My friend just asked me whether humans' effect on the environment has increased Lyme disease. She wondered whether killing large predators has allowed deer populations, and hence tick populations, to increase out of control.
I said I'd heard something about how clear-cutting forests in suburbia has increased Lyme.
Does anyone know anything about this?
Thanks,
Rebecca
Anything that man disturbs in our ecco system or bod. will have a reaction.
You know for every action there is a reaction.
Right down to overloading ourselves with antibiotics, disturbing our good bacteria we need for future protection.
Gather could also say knee jerk reaction.
Anything we overdo against our environment or ourselves will be an evential reaction.
Many of us now say if we knew how long we were going to live we would have taken better care of ourselves when young & thought we were invinsible. Yet, we were healthier till some doc`s got hold of us.
Gather gets back to everything in moderation, right down to how we treat ourselves or environment, eventially have consequences.
Also think we are sometimes too clean as studies have been finding out. Antibacterial everything. Also putting SPF in almost all skin products now finding too much it is actually causing skin cancer. I told people this after the PABA they took out due to cancer causing agent.
Allergies are so much more prevalent, we overdo the anitbacterial soaps, we need some of that bacteria.No protection from normal environment. Think our bodies eventially adapt, but we overdo everything.
Have fam member married japeneese girl. Full blooded. They actually have a Parasite that is passed on that keeps them safe from even gaining too much weight & protects them from certain diseases.. Think of the rice & carbs they eat with every meal. No real wt. gain.
I am a neat nick, being ill had to pull back alot. Have had less colds & flu than when everything had to be always clean.
So we do alot to ourselves, that is my problem with pushing long term antibiotics, what are long term effects. My kids had to been put on too many now showing effects yrs later.
ALSO, Off subject some I know, that is how my brain goe`s. DUH..
Anywho, Please try your best if on antibiotics not to do colonics or anything more to upset the flora & natural balance of bacterium we need in our system to protect yourself down the road from ending up with possibly colostomy or open to other diseases. Our system same as ecco if disturbed more than norm we eventially pay a price.
It is really sad that such long term antibiotics with some are used maybe too freely. Many end up relapsing eventially besides for having more problems.
Lousy disease, with lousy choices????
Sorry, went on but sometimes think we get too obsessed with our bodies, way more than yrs. back.
My grandfather lived to 97. No doc`s. Remember he had toothache went to his workbench took ole dirty plyers, pulled out tooth that was hurting. Never infection. His body built up it`s own immune system, by not tampering even when he had cold,rare, gone in couple days.
Go Figure???
Recently read latest report antioxident, pill form not food. Actually increases your cancer risks. So we pay big bucks to increase our risks...
Rambled enough it is great discussion topic for anyone who wants to add their 2 cents. In addition to those reasons, I have my own theory. As you know, ticks typically spend the winter in the burrows with the mice. In the 1960s & '70s (or thereabout), DDT in the environment caused the egg shells of raptors to become fragile, thus causing their numbers to decrease. The more mice you have, the more opportunities for ticks to complete their life cycle; therefore, more ticks looking for a blood meal. Coincidentally, I believe that's about the time Lyme disease became a problem. Once the balance in nature is disturbed, it is almost impossible to restore. That's my theory. Edit to add- [This message has been edited by cbb (edited 31 October 2004).]
Just read an article from a scientist who claims that if we increase our hunting of deer and reduce their numbers...we are actually increasing our chances of ticks biting us. On Nantucket Island here in MA they are going to increase the hunting season in the hopes of thinning the herd. Good question...will be intersted to read others' answers to that one!
[This message has been edited by HaplyCarlessdave (edited 31 October 2004).]
BE NICE NOW
Posted by cbb (Member # 788) on :
No, I can't answer your question for sure, but I definitely think your two suggestions have had an impact on the problem.
The deer population is exploding in lots of areas, & neighborhoods are spreading out into the deer habitat.
Since these birds feed on mice, the decrease in the number of predators caused an increase in the number of mice.
Result, more people with Lyme disease.
Kerryblue, sure am glad to hear from you. I've been so concerned about you since all the hurricanes slammed into Florida.
Are things beginning to get near normal?
Posted by nan (Member # 63) on :
To the extent that we have built our houses and expanded our territory into formerly unpopulated areas...I guess we have affected
our environment and so we increase our chances of getting lyme disease.
Maybe it will backfire...especially since
the only other fourlegged creatures there are rabbits, voles and mice.
Posted by HaplyCarlessdave (Member # 413) on :
Yes, the balance is WAY out of whack. Most of us can figure out what needs to be done, but find it really hard to actually take these steps. You're sO right, that it is cause and effect.. Cause and efffect are inseperable every cause has an effect. And every occurance or state-of-affairs has a cause.
The Buddha hypothesized that each individual is subject to the law of cause and effect, as is the entire human race and all other living beings, in a much deeper way than is initially apparent. This is the theory of "karma".
As a species, the karma we are, and have been, creating in our reckless overuse of resources, and exponential proliferation, is something it is more and more important to consider; the present path down which mankind trots has a VERY finite lenghth unless we start making new sorts of "causes" real quick.
The longer we wait the more suffering there will be! We might postponine it a little by killing each other more, but that itself is terrible suffering! (for the killers and the killees!)(and that uses even MORE resources, hastening the onset of tribulations...)
The prevalence of lyme and other diseases is aldo a collective effect of these causes. We need to wake up start down the road to sustainability. We can impose, to a certain degree, techno ...'solutions'...that will delay the crash. But again, "harder we come, the harder we'll fall"! We need to recognize our place and fill it and live to the max, not getting drawn up into the cycle of recursive destructive consumption. We need to leave our kids a better world, not the kind of pollution-sturated global infirmary towards which we are headed!
DaveS
(PS- it's stretching it not to put this in 'off topic', perhaps, but we might staret by voting for Kerry!)