Re: Lyme Disease and Biotoxins

On Mar 30, 3:05 pm, the 3rd Man <sir_de...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I wonder if "Dr.B" endorses this statement by R. Shoemaker also? I
would have to assume so, based upon his recommendations of the
"protocol":

"The good news for Lyme patients everywhere is that VCS now gives the
physician a reproducibly reliable, inexpensive and non-invasive test
(it takes only five minutes) that makes a virtually foolproof
diagnosis of Chronic Lyme readily available".



From the website:
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A New Diagnostic Tool And A New Drug Therapy Provide Major Weapons
Against The Surging Epidemic of Post-Lyme Syndrome

Although most people don't realize it, the vector of one of the most
debilitating diseases of the modern world can often be found crawling
around in the hedges, shrubs and tall grasses of the typical American
backyard.
Carried by several common species of tick, Lyme Disease - which leaves
many of victims struggling with long-term chronic illness, Post-Lyme
Disease (PLD) - is one of the fastest-growing infectious-disease
epidemics both here and abroad, according to recent research.
How widespread is the current U.S. outbreak of this bacteria-triggered
illness - which leaves many of its victims struggling for years with
fatigue, headache, mental confusion, memory impairment, shortness of
breath, sensitivity to bright light, abdominal pain, chronic muscle
and joint pain and several other nasty complaints? (Symptoms can vary,
but most PLD victims experience from four to six of the eight listed
here.)
While some estimates put the total number of new cases each year at
300,000, the actual spread of Lyme is extremely difficult to measure.
There is disagreement among the nation's physicians over the duration
of the disease. According to some influential physicians, the
bacterial infection can be cured in three weeks with heavy doses of
antibiotics. Conventional wisdom dictates that if we drive out the
Lyme bacteria (a spirochete named Borrelia burgdorferi) with germ-
killing drugs, the painful symptoms of the disease will rapidly leave
the patient.
But this assertion regarding the duration of PLD is now being
challenged by thousands of Family Practice physicians around the
country. Increasingly, the Family Practice docs are grappling with
cases in which the major symptoms of Chronic Lyme persist for years,
despite proper antibiotic treatment in patients.

Many physicians feel that diagnostic tests for Lyme are unreliable,
due to differences between strains of the bacteria, and the potential
for co-infections with Babesia or Ehrlichia. There are no chemical
tests for the disease-causing toxin B. burgdorferi produces and
release into human body, even as antibiotics are killing the bacteria.
Without such tests, the medical debate over whether or not Lyme can be
quickly cured has surged in recent years, provoking frequent battles
in which physicians have attacked each other's credibility and
integrity (and in a few cases, even their medical licenses).
All too often, suffering patients have been left in the middle,
essentially ignored by doctors who contend that their long-term
symptoms aren't the result of Chronic Lyme, but of "fibromyalgia,"
"depression," or "irritable bowel syndrome." These more familiar
disorders allow the doctor to make a speedier diagnosis of an ailment
for which there will be no "positive" lab test, either. In this way,
patients can be quickly "helped out the door" - after the doc
scribbles a prescription for an anti-depressant, or maybe an acid-
blocker.
Already struggling with the debilitating symptoms of their tick-borne
disease, Post-Lyme sufferers are patronized with insulting regularity
by physicians who don't understand the biochemistry involved in
chronic, neurotoxin-mediated illnesses, of which PLD is only one. As a
result, these frustrated patients often wind up bouncing from
physician to naturopath to herbalist to acupuncturist, among other
"non-traditional healers." Along the way, they frequently spend tens
of thousands of dollars on useless treatments.
But that situation is about to change, as more and more Family
Practice physicians like Dr. Shoemaker find themselves treating
Chronic Lyme in patients who tell them about their "years of brutal
headaches and aching joints," while also describing themselves as
"desperate to find a cure."
Why have so many medical researchers failed to understand the chronic
aspect of Lyme disease?
In many cases, the problem has been that they simply don't understand
the dynamics involved in the movement of organic neurotoxins
throughout the human body.
Like the microorganisms that produce other toxin-linked diseases -
such as the dinoflagellates Ciguatera and Pfiesteria, and the fungi
that cause Sick Building Syndrome - Borrelia bacteria likely
manufactures a nasty suite of neurotoxins which circulate in human
fatty tissues, such as those found in nerve, muscle, brain, lung and
bile, rather than in the bloodstream (as happens with more common
illnesses such as pneumonia).
Because these bacterial poisons are moving through the body's fat
storage system and bile, they cannot be reached by the "antibodies"
that search out and destroy invading microorganisms in the
bloodstream. Instead, they continue to travel throughout the tissues
for years at a time, triggering such classic symptoms of Lyme Disease
as fatigue, headaches, shortness of breath, joint aches and short-term
memory impairment.
Frequently found today in the backyards or playgrounds of America's
fast-spreading suburbs, the deer and Lone Star ticks that spread Lyme
disease (named for the Connecticut town where it was discovered a few
decades ago), take in the disease-causing Borrelia while ingesting the
blood of deer or mice. When they later bite humans, the bacteria move
from the mid-gut of the arachnid - now found commonly in all 50 states
- into their human host. Within a matter of days, these spirochetes
begin producing the brain-damaging neurotoxin(s) that cause the
blurred vision and the muscle fatigue so commonly seen in cases of
Chronic Lyme.
While treating hundreds of Chronic Lyme patients in my Maryland-based
Family Practice in recent years, I was fortunate to come upon an
already existing but little noticed physiologic test of neurologic
function in the visual system- the "Visual Contrast Sensitivity" test,
or VCS - that can tell a physician in five minutes whether or not the
patient is suffering from the harmful effects of neurotoxins on the
brain's ability to distinguish contrast between black, white and gray.
The deficit in the visual pathways mirrors the adverse effect the
neurotoxins are causing throughout the body.
The good news for Lyme patients everywhere is that VCS now gives the
physician a reproducibly reliable, inexpensive and non-invasive test
(it takes only five minutes) that makes a virtually foolproof
diagnosis of Chronic Lyme readily available.

Once the VCS test pinpoints the diagnosis, PLD can be effectively
treated with a toxin-binding drug ("cholestyramine," or CSM) that
filters the offending neurotoxins out of bile in the lower intestine.
It was Dr. Shoemaker's good fortune to be able to demonstrate as much,
while presenting the first scientific paper in the world's medical
literature on "Treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease Using VCS and Toxin-
Binding Therapy" in April, 2000, at a meeting of the American Society
for Microbiology. That paper showed that VCS was a better test for
confirming the presence of Lyme neurotoxins than any blood, urine or
DNA test for the organism, itself.
Moreover, the VCS Test showed improvement with CSM treatment as
symptoms abated.
A follow up study, first presented in the Biotoxin Symposium chaired
by Dr. Hudnell's during the 8th International Symposium on
Neurobehavioral Methods and Effects in Occupational and Environmental
Health, Brescia, Italy, June, 2002, shows a 92-percent improvement
rate in more than 200 patients with PLD. Their case histories prove
conclusively that Chronic Lyme can be diagnosed effectively with VCS -
and that it can be treated effectively with drug therapy, provided
that it takes place under the rigorous supervision of a clinical
physician expert in management of CSM therapy and drugs to
downregulate proinflammatory cytokines.
Patients should never take this drug on their own, because it can
trigger intensification of symptoms in the absence of pre-treatment by
a physician to manage the cytokines.
As each summer's tick-and-Chronic-Lyme season begins in earnest, it's
important to remember that you can catch this highly infectious and
debilitating disease right in your own backyard. It's also important
to understand that you can't prevent tick bites by "rolling up your
pant legs" or applying a standard insect repellant, which has no
effect on arachnids such as ticks. (The blunt fact is that the usual
public health recommendations for preventing tick bites simply don't
work.)
Remember, also, that more than 30 percent of Lyme patients don't get a
rash, never even realize they'd been bitten by a tick - since many
bites from these tiny parasites go unnoticed.
If you do get sick (and many people will, as the epidemic continues to
spread), ask your physician about using the VCS Test as a diagnostic
tool.

These days, the good news for Chronic Lyme sufferers is that the list
of physicians who understand the links between long-term illness and
neurotoxins is growing rapidly.

Why suffer needlessly from the painful symptoms of this debilitating
disease? Instead, why not take the step of obtaining an inexpensive,
five-minute diagnostic test? Then go get the toxin-binding therapy you
need to resume a healthy and productive life.




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500 Market Street
Pocomoke City, MD 21851
info@chronicneurotoxins

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