Treatment of Lyme Disease is Like Climbing Monkey Bars
The following is a transcript of “Treatment of Lyme Disease is Like Climbing Monkey Bars” an introduction by Dr. Ron Stram at the Tick Borne Disease Alliance Walk/Run to Fight Tick-Borne Diseases: BITE BACK FOR A CURE on Saturday, October 20, 2012 at the Crossing of Colonie, in Albany NY:
Good Morning! Thank you all for coming out today on this glorious morning to show your support and concern. And thanks to the sun for showing up as well!
This disease knows no barriers of age or gender–despite the most common age of onset still being between 5 and 9 years, among mostly boys, Lyme Disease afflicts all age and gender groups as evident here among us today. But, what I also see in its affliction is the perseverance and the determination, of all of YOU. Your insistence and courage doesn’t mean a race to the finish line—for sometimes, COURAGE is the tired voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Tick borne disease is not “just” LYME disease; it includes Lyme and its co-infections, re-activation of latent infections, and immune system malfunction. The biology of the spirochete is complex. It grows slowly and changes its shape; and all the while shedding debris, leaving membrane fragments of DNA and other compounds, which reek havoc on the immune system. This disease is not only an infectious disease, but an immune system take over!
How many of you recall being bit by a tick? Your show of hands confirms what is already known: approximately 17% of those diagnosed with Lyme ever recall a tick bite, and similarly 33% don’t ever report what used to be referred to as the classic Bull’s Eye rash. The consequence of delayed diagnosis and early intervention sets the stage for chronic Lyme disease.
The elusive bug utilizes unique survival strategies: first, by preventing antibiotic penetration through the production of a “slime” layer, or “bio-film”; second, through cell type variation, the spirochete is able to transform itself into three different shapes each affected by unique therapies; and third, the bacteria, over time, is able to undergo genetic mutation so that it becomes even more difficult to manage. If that wasn’t enough to make this disease complicated to treat, the bug also does not grow steady but in unpredictable cycles thereby creating periods of wellness in the afflicted followed by recurrence of symptoms. This is why many of you have reported feeling “crazy” and has prompted many of your doctors to recommend psychiatric treatment.
Our approach at the Stram Center is a “whole system-whole person” approach. This means that not only do we utilize judicious and sometimes prolonged and variable antibiotic therapies and herbal and vitamin supplementation, but we also include lifestyle modifications, nutrition and complementary treatments such as acupuncture. Our clinic experience with Lyme disease has shown that this integrative approach has the most effective outcomes. We support you and your whole family with our expertise, guidance and navigation through this complex health issue that affects all aspects of your lives so dramatically. We listen and we learn together, taking the necessary time, every time.
So, where do we go from here? No one among us can go back and make a new beginning, but all of you are here today to create a new ending. We are here to engage a network of multi-disciplinary, multi-sectorial stakeholders at all levels of this disease. We have to get over the current established guidelines for treatments that don’t work. It’s much like traversing the monkey bars: you have to let go to move forward. And we have to climb those monkey bars together, physicians and patients.
Here today, we know if you run to the finish line, you have a chance of winning! However, you are all a testament that if we don’t try at all, we’ve already lost. I am confident our best days are here and a cure is right around the next hurdle.
