ASIANTUNTIJAT LUENNOIVAT BORRELIOOSISTA

[Bb]

Lähettäjä: Soijuv Lähetetty: 16.3.2005 9:35

Heiningerilla on ollut vakavia terveysongelmia 20 v. ajan. Hänellä sanottin olevan MS-tauti. Hän sai vasta jokin aika sitten kuulla, että hän sairastaa borrelioosia. Hänen terveytensä on tullut paremmaksi nopeasti sen jälkeen kun hän alkoi saada oikeata hoitoa.

Smithin mukaan lapset ovat aikuisia suuremmassa vaarassa sairastua borrelioosiin koska he viettävät aikuisia enemmän aikaansa ulkona. Sairaus voi tarttua raskauden aikana äidistä lapseen. Smithin omalla lapsella on krooninen borrelioosi ja hän joutui olemaan poissa koulusta 5 v. jatkuvien päänsärkyjen, hallusinaatioiden, paniikkikohtausten, sydänoireiden jne. vuoksi. Tytär voi tällä hetkellä suhteellisen hyvin.

Horowitz on hoitanut tällä hetkellä 8000 borrelioosia sairastavaa. Hänen mukaansa borrelioosi kykenee aiheuttamaan lähes minkä tahansa sairauden oireet. Eli kun henkilöllä on fatiikkia, nivelkipuja, muistiongelmia, heidän oireensa todennäköisimmin diagnosoidaan väärin, esim. MS, lupus, krooninen fatiikki jne. Borrelioosi on maailmanlaajuinen epidemia. Borrelioosia ei voida diagnosoida verikokeiden perusteella!! vaan kliinisesti. Tehokas hoito edellyttää useiden lääkkeiden kombinaatioita.

Ihmiset eivät ota sairautta riittävän vakavasti. Horowitzilla on lukuisia potilaita jotka ovat hakeutuneet hänen luokseen koska eivät ole saaneet hoitoa oman alueensa lääkäreiltä!


Lyme disease: It's here

Eric Wensel | The Leader | Dr. Richard Horowitz, a lyme disease specialist, discusses treatment for the disease Thursday at the Radisson Hotel Corning.
by Derrick Ek

dek@the-leader.com

Two Lyme disease experts, one a doctor and the other an activist, appeared in Corning last week to share their expertise and deliver a frightening message: Lyme disease is here, and we need to be aware of it.

An estimated 300 people, including many Lyme disease patients and health professionals, jammed a banquet room at the Radisson Hotel Corning on Thursday evening for a presentation by Pat Smith, the president of the National Lyme Disease Association, and Richard Horowitz, M.D., a Lyme disease specialist from Hyde Park.

"This area, it is often said, has no Lyme disease," Smith said. "But I think today's turnout proves otherwise. Unfortunately, ticks and Lyme disease are here."

Based in Jackson, N.J., the Lyme Disease Association is one of the largest Lyme disease advocacy groups in the country. During her remarks, Smith gave a broad overview of the growing Lyme epidemic, noting that Pennsylvania and New York, respectively, have the highest infection rates in the U.S.

And while statistics on Lyme disease cases in Steuben County are sketchy at best, evidence is mounting.

"I recently spoke to a scientist in New York who wrote me, because I'd been trying to find out, 'Are there any ticks in Corning, N.Y.?'" Smith said. "And contrary to popular belief, she told me, absolutely yes. They have what they call a passive surveillance program, and they've identified at least 10 different types of ticks that are present here in Corning, including the three that we normally associate with tick-borne diseases."

Much of Smith's presentation Thursday focused on the need to recognize Lyme disease in children. Smith says that kids have a higher risk of exposure because they often play outdoors. There is also evidence to suggest the disease can be passed from mother to child during pregnancy.

Aside from a wide range of physical ailments, children with Lyme disease often experience a decline in academic performance, drop out of sports and extracurricular activities, and lose friends. Some have even attempted or committed suicide as a result.

Smith knows from experience. Her own daughter had chronic Lyme disease and missed nearly five years of school. She couldn't read because it gave her intense headaches. She had constant seizures, panic attacks, hallucinations, nightmares and cardiac episodes.

"Childhood passed her by as she struggled to learn about medical terminology and procedures," Smith said of her daughter, who is now largely recovered.

Horowitz, whose practice is in Hyde Park, just north of Poughkeepsie, began his career as a family physician but wound up dealing almost exclusively with Lyme disease. He now has a total of 8,000 Lyme disease patients, many from other states, and his practice sees 30 patients a day. He has written extensively on the subject and is the founder of the Hudson Valley Healing Arts Center, dedicated to offering comprehensive treatment.

He gave a 90-minute presentation Thursday, focusing mainly on how difficult it is for most health care providers to diagnose Lyme disease, because it has well over 100 symptoms affecting nearly all systems of the body, and the symptoms often mimic other diseases so closely.

"The thing is, it mimics every other disease, practically. So the problem for patients is, they have these symptoms of fatigue, joint aches, memory problems ... and they're diagnosed with other things," Horowitz said. "They're told they have chronic fatigue syndrome, or MS, or Lupus, when they don't. They have Lyme disease. The problem is that you're dealing with an epidemic that's spreading worldwide, and you can go out in your back yard and get it."

Detecting Lyme can't be done using only a blood test. Rather, it requires a clinical diagnosis. Most criteria currently used to diagnose the disease is very unreliable, he said. Even worse, there are many strains of the bacteria that causes Lyme, and developing an effective treatment plan often requires experimenting with multiple combinations of medication - and a great deal of diligence.

And Horowitz is also convinced that Lyme disease is a greater problem in the Corning area than people realize.

"We know that the ticks that cause Lyme disease are in your area, because the Health Department has now shown that they are," Horowitz said. "The Corning area has about 10 different ticks, and they are the ticks that transmit Lyme disease. So it's here. I have patients that come from this area to see me, because they couldn't get help from their local physicians."

"There just has to be a lot more understanding from the public perspective on how severe the disease is," he added. "People need to take this disease seriously."

Thursday's program was sponsored by Corning Inc.'s corporate medical department. It was organized by Lis Heininger of East Corning, who has launched a crusade to increase awareness and offer support for Lyme patients locally.

Heininger has dealt with severe health problems for 20 years. She was misdiagnosed long ago as having multiple sclerosis, and only recently discovered that she actually has Lyme disease. Her health has improved rapidly since she began receiving proper treatment.

I'm actually having improvement now," Heininger said. "I mean, there's hope in my future now. I'm bound and determined. I've kept it as a goal to bring that to the community, the information that I've learned."

Heininger belongs to the New York-Pennsylvania Lyme Disease Support Group, which meets every other month in Corning. For more information, call Heininger at 937-1881, or Suzanne Maschmeyer 329-1849.

While they were in town, Smith and Horowitz taped a segment with WETM-TV Channel 18's "Community Focus" which will air on Easter Sunday, March 27.