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Part 1 of a Series of Opinions
Written by Tina J. Garcia

In 1975, two mothers were concerned about the frequent occurrence of juvenile arthritis diagnosed in children living in and around Lyme, Connecticut. It seemed unlikely to the mothers that so many children who lived in such close proximity to each other were all suffering from the same condition. The mothers brought these cases to the attention of the health department. The subsequent investigation was handled through Yale University and the leading investigator was Dr. Allen C. Steere. Dr. Steere was serving as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer (EISO) for the Public Health Service (PHS), which is an official branch of the United States Military. EIS officers handle epidemiology studies through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Steere studied the cases of juvenile arthritis and eventually determined that they were due to an infection acquired by tick bites.

Dr. Steere/Yale dubbed the infection “Lyme disease” (LD), obviously because of the location of the initial outbreak. Personally, I would have named it Yale Plum Island Disease, due to, in addition to close proximity to the outbreak, Yale's cozy history of providing pathogens to the Plum Island Biowarfare Lab and Plum Island Lab's history of studying pathogens in ticks. At least this name would have given the public a "heads up," but then again, I'm on the "other" side of the enemy lines--I'm a Lyme patient and patient advocate. For patients in search of diagnosis and treatment, the name “Lyme disease” has become a painfully penetrating and deep-cutting thorn that infers that the infection may only be acquired in the immediate area surrounding Lyme, Connecticut. This nemesis is often used to discount a diagnosis of Lyme disease by physicians who are not aware that the Lyme infection has and can be acquired throughout the United States, as demonstrated in a story told to me by another Lyme advocate: A lady in Connecticut went to see a physician and told the physician she had experienced a tick bite and she suspected she may have Lyme disease based on her symptoms. The doctor told her that she couldn't possibly have Lyme disease because Lyme, Connecticut was more than THIRTY MINUTES away from where she lived!! Unbelievable, but true. Just for the record, infections from Borrelia bacteria are now rampant in Europe and other countries worldwide, as well.

Lyme disease infection is caused by a corkscrew-shaped strain of the genus Borrelia of the spirochete class. The discovery of the strain of Borrelia that causes Lyme disease was made in 1982 by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) researcher named Dr. Willy Burgdorfer at NIH Rocky Mountain in Montana, USA. The particular strain that causes Lyme disease infection is named Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) after its discoverer, Dr. Burgdorfer. It is for this reason that Lyme disease is also referred to as Borreliosis, or in the case of central nervous system (CMS) involvement Neuroborreliosis, and late-stage or chronic cases are called Lyme Borreliosis Complex (LBC) by those physicians who have clinical experience in treating an inhumanely-neglected patient population numbering in the hundreds of thousands and possibly millions. (It is a fact that the CDC does not have an accurate number of cases of Lyme Borreliosis Complex. How could they possibly have an accurate count, if they don’t even “believe” that chronic Lyme disease exists?)

Borrelia burgdorferi has subsequently been shown to be a stealth pathogen that has the pleomorphic ability to change its presentation from a spirochete into other forms. Dr. Burgdorfer and fellow researchers at RML determined through their research that Bb uses its pleomorphic ability as a survival mechanism within its host. Dr. Alan Macdonald, a research pathologist, has also demonstrated the pleomorphic nature of Bb by photographing microscopic images of cystic, granular, L, bleb and ring forms. Dr. MacDonald studied the brain tissue of deceased Alzheimer's patients and photographed Borrelia burgdorferi in such brain tissue, showing a link between Alzheimer's and the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. You may read and view Dr. MacDonald's outstanding research at his website at www.molecularalzheimer.org.

Ticks have caused human and animal infection throughout history. Dr. Otto Obermeier, a German physician, is credited with discovering relapsing fever infection from tick bites in 1868. Ticks attach themselves to the host by boring into the skin. Infection is caused by the tick sucking the blood from the host, thus transmitting infection into the host simultaneously. In 1878, another physician named Gregor Munch theorized that additional modes of transmission existed through the bites of other blood-sucking arthropods such as fleas and lice. This theory of lice as a vector of relapsing fever infection was confirmed in 1910 by French microbiologists Sergent and Foley. Current research has determined that, in addition to ticks, the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium has been found in mosquitoes, fleas, mites and flies. In my opinion, it would behoove all people to use their own common sense and acknowledge that the possibility does indeed exist for Borrelia infections to be transmitted via tick, mosquito, flea, mite and fly bites. It makes no sense to me to believe that transmission through these vectors cannot occur merely because the government agencies vested with authority to provide us with information are failing to conduct timely research regarding these modes of transmission. One of the most important lessons that Lyme disease patients learn during the course of their debilitating illness is the need to take responsibility for their own healthcare decisions, relying upon all knowledge acquired from various sources, not only that of seemingly official and/or authoritative agencies/organizations/physicians/insurance companies. This responsibility may be applied by patients to other diseases and conditions, also.

CDC research published in 2006 entitled INVASION OF HUMAN NEURONAL AND GLIAL CELLS BY AN INFECTIOUS STRAIN OF BORRELIA BURGDORFERI by Drs. Jill A. Livengood and Robert D. Gilmore, Jr. has demonstrated that Bb is an intracellular pathogen that sequesters itself inside nerve cells and thus evades the immune system. This may be a major reason for the common and recurrent pattern of remission and relapse that chronic Lyme disease/Borreliosis patients experience. It causes me great consternation that the CDC is refusing to act responsibly and fulfill its obligation to the public by failing to utilize its own research to educate mainstream physicians in the complexities of Borreliosis infections. The CDC research referenced above by CDC researchers Livengood and Gilmore renders IMPOTENT the outrageously-biased treatment guidelines authored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). The CDC posts the IDSA guidelines on its Lyme disease webpage as the authoritative final word on LD diagnosis and treatment. Both the 2000 and 2006 IDSA Lyme disease treatment guidelines have been used by the insurance industry in establishing their insurance coverage and bottom-line policies for diagnosing and treating Lyme disease and co-infections (more about co-infections later in this series). I include co-infections, because in a clinical setting, if a physician refuses to entertain the possibility of Lyme disease as a diagnosis, probability suggests that the physician will not consider a co-infection either.

In many cases, the Bb infection can be readily-treated with antibiotics if diagnosed in its early stage, immediately following initial infection. However, if early diagnosis and antimicrobial treatment is not provided, a chronic, debilitating illness may develop. In addition, research performed by the IDSA guideline authors and others have demonstrated that, despite initial IDSA-recommended treatment in acute infection, patients experienced persistent symptoms. Periods of remission have been noted with subsequent relapse, the pattern reoccurring over many years. Astounding numbers of people are currently suffering from chronic Lyme Borreliosis Complex due to mainstream medicine’s adherence to the IDSA treatment guidelines, which ultimately results in extended delays in diagnosis and treatment. This issue will be addressed in greater depth in subsequent parts of this series. Also for the record, these patients report having contracted the infection throughout the United States, not only in the Northeast near Lyme, Connecticut.

Most chronic Lyme disease patients will tell you that, prior to being properly diagnosed with LD, they were misdiagnosed with numerous other illnesses, such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Rheumatoid Arthritis and Parkinson’s, among others. Infection with Borrelia burgdorferi for long periods of time allows the bacteria to replicate and wreak havoc throughout the entire body. As noted above, the bacteria hide inside nerve cells, undetected by the immune system, and destroy the nerve cells from within. The bacteria also burrow into tendons and ligaments causing inflammation in the tissues and the nearby bone. This is a very painful condition. The bacteria infect the brain causing swelling and interruption of blood flow. In some patients, the bacteria invade the heart, resulting in heart block and myocarditis, life-threatening cardiac abnormalities.

A multi-system illness, Lyme disease causes an array of symptoms that manifest themselves at the top of the head and go all the way down to the tips of the toes. Not all patients experience the exact same set of symptoms, but patients can identify with those that are most common. If the bacteria have infected the brain, patients suffer from encephalopathy, dementia, cognitive dysfunction with memory loss and dyslexia, headaches and stiff neck. Cranial nerve impairment can cause Bell’s palsy, vertigo and hearing loss. There can be pain in the spine that radiates throughout the back, excruciating rib pain due to inflammation of cartilage and excruciating joint, muscle, tendon, ligament, bone and nerve pain. There is unrelenting fatigue that is not relieved even after 12-14 hours of sleep. There are many more symptoms that a person may experience at one time or another during the illness. The joint pain is migratory--for a while it may affect the knee and then move to the shoulders, elbows, ankles and feet.

Some people infected with Lyme disease experience severe symptoms right away. Others notice vague symptoms like fatigue, numbness and tingling in extremities, headaches and minor joint pain that sneak up on them over a period of time. Many initially attribute these various problems to lack of sleep, stress or over-extending themselves in physical activities. Then the time comes when the varied symptoms occur much too frequently, are too many in number and are too intense to attribute to everyday causes. Usually, by this time, the bacteria have significantly impaired one’s cognitive function. Loss of memory, mistakes in accounting and forgetting and losing one’s way becomes too much to bear for those who have previously lived organized, detailed, functional lives. Lyme disease patients describe this cognitive dysfunction as “Brain Fog”.

Many Lyme disease patients have expressed that this loss of cognitive ability can actually override the pain and suffering associated with the physical aspect of the disease. The reason for this is that losing one’s ability to function in everyday life, to carry on a conversation and to carry out job duties causes a loss of self-esteem and loss of character and personality. Observation and research of spirochete infections has demonstrated that this bacterium not only causes physical damage to the body, but psychological damage as well. When the bacteria invade the brain, they cause inflammation and destruction of tissue that can result in loss of brain function, mood swings and depression.

An important note--please don't let a person's appearance fool you into thinking that they are healthy because they don't "look" sick. We cannot really know how a person feels unless we are in their body. It may be frustrating and annoying to family and friends to ask their loved ones if they are feeling better after numerous doctor visits and then receive a negative response to the question "Are you cured yet?" Please understand that each day brings new pain and other symptoms to a Borreliosis patient. We cannot look inside a person's body and see their infected and inflamed nerves, tendons and ligaments or the swelling in their brains. The fatigue that accompanies a severely-infected body and compromised immune system can only be felt by the person who is ill. Borreliosis patients are frequently scoffed at and neglected by the medical establishment as a direct result of the CDC/IDSA misinformation campaign; it is a double whammy for patients to also be rejected by their own family and friends. Take it from me--a Lyme patient--one just cannot really understand what it's like to be sick day in and day out for days, weeks, months and years until one experiences it personally. Chronic Lyme Borreliosis Complex takes a heavy toll physically, emotionally, intellectually and financially. I urge all families and friends to set their own uncomfortable feelings of impatience, suspicion and frustration aside and exhibit understanding and compassion toward those suffering from LBC or other chronic illness.

It is unconscionable that Lyme patients who suffer such tremendous pain and cognitive dysfunction, many times resulting in loss of health, careers, homes and families, are diagnosed from afar by CDC/IDSA-affiliated doctors--without any consultation, review of medical records or examination--as hysterical, imaginative and/or attention-starved. Some of these individuals have gone so far as to call Lyme disease patients "antibiotic addicts." That is the same as calling cancer patients "radiation and chemotherapy addicts." What kind of person dares to make such a ludicrous insinuation? In addition, it has been the medical MALpractice of CDC/IDSA-affiliated physicians/researchers/guideline authors to diagnosis an entire population of Lyme disease patients, whom they have never examined, with diseases other than Lyme disease. The frosting on the cake of this medical malpractice by these pathetically-callous "authorities" is that they publish their distant diagnoses in newspapers and medical journals as "science", as though they have the right and authority to make such diagnoses of other physicians' patients without being asked to do so.

Some patients have been catapulted between 30 specialists before finding out that they were suffering with a chronic Bb infection and co-infections. Many patients suffering with debilitating symptoms have been told by clueless physicians that they are bored with life in need of work or a hobby, malingerers, hypochondriacs, depressed or suffering with other psychiatric conditions. Three specialists told me that I lied about my tick bite in Arizona, I was depressed with conversion disorder, and the President of the Arizona Chapter of IDSA told me I needed a psychological exam because I was “obsessed with the diagnosis of Lyme disease.” This type of psychiatric abuse has resulted in perpetual illness, loss of employment, homes, marriages, families and self-esteem. Acknowledging the fact that Bb infection does indeed cause depression, it is a travesty for patients suffering to such a great degree both physically and mentally to be turned away and denied treatment. Although Borrelia does cause depression physiologically, I wouldn't want to be the physician who tells a Lyme disease patient that they are "merely" suffering from depression, deny treatment for the infection and send an already-depressed patient home engulfed in a cloud of rejection, loneliness and desperation that ends in suicide.

This scenario is presently being played out worldwide in the failure of physicians to entertain the possibility of Lyme disease and other Borrelia infections, inappropriate misdiagnoses, denial of treatment by physicians and insurance companies and the dissemination of and adherence to biased treatment guidelines promoted by the CDC and Infectious Diseases Society of America. Lyme disease patients are first bitten by a tiny bloodthirsty vector that injects a debilitating poison and are from that point forward ensnared in a sticky and fatal web of controversial political issues spun by the tarantula and black widow Lyme researchers who are benefiting financially in the form of research grants to major universities and Level 4 biowarfare labs.

In this series, subsequent articles will delve into additional reasons as to why it's so difficult to get diagnosed and treated. This series will divulge the shocking realities of the behind-the-scenes Lyme Wars--the manipulation of Lyme disease parameters, the suffering patients caught in the crossfire, and the Lyme-treating physicians who place the health of their patients above the interests and dictates of the “Lyme authorities” by providing diagnosis and ongoing treatment.

© Tina J. Garcia, chronic Lyme disease patient and volunteer advocate,

Founder and President of Lyme Education Awareness Program, L.E.A.P. Arizona,

A 501(c)3 non-profit, public charity

L.E.A.P. provides education to the public and financial assistance to Lyme disease patients
for treatment and necessities of life.

Please support our efforts by making a tax-deductible donation on our website at www.leaparizona.com