago"...so there has to be some connection to insects...beginning this "sickness"..
Im not sure about anyone else but i had a day where I was healthy and the next I was not..there was a line where something happened..and i was never again well. If it was soley environmental issues then I would think that would happen slowly over time.I do believe other factors like environment and our bad diets play into why we can't recover from being chronically ill however.
I believe there is combination of factors working here...Here is my theory:
1. Through our lifeteimes we are exposed to multiple chemicals, infectons, viruses and parasites, but our immune system has kept them at bay.
2. At some point we are exposed to Lyme Disease, through tick bites, sex or other means or insects. It lowers our immune system.
3. Antibiotics might work in some straight up cases or early infections, but most lyme cases go undetected long enough to treat early and what happens is it lowers our immune systems and all this other stuff we were exposed to comes out.. Our immune system can no longer fight off infections, viruses, parasites or detox things like mold exposure, metals and chemicals..
4. Our body organs and systems just break down. Our nerves are shot, our vaso vagal nerve no longer functoins properly, our adrenals are shot, we live in the "fight or flight" response.
5. What started out as Lyme, a bacterial infectoins has now turned to auto immune dysfunction and multi organ dysfunction.
6. We can do our best to heal, eat right, exercise lightly, be nice to ur bodies and do some immune boosting. We should live our lifes to the fullest and never give up, but our lives and functioning will never be the same again. The "cure" to this multi systemic dysfuntion is not found yet.
To sum it up, sometimes I wonder why I am doing activism. Lyme activism in particular. I feel like I know less now after studying this disease nonstop for the last 10 years, then I did when I started. There are rips within our own community, people taking sides, antibiotics or not antibiotics, natural or not natural treatments, do this, do that....The truth is, noone really knows the answers, if they did we would all be better. But the reasons I keep on are obvious. There are millions of sick people out there. We all have the same symptoms. We all are suffering without help from the medical community. We all are being abandoned by our friends and family because we have a disease that noone understands. We need to stick together until this thing is figures out. Lyme is an umbrella term for whatever illness is that we have. We need more research, unbiased research.
Epidemiology Chart
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Symptom Chart
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Cause Chart
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