heiwalove
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6467
posted
so, do you think most fibromyalgia or MS or chronic fatigue patients actually have lyme disease? if you had to guess a percentage, what would it be?
my stepsister has had diagnosed MS for years now. her MRIs show "clear MS lesions," and each time i gently state that lyme lesions often appear identical to MS lesions, i just upset everyone in my family.
a good friend of mine has lupus; it nearly killed her in 2001. she seems to be doing really well at the moment, but still i wonder, and i worry.
my cousin has fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. she's the only one open to the possibility of lyme, but because she seems to have found a particular CFS/fibro protocol that works well for her, she's putting off lyme testing for the time being; despite my urging, she insists she's not ready.
any thoughts on any or all of the above are much appreciated.
posted
I have been dx w/ all those lyme and more. Some people take comfort in the ms dx because people will actually react as if something might be wrong w/ you if they here ms~ not so w/ lyme. Also my ms doc. said there is a new type of lesion that they can sometimes isolate that is specific to ms (I think this is new). I have 3 old lesions that could go either way. Do your sister and cousin live in more lyme regoins? Sorry if this is confusing~very sick. Blessings back~jackie
Posts: 61 | From Missouri | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Since none of the symptoms your kin have been told they have, MS, Fibro,Lupus, are diseases, the chance is high it is something else. Since Lyme is one of the things that have symptoms that is simular to those your relatives have been told they have, the chances are good that each could have Lyme. How good may depend on where they live and travel. Where their close kin live and travel. Chances of exposure seem to raise the probability, but shouldn't be an excluding factor.
Some well trained LLMDs are able to tell the difference. If they are not willing to even see a LLMD what difference does it make?
Posts: 219 | From Aubur,Al. USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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dmc
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5102
posted
Sorry to hear that bringing up lyme causes that reaction. I was diagnosed MS in 1988. Turned out lyme induced.
I knew MS is a disease for a symptom...ie: multiple lesions, so I knew my body was REACTING to a pathogen.
Never accepted that my immune system would just suddenly go haywire and attack myself. Needless to say, I believe at least 70% world wide MS is cause by lyme. Others caused by viral pathogens.
Chronic Lyme borreliosis at the root of multiple sclerosis--is a cure with antibiotics attainable?
Fritzsche M.
Clinic for Internal and Geographical Medicine, Soodstrasse 13, 8134 Adliswil, Switzerland. [email protected]
Apart from its devastating impact on individuals and their families, multiple sclerosis (MS) creates a huge economic burden for society by mainly afflicting young adults in their most productive years.
Although effective strategies for symptom management and disease modifying therapies have evolved, there exists no curative treatment yet. Worldwide, MS prevalence parallels the distribution of the Lyme disease pathogen Borrelia (B.) burgdorferi, and in America and Europe, the birth excesses of those individuals who later in life develop MS exactly mirror the seasonal distributions of Borrelia transmitting Ixodes ticks.
In addition to known acute infections, no other disease exhibits equally marked epidemiological clusters by season and locality, nurturing the hope that prevention might ultimately be attainable. As minocycline, tinidazole and hydroxychloroquine are reportedly capable of destroying both the spirochaetal and cystic L-form of B. burgdorferi found in MS brains, there emerges also new hope for those already afflicted. The immunomodulating anti-inflammatory potential of minocycline and hydroxychloroquine may furthermore reduce the Jarisch Herxheimer reaction triggered by decaying Borrelia at treatment initiation. Even in those cases unrelated to B. burgdorferi, minocycline is known for its beneficial effect on several factors considered to be detrimental in MS.
Patients receiving a combination of these pharmaceuticals are thus expected to be cured or to have a longer period of remission compared to untreated controls. Although the goal of this rational, cost-effective and potentially curative treatment seems simple enough, the importance of a scientifically sound approach cannot be overemphasised.
A randomised, prospective, double blinded trial is necessary in patients from B. burgdorferi endemic areas with established MS and/or Borrelia L-forms in their cerebrospinal fluid, and to yield reasonable significance within due time, the groups must be large enough and preferably taken together in a multi-centre study.
[ 19. October 2005, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: dmc ]
Posts: 2675 | From ct, usa | Registered: Jan 2004
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