I've been talking about Lyme Disease for a few years now and it's still at the forefront of my mind on a daily basis. I still get messages every day on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter with reference to the fact that there are no accurate diagnostics, scientists are looking at developing a vaccine, (which is going down like a lead balloon I might add!), cases are on the increase and very sadly more Lyme warriors are dying. I've seen myself at least 12 deaths in the last couple of months which has further compelled me to write this article.

What do we know about Lyme Disease? Well, where do I start, with a few facts to begin with

• Lyme Disease is the fastest growing infectious bacterial disease in the US. It is twice as common as breast cancer and six times more common than AIDS.
• Cases are rapidly on the increase on a global basis most notably in China, Canada, Australia, UK, US, Germany, France, Ireland and Holland
• There are no accurate diagnostics currently for Lyme, even though there are a multitude of tests available, the majority have a failure rate of accuracy of up to 60% and most tests come back negative for patients and Lyme is all too often ruled out which is totally unacceptable.
• Lyme Disease is referred to as the great pretender - a lot of people get diagnosed with ME, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, Anxiety, Depression, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Chronic Pain Syndrome to name a few, but in fact Lyme gets confused with as many as 300 other diseases and patients get misdiagnosed.
• If you google Lyme disease like I did whilst writing this, there are 14,000,000 results in 0.71 sec - yet this disease is not seen as a problem - so why is it all over the internet? Why?!
• If you google Lyme Disease patient groups there are 3,020,000 results in 0.57 sec, so if Lyme isn't a problem, why are there so many people advocating about it, fund raising, providing education and promoting awareness about it? I can assure you they are not doing it for the good of their health (pardon the pun here!)
• Lyme Disease is a global epidemic, people are dying all over the world as they cannot get a correct diagnosis, they are not believed and they lose everything from their homes, their families, their livelihoods, and ultimately their lives - but one thing I can say from my interaction and integration into the world of Lyme disease is that these people or warriors as I like to call them, never lose their hope, their integrity or their will to survive. They do everything that they can to help others, educate, raise funds, promote awareness and fight.... every day for their lives and if they can stop one person or child going through what they have been through or are going through that's enough for them.

I'll give you an example - last year, someone very close to me asked me could I help their friend, as she thought that she had Lyme Disease. Her history was as follows, she was bitten by a tick when she was about 5 or 6 and her mum distinctly remembers the bulls eye rash (erythema migrans), which not every one gets by the way, but is a classic sign of Lyme Disease. She slept througout most of her teens, had chronic joint pain and muscle pain, costochondritis, asthma, migraines and recurrent anaemia. Was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2015, and ME/CFS in 2016. This young lady has multiple miscarriages and has also been diagnosed with SVT which is a heart condition. She was tested for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus which proved negative, and also had a Lyme test that also proved negative. Hearing that I new that she had Lyme disease, I'm not a doctor, but have been studying Lyme Disease for the last 3 years - so I put her in touch with some people that could help. She got a test done, we sent the results to an LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor) and quel surprise, she has Lyme disease. This young lady has spent over 30 years in turmoil, doubting herself, always being extremely ill, been through the gut-wrenching experience of multiple miscarriages, has been eating pills which have doing more harm than good and for what?

Well my answer to this is as follows,

• There are no accurate diagnostics for Lyme disease, there are tests out there, yet they are just not good enough.
• The Elisa and Western Blot tests are based on 25 year old technology for gods sake!
• The current tests are based upon serological detection of an anti-B. burgdorferi immune response in infected individuals.
• The protocols for diagnosing Lyme are outdated and ineffective.
• The current tests do not differentiate between recent or past infection.
• There is a high degree of cross reactivity with other infections e.g. Rocky Mountain spotted fever, mononucleosis, syphilis & rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic Lyme is a condition that is denied, so therefore doesn't exist and isn't a seen as problem. It's just easier to hand out a whole bucket of pharmaceuticals to treat the person as it's impossible to have so many symptoms, therefore it's all in your head, so have some anti - anxiety/psychotics/depressants and go away! Does this resonate Lymies?
• There are so few educated Lyme Literate Doctors, certainly not enough to treat this global epidemic.

My article here, really only touches upon the devestation of Lyme disease - all I ask is that you think about it, be aware of it and support the people around you that are fighting to make a difference like I am and hope to goodness that this disease does not come knocking on your door or should I say bust through it like a wrecking ball, because that is what Lyme disease does - wrecks everything in its path.