Ignorance of a Plague

Doing research for Lyme disease, I found an extremely detailed report, by Dr. Scott Taylor from 2004. The title of his report is very agreeable to those suffering with Lyme, "Lyme Disease (Borreliosis): A Plague of Ignorance Regarding the Ignorance of a Plague". Link Here

Through this report, his primary objective is to "help inform the layman and the medical community about the extremely complex infection called Lyme disease." He wrote this following his own diagnoses and experience with fighting the disease.

"The disease affects every tissue and every major organ system in the body."

"Physicians not familiar with the complex clinical presentation of Lyme disease frequently misdiagnose it as other disorders such as: Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Motor Neuron Disease (ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis -Lou Gherig's disease), Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS) and numerous other psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety."

Lyme disease is something that most will agree that they have heard of, however the majority don't realize the impact it has on the body, most especially the impact following years of misdiagnoses.

"This report is an urgent warning for everyone. Lyme disease is devastating the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals and we are all at risk. Many patients are suffering with chronic Lyme disease and continue to be misdiagnosed and mistreated. In many cases of Lyme disease, a correct diagnosis doesn’t occur until after several months or more often many years of suffering with the disease. By then it has caused severe illness, disability and permanent damage. The disease is widespread and the prevalence is significantly higher than reported by health officials."

Dr. Taylor extends further into awareness with key factors regarding why Lyme is misdiagnosed and mistreated.

One very important point is that "there are more carriers of LD (Lyme disease) than just the deer tick".

Regarding treatment Taylor reports,

"Patients need longer and more comprehensive treatment. The standard therapy of 4 -6 weeks of antibiotic treatment is not sufficient to treat chronic Lyme disease. Chronic Lyme disease is often a life-long illness. Months, years, and often indefinite antibiotic therapy may be necessary to manage the disease. Ignorant physicians often use the standard treatment and consider the patient cleared of Lyme disease afterwards. Often these patients are not treated long enough to clear the stubborn Borrelia from the body. So, when the standard regimen of antibiotics is finished, the patients relapse with Lyme symptoms soon after the residual Borrelia reemerges. Unfortunately, the relapse is often not recognized by doctors and the patients are misdiagnosed with a different disorder. Not only does treatment be directed at the infection; it must also manage inflammation, help eliminate the BLPs produced, support the immune system, and many other associated problems such as hormone deficiencies."

Did you know that the first case of borreliosis in the U.S. was made by Dr. Rudolph Scrimenti in 1970? It wasn't until the early 1980's that it was named Lyme disease. Not a wonder there are few physicians with the knowledge regarding the disease. After all, how often are text books updated?

"Spirochetes are very difficult to grow (fastidious), identify, and study in the laboratory. In the laboratory we still cannot grow the spirochete that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum. This makes it very difficult to perform research and develop better diagnostic tests and therapies for borreliosis. Borrelia species grow extremely slowly; they even grow slower than many fungi and mycobacteria. Their growth rate is also slower than Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis. Borrelia’s slow growth partially explains its ability to cause chronic disease and the difficulty identifying it in the laboratory.

Borrelia exists in three different life forms: 1) the cyst, 2) the spheroplast or "L form", which doesn’t have a cell wall (commonly called: cell wall deficient (CWD)), and 3) the typical spiral-shaped bacteria form that has a cell wall and flagella as seen in figures 1 & 2. Spirochetes have a unique mode of motility that allows them to easily travel through tissues of the body. By rotating their axial filament (endoflagella) the flagellum rotates causing the spirochete to actually move in a cork-screw fashion. This mode of motility allows spirochetes to literally "screw" themselves into and through the tissues of the body. They can also contract like a spring and move through tissue as they uncoil. Spirochetes hide their flagella from the host’s immune defenses, which are normally antigenic and would trigger an immune response if detected."

Did you think that ticks were bugs? I did.

"Ticks are bloodsucking external parasites that feed on humans, wild and domestic mammals, and birds. Ticks are not insects; they are 8-legged arachnids along with chiggers, spiders, and mites."

"Ticks are carried by a number of different host animals, not simply deer. The hosts for adult ticks are numerous and include: fox, coyote, dogs, cats, cattle, rabbit, skunk, raccoon, rats, squirrels, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and humans. Nymphs get on many of these same animals as well as larger animals typical for adults. Ground nesting birds including bobwhite quail, pheasants, turkeys and chickens are also tick hosts. Forty-nine species of migrating birds have been found to carry ticks, transporting them large distances and contributing to the national spread of Lyme disease. Potential minor vectors for Borrelia species include: chiggers, mosquitoes, biting flies and fleas. Cases of LD being contracted from infected pets are well documented; likely due to the pet bringing infected ticks into the home. Borrelia can also be transmitted in utero from an infected mother to a child during pregnancy. Congenital transmission can cause miscarriages, severe neurological disabilities, or other major system dysfunctions to the baby. Other modes of transmission probably exist that we are not aware of. I am personally concerned that transmission may occur through blood transfusions without authorities knowing about it."

According to Taylor, in order to understand how to treat Lyme disease, you must understand how borrelia causes disease. A key factor regarding borreliosis is Bacterial Lipoproteins (BLPs), which have a key component, Pam3cys. This triggers "an innate immune response that cascades into the disease borreliosis...The inflammation triggered by the fat-soluble BLPs toxins is responsible for most, if not all symptoms of borreliosis."

TO BE CONTINUED...

For the next half of his findings and summary of his report, please see next week's Friday Lyme disease post.

Stimulus Package Details. American Dream?

Where are you going to spend your rebate check?

Facts regarding the controversial economic stimulus package as found on the IRS Internet site at www.irs.gov are summarized here.

Stimulus checks begin being mailed in May, 2008.

To qualify, you must file your 2007 tax return.

Checks will be available via direct deposit if that is the option provided on your 2007 income tax return.

Eligibility.

"In most cases, the payment will equal the amount of tax liability on the return with a maximum amount of $600 for individuals ($1,200 for taxpayers who file a joint return) and a minimum of $300 for individuals ($600 for taxpayers who file a joint return).

...Low-income workers who have earned income above $3,000 but do not have a regular filing requirement must file a 2007 tax return to receive the minimum stimulus payment. Similarly, Social Security recipients, certain Railroad retirees, and those who receive the veterans’ benefits mentioned above must file a 2007 return in order to notify the IRS of their qualifying income."

"Parents and anyone else eligible for a stimulus payment will also receive an additional $300 for each qualifying child. To qualify, a child must be eligible under the Child Tax Credit and have a valid Social Security number."

Note: Limited to those with Social Security Numbers only! Please read all exclusions.

Once U.S. citizens receive the package rebate checks, instead of paying off debt, they are reportedly going to turn around and spend most of it at places like Wal-Mart.

What is wrong with shopping at Wal-Mart, you ask? For some, it remains their only option. This is understood.

However, the money spent at Wal-Mart will most likely go straight to China.

Here is the reason that the rebates may most likely go straight to China if spent at Wal-Mart. Click Here For Link To Article

"China is Wal-Mart's most important supplier in the world. The overseas procurement home office in Shenzhen, a city of South China's Guangdong Province, has played a key role in the firm's global purchasing business.

Wal-Mart shifted its overseas procurement centre from Hong Kong to Shenzhen in February 2002 to better serve the purchasing and exporting business.

"If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China's eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada," Xu said."

The word is getting out about our free trade issues, however. More Americans are realizing that our trade issues are directly affecting our economy. For instance, the jobs that are now at stake regarding the $40 billion contract for Air Force aerial refueling tankers that has been awarded to a partnership between Northrop Grumman and the European parent of Airbus, instead of the American manufacturer, the Boeing Company (refer to this link to The New York Times article.

An article on CNN.com relates the feelings of the American population quite eloquently. Click Here For Link To Article

"We are a nation crawling into a fetal position, cramped by fear that America has lost control of its destiny in a fiercely competitive global economy. The fear is mostly about jobs lost overseas and wages capped by foreign competition."

"Median household income in 2006, at $48,201, was barely ahead of where it was eight years earlier. So the prospect of a recession has made the anxious middle class even more so. Coming in a presidential election season, the approaching storm clouds have turned the economy into the No. 1 issue on the campaign trail. Fear is a potent force in American politics, and Democratic Party leaders have astutely tapped into rising voter unease about globalization."

"No matter which candidate or which party takes control of the White House one year from now, free trade will - in the words of Hillary Clinton - take a "time-out." That's because Congress - which will most likely remain in the hands of the Democrats regardless of who wins the White House in November - took away President Bush's ability to negotiate trade deals by quietly letting so-called fast-track authority lapse last summer. And lawmakers won't hand that power back to any new President - Democrat or Republican - without major new federal programs (and new trade rules) designed to ease the stress of globalization on U.S. workers."

What do you and I do in a time like this?

For one, we stop borrowing money. Additionally, we remain aware of the economy, the trade, and the large companies that are involved. We make wise choices regarding our spending so that the money can actually bolster the U.S. economy, instead of a foreign economy.

On the Glenn Beck show on CNN, he has addressing this issue head-on. Click Here for Transcript Page

"Once again, our politicians have shown that needlessly spending billions more of your tax dollars has a bipartisan appeal. They can come together on spending your cash."

"For once, I really wish our do-nothing Congress would have actually lived up to their name. Your children’s future is much, much worse off tonight...."

"...does anyone know what values these parties stand for anymore? I used to think that Republicans stood for smaller government and free markets, but that’s almost laughable now. Under this package, the people who paid no income tax will get full, as they like to call them, rebates. My grandfather would have called them what they really are, handouts."

"...it allows government-chartered lenders like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to double the size, or almost, of the loans they’re allowed to buy. Never mind that those companies may have over $16 billion in bad loans already on their books, which are your books."

"Deficit, deficit. Where I have heard that deficit? Oh, I remember it was from the Congressional Budget Office, which just announced...the 2008 deficit is expected to grow to $250 billion, and that is without the stimulus package or a recession factored in."

"Free markets create wealth. Governments destroy it. Look around the world if you want proof. Twenty percent of the countries that have the most economic freedom have five times more wealth per person than the bottom 20 percent."

"STEPHEN MOORE, SENIOR ECONOMIC WRITER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: ... We haven’t talked about the housing component. It’s, you know, I call this Uncle Sam subprime lender. Because what we’re going to do in this package, now that all the banks have finally smartened up and said, you know, "Maybe we shouldn’t be making these -- these loans to people who can’t repay them, who don’t have good credit ratings, who can’t make a down payment...

And now under this package what’s going to happen is the Federal Housing Administration, which is insured by you and me, Glenn, and Amity, we’re now going to be the subprime lenders. And you’re going to have another catastrophe in housing. But now, it’s not going to be the banks that are going to be losing money; it’s going to be the U.S. taxpayer."

"BECK: Yes. Stephen, I don’t know if you saw in "The New York Times," but Hillary Clinton revealed herself today as a spooky socialist, where she was talking about all the things that she wants to do, and she wants massive control on the markets and bigger, stronger government."

"MOORE: Yes. And this is my point. I mean, Hillary Clinton, this wasn’t yesterday, but a few months ago, she said America can’t afford all my ideas. And finally, she said something truthful."

Now that the question of the economy (which was in trouble before Bush came into office) is now in play, who do we vote for during these Presidential Elections? This is a seriously, thought provoking, mind-bending, brain-teasing, keep-you-awake-at-night question. The candidates certainly haven't lessened the stress. Instead of thinking of what will sound good coming out of their mouths, they may want to start thinking about what will actually function on paper going through the U.S. Congress to make changes once they are in office.

Sources:
www.irs.gov
www.chinadaily.com.cn
CNN.com
www.nytimes.com
The Glenn Beck Show on CNN
www.glennbeck.com

Sabbath Day, March 9, 2008

When things have become so chaotic lately, the words that have come to my mind are, "Be still and know that I am God".

I think of these words in the chaos and begin to see the beauty. I see the blue in the sky, realize the beautiful view I have of the Rocky Mountains (on all sides of my home), and hear the beautiful song of the geese as they fly overhead.

God has placed marvelously beautiful things on this earth. He wants us to notice them and enjoy them. Through doing this, I find peace among the chaos.