Lyme: STD Possibility per Emerging Research and Documentary

It's CRUCIAL for YOUsers who are medical consumers to understand thoroughly the 'game' that is played. Learn the game, play he game, don't 'be gamed'. For YOUsers wishing to learn more about how the medical system -- inside and outside the box -- work, and why it is that there is 'inside the box' and 'outside the box', plus what some would call "conspiring" to delay the outside the box information from getting to be used by more people, here's a link that has information at Lumigrate: www.lumigrate.com/forum/outside-box-conventional-medicine-history-shows-slow-progress-functional-integrative-and-other#comment-2642 . You'll see at the bottom of this comment area, a video by a young woman  named Brittany is covered to show how many people are figuring this stuff out and doing really great little (and bigger) videos that are helping create more education. But I would prefer YOUsers from Lumigrate REALLY understand it, so I've provided what I hope will help YOU!

I found a complement of videos at eHealthChannel dot org which had many familiar faces in the thumbnails. Or logos of providers whose work I've seen ... Dr Temple Grandin, autism expert and animal sciences professor at my alma mater, Colorado State University. She spoke to my occupational therapy class just prior to our graduation in 1996. Dr Klinghardt, Dr Tent (the chiropractor whose video of a packed room presentation to physicians and others has been very much spread around social media with fanfare. It's worth a watch to the very end when he reveals what had just occurred with his mother's end of life in the allopathic care system and his opinion and what he relates from conversations he had with doctors.) 

Here's the link: Please take the trip and 'see the sites' as I say! 

 www.ehealthchannel.org/hair-loss/a-practical-lyme-diet~QElXlGTISBY

Diagnosing Babesia. A Lyme Byte. April 2, 2014
Marty Ross, MD of www.treatlyme.net

• excessive nighttime sweating (that can soak the bed)
• panic attacks
• air hunger
• skipping or racing of heart
• migraine and/or headaches in front of head
• regular sensations of de javu

 I came across this fabulous, short overview about the basics of borreliosis and wanted to add it on here for our YOUsers to benefit from.  Laura cites some of her sources but not all, and on this one she does not cite where the information she was including came from. Beyond what I've provided, above, as you'll say she says here "the info's out there, go for it" if you want to look into it more to be sure what's being shared and said is accurate for YOU to 'run the ball' with. I've added bolding, as I often do, for making things more obvious and to break things up a bit. 

Borreliosis Basics - by Laura Hovind

Borreliosis is a multi-system disease caused by a spirochetal bacterium (parasite). A spirochete is a spiral-shaped parasite with an internal flagellar bundle.

Borreliosis is transmitted primarily through the bite of an infected tick, but also may be transmitted by insect vectors, in utero to an unborn fetus, (says Yale), and possibly via sexual intercourse.  If not treated immediately with antibiotics, the infection can persist for years and cause neurological diseases such as MS, Lupus, cancer, Chronic Fatigue/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and Alzheimer’s, according to IDSA and the CDC.

Borreliae parasites have the ability to change (shed/bleb off) their outer surface proteins (Osps/Vmps) to evade detection by the immune system in a mechanism commonly known as antigenic variation. Several of these outer surface proteins such as OspA (the Lyme "vaccines") are TLR-2 agonists or are fungal types (Pam3Cys or similar), meaning these shed lipoproteins essentially disable the immune system, and not just by tolerance to other fungal antigens (TLR2) but to other antigen types (managed by other TLRs):

See this report: "Because IRAK1 is required for TLR7/9-induced IFN-I production, we propose that TLR2 signaling induces rapid depletion of IRAK1, which impairs IFN-I induction by TLR7/9. This novel mechanism, whereby TLR2 inhibits IFN-I induction by TLR7/9, may shape immune responses to microbes that express ligands for both TLR2 and TLR7/TLR9, or responses to bacteria/virus coinfection." www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22227568

Also, there is cross-tolerance to TLR4 agonists from constant TLR2-agonism of shed borrelial antigens like OspA and vice-versa. (This is in the literature, so help yourself.)

This creates an environment where opportunistic infections can thrive and cause chronic, disabling disease. TLR2-agonist tolerance apparently reactivates latent herpes viruses (thru IL-10, the and inhibition of apoptosis of OspA or EBV infected cells, the mechanism shown above re TLR2-signaling and the inhibition of IFN-I, and perhaps other unknown mechanisms), particularly Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), which is probably the main driver of all these New Great and Great Imitator disease.

Fungal antigen tolerance from exposure to shed borrelial lipoproteins causes fungal tolerance in the blood and the inability to get rid of mycoplasma/eperythrozoons from the blood, especially the red blood cells (which causes fatigue).

MORE research being reported about the STI/STD aspect of Lyme, with a good overview about Lyme (though it cites the 300,000 'official' number of CDC and not the 'or up to 1M' that is often published, and most in the Lyme expert community believe the numbers of new cases are more likely several million new/year at this time).

Highlight from the article (at the link, below) so you can see the nature of the info:

"Commonly known as Lyme disease (aka Borrelia burgdorferi), you might assume this potential sexually transmitted infection (STI) can only afflict those bitten by a tick. Sadly, it may be time to ditch that notion. Emerging information indicates that, if you are having unprotected sex at all — even in a monogamous relationship — you’re at risk of infection.

At Taylor and Francis Online, I found (via a FB friend sharing this link, I'm giving you here), a wonderful resource for MANY subjects, well laid out and organized.  Discover. Learn. Share. 3,800,000+articles, the landing page for Taylor & Francis Online says as a 'welcome' if you go to their home page.

I'm suggesting you go and read this article at the site, AND look around.....

Sexual transmission of Lyme disease: challenging the tickborne disease paradigm

Raphael B Stricker & Marianne J Middelveen
Pages 1303-1306 | Published online: 26 Aug 2015

Abstract

Lyme disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi has become a major worldwide epidemic. In this article, we explore the clinical, epidemiological and experimental evidence for sexual transmission of Lyme disease in animal models and humans. Although the likelihood of sexual transmission of the Lyme spirochete remains speculative, the possibility of Lyme disease transmission via intimate human contact merits further study.

Keywords: Borrelia burgdorferi, genital secretions, Lyme disease, sexual transmission

Lyme disease is the most common tickborne illness in the world today. It is also one of the most controversial illnesses in the history of medicine, and the controversy features two opposing camps.

One camp espouses the viewpoint of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) that tickborne infection with the Lyme spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, can be difficult to detect given the current state of diagnostic tests and that the organism can be hard to eradicate given its ability to evade the host immune response and antibiotic therapy.

The other camp espouses the viewpoint of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) that Lyme disease is a simple tickborne infection that is easily diagnosed and treated. According to this viewpoint, the notion that infection may persist after a short course of antibiotics lacks ‘credible scientific evidence’, persistence mechanisms of B. burgdorferi are deemed ‘implausible’ and chronic Lyme disease due to persistent B. burgdorferi infection is rare or non-existent.

While the revised ILADS Lyme guidelines recommend longer antibiotic treatment for patients with chronic Lyme disease, the IDSA Lyme guidelines discourage antibiotic treatment for patients with persistent Lyme disease symptoms [5,6] Cameron DJ, Johnson LB, Maloney EL. Evidence assessments and guideline recommendations in Lyme disease: the clinical management of known tick bites, erythema migrans rashes and persistent disease.

The Lyme disease controversy has resulted in a stalemate between the ILADS and IDSA points of view. Each side claims that its clinical, epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic pronouncements are ‘evidence based’ and represent the ‘standard of care’ for the disease.

This ‘he said/she said’ dispute in turn has left patients without a clear path to diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The dispute has also dampened pharmaceutical company interest in developing new antibiotic treatments for the disease similar to the ‘designer drugs’ that have revolutionized the therapy of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

The medical and lay press has also been confused by the dispute and ultimately has lost interest in publishing repetitive articles about a tickborne disease that could be characterized as unimportant.

Despite these issues, the specter of Lyme disease has continued to grow. In 2013, the CDC published a trio of reports suggesting that the annual rate of Lyme disease was more than 300,000 cases in the USA.
 
This annual rate was more than 10-times the number of cases reported using the surveillance case definition employed by the CDC, making Lyme disease almost twice as common as breast cancer and six-times more common than HIV/AIDS.

The huge rate increase also created problems for the epidemiology of the tickborne disease. Based on a study of confirmed tickbites in the Netherlands, the annual tickbite rate was estimated to be 495 per 100,000 population, which translates into about 1.5 million tickbites per year in the USA.

Based on the assumption that only 2% of tickbites yield infection with B. burgdorferi, it would take 15 million tickbites per year to achieve the CDC rate of Lyme disease. This implausible tickbite requirement suggests that other means of Lyme disease transmission may occur.

The Lyme spirochete B. burgdorferi is a relatively complex organism that is similar to the spirochetal agent of syphilis. B. burgdorferi contains enzymes that facilitate tissue penetration, and the spirochete has the ability to form cystic structures and hide in biofilms
. These properties allow the organism to persist in a variety of tissues and hostile environments and to escape the reach of antibiotics. The ability of B. burgdorferi to infect privileged sites such as the eye, synovium and brain may also contribute to persistence of the spirochete in human tissues [1,2] Stricker RB, Johnson L. Lyme disease: the next decade. Infect Drug Resist 2011;4:1-9
Stricker RB, Johnson L. Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment: Lessons from the AIDS epidemic. Minerva Med 2010;101:419-25. The pleotropic and pleomorphic properties of the spirochete suggest that the genital tract could also harbor the infection, resulting in transmission from person to person without a tick vector.

Evidence for direct transmission of B. burgdorferi in the absence of a tick vector initially came from animal studies, although results were mixed. A mouse study by Burgess et al. demonstrated transmission of the spirochete from infected to uninfected animals of the same sex.

Another mouse study by Wright and Nielsen demonstrated B. burgdorferi transmission from infected males to uninfected females following intercourse. A third mouse study by Altaie et al. demonstrated spirochetal transmission from infected males to their offspring, presumably via maternal contact.

An unpublished study by Gustafson showed transmission of the Lyme spirochete to uninfected female dogs and their offspring via artificial insemination with infected semen.

In contrast, studies in Lewis rats and Syrian hamsters failed to show contact or sexual transmission in these highly inbred rodents. Limited contact times and lack of PCR testing may have contributed to the negative results in these two animal models .

Of interest, B. burgdorferi transmission has also been associated with sexual contact between male and female Ixodes ticks.

Human sexual transmission of Lyme disease was initially suggested by Bach in 2001. He observed that sexually active patients had a marked propensity for antibiotic failure and speculated that re-infection occurred by intimate person-to-person contact. In 2003, Harvey and Salvato studied a group of chronically ill B. burgdorferi-seropositive and PCR-positive patients in Houston, Texas – a non-endemic area – and provided epidemiological evidence that Lyme disease could spread in the absence of infected ticks. In this scenario, intimate person-to-person transfer was implicated as the probable means of transmission.

A study by Stricker et al. provided clinical and immunological evidence for B. burgdorferi transmission via intimate contact. In heterosexual seropositive couples with Lyme disease in which only one partner had a documented tickbite, the partner with the documented tickbite tended to have more severe clinical manifestations of the disease and a lower CD57 NK cell level. This difference in clinical severity and CD57 NK cell level was not noted in seropositive couples diagnosed with Lyme disease in which both partners had a documented history of tickbite. Sexual transfer of B. burgdorferi infection therefore seems possible in humans.

In order to investigate this possibility, Middelveen et al. performed the first Borrelia culture study on human semen and vaginal secretions.

Patients with documented Lyme disease, including heterosexual couples having unprotected sex, had genital cultures studied in three independent laboratories. The cultures of semen and vaginal secretions were subjected to light and darkfield microscopy and were found to contain live, motile spirochetes that displayed characteristic undulating movement and stained positive with Dieterle silver staining and anti-B. burgdorferi immunostaining.

Furthermore, PCR testing and molecular hybridization with highly specific DNA probes demonstrated that the live genital spirochetes were Borrelia strains and not treponemes. Of particular interest, one couple was found to have B. hermsii rather than B. burgdorferi in their genital secretions, further implicating sexual transmission in these cases. Control subjects who tested negative for Lyme disease had no evidence of Borrelia spirochetes in their genital secretions.

The combination of animal models and human studies strongly suggests that the Lyme spirochete may be sexually transmitted, much like the spirochetal agent of syphilis. This possibility is difficult to prove because direct transmission studies in humans similar to the ‘volunteer’ experiments performed on syphilis patients would be unethical by current standards.

However, the animal studies showing contact and sexual transmission should be reproduced and extended to other animal models using sophisticated immunological and molecular methods to examine venereal exposure to B. burgdorferi. In addition, further epidemiology studies should be conducted to assess whether sexual transmission might explain the increase in Lyme disease cases around the world.

These studies could also address geographical discrepancies between human and tick infection rates in various reports as well as gender discrepancies in Lyme disease statistics.

The results might create a paradigm shift that would transform Lyme disease from a tickborne illness into a sexually transmitted infection.

The significance of this paradigm shift would be profound. As a sexually transmitted infection, Lyme disease would command greater respect in the medical community. The current inadequate diagnostic tests for the disease would have to be replaced with more sensitive testing, and test patterns would have to be adjusted to account for sexual transmission. Treatment for Lyme disease would also need to be reassessed, with therapeutic approaches tailored to eradication of the spirochete from privileged sites in the genital tract similar to the tactics for treating HIV/AIDS.
 
Pharmaceutical companies would be encouraged to come up with new ‘designer drugs’ for this sexually transmitted disease using the strategies that produced effective treatments for HIV/AIDS and HCV. The Lyme disease landscape would change drastically for patients. Although infected individuals would be forced to deal with the risk of sexual transmission, they would also benefit from easier access to treatment and eventually better treatment based on the experience with HIV/AIDS and HCV. With this paradigm shift, the ‘Lyme Wars’ would finally come to an end, and after more than 40 years the Lyme spirochete could finally be contained.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank S Altaie, A Barbour, G Chaconas, L Gilbert, N Haak, M Kroun, R Lane, SH Lee, K Liegner, A MacDonald, L Montagnier, K Mullis, E Sapi, J Shah and J Sperling for helpful discussion. They also thank L Johnson, P Mervine and P Smith for online support.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors are supported in part by a grant from the Lindorf Family Foundation, Newark, OH. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

References

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1586/14787210.2015.1081056

Again, PLEASE GO TO THE SOURCE TO SEE THIS WITH THE REFERENCES IN THE LIST 

AND AS THEY ARE ADDED WITHIN THE TEXT, as this is a well researched, cited, properly done piece. 

I removed them for our purposes introducting YOUsers here to make this very readable. Most are tired, have Lyme and coinfection symptoms or are otherwise weary when finding information and our 'niche' is to make this a place to learn of resources for further study and to cover a lot of bases before delving in further elsehwere.

I added paragraph breaks for that reaons too.  And I bolded things I thought Lumigrate readers might appreciate the "pop" effect for, in light of that I'm very much encouraging a trip off to this website to look not only at the article but at the other content there, and know of it as a resource for this type of HELPFUL, quality information we seek! 

Live and learn.  Learn and live better! ~ Mardy