The intensely oppositional theories about Lyme disease and the proper treatment of Lyme disease is widely spread and frequently debated between Medical Societies, University Medical Centers,  medical practices, politicians and scientists around the world.  However, it is less often that these groups argue amongst themselves publicly.

Last week sent a wave of delight (for Lyme groups) and shock (from the conventional medical establishment) when the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. spoke out against the IDSA Guidelines in a press release: http://www.aapsonline.org/testimony/lyme-disease-guidelines-comments.php.

I have just become aware of another schism that is occurring just miles from Columbia University’s Lyme and Tick Borne Disease Research Center, located in northern Manhattan NYC at Yale University’s Medical Center in New Haven, CT where the IDSA guidelines have held sway since their inception.  I had the privilege of seeing Dr. Amiram Katz,  assistant clinical professor of neurology at Yale, believes that denying the possibility of persistent infection is counterproductive and ultimately harmful.

“In the textbook of pathology, which every medical student reads, it is written that there is chronic Lyme.… We know from syphilis [a spirochetal infection similar to Lyme disease] that this type of bacteria, the spirochete, can be alive and persistent, though at times dormant,” he says. Katz asserts that refusing to accept the evidence for chronic infection is “an example of how people are going to an extreme and damaging both themselves and the patients.”

On May 2, 2009, Dr. Andrew Wilner reported online (complete story on the Doctor’s Guide Peer View) about a study conducted by Dr. Katz and presented in Seattle Washington at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 61st annual meeting.

Dr. Katz has been treating patients with persistent neurological symptoms with infusions of immunoglobulin (in appropriate medical cases) and finding remarkable success.

Dr. Wilner reported that all patients were treated with immunoglobulin for at least 6 months, and that after the treatment 100% of his patients showed improvement.

“The diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease is not widely accepted, yet these patients have symptoms and nerve biopsies that respond to IVIG treatment, legitimising their complaints,” concluded Dr. Katz.

I don’t know if I will be given this immunoglobulin treatment or not, but I am excited to be under the care of a logical thinking scientist and medical doctor who look at the evidence instead of listening to the predjudice of their colleagues “belief system.”

As more and more medical doctors push their way out of the box to help their desperate and suffering patients to find that longer courses of antibiotics acyually improves symptoms – the faster mainstream medicine will be forced to re-evaluate their position.  Of course we all hope that the re-writing of the IDSA guidelines will be influenced by doctors who are successfully treating Lyme disease and NOT theorotizing academicians  or doctors with no experience at all!

Additional hope comes from the political sector. Last Thursday afternoon (April 30, 2009), in Hartford, Connecticut, the House of Representatives unanimously voted, just as the Health Committee had, on a bill that takes what will hopefully be viewed as a nationally recognized stand in the heated debate over the existence of chronic Lyme disease.

“It comes down on the side of people who suffer from Lyme in this big debate,” Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, a bill co-sponsor, said according to Greenwich Times following the vote. “It says the scientific community can have that debate but we’re not going to let anybody else go without treatment.”

Brian Lockhart, staff writer for Greenwich Times further wrote:

“Although the state Department of Public Health does not expressly forbid long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme, the national Infectious Diseases Society has dismissed chronic Lyme as a myth.

Those who believe in chronic Lyme argue this makes state physicians fearful of being reported to the health department if they choose to recognize and treat chronic Lyme.

“There is a ‘chill effect’” on doctors, Rep. Jason Bartlett, D-Bethel, said.

Rep. Kimberly Fawcett, D-Fairfield, who helped spearhead the bill, told her colleagues prior to Thursday’s vote:  “We recognize this controversy in diagnosing this disease. But let’s give our doctors the freedom and autonomy.”

Rep. Scribner, R-Brookfield, a member of the legislature’s Public Health Committee, agreed.

“We’ve witnessed many people who have suffered long term,” he said. “I strongly urge all the chamber to consider this measure which I think is a very responsible measure.” The Connecticut Medical Society supported the bill. The Society is not taking a stand on chronic Lyme disease but believes physicians should have the right to treat patients as they see fit.

The legislation would require a chronic Lyme diagnosis be made based on medical history and a physical. It only allows long-term antibiotics for chronic Lyme disease and the language does not preclude the state from investigating physicians for wrongly prescribing medicines.

Thankfully this bill appears to be on a fast track to become law in the very state where Dr. Katz is branching out into new medical territory with immunoglobulin infusions.  By taking the fear of litigation from the medical board away, pioneering medical doctors with intuitive genius (not only like Dr. Katz but the Lyme pediatrician Dr. Jones,  Psychiatrist Brian Fallon and Pathologist Dr. Alan B. MacDonald to name just a few) to continue their brave exploration into the frightening territory of chronic neurological Lyme disease.

“Serrapeptidase”, better known as “serrapeptase”, is best known for its ability to relieve pain from inflammation, reduce inflammation, and destroying pathogens. It is suggested to be able to kill Lyme bacteria, a wide variety of fungus (another tool in the fight against Candida) and unfriendly bacteria.

This means this enzyme through it’s natural action in our bodies can greatly strengthen the immune system. This enzyme is naturally processed commercially today through fermentation, and was first discovered in the silkworm intestine.

In the past, it has been known primarily for it’s ability to relieve pain – especially pain from inflammation, anti-inflammatory properties.

Serrapeptase reduces inflammation in three ways:

1. Breaks down the insoluble protein by-products of blood coagulation known as fibrin. Fibrin develops from soluable protein which clots together to form a mesh when you are wounded.  Fibrin can cause many health problems in certain health problems and diseases;
   
2. Thins the fluids formed from inflammation or injury and facilitates their drainage which speeds the tissue repair process.
3. Serrapeptase alleviates pain by inhibiting the release of specific pain-inducing amines known as bradykinin (according to Wikipedia, bradykinin is a nonapeptide or group of proteins consisting of nine amino acids), that cause blood vessels to enlarge (dilate), and therefore causes blood pressure to lower.. The cardiovascular effects of the serrapeptase are due to the remarkable ability to break down dead or damaged tissue without harming living tissue. Atherosclerotic plaques can be slowly dissolved without harming the inside of the arteries.

Serrapeptase is also known for its ability to destroy harmful pathogens and unfriendly bacteria.  This helps to greatky strengthen our immune system and free it up to fight more serious infections (such as Lyme disease.)

Surprisingly it has been known for over a decade that serrapeptase works to break apart and/or dissolve biofilms.

The wonderful collision of earlier research with the frantic search for a cure for the many modern chronic illnesses (such as Chronic Neurological Lyme disease, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Epstein Barr, Autism, MS to name just a few) and auto-immune diseases (such as HIV, Celiac disease and Diabetes 1 to name a few) has resulted in the discovery of serrapeptase inhibiting and destroying biofilm.

Bacteria, as we have discussed in many blog posts, often follow a process called biofilm formation which results in virtually impenetrable fortresses for the bacteria to multiply and thrive growing steadily and in extended chronic infections causing the immune system to atack our most weakened and fragile organs and/or central nervous system making the disease incredibly painful and resistant to any anti-micrbial, anti-bacterial or anti-viral agents – pharmacological or organic in nature.

Throughout medical research into various means of inhibiting or destroying these biofilms, great breakthroughs have occurred – especially in the last few years.

One study from top Italian scientists suggest that “proteolytic enzymes” (see definition below) could significantly enhance the activities of antibiotics (pharmacological or organic) against biofilms by revealing the infectious colonies as the biofilms are destroyed, and actually inhibit the invading bacteria or virus from developing any new biofilm “hide-outs.”

If the body were always capable of producing adequate proteolytic enzymes, it is possible that cancer would not develop. In theory, cancer cells have a type of protein coating that is destroyed by these proteolytic enzymes. When this protein is destroyed, the body’s white cells are able to attack the cancer cells and destroy them.

This is also true of the protein coverings that enable Lyme disease to successfully evade our immune system and busily creating these strongholds – sometimes for years without any symptoms – and the WHAM!  You encounter exceptional stress and everything shuts down.  For “Lymies” we call that the “crash”.  For those fortunate souls who discover their Lyme infection immediately, the infection is killed before the biofilms can be constructed.

Unfortunately, for those who think they have successfully eradicated a new infection of Lyme, it is not uncommon for a full-blown infection to flare up months or years later due to stree or extreme physical stress and find that a few spirochetes slipped into the central nervous system and evaded the antibiotic treatment.

Lymes disease can lie “dormant” for decades without showing more than a few aches and pains here and there…creating massive biofilm colonies while the unsuspecting victim pops ibuprofen for a sore joint or stiff neck.

The following anecdotes come from Systematic Enzymes (to read entire article click here):

The late alternative medicine renowned internist physician, Dr. Hans Nieper, M.D., (1928-1998) of Germany, pioneered the use of this enzyme in clearing arteries and capillaries of accumulated cholesterol-loaded plaque.

In this extraordinary application of an inexpensive and entirely safe food grade natural protein, Dr. Nieper fed the protein to a small group of men scheduled for artery by-pass surgery by him. He delighted in presenting a pair of 70 year old former gymnasts doing handsprings who previously could barely walk to the door unaided, and suffered extreme chest pains.

Another licensed medical doctor who requested anonymity calls serrapeptase “miraculous”. Dr X claims serrapeptase protects against stroke and is more effective and quicker than EDTA chelation treatments in removing arterial plaque. He also reports that serrapeptase dissolves blood clots and causes varicose veins to shrink or diminish. Dr X excitedly told of a woman scheduled for hand amputation and a man scheduled for bypass surgery who both recovered quickly without surgery after treatment with serrapeptase.

To conclude this series on “New Hope for Severe Chronic Neurological Lyme Disease, it appears to me, as a journalist and chronic neurological Lyme sufferer, that these three enzymes from earthworms will most certainly ease the sever intensity of symptoms and possibly cure even decades of suffering.

I know that I am not speaking for myself alone when I say that the acceptable goal for healthy and vibrant living is not as high as it once was – which has caused me great sadness.  However, I am now raising that standard high in the air with new found hope that extraordinary health can be ours again – not way down the road, but perhaps someday soon!

NOTE:  This is a powerful anti-coagulant so it must be used with care.  If cut while taking this product, contact your physician immediately.

Best place to purchase:  Vitamin Research Products makes a product that is combined with the third enzyme in this series: “serrapeptase” in the correct dosages and with enteric coating to be effective.  Don’t be fooled by bargain basement prices…you will be wasting your money and will not derive any benefit.

Click here for recommended product.