Mark Hoofnagle has a PhD in physiology from the University of Virginia and is currently a 3rd year medical student. His interest in denialism concerns the use of denialist tactics to confuse public understanding of scientific knowledge.
New diseases are pretty rare these days. It used to be that a good observer could travel to the great unknown and acquire/discribe scads of new (to them) diseases. In the interconnected world of the present, "new" diseases spread rather quickly, and become old. When I was a young attending physician, I had heard of West Nile Fever from small chapters in medical school books. When I took over an inpatient medical service in the summer of 2002, I was taking care of several patients with the disease. It was new to me, but hardly new. Sometimes I wonder if people miss the great days of disease discovery, and try to make up for it by inventing their own diseases.
Here at denialism blog we've occassionally written about "fake diseases", that is, diseases that are not recognized by science-based medice, have no clear definitions, and attract quackery. One of these diseases is Morgellons syndrome, an ill-defined malady recognized by no one other than patient advocacy groups and their stooges. Another plays on a real disease, but tries to stretch that disease's definition to include just about any symptom you could imagine.
Chronic Lyme disease is the name given by a diverse group of patients and physicians who have in common a belief that a relatively common disease can continue to cause debility long after the disease is gone. The disease in question is Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial infection common in the Northeast U.S., and in scattered other parts of the country.
Since Lyme disease was first described in the U.S. in the latter part of the 20th century it has fascinated doctors and researchers. The ecology of the organism, its dependence on ex-urbanization, and it's unique symptoms are very interesting. Combine that with how common it has become in a densly populated part of the country, and this disease is a winner.
The rash is quite characteristic, having a particular bullseye pattern. In endemic areas, this is virtually diagnostic of the infection. It also can cause an unusual arthritis, and if untreated, the disease can cause recurrent joint, neurologic, and cardiac disease. Usually symptoms resolve spontaneously.
The ability of this disease to cause late symptoms has attracted quite a bit of quackery. Lyme disease used to be rather mysterious, but not so much anymore. Diverse sypmtoms that appear in a large percentage of the population, such as fatigue, memory problems, headaches, and depression, are sometimes attributed to "chronic Lyme disease", and people are subjected to costly, dangerous, and unproven treatments.
Some of the more credulous ideas about this "disease" include the idea of "sero-negative Lyme disease", meaning there is no evidence in the blood, but people are labelled with the disease anyway. Sometimes, blood is sent to renegade labs that run unapproved tests for the disease.
For ease of analysis, chronic Lyme patients are often divided into four groups (NEJM, Volume 357(14):1422-1430. October 4, 2007).
Group one is patient with protean symptoms and no evidence of infection. Group two is those who have real diseases misdiagnosed as Lyme. Groups 3 and 4 have evidence of actually having had Lyme infection in the past, but their symptoms aren't necessarily consistent with actual Lyme infection.
The first two groups seem to attract the worst of the quacks---those that diagnose and treat patients for a disease for which there is no evidence. I have seen patients treated for months on end with intravenous antibiotics for no apparent reason, subjected to all the complications inherent in long-term invasive therapy.
What is interesting about fake diseases is that there are people out there suffering, but without a clear diagnosis (or sometimes with a clear diagnosis that they don't accept). Advocacy groups form, and fringe doctors, scientists, and other fake experts are pulled into the vortex. These advocacy groups not only push for unproven, unsafe treatments, but actually threaten doctors who listen to science rather than some hostile internet message board. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee a visit from them here very soon.
It's a real problem, for doctors and for patients. Patients with real pain end up enriching doctors who practice questionable medicine. For patients, it's a lose-lose scenario. But they love their charismatic leaders, and that bond it tough to break.
Medicine & Health
Comments
Odd that you should post this now. Yesterday we took our 9 year old son to his doctor thinking he might have lyme disease. He had been camping, tick was found on his body, and he had what to me looked like a circular bulls eye rash on his back. The diagnosis ended up being ring worm.
Posted by: Dan | May 21, 2008 6:33 AM
How does ringworm affect NO levels?
Posted by: Bill | May 21, 2008 6:40 AM
There's an interesting 2002 article by L.H. Segal and A.L. Hassett on the psychopathogenesis of chronic Lyme disease (Environmental Health Perspectives 110, 607-611, free download from EHP). In the US, it seems that many people are unwilling to accept a psychological explanation for symptoms like pain, fatigue, and malaise, and so will grasp at a syndrome that involves infectious agents or environmental toxins. Of course the suffering is very real to the patient, regardless of the cause. Even in a wealthy country like the US, the pressures of society and everyday life can be very stressful, and there's no question that stress has detrimental effects on health and cognitive function.
I have several friends, and a close relative, with multiple sclerosis, and I've witnessed the suspicious looks and occasional verbal abuse/questioning when their handicapped parking privileges are challenged (for example). People with MS (as well as people with SLE, or rheumatoid arthritis, and probably several other chronic illnesses that have some very clear diagnostic criteria) often have cyclic symptoms, and may not "look disabled". I worry that quackery associated with the current crop of "medically unexplained symptoms" will only exacerbate this amateur phenomenon of questioning the degree of disability.
Posted by: Barn Owl | May 21, 2008 7:43 AM
Thanks for the post! I look forward to deadalus' explanation of how this is related to NO levels.
I actually know someone who got West Nile from a dead bird she picked up in Ornithology class.
I think what Barn Owl said is true, many people are unwilling to accept psychological explanations for symptoms, especially with the stigma that still exists about many psychological disorders and the feeling from society that "it's all in your head" and so you should be able to get rid of it.
Posted by: scicurious | May 21, 2008 8:20 AM
Is there a pill I can take for my wandering uterus?
HJ
Posted by: Bing McGhandi | May 21, 2008 8:48 AM
I might have gotten my information incorrectly...but I heard that the rash only shows up in about half of cases? At least that's what my prof who studied ticks in our area said...
Posted by: katie | May 21, 2008 9:24 AM
The rash is not always present, but when it is it's very helpful. In endemic areas, you have to maintain a high index of suspicion for the disease.
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May 21, 2008 9:27 AM
Thanks for the heads up. I recently saw a doctor who I had not visited for 20 years. I asked his wife how she was keeping and she said she had Lyme disease! I thought this seemed a bit unusual but not impossible. My suspicion (woo)-meter took a big jump after reading your post. She has been involved in everything New Age for the past 30 years and he has been as well to some extent.
Posted by: baryogenesis | May 21, 2008 9:46 AM
The quacks will use any means necessary to get their money, ego fix, or whatever it is that motivates any particular one.
After 6 years on the wagon, my wife fell off. Yesterday she called me up and announced that our son doesn't have Aspergers, he is cholesterol deficient. Damn, damn, damn. We did the fish oils. We went through the vitamins phase. We even went through the magic water phase. I thought she was over this, but she saw some article on some website...
Quacks are vultures that scavenge at the carcass of someone's false hope.
Posted by: azqaz | May 21, 2008 10:13 AM
OK, I'll stay for a bit...
About fake diseases - any comments about something called Myers-Irlen syndrome (if I've remembered the spelling correctly) or scotopic sensitivity? I know two people at university who claim to have these - and as a result get, say, all their exams and handouts printed on coloured paper etc. Now, I'm sure they both do have strange symptoms and aren't just making it up, but I'm also picking up a strong vibe of 'attention-seeking drama queen' from them...
Posted by: Julius | May 21, 2008 10:24 AM
Ringworm is a skin infection caused by a number of different fungal species. Acidified nitrite is quite effective at killing it and produces complete cure even in infected nails.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17627796
On the skin, nitrite produces NO due to reduction by xanthine oxidoreductase in the skin, and also the low pH of the skin causes nitrite disproportionation. There are three recognized sources of nitrite on the skin. Nitrate is excreted in sweat, and skin bacteria can reduce that nitrate to nitrite. This has been describe in the literature. Nitrate is also excreted in saliva where it is concentrated about 10x over plasma levels. commensal bacteria on the tongue reduce this nitrate to nitrite. Following a high nitrate meal (such as 100 grams of lettuce which has about 0.25% nitrate (about 250 mg nitrate), levels of nitrate in saliva can exceed 2 mM/L and nitrite levels can get that high also. When the skin is licked, the nitrite in saliva causes the release of NO on the skin due to the reduction of nitrite to NO due to low pH and reducing equivalents in the skin. It has been suggested that this NO from nitrite in saliva is the reason why animals (and humans) lick wounds. The NO from the nitrite inhibits bacteria, especially the Clostridia which are responsible for gas gangrene and tetanus. It is my opinion that the common folk remedy for impotence, applying saliva to the penis also works because the nitrite in saliva forms NO, activates sGC and forms cGMP causing erections via the normal mechanism.
The third source of nitrite on the skin is the bacteria that I am working with. They oxidize ammonia in sweat into nitrite and also produce some NO directly. Their main product is nitrite. There is about 3 orders of magnitude more ammonia in sweat (as NH3 and urea) as there is nitrate, so ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) would be a much more robust source.
When bacteria or fungi metabolize proteins, they deaminate the amino acids and release ammonia. The presence of bacteria that would convert this ammonia into NO/NOx would provide an inhibitory mechanism proportional to bacterial and fungal activity. When amino acids are deaminated the pH goes up due to the ammonia. Due to the pKa of fatty acids, this causes fatty acids to deprotonate and turn into soaps lowering the surface tension. As AOB oxidize the ammonia to NO/NOx the pH goes down, increasing the fluid surface tension. Sweat will then tend to wick toward regions of low pH, regions where AOB are most active.
Many bacteria use NO as a quorum sensing compound including Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus. At low NO levels they form a biofilm and express virulence factors and at high NO levels they become planktonic and biofilms disperse. This is the mechanism that many eukaryotes use to keep their surfaces free of surface biofilms and infections. I have found these bacteria on the surfaces of clams, oysters, lobster, earthworms, turtle as well as human. I suspect that influencing the quorum sensing and biofilm formation is why injections of LPS produce such a strong immune response. The body needs to get the NO level up high enough so that bacteria in the blood stream don't form a biofilm in the vasculature. If they do form a biofilm you are SOL.
Suppressing biofilms via interfering with quorum sensing precludes the organism from evolving resistance because there is no selection pressure.
Posted by: daedalus2u | May 21, 2008 1:06 PM
In the dark where all the fevers grow
Under the water where the shark bubbles blow
In the morning by yer radio
Do the walls close in to suffocate ya?
You ain't got no friends and all the others, they hate ya?
Does the life you been livin' gotta go?
Well, lemme straighten you out about a place I know
(Get yer shoes'n'socks on people,
It's right around the corner!)
Out through the night and the whispering breezes
To the place where they keep the Imaginary Diseases...
--Frank Zappa
Posted by: Laurel | May 21, 2008 1:06 PM
Heh...I wonder if these fake diseases show any kind of characteristic geographic pattern in their occurrence. Or if there's a way, using that fancy epidemiological math, to show a difference between the spread of a real disease and a fake one?
Posted by: katie | May 21, 2008 1:57 PM
Daedulus, you are one strange character. I don't have a clue what 95% of what you are talking about, but there is one thing you said that I have to disagree with. When there is saliva applied to the penis, it isn't NO that causes the erection, it's YES.
Posted by: Bill | May 21, 2008 2:30 PM
No Bill, it is "yes" that causes NO that causes "YES! YES! YES! YES!"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18385679
Posted by: daedalus2u | May 21, 2008 3:36 PM
Dr. Lipson writes with great authority on a topic he obviously knows very little about. To understand the real story behind chronic Lyme disease, and the corruption which has lead to the denial of chronic Lyme disease, please read the following article that I wrote last November:
"Attack of the Chronic Lyme Denialists"
http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8493
Note that since that article was written, the Attorney General of CT concluded his investigation into the IDSA's Lyme Disease Treatment Guidelines, which deny the existence of chronic Lyme disease. Multiple and serious conflicts of interest by the authors were found and the IDSA chose to settle the case rather than allow their corrupt behavior to be exposed in court. The settlement requires a complete review of the guidelines by a panel headed by a noted medical ethicist and free of conflicts of interest. More about that settlement can be learned here:
http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?A=2795&Q=414284
Posted by: CTPatriot | May 21, 2008 5:03 PM
Hi, Niels! I was wondering where you were!
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May 21, 2008 5:05 PM
Am I the only one who sees the humor in a denialist/fantasist citing "myleftnutmeg.com" to support his delusions? My Left Nut... Meg.
Okay, it's been a really long week. Today.
Posted by: LanceR | May 21, 2008 9:00 PM
Hey, so the creator of the most popular left leaning blog in CT had a sense of humor. Have you read the article, or are you so arrogant that you prefer simply to smear and run.
See, the real fantasists are people with advanced degrees who think that just because they read something in NEJM that it must be true. They are the ones who are either willfully blind to the corruption that lies at the heart of our health care system, particularly at the core of Lyme disease research and associated peer review. Or perhaps they are simply the losers who graduated at the bottom of their class and lack the intelligence to differentiate between research that is baloney and research that is valid.
One thing I have learned in my 15+ years of dealing with chronic Lyme issues -- many doctors in today's health care system are so stressed and so pressed for time that they resent any patient whose symptoms do not conform to a neat little cookbook that renders a diagnosis and treatment plan possible in 10 minutes or less. I don't blame the doctors as much for this as I do the system. What I blame the doctors for, however, is the knee-jerk reaction to then blame the patient for not conforming to that cookbook. It's so much easier to dismiss someone as a psychiatric case than to actually put the time into determining what is wrong with them. Isn't it?
Posted by: CTPatriot | May 22, 2008 2:01 AM
In the world of reality, let me offer the below re Lyme diagnosis and chronic lyme.
The child described in a post who had been camping and had a "rash" but was diagnosed with ringworm reminds me of myself. I had been on a retreat in a woods setting, had a "rash" over the next weeks along with low grade flu like symptoms. The internal medicine doctor with a specialty in infectious illness dismissed my suggestion that it was Lyme Disease--he insisted that the lack of a positive blood test within two weeks of the bite proved it was not Lyme. I tendered the CDC website printout regarding the clinical diagnosis of Lyme at the early stages when the blood testing is not as reliable (see Johns Hopkins studies (Auwaerter et al.) "rash;fever" was the diagnosis. The physician failed to meet the standard of care for diagnozing early Lyme and despite three return visits as symptoms worsened over the next month, never seriously considered Lyme, despite the bite, rash, flu like symptoms, endemic area, and perfectly healthy before.
Posted by: Charles | May 22, 2008 10:33 AM
This is the continued response from Charles re Lyme diagnosis. A ten day emergency hospital stay with advanced Lyme meningitis confirmed by spinal tap and Western blot test followed the dismissal of possible early Lyme based on the rash and other clinical symptoms. Despite "adequate antibiotic therapy" a host of headaches, body pain, muscle twitches, muscle wasting, chemical sensitivity, light sensitivity and other issues followed over the next years. Nothing has returned to "normal." All could have been avoided with a several week course of oral doxy at the first rash symptoms. I would urge "denialists" to have an open mind to reality. The persistence of the Borrelia Burdorferi spirochete in human tissues can be argued both ways. Science and medicine do not know the downstream effects on a human of a significant or mild Lyme infection. Those mechanisms have not been fully looked for or explored. Bottom line, the absence of fact is not the fact of absence, and true scientists respect that maxim.
Posted by: Charles | May 22, 2008 10:42 AM
I should make clear that Lyme disease is a REAL disease. That isn't the issue here.
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May 22, 2008 11:33 AM
Dear Science and "Denialism"
I am awaiting the birth of my first grandchild. My amazing daughter has a well-paid position in a great company, a happy marriage, beautiful home and many friends and family who love her dearly. My pregnant daughter has one problem. She has this make-believe disease called chronic Lyme because according to many experts, she is:
1. crazy or
2. unknowing and has been drawn into a fad or
3. loves taking antibiotics that wreck her natural flora or
4. wants attention from doctors or
5. has suffered the normal expected physical trials of everyday life and not because she truly had a myriad of debilitating symptoms and has tested positive, highly positive for Lyme disease even after treatment.
Prior to becoming pregnant, she had finished a long term protocol of antibiotics. She was one of the lucky ones with chronic Lyme disease because she then found she could manage her symptoms without medicine. She suffered, but comparatively speaking, not as much as patients who can only survive with continual long term antibiotics - as we do see paralleled in the more uncommon cases with other diseases.
There is available information that Lyme can be transmitted to the unborn fetus. The complications are many, including death of the fetus. Since she has been on antibiotics for the entire 9 months, we feel reassured that all is well and this is also according to her ob-gyn who wanted information that we supplied, thanks to the help from people you call quacks. On a very good note, early in the pregnancy, when my daughter asked the ob-gyn if there was a concern with being on the antibiotics, the good doctor replied,
"Given your medical history, I'd be more concerned if you were not on these antibiotics."
My unborn grandchild is protected to the best of all doctors' abilities. I wish that all mothers had the same knowledge we have so that all our unborn children could have the same equal chance to survive.
Since you are calling this problem of chronic Lyme disease make-believe, I will counter with a thought: It is too bad that so many are adhering to the “Flat Earth” theories promoted by only 14 authors of the IDSA guidelines. Sadly, I believe they have amassed so much power that you are listening to them to the exclusion of any other information.
I know what my family needs. We are fine. I wish others would have the same chance.
In this problem of persistent Lyme we have the experience of witnessing all - from dead fetuses or babies with severe health problems born to women with known Lyme disease to healthy babies born to expectant Moms who have Lyme disease and follow the protocols our doctors developed because they have seen and helped thousands of Lyme patients.
Please consider that we advocate with passion because we do not want to see needless suffering or tragedy.
Sincerely,
Eva Haughie
www.empirestatelymediseaseassociation.org
Posted by: Eva Haughie | May 22, 2008 12:25 PM
..."Common in the northeast U.S. and in scattered other parts of the country." Am I misinformed or is it a fact that Lyme Disease has been reported in each of the contiguous 48 states?
Posted by: William J Tuley MD | May 22, 2008 12:49 PM
Here's the stats for you. I think you misinterpreted the statement you quoted. I never said that it hasn't been reported widely, only that it is common in the northeast. It's presence in most other parts of the country is rare and sporatic.
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May 22, 2008 12:52 PM
Eva, much of what you have said is well-written and irrelevant. Science is done by data rather than anecdote. When and if the data support a particular diagnosis and treatment, it will be widely adopted.
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May 22, 2008 12:53 PM
Dr. Lipson...
We are not talking about pure science here. We are talking about medicine, which, as you surely know, was once and art more than it was a form of cookbook science. I still remember when the kind man with the black bag showed up at my house when I was a child and made his best guess as to what was wrong and what would fix it. He was usually right.
Today's doctors, on the plus side, have far more advanced technology to rely on for their decision making. On the minus side, the pressures they face from managed care coupled with an over-reliance on that technology have turned medicine from an art form in some cases into mindless cookbook medicine designed to get the patient in and out of the office as quickly as possible. Profits and the doctor's sanity appear to rely on that.
What you fail to recognize when you make the claim that "science is done by data rather than anecdote" is that sometimes medicine IS done by anecdote. Specifically, when the science for a particular illness is not settled, or is in dispute, and a doctor has sick patients, sometimes he actually makes a best guess by looking at the available science plus his own anecdotal experience, as to what treatment regimen might make the patient overcome their illness.
And that is exactly what is happening with chronic Lyme disease. It is true that there is no science or lab test that can prove conclusively whether a patient is still infected with the Lyme bacteria or not. It is similarly true that there is no science or lab test that can prove the patient is NOT still infected. We simply don't know the answer and the existing "approved" lab tests are incapable of providing it.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, right? So if peers of yours all over the country are successfully treating patients who they suspect (through the use of lab tests and clinical judgment) to have chronic Lyme disease using longterm antibiotic therapy, what exactly is wrong with that and why would you deny these patients a treatment that is working for them?
If every doctor waited for science to provide the exact diagnostic tests and treatment for every illness, what is the need for clinical judgment? You could just as easily be replaced by robots.
Posted by: CTPatriot | May 22, 2008 1:58 PM
I'm not a doctor and I can think of any number of reasons why long term antibiotic therapy is probably not a good idea when no causative agent is present.
Posted by: Oldfart | May 24, 2008 8:41 AM
Oldfart: Except that there are studies which show the causative agent is able to outlive the recommended treatment protocols, there are lab tests that indicate the patients may still be infected, and treatment with longterm antibiotics causes their symptoms to improve or disappear. Now, were you lying or are you simply misinformed?
Posted by: CTPatriot | May 25, 2008 5:38 AM
Before Lyme disease was understood, the early patients were called crazy. One of these "crazy" patients, Polly Murray, refused to give up and finally convinced doctors to look for the cause, which they eventually found.
Now you're saying chronic Lyme patients are crazy (suffering from psychological symptoms). The fact is you don't know. You just think you know everything, and you think patients are stupid.
Posted by: pec | May 26, 2008 2:16 PM
Hey, they can't even get ring worm right. A few weeks ago I had one MD mis-diagnose what turned out to be simple eczema as ring worm (she diagnosed me from across the room without even touching me). So when MDs can't even get ring worm diagnosed properly, I'm worried about the state of medical diagnosis.
And yes, with proper treatment for eczema and elimination of the allergen that seems to have been the trigger, I'm all better now ;)
Posted by: Liesele | May 27, 2008 9:40 AM
anyone seen the hype about that movie "Under Your Skin"?? Directed by a guy who has shot/directed movies about gay men wrestling in pools...suddenly, he is a medical expert and makes this "groundbreaking" film on how the Evil Doctors don't know how to treat Lyme disease...or is that chronic Lyme disease? or is it fibromyalgia? or tmj?
sorry, can't keep it all straight....
Posted by: barbie123 | June 8, 2008 12:51 PM
PalMD -- that wasn't me that posted truths about Lyme disease. Yes, the
content of that post was similar in tone to what I've posted, and what
you've censored via "disenvoweling" in the past. That's because you're
wrong, so there will be multiple "Niels's" out there with similar opinions
that you can ridicule and pigeonhole. These opinions represent hundreds of
thousands of people who've been ill-served by the mainstream medical
community for which you are cheerleading. Rather than listen and change,
you mock and remain ignorant about a condition you haven't even the first
clue about. And none-of your verbiage changes the simple fact that you're
wrong. (you doth protest too much)
This really isn't about science, since science is about an open exchange of
ideas, rather than censorship of ideas that threaten your untenable
lyme-denialist dogma. The fact that you'll censor this post is testament to
your untenable position. If you knew what you were talking about you
wouldn't be afraid of opposing opinions. But that's really not the reason
you're here. You're here to get attention by hating on people, and writing
thinly veiled hate speech.
The fundamental aspect of denialism is "hate speech." This is the
"denialism blog" isn't it?? When holocaust denialists deny a trauma that
clearly happened to a large number of people, they are practicing
hate-speech. Retraumatizing those that have already been injured through
the practice of people with narrow and cancerous views. The purpose of
denialism is to perpetuate these narrow, cancerous and wrong-headed views
for purposes of political gain.
when you practice Lyme-denialism, or morgellons-denialism, you are not
practicing medine, and you are not operating under the principles of
"science." You are practicing hate-speech. Hate speech politically and
financially motivated by the lyme-denialists who do not want the insurance
and HMO profits impacted by proper recognition and treatment disease that
is present in up to 1-in-3 members of the general population in endemic
areas.... a disease implicated in just about every "medical mystery" from
autism, alzheimers, ALS, FM, CFS, MS, depression, mania, etc.
Now that you can't hate on women, or gays, or minorities, or even people
with disabilities... you've chosen a vulnerable segment of society to pick
on... using the fact that they've got a new fringe condition to side-step
the fact that you're practicing hate speech on people with disabilities.
the fact that you're a doctor and do this is reprehensible.
perhaps you should focus on building a better medical practice and
improving your skills: http://www.healthgrades.com/directory_search/physician/profiles/dr-md-reports/Dr-Peter-Lipson-MD-83DBBDDC.cfm?tabphysprofile=pat_exp
If Lyme was in the movie sicko... this blog would be like advocating that
people that happen to get two fingers sliced off... should only get one
sown back on... because it's in the guidelines... and who really needs all
those fingers anyways. And then you'd spend this entire blog hating on
people that dared to want both their fingers sown on since that's what
they'd expected their insurance to cover.
That's kind of like the fact that I have to spend $500.00 a month out of
pocket to inject bicillin-LA in my ass twice a week (much better than
rocephin and requires no IV). Even though I have labs that clearly show I
have Lyme disease, immune deficiency, anemia, etc. Funny thing is they're
happy to give me $10.00/month antibiotics that don't do anything... but
they refuse to pay for medications that will actually treat Lyme disease
effectively. And then they'll say "you've been on our totally ineffective
antibiotics for a whole year now... you couldn't possibly have lyme
anymore"... but you can go far in mainstream medicine... by ignoring the
patients symptoms, labs, etc. And when in doubt, say "ringworm" or "staph."
Posted by: Niels | June 11, 2008 12:20 PM
.......would hate to have my fingers "sown" on. Ouch! Maybe someone could "sew" them on instead?
Advocating that people stop ripping off other people (ie calling out all the quacks who will take money to "treat" chronic lyme or morgellon's "syndrome") is actually, by definition, not "hate". It is concern that such snake-oil charlatans will continue to profit at the expense of people who are led to believe they have one of these, or any other, made-up diseases.
Posted by: barbie123 | June 11, 2008 2:36 PM
Interesting. . . that movie I referenced above: "under Our Skin"...the YouTube trailer has commentary; read some the other day; went back today and all of the negative comments have been deleted!!!
Ha....great "denialism" in action, live on the internet. I posted a comment today....will time how long it takes the "believers" of CLD to erase it.
Posted by: barbie123 | June 11, 2008 2:46 PM