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January 26, 2006
RE:
Lyme Disease Is Sexually Transmitted, Produces
Auto-Immune Self Destruction Which Is Reactivated by
Aspartame.
by
James Bowen, M.D.
http://www.dorway.com/lymedis.txt
After so many years of reviewing a great deal of
information about health and disease, I have come to
realize that distractions are what keep us sick. Dr.
Bowen’s article (below) is loaded with many
distractions, but I will just point out two: Aspartame
and Lyme Disease. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Dr.
Bowen is right about Aspartame being extremely toxic and
that it damages the immune system, but if a reader
interprets this article to say that Aspartame causes
Lyme Disease, they would be wrong.
I
agree with the author that Aspartame is extremely toxic
and should be avoided. However, I have seen many people
struggle with the label “Lyme Disease” and never fully
get well. I question everything. Even if they think they
get well, then what? A year later will they be sick with
something else? Can we really believe that people are
recovering from any disease, including Lyme Disease?
From where I’m sitting I can’t help but wonder if the
label is authentic at all.
As
soon as there’s a label attached to a syndrome, such as
Lyme Disease, now people can “sell” you something. When
I was sick, and Lyme Disease was becoming a new “trendy”
label, I really wanted to believe that I, too, could
join the group. I’ve seen many people try and grab at
labels in order to be able to say to people: “See. It’s
not in my head. I really am sick.” I thought that if I
had a label, such as Lyme Disease, that I could somehow
find a way to, not just get my symptoms validated, but
discover how to get well. Well, that didn’t happen. I
did get well, but I had to learn to let go of labels and
learn that there really is only one disease. The real
“disease” is a deficiency in questions and a lack of
truthful solutions. (I could say greed, but that, too,
would be too much of a cliché.) Distractions and
propaganda are also tied into this “disease”. Not only
are we not asking enough questions, when we do ask
questions, we are not asking the right questions. And,
even if we do ask the right questions we are given
distractions rather than an answer with some substance
to it.
The
other issue is that if you believe that Lyme Disease is
a problem, you must also believe Louis Pasteur’s Germ
Theory (see story in Archives). I do agree with many who
have come to “see the light” in discovering that Louis
Pasteur was a fraud. His research opened the floodgates
for BigPharma to make trillions of dollars in profits.
No matter what your health goals are, if you continue to
buy into the Germ Theory, you will continue to delude
yourself about what really causes disease.
Other researchers, such as Antoine Béchamp endorsed the
idea that we get sick when we compromise our “Biological
Terrain”. As I’ve said before, there are many variables
that lead to disease. I called these variables
“interferences” because they assault everything from
your DNA to your immune system to your digestion to your
endocrine system and so on. For simplicity, let’s just
say that these systems are part of your overall
“Biological Terrain”. When any, or all of these systems
are interfered with, this can adversely affect your
“Biological Terrain”. Many of these interferences are
behavioral, environmental and nutritional. It is your
job, as a “health detective” to discover what your own
personal “interferences” are.
If
you continue to believe that a tick or Aspartame made
you sick then you may stay sick. If you are just getting
started looking into how to recover from any chronic
illness, the information highway can be very cluttered.
Don’t be discouraged. If you continue looking, you’ll
find the answers.
4
December, 2000
http://www.dorway.com/lymedis.txt
Lyme
Disease Is Sexually Transmitted, Produces AutoImmune
Self Destruction Which Is Reactivated by Aspartame.
by
James Bowen, M.D.
Lyme
Disease and Aspartame Disease are tragically conjoined
Twins.
Aspartame can cause Lyme disease and the Lyme treponema
can cause the same hyperautoimmunicity and resultant
hyperautoimmunity destructions that aspartame does.
American medicine unfortunately overlooks the basics
that have long been known about Lyme Disease.
Aspartame can activate Lyme Disease in people who have
the infection but would not experience Lyme Disease
because unimpaired by the ill effects of aspartame the
Lyme treponema would without hazard be eliminated by a
competent immune response. In addition, I think those
who have had Lyme Disease and achieved a "cure" may
experience a relapse upon exposure to aspartame or other
sensitizing agents even though the Lyme treponema has
been eliminated from their body.
Lyme
Disease has been known under other names in the British
Isles for about a hundred years. The British and
continental experience could also serve well as a
learning model in the US. The other reason that an
apparent lack of understanding exists on these topics in
the US is that the US has defacto, virtual full control
of the press by the government and the establishment to
protect the undefendable aspartame in spite of
constitutional provisions to the contrary. Whether with
respect to Aspartame Disease or Lyme Disease
"hypersensitivity" and hyperautoimmunicity can be used
interchangeably to describe the particular immunologic
disorder engendered in either case whereby the human
immune system is left so impaired that it can readily be
stimulated to a severe autoimmune attack on the human
organism itself: "hyperautoimmunity". One of
aspartame's hyperautoimmunity damages is chemical
hypersensitivity, poly or multiple chemical sensitivity
syndrome, "aroma sensitivity" etc.
To
save words this article will use hyperautoimmunity to
denote disease and pathology caused by autoimmune attack
deriving from hypersensitivity/hyperautoimmunicity. The
common ground/common immunologic event shared by
aspartame and Lyme Disease is that the hypersensitivity
that is induced is largely caused by denatured human
protein interacting with the human immune system in
either case. This leads to striking interactivity
between the two diseases on one hand and similar
therapeutic hardships for the afflicted patient on the
other. It is about equally hard to find a competent
medical caregiver for either condition in the US because
the available information just isn't put to the
attention of most physicians in a credible manner. To
treat either condition effectively requires a large
measure of courage as well as independent expertise even
though the treatments are logical, simple, safe and
avail the patient immense benefit.
It
seems quite overlooked that the hyperautoimmuninicity
stimulated by the treponema and the resulting
hyperautoimmunity are the major cause of the various
symptoms of Lyme Disease. This explains why, what
usually might be considered an adequate antimicrobial
approach for more straight forward infectious processes
is found to be inadequate for Lyme Disease. It can also
explain why that from the earliest experiences with Lyme
Disease in the US until the present time that the
patients most grievously afflicted by Lyme Disease and
who are urgently in need of treatment for it are highly
likely to be serologically negative and test negative
for Lyme Disease. Experienced centers that treat
significant volumes of Lyme disease cases have coined
this phenomenon "sero negative Lyme disease" because a
majority of the patients most grieviously afflicted by
Lyme disease are indeed seronegative.
One
such clinic performed a follow through search for live
organisms on their cases and were able to culture Lyme
treponema in 91% of seronegatives. Remarkable
confirmation because isolating the organism is a highly
technical task.
Three known biological mechanisms explain sero
negativity in active Lyme disease.
First: Since hypersensitivity/hyper autoimmunity is
the pathophysiologic mechanism the damages can be
produced rapidly and in response to a minuscule
innoculum. Second: Hypersensitivity results from
production of abnormal amounts of abnormal IGG which
forms an "IGG blockade" to sero positivity.
The
highly pleomorphic profile of the Lyme surface antigens
can totally omit various antigens. For example, the
immunologically dominant and often tested for Osp A has
been found to be persistently lacking in some regional
phases of treponemae. If your immune system can mount
an appropriate and adequate response, you may test
positive and be able to eliminate the disease without
damages and the disease will often be self limiting;
completely cured without antimicrobial therapy of any
kind. If you lack that kind of immunocompetence you
likely will not produce a positive titer in any case and
your immune system may be diverted to attacking your own
body with autoimmune destruction while not affecting the
Lyme treponema at all.
The
hyperautoimmunicity engendered by Aspartame and/or Lyme
Disease is probably the "blocking factor" that
immunologists are looking for to explain why serologic
Lyme Disease testing often does not work. Thus, for
many people with negative Lyme titers, it is a
devastating disease with intolerable consequences
arising from its not being vigorously and
thoroughly treated. Of the 53 laboratory tests
currently available, none yield accurate negative
results. Lyme therapy experts can only say that
hopefully we will have therapeutically significant
testing available in the future but that at present we
simply do not.
The
destruction arising from leaving undetected Lyme Disease
untreated may be immediately evident or may occur in the
near or distant future as is also true of its close
cousin syphilis. Yes, Lyme Disease can be spread
venerally and in several other ways. So a "bite" may
never have occurred and the classic "erythema migrans"
rash may never be observed. In the long term, how does
and how can a miniscule and fragile micro-organism like
the Lyme spirochete survive the attack of the human
immune system? The spirochete's microscopic, near
bacterial size and wormlike proportions with relatively
large surface area should make it readily subject to
immune destruction after the 10-60 days or so it usually
takes for the immune system to mount an adequate
response to a new foreign protein.
Being a matador is a good analog to the "bait and
switch" games the Lyme spirochete plays with the immune
system to prevent an appropriate immune response from
destroying it. The bull fighter would be quickly
destroyed if the bull could simply get a horn in him and
remain unrestrained to finish the job. The matador
achieves mastery of the situation by inciting the bull
to charge him and then by avoiding bodily contact,
changing the bull's charge into a near miss which only
wears the bull down leading to more and more destruction
of the bull. The matador also has a red flag that he
can manipulate with various wiggles and waves to further
confuse and disorientate the bull and engage the bull in
self destructive charges.
Because of their small size and shape and mobility the
treponemae cannot depend on thick cuticles (secretions
of defensive mucoid shields) or encapsulating themselves
as other larger parasitic organisms do, to protect
themselves. They would be completely destroyed by any
competent immune attack. The treponema much like the
matador can accomplish only avoidance.
They use two (2) mechanisms; "game playing" and being
"fast on their feet". They play the game of "let's you
and him fight" with the human immune system and body,
getting the body itself to be the focus of the immune
attack rather than the treponemae. It accomplishes this
by making the major known immunologically dominant
constant component of its surface a human protein, only
slightly denatured called Osp A. Osp A is nearly
identical to a human protein called LFA-1. The very
small difference is just enough to elicit immune system
response with destruction of the treponemae in the
immunocompetent but eliciting hyper auto immunicity in
those with lesser immune competence in this regards.
Aspartame likewise creates denatured human proteins of
the body's own tissues with no healthy alternative
insofar as hypersensitivity is concerned.
Lyme
vaccines, presently available, are based on Osp A and it
is stated the immunoglobulins produced enter the tick's
digestive tract as it bites thus destroying the Lyme
organisms before they can ever reach the human body. Not
surprisingly, some people have accused the Osp A
vaccines of having caused severe knee damage by
stimulating destructive arthritis. This correlates well
with the fact that Lyme arthritis almost invariably
affects the knees but other joints with less frequency.
This pattern reflects the tremendous physical stress
imposed on the knees inherent to knee kinesiology. The
Osp A is considered an "arthrogenic antigen".
The
immune difficulties are further complicated by the fact
the spirochete can constantly keep changing which
genetic information it expresses in its surface
proteins. This "gene surfing" is very analogous to the
matador confusing and agitating the bull with his red
flag. Even as the human immune system may attempt to
self correct, different antigenic pictures demanding
immediate destruction are presented on the organism's
surface - again and again - faster than the immune
system can mount an effective response against it. Thus
in the less immuno-competent the human body itself
becomes the only readily and constantly target for
immune attack and destruction.
A
comparable example is the situation with "flu"
vaccines. If the flu virus strain mutates, even
slightly, the antibodies elicited by the vaccine just
aren't effective against the flu bug. Lyme Disease
damages and some of aspartame's damages are
hyperautoimmunity destruction based on inappropriate
immune response to denatured human protein.
It
is no surprise then the two diseases can, and often do,
produce identical problems. It should likewise be
possible, once a pattern of autoimmune destruction has
been established in either case, that the persistent
hyperautoimmunicity (after the situation has been
quieted down) will produce the same disease pattern as
at least part of the response when hyperautoimmunity is
reactivated by either agent. Exposure to aspartame can
cause the Lyme disease process to recur after the Lyme
organism has been eliminated from the body. Likewise
the Lyme organism can cause recurrence of the
hyperautoimmune destruction caused by aspartame such as
the Persian Gulf Syndrome and the others already
mentioned. The chemical hyper reactivity engendered by
either disease can yield recurrences of either upon
exposure to other noxious chemicals at levels
undetectable to "normal" or unafflicted individuals.
Therefore, in those already immunologically deranged by
aspartame, Lyme Disease will often be atypical: lacking
the usual 10 to 14 day incubation period etc because
immediate autoimmune hyper reactivity already exists and
is already subject to an immediately fulminant and
virulent response to very low doses of the treponemal
antigen. This mutual synergism/activation phenomena
between aspartame poisoning and Lyme Disease persists so
that the activation of Lyme destruction is possible at
almost anytime amongst the large segment of our
population sensitized by aspartame exposure. Even
pollen seasons and fungal blooms with airborne spores
now are problems of severe hyperautoimmunity for the
hypersensitized and can be expected to produce full
blown autoimmune destructive processes without
treponemal reinfection nor exposure to aspartame itself.
This ill considered knowledge is not new to medicine.
One classic medical case of destructive
hyperautoimmunicity is lupus erythematosus known to be
stimulated to reoccur upon exposure to various
chemicals, many of them so innocuous as to be included
amongst commonly used medicines.
The
need for higher doses of properly selected antibiotics
used for a much longer term than in most infections
reflect two aspects of Lyme infection. The treponemae
are somewhat larger and more complex organisms than most
pathogenic bacteria and are thus harder to eliminate for
that reason alone. Moreover, an appropriate immune
response is an essential component of the successful
treatment of any infection. Without it there is little
hope of cure. This brings us back to the Lyme "matador"
and its "switch and bait" defense and its fast footed
"antigen surfing" to further disrupt immunologic
competence. This antigenic "channel surfing" can
completely prevent the immune system from destroying the
treponema on one hand while continuing to promote
aggravated hyperautoimmunologic damages on the other.
In
addition to the usual anti microbial actions, the high
dose long term antibiotics needed appear to assist the
immune system with two (2) important mechanisms. The
first as is stated by some experts is that it "roughs
up" the treponemal surface allowing the immune system a
better chance to differentiate Osp A from human antigens
and focus an immune attack on it since the human cells
are more resistant to damage from the appropriate
antimicrobial agents. Secondly by inhibiting and
slowing treponemal metabolic processes it can slow down
the "mutation" of surface genetic expression so the
immune system can "catch up" and properly identify the
pathogen for destruction and in conjunction with the
antibiotic eliminate the trepanemae. Since the
treponemae are independently of each other "mutating"
their expressed surface antigens it only makes sense
that it will take some time for the immune system to
catch up to all their various expressed forms and
eliminate them all.
In
all hyperautoimmunity diseases, cure depends on
avoidance of the inciting stimuli as one of the
keystones of achieving a measure of good health. In
Lyme Disease, that includes successful eradicating of
the Lyme organism and avoiding the other mentioned
immunologic stimuli. This explains much of the
confusion surrounding the clinical response. Some
patients require prolonged antibiotics but get well only
after the antibiotics are stopped. Very likely the
antibiotic itself or some other substance given with it
such as a preservative dye or capsule coating, ie methyl
cellulose, was keeping the hyperautoimmunity fully
activated. Most experts who regularly treat recurrent
Lyme Disease now prefer a 60 day antibiotic regimen.
The
picture is further complicated by governmental
bureaucracy which often requires a positive Lyme titer
prior to treatment as a "community standard of
practice". This is highly dangerous to those afflicted
with Lyme Disease for several reasons:
1.
The titer is negative in two thirds of cases of active
Lyme Disease.
2.
Even a larger percentage of cases are negative after
antibiotic administration.
3.
Active Lyme cases who have ever once had a positive
response to antibiotic therapy almost never exhibit a
positive titer thereafter.
4.
The worst cases of Lyme Disease most frequently do not
have a positive titer.
5.
At best the titer will not turn positive for 10-60 days
which is too late for those already having pre-existant
autoimmunity - pre-existing hyperautoimmunicity.
The
Lyme sufferer must therefore quickly find a physician
who is knowledgeable of Lyme Disease and its treatment
(rare) and rarer still possessed of the courage to defy
bureauacy and proceed with adequate therapy! Even more
rare would be to find such a physician also possessed of
knowledge of hyperautoimmunicity chemical
hypersensitivity and aspartame toxicity.
The
need for immunotherapy may vary and techniques are
varied. A universally applicable one is to maintain a
proper mineral balance for immune system function. I
prefer kelp selenium - 200 mcg per day because in
addition to selenium it contains copper, a whole host of
trace minerals from the sea. Sea Sel is one brand with
which I am familiar.
A
case to illustrate the above follows. The subject is a
61 year old male, retired physician and patient who had
previously been poisoned by aspartame; low calorie
Kool-Aid in 1983. The problems encountered following
the original episode included a toxic cardiomyopathy,
classic symptoms of methyl alcohol poisoning, depression
and Lou Gehrig's symptoms which cleared fairly well
after discontinuing aspartame. He was left with
striking hypersensitivity and hyperautoimmunicity.
Typical of chemical hypersensitivity, the patient,
otherwise free of symptoms when in pristine environments
and thus would be relatively non-reactive to an
infrequent inadvertent exposure. If the the
hypersensitivity was flared by other exposures eg
aspartame, it could cause violent pathologic reactions
to even a minimal subsequent chemical stimulus. His
reactions included everything commonly associated with
hypersensitivity eg diabetes, neurodenenerative disease
or any allergic or auto immuno phenomena depending on
the inciting stimulus and the status of his hyper
autoimmunicity at the moment. Sounds confusing to some,
but a situation well known to those so afflicted and
physicians who care for them. As experienced allergists
say "in the hypersensitive individual 'allergy' can
produce any symptoms of any disease process in any
system in the body".
The
subject was selected by two ticks as dinner while
walking across a rest area in Lincoln, Nebraska in
August 1995. The ticks, undetected by him, attached
themselves to the back of one of his knees. The pain
was soon noticeable and at the end of his shift his wife
noticed the ticks and removed them. The atypical local
reactions continued to be extreme, with painful swelling
and reddening. Flu like symptoms with fatigue, joint
pains, muscle aches and headache rapidly ensued - again
an atypical immediate response due to this aspartame
induced hypersensitivity. The symptoms increased in
severity over the next 36 hours until his arrival in
Portland, Oregon, where the subject presented to the
Veterans' Administration Emergency Room with meningismus
in addition to the other findings. He was treated for
Lyme Disease with Doxycycline,100 mg twice daily for 14
days (most experts would give Doxycycline for 20-30 days
at this juncture and for a 260 lb man,100 mg dosage
twice daily is a questionably inadequate dosage).
A
Lyme titer was negative at that time. The response was
very beneficial and the subject took no further thought
about the Lyme episode after this. Over the ensuing
years, the chemical hypersensitivity flare ups
progressively worsened: arthritis (especially in the
knees) as well as various neurological sequelae and
dermatologic manifestations etc. When in contaminated
environments his blood sugars became progressively
elevated but fell to normal when in pristine
environments, only to again elevate and require vigorous
insulin and oral agent treatments to control them when
chemical exposures occurred.
By
late 1999 the arthritis took a turn for the worse and
"joint mice" manifested themselves in both knees. These
are osteocartilaginous loose bodies broken free from the
articular surfaces that can slip in and out between the
knee joint and the bursae - under the shin at times.
When in the joints, these were quite damaging and
painful. When the subject went to the VA Emergency Room
he was belittled by being offered only psychiatric care
even though he had properly and efficiently explained
the meaning of all terms used. All competent medical
personnel should be able to understand the term "joint
mice" and shouldn't have to have it explained but, in
this case, even explanations couldn't avoid an attack on
his sanity, in spite of the fact these erosive processes
are classical findings of knee arthritis from recurrent
Lyme meds and the patient had previously been treated in
that same emergency room for Lyme symptoms from tick
bites. This was only one of several such denials of
real medical care and attempts at intimidation this
doctor was subjected to for blowing the whistle on
aspartame.
This bold denial of any real therapy was contrary to
the specifications by the Lyme Disease Foundation and
the CDC (Center For Disease Control) that Lyme symptoms
must be treated because of the tragic results of leaving
them untreated. The knees needless to say, thanks
partly to their diligent neglect continued to worsen.
By Spring 2000, the now chronically stimulated hyper
auto immunity/chemical hypersensitivity had so worsened
that a brief Spring pollen bloom caused a devastating
"flu" episode.
The
diabetes blood picture usually resolved in the summer in
Portland when the pollen and fungal spore blooms were
past and the weather was dry and warm and the severe
industrial pollution was relieved because the inversion
layer effects in the Williamette Valley had cleared
allowing the atmospheric pollutants to be rapidly
carried away. This would usually allow the
discontinuation of all hypoglycemic agents for the
summer - not so for the summer of 2000. The blood sugar
picture worsened.
Other symptoms rapidly ensued. His knees became
severely disabled. Then the left ankle turned to "mush"
and lost ligamentous integrity. Other joints began at
times to show arthritic inflammation, enosynovitis of
the shoulders occurred. Synovitis of the neck became a
permanent feature. In recurrent Lyme Disease this occurs
in continuity with an autoimmune cervical meningitis.
The subject who never bruised at insulin injection sites
began to show strikingly symmetrical bruising in neat
circular patterns centered around each and every
injection site. Polymyalgia and fibromyalgia symptoms
ensued. Then extreme weakness and fatigue was
accompanied by cranial and upper cervical nerve problems
with partial numbness of the right side of the face and
partial facial nerve paralysis of the left nares with
dilation and fasiculation so rapid and persistent the
subject felt compelled to check his pulse to make sure
this wasn't an aneurysmic phenomenon. The check
revealed the nasal fasiculations were just that and
didn't coincide in any way with pulse rate, rythym or
timing.
Carefully reviewing his own medical history for a clue
(his physicians at the VA had not) revealed he had
almost every symptom of recurrent Lyme Disease. This
included, by now, various types of radiculo neuropathies
throughout his body but particularly striking from the
cervical nerve roots. His neural paralysis of the right
chest from an episode of the plague contacted while
medically serving an orphanage in Vietnam in 1968
worsened to the point he was experiencing severe right
shoulder pain, weakness and trouble with his right hand
control. His previous experience with the apparently
poorly trained and possibly improperly motivated
personnel at the Portland VA ER led the subject to go to
the public library and on the internet to do a ten year
review of the medical literature on Lyme disease,
ehrlichiosis and related topics. A few hours well spent
before his futile visit to the Portland VA ER where he
was denied treatment of any kind on the basis that "they
wouldn't treat Lyme Disease there" capped off with the
lie they couldn't draw a Lymes titer there - both untrue
and irrelevant to the subject's misery state and highly
damaging disease status.
Going back to his medical cabinet, untreated by the VA,
he luckily found a supply of Doxycycline tablets unused
from a previous facial injury and was able to take them
200 mg twice/day for 5 days until his scheduled urgent
care visit at the VA. On Doxycycline, the blood sugar
levels dramatically dropped to normal. The brusing and
platelet difficulties quickly resolved,the arthritis
improved incrementally day by day until almost his usual
functional level for the first time in months. The
polymyalgia and cervical synovitis cleared
dramatically. The facial and cranial nerve problems
resolved, the fatigue lifted. During the 5-6 day period
until his appointment he was inadvertently away from the
Doxycycline for one day and Lyme symptoms began to
relapse while he was unexpectedly caught out of town on
a trip.
This case history gives a striking picture:
1.
getting virtually all the findings of recurrent Lyme
Disease;
2.
the successful treatment by Doxycycline;
3.
the temporary relapse whilst off Doxycycline;
4.
the complete resolution in response to the use of the
high dose Doxycycline and the greatly improved status of
the subject at the visit.
This was the best, most objective information on the
subject's condition and needs that the VA physicians
would ever have. Instead of treating the patient the
VA physician gave the subject a stern lecture about
treating himself - totally ignoring his interim misery
and pathology - only ordering a Lyme titer and refusing
to give any other treatment.
The
subject's regular VA clinic physician also refused to
see him until January 2001, again boldly defying CDC
regulations. The subject was off Doxycycline for about a
week until he could arrange for help from better medical
caregivers during which time all of the symptoms,
except the facial and cranial nerve problems recurred.
Belatedly back on Doxycycline, the problems began again
to resolve somewhat but much more slowly. No competent
or caring physician would ever recommend interrupting
partially completed successful therapy of a complicated
infectious problem nor concern of allowing immuniologic
reflaring of a destructive hyperautoimmine process as
the VA doctors did. The botched therapeutic regimen was
not as rapidly effective now. The structural physical
damage to the neck, knees, ankles and peripheral nerves
were allowed to progress unabatted due to the diligent
neglect by the VA physicians and so far that is not
promising happy results.
This unfortunate scenario and the associated Lyme
literature research have served as the inspirations for
this article to illustrate some of the problems
generated in our medical care systems by its
unwillingness to factor in the tremendous damages from
aspartame on a worldwide basis.
Only acknowledgement of such damage would allow
aspartame sufferers to get adequate treatment and avoid
tremendous damages to themselves as well as to the
financial structure of our medical care and
compensation/pension systems. Juvenile rheumatoid
arthritis is a classic case of destructive
hyperautoimmune disease: some cases even require the
ultimate treatment of hyper auto immunicity - immune
ablation with chemotherapy and irradiation followed by
stem cell transplantation. The strong ties sometimes
discovered between this disease and Lyme Disease only
serve to emphasize the auto immune nature of the
destructive processes of Lyme Disease. The name Lyme
Disease comes from an episode in the Lyme County area of
Conneticut when physicians investigating a cluster
outbreak of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in the region
discovered tick bites as a common factor in all cases
and conducted an epidemiiological search for a causitive
agent and identified the Lyme treponema as a possible
agent. This unfortunately led to a "tunnel vision"
approach focussing on Lyme Disease as only a typical
infectious disease which firstly ignored that juvenile
rheumatoid arthritis is a very destructive hyper
autoimmunicity disease. The hyper autoimmunicity
involved is a key to adequate understanding of the
nature and therapy of Lyme Disease. Secondly, the
excellent information to be gleaned from the British and
European experience with the treponemae and their
treatment were and are by and large ignored. Thus
pseudo scientific approaches treating the very fallible
lab tests instead of the very sick patients have often
gained the uppermost in physicians' minds with
disastrous results for the patients.
The
cardiac conduction system and the cardiac muscle are
afflicted by both aspartame and Lyme Disease. In Europe
empiric pre surgical treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy
with antibiotic regimen for Lyme Disease has in may
instances resolved the problems without surgery. The
single largest category of patients awaiting cardiac
transplantation in the US relates to patients with
dilated cardiomyopathy. Just think of the possibility
of avoiding many of those procedures if the issues of
possible Lyme etiology and Aspartame Disease are fully
addressed in these cases. Other issues arising out of
aspartame toxicity are similarly expensive. Over 10
years ago, Dr Hyman Roberts, a West Palm Beach Board
Certified Internist identified cases that wasted over
$60,000 on unnecessary lab and medical diagnostic
procedures when aspartame ingestion was their only
correctible medical problem.
James Bowen, M.D.
c/o
1720 North Watts
Portland, Oregon 97217
November 2000
The
following references were used in research of this
article. (For more information on aspartame see
www.dorway.com and the Aspartame Toxicity Center,
www.holisticmed.com/aspartame)
1.
Oral Doxycycline For Facial Palsy Related to Lyme
Disease, American Family Physician, June 99, Vol 59,
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