Under Our Skin: The Untold Story of Lyme Disease

I found and watched this documentary on netflix: Under Our Skin

It covers a controversy surrounding Chronic Lyme disease.

Lyme Disease on wiki: en.wikipedia.org...

While there is general agreement on the optimal treatment for early Lyme disease, there is considerable controversy over the existence, prevalence, diagnostic criteria, and treatment of chronic Lyme disease.

Here is the wiki description of the movie:

The film argues that persistent infection with Lyme disease is responsible for a variety of debilitating symptoms. The film presents advocates of the position, including International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, and Center for Science in the Public Interest. The position is at odds with that of major medical bodies including the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Academy of Neurology, who do not recognize "chronic" Lyme disease as a legitimate diagnosis. The film portrays Infectious Diseases Society of America as a group laden with conflicts of interest and briefly discusses Richard Blumenthal's antitrust charges against the society. The film, described by the New York Times as "inflammatory" and "polemic", shows individual patients responding to long-term antibiotic treatment and portrays the IDSA as "an organization riddled with conflicts of interest". Variety noted that the film "sides with those advocating unconventional treatments, [but] gives gatekeepers from Infectious Diseases of America [sic, actually Infectious Diseases Society of America] their say."

en.wikipedia.org...



www.youtube.com...


From International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society website: www.ilads.org...

Lyme disease is transmitted by the bite of a tick, and the disease is prevalent across the United States and throughout the world.

The disease is caused by a spiral-shaped bacteria (spirochete) called Borrelia burgdorferi. The Lyme spirochete can cause infection of multiple organs and produce a wide range of symptoms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance criteria for Lyme disease were devised to track a narrow band of cases for epidemiologic purposes. As stated on the CDC website, the surveillance criteria were never intended to be used as diagnostic criteria, nor were they meant to define the entire scope of Lyme disease.

The ELISA screening test is unreliable. The test misses 35% of culture proven Lyme disease (only 65% sensitivity) and is unacceptable as the first step of a two-step screening protocol. By definition, a screening test should have at least 95% sensitivity.

Mainstream medicine/big pharma has decided that they know everything about this disease. Or they know they don't and just don't really care. Either line of thought is not just dangerous, but it puts into focus the lack of care that's supposed to be main component of this field.

Yea this movie has been out for awhile now and I agree that they don't know as much abotu lyme as they would like you to think.
I contracted lymes 3 years ago I was so sick I thought i was going to die. I ended up in the ER from dehydration from vomiting. Vomiting is not a classic symptom of lymes, so doctors didnt' look for it. If I had not been lucky enough to show a rash the next day, we would of never have known it was lymes.

The rash Isnt always bullseye shape, it can just be a rash that is red and hot to the touch. And only 30% of infected people ever report having it.

But I never felt like i recovered. The blood tests keep saying things are normal, but both my son and I who got it get very sick easily. I never got my previous amounts of energy or zest back.

dang i have been bitten by a few tiks, i will be more careful in future....

dang i have been bitten by a few tiks, i will be more careful in future....

reply to post by nixie_nox


One one the docs in this documentary, Alan MacDonald, has possibly linked it to Alzheimer's and Dementia. Stating that besides being related to syphilis it's late stages are similar as well.

I'm sorry to hear you got it, I think many more people are walking around with it with no clue.

reply to post by Forgoten_Whisper


Watch a movie called Lymelife

Just a reminder about where Lyme disease may have originated, and who we might thank for it....

The number of building "257" is a moniker for the entire site in 2004 when Michael Carroll, an attorney, published Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory.[15] Many of the assertions and accusations made in the book are counter to the government's position and have been criticized and challenged.[10][16] The review in Army Chemical Review concluded "Lab 257 would be cautiously valuable to someone writing a history of Plum Island, but is otherwise an example of fringe literature with a portrayal of almost every form of novelist style. The author has unfortunately wasted an opportunity to write a credible history."[16] The book advances the idea that Lyme disease originated at Plum Island and conjectures several means by which animal diseases could have left the island. David Weld, the executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, generically opinionated that "I personally just don't think that has any merit" yet refused to be specific or comment on the amount of birds that come into contact with the island and fly back and forth between the mainland, possibly carrying infected ticks.[10]

Source

Deer often migrate between the island and Lyme, CT .... Where the disease was first found. The transmission vector for Lyme disease is the deer tick.

Plum Island is also theorized to be the original source of West Nile virus in the US. The transmission vector for that disease are mosquitoes biting birds. It was first found at the Bronx Zoo, not far from Plum Island, and quickly spread up and down the Mississippi Flyway through migrating birds.

reply to post by butcherguy


I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing.

reply to post by Forgoten_Whisper


My child and I both got it at the time. We live in central Maryland which is one of the THE hotbeds for lymes diseaase. Around here a lot of people have had it.
I never saw a single bite on him. I remember when it came on the scene in the mid 90s and how seriously it was taken back then.
and the round of antibiotics is not pleasant

A friend of my mothers has had it for 2 years, and cant get rid of it. Nothing they do works,she is getting the late stage symptoms.

I saw this in the theater maybe a year or 2 ago.
Certainly eye-opening and informative.

More people should see this documentary.

reply to post by nixie_nox


I remember hearing that hyperbaric oxygen therapy had some succes treating the symptoms of Lyme disease. I know of someone who paid a commercial diving firm to rent their hyperbaric chamber to do treatments because his wife had it.

You might have some problem getting that paid by insurance compagnies because the medical establishment in America is not very keen on hyperbarics. Probably because they have less to profit from and it is hard to patent oxygen. And they have problem doing double-blind study to test for it since even if you are given the placebo (normal air instead of oxygen), the whole process of being pressurized in the chamber given you an effect because it is obviously impossible to elliminate the oxygen from the air.

If you need more info on hyperbarics I would gladly send you a few more links and good luck with that disease.

I'm glad you posted this. I've been wanting to for a while now but haven't gotten around to it. I have had Lyme for 12 years and still cannot get help. It is now neurolyme and Lyme arthritis....I have a long list of symptoms. Tons of docs, tons of wrong diagnosis's.
My 2yr old just got it last month, thankfully he got the rash and his doc gave him antibiotics right away.
The whole thing is beyond ridiculous, something needs to be done about this.

reply to post by WildWorld


Have you had any luck finding a doc who treats for chronic lyme?

i deal with 'chronic lyme disease' and it can be a butt kicker...took 3 years before it was figured out. after doing alot of research i chose to use samento, which was highly effective. i am basically 'symptom free' except for some minor issues.

and i BELIEVE the bacteria was 'enhanced' by the govt., that it can be transmitted by other animals, it is much much more wide spread than we are told and that the body can contain 'chronic bacterial infections' that can migrate around the body.

thru my own research, i learned alot about the body and the medical establishment....and it is an establishment..based on theroies that can never really change because it would necessitate a change in some fundamental ways of thinking about how the body reacts to disease and seeing western medicines' arrogance.....just sayin'

I'll have to give this a watch at some point.

I've recently been reading a little bit about Lyme Disease and possible links to Plum Island.

I had a look on Wiki the other day, which has a risk map on it... Here

Funny how most of the high risk areas are very close to Plum Island.

Originally posted by Forgoten_Whisper
One one the docs in this documentary, Alan MacDonald, has possibly linked it to Alzheimer's and Dementia. Stating that besides being related to syphilis it's late stages are similar as well.

Alzheimers and Dementia has also been linked to severe b12 deficiency. I'm wondering if there is a link, the symptoms are pretty similar. Perhaps Lyme's can deplete b12 or having a b12 deficiency makes you more susceptible to the effects of Lyme's.

Originally posted by skitzspiricy
Alzheimers and Dementia has also been linked to severe b12 deficiency. I'm wondering if there is a link, the symptoms are pretty similar. Perhaps Lyme's can deplete b12 or having a b12 deficiency makes you more susceptible to the effects of Lyme's.

It would be worth looking into, Maybe one of the doctors who are treating chronic lyme have already done this but the info isn't out there. If not they would probably be one of the few interested in looking into it.

reply to post by Forgoten_Whisper


I got a few names from a lyme forum and have been trying to get an appointment with one but it's not easy.

reply to post by skitzspiricy


I have a b12 deficientcy, I think it's caused by the Lyme.

I was just reading this and thought it was interesting so I wanted to share it here....

Lyme disease a bioweapon?

First let's begin with a discussion of what properties constitute an effective biological warfare agent. The Media, The Centers For Disease Control and The Department of Defense would have us believe that the most threatening biological agents are lethal microbes which cause acute disease and then death...such as anthrax and smallpox. It appears that we are being intentionally misled as to where the real danger lies