History of Lyme

Since we are still in Utah for Lyme treatments and my son is too wiped out to do anything, I thought I would write about the history of Lyme.  There are a few different ideas out there about how Lyme all started.  Some begin to sound like tin-foil hat type conspiracies, some are just mere guesses.  I'll try to cover them all and tell you where I stand.

There are definite facts that should be noted.  In the early 1970s, there was an outbreak of similar symptoms of an unknown origin in Lyme, Connecticut. Adults and children were reporting to their doctors that they felt symptoms such as debilitating fatigue, headaches, swollen joints, paralysis, and strange rashes. It took some time, but eventually, it was determined that the common event for these suffering Lyme residents was a tick bite followed by arthritic like conditions.  By the mid-70s, this tick bite and the symptoms that followed began to be thought of as a new disease, one different from others already known.  It was called Lyme disease after the city in Connecticut where the symptoms first began.

In 1981, a scientist was who was studying another tick-borne illness, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, began to study Lyme disease.  The scientist, Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, found the connection between deer ticks and Lyme.  He found that spirochetes, a bacteria, was carried by ticks, which was causing Lyme.    The medical community honored this discovery in 1982, naming the Lyme spirochete as Borrelia burgdorferi after the scientist who appeared to have cracked the case.

Early attempts to cure patients were made with antibiotics, which is the usual medical route when someone is infected with bacteria.  While this treatment was effective for those with early-stage Lyme, antibiotics did not work for everyone.  To this day, there are frequent debates as to how to treat a patient with late-stage, or chronic Lyme.  The CDC estimates that 329,000 new cases of Lyme occur every year.  It has been reported in every state in the U.S., with the northeast being the hotbed of Lyme activity.

Why did this disease start in Lyme?  Ever hear of Plum Island?  I hadn't either, but it was an explanation of Lyme that I found most fascinating because it is the most strange.  Who doesn't love a good conspiracy theory, besides the former governor of MN, Jesse Venture?  The basic gist is that Plum Island, which is several miles off the mainland from the city of Lyme, was a former military base that was turned into a special lab to study hoof-and-mouth disease.  Several diseases and experiments were studied there, including on ticks.  Birds that flew between the island and the mainland could have given infected ticks a ride right to the community of Lyme.  There is a better summary here if you're interested:Plum Island

While researching Plum Island, I came across the story of Oetzi, a 5300 year old ice man who was found in Austria.  Apparently, the DNA of the bacteria that causes Lyme was found in the ice man, long before Plum Island was created. More details on Oetzi.

Possibly earlier yet, scientists found fossils of ticks in amber from about 15-20 million years ago.  The article here discusses that the bacteria responsible for Lyme has been around before humans.

So, what do I believe?  I believe that Lyme spirochetes have been around a long time. I know that our modern day food supply is nutrient deficient and chemically tainted.  There is no denying that the food practices of the early Americans is very different to what we practice now.  Back then, people ate every part of the animal they killed including nutrient dense parts like liver, heart, and tongue.   Bones that couldn't be eaten were boiled into soups and stews, which end up chock full of healthy minerals and electrolytes.  Fermenting food was another common practice in previous generations.  Because of the lack of refrigeration, foods were commonly fermented to jar and make last over winter. The benefits of fermented foods include probiotics, B-vitamins, beneficial enzymes, and fatty acids.  Fermented foods are known to help digestion along.

Not only have we stopped eating nutrient dense foods that were beneficial for our digestion, but we have added chemicals to our farming.  Glyphosate, aka Round-up, has run rampant.  Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops account for 90% of soybeans and 70% of corn and cotton crops in the US.  Think about that for a minute.  Cotton.  Your sheets.  Your cotton disposable diapers.  Your cotton underwear.  Your cotton feminine hygiene products.  Most likely all these things so close to your skin have been doused with Roundup.  Soy and corn are nearly impossible to avoid in any processed food.  Corn syrup, citric acid, maltodextrin, and soy lecithin are in almost everything.  More yummy glyphosphate.  So what?  Well, glyphosphate is known to cause digestion issues, including leaky gut. You cannot absorb nutrients with leaky gut.  Your immune system is mostly in your gut.  No nutrients, no immune system.  No immune system, no ability to recognize, kill and destroy Lyme.