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The 18 Reasons Lyme Treatments Fail:

Tick-Borne Infection Medicine for the New Millennium

by Dr. James Schaller, M.D.

My average patient has been to 10-50 physicians before me. Many sincere, hard working health care experts are falling very far behind new Lyme information. I have become very concerned with the quality of "average" Lyme literate care, and I am particularly frustrated by three things:

1) Ten years of Lyme treatment is not acceptable. It is a paradigm that should be trashed. It shows massive defects in knowledge and practice. "Cure" treatments often merely lower body loads or may make someone feel better without killing many infectious agents.

For example, a pseudo cure that wastes money and time is the use of hyperbaric oxygen for tick infection treatment (HBOT). To put my money where my mouth is I recently conducted, and funded, a soon to be published study examining the effects of this treatment tool on Lyme, Babesia, Ehrlichia and Bartonella. After 120 treatments at 2.4 atmospheres for 90 minutes each, all participants still had clear and obvious positive findings for all four infections. It failed completely! So advertising that HBOT "kills" Lyme disease is nonsense. I have talked to Dr. Fife in detail and carefully evaluated and posted the HBOT research done by the late Dr. Robert Lombard. So while I love this treatment for many medical problems, it is not a tick infection cure.

2) I have published two Babesia textbooks, an Artemisia derivatives text, a two-volume color textbook on Bartonella (the last one is from 1998), and two practical mold toxin books that make infections harder to treat. These are just a sample of the publications I have written on various TBD topics. Why do infectious disease physicians rarely order these progressive medical books while 99% are ordered by patients?

Further, I have repeatedly posted new information based on our research or based on the study of 1500 plus articles, and it was ignored. For example, our blind research study of Babesia Mepron dosing found that 750 mg/teaspoon twice per day, for any duration of time, will virtually always fail and lead to a Babesia relapse. Few physicians have listened to this new research even when firmly reported.

No Lyme literate pope exists in the world. The information known in 2006 is already partly out of date. By definition, a Lyme literate physician must be very aggressive to stay current--the stakes are too high. Yet heavy scrutiny from medical boards inhibits their ability to do so.

This current practice will never allow these heroes to study and read as much as they prefer, when they have to explain to unlearned prosecution lawyers and surgeons on the medical board, why a Babesia or Bartonella co-infection can cause death.

3) I have been asked by a number of physicians to share various new findings. Most ask because they are ill themselves. I have asked them to stop treating themselves, and to do an hour consultation with very extensive labs. Almost all have refused. What they could have learned by fixing themselves would have translated into help for their patients; instead they chose to remain ill, and in turn have left their patients without any chance at full cure.

The age of the ten-year "patient" is over. It should never be tolerated again. Traditional and alternative medicine Lyme specialists need to catch up with emerging new 2010 medicine-now!

Reason One

The current treatment dosing for Babesia is flawed. If Babesia is present, Lyme cure is impossible. 750 mg/teaspoon twice a day of Mepron is not a Babesia cure, nor is the use of artesunate (Zhang Artemisiae) from Heprapro.com, at one dose three times a day -- it fails even after a full year of daily use! This had not been previously tested for Babesia. We have found obvious Babesia after extended artesunate use -- at malaria killing doses.

The flaw in all Babesia treatment is the assumption that one can simply plug in effective malaria dosing as Babesia dosing. This is a serious error. Malaria kills humans fast and has many obvious and extreme blood patterns. Babesia is much harder to see in blood, even with digitally enlarged red blood cells, and while it can cause 200 medical problems, it does not die easily -- it is much harder to fully remove than malaria.

Reason Two

The current testing for Babesia is markedly flawed. Some DNA or PCR tests sent to a respected East Coast lab are covered by insurance but require 10 negatives to be considered negative. Some labs are only good at tissue PCR testing. But if you need to do 10 urine or blood samples to show a positive, this is simply silly and unreasonable.

Some patients with immune suppressing Bartonella will not show any lab signs of Babesia when they have Babesia. Why?

1) Some infections like Bartonella turn off the production of antibodies. Therefore, antibodies to Babesia microti or Babesia duncani will probably not be positive in some infected patients. The complete removal of Bartonella can result in explosive increases in IgG and IgM for Lyme disease, Babesia, Ehrlichia and Bartonella antibodies in some patients.

2) Some patients have very few Babesia protozoa parasites, but they cause serious trouble in the body. Their small numbers are missed in a visual FISH exam or a PCR test.

3) A new medical trick can help catch some infections such as Babesia missed by even great labs. The patient is given at least two Babesia killing medications such as Mepron, artesunate at a high useful dose, or Malarone (given for the proguanil). These medications are used for ten days at a dose you and your physician feel is worth the risk, and hopefully will kill a few Babesia parasites. Approximately four weeks later, the patient is tested for antibodies to microti or .......duncani and ECP. If the ECP is increased significantly or the antibodies are positive, one probably has Babesia. Stealthy low volume Babesia is a common problem in tick and flea infection treatment. Talented health care workers commonly miss these red blood cell parasites, but this trick usually causes them to show up and can save someone from years of failed treatment.

Reason Three

Bartonella is simply the most common tick and flea-borne infection in the world. The number of species identified, that show clear uniqueness, has gone from 2 to 32 in a short time. This is based on techniques identical to those used in the Human Genome project. I am not at liberty to release the names of the scientists involved, but their findings are astonishing. For example, Bartonella floating in the blood does not even cause a fever. Any other bacteria floating in blood would kill you in 2 days. So it obviously turns off some components of the immune system. The various tests to measure its presence are complex and multifaceted, e.g., VEGF, IL-6, IL-1b, TNF-a, Bartonella seen on various enlarged blood smears, PCR, Bartonella antibodies, and Bartonella FISH testing (which is in development and likely available in 2009). One can also use the 40 physical exam findings from a two-part color Bartonella book.

Years ago I heard a famous Lyme expert mock the idea of striations being an exam sign of Bartonella. But these are definitely a sign of Bartonella, and the striations and/or stretch marks are often red, burgundy, blue or purple. This means they are filled with blood! Bartonella makes VEGF and this chemical makes and opens blood vessels. Our two-volume full color book shows 40 possible Bartonella body or skin findings.

Reason Four

All routine published Bartonella treatments appear to fail. This knowledge prevents wasting a year or more with ineffective treatments. I have examined many treatments in many inherited patients or self-treating patients. The good news is that there are emerging treatments that do work. Some are listed in my Bartonella textbooks. After looking at chat room discussions, it is clear that some have not been able to understand this issue of treatment and effective treatment options. However, I will save this topic for another article or book.

The bottom line that is not fully appreciated yet is the cure of Lyme is impossible in the presence of a profoundly super immune suppressing bacteria -- Bartonella.

Reason Five

Since Lyme spirochetes can become cysts virtually instantaneously in the presence of threatening antibiotics, it does not make sense to use antibiotics without cyst-busting antibiotics (such as Flagyl), herbs or essential oils. Cysts can form immediately, and they can also quickly return to active spirochetes in the presence of a safe environment. Using strong antibiotic treatment in tablets, in shots, or in an IV form, makes no sense unless cyst-busting treatments are used at the same time.

One patient I inherited reported that she was given three months of IV antibiotics and at some later time was placed on Flagyl 500 mg. twice a day. I believe the IV antibiotics made vast numbers of Lyme sacks -- cystic forms. When the Flagyl was added, the die-off and the explosion of so many cysts caused her to be delirious for 48 hours. This was not an allergy. Nine months later she was fine on this same dose.

Cyst-busting treatments are for almost every period of treatment and not some "later stage."

Reason Six

Infections and inflammation decrease insight. This is largely due to an impaired frontal lobe behind your forehead that is involved in self-awareness. Examples of decreased insight are shown in the following situations:

1) Some simply feel they are cured when they are only improved. Many avoid my testing to see if they are cured, even if the testing is offered for free.

2) Others go to practitioners using trash screen labs that are negative even when Lyme or other parallel tick and flea infections are coming out of their noses.

3) Some see physicians who promise to run a Western Blot actually get a junky ELISA test from a lab that has not spent the money for advanced tick disease testing.

4) Many physicians and patients do not realize that if you have a +/-, an indeterminate or a positive band at only one of these "bands"-- 18, 23, 25, 31, 34, 39, 83 or 93 -- then you may have Lyme disease.

Reason Seven

Some patients get ill after a flood, large leak or some other water intrusion problem. They feel they are ill only because of mold mycotoxins that form after 36-48 hours of wetness on drywall, insulation, carpeting and other dust or cellulose-filled materials. The EPA reports 30% of USA structures have indoor mold. Some of these indoor molds have war chemicals on their surface. In a revised version of one of my three co-authored mold books, we will discuss the opening of the tomb of the King of Poland, Casimir IV (King of Poland 1447-92). 12 scientists opened his rotting mold-filled tomb room in 1973. In a few days, four of them were dead! Soon all were dead but two! One survivor had expertise in mold and subsequently found three toxic mold species.

Given the average of 40,000 - 120,000 inhalations per week while residing in a moldy location, it is no wonder some are not easily cured of tick and flea infections. This is why I write books with a master remediator to offer many treatment options, and not merely a 1970's biotoxin binder. The best treatment with any mold problem is a perfect remediation, so I sought out certifications in mold investigation and also mold remediation. It helped me tell the real experts from those who merely had huge pre-formed report templates that were the same for every home or building.

We have also known since the 1880's that dust and high humidity leads to mold and bacteria growth indoors. Their presence makes Lyme disease much more difficult to cure.

Reason Eight

Lyme appears to make many biotoxins. One is patented (Bb Tox1) and the full gene code is fully known. In past years, some LL MD's doubted the presence of Lyme biotoxins. Since this is a patented Lyme biotoxin, this issue is now obviously settled.

Reason Nine

A general physician in Maryland, working among massive deer ticks in his rural location, was smart enough to search for clinical applications of basic and accepted codes for transplant and disease medicine. These patterns can be found with a basic Wikipedia search. With this knowledge, he looked to see if certain patterns existed in his patients. Specifically for our purpose, he found that some had trouble removing Lyme biotoxins. Certain HLA patterns were found among thousands of patients, which appeared to show patients with 15/16--6/5--51 patterns were unable to remove Lyme biotoxins. These HLA numbers have many presentation options, but one respected system is what this general physician settled on (R. Shoemaker).

No one in the world has really mastered how to use this information. Ignoring it is unwise. But perhaps avoiding aggressive and full Lyme treatment may also be unwise. I find that using a toxin-binder and trying to treat Lyme aggressively has never led to irreversible low MSH. Indeed, all patients with seriously low MSH have had it return. But it will never become normal if you use a fair remediator who has no building experience or if Babesia or Bartonella are missed. Bartonella also has biotoxins, but these seem to suppress immunity instead of causing inflammation. I have no idea of their effect on MSH or other anti-inflammatory chemicals.

Reason Ten

Starting doses of all medications should be very low and then raised to high levels with liver-protecting substances. Starting at full dosing in a "medically sensitive" patient is chemical battery. Massive die-offs can be confused with allergic reactions and can cause panic attacks, shortness of breath, chest pain and severe migraines. This sloppy, one-size-fits all approach, is common in large practices in which a few major "protocols" are routine.

Reason Eleven

"Band-Aids" are often required to save a job, a marriage and to care for children. They are often a normal part of care. Pain, fatigue, depression and anxiety often are increased with the die-off of any of the infections carried in deer ticks, and these cannot be ignored. "Band-Aid" treatments are often useful and helpful. I treat people who run companies, schools, very large families and professional teams. They want to sleep 13 hours per day. The use of natural or synthetic stimulant options is discussed in my book The Diagnosis and Treatment of Babesia. Patients do not benefit from sleep in excess of 8 ½ hours. It may just serve to get them fired!

Reason Twelve

If you have healthcare workers who do not feel comfortable being aggressive with treatment and diagnosis of all the top tick and flea infections, you are at the wrong place. If you feel someone is "experimenting" on you or they are willing, reluctantly, to test you at superior labs or with superior direct and indirect testing, than you are in the wrong class. If your healthcare provider has not spent 1,000 hours learning this complex emerging area of medicine requiring a great deal of study, find someone who is serious about it, and not someone "doing you a favor" by simply running a few tests.

Reason Thirteen

You have been treated for many years. You have done IV, you have taken 40 pills per day, you have tried a wide range of specialized treatments, and now you are fed up with it all. You can generally function now at about 75% of your baseline. You are at the end of your treatment rope. This is what happens when someone does not treat you fully and effectively at the beginning of your treatment. You can get treatment fatigue.

Reason Fourteen

The treatment approach that leads to cure is not the same dose that leads to stunning organisms. Cure does not does not merely equal fewer bacteria or "a reduction in body load." For example, using Bicillin once a week with no cyst buster will not kill all your Lyme, nor will it remove cysts. So years after receiving this treatment, your cancer-fighting cells, marked by some as the CD57 level, may be under 90. This is one good test that is quite specific for Lyme disease. (The C3a and C4a test is not specific for Lyme).

Reason Fifteen

Cynical know-it-alls can castrate the work of Lyme experts and convince patients to drop healthcare workers who are helping. They usually use "the money" argument or "the speed of your recovery" argument to cut you off from someone sincerely trying to help you. Tick and flea-borne infections in the bodies and brains of

relatives and friends can cause some of them to be outrageously critical, entitled, disrespectful, nasty, insulting, and defamatory, proposing God-like standards to convince you that a person who is helping you should be dropped.

Reason Sixteen

Two respected scientists, Drs. Sapi and MacDonald, did the first clear work on a Lyme biofilm in early 2008. Organizations with millions in grants and research money have never addressed this issue. We know that many spirochetes have biofilms. Indeed, many spirochetes in your mouth are known to cause a biofilm and plaque.

Why does this matter? I'll give you an example: I have a pool. One day it was filled with some patches of large algae. The manual said some algae varieties make a biofilm that make chlorine and algaecides worthless. They suggested a tough industrial large brush. I used it, and watched a clear film float off the top of the algae, and in 30 minutes no algae was visible. This is the power of a biofilm. It makes most antibiotics a joke.

In a textbook I am currently working on, I will address the many options for attacking biofilms. No article or book yet exists that explores the twenty plus ways I would propose to beat a Lyme biofilm. I am deeply concerned with the simplistic nature of the current options. It is believed by some professionals that highly specific enzymes can digest a Lyme biofilm. Yet enzymes are sometimes like keys, and this so- called miracle enzyme may not be the "key" to Lyme's biofilm.

Two of the twenty biofilm treatments we are already exploring include these samples. First, if you look at what kills spirochetes making plaque in your mouth, you will notice that the key ingredients include four essential oils present in products like Listerine.

Further, we have been working with biological chemists who are extracting a wide range of natural chemicals from various botanicals. Some grow bacteria and others kill bacteria but hurt human membranes. Others kill bacteria and are profoundly safe.

Reason Seventeen

Self-treatment is easy to pursue. Many experts are expensive, and you are uncertain of their level of knowledge after reading on the Internet. Some are too narrow. Others are open to virtually everything as they seek out cures. So you get in a medical boat and push yourself out to sea. You read like crazy. You try a, b and c. You read testimonies of hundreds of patients. You try a wide range of non-prescription options. Some days, weeks or months you feel better. Other weeks, you are not so good. You are upset. You ask yourself, why do I have to do all the work and learning? This is not a good place. People exist who have already explored virtually all of the fifty things you are going to explore in the next ten years. You need a mentor.

Reason Eighteen

Tick and flea-borne infections cause isolation. They ruin relationships due to fogginess, poor insight, various addictions, rage, extreme hostility, and refusing to get treatment, and they can sometimes provoke violence. Bartonella is likely the worst cause of these problems, but Lyme and Babesia and their die offs can also increase these problems. Isolation leads to decreased treatment options. It can ultimately lead to divorce and the loss of family relationships and friendships. This, in turn, leads to decreased resources and support while ill. Isolated humans, as Mother Teresa often said, are the poorest beings on earth.

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About the Author:

Dr. Schaller is the author of 27 peer-reviewed journal articles and is one of the most prolific LL MD's in the world.

Dr. Schaller is the author of 20 books including: The Diagnosis and Treatment of Babesia, Mold Illness and Mold Remediation Made Simple, The Complete Guide to Artemisinin, When Traditional Medicine Fails, 100 Solutions to Out of Control Youth, Suboxone-Pain Treatment with Addiction Relief, and A Laboratory Guide to Human Babesia Hematology Forms.

He has recently published the most up-to-date textbook on Bartonella, which he feels is a top vector in the world-possibly more common than Lyme.

Dr. Schaller's many national and international medical publications in such journals as JAMA, Medscape, and some of the largest pediatric journals in the world. He was the first to publish a practical cancer cure which blocks a single enzyme of a deadly blood cancer, which has become a standard treatment internationally. He has also designed wholesale nutritional products and published nutrition and herbal purity and potency research.

Dr. Schaller is a strong advocate for looking at many treatments and illness causes as can be seen from his site: www.PersonalConsult.com.

Here he offers over 800 articles in over 10 areas of medicine for free.

Dr. Schaller offers free brief educational chats which can be arranged on www.personalconsult.com.

Lyme Disease : A Plea To Doctors

by Marjorie Tietjen

Daystar1952@yahoo.com

June 17, 2004

Lyme Disease is the fastest spreading vector borne disease in the country.

The question must then be asked as to why this most serious degenerative neurological disease is essentially being downplayed, ignored and fraudulently misrepresented?

Doctors across the country are dismissing and turning away thousands of seriously ill patients. Many doctors even refuse to consider the possibility that those previously diagnosed with such diseases as ALS, M.S, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, BiPolar Depression, Fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's, etc, may actually be infected with Borrelia Burgdorferi ( Bb... the causative agent of lyme disease ) and other coinfections. This microbe may be the main cause of various autoimmune diseases and other vague conditions or in some cases it may be a co-factor. Certain labs which look for the L form of Bb are finding this pathogen present in much of the chronic illness population.

Respected researchers , such as Lida Mattman ( author of "Stealth Pathogens" ), are finding it more and more difficult to find blood free of Bb for control purposes. Bb has not only been found in ticks but also in human tears, breast milk, semen, mosquitoes, cow's milk, fleas, mites....even well water and african dust. This attests to the extreme hardiness of the lyme spirochete.

Almost every patient we come into contact with is reporting that doctors are reacting very strangely when presented with the idea that the patient may be ill with Chronic Lyme Disease. Doctors are taught that there really isn't such an entity as Chronic Lyme Disease ( meaning chronic active infection ). This is a blatantly false teaching and I will list a couple of links later in this article which will prove that Lyme can be a persistant infection. The theory that Yale University puts forth to the medical community....and it is only a theory without proof to back it up....states that after three to four weeks of antibiotics a person is automatically cured. They contend that if on the 31st day , the day after treatment is stopped, then the patient no longer has an active infection but that it has suddenly turned into a disease of an autoimmune nature. This theory is absurd.. Testing is so unreliable that there is no way to p rove the lyme spirochete has been totally eradicated. If the same symptoms persist...so should the treatment.

The mere mention of this disease to most doctors seems to trigger anger, fear, sarcasm, condescending attitudes, denial and often even explosive behavior. Patients often leave the doctor's office in tears, feeling they have been emotionally attacked. This of course only compounds the stress of this legitmate illness and often weakens the patient further. Many doctors tell the patient they are depressed and that they need antidepressants which will solve all their problems. Many of us are beginning to think that it's the doctors who need something to calm them down. I'm really not trying to be sarcastic and I don't want to come across as if I'm attacking the doctors. We realize they are also victims of the system. It must be very frustrating for doctors to be taught one thing and then have patients come in demanding something totally opposite to what the doctors have been told is Truth.

Are doctors frightened of something that the public is not aware of or is this abnormal behavior and resulting non treatment due to ignorance? Is there an intentional lack of education concerning this issue? It certainly seems so and I will tell you why it seems so.

Most testing for Lyme Disease is very inaccurate and therefore can not be used reliably in the diagnosis or "ruling out" of Lyme Disease. The Centers For Disease Control states that their very restrictive diagnostic criteria should only be used for surveillance purposes and not for diagnosis. However, my chief complaint is that no one is encouraged not to use this criteria. There is no promotion whatsoever of this stance of the CDC. As a result, a very large percentage of the population is left undiagnosed, misdiagnosed and untreated.

The Centers For Disease Control also states that Lyme Disease is a clinical diagnosis. This means that doctors should use their own judgement after considering the patient's symptoms and history. Laboratory testing should only be used as an adjunct.

Doctors need to educate themselves as to the extensive list of symptoms which are associated with Lyme Disease and it's coinfections. Once familiar with the general symptom complex it is very simple, even for lay people, to predict and conclude who is probably stricken with Lyme Disease. Reports from young doctors confirm the suspicion that not much is taught concerning Lyme Disease, in medical school. It's an unfortunate situation that doctors and patients alike have to seek their information from sources other than the mainstream. Patients are in the midst of this unprecedented controversy and are realizing that perhaps this lack of education is intentional. The studies and doctor's personal experiences are out there, which show unrefutably that Lyme Disease can be a chronic active relapsing infection. The medical authorities refuse to acknowledge this and continue to thwart proper diagnosis and treatment by refusing to educate doctors as to the facts concerning this disease.

The Lyme Disease pandemic is such an extreme problem in Connecticut that a special Hearing was held in February of 2004. The purpose of this Hearing was to bring to light the fact that Lyme Disease can be chronic and that Lyme Disease can and does sometimes remain an active an relapsing infection. The microbe which causes Lyme Disease is pleomorphic ( changes form) and as a result is very adept at evading detection. There may, at times, be autoimmune factors present but this does not exclude the fact that an active infection can be present along with autoimmune markers.

The Centers For Disease Control had to be sternly persuaded to attend the Connecticut Hearing. Attorney General Blumenthal strongly advised the CDC to send out special warnings or notices to doctors, labs and health departments, for the purpose of promoting and encouraging the enforcement of their statement that the CDC criteria should not be used for diagnosis. I recently contacted the CDC to ask what progress had been made in this area. I was referred to an article in a magazine put out by the CDC which supposedly states very clearly that doctors should not use the CDC criteria for diagnosing lyme using the Western Blot. According to them , this is their big effort to educate. The CDC official agreed to send me the link to this article...however I never recieved it. I then e-mailed the CDC ,for more specifics, and have yet to recieve a reply.

The extent of misdiagnosis and morbidity concerning Lyme Disease is staggering. Despite the undistributed statement regarding their diagnostic criteria, most doctors and labs are basing their conclusions on these very restrictive guidelines or parameters. In addition testing for antibodies in tertiary late stage Lyme Disease is almost futile due to many factors which interfere with the antibody response. A more reliable test...such as the Bowen Test, isolates the actual L form of the Lyme microbe.

Why isn't there an extensive campaign on the part of the CDC to educate in this most crucial matter? It makes no sense that this agency is not doing so. This can lead one to the conclusion that perhaps the use of such restrictive testing criteria, keeps the extent of this pandemic under wraps, to the benefit of pharmaceutical companies and other corporations.

In the past we have held medical conferences for doctors, lab technicians and nurses, in the local hospitals. Invitations to all doctors were given to the hospitals to pass out to their physicians. In all cases doctors were conspicuously absent. Our speakers were very well known and respected doctors who specialize in Lyme Disease. They offered very valuable information to the lab technicians, nurses and patients who did attend. Evidently the medical doctors were just not interested, they were pressured into not attending or they were never given the invitations.

Doctors, many times, express the idea that they don't have enough time or energy to investigate into the many diseases currently afflicting our world. This is certainly understandable but perhaps the root cause of many diseases involves only several microbes which present themselves differently in each individual. This appears to be the case with Lyme Disease...the second "Great Imitator" next to syphilis....another spirochetal disease.

It is our hope that more of those in the medical profession will take it upon themselves to investigate both sides of this issue. It is vitally important to keep the mind open to the experiences, research and protocols of those lyme literate doctors who are working in the trenches with the realities of Lyme disease. Experience is always the best educator. And most important of all....good doctors always really listen to and believe in their patients. Effective physicians tell how they have learned more from their patients than from anywhere else. After all, the patients are the ones experiencing the disease first hand. It is interesting to note that many lyme literate doctors have experienced Lyme Disease themselves and therefore understand the enormity and complexities of the disease. Most of us are not "just depressed" nor are we hypochondriacs. Lyme Disease can affect every body system and as a result the number of symptoms which can be experienced, is overwhelming. The fact that many patients are glibly told their symptoms are due to depression, is doing them a great injustice. Lyme Disease can cause depression, anxiety and many many other neurological manifestations....but the point is...these patients need antibiotics....just as syphilis patients need antibiotics...to eradicate the source of their problems. Antidepressants just cover up the symptoms which allows the infection to simmer and progress below the surface.

I blame the medical system which appears to be educating doctors towards their own selfish purposes. The insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies play a very large role in the medical system and in the education of doctors. We all know that corporations don't have a conscience and don't care about the individual. They care about profits and that's what motivates them. We know that drug companies profit greatly by promoting many symptomatic treatments for one disease rather than a single curative treatment. Doctors are also divided up into so many subspecialties that it makes it very difficult for one doctor to ever see the patient as a whole person and to be able to discern the connectedness of the many symptoms which present in Lyme Disease.

For example.....a single patient may be separately diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, heart palpitations, irritable bowel, seizure disorder, TMJ, foot pain, conjunctivitis, acid reflux....and also be separately treated for each and every condition, with either surgery or symptomatic treatments. This approach is extremely inefficient, costly and very dangerous. Many times the basic underlying cause of all these symptoms or so called diseases, is found to be due to one organism such as babesia, borrelia burgdorferi, different strains of mycoplasma or even a combination of these microbes. Why isn't testing for these organisms routine when someone presents with a chronic illness....especially when the patient is from an endemic area?

For more clues as to why the medical system is set up in this crazy fashion, please visit http://congregator. net/medicalnews/tietjen/index. html

For those of you who are sincerely concerned about the welfare of your patients and the future of your own family's health, please take the time to study and ponder the following links.

"Lyme Disease: The Sensible Pursuit Of Answers" By Kenneth Leigner http://www. lymeinfo. net/sensiblepursuit. html

Especially note the "Persistence File" near the top http://www. lymeinfo. net/lymefiles. html

www. bowen. org">

Marjorie Tietjen writes for The Journal Of Degenerative Disease, a nonprofit quarterly magazine of The Common Cause Medical Research Foundation. Her primary focus is on investigation into why there are so many emerging diseases, why the symptoms of these diseases overlap to such a degree, why there are no cures, only treatments and what role Governments and corporations play in all this.

All of her major essays can be viewed at http://www. congregator. net/medicalne... jen/index. html.

She may be contacted via E-mail at daystar1952@yahoo.com She encourages reproduction of this material provided it remains intact, including this statement