Video Transcript
We begin with the Database open to the topic for Lyme Diagnosis
D’Coda: One of the other issues is that folks have learned, if you see a bull’s eye rash, that’s an indicator that you’ve been infected with Lyme disease. That’s called erethema migrans.
Deerwomon: Do you have a picture of that?
D’Coda opens one of the links about the rash found in “Lyme Diagnosis” to show the rash.
Deerwomon: Looks like a spider bite.
D’Coda: A spider bite is going to be more like this (pointing to the center) but you get this other ring around it. The rash isn’t always exactly like this. It can look completely different.
Deerwomon: Can you scroll that picture?
D’Coda: Yeah, here’s an expanding rash with a central crust.
And this is multiple rashes with disseminated infection:
Disseminated means its spreading. Once the borrelia is in the body it disseminates in 15 minutes to the central nervous system. It targets the central nervous system. Some doctors consider it a disease of the nervous system. When it really manifests there, it’s called neuroborreliosis.
(D’Coda scrolls through other types of rashes that may appear)
If you’ve been bitten any of these rashes could be an indicator that you have it, but the rash only shows up in about 37% of the patients.
This is one of those cases where the educated patient can be an enormous ally to the doctor in a team approach, working together.
2:55 – The patient history has to be taken. Here’s another point, I was always taught that if you have a good hard winter, ticks will be killed, and they won’t be as bad the next year. Well that’s not true! They can be alive and active all year. They’re not killed by freezing in the winter time. In fact, there is tick borne disease in the Arctic. Possible exposure to ticks is one of the important things to consider in taking a patient history.
3:33 – The physical exam, D’Coda reads through the following text from the database, provided by Dr. Horowitz who was able to correctly diagnose thousands of patients who had been misdiagnosed as having other diseases.
5:11 – Deerwomon – D’Coda, as you’re reading through this, how soon after the infection would these symptoms occur?
D’Coda: It depends on the terrane of the patient when they’re first infected and the condition of the immune system. That’s why, in prevention, we emphasize keeping the immune system strong because if its strong, the immune system can quickly eradicate the Lyme or minimize these symptoms. Generally, folks have had it for a while before they go to the doctor. So, these symptoms are probably coming along later.
Definition of terms is tricky. There’s acute Lyme, that means its brand new, baby Lyme taking hold of the body. That’s the time, if you hit it really hard with good antibiotic drugs or herbs you can knock it out, or a competent immune system can do that. These are things to look for at any time, especially any combination of these symptoms. (D’Coda returns to reading and commenting on the above symptoms).
10:40 – Because doctors have to exclude other conditions, that’s where you start getting the high medical bill, all the testing to rule out Lupus, seems like multiple sclerosis but it is?
10:57 – Deerwomon: You bring up a good point and its something I’d like to create more awareness around. If we’re starting to identify tick borne disease as an epidemic, then we need those folks that do lobbying to get the testing made free because I’ll tell you right now, I was tested for 5 different tick diseases. Fortunately, I was assisted, but that bill wanted to be $888.00. Not very many people are going to be able to have access to that. Make a mental note folks, if we’re having this epidemic we need free testing.
11:55 – D’Coda: Right. And there’s quite a bit more to it. When it was first discovered it was thought to be a form of arthritis. It was called Lyme arthritis. When it came to the attention of the government and they realized they needed to start researching it and funding that research, because they thought it was arthritis, they designated it as a form of rheumatology and put all of their money into the branch of rheumatology research. Everything that was explored was in the context of it being a form of arthritis.
It’s not their fault since it seemed like it was but now the doctors who are working with this and medical researchers thinking outside of that box, are recognizing that the research funds are in the wrong department. It shouldn’t be under rheumatology, it should be under immunology. It creates a form of autoimmunity (if we have time, we’ll get into that). So, the money is going in the wrong direction.
That’s why there’s been a lot of controversy about it in the medical arena because when a lot of money is spent to prove something is one kind of disease and the doctors have all been taught that’s what it is, there’s a reluctance to say “Whoops, made a mistake, sorry guys!” It’s a legitimate mistake but they’ve invested too much in it as a form of arthritis now. It does create arthritis-like symptoms.
In fact, even in rheumatoid arthritis, Lyme Literate doctors with patients coming to them with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, are doing cultures to find out if there’s borreliosis there. Sure enough, in some of them they find Lyme borrelia and when treated for Lyme, the rheumatoid arthritis goes away.
14:31 – One of the things that can be done, obviously we’re a long way from getting good diagnosis and treatment, the database is designed for self-care if we lack access to the kind of testing and doctors who will do it and work with us, we can go in here and learn enough about it to say, “You know, I think my ongoing fibromyalgia may be tick related. I remember getting sick after a tick bite”. Or, “I’ve done all the fibromyalgia protocols and I’m not getting any better.” In the database you’ll find several different protocols for treating Lyme and we’ll get into them in another show. You could just go ahead and use one of the safe, natural protocols to treat for Lyme. The good natural protocols are treating it in such a way as to treat other types of infections and will boost the health of the body and the immune system.
16:00 One of the main resources everybody should read on Lyme, a lot of medical doctors have read his work and have integrated it into their practice, is a book called Healing Lyme by Stephen Buhner (he’s done a revision of it). He knows how the herbal protocols work, how the antibiotics work, and how to combine them.
I wouldn’t use an antibiotic drug protocol unless I had a positive diagnosis.
16:46 – If you get a tick bite – Andrographis is an herbal tincture you can mix with green clay and apply it over the tick bite. Its one of the herbs used in Buhner’s protocol.
17:20 – Lyme Prevention – D’Coda pulls this up in the database.
One of the things Buhner recommends as a preventative is, if you live where Lyme where you know Lyme is being transmitted and you’re potentially exposed to ticks, that you take 1,000 mg of Astragalus every day (based on 150lb weight, adjust). I do like taking breaks, even on things like this, just so the body doesn’t get too used to it (losing its effectiveness), but don’t take it when there’s a fever. It boosts the immune system to keep it on the ready in case it encounters something like this. Fortunately, it’s not expensive.
18:52 – Where to find a Lyme Literate doctor – D’Coda shows in the database where to find this, just look up “Find a Lyme Literate Doctor”.
19:06 – Its estimated there are 30 million undiagnosed cases of Lyme in the US.