
Ancient History of Lyme Disease Revealed with Bacterial Genomes (2017) - erentz
https://publichealth.yale.edu/article.aspx?id=15651
======
lkrubner
Slightly off-topic, but for anyone interested, I did write up my own battle
with Lyme, which went on for many, many years, till I found a simple solution:

"How I recovered from Lyme Disease: I fasted for two weeks, no food, just
water"

[http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/how-i-recovered-
from-...](http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/how-i-recovered-from-lyme-
disease)

~~~
GiorgioG
I've been going through something similar for the past 3 years. Finally a
neurologist (most of my symptoms have been neurological in nature (brain fog,
short memory issues, etc.)) for lyme, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. At some
point I was bitten by a tick that was carrying RMSF. I was given 2 rounds of
doxycycline which seemed to do absolutely nothing. At that point I made an
appointment with a "lyme doctor" (yep I can already feel a bunch of you
thinking "oh a quack doctor.") The doctor I met believes I have some other
related infection (ticks don't just have to give you the gift of a single
infectious disease.) Unfortunately there are no FDA approved tests for the
infection she suspects I have (bartonella,) and the tests that are available
are only 80% accurate and cost $1000 (not covered by insurance.) I opted to
skip the test and proceed with a clinical diagnosis. I've been on 3
antibiotics (simultaneously) for the last 2 months and I feel so much better -
not 100%, I'd say 85%. I'd have never believed this "quackery" myself if I
hadn't spent thousands of dollars on nearly a dozen doctors, and a bunch of
tests which yielded nothing.

Ticks are serious business. Be careful out there. The irony is, I'm a software
developer that works from home and I rarely poke my head out of the house,
save to mow the lawn. How I got bitten by a tick is still a mystery.

I did try fasting for 3 weeks (yep, just water and electrolytes) last fall
(before we figured out the root cause of my symptoms.) Unfortunately that
didn't help. I will likely try another fast while on these antibiotics to see
if it helps resolve my problem(s) permanently.

~~~
vekker
Are you currently still on the antibiotics? I'm curious what will happen after
the treatment. Apparently the parent poster tried antibiotics multiple times
as well, not that I want to give false hope...

Also, I am not a native English speaker, but I am not sure about why anyone
would immediately think a "lyme doctor" would be a "quack doctor"? Wouldn't a
medical doctor specialised in lyme disease (i.e. lyme doctor?) be the most
qualified to diagnose & treat lyme disease?

Another question if I may: when/how were you diagnosed? How did you know? This
has personal relevance because I recently spotted the signature symptom for
stage 1 lyme disease (erythema migrans) and immediately started treatment with
doxycycline... really hoping that stops it from progressing.

~~~
GiorgioG
I am still on the antibiotics. While my doctor hasn't specifically told me how
long I'll be on them, I suspect it'll be for at least another 4-6 months.

The traditional medical establishment in the United States doesn't believe in
"chronic" tick-borne infections - hence why "lyme doctors" are treated like
quacks.

I was diagnosed in May. As far as how did I know? Well, I was tested for
almost everything else under the sun: (before a 2nd neurologist ordered the
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever blood test) multiple-sclerosis (nerve conduction
study, skin biopsy), rare cancers (carcinoid), mast-cell activation syndrome
(on top of my neurological symptoms I also have facial flushing which is
totally random and seems to have no obvious trigger(s))

It's been a long journey so far and I have no illusion that I'm cured/symptom
free, but the minocycline, rifampin & azithromycin have helped immensely. My
short term memory still sucks (it was never great to begin with), but not
nearly as bad. My brain fog has lifted, which was my biggest concern. Between
my brain fog and memory issues, I was incredibly grumpy - I've actually
started to enjoy life again for the first time in 3 years since this started.

------
sschueller
The house just voted to investigate if the US weaponized lyme disease. [1] [2]

[1] [https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/lyme-disease-
ame...](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/lyme-disease-amendment-
investigation/index.html)

[2] [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/weaponized-
ticks/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/weaponized-ticks/)

------
tim333
Shame the vaccine they made for it got largely stopped by antivaxers
[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/20/lyme-
disease...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/20/lyme-disease-is-
solution-on-way)

~~~
radicaldreamer
They still produce it for dogs...

~~~
pmjordan
This may or may not be obvious, but the Lyme vaccine for dogs is not the same
as the discontinued one for humans. So it's (unfortunately) not a simple case
of rebranding/repackaging the vaccine they're already producing for human use.

------
amriksohata
Anyone else highly suspicious about the release timing of this report in 2017?
At the time when Lyme cases were picking up?

~~~
mc32
Why? It would reason that they’d study this at a time when things were on an
uptick. Im glad people are looking into these things. Looks like a combination
of suburbanization and uncontained deer pop growth has contributed to the
spread of the disease.

~~~
b_tterc_p
There’s a conspiracy theory that the us military is purposefully or
accidentally responsible for Lyme as a bio weapon.

Fun fact, things like bubonic plague were used during WWII. Japan had a plan
scheduled to go off a few months after they surrendered (and thus canceled) to
use such things on one of the US west coast cities, can’t recall which.

~~~
ivanhoe
Yup, operation Cherry Blossoms at Night. Japan planned an air-raid attack on
San Diego at night to spread plague infected fleas. They never did that in the
end because the war ended, but they killed some estimated 200K people in China
while "testing & improving" those weapons - horror movie stuff... and AFAIK
Japan never officially apologized for that (nor US apologized for giving
immunity to Shirō Ishii, the mastermind behind Unit 731 war crimes, and his
medical team)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cherry_Blossoms_at_N...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cherry_Blossoms_at_Night)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirō_Ishii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirō_Ishii)

~~~
msbarnett
> and AFAIK Japan never officially apologized for that

It would actually appear to be covered by a number of apologies they’ve issued
over the years, first and most notably the formal apology for all actions in
China which was accepted by the PRC as part of the Japan–China Joint
Communiqué that formally reestablished diplomatic relations in 1972.

~~~
wallace_f
IDK why corporate media loves to hate Japan. The two big criticisms are whales
and war crimes apologies, yet other countries kill more whales (not just per
capita but in absolute numbers) and it's not like America has ever apoligized
for the Native American genocide(1), or even interning Japanese.
1-[https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-madley-
californi...](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-madley-california-
genocide-20160522-snap-story.html)

~~~
mc32
Reagan apologized and also compensated descendants of Roosevelt’s internment
policy[1]. I think people keep chiding Japan because they are reluctant to
address the so called “comfort women”.

Obama signed an apology to First Nations Americans.

[1][https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/09/210138278...](https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/09/210138278/japanese-
internment-redress)

~~~
msbarnett
> 1]. I think people keep chiding Japan because they are reluctant to address
> the so called “comfort women”.

They’ve issued a bunch of specific apologies specifically regarding the
“comfort women”, beginning in 1992 and then frequently thereafter. At various
times they have apologized several times _per year_.

The apologies are listed here:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statemen...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan),
culminating in a 2015 apology that was agreed to by South Korea to “finally
and irrevocably resolve the issue”

And amazingly _still_ the notion that they won’t apologize for it is
commonplace.

