Borreliosis (Lyme Disease)
Causes and Transmission
Borreliosis, or Lyme Disease, can affect humans as well as animals. Lyme bacteria was found even in mosquitoes and flies. In addition, Lyme bacteria was isolated in the mother milk of dogs, cattle, and mice. It can also be transmitted through the uterus and body fluids.
Among the domesticated animals, clinical Borreliosis has been observed in dogs, horses and cattle, which is primarily being transmitted by the far spread tick (Ixodes Ricinus).
Causal agent of the Borreliosis are borrelia burgdorferi-bacteria, which are shaped like a cork screw and were named after its Swiss discoverer Willy Burgdorfer, who first isolated them from a tick near Lyme, Connecticut, USA, at the beginning of the seventies. Thus the name Lyme Borreliosis. In the meantime, many different varieties and at least three genetic strands are existing.
Ticks as Transmitter
Ticks are primarily infected with the pathogen by forest mice and voles. They serve as intermediate host for the bacteria, however they do not fall ill themselves. Ticks contract the pathogens at an early stage. In the course of their development from larva, to nymph, and then to a full grown tick, they require three blood meals.
When an infected tick attaches to its host, the pathogens wander from the midgut to the salivary gland. During the sucking process, the tick injects its salvia into the skin of the host. The more time the tick has to suck, the larger the risk becomes to get infected. Latest research prove that infections occur not until 48 hours after the tick first started to suck.
Symptoms and Consequences
Early stage: In the early stage of a Borreliosis there are no obvious symptoms. There are indications of tiredness, fever, loss of appetite, however all of these symptoms are also characteristic for an infection with the flue virus. A distinct inflammation of the skin around the bite (Erythema migrans), as seen in humans, can be recognized with animals only in places with little hair growth.
Prominent characteristic of Borreliosis are joint problems (Lyme Arthritis): Joints show painful swellings, causing lameness in various places.
Stage II: weeks or months after the infection: Lyme burgdorfer bacteria wander through the blood stream into various body parts, especially those with a high blood supply as there are the joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons. Nerves can also be affected and signs of paralysis are not uncommon.
These symptoms develop two to five months after an infected tick‘s bite. Light cases of lameness develop and will last between two and four days, but will subsequently disappear again. The joints are primarily affected.
Most of the infected animals have an increased temperature of 39.5 to 40 degrees Celsius and are listless. These are still the same symptoms which are also characteristic for a flue infection.
In some of the cases however the nerve system, the heart, kidney or other organs could already have suffered damages. After the lameness abates, the affected animals experience thrusts of lameness, which may reoccur at intervals of two to four weeks. Frequently, different joints are affected.
Complications that may occur during this stage are meningeal or nerve root diseases, face nerve paralysis, neuritis, kidney damage, cardiac arrhythmia, and damage to the eyes.
Stage III: Months or even years after the infection: Chronic Borreliosis is frequently accompanied by chronic joint problems, chronic myositis or inflammation of the muscles, degenerative skin diseases accompanied by a blue discoloring, thinning of the skin with a parchment like appearance and chronic meningitis.
Luckily not every case of Borreliosis develops symptoms as grave as these. Only approximately twenty percent of the infected animals develop symptoms at all, as the immune system sooner or later will eventually win over the Lyme bacteria. However, there is no absolute immunity against the bacteria, you can get infected several times and can have several different kinds of Borreliosis at the same time.
Prevention
There are several different kinds of tick repellents on the market which however do not offer complete protection. Therefore, the body needs to be searched for ticks after each stay outdoors. Ticks should only be removed with the appropriate tool. Removal by means of oil, glue or fire should be avoided, as well as squeezing it with your finger nails. During treatments like that the tick becomes deathly afraid and abruptly excretes its intestines into the host including all the pathogens.
Therapy Possibilities
23.8 percent of forest workers in Germany show antibodies against Lyme bacteria burgdoferi without ever having displayed symptoms of the disease. If the immune system can be this efficient, then obviously boosting the immune system must be the key to dealing with the problem.
Antibiotics
Certain antibiotics can control Borreliosis under limited conditions only, as there are during the growing period and multiplication phase. The cork screw shaped spirochetes have periods of inactivity, during which antibiotics are just not effective. These spirochetes multiply in thrusts and when subjected to an antibiotics therapy they can rearrange themselves into cell wall free forms, which are then no longer recognized by the immune system as Lyme bacteria.
Antibiotics will not be effective during these phases of inactivity and in reality will destroy the healthy gut flora, which is an essential part in the body‘s self defense mechanism. After random destruction of the intestinal bacteria, open areas are left behind where immediately fungus, like Candida albicans, can now grow. Also allergies are possible, all the way to an anaphylactic shock - even though rare, but it can happen. Infections long thought to have healed will reoccur again.
The scientist Richi C. Showmaker is of the opinion that it is not the Lyme bacteria itself that is causing the symptoms but their excreted waste: neuron toxins. These trigger off an excessive secretion of inflammatory products: cytokines.
Antibiotics can be used against Lyme bacteria but not against neuron toxins. Therefore, it is an illusion to believe that Lyme Disease can be controlled by treating it with antibiotics for three weeks.
Acupuncture stimulating the immune system
Wilhelm Auerswald, who successfully used acupuncture against infections, reports that acupuncture partly has the same effect on sick animals as the use of antibiotics. Studies have shown that acupuncture leads to cell and humoral immunity in animals, which brings up the question just how much a therapy with antibiotics could also be supported by acupuncture.
The necessary information is transported in various ways that is nervous via nerve and pain tract, and humoral via cytokines and hormones. This way the brain also receives the information about an ongoing inflammation.
