My name is Kate Wood and I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease last year and have had an interesting journey over the last 8 months. At this time, the Australian Government does NOT recognise Lyme as a Disease that can be contracted in Australia. This means there also isn’t a lot of information available that is specific to Australian’s trying to get diagnosed and treated.
Being a health professional has inspired me to write a book to help others like myself to recover from Lyme Disease, ideally naturally. Below is the introduction from my book that is in progress. If anyone is suffering with Lyme Disease, knows someone who is or thinks they might have it, please feel free to join our Lyme Support Group by emailing me at kate@healthspaceclinics.com.au.
Lyme Informations Nights
Mona Vale – Saturday, 20th April 2pm
Kings Cross – Wednesday, 24th April 7pm
RSVP Essential 1 week prior to kate@healthspaceclinics.com.au
Welcome to the world of Lyme Disease
Anyone who has Lyme disease or knows someone who has lyme disease will probably already understand or at least have heard about the complexity of this disease. You may or may not have heard that the main bacteria responsible for Lyme disease is Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) and it is transmitted by ticks. There is now research emerging that transmission may also occur via other vectors such as mosquito’s, lice, fleas and mites, via sexual intercourse and via the placenta to unborn babies. It is a bacteria that can affect the whole body from initially the blood, to the muscles and joints and can cross the blood brain barrior. With Bb comes a host of co-infections such as bartonella, babesia, rickettsia, mycoplasma, chlamydia pneumonae and erlichia and opportunistic infections such as epstein barr virus (EBV = glandular fever), herpes virus (HHV-6) and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) to complicate the picture.
Bb can escape most antibiotics and can morph into various forms including spirochete, cell wall deficient and a cyst form that can hibernate for many years at a time. There are various stages of lyme disease depending on how long you have had it including acute, early and late disseminated and chronic. Whether this sounds familiar or not it still sounds depressing right?? You hear stories of people who are debilitated, dying and even dead. My book is to inspire you to look beyond the disease and trust in your body’s innate power to heal itself. If you honor your body and understand that illness is not bad luck or even bad genes you will feel empowered to get back your most cherished possession – optimal health.
There are quite a few books and websites out there explaining what lyme disease is, how you contract it, all the stages and various treatment options. Some of these are in the recommended reading list at the end. I highly recommend you get a really good understanding from this Lyme specific literature about what exactly Lyme Disease is, the theories, how is spreads, the co-infections and the various treatment options from all the professionals out there. Be careful to distinguish between textbook diagnosis and treatment options and lyme literate recommendations. This book will not only help you become lyme savvy so you know the difference but also provide you with tools and resources to beat it. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter how you got it and there is no real way to know when and how you did get it, so let it go.
What matters is you do have it and you can heal your body if you want to. You have the control so don’t forget that like i did when i started on my lyme journey. I got so caught up in thinking and talking about Lyme Disease itself, that i lost track of the task at hand – to get my body strong so the Bb bacteria and its co-infections could no longer reside in my body. You can get your body healthy again physically, biochemically, emotionally and spiritually so there is no way any dis-ease, lyme or anything else can possibly reside in your body long term or even short term. It is my belief that this book can put the pieces of the puzzle together for you so you can do what your were born to do in this life – shine, thrive and share your gifts with the world. Sometimes we just need a bit of help to get there!
Lyme Disease in Australia and Beyond
At the time of writing this the Australian Government do not currently recognise Lyme Disease in Australia. The Karl McManus Foundation, the Lyme Disease Association of Australia (LDAA) and other Lyme literate practitioners and people are working hard to change this as we speak. Lyme Disease is being predicted as the epidemic of the 21st Century. In part this is due to its complexity in diagnosing and treating Bb and in part i believe it is due to ignorance. My collegues and i have treated many patients who have never left Australia who have confirmed lab results and clinical diagnoses for Lyme Disease and its co-infections. Anyone who has been afflicted by Lyme disease in any way knows it exists. A recent study by Peter Mayne strongly supports that Lyme disease is entirely a neurological disease transmitted IN Australia.( Mayne, P (2011). There are certain places in Australia known as tick hotspots which are particularly in the coastal areas of NSW including mid north coast (Forster up to Coffs Harbour), the South Coast and Northern Beaches. The LADD are working hard to map areas where known tick bites have led to Lyme disease in order to try and identify epidemic areas relative for Australians.
Ticks have been found on every continent of earth except Antarctica. The first official case of Lyme was recorded in the town Old Lyme, Connecticut in the US in 1975 , although there are many other reports and evidence that it existed long before that in many regions of the world. Today almost every part of the United States and Asia are affected, South America, especially in Brazil and much of Europe, especially Russia and Germany. Germany and the United States have specialised clinics now to deal with Lyme Disease and an Australian doctor has a a clinic in Kuta in Bali helping those in the Southern Hemisphere. The treatment is costly as is the affect it has on your health and your life.
Please stay tuned for more information and i highly recommend reading Lyme Disease in Australia by Nicola McFadzean, who is an Australian working in the US as a Naturopathic Doctor, primarily with Lyme Disease.
