posted
This is great thank for sharing. This has inspired me to share with our local papers here in NH the next screening dates and ask that they see the film and write an article as well.
Take Care, Ann
-------------------- If you keep doing nothing...nothing changes!
posted
copying top link here and breaking it up for neuros like me
Provocative movie does get `Under Our Skin'
By Lawrence Toppman Movie Critic
Posted: Friday, Mar. 20, 2009
Documentary about Lyme disease argues that the illness is often overlooked in America.
Running time: 104 minutes
betty's note ... 41 minutes removed from it!?
CORRECTION!!! my neuro lyme acting up; it's ALL THERE... i can't add any more!! i thought that meant 1 hr. 4 minutes...uffda! shaking head *************************************************
Rating: NR (some strong language).
Most moviegoers probably want documentaries to give us answers and tell us what to think. But some good ones merely ask questions and try to get us thinking at all.
``Under Our Skin'' is one of those. I'm not sure, even after two viewings, what I think of Lyme disease treatments or how I'd react if I were infected by a plaguey tick.
But I am sure I wouldn't assume that conventional wisdom about this disease must be right.
I'm told that the film's opening at Ballantyne Village this weekend marks its first theatrical run. *****************************************
Writer-director-cinematographer Andy Abrahams Wilson has been sending it to festivals, Tribeca and Silverdocs being the best known, where it's likely to find a receptive following.
(It won an audience award at the 2008 Asheville Film Festival.)
Yet the movie deserves a wider release, not just because Lyme disease is more widely spread nowadays but because the movie makes an important point about medical advice:
A patient needs to hear all sides of an argument, and doctors need to remain open to new possibilities.
That doesn't mean either party should be foolishly credulous, but they can't be utterly dogmatic, either.
Wilson sets up the story as a conflict between established medical authorities, who do not believe something called ``chronic Lyme disease'' exists, and practitioners who think it does and prescribe radical treatments to combat it.
(One of the latter, Dr. Joseph Jemsek, gets a hard time from a medical governing board in the movie. He has an office, Jemsek Specialty Clinic, in Fort Mill.)
The movie becomes most thought-provoking when it introduces us to patients who feel their lives have been ruined by doctors who haven't taken them seriously.
When traditional short-term treatments for Lyme don't work, those patients are told their illnesses are psychosomatic, or their ailment isn't Lyme-related.
They turn to unconventional treatments with varying success - Wilson focuses on happy endings here - and insurance companies often refuse to help.
Most disturbingly, Wilson makes a case that too many doctors have a financial stake in maintaining the status quo:
Of the 14 members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America who have written guidelines for Lyme treatment, six have patents on Lyme medication, four have been paid by insurers and nine (or their universities) have received money from Lyme vaccine manufacturers.
Emotional stories of recovery, including one from former major league outfielder Ben Petrick, may move you.
But the movie should make anyone curious about the way the medical community acts, and that's its main virtue.
Subscribe to The Charlotte Observer & Earn Miles.
IP: Logged |
bettyg
Unregistered
posted
i registered and awaiting confirmation before i can leave COMMENTS; i invite others to as well. ********************************************
IP: Logged |
bettyg
Unregistered
posted
I was 1st to comment ... 1000 CHARACTERS!! ****************************************************
This is a MUST see film! The real LYME DISEASE WAR of ILADS, our good chronic LYME LITERATE, LLMDS vs. IDSA, bad infectious drs. Who UNDERTREAT lyme up to 3 wks. Max antibiotics. Some give ONE pill only; you are CURED! HOGWASH!
Learn what chronic lyme, CL, patients go thru in order to get CORRECTLY diagnosed! Me, 39 years CL; 34.5 yrs. MISDIAGNOSED by 40-50 drs! UNACCEPTABLE!
15-18 states do NOT have chronic LLMDS so we must travel out of state. Our health insurance cos. Will NOT reimburse us for any of our lyme appts, labs, treatments.HOG WASH!
We are DISCRIMINATED AGAINST; why should hiv, aids, and cancer be reimbursed and LYME patients NOT?
IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic