This year, my Labor Day weekend was dedicated to replacing a retaining wall. The original 90-foot structure, built with railroad ties, had eroded over the years, forming a massive jungle of rotting ties, thorny vines, and long grass. Several family members came to help, and I rented a Bobcat. We hauled old ties out of the tangled weeds on Saturday, and were covered with welts, dirt, and bug bites by the end of the day.
Starting the new wall on Sunday, I felt dizzy and weak. My helpers graciously offered to do the manual lifting, while I drove the Bobcat, but I barely had enough energy for that. I finally climbed out of the cab, and collapsed on my front yard. Thus began my descent into the puzzling and painful world of Lyme disease, where I learned firsthand how hard it is to be diagnosed and treated for this dreadful disease.
As I lay dazed in the midday sun, my neighbor, Brad, came over. He talked to the rest of my family, and helped move some ties. Had I been more coherent, I might have heard him say that his wife, Karen, was starting to feel numbness and tingling in her hands and feet. Feeling useless, I eventually just went to bed. It was Monday afternoon, 24 hours later, when I finally got up.
When I went to work on Tuesday, my neck was swollen and sore. I also had a large red patch across my back and chest that looked like sunburn. By Wednesday, my neck hurt so bad I couldn't move my head, and my shoulder ached. My chiropractor said that muscle strain could cause the pain, but he had no explanation for the red patch. A bull's eye rash would have been more recognizable, but Lyme disease doesn't always leave such obvious clues.
During the day, the pain was tolerable, but at night it was horrible. My various aches intensified around bedtime, and got worse when I lay down. I couldn't find a position for my arm that didn't hurt, and I rarely got more than three hours of sleep.
Then, for no apparent reason, my face started drooping on one side. For three days, I progressively lost motion in my mouth, cheek, and right eye. By Monday, two weeks after Labor Day, half my face was completely paralyzed. Talking, eating, and drinking were difficult, and I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Two contractors were helping me finish the wall, and one said to the other, "I don't like that guy; he doesn't show any emotion." I guess he was half right.
I had Bell's palsy, a paralysis of the face. My neighbor, Karen, who developed a milder version of the same thing, suspected Lyme disease, and convinced me I had it, too. Lyme disease comes from deer ticks, and I probably encountered one in the weeds by my wall. I took a blood test, and requested antibiotics to get a head start on the disease while waiting for the results. Since I never saw the tick that bit me, and didn't develop a bull's eye rash (known as clinical evidence), my doctor refused to prescribe anything until the tests came back.
Karen had more trouble with her doctors. On the Wednesday after Labor Day, she had heart palpitations, a migrating pain in her leg, back, and arm, and felt constant numbness and tingling throughout the left side of her body. By the end of the week, she had headaches, and her arm was weak and wobbly. Afraid she was having a heart attack or stroke, Karen saw three different doctors that week. One said it was all in her head, another prescribed a tranquilizer, and the last said she should go home and have a beer.
Karen had two Lyme tests, both with negative results, so she requested something more reliable. This time, the test results showed Lyme activity, but not enough to be above the standard guidelines. Her doctor said she didn't have the disease, so Karen found a specialist on the Internet.
This 'Lyme Literate' doctor determined that Karen had the disease based on her symptoms (a clinical diagnosis). The activity seen on her previous test confirmed the diagnosis, so he prescribed an antibiotic. She needs to take the medication until one month after her symptoms go away. No one knows how long it takes to eradicate Lyme, because the bacteria hide from antibiotics and vaccines.
My Lyme test came back positive. I was given four weeks of an antibiotic, and all my symptoms were gone by the end of it. A few days later, though, I started having heart palpitations, tingling in my fingers, and pain in my elbows. Initial Lyme symptoms can diminish, even without treatment, while bacteria penetrate deeper into your system. This is known as Chronic Lyme, which may exhibit completely different symptoms. The clever masquerader can change its disguise to avoid detection.
My doctor wouldn't refill the antibiotic without more testing, so I called Karen's Lyme Literate doctor. He no longer deals with insurance, and charges $425 for the first visit (not counting lab fees). I called three other Lyme specialists, and they don't bother with insurance either. If my problems continue, I may have to raid my kid's piggybank. Just before Thanksgiving, Karen took her fourth Lyme test, and finally tested positive. Now she knows her medication should help, and that she's been right all along.
The number of Lyme cases in this region is astounding. Debbie directs a children's choir at Karen's church, and suffers from Lyme and Bell's palsy. She says that 11 people were stricken in Harvard this year, and learned that 15 doctors at a local facility are treating 10 cases of Lyme each. I met Darcy because she was describing her Bell's palsy at a party. She knows a third grader with the disease, a man on Stow Road who had it three times, and another boy who got it when a tick bit him in the eye. Many of these people, including Debbie and Darcy, had trouble getting diagnosed and treated correctly.
Considering the number of people with Lyme, and the amount of information available, it's puzzling why the medical community seems so unprepared to handle the disease. Maybe the reason is that Lyme isn't fatal or contagious. Or, perhaps, it's because treating the disease isn't lucrative for insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Or, maybe it's the elusive nature of Lyme bacteria. One thing is clear: Until doctors sort this out, people will continue to be ignored or misdiagnosed.
Whenever symptoms don't make sense, or won't improve with treatment, it might be Lyme masquerading as something else. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to this disease, and help is available through numerous educational and support organizations on-line. As Karen says, "You need to be your own best advocate."
First Person Singular is the opinion of this person, which is not necessarily shared by this newspaper. Submissions must be less than 1,000 words and will be run as space is available. All other Letters to the Editor policies apply to First Person Singular.
�Dan Kinderleher, M.D., an expert on Lyme disease, stated that the number of cases may be 100 times higher (18 million in the United States alone) than reported by the CDC. It is estimated that Lyme disease may be a contributing factor in more than 50% of chronically ill people.�
Without treatment, the spirochetes are digging into the tissues deeper and deeper.
�Suspicion by a noted researcher Garth Nicolson, Ph.D. (originally of the M D Anderson Cancer Research Center in Texas and lately of the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach, CA) that the Mycoplasma fermentans incognitus was bioengineered in order to make it more virulent and useful for germ warfare was another revelation I was unable to handle, at first. Dr. Nicolson explained that he identified an alteration in the molecular structure of the Mycoplasmas he had found in Gulf War Veterans who were ill. The Mycoplasmas were found to have had an envelope gene from an HIV organism inserted into its nucleus (GP 120). This would make the organism more invasive and harder to treat. He explained that this insertion does not occur naturally, but can be "forced" using specialized laboratory techniques. (A mutation caused within a laboratory setting.)
While germ warfare is certainly not a subject that is pleasant or easy to think about, we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand, either.�
New Ideas About The Cause, Spread and Therapy of Lyme Disease
by Dr. James Howenstine
Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, July 2004
Lyme Disease was initially regarded as an uncommon illness caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). The disease transmission was thought to be solely by the bite from a tick infected with this spirochete. The Bb spirochete is able to burrow into tendons, muscle cells, ligaments, and directly into organs. A classic bulls-eye rash is often visible in the early stage of the illness. Later in the illness the disease can afflict the heart, nervous system, joints and other organs. It is now realized that the disease can mimic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson�s disease, multiple sclerosis, Bell�s Palsy, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, neuritis, psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia, chronic fatigue, heart failure, angina, irregular heart rhythms, fibromyalgia, dermatitis, autoimmune diseases such as scleroderma and lupus, eye inflammatory reactions, sudden deafness, SIDS, ADD and hyperactivity, chronic pain and many other conditions.
Biology professor, Lida Mattman, author of Cell Wall Deficient Forms: Stealth Pathogens, has been able to recover live spirochetes of Bb from mosquitos, fleas, mites, semen, urine, blood, and spinal fluid. A factor contributing to making Bb so dangerous is that it can survive and spread without having a cell wall (cell wall-deficient CWD). Many valuable antibiotics kill bacteria by breaking down the cell wall. These antibiotics often prove ineffective against Bb. Lyme Disease is now thought to be the fastest growing infectious disease in the world. There are believed to be at least 200,000 new cases each year in the US and some experts think that as many as one in every 15 Americans is currently infected (20 million persons). Dr. Robert Rowen knows a family where the mother�s infection spread to 5 of her 6 children1 all of whom recovered with appropriate therapy. It is difficult to believe that these children were all bitten by ticks and seems more plausible that person to person spread within the family caused this problem. Dr. Mattman states �I�m convinced Lyme disease is transmissible from person to person.� In 1995 Dr. Mattman obtained positive cultures for Bb from 43 of 47 persons with chronic illness. Only 1 of 23 control patients had a positive Bb culture. Dr. Mattman has subsequently recovered Bb spirochetes form 8 out of 8 cases of Parkinson�s Disease, 41 cases of multiple sclerosis, 21 cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and all tested cases of Alzheimer�s Disease. The complete recovery of several patients with terminal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis after appropriate therapy shows the great importance of establishing the diagnosis of Lyme Disease.
Some very important information has recently become available about the spread and magnitude of the problem with Lyme Disease. The severity of the Lyme illness is related to the spirochete load in the patient. Few spirochetes produce mild and asymptomatic infection. A study from Switzerland in 1998 pointed out that only 12.5% of patients testing positive for Bb had developed symptoms. A German boy developed Lyme arthritis 5 years after his tick bite. Often mycoplasmal infections remain without symptoms until the victim suffers a traumatic event (stress, injury, accident, etc.). These stressing events enable the myco plasma to begin consumption of cholesterol and symptoms may begin to present. The mechanism of this deterioration is thought to be suppression of the immune system secondary to stress.
Many patients with LD have concomitant infections with other parasites (Ehrlichia in white blood cells and Babesia in red blood cells). Some patients have all 3 parasites. Each requires a different therapy with Babesia being particularly difficult to eradicate. Recently, Artemisinin appears effective in Babesia infections. All co-infections must be eliminated to obtain a successful result.
Dr. Joanne Whitaker relates that nearly every patient with Parkinson�s Disease (PD) has tested positive for Bb. Dr. Luis Romero reports that 3 patients with PD are 99% better after TOA-free cat�s claw (Uncaria tomentosa) therapy. When Dr. Mattman cultures 25 patients with fibromyalgia all subjects had positive cultures of the CWD Bb, which causes LD. She relates that Bb can be found in tears and could thus easily appear on the hands where touching could spread LD. Several families are now documented where nearly every family member is infected. How sick the individual patient becomes probably relates to their initial spirochete dose, immune system, detoxification capability and stress levels. Transmission of the disease has been clearly documented after bites by fleas, mites, mosquitos and ticks. There is compelling evidence that Lyme disease (LD) can be spread by sexual and congenital transfer. One physician has cared for 5000 children with LD: 240 of these children were born with the disease. Dr. Charles Ray Jones, the leading pediatric specialist on Lyme Disease, has found 12 breastfed children who have developed LD. Miscarriage, premature births, stillbirths, birth defects, and transplacental infection of the fetus have all been reported. Studies at the University of Vienna have found Bb in urine and breast milk of LD mothers.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have reported that dairy cattle can be infected with Bb, hence milk could be contaminated. Bb can also be transmitted to lab animals by oral intake such as food.
The Sacramento, California blood bank thinks that LD can be spread by blood transfusions. The CDC (Center of Disease Control) in Atlanta, Georgia states that their data indicates that Bb can survive the blood processing techniques used for transfusions in the US.
Lyme Disease is the fastest growing epidemic in the world. LD is grossly under-reported so there may be far more than the 200,000 cases reported annually in the US. Drs. Harvey and Salvato estimate that 1 billion persons in the world may be infected with LD. LD is thought to be a contributing factor in 50% of patients who have chronic illness.
Dr. Joanne Whitaker, a Lyme disease victim from childhood, has developed a reliable test for the presence of Lyme disease. This test looks for the Bb organism, not antibodies, and is able to identify the cell wall deficient (CWD) form of the spirochete as well as the actual Bb organism. The test is called Q-RIBb which stands for quantitative rapid identification of Bb. Dr. Lida Mattman has confirmed that Dr. Whitaker�s test is sensitive because there has been a 100% correlation between a positive culture of Bb by Dr. Mattman�s lab and a positive Q-RIBb test from Dr. Whitaker�s Laboratory.
Case Reports Illustrating the Critical Importance of Establishing the Diagnosis of Lyme Disease.
Case 1: Larry Powers, a former Mr. America in 1962, became ill with the symptoms of Parkinson�s Disease in 1990. Sinemet therapy was taken for eight years but he gradually became worse. He became confined to a wheel chair and required help with eating. After learning that Lyme Disease might be causing his symptoms of PD he started taking TOA-free cat�s claw (Uncaria tomentosa). Within three weeks he was out of his wheelchair and fishing for 100 pound tarpon.
Case 2: Tom Coffey at age 34 developed diplopia, severe hypertension uncontrolled by drugs, and impaired balance. A diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was made. Surgery was performed to correct the diplopia. By June 2001 he was unable to swallow saliva and feeding tube nutrition was begun. His weight had fallen by 100 pounds. Nutritional support from the tube feedings produced slow resolution of the swallowing problem. Consultation with a Lyme expert uncovered the history of a bulls-eye rash after a tick bite. Therapy with Rocephin led to complete recovery.
Case 3: A young male college student developed such sever cognitive difficulties he was forced to drop out of school. A Q-RIBb test was positive for LD and he resumed a normal life after receiving 4 months of antibiotic therapy. What Causes Neurone Death in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)? One of the most insidious mimics for Lyme Disease is ALS. The neurotoxins released by the Bb organism are capable of causing neurologic dysfunction in the central nervous system that produces symptoms typical of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The pathological hallmark of ALS is motor neurone degeneration and death.
Research performed by Dr. Harold Clark and Dr. Garth Nicholson and coordinated by Donald W. Scott2 has resulted in a breakthrough in our understanding of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Mycoplasma was discovered in 1898. These are living particles of bacterial nucleic acid which do not have a cell wall. In 1971 Rottem et al.3 learned that most species of mycoplasma were absolutely dependent for their growth on the consumption of pre-formed sterols including cholesterol obtained from animal and human host cells. These mycoplasmas live harmlessly in host cells until they are stimulated to activity by a stressing traumatic event (bullet wound, bad fall, injury from accident etc.). The growth of the mycoplasma consumes the cell�s cholesterol resulting in death of the affected cell. Mycoplasmas have been identified in ALS using high resolution blood morphology. In the November 9, 2001 issue of Science Dr. Daniel Mauch4 et al. revealed that the glial cells surrounding the motor neurone sully the extra cholesterol needed to repair and replace aging synapses. If the repair does not properly occur, the motor neurone cells proceed to die form overwork. Glial cells are also heavily involved in gathering, processing and storing glutamate. Elevations in glutamate have been found in brain tissue in ALS.
A mycoplasma species, probably fermentans, which was harmlessly sequestered in a glial cell, becomes aroused by some traumatic stressful event. This mycoplasma then consumes the glial cholesterol which makes up 40% of the glial cell membrane, causing rupture and death of the glial dell. The death of these glial cells releases large amounts of glutamate which becomes elevated in brain tissue. Within the neurone some of the excess glutamate accesses a urea molecule. The urea molecule gives up an ammonia ion which converts a glutamate molecule into less dangerous glutamine. This leaves the former urea molecule as a cyanate ion which damages the motor neurone�s mitochondria. One of the consequences of the damaged mitochondria is a decrease in the energy output available to the neurone. This produces the severe weakness and fatigue seen in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. If the mitochondrial injury is severe the neurone dies. The death of motor neurone stops message delivery to muscle tissue � a universal finding in ALS.
This avid consumption of cholesterol may also contribute to the endocrine dysfunction seen in ALS because it decreases the amount of cholesterol available to produce estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, hydrocortisone, and aldosterone. Patients with ALS, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome often have hypothalamic dysfunction which may result in adrenal insufficiency, hypothyroidism, and gonadal failure.
Lyme disease frequently exhibits neurologic abnormalities because the Bb neurotoxins are drawn to the fatty tissue found in the brain and peripheral nerves. As a consequence sudden deafness, Bells palsy, Parkinson�s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, peripheral neuritis, and chronic pain may appear.
The Influence of Toxins from Bb on the Symptoms and Course of Lyme Disease Autopsy examinations of young persons (30s) dying from what appeared to be Parkinson�s disease (PD) have frequently failed to confirm the basal ganglion damage that would be expected in classic PD seen in the elderly. Some patients with illnesses of many years� duration misdiagnosed as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Multiple Scleroris, and Parkinson�s Disease have made incredible recoveries within periods as short as 24 to 72 hours when placed on TOA-free Uncaria tomentosa (cat�s claw) for LD. This rapid response could not rationally be attributed to improved immune function or bacteriocidal effects on spirochetes. Bb is known to produce a group of neurotoxins. The most sensible explanation for this recovery lies in turning off or blocking the neurotoxins effects of Bb on the lipid containing structures that the Bb neurotoxins are attracted to (central nervous system, peripheral nerves, muscles, joints, etc.). This sudden improvement appears to be the result of blockage and inhibition of the neurotoxins.5 The most important example of a �Biotoxin Illness� appears to be Lyme Disease.6 Patients with symptoms of Parkinson�s Disease at a young age caused by neurotoxins would not be expected to show permanent structural destruction in the basal ganglia. These neurotoxins probably act at specific sites such as neuro-transmitters-pre and post synaptic membranes, altering dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and acetylcholine molecules, thereby blocking surface membrane receptors of various kinds which would interfere with the proper action of enzymes, coenzymes and hormones. This is only one of the damaging mechanisms of action of the neurotoxins.
The Uncaria tomentosa may have three direct beneficial effects in humans with LD:
Immune modulation (correcting immune dysfunction)
Direct broad spectrum anti-microbial effect on spirochetes. Quinovic acid glycosides found in TOA-free cat�s claw are similar to the quinilones widely used as antibiotics.
Blocking the adverse neurotoxic effects on cells, enzymes, and hormones
Whether the serious lack of energy and fatigue seen in LD are similar to the cyanate7 induced damage to the mitochondria�s ability to produce energy in the motor neurone found in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or is due to failure of proper calcium channel function is not clear.
Favorable Therapeutic Results with TOA-Free Cat�s Claw in Lyme Disease
A pilot study treated 28 patients with Advanced Chronic Lyme Disease with TOA-Free Uncaria tomentosa. Conventional cat�s claw contains TOA alkaloids that interfere with the desired immune modulation. The 14 person control group was given antibiotic therapy. At the study�s termination 85% of those receiving the cat�s claw preparation no longer had positive blood tests for Bb. All 28 persons had experienced a dramatic improvement in their clinical condition. No significant changes were seen in the control group. The Prima U�a de Gato can be obtained from Allergy Research Group 800-545-9960, Nutramedix (product name Samento Plus) 561-745-2917, and from Farmacopia at 800-896-1484. Dr. Whitaker�s lab can be reached by Internet at www.Bowen.org or by calling 727-937-9077 to arrange blood Bb testing. Improving nutrition, detoxifying and improving mental health all contribute to good results. Removal of mercury amalgams and treatment of heavy metals may be needed.
Much of this information about LD was obtained from �Lyme disease: Nutraceutical Breakthrough Using TOA-Free Cat�s Claw� published in Focus by Allergy Research Group (October 2003) and from the November and December 2003 issues of Dr. Robert Rowen�s Second Opinion.
Why Are We Experiencing an Epidemic of Lyme Disease?
I do not have a certain answer to this question. There are some facts that may be relevant. Several US government scientists including Dr. Shuy-Ching Lo, of the American Institute of Pathology, hold a patent on a Pathogenic Mycoplasma (mycoplasma fermentans) which has been converted into a crystalline form. In the patent application the diseases AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome, Wegener�s Granulomatosis, Sarcoidosis, lupus and Alzheimer�s Disease were mentioned as related to this patented form of mycoplasma fermentens. The crystalline form of mycoplasma fermentens contains the part of the brucella bacteria that causes disease in patients. In its crystalline form this mycoplasma can be transmitted into subjects by intravenous administration or injections, spread as an aerosol, implanted by the bite of an insect, or placed into food or water. There is no laboratory evidence for infection by brucella in subjects who have received the �crystalline pathogenic mycoplasma.�
When a nation is developing biologic warfare agents it is imperative that these agents be tested on humans to evaluate the results. If an infectious biologic warfare agent was able to produce person to person transfer it would have to be regarded as a gigantic success.
In the Faroe Islands in 1943 British biowar researchers ran tests to see if sheep could be infected by air-borne brucella. The brucella spread into sheep dogs as brucella canis and then appeared to cause several humans to develop multiple sclerosis.
In 1947 and 1948, approximately 1,100 school children in remote northern Icelandic villages (Akureyri) became ill with a new disease that caused severe burning pain in the limbs, profound muscle weakness, and severe fatigue. Of these 1,100 teenagers who became ill, 5 of the students developed an aggressive form of Parkinson�s disease and proceeded to die (unheard of in teenagers not using methedrine-like drugs). The United States had effective control of Iceland during these years and a research scientist trained in plant and animal virology at the Rockefeller Institute (oriented toward eugenics), Dr. Bjorn Sigurdson, was installed to start an Institute of Experimental Pathology at the University of Iceland with $200,000 in grant money from the Rockefeller Institute. In 1950 a group of American physicians, microbiologists, and biologic researchers sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation arrived in Iceland to study the effects of the mystery illness that had struck Northern Iceland.
The appearance of a new disease was of such great interest that Icelandic Disease was promptly reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The Canadian government set up the Dominion Parasite Laboratory in Belleville, Ontario in the 1950�s and 60�s to grow one hundred million mosquitos a month. In late August of 1984, 500 persons in the St. Lawrence Valley became ill with a mystery illness which had the profound weakness seen in brucellosis without any laboratory evidence of brucella infection. One woman was certain her illness came from a mosquito bite. She recalled being bitten by a mosquito and woke up the next day with a target skin lesion at the bite site (same skin lesion as seen in Lyme Disease) and such profound weakness she was unable to get out of bed. Another woman recalled a target lesion at the site of a mosquito bite. Both women remain ill 20 years later.
Citizens in Punta Gorda, Florida woke up one spring morning in 1956 with a cloud of mosquitos in their town. Calls to the Meteorological Service about the mosquito influx were answered with the information that there had been a forest fire thirty miles away in the Everglades and that these mosquitos had fled the fire. The truth is mosquitos will not move from one side of a barn to the other when a fire breaks out, let alone fly 30 miles. One week later 5 persons appeared in the local medical clinic with symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.
In 1984 mycoplasma may have been transmitted by aerosol into a high school in Incline Village, Nevada, where many persons suddenly developed chronic fatigue syndrome. Children became ill with a similar mysterious illness in 1984 after drinking goat�s milk in Lyndonville, New York. The cities of Adelaide, Australia 1949, West Otago, New Zealand 1984, and Royal Free Hospital London, England 1955 have all been visited by mini-epidemics of chronic fatigue syndrome. These mycoplasmas, when activated by stress, are avid consumers of sterols including cholesterol. A series of chemical reactions ensues culminating in the creation of cyanate which causes failure of normal energy production by the mitochondria of the cells. This could produce the profound weakness and fatigue characteristics of chronic fatigue syndrome. A 2 to 3 month trial of 300 to 500 mg. of CoQ10 daily might be able to improve energy output by the mitochondria thus possibly alleviating the profound fatigue.
When the illness causes painful trigger points, it is best termed fibromyalgia. These painful sites are located where blood flow is stagnant. Chronic infections are known to produce high viscosity blood which tends to clot a flow more slowly than normal.
Profound dysfunction of the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal, thyroid glands and gonads is very common in mycoplasmal, fungal, and anerobic bacterial infections. The avid consumption of cholesterol by activated mycoplasma could be a contributing factor to these endocrine disorders because cholesterol is needed to create several important hormones (estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, hydrocortisone, aldosterone).
Bacteriologist Dr. Arthur Kendall was able to produce 16 distinct bacteria8 by simply using different culture media to culture the same bacteria. Dr. Royal Rife�s Universal Microscope could see organisms as small as viruses. By using Dr. Rife�s microscope Dr. Kendall could actually see living organisms change their characteristics as the culture media were changed. Dr. G.C. Gruner of McGill University used an asparagus media to grow a fungus found in the blood of patients with cancer. When this fungus was grown in Kendall�s medium it converted into the Bx virus which had been proven by Koch�s postulates to cause cancer. These experiments proved that the fungus that Dr. Gruner saw in the blood of cancer patients was actually the same organism as the Bx virus that Dr. Kendall had proven causes cancer. Obviously, biologic micro-organisms exhibit considerable pleomorphism which may explain why observers do not find the same organisms in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and Lyme Disease as those being found by other observers (HHN-G, CMV, EBV viruses, parasites Bb, ehrlichae, babesia, bartonella, mycoplasma, Chlamydia, anerobic bacteria, yeast and fungi have all been implicated).
There is considerable evidence that many patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Lyme disease have an infectious disease. Lyme disease needs to be considered in every patient with a chronic illness. LD can produce every disease found in the Diagnostic Symptoms Manual for psychiatric illness (attention deficit disorder ADD, antisocial personality, panic attacks, anorexia nervosa, autism, Aspergers syndrome, etc.). Skilled antimicrobial therapy should permit many of these unfortunate patients to regain their health.
TOA-free cat�s claw will be valuable for many persons with Bb found by blood tests and culture. Sulfoxime and dioxychlor will relieve the pain found in fibromyalgia. Dietary changes, correction of pH, detoxification and stress reduction counseling can all be beneficial.
The United States maintains a biological warfare research laboratory on Plum Island directly across Long Island Sound from the sites where Lyme Disease and West Nile Disease were first encountered in Old Lyme and Madison, Connecticut. Massive deaths of birds are common at the sites where West Nile viral disease appears, suggesting that the illness may afflict birds before entering humans. Dr. Warren Levin of Wilton, Connecticut states that 56% of the families in Wilton have at least one family member with LD. Could seagulls containing crystalline mycoplasma fermentens and West Nile Virus have escaped or been released from Plum Island?
Much of this information about biowarfare agents and crystalline mycoplasma fermentens is from an article written by biochemist Donald W. Scott and publ ished in the Winter 2003 edition of The Journal of Degenerative Diseases Volume 5 Number 1. The publisher is Common Cause Medical Research Foundation, Box 133, Station B, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada P3E 4NR Canada.
Dr. James Howenstine is a specialist in internal medicine. He is author of the book A Physician�s Guide to Natural Health Products that Work, 328 pg. $17.95. His book can be obtained from Amazon.com, naturalhealthteam.com and by calling 1-800-416-2806. Dr. Howenstine can be reached at [email protected] and by writing Dr. James Howenstine c/o Remarsa USA SB 37, P.O. Box 25292, Miami, Florida 33102-5292
References
Rowen, Robert. If you have any chronic debilitating disease, you could be the victim of a Monster Epidemic! Second Opinion Vol X111 No. 11 November 2003
Scott, D.W., Crusader P.O. Box 618205, Orlando, FL 32861-8205 October-November 2002 pg. 26-32. Also see Scott, D.W. and Scott, W.L.C. Amyotrophic LateralSclerosis: The Probable Cause; A Possible Cure 233 Government St., Suite 6E, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8T 4P4; ISBN 1-55395-214-6
Rottem, Pfend, Hayflick. Sterol Requirements of T-strain Mycoplasmas Journal of Bacteriology 1971
Daniel Daniel H., Nagler, Goritz, Muller, Otto, Pfrieger. CNS Synaptogenesis Promoted by Glia-Derived Cholesterol. Science Nov. 9, 2001
Romero, Luis M.D.,PhD, Neurotoxins Focus, Allergy Research Group Newsletter pg. 10 Oct. 2003
Shoemaker, C. M.D., Hudnall, Kenneth, PhD. Focus, Allergy Research Group Newsletter pg. 10 Oct. 2003
Scott, Donald W. Lou, Gehrig�s Disease is Not a Mistery Anymore Crusader pg. 31 Oct-November 2002
Montgomery, Shawn, The Rise and Fall of a Scientific Genius (video) Zero Zero Productions, 3 Baldoon Rd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1B 1V6; www.zerozerotwo.org
The only connection found so far is that more than half of the Morgellons patients are also diagnosed with Lyme disease.
If diseases like AIDS and bird flu scare you, wait until you hear what's next. Doctors are trying to find out what is causing a bizarre and mysterious infection that's surfaced in South Texas.
Morgellons disease is not yet known to kill, but if you were to get it, you might wish you were dead, as the symptoms are horrible.
"These people will have like beads of sweat but it's black, black and tarry," said Ginger Savely, a nurse practioner in Austin who treats a majority of these patients.
Patients get lesions that never heal.
"Sometimes little black specks that come out of the lesions and sometimes little fibers," said Stephanie Bailey, Morgellons patient.
Patients say that's the worst symptom � strange fibers that pop out of your skin in different colors.
"He'd have attacks and fibers would come out of his hands and fingers, white, black and sometimes red. Very, very painful," said Lisa Wilson, whose son Travis had Morgellon's disease.
While all of this is going on, it feels like bugs are crawling under your skin. So far more than 100 cases of Morgellons disease have been reported in South Texas.
"It really has the makings of a horror movie in every way," Savely said.
While Savely sees this as a legitimate disease, there are many doctors who simply refuse to acknowledge it exists, because of the bizarre symptoms patients are diagnosed as delusional.
"Believe me, if I just randomly saw one of these patients in my office, I would think they were crazy too," Savely said. "But after you've heard the story of over 100 (patients) and they're all � down to the most minute detail � saying the exact same thing, that becomes quite impressive."
Travis Wilson developed Morgellons just over a year ago. He called his mother in to see a fiber coming out of a lesion.
"It looked like a piece of spaghetti was sticking out about a quarter to an eighth of an inch long and it was sticking out of his chest," Lisa Wilson said. "I tried to pull it as hard as I could out and I could not pull it out."
The Wilson's spent $14,000 after insurance last year on doctors and medicine.
"Most of them are antibiotics. He was on Tamadone for pain. Viltricide, this was an anti-parasitic. This was to try and protect his skin because of all the lesions and stuff," Lisa said.
However, nothing worked, and 23-year-old Travis could no longer take it.
"I knew he was going to kill himself, and there was nothing I could do to stop him," Lisa Wilson said.
Just two weeks ago, Travis took his life.
Stephanie Bailey developed the lesions four-and-a-half years ago.
"The lesions come up, and then these fuzzy things like spores come out," she said.
She also has the crawling sensation.
"You just want to get it out of you," Bailey said.
She has no idea what caused the disease, and nothing has worked to clear it up.
"They (doctors) told me I was just doing this to myself, that I was nuts. So basically I stopped going to doctors because I was afraid they were going to lock me up," Bailey said.
Harriett Bishop has battled Morgellons for 12 years. After a year on antibiotics, her hands have nearly cleared up. On the day, we visited her she only had one lesion and she extracted this fiber from it.
"You want to get these things out to relieve the pain, and that's why you pull and then you can see the fibers there, and the tentacles are there, and there are millions of them," Bishop said.
So far, pathologists have failed to find any infection in the fibers pulled from lesions.
"Clearly something is physically happening here," said Dr. Randy Wymore, a researcher at the Morgellons Research Foundation at Oklahoma State University's Center for Health Sciences.
Wymore examines the fibers, scabs and other samples from Morgellon's patients to try and find the disease's cause.
"These fibers don't look like common environmental fibers," he said.
The goal at OSU is to scientifically find out what is going on. Until then, patients and doctors struggle with this mysterious and bizarre infection. Thus far, the only treatment that has showed some success is an antibiotic.
"It sounds a little like a parasite, like a fungal infection, like a bacterial infection, but it never quite fits all the criteria of any known pathogen," Savely said
No one knows how Morgellans is contracted, but it does not appear to be contagious. The states with the highest number of cases are Texas, California and Florida.
For more information on Morgellons, visit the research foundation's Web site at www.morgellons.org.
A medical paper written in 1935 researched medical journals describing a similar disease, from the 1600s, with the same symptoms as Morgellons. And recent research may even be discovering the cause, which could lead to a cure someday. The National Pediculosis Association in Boston, Massachusetts has discovered a microscopic entity called collembolan in the bodies of many who suffer from Morgellons. The CDC has not approved further study.
I think we should be asking ourselves why Lyme has become so prevalent only in recent decades. Compare the current Lyme epidemic to the graphs below...
Exposure to electromagnetic/microwave/radiowave radiation makes bugs more fertile, while at the same time depressing the immune system. Think cell phone and wifi towers and antennas that are popping up on every street corner, especially so since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed in the US.
What this amounts to is the persistance of a chronic infection that normally would be easily eradicated by a healthy immune system.
So those who suffer from chronic Lyme/coinfections are likely living close to a cell phone and/or wifi tower or antenna, or more likely, multiple towers and antennas. They also likely used a cell phone or cordless phone. There is evidence emerging that these exposures open up the blood-brain barrier, something we know is a part of Lyme. Also, you'll notice that the symptoms of chronic Lyme are identical to the symptoms of electrosensitivity, an emerging environmental illness.
My symptoms of Lyme included a left eyelid droop, and I would always hold my cordless phone to my left ear.
Here are some links. In the 'audio archives' Lyme is even mentioned several times...
In 1975, Professor Richard Blakemore, also of Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, became intrigued by the strange behavior of some bacteria he was studying. Blakemore noticed that the bacteria always clustered at the north side of their culture dish. Even if he turned the dish so that they were at the south end and left it overnight, the next morning the bacteria were back at the north side. While such �magnetotrophic� bacteria had been described before, no one had ever done what Blakemore did next: he looked at them under the electron microscope. What he found was astonishing. Each bacterium contained a chain of tiny magnets! The magnets were actually crystals of the naturally magnetic mineral magnetite, the original lodestone of preliterate peoples. Somehow, the bacteria absorbed the soluble components from the water and put them together in their bodies as the insoluble crystalline chain.
Later studies showed that this arrangement was of value to these bacteria, which lived in the mud on the bottom of shallow bays and marshes. If they were moved by the tide or by storm waves, their magnetic chains were large enough (in comparison to their body size) to physically turn their bodies so that they pointed down at an angle corresponding to the direction of magnetic north. All the bacteria had to do was swim in that direction, and sooner or later they would be back in the mud. This was an interesting mechanism, but it did not contain any sophisticated information transfer. The bacteria did not �know� that north was the way to swim; they just did so. However, these observations opened up a much more interesting series of investigations.
More proof that Lyme is related to EMF exposure...
The Body Electric by Robert O. Becker, M.D. (pages 276-278)
Subliminal Stress
After Howard Friedman, Charlie Bachman, and I had found evidence that "abnormal natural" fields from solar magnetic storms were effecting the human mind as reflected in psychiatric hospital admissions, we decided the time had come for direct experiments with people. We exposed volunteers to magnetic fields placed so the lines of force passed through the brain from ear to ear, cutting across the brainstem-frontal current. The fields were 5 to 11 gauss, not much compared with the 3,000 gauss needed to put a salamander to sleep, but ten to twenty times earth's background and well above the level of most magnetic storms. We measured their influence on a standard test of reaction time - having subjects press a button as fast as possible in response to a red light. Steady fields produced no effect, but when we modulated the field with a slow pulse of a cycle every 5 seconds (one of the delta wave frequencies we'd observed in salamander brains during a change from one level of consciousness to another), people's reactions slowed down. We found no changes in the EEG or the front-to-back voltage from fields up to 100 gauss, but these indicators reflect major alterations in awareness, so we didn't expect them to shift.
We were excited, eagerly planning experiments that would tell us more, when we came upon a frightening Russian report. Yuri Kholodov had administered steady magnetic fields of 100 and 200 gauss to rabbits and found areas of cell death in their brains during autopsy. Although his fields were ten times as strong as ours, we stopped all human experiments immediately.
Friedman decided to duplicate Kholodov's experiment with a more detailed analysis of the brain tissue. He made the slides and sent them to an expert on rabbit brain diseases, but coded them so no one knew which were which until later.
The report showed that all the animals had been infected with a brain parasite that was peculiar to rabbits and common throughout the world. However, in half the animals the protozoa had been under control by the immune system, whereas the other half they'd routed the defenders and destroyed parts of their brain. The expert suggested that we must have done something to undermine resistance of the rabbits in the experimental group.The code confirmed that most of the brain damage had occurred in animals subjected to the magnetic fields. Later, Friedman did biochemical tests on another series of rabbits and found that the fields were causing a generalized stress reactions marked by large amounts of cortisone in the bloodstream. This is the response called forth by a prolonged stress, like a disease, that isn't an immediate threat to life, as opposed to the fight-or-flight response generated by adrenaline.
Soon thereafter, Friedman measured cortisone levels in monkeys exposed to a 200-gauss magnetic fields for four hours a day. They showed the stress response for six days, but it then subsided, suggesting adaptation to the field. Such seeming tolerance of continued stress is illusory, however. In his pioneering lifework on stress, Dr. Hans Selye has clearly drawn the invariable pattern: Initially, the stress activates the hormonal and/or immune systems to a higher-than-normal level, enabling the animal to escape danger or combat disease. If the stress continues, hormone levels and immune activity gradually decline to normal. If you stop your experiment at this point, you're apparently justified in saying, "The animal has adapted; the stress is doing it no harm." Nevertheless, if the stressful condition persists, hormone and immune levels decline further, well below normal. In medical terms, stress decompensation has set in, and the animal is now more susceptible to other stressors, including malignant growth and infectious disease.
In the mid-1970's, two Russian groups found stress hormones released in rats exposed to microwaves, even if they were irradiated only briefly by minute amounts of energy. Other Eastern European work found the same reaction to 50-hertz electric fields. Several Russian and Polish groups have since established that after prolonged exposure the activation of the stress system changes to a depression of it in the familiar pattern, indicating exhaustion of the adrenal cortex. There has even been one report of hemorrhage and cell damage in the adrenal cortex from a month's exposure to a 50-hertz, 130-gauss magnetic field.
Soviet biophysicist N. A. Udintsev has systematically studied the effects of one ELF magnetic field (200 gauss at 50hz) on the endocrine system. In addition to the "slow" stress response we've been discussing, he found activation of the "fast" fight-or-flight hormones centering on adrenaline from the adrenal medulla. This response was triggered in rats by just one day in Udinstev's field, and hormone levels didn't return to normal for one or two weeks. Udinstev also documented an insulin insufficiency and rise in blood sugar from the same field.
One aspect of the syndrome was very puzzling. When undergoing these hormonal changes, an animal would normally be aware that its body was under attack, yet, as far as we could tell, the rabbits were not. They showed no outward signs of fear, agitation, or illness. Most humans certainly wouldn't be able to detect a 100-gauss magnetic field, at least not consciously. Only several years after Friedman's work did anyone find out how this was happening.
In 1976 a group under J. J. Noval at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory at Pensacola, Florida, found the slow stress response in rats from very weak electric fields, as low as five thousandths of a volt per centimeter. They discovered that when such fields vibrated in the ELF range, they increased levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brainstem, apparently in a way that activated a distress signal subliminally, without the animal's becoming aware of it. The scariest part was that the fields Noval used were well within the background levels of a typical office, with its overhead lighting, typewriters, computers, and other equipment. Workers in such an environment are exposed to electric fields between a hundredth and a tenth of a volt per centimeter and magnetic fields between a hundredth and a tenth of a gauss.
Cross Currents by Dr. Robert O. Becker (pages 194-197)
In the early 1980's, the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine funded a very large, very expensive study at the University of Washington, under the direction of Dr. Arthur W. Guy. In this study, rats were continuously exposed to high frequency microwaves of 2.45 gigahertz (with one gigahertz equaling one billion hertz) at approximately 0.5mW/cm2, twenty times lower than the "safe" thermal level. The exposures lasted for as long as 25 months, and 155 different measures of health and behavior were collected.
This appeared to be a well-designed study that would finally answer the question of whether there were any potential hazards to human beings from chronic exposure to microwave radiation. According to Guy, "The results revealed few differences between the exposed and control rats, and those differences for the most part were either not statistically significant or came and went, suggesting that they may be due to chance."
However, one striking observation was noted: "Primary malignant tumors developed in eighteen of the exposed animals but in only 5 of the controls." Guy hastened to explain that the incidence of cancers even in the experimental group was actually lower than normally expected for the strain of rat used in the experiment. He suggested that no hasty conclusions should be drawn, and that a "consensus among most investigators that the only strong evidence for the hazards of microwaves is found at high levels of exposure" was still valid.
The project was wide reported in the press and discussed in scientific meetings, and it was the subject of a major article in the September 1986 issue of Scientific American (from which the quotes have been drawn). A significant aspect of the experiment was not reported either in that article or in the popular press - but at the scientific meeting at which the results of the study were first reported, it was revealed that all of the animals used, both experimental and control were gnotobiotic (a term meaning germ and virus free). This circumstance alone was responsible for a major part of the $5 million cost of the project.
To produce gnotobiotic animals, the young must be delivered by cesarean section under the strictest possible sterile operating-room conditions (much more stringent than those in use in operating or delivery rooms for people). Following delivery, the animals must be raised and then housed in totally sterile environments for the entire duration of the experiment. This type of environment is akin to the decontamination rooms used to house the astronauts after they returned from the moon, or the "bubbles" within which children born without immune systems are housed.
The use of gnotobiotic animals seems to be not only totally unnecessary, but undesirable as well. Neither we nor the laboratory rat normally live in a sterile world, devoid of bacteria or viruses. On the contrary, we live surrounded by uncountable numbers of organisms. We generally do not get sick unless we are injured and bacteria enter the body through the wound, or unless our immunity is inadequate and we get a communicable disease or infection. An experiment on germ- and virus-free animals has no relevance to the real world.
The point becomes even more apparent when two established facts are considered. First, present evidence shows that at least 20% of human cancers are caused by viral infection, and the percentage is considerably higher in animals. Therefore, animals that are maintained in a germ- and virus-free state have an incidence of cancer that is much lower than expected. Second, it is well-established that exposure to any abnormal electromagnetic field produces a stress response. If the exposure is prolonged, the stress-response system becomes exhausted, and the competency of the immune system declines to below normal. In such a state, animals and humans are more susceptible to cancer and infectious diseases.
One can only conclude that the experiment at Washington was deliberately designed to sharply reduce the incidence of cancer and infectious diseases in the exposed animals. There can be no other reason for the requirement that the animals be gnotobiotic.
Therefore, if we knew the facts in advance, and we wanted to set up a "scientific" project to expose animals to microwaves for a long time but were required to get negative results, we would have only one choice - to use germ- and virus-free test animals. Being gnotobiotic, both the unexposed control animals and the exposed experimental animals would be protected against the usual dangers of infection and cancer. In Guy's study, the fact that the experimental animals had a lower-than-normal incidence of cancer was totally expected.What was unexpected and highly significant was that even with this protection, the cancer incidence in the animals exposed to microwaves was four times that in the control animals.
The well-designed experiment that should have "proved" that microwaves are safe fell into a trap, and the nature of the trap is revealed by the types of cancer that occurred in the experimental group. These were mainly limited to cancers of the pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal glands; these cancers were accompanied by a significant number of pheochromocytomas, which are benign tumors of the adrenal glands. There were no significant cancers of any of the usual tissues.
The experiment was designed to prevent the results of stress, but the planners forgot that it would produce stress. Because stress resistance is mediated chiefly through the three glands just mentioned, we must conclude that the microwave exposure produced an extremely high level of stress - so much so that the resultant prolonged hyperactivity of these glands led to their becoming cancerous. Considering the extreme stress experienced by the exposed animals, if the animals had been normal (rather than gnotobiotic) the entire experimental group would have died of infection or cancer before the close of the experiment.
Some of the 155 biochemical determinations done by Guy in the course of the experiment confirm this interpretation. Plasma cortisol is one of the chemical substances produced by the adrenal glands under conditions of stress, and it was one of the substances measured in the experiment. At the start, the plasma cortisol was equal in both the control and experimental groups; in the early months of microwave exposure, however, cortisol in the experimental group was elevated above that in the control group, indicating that the experimental animals were reacting to stress. By the latter phase of the experiment, the plasma cortisol of the exposed animals was depressed below that of the controls, indicating that the stress response systems of the experimental animals had become exhausted. This result is exactly as expected for a condition of chronic stress.
These data, which are buried in a multivolume official Air Force report of the project, were first published in the July-August 1984 issue of Microwave News. The experiment was planned cleverly, but not cleverly enough. It clearly indicated that chronic exposure to microwaves at levels 20 times below the established safe thermal level, produced profound stress and ultimately exhaustion of the stress-response system. Because the experiment involved gnotobiotic animals, this resulted only in an increase in cancers of the stress-response glands. Had the experiment been performed under real world conditions, the result would have been catastrophic for the exposed group of animals.
I recommend anyone read the chapter in Robert Becker's book, The Body Electric, about EMFs. Most of the book is about regeneration which is interesting but the second to last chapter is devoted to EMFs. And this book was written in 1985! We've had plenty of warnings but Dr. Becker was attacked for bringing this information to light and finally his lab was shut down so he wrote this book, kind of hiding the EMF info in the back of the book, I think.
Lyme disease: The great masquerader
Linear Mode
