Lyme/Borrelia is a complicated topic in health care, and it affects MASSIVE numbers of people, most of whom do not know that their symptoms are partly due to "the bugs" being present in their systems. Many know there is a connection suspected between autism and Lyme / Borrelia (and the other related, similar "bugs"), and with the current rates of autism skyrocketing, and the typical parents for that group of young people being motivated to learn what causes it and what to do about it, awareness levels rose more. It is an extensive topic to learn about, and so I hope to have pared things down for YOUsers finding this article / thread.

I want to start by impressing upon everyone how common it is to have Lyme existing in people: the source at this link says 80% of people in the US, and that is what I have been guestimating once I learned that it was a cofactor in all the progressive neurological diseases and autoimmune disorders, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue / ME (which really comes back to looking at Epstein-Barr Virus once I studied the current information). And it explains well, the reason you see the autism population having a lot of Lyme and how that is 'loading' their bodies down more so that the interventions they are doing aren't as effective, unless they also address the Lyme load too. This is a very short article, well written, and at a very interesting website I've selected to link to at this point; you will see it has sections about GMOs, synergistic heavy metal burdens, and electromagnetic frequencies as prime culprits interfering with wellness.  arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/the-link-between-autism-and-lyme-disease/

You will find resources, below, including a link to a website by a well-respected Lyme specialist in the US, David Horowitz, MD, who has a symptom checklist that is helpful in determining if a person should suspect they have a variety of the 'bugs', such as Borrelia / Lyme. And as you'll read, below, the exact terms that ideally should be used for the condition is debated or rather discussed by those in the field. And then there's the interrelated 'biofilm', which is different than Borrelia bacteria. They're kind of codependent organisms to use a 'psyche' word. I'm going to abbreviate it L/B sometimes, meaning Lyme/ Borrelia. 

Even NHL (Non-Hodgkins lymphoma) might have some connection with L/B (Lyme / Borrelia) . Many people have been diagnosed by their medical providers as having This, That, or The Other, and treated with BigMedicine's approaches for the pain, fatigue, spasms, endocrine system dysfunction, or neurological symptoms, etc., but nobody's told them about the Lyme / Borrelia connection. I like to mix things up a bit with what I provide to people as linked resources, so here's the Lyme Australia  website, which has great history overview and a world-wide focus, more than most resources that I've seen: www.lymeaustralia.com/history--borrelia-species.html .  

From what I've gathered over the years, there tends to be a "marketing-ness" to the term 'Lyme' and it is somewhat concerning. I wouldn't be concerned if it didn't imply that the whole disease wave started as recently as what is documented from Old Lyme, Connecticut. Hence my calling it Lyme / Borrelia here, and having the topic having the Lyme word mixed in with these other terms, and providing the information below about the various words. This is actually a VERY old bacteria, there is extensive history for hundreds of years, and it has been found in the tissues of very old bodies found as 'icemen'.  

Remember that it was not until fairly recent times that we were able to understand how things are communicated/ transmitted. Do we really know, still, when someone's contagious when they have the 'common cold', for example? So the 'programming' we had in our minds about "Lyme" and tick-borne diseases, it turns out, was likely very limited and so right up front I want to say that other bugs transmit these bugs, and people transmit them to each other. Pets and livestock then interact with humans, and vice versa. So open up your minds right away to what you're going to learn as you go forward from here. 

Briefly, the history overview: "Lyme", the term, comes from Old Lyme, Connecticut (USA) which is near Plum Island, where the US government had a research facility for biological weapons, allededly (which is well documented and not at all 'debated'; some believe it's quite established they had a shooter there to protect it from anyone coming along and interfering, even).  Because of the sensational aspect of this aspect of the Lyme story, some people get to thinking that this is where it all started for the United States. But that is not true in terms of the disorders that are caused by these types of bugs in general. I wanted to establish that right up at the top of the topic, too.  

In the "Lyme literate community", it is generally considered, or perhaps "universally" is a more accurate term to use, that the programs at Plum Island created a new strain of the bacteria, which inadvertently or intentionally was allowed to spread outside of their biological weapons research facility on Plum Island. Take that with a grain of salt, and don't shoot the messenger -- I'm just trying to give YOUsers a snapshot of what you'll find if you go looking around for information on the Internet. Others will say this is really difficult to prove and distracts people from what really is important, and I'll agree with that. So, don't get too distracted if you're wanting to find out what's going on for you or someone you advocate for, and what to do about it.  

I will leave further investigation up to YOUsers to do on your own about that, and to form your conconclusions about intentions and Plum Island. But -- seed planted and you're now 'aware' about that aspect, become further educated if you wish. For now, let's move on. (As Lumigrate's MD expert on fatigue and chronic illness, environmental illness specialist Marc Spurlock, MD has always signed off here at Lumigrate, his motto is There is no one to blame .... There is 'take action'. I wanted YOUsers to have a little overview, however.

I like to be SURE that all people learn about the "Load Theory" topic that Dr Spurlock provided to us at Lumigrate in the timeframe he was helping us create content to get the word out to people about what causes these conditions, and what to do about them. (And  know of him as a resource, naturally.) Here's the link, it's titled "Are You Loaded?....." and relates what he views as the contributors to why he's seeing so many more people with environmental illnesses -- young, and old and in between. 

www.lumigrate.com/forum/are-you-loaded-what-i-see-causing-illnesses-soar-children-through-elderly

Another resource I also liked is the blogsite at the following link, because it is written by an adult in a family where it turned out ALL members had Lyme and they're now all undergoing treatment, and she relates how they're doing that. And what all they went through.  But the history information presented included the interesting Black Forest (in Europe) history, where people in different valleys had slightly different manifestations of symptoms -- the savvy medical expert the people would present to could figure what valley they were from based on their presentation of symptoms! lymeinchronicillness.com/ 

This was most interesting to me because I have been asked by people from the mountainous area I grew up in if anyone else sees how many are ill in these various conditions that don't really seem to be the same outward cause. And in one of the many 'coincidences' of the past decade, I sat at a concert and chit chatted about who we were and where I was 'from' with what turned out to be one of Colorado's biggest environmental illness researchers who said 'oh, that's a well known area for environmental illness'; really? Why hasn't anyone in the area ever been notified about that (to my knowledge). I'm not sayin' it was vector borne diseases at all, I'm just sayin' that they have studied the area and knew there were a lot of people ill from 'environmental illness' there, I didn't get details.

I just want YOUsers to understand how these things are being studied and not disclosed in places that most people have access to. There are some tremendous, motivated researchers in their homes looking into all kinds of things thanks to the powers of the Internet increasingly (and hopefully it stays a strong place to get information without censorship).  So as you look at information about this and other subjects which have some monkeybusiness going on like this one has, consider all that. The conventional research programs and places that publish it have been corrupted over the years and are not really reliable anymore for honest information. Meaning that the researchers who cannot get their research published because it goes 'against the grain' of what the less than ethical and honest organizations are wanting the public to know have to start their own journals or find ways of getting their message out to the public. And they're often having stones and dispersions cast at them in order to keep them from being trusted and their message heard. Go and watch videos of the providers, see if you think they're sincere or not, and decide what information YOU are going to believe. That's a new skill we as consumers have to develop. I encourage you to do so, it will benefit your wellness if you do. 

Perhaps other YOUsers reading this will have a similar observation if they think about where they have lived and the people they have known. Also, when I got what is now called chronic fatigue syndrome in 1989, I was told there was a lot of it in the area for some unknown reason. You'll see if you view Under Our Skin that the Tahoe / Truckee area is shown, for some reason they got in the mainstream media with their outbreak and Fort Collins, Colorado where I was in the 1980s to mid '90s did not. I have been unable to find anything on the Internet about it, and even tracked down the doctor who told me that who now claims to not recall that information (which had to do with there being a potential 'retrovirus' as well.)

I have to think that my having experienced these things and can recall and relate them to others might be of value. Hence I include these details here. Yes, we aren't going to have a short, sweet topic to cover Lyme / Borrelia / biofilm at Lumigrate! Be sure to view the additional Comments underneath that I've added more specific information as it comes along and 'fits'. The 'story stuff' that I put in at the top is enjoyed and helps many to apply the information to themselves and see it differently. And if people don't want it, skimming over is certainly a good option. 

I hope you're willing to take the time and use the energy to read over a more lenghty topic than many people present. Basically this is a difficult and important topic and if a person isn't going to be investing in time/energy to glean a thorough understanding, based on how I present it, then they're not likely going to be a person who would roll up their sleeves the way millions are to address challenging health conditions. It's not everyone who can ultimately do what the Lumigrate YOU! model shows, which is put themselves and their health (or those of others they advocate on behalf of) as the center of importance, building a good team around that they've really worked to select (and that can include education providers not just service providers). I hope our information at Lumigrate helps people to do that who wouldn't otherwise.  Hence, I do things a little differently. 

So this complication and confusion about Lyme, that I'll call Lyme/Borrelia or L/B here, has had a history within the conventional medicine system that's unfortunately is 'history repeating itself'. But this time, there were more people aware of history and the monkeybusiness involved. I like to call conventional medicine 'inside the box', and more recently I've seen it being called 'organized medicine', and like that expression. I remind people it's inside the box and 'the system' where all the power is.  The allopathic, conventional system finds ways of getting out of addressing things: they don't teach providers about things they don't want them to know, they create monkeybusiness to keep their agenda in motion, etc. -- it's how the game is played. You can't 'blame them' for that, if you think of them simply as businesses -- profit is the #1 priority. Yes, once a person figures this out there's essentially a grief cycle that occurs ... but ultimately taking action is what will allow a person to be in control of the situation and not be a victim of the system. 

We ALL have the 'outside the box' options, even if it's learning at free places on the Internet and DIY when it's possible and safe to do. Others will have more financial resources than others to pursue other things. My suggestion is to always look at what you DO HAVE at your disposal and to not focus on what is impossible at this time, that will be a defeating situation.  It's really our choice if we're exclusively using medical care via insurances provided to us by our jobs (which is the "in the system" stuff).  Sometimes people are using insurance or health care provided by the government/system, particularly in the US if we're older or are disabled. Services outside the box costs money -- not as much money as inside the box, typically. More traditional medicine healers and those outside the box of modern convention are usually scraping by financially, or 'getting by and not trying to get rich', operating as they do for a variety of reasons that I'll not go into here. In 2013 Lumigrate's "Grate Groove of the Grand Valley" collaborated to help a patient who wanted chiropractic care and didn't realize her clinic for the underinsured provided a mechanism to waive the copayment for those who didn't have the funds. By the time I learned what to teach her and she was proactive with the clinic, they were requiring flu vaccines or masks to be worn and the volunteering chiropractors refused to do either, so she was unscheduled for this very desired care.

So I arranged for the DC / chiropractor who had been one of those in the situation, who had provided some content at Lumigrate in 2012, to collaborate with me and others in providing services to the gal, and at the end of the year we tabulated our total 'cost' -- $10,000, and the increase in function she had was incredible. She is now on the very long list for vocational rehabilitation through the state of Colorado, but is physically and mentally capable of returning to working full time work. However, 'the system' gets wrapped around a person and it's difficult to navigate back out of, and you know how hard it was to get into all the programs for subsidized housing, food, health care ... and it's a risk, literally, to try to 'get back on the horse'. In her case she had  a work-related injury but had already had symptoms of what was later diagnosed as fibromyalgia. So how come if it would only cost another $10,000 to have a patient have chiropractics, movement therapy, health coaching, teaching of how to be a medical consumer (YOU! model), and their dentures updated so they fit and they appear to others without missing teeth, doesn't the system incorporate these providers and services? "Just sayin'!"...... (You can read about Project Billie Green if you Search at Lumigrate's search bar. It was win/win/win -- Billie was hiking mountaints and plugged in to get voc rehab, which she had been unaware of, and the providers all learned what could happen to ONE patient who was willing to put in the time and effort if the $-factor was removed from the treatment equation. And we would have had more success had we been able to officially be dovetailed with 'the system' where she got her primary care and medications and other services but we were two separate groups with only the patient relating to us what the other system/group was doing with her. But it was as close as we could get to it on our own and it was a very productive year for learning and growth.)

This is the health 'care' industry, and there are standards of practice with ethics involved: "Do no harm" being three simple words that are the 'standard'. "Is it the right thing to do for the patient?" being a 'universal law' in my mind, and one which I operated under, I hope, every day that I was working inside the box, which was over a decade. Some have even 'pledged' this when earning their wings, so to speak.  I had innumerable hassles with management and recently communicated with one of my former coworkers who now works in another state and was punished for speaking out about mileage reimbursement changes. They'd receive half the previous amount (which was what the IRS' rate is for mileage for business people) and they got a gas card for their fuel. Meaning you don't have a choice who you're getting your fuel from as a consumer.  It just whittles away and drives providers away when they're able to change their bills, their lifestyle and their vocation. (Or they retire early too, and retired is a vocation I suppose, if you're getting income.) 

I asked "If you knew what the realities were of working in the medical field, would you have opted to do all you did to get into the program you did and graduate, do internships, etc.?" People are leaving medicine in droves, it's really quite a problem for the people who rely upon the medical workers, particularly those with experience. Sometimes they try to get training in things 'outside the box', as this therapist did before we worked together in 2001/2, but finding enough people who see how the system works and that paying for things out of pocket 'outside the box' is sometimes necessary to solve a problem. Otherwise you'll continue to have the problem and be dealing with symptoms and symptom control which is what conventional, allopathic 'in the box' medicine's strong suit is. 

People with all the various conditions not being addressed appropriately within 'the box' truly suffer for it when they or their loved ones have these various conditions. I saw a child last year that is part of a family I've known for a long time who is just being put through ongoing daily horrors, which everyone around is affected by whether in public or private. The resources are there to go outside the box but the realization about the system isn't there for those who make the decisions. Or the realization is there but then the lure of the insurance keeps the focus on that since that's 'already paid for'. I know how that goes, my health went backwards in the years I had insurance provided by employers who weren't paying me as much as I'd made in the past due to the system's downturn in the late 1990s related to how Medicare reimbursed therapy services. Many don't know that in 1999 50% of therapists were not employed as therapists! But I'm grateful today for how that all occurred, because I got to see what happens when people have insurance and then no funds for anything outside the box. I learned -- the hard way! 

I like to remind people the veterinary medicine business has the same problems and solutions in its midst as human medicine does. I had a cat come my way in 2009 which I knew was some sort of teacher to me, I just was trying to figure out exactly what. Then in 2012 she started having neurologic episodes and I was trying to get to the bottom of it, feeling the inside the box DVMs were way off course in seeing what it was, a homeopathic expert didn't know either, referring me to Jackson Gallaxy who was now too busy to do consults as he's a big Animal Planet star .... and ultimately learning from the privately owned pet supply owner of THE veterinarian who knew what it was and what to do about it.  (And in August of 2014, I am editing this topic and can include that I just found information from a veterinary researcher I happened to know back when he was a dog expert. Turns out he got into feline research after I left Fort Collins and a topic I saw posted on Facebook was about his research findings about cats and guess what? Seems it's possible her symptoms were brought on my tick-born bacteria that you'd call borrelia / Lyme / etcetera. Thanks to my beautiful, special cat who had such a tormented time sometimes due to the particular symptoms she had which made her lose her sense of reality, I had my radar up about the 'dots' between human and feline (and canine) disorders that might have a common thread and we're perhaps 'codependent' the way Borrelia and biofilm are!  Do people having sex reinfect each other? Do animals who have the bugs reinfect their owners? Are human guardians infecting their pets? What's the relationship? Food for thought.  

That took me 14 months to look into her issues, to the best of my abilities, and inretrospect I was not putting enough priority on it as I did NOT understand the severity of the situation and that it was progressive neurological in nature, and I certainly had not thought that it could have this type of 'bug' behind it. Because she was fine and sweet and her normal self and then loud noises or surprises, or people or cats coming near the house would set her off, but only sometimes. Diet seemed to play into it, I was trying all these different things, as I would imagine many readers will 'relate to'.  

I learned a great deal, mostly because I started seeing the similarities to her symptoms (hyperesthesia, a very severe case with seizures and loss of reality with attacking owners, two cases have been in national news recently.) She was amazing when my father was dying of Lewy body disease and she wasn't very affected then, I was unaware of early symptoms that would have let me know what to watch out for. But I wonder if they're looking at some sort of disease like L/B being part of feline hyperesthesia. Perhaps this planting of the seed will be read by someone who will know or think about things differently.

Here's a resource online about Lyme/Borrelia in veterinary:  www.vetsecure.com/conifervet.com/articles/9 . This is not a veterinarian I have ever worked with or met, though in 1975 when the founder of the practice (not the current DVM) came to Conifer we took a cat to him and I was told it was a pregnant female with 2-3 kittens he could palpate. No kittens ever came, so back to our usual vet we went. "Come on, girl, come here and look at this (squeezing the genitalia of a neutered male)" I was 15, so embarrassed. But talk about lessons in how far off doctors can be!

However, that new vet went into some outside the box things after that and became very well known for it. This was in about the same timeframe as a doctor saw my blood sugar going to 60 at hour 3 after dropping from way high, and saying '60's WNL, so you're fine'. So I guess I'm now at about four decades of the gradual awakening of the realities of the medical system, both for human and other animals on Earth!

All of society suffers because of these systems of medicine for humans and other animals being in power in the US (and beyond) as well. The loss in productivity, the things people aren't contributing to in their families or groups in the communities because they're unwell is staggering and virtually incalculable. BigMedicine's ways are very short-sighted at the least and corrupt, dishonest and diabolically wrong at the worst. "It's just plain wrong" you might say. 

How it all fits together only makes sense once a person learns about the systems that are in power that are not revealed to us. Think about it, the system is where we've gotten most of our knowledge from, one way or another. People with children or who know teachers will know of the new 'thing' called Common Core. Ironically, people were posting things from the early 1980s from our county's outdoor laboratory school, and 'core' was on the worksheets over and over again.

This was about the timeframe my mother, a fourth grade innovative teacher, retired early rather than be fired because she refused to teach her 'lower 1/3 of the class' students the way the school system was demanding. She knew about activities and exercises that helped the students' neurological sytems get more 'integrated', it was called Sensory Integration back when I was in OT school and my program at CSU in the mid '90s was very strong in it. How my mother learned of it by 1970, I will never know, but I didn't really understand, nor did she, the big system stuff. I'm glad I do now.

Another word for studying is the "Agenda 21" which has come from the United Nations. These things are facts, not "conspiracy theory", so if it's any kind of conspiracy it's a conspiracy fact. I recommend Yousers/ readers not be dissuaded by that "conspiracy" word, think about effective parents who put up a united front with children, they are "conspiring". All businesses typically get some sort of arrangement with others. C hildren will typically conspire among themselves as well, and sometimes it gets a bit unhealthy when a parent and a child form into one of these unions, the whole family system goes wonky at that point. (You'll see a lot of divorces occur when the child in that relationship hits adolescence, it's very interesting and less-known psychology realm information I was fortunate to learn about years back.) It's a natural thing that people do, forming alliances and conspiring, and it's gone on forever and our whole country and system of government and everything that has come from big businesses has stemmed from those long-ago roots. Marianne Williamson's speech in 2013 is one of the better 20 minutes and I give the readable form of it at this link FYI:

 www.lumigrate.com/forum/marianne-williamsons-passionate-speech-about-activism-peaceful-and-productive-manner

 The speech at the above link was given in Venice, California in May 2013 at the March Against Monsants Rally, and before Ms. Williamson announced she was tossing her hat 'into the ring' and running for political office. I kind of wondered when I found it at Running the Country's website when I Searched on the Internet for it based on keywords. So they took the time and resources to transcribe the 20 minute talk so it's readable, and they have the link to the video as well embedded. I highly HIGHLY encourage people watch it. You'll see at the topic I wrote about it that I realize she's not going to be 'for everyone' but I believe much of what she says DOES resonate with MOST people, and she gets really fired up, isn't doomsdayish but does make it very clear that this is not a time to put off getting active and involved, this is the biggest time in modern history in our midst, these things going on which we have the power, in theory, to affect. 

Here's a rather fun and experiential, though overly simplified way of seeing how the medical system and overall system has come to be: Imagine you're the head of a crime ring and you're going to prey upon your city -- are you going to tell the people living on your street or your families about how you're going to pull off a hoax or heist? It might be difficult for some people to envision themselves in a manevolent position like that, but please try and envision who you'd recruit to do the various jobs and tasks for you ... would they be 'in on it'? If you know good people like I do, you'd not be able to recruit them if they knew, so you'd really not be able to tell them MUCH and certainly not all about it. And then imagine that you needed to create educational programs to create the worker bees, would the people teaching the students know the inside scoop about your new 'industry' or would you infuse them with partially honest information only.

In 2013 I became aware of 'geoengineering' and was concerned due to it's clear potential for harming health of people, animals and basically everything in Earth's ecosystem. Someone who followed my Facebook posts was going to University to study one of the sciences and asked a professor about it. The response was presented with great authority and was dismissive, and insulting -- including things like 'they should take a climatology class or study a book and learn something before they make statements like that.' I had already been in contact with our state's climatologist, who I happened to know from my previous work in air quality research program administration. I got a very polished 'I'm interested and send me photos, but so far everything I've seen can be explained as a contrail or climatology.' It turns out they've modified what is in the official scientific guidebooks to incorporate how the program's results will appear, and concerningly there were many people who are so geared to trusting teachers or other experts as telling the truth that a proverbial Trojan Horse got past billions of people around the world. And this was a program which shockingly goes back to long before World War 2, I found out in my investigation of it. An offshoot was that I better understood the BigMedical, BigInsurance, BigMilitary, BigMedia, BigEverything in power 'complex' and how it all fits together. And Lyme/Borreliosis and the way it has been handled in the US (and beyond) is better understood once a person has an understanding of The System at hand.

Biofilm as well. Simple things like 'why don't they make all medical workers change when they arrive at the facility and change back when they leave, with showers available depending on what a person does for work.' I recall working in a city hospital and would go into areas we had to gown up, and I'd see the people who went into surgery areas being the only ones who changed at the hospital and went home at night without the bugs on them from the various patients.

As a therapist of the OT or PT kind you're often with a lot of bodily contact, and we were provided polo shirts, in limited numbers, we had to wear from home with our street pants and shoes. I maybe thought about this more than others because in the mid 1980s my future husband got MRSA in his brain from a surgery and in 1986 his doctor said 'sorry I almost killed you treating you but if I didn't get that aggressive it would have killed you.' It turned out the bug wasn't gone from his body and it came back and caused problems for years if not decades. I'd divorced in 1992 when things seemed to be going well, over his lack of support for my returning to complete my University degree in OT, something I felt was my path to my life's work. 

The Internet has changed what information people have at their disposal, and never before have medical consumers been more aware of what we're not told by our parents, our schools, our newspapers, magazines we grew up trusting -- Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, and naturally television. Remember it being called 'the boob tube'?

Currently there has been an infiltration into the popular social media platforms in order to sway what people are passing around as information there, 'paid disinformation trolls' is perhaps the best way to describe them that I've seen. They often infiltrate or create groups and sincere seekers are unaware they're basically in a group with a gang of people interconnected to make whatever their ultimate goal is come to be highlighted. That might be a provider or a product or something, and it might not be totally legitimate. Buyer beware. User of FB and etc, beware.

But the sleeping giant as we've been called, is waking up and I commend efforts such as I'm providing below. You'll see I include a link to read the overview from Dr. Mercola's website about Under Our Skin. I know someone who took a class with Joe Mercola long ago, about how to do website businesses, and he'd shared some things about how hard it was financially and legally to break out of the 'box'. I try to commend him and remind YOUsers of him and his website on a regular basis. 

There are people who are outspoken advocates about Lyme who have literally said 'we all know that Lyme started on the East Coast of the US because of the germ warfare experiments being done on the island off the coast.'  That's all very interesting and is part of the history of Lyme/borreliosis, but it was in medical texts before that. So they're not accurate.

But they have a lot of people following them and taking their words as fact. I would hope if I misstep and someone is able to correct me, I'd then accept that and learn more and correct my misstep. Sometimes I don't see that happening. Remember, many people with the condition have had their brains very affected and this means not only thinking ability but personalities. So it's a tricky one. As they improve their wellness, these things also repair and change for the better, but they can be vascilating a great deal in the process.  This is the case in people who identifiy their symptoms as being consistent with the label 'fibromyalgia' as well. 

And ultimately, if you're researching something for yourself or on behalf of someone else and are seeking 'what to do about it', the whole history is helpful to know but takes your time/energy/money resources away from taking action. When you see the people filling the aisles at the healthier food stores, they're taking action -- they might not know all the history of the food industry, they just know if they go to a store that sorts in the good things and out the bad things for them, they can more easily learn to eat differently and have the health and wellness of those consuming show the results. However, some people are more 'into history' and I'll leave that to those who want to explore that and provide the basics here. 

I chose the videos, below, and other descriptive or educational information to help us start off this topic about "What's in a name?" when it comes to neuroborreliosis with the intention of finding some of the core resources which are most valid and best to study while also providing things YOUsers might not find easily on their own. So --- is it Borreliosis? Chronic borreliosis? Lyme? Chronic Lyme? I'm thinking that Lyme/Borreliosis might be the best term to run with if I were going to pick a term. You know you're in the land of the growing theories when there are a variety of terms tossed around. And growing it is, the Lyme/Borreliosis field of awareness and treatment. 

The most important thing to know about L/B's recent history that's caused so many to go untreated is that the group that is in power within ConMed relative to infectious diseases had a lot of monkey business go on, and I've included some of that history on Lumigrate's topics about L/B. That group is "IDSA". This is not unique with BigMedical, unfortunately.

There was a furor when the 'bible' manual of mental health diagnostics and statistics put out their new, fifth version in recently years, the "DSM-V" (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). You could literally find something in there for every person under the sun and there would then be a way to label them with a mental health issue and provide them with treatment (and bill insurance if they have it.)  Again, a little foundation for awareness and a little knowledge about it here for those who are wanting to get to the 'what to do about it'. 

At http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org's About tab, you will find this for starters, so please go and look around. 

 

About the Lyme Disease Association

In 1991, the Lyme Disease Association began as an informal group and then incorporated as Lyme Disease Association of Central Jersey, Inc. (LDACJ) in 1992 and then became Lyme Disease Association of New Jersey, Inc. (LDANJ) in 1993. It was formed by several patients and doctors─the Fordyce and Drulle Families were particularly instrumental ─who saw the need to organize and fund research and educate people. It had first a regional then state focus. 

 

In 1997, Pat Smith became President of LDANJ and it began to have influence far beyond NJ borders.  She saw the increasing need for a national organization. Supported by entreaties from doctors and patients alike, the LDANJ Board of Directors in 2000 changed the name to Lyme Disease Association, Inc. (LDA) and changed the focus to a national one, which had a broader mission expanding research funding (LDA funded research has appeared in 33 scientific journal publications to date) and including patient support, e.g., LymeAid 4 Kids fund. At that time, LDA decided to remain an all volunteer organization without paid employees so that all monies would be dedicated to the mission.  In 2011, 120 individuals volunteered 20,451 hours to assist with LDA programs. Additionally, LDA created a loose umbrella, LDAnet, where other groups could strategize and collaborate with LDA to impact Lyme disease issues nationally.

Link to Dr Horowitz' website, to the page where there's a link at the bottom for downloading the PDF of his symptom checklist / questionnaire. It is detailed and from what I know of the subject matter, asks the right questions. It was reasonably easy to fill out. And from what I've gathered from the Lyme community, he is very respected all the way around.  Here's the link: www.cangetbetter.com/symptom-list

Only recently had I come to find the videos provided at YouTube by 'biofilm' at their channel, which you'll see below. 'Biofilm' at YouTube is Richard Longland, whose history had some striking similarities to mine in terms of being an active professional person who enjoyed hiking and biking and the outdoors, then having problems with chronic pain and being diagnosed with DDD (degenerative disk disease).

Our stories diverge in that in mine, at age 29 (in 1989) I couldn't get out of bed one morning as usual, ready to face the day with 'gusto', and had to stop and rest on the walk to my office at the research campus at Colorado State University within a new addition built to house the air quality research team which blossomed after I was hired to assist. You can read his, below. His path took him to learning of 'biofilm', something I learned about because of following his videos. Per the video, below, of his interview with groundbreaking researcher Eva Sapi, Ph.D., people having an interest in chronic illness and wellness, whether specifically studying Borreliosis (and etc.) or not, will likely want to be familiar with biofilm.  

While I was still whittling away with more time and money and energy with therapists, chiropractors (the first of which was very centered on diet), MDs/DOs and others working nonsurgically on my spine and cranium (and the tissues inside plus everything attached to it), Richard took the trail to eventual surgery and you will see in the About from The Patient Arthroplasty Foundation's website... he didn't have any smoother a ride for a while there than I'd had.

This is what you will found About Richard at The Patient Arthroplasty Foundation: (I embellished with some additional bolding for things I think our YOUsers would want to have 'pop' when reading...)

About 

In 2004, Richard Longland was sickened by an undiagnosed disease after spine surgery. In the months that followed, a list of maladies appeared: headaches; neck, throat and shoulder pain; and random “lightning shocks.” In 2005 and 2006, other problems emerged and challenged his sanity: cardiovascular and neurological troubles; bone-crushing fatigue; and the proverbial brain fog.

During this time, he started the ADRSupport Community for spine patients from all over the world. In 2006, he started The Arthroplasty Patient Foundation, whose mission supports patients facing joint diseases.

After battling the medical system, he was finally diagnosed with a systemic bacterial infection in 2007. The mycoplasma pneumonia that disabled him could have originated from any number of sources: the surgical intubation process, the hospital, any public place, or even a tick. He visited more than twenty doctors for a diagnosis. During this difficult period, he created The Arthroplasty Patient foundation, produced its first educational film and helped spine patients get “back on their feet” with an active global discussion board. His focused research on antimicrobials and anti-biofilm treatments led to his treatment program using pharmaceutical and naturopathic agents to rid his body of systemic bacterial biofilms.

Richard is the creator of the film Why Am I Still Sick, which began in 2009 with his on-camera interviews with bacterial biofilm authorities. Since then, he has learned a great deal about the human and economic costs associated with chronic bacterial infections — biofilms — from university researchers, medical doctors, entrepreneurs, government researchers and dental professionals.

At Ondine Biopharma, his interviews revealed that 38,000,000 people in this country have (or had) a chronic sinus problem. At Southwest Regional Woundcare Center, Dr. Randy Wolcott explained that 550,000 deaths related to biofilm infections occur annually – almost the same number of fatalities as cancer – and thirty times the number of AIDS patients lost each year. Doctor David Kennedy, a retired dentist, lamented that most adult Americans have gum disease — another bacterial biofilm condition involving chronic infection. So just how big is this stealthy healthcare epidemic? This is the profound question that forms the narrative of this unusual documentary.

In an unusually proactive effort to share work in progress with the public, we publish educational videos with experts interviewed for Why Am I Still Sick. Please see our “interviews in progress” with biofilm authorities.

PLEASE GO to the website (llinks above or below).

to see a 10 (or so) minute presentation Richard gives about the overall about the state of spine surgery in the United States and artificial disk replacement, including medical tourism.  

...... and a trailer for the documentary Why Am I Still Sick?

....... or Donate to Support outreach and research programs 

........ or Listen to interviews with Biofilm doctors and researchers

My Personal Account of Trying to Plant Seeds in the Research/Medical Field of Colorado; Why Progress is Slow 

I have yet to have any type of arthroplastic surgery, though it was offered to me for one level of my cervical spine (remove the disk and fuse) in 1995, but I knew that artificial disks were in development so felt it made sense to 'try PT first'. However,  I've had the pleasure of having a close personal friendship with someone who has had over 20 by middle age, a very athletic guy who got into the building trades professionally after playing ball at University, and I remarked at what seemed to me to be such similar underlying 'chronic'/daily issues OVERALL.

We both had had some of our care at the world renowned Stedman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colorado, which was made internationally famous when Kobe Bryant had some personal problems make their way to the mainstream media when on a trip to be seen there. Between the PT/OT clinic I contracted at for several years before starting Lumigrate and shifting to providing the education via Internet having been at the time I was there the preferred place for patients on this end of the state due to the overall caliber of the staff, and my Humpty Dumpty friend going there, I figured I'd go for a consultation on my neck/cervical spine and 'fibromyalgia'. They have amazing neuro-orthopedic surgeons and orthopedic professionals.  

But they're very conventional, very conservative. Nothing outside the box. Their boilerplate protocol for people with fibromyaligia had five things they recommend in a certain order, and they let me do the order differently. But the items were BigPharma SSRI medication, injections in the nerve roots of a non steroidal anti-inflammatory, surgery (diskectomy and fusion with bone from the hip with coral being put into the hip/donor site, which my friend had done and said it was the worst pain he'd had in his life), PT, and the fifth thing escapes me. Perhaps it was Lyrica, but I'd already been on and off Lyrica. I was going about the serotonin by doing nutrition, supplements and hormone supplementation / balancing (which are building blocks for brain chemicals). So I took them up on the injections and tried that. Total remediation of the pain in my whole body by the time I got back to my  house six hours later. Just remarkable. So, for an inside the box provider of services, I was pleased with them, and the doctor knew I was an OTR and said he didn't have a pain management program to refer people to, he suggested they had a real need for giving patients pain management as they come from all over the state and country. I felt there was perhaps some 'opening there' for there to be collaborations in the future. 

So years back, I called their research foundation to ask about researching related to hormones and chronic pain, and some of these more functional concepts that were helped by hormone supplementation. I spoke with someone at the top of the organization, who said they had research going with Colorado State University about joints and hormones, but their legal structure is set up around orthopedic and not neurologic, so they'd have to look into changing that if they were to want to include it.

Ironically, it was one of their neuro-orthopedic providers who had told me they didn't have a pain management resource for their patients, in the same time period I had surgery for the usual uterus fibroids that come with the fibromyalgia territory. I'd been handled with a boilerplate punch/checklist for the aftercare by the doctor (who is a very good doctor) rather than customizing for my pain and medication tolerance history, and ironically the morphine I requested in the beginning not be given made me nauseous and set up the whole 'learning experience' I had with nursing judgment errors selecting from that list of things they had liberty to give me as needed while he was off seeing other patients or his family or sleeping.  That lead to horrendous nursing responses (including one lying to me as she didn't know I had medical knowledge and boy was she busted, ha!)

This doubled my time in the hospital and so angered and shocked me that I was jolted by motivation from that experience into enrolling in an entrepreneurial class at the local business incubator when I saw it advertised in the newspaper. Within a year I was on the fence considering leaving insurance-based outpatient OT service provision and going to the integrative, functional medicine pile.  

Within another year we had the complement of videotaped seminars filmed and an MDs attempt at an integrative clinic successfully off the ground. However, the clinic's ownership had ventured off course from the agreed-upon concept and was providing botulism for beauty and laser for body shaping and skin and things that are done in many of these clinics in order to create enough income for operating the space. But it was not the 'fit' for the providers, and our videos tab essentially is a time capsule of what had been the vision but not the ultimate reality for collaborative professionals in my geographic area.

It was at one of the seminars there that I learned that hormones have an effect in cartilege. It seemed to me that it might also have an effect on other tissues surrounding orthopedic and neurological tissues. Was there research about that? Not that the MD, who is a good researcher on his topics presented on, knew. 

So within a year or so, I happened to stop into the Foundation's offices when driving through Vail one day on one of my many trips over the Rocky Mountains at the time of my father's end of life due to Lewy Body Disease and resultant treatment (and some missed-treatment and mistreatment if you understand medical from the angle I come from). I often stopped and dropped off some goodies for the upper extremity orthopedic team who had provided many fabulous patients our way, and the team that would see me personally for my neck/spine.

Ironically, they were having all the muckity mucks from the board in for their annual meeting RIGHT THEN -- they were literally mingling around the office area when I wandered in -- and the head guy present and able to talk with me was not familiar with anything I had discussed with the other guy when I'd called. And so it goes. The health and research systems. They're kind of 'stuck' .. and very slow moving. Ultimately they're hooked into longstanding relationships to study certain things and not others, in the BigMedicine Big Research 'complex', which is BigGovernment that will include BigMiltary too sometimes. Go to Colorado State University's information -- even a map of the campuses they own and who is in what buildings. NOAA, CDC, and some are kind of disguised, like there is no real indication there's military research money coming in, but I worked there. There is. 

More of My Story About The Neck, The Neverending Story of My Life

Their process is to have you try a whole boilerplate of things, starting with medications and non invasive strategies. The next level is injections, so I had that done several times which requires a driver and a full day from where I live. But I would have total relief of the fibromyalgia symptoms before I was home almost, and it would last a month and then another month of effect. It cost the insurance company a lot of money, and I simultaneously did PT, which is on their boilerplate of strategies. It enable me to work harder on the muscles of my spine than otherwise, and I made good progress, but my insurance only provided 20 therapy visits (PT, OT, ST combined) per year. Going twice a week, that only provides for 10 weeks of PT. I paid for some additional ones out of pocket and abutted two calendar years so I did about 45 sessions. This was all still less money to the insurance company than doing a surgery, and PT and medications and procedures and having an unknown outcome in terms of what I'd need more of in the future. 

Both my doctor and PT wrote letters to request additional PT and there was visible progress to show, but the woman at the insurance company who took my call to check on the status said she'd worked there 12 years in all aspects of the company and they'd never once agreed to additional services when requested. This was the only insurance available to me in the pre Obamacare years, due to being an 'automatic knockout'/uninsurable due to having the dreaded F word in my chart: fibromyalgia. I had quite a big YOU! team at this point in my life: 

 Interactive activity: Draw out team YOU!                    

So it's been a LOT, this medical stuff. I hope anyone reading this understands I am sharing this to show I'm one of the millions who has had to go through this, and I empathize with anyone who is seeking solutions to improve their wellness state.  

I had good results with all the PTs I have gone to, but I know how to get to the best ones available, naturally, or I hope I do at least!  I was an OT student when I had the surgery/PT choice, and went to the grand pooh bah professor and asked her to look at the short list, that was narrowed down from their long list of PTs with a little gentle cajoling pressure at my nerologists office. "This is the PT who taught me how to do myofascia release (an advanced technique)."  I had more good luck, as I'll relate below. And so Humpty Mardy was held together in 1995 and got through college and into internship before needing PT #2. 

Had I not had that connection to help me find the first PT (and all the subsequent ones once I was a medical provider), I might have ended up without good results from the non-invasive option and have gone the route of surgery at that time.  When I think about the providers I know who have had the opportunity to go into these advanced hands-on therapeutic courses and be able to provide advanced techniques to patients, such as manual therapists do, for instance --  they're increasingly fewer and farther between.

I've worked for a hospital system as an OT and it's really interesting how they don't seem to put any resources to continuing the education of their therapists so they have 'grand skills' the way the therapists did in the past.  I mean, really, with all the overall costs to employ a person, you can't spend more than $1,500 on continuing education? It seems it is perhaps a way to route more people with insurance to the more lucrative surgery route. You can't blame a business for doing what it needs to do to make money and keep the lights on. Unless it's hurting people and you could shift resources so there were better provider services that were non invasive. Why not provide both? (Because the system is set up to NOT, conventional medicine wants people to have a certain kind of solution to their problems and not others, it is as simple as that. Follow the money and who had been 'the powers that be', or some call them the 'power that were' now because it's thought that there may be some 'overthrowing' of the system going on, quietly as of the writing of this in mid 2014. Many stories in 2014 would indicate this is the case, so we can hope it is upon us, the shift we've all been waiting for. It will be tumultuous though so we'll have to weather the storm together, knowing it will be better sailing after! 

Biofilm

I was actually working on information sources about pyroluria when I meandered into this biofilm information provided by Richard Longland. Specifically,  why information about pyroluria -- which affects on average at LEAST TEN PERCENT of people -- is  SO NOT "out there", even in the outside the box medical community. The providers are not aware of it, let alone the consumers/patients.

I spent a bit of time at my local health food store recently, to ask the clerks who advise patients in the supplements section if they've had inquiries, and to see what resources they had available. It is a good sized chain now, expanding into many states, and with a terrific book section. I'd purchased The UltraMind Solution by Mark Hyman, MD there, which had a lot of progressive information in it and is a functional medicine 'bible' in my opinon, but it doesn't have pyroluria included.  

The only book that had any reference to it was the original resource I pointed to from Lumigrate: Primal Body, Primal Mind. How many feet of books on a bookshelf in a health food store and it's that obscured, yet affects TEN PERCENT (or more) of people? What is up with that? Well, perhaps it will tie in with biofilm. And the huge number of people who are affected by Borreliosis/ neuorborreliosis / Lyme and ... biofilm. Has it ever been studied if pyrolurics are more susceptible to becoming a viable host for Borrelia, and does treating the pyroluria affect the Borrelia? This is the question I've not yet been able to find an answer for, but I'm going to see if Mr. Longland can get me closer to an answer.

Aren't we ultimately looking at the things which have to do with the immune system being strong or compromised? It just seems to me that if someone were wanting to fight Borrelia, they'd do well to know about pyroluria, as it likely is a factor in a high percentage of people who have succombed in the first place and NOT fought off the bugs from .. the bug/tick. So far, what I found out from a Lyme 'advocate' who was aware of pyroluria, most of the "Lyme literate doctors" are not aware nor addressing it in their practices, to her knowledge.  

So in researching/studying around about pyroluria and Lyme/Borreliosis, it leads a person into a hand full or two of medical experts' videos, with 'biofilm' guy, Richard Longland, having seemingly had all the fun these past five years interviewing more than a couple of these experts! Having had Lumigrate's roots in 2007 be me with a video camera, filming a seminar about chronic pain and medications for managing it for an MD who wanted the information but could not attend at the time of the seminar, and then having created the videos we did in 2008 that you see at the videos tab, or our YouTube Channel --- I just say 'hats off'/ props / kudos / and RIGHT ON Richard! It is a "long land", the United States, but YOU and your work reached me out here in the medical hub of western Colorado/eastern Utah. 

Once you tap into these videos following the information I was, you then you see other videos that are in the surrounding territories at the various video 'collecting spots' by Richard and his organization(s). I've highlighted one of those video medical hubs on another Lyme topic in this forum. 

Disseminated bacterial infections continue to disable millions of Americans; chronic Lyme disease is the ultimate case study and learning tool to promote change. 

 

Invading their hosts' environment, bacteria quickly evolve to evade the immune response or antibiotics. Biofilms are one of the many clever adaptations that Borrelia (et al.) microbes have to outsmart us. They've already outsmarted the American medical system. 

 

There is no standard of care in the United States that defines the diagnosis and treatment of disseminated bacterial infections. Tens of millions of human beings suffer with chronic infections: Lyme disease; UTIs, sinus, wounds, periodontal, hospital acquired infections; implant failures and many more chronic disease states. 

 

I wanted to add this in today,  mid August (2014), as he'd had a Letter to the Editor published in the Wall Street Journal which had surprised him that they ran it.  Commendable. Activism step. He said itt had to be pared down to half the size of his original letter he said, but this is how it appeared: 

Borrelia Burgdorferi Biofilm - Live Microscopy Video

www.youtube.com/watch

Published on Oct 2, 2013

 

Eva Sapi, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at the University of New Haven, hosted my visit 2008. She collaborated with Dr. Alan MacDonald, retired pathologist and Borrelia career researcher, to discover and prove that Borrelia creates biofilms, as microbes have been doing for three billion years. 

Using video microscopy, Dr. Sapi's grad student David Luecke explains in this video how DNA from the Borrelia burgdorferi strain B31 "fluoresces" or glows an eerie green. Any green life forms you see in their various states originate from the B31 strain of Borrelia -- one of 100+ strains known.

REMINDER: Most Lyme disease tests only test for ONE strain of Borrelia! Igenex, Advanced Labs and Spirostats will test for more than one strain, however.

Prior to Dr. Sapi's pioneering efforts researchers dismissed Borrelia biofilms. As well, Borrelia biofilm would ruffle the feathers of the IDSA, NIH, CDC and (most) insurance companies, as it would spell out an obvious scientific syllogism for neuroborreliosis -- known previously as chronic Lyme Disease.

Later, they learned that Sapi et al were correct -- that the standard BSK media could be enriched with collagenase (which humans have abundantly) and this media proved to be ideal for growing spirochetal, slimy communities!

This video shows four different life forms alive in the community: spirochetes, cysts, granular and of course the biofilm community itself. Biofilms protect the microbial community from the immune system and antibiotics, which enable infections to live indefinitely inside us. 

Hence, chronic Borreliosis (chronic Lyme disease).

Note: you may have seen this before in low resolution. I offered it to the producers of Under Our Skin years ago (free of charge). In this HD version, I included some amazing new high res AFM photos and additional explanations. Special thanks to David Luecke, who provided these slides, and of course to the Sapi-MacDonald team!

This video was produced by The Arthroplasty Patient Foundation. Please offer an any-sized, tax deductible donation at this link:

http://www.arthropatient.org/about/do...

Our specific library of current intelligence on biofilms:

http://www.biofilmcommunity.org/

Our documentary on biofilms, Why Am I Still Sick, now available in French, Spanish, Simplified and Traditional Chinese:

http://www.whyamistillsick.com/

 

Category:

• Science & Technology

Standard YouTube License

---

 

Here's the link to ALL the videos Richard provides at his/his foundation's YouTube Channel.  I just saw part 1 of his interview with Alan MacDonald, MD shared in a Lyme group on Facebook and someone commented that the series is what they recommend to people in general who are unfamiliar or famiilar with Lyme/ Borrelia. I thought about that I'd linked to a video of his and that would allow people to then look around at other great videos he has, but that it might be a good step to encourage people in putting a link to the videos listing and specifically 'teach'/ suggest that people take the time to look at other things that are linked to from Lumigrate in general. In certainly to be sure in this case! www.youtube.com/user/ADRSupport/videos

Biofilms and Chronic Health Conditions: Challenges for Patients, Doctors, and Researchers

www.youtube.com/watch

 

Interview with: 

Eva Sapi, PhD

Professor of Cellular and Molecular Biology

University of New Haven

August 28, 2009

Interview conducted by: Richard Longland, Founder and CEO, The Arthroplasty Patient Foundation

 

9:33 video of Dr. Eva Sapa - Bacterial Biofilms and Lyme Disease which is taken from a 70 minute video which is available to purchase from TAPF

has 26, 614 views at this time (4/23/14). Loaded April 3, 2010

Provided at the biofilm YouTube channel (which currently has 39 videos and 692 subscribers)

 

Dr. Sapi was a cancer researcher at Yale University for over 10 years. 

In 2001 she accepted a position at University of New Haven. A year later she had Lyme disease. This whole experience made her think about starting to do a different kind of research. The cancer research background has helped her in this infectious disease research. She asks different questions than other had before. 

 

She asked what happens to Lyme bacteria when you treat it with antibiotics or any other agent, when it turns to cyst form or biofilm form  or any other forms. 

 

When she was investigating it, she was looking at research papers/literature about what different kinds of things (bacteria, protozoa, virus) can be found in the ticks. It wasn't as comprehensive as it should have been, so let's collect some ticks and find the coinfections, which lead to the different discoveries, like the microplasma discovery. And the  with _______ philomenio nimotodes  _______________         about coinfections which is being published as we speak. 

 

Don't forget the brain, the brain is very juicy and so it's a good place for the borrelia. I know it sounds strange, but we should look at the brain. 

If you look at Dr Magnal's research or Dr Judith Mc______     's research, 

they find spirochetes using immunohist    

in the brain, especially on plaques that are very characteristic for Alzheimer's patients. 

 

It can be everywhere, everywhere -- practically every joint in the body can be a target for borrelia, and again, if you think about biofilm being a slimy layer, you need some kind of a surface, so joints being a structure, it's a perfect space for borrelia to grow in biofilm. 

 

About Borrelia -- Borrelia has at least 6 or 7 different forms we're able to find. Obviously the spirochete form, which is the one which is the most susceptible for any kind of treatment. 

But you also have the cystic  forms, the biofilm forms, the granular forms and also at least five or six pleomorphic forms that can reside in the cyst. 

 

Spirochete form -- which is the straight (zig zaggy motion with her hands)

 

biofilm forms -- she thinks this is more than one kind, depending on the condition and they find that different  environment provides different biofilm.

 

granule forms which we find are extremely, extremely resistant to any form of treatment.

 

cystic form, it's the famous hiding place for Borrelia, it's like a hiding place like a cocoon where it can enter and hide until you're done with your treatment.

 

And all the pleomorphic forms -- with probably countless forms of pleomorphics, when I say it's 6 or 7 it might be up to 30 forms, really. 

 

The syphilis research from the 1920s and 1930, had a very famous drawings about different forms of syphilis and  there were at least 60 or 70 different forms on the tables. 

 

We know that some strains are more pathogenic. The (three?) strains we're studying, the B___  is sort of 'the monster'.

We need to isolate the strain and be sure that what we're saying is true.

Knowing spirochete, even the B9 strain can cause lots of problems. 

I hope you're right, and only certain strains can cause these chronic diseases so we can find some certain treatment, but being a little pessimistic here, I think even the other strains can cause some significant problems. 

 

The fifth kind can be very common, I'm not a medical doctor, so I can't really answer why it is so important, but  I think something about the brain having the most delicious food for Borrelia, I wonder, this part of the body is where Borrelia mostly resides. I know it sounds gross, but certain parts of the body are just better for the nutrition they need. The nutritional requirements of Borrelia is quite significant. When we culture Borrelia in the lab, we have to use a very rich media that was specially designed. (Waterford who discovered Borrelia developed the media.) It has a very special nutritional requirement. 

 

She didn't suspect that one species like Borrelia could make this complex biofilm formation, and some of the images we have to show now, definitely shows that even one species is able to make a whole host city, and with more species that could join this biofilm, it would become more complex, and there would probably be many different ways to evade your treatment. 

 

Inside the biofilm you can find all different forms.

Let's just talk about just one biofilm, the Borrelia biofilm. We can see cyst forms,  

 

and the pliomorphic forms. We know those forms have developed resistance to treatment. 

On these forms you have a layer of protection, and when you try to treat it with antibiotics. First of all, antibiotics might not be able to even penetrate. However, they've seen little channels on the biofilms, so they might be big enough for the antibiotics. But don't forget, antibiotics only work if the bacteria is growing, that's the whole mechanism of how antibiotics work. And so with this, the bacteria are just trying to survive and aren't growing .......... 

 

Our latest research shows that microphilia nimotodes can be found in ticks. This is a worm, and in the larvae stage which is micron sized, it can be found in the gut of ticks. We've found out that 84% of the ticks carry species of microplasma.  We sent out the paper a couple of times, but it was such a new idea that it was hard to accept it. Right now we are doing immuno-histochemical studies to show that microplasma is indeed in the tick gut.

 

I think that will be a big one (discovery) and we're finishing up the paper --  because microplasma is very difficult to kill; if you have microplasma _______, the treatment length is 8 to 9 months long. If the Lyme disease patient has microplasma infection then we have to think about the length of treatment and think about the long-term treatment.  The length of treatment is a big argument in Lyme disease.