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Lyme Disease, “The Great Imitator” on the Rise
By Suzanne Arthur | Published 03/4/2006 | Multiple Sclerosis | Unrated
Lyme Disease, ?The Great Imitator? on the Rise

Lyme disease is a multistage illness that attacks multiple systems in the body. Symptoms present as hundreds of other conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. Although widely known as presenting with a bullseye rash, a significant percentage of Lyme patients never develop the rash and instead complain of arthritic symptoms. Medical misdiagnoses are typical and even when a patient does get tested, test results are often unreliable. These factors have prolonged and intensified suffering that early diagnosis and treatment could have prevented.

Bacteria called spirochetes are responsible for the symptoms of Lyme disease. Spirochetes are pleomorphic; they can appear as two or more completely different organisms. This makes both diagnosis and treatment tricky because they are capable of shape-shifting and can fool both the body?s immune system and the antibiotics deployed to destroy them.

Whether Lyme disease sufferers choose conventional medicine or a more integrative, natural approach, the jury is still out on how best to treat the disease. Controversy over treatment fiercely divides the medical community, frequently leaving the patients in a quandary about choosing a path to health.

Literati stars Amy Tan and Rebecca Wells, among others, have suffered the alarming and severe effects of Lyme disease, as well as the utter frustration and danger of misdiagnoses. In May, 2005, ?Literati with Lyme,? featuring Tan, Meg Cabot, E. Jean Carroll and others appeared at New York University in a benefit for the Lyme Disease Association. In a presentation with Lyme disease expert physicians Brian Fallon and Joseph Burrascano, Jr., they discussed how the disease affected their work and their lives. ?

The writers rallied in their need to communicate to the American medical community the disturbing rise of this destructive disease. While many Lyme-illiterate doctors misdiagnose or tell patients their symptoms are all in their head, infection from Lyme disease climbs the charts. 20,000 - 22,000 new cases are reported annually in the U.S., up forty times the rate in 1982.

On July 25, 2005, Senior Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) introduced the Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Prevention, Education, and Research Act. If approved, the bill would fund and coordinate research on Lyme disease in the amount of $100 billion dollars annually. A large percentage of newly reported Lyme disease cases are in Connecticut, and the disease is named after the town of Lyme, Connecticut, where the first cases appeared in 1975. Though Lyme disease is often associated with the east coast or the Pacific Northwest, disease carrying ticks have been identified in every state.


As Dr Tod Thoring, N.D., of Pacific Natural Medicine and Skin Care Centre in Arroyo Grande, California, put it, ?the medical community is in its infancy in learning about this disease.?

Long-term prognosis for recovery seems to be better if the disease is caught and treated early on. Complications arise when patients? symptoms, which can often be bizarre, are dismissed or ignored by medical doctors who are simply uninformed about the dangers and increase of this endemic illness....

The rest of this article and many more on Lyme disease can be found at
http://www.lyme-disease-research-database.com

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Suzanne Arthur
Suzanne Arthur is the author of Start Your Own House Cleaning Business. Suzanne also has two other eBooks for Window Cleaning and Office Cleaning Businesses.These ebooks can be found at http://www.start-cleaning-business.com
 http://www.start-cleaning-business.com 

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