A Ticking Time Bomb

I recently had an opportunity to view the film “Under Our Skin.” If you have even the slightest interest in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, arthritis, Chronic Fatigue, ALS (Lou Gehrig), MS, or other difficult-to-diagnose disease, you will not want to miss this challenging and provoking film.
I'm sure that I didn't catch everything, and quite likely I misunderstood parts, but following are some of my observations.

• The most effective treatment for Lyme Disease is that administered immediately and aggressively.

• For severe cases, the greatest improvement comes after about three years of treatment.

• Research has found Lyme DNA connections to many chronic conditions, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Chronic Fatigue, ALS, and MS.

• "Chronic lyme disease" is not recognized by medical authorities as a treatable condition.

• Treatment recommended by medical authorities, as reported at http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/508667?cookieSet=1, is very restrictive. “A single dose of doxycycline may be offered to adult patients (200 mg dose) and to children 8 years of age (4 mg/kg up to a maximum dose of 200 mg) (B‐I) when all of the following circumstances exist: (a) the attached tick can be reliably identified as an adult or nymphal I. scapularis tick that is estimated to have been attached for 36 h on the basis of the degree of engorgement of the tick with blood or of certainty about the time of exposure to the tick; (b) prophylaxis can be started within 72 h of the time that the tick was removed; (c) ecologic information indicates that the local rate of infection of these ticks with B. burgdorferi is 20%; and (d) doxycycline treatment is not contraindicated.”

• The treatment that has been found most effective by treating physicians includes several years of care, using antibiotics. Physicians in several states have been hounded out of practice by aggressive regulators following the recommended guidelines. For example, see http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/the-state-of-connecticut-vs-dr/ or http://www.casewatch.org/board/med/jemsek/charges.shtml

This is a subject to watch. It has every appearance of being one in which patients will have to search far and wide to find a physician who is able and willing to treat their condition.