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Medical data is for informational purposes only. You should always consult your family physician, or one of our referral physicians prior to treatment.

Supplement to

The Art of Getting Well

Lyme Disease: Arthritis by Infection

Sources are given in references.

Authors of contributions\quotations are alphabetically arranged;

major author, if any, is underlined.

Dr. Clifford Aldridge, Pearl Bennette Atkin, RN, MA, CS,

Congressman Berkley Bedell, Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, Dr. Dorothea

M. Linley, M.D., Stephen E. Malawista/Responsible editor/writer

Anthony di Fabio.

for the Eradication of Rheumatoid Disease

AKA The Arthritis Trust of America

7376 Walker Road, Fairview, Tn 37062

Discovery of Lyme Disease

Rheumatoid Disease, consisting of perhaps a 100 differently

named medical phenomena, but all related to collagen tissue damage,

seems to be a response to many different factors: bacterial, viral,

protozoal, yeast/fungal, poor nutrition, allergy, aging (free radicals),

and so on.

While it is not unusual for a person to respond to a particular,

single treatment, most often what seems to be an incorrigible health

problem must be tackled from many different sources at once, say,

nutritional, medical, Candidiasis treatment, allergy treatment, chela-

tion therapy, and so on, depending upon the person and the problem.

The unlucky invasion of Borrelia burgdorferi, the spiral-shaped

microbe injected by at least one species of tick, Ixodes scapularis,

seems to present the unwitting victim with arthritic symptoms that

also may require more than one approach for its solution. Thank-

fully, if diagnosed early enough, antibiotics can easily wipe out the

invading population, and bring about swift remission. The antibiot-

ics, of course, should be heavily accompanied with Lactobaccilus

acididophilus

, so that while treating the Lyme Disease, we do not

also unwittingly bring about a fungal infection of Candidiasis. (See

"Candidiasis: Scourge of Arthritics," http://www.arthritistrust.org.)

There are about 1,200 cases of Lyme Disease reported across

the United States each year; there were 1,282 cases reported in

1993

The disease remains concentrated along the coastal plain of the

Northeast and mid-Atlantic region, in the upper Midwest, and along

the Pacific coast, although the disease has been reported in 32 states.

In a Science News report, researchers at the University of Con-

necticut Health Center in Farmington and the Yale-New Haven Hos-

pital examined 70 children diagnosed with Lyme Arthritis Disease

and found that only 53% actually harbored the Lyme-causing bacte-

rium Borrelia burgdorferi. The remaining 47% had been misdiag-

nosed.

There is some hysteria regarding the incidence of this disease,

possibly due to extensive adverse publicity. One thousand two hun-

dred and eighty-two cases out of perhaps several hundred thousand

with tick bites is not exactly a national emergency, although for a

percentage of those afflicted, the disease can be rather significant and

even catastrophic.

Lyme disease has the following symptoms: begins with red-

dened area that doesn't itch, resulting from tick bite, but expands over

time, measuring several inches across; clearing of bite area begins in

center resembling a bull's-eye; flu-like symptoms: chills, fever, fa-

tigue, joint and muscle pain; may develop a rash which disappears in

a few days; may have tingling and numbness; non-symmetrical joint

problems; other symptoms may also occur; sometimes sensitivity to

light, stiff neck, headache, sleepiness, mood changes and memory

loss; swelling and aching joints for months or years at a time; and

vague, migrating musculature pains.

The characteristics of Lyme Disease were first laid out in 1975

when two mothers were told that their children had Juvenile Rheu-

matoid Arthritis. The name "Juvenile" does not distinguish it's clini-

cal pattern from that of "Adult" Rheumatoid Arthritis, but merely

tells the parent that this horrible, crippling disease occurred in their

child, a fact that most parents already know. What is new is the

diagnoses of "Rheumatoid Arthritis."

These two mothers soon learned that many other children and

adults in their geographical region were afflicted with the same symp-

toms, and since Rheumatoid Arthritis does not seem to cluster in a

regional geography (with some exceptions), Dr. Stephen E. Malawista

of Yale University, among others, began to look for a source of this

apparently new disease. Dr. Malawista discovered that many of his

patients suffered from a range of symptoms among which might be

those that resembled Rheumatoid Arthritis. (See Arthritis: Osteoar-

thritis and Rheumatoid Disease Including Rheumatoid Arthritis,

http://www.arthritistrust.org.)

The cause of Lyme Disease was determined to be a microbe

transmitted by a tick, in this first instance, from the species Ixodes

capularis. Since this tick was common in the grasses and woods

near Lyme, Connecticut, the cluster of symptoms obtained the name

"Lyme Disease."

As Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, who worked for Rocky Mountan

Laboratories in Hamilton, MT, identified the damaging microbe, the

bacteria was named Borrelia burgdorferi, which is a spiral-shaped

bacterium similar in shape to the spirochete, Treponema pallidum,

which causes syphilis.

Since this initial set of discoveries, it's clear that similar diseases

have existed in Australia, Africa, Europe and Asia. It also appears in

every one of the states in the United States, but seems to be particu-

larly common in northern California, Minnesota and the northeast.

Infection by Borrelia burgdorferi occurs chiefly in the spring,

summer or early fall, because of the life cycle of the Ixodes scapularis

tick.

Three Stages of Borrelia burgdorferi

There are three stages to the life cycle of the tick, and at each

stage they have a favorite host, although they will attach themselves

to a range of animals, including the human species.

The larva from Ixodes scapularis emerges in the summer from

eggs deposited in the spring, and attaches itself to a small vertebrate

such as a white-footed mouse, where it imbibes its first meal. If this

mouse is infected with Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes, the larva

feeding on the mouse's blood will also become infected.

Later, the larva molts into a nymph, and during the spring and

summer (usually mid-May through July) this nymph takes a second

meal. If the larva was infected, it may very well pass Borrelia

burgdorferi onto its second host. This nymph is now about the size

of a small seed, say, a poppy seed, and is responsible for most human

infections.

The nymph molts again, and by October is the size of a larger

seed, like an apple's. Again this tick feeds, at least by winter or