Neuro lyme and Bush
Wed Aug 08, 2007 at 06:21:40 PM PDT
It was revealed today by the WH that Bush was treated for Lyme diseaselast year. His doctors described it as "early, localized Lyme disease" after developing the characteristic bullseye rash.
It is interesting that this was not revealed last year, but rather it showed up in his "past medical history" section of this years report. Lyme is a serious medical problem. I would take it that since it was in "past medical history" it is believed to be "cured".
I speak as a person with lyme and as a medical professional practicing clinical medicine as a PA for 20+ years. I had my lyme diagnosed in 2005 after a vague, undiagnosed illness of 8 years.
Lyme disease has become a hotly debated topic in the medical community. In a nutshell, one camp believes that lyme is not that widespread, that it can be diagnosed fairly simply and that a 4 week treatment of antibiotics is adequate. They don't "believe" in chronic lyme. I would wager that this is W's camp.
They other camp -- my camp -- believes lyme is much more widespread, undiagnosed, under-treated and under-reported. This topic could be easily be a series of long diaries unto itself.
The point being, I would not be suprised if George Bush still has lyme, and lyme that has gotten into his nervous system. Considering his mental deterioration, I would wager that he may have had it from years ago. Certainly his abuse of alcohol and cocaine have not helped.
Lyme is a spirochete bacteria in the same family as syphilis, only lyme has much more genetic material, i.e, lyme experts believe it is a "lot smarter" than syphilis. It is a master at evading our immune systems and at evading our treatments.
Columbia University is studying the neurological effects of lyme, also known as neuroborreliosis.
Here are some of the cognitive difficulties that those affected with long-term, chronic lyme can experience. Remind you of anyone?
Cognitive Aspects in Adults:
Attention Problems: Easy distractibility; difficulty handling multiple tasks at the same time; trouble sustaining attention on tasks and completing tasks; trouble following the course of conversations or the text of a book.
Memory Problems: Retrieval difficulties are common in which patients may have a hard time recalling what they know; patients may forget conversations or children may forget that they've done homework assignments. At other times, patients experience a problem with the "working memory": as if the material can't be kept on board long enough. Patients may find themselves keeping multiple lists, but then they lose track of where they put their lists.
Slower Processing Speed: Patients may find it takes them longer to respond to questions or to complete tasks. Reaction time and thinking feel sluggish.
Verbal Fluency problems: the ability to engage in normal conversations is impaired by the inability to retrieve the right word for the moment or the ability to "name" well-known people or objects. Patients may experience word substitutions or "paraphasias". A patient trying to refer to a "microwave" might, for example, say "radiator". Or, trying to refer to "Amazon.com" the patient might say, "AOL". Or, trying to refer to "fireworks", the patient might say "skylights". Patients may also experience an impairment in speech production, such that they stutter, particularly at times of sensory overload.
And here are the psychiatric problems that can affect chronic lymies:
Mood Lability: spontaneous swings of mood; spontaneous tearfulness. At times, patients with these symptoms may appear to have a Bipolar II disorder.
Irritability: an inability to tolerate normal frustrations, with quick bursts of anger. Patients may seem to have undergone a personality change in that previously mild-mannered individuals may now become quite difficult.
Panic attacks: tachycardia, flushing, chest pain, , numbness and tingling, shortness of breath, choking feeling with the sensation of loss of control and/or of fear of death. Needs to be distinguished from tachyarrhythmias. Panic attacks unrelated to Lyme disease are usually 10-20 minutes in duration. Lyme-related panic attacks may last for an hour or more.
Less commonly: manic or psychotic episodes (during encephalitic phase), paranoia, tics, obsessive/compulsive symptoms (may trigger a milder pre- existing condition or bring on symptoms de novo)
Certainly Bush has many of these symptoms. I actually hope that they are not caused by lyme, mostly because I suspect his medical team will not recognize them as such, and he will go untreated. Hopefully he will bungle and bluff his way thru the next year without a serious case of Lyme Rage or paranoia, or panic attacks. Unfortunately, stress significantly flares lyme in affected individuals.
Wow, the course of history could be seriously altered by something the size of the period on the end of this sentence.
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