Lyme disease and the fight for recognition | DW Documentary

There is nothing more dangerous than a doctor who refuses to believe that they dont know everything about medicine and the human body.

When a doctor says that you have nothing wrong and it's all in your mind, that's the time to find a new doctor. Nobody knows your body better than you .

Lyme and tick borne diseases have ruined my life. Please be tick aware and support all who suffer.

I was bitten twice by ticks in the 1980s. I had no immediate reactions. In the late 2000s, I was tested for Lyme due to chronic fatigue, brain fog and body aches. The testing came back negative for Lyme and therefore my team of docs diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia; which let them off the hook and provided me with no relief. In 2010 I travelled to the Mayo Clinic, in FL, for a week long stay to further investigate my chronic, debilitating issues. I tested positive for Lyme, 20 yrs. after being bitten! I spent 6 additional weeks in FL to eradicate the disease and replenish my system through daily IV therapy and a boatload of supplements. It was determined that the time for antibiotic treatment had long passed. I’m still amazed at the inability to receive a conclusive/correct diagnosis in New England (Portland and Boston) and having to travel thousands of miles from my home to do so, as well as receive proper treatment. Years of wasted time, energy, pain, suffering and money.

“In the fullness of time, the mainstream handling of Chronic Lyme disease will be viewed as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of medicine because elements of academic medicine, elements of government and virtually the entire insurance industry have colluded to deny a disease.” Kenneth B. Liegner, MD Internal & Critical Care Medicine

That doctor saying it was conversion syndrome should be stripped of his license.

It's alarming when physicians and other professionals dismiss new science. Shame on those who stop learning.

I’ve seen this horror first hand, I’ve been bit, my child, my dogs, my partner got the disease really bad, almost died from it. This is serious and seems to be ignored by our medical systems. This should be at the top of the list with cancer and all the other serious diseases that humans get. It is chronic!

I contracted Lyme Disease in Scotland. Luckily I noticed the bullseye rash and went straight to the Doctor. I experienced severe headaches and faint dizzy spells. I had 2 blood tests with no indication of infection but was prescribed antibiotics anyway. I was lucky and several years later have no noticable issues. This awful disease needs to be taken seriously!

I have a number of friends with Lyme Disease. They have suffered for decades. In addition they have to pay for ALL of their health care needs because their insurance will not cover most of the treatments they need to have ANY quality of life. My one friends pays for Medicare, a supplementary health insurance plan AND all of her out of pockets medical needs. She was a teacher who can no longer work, she lost her monthly income, her career, therefore her pension and her overall quality of life. This situation is being seen all over the US. This is terribly sad, a terrible injustice and just WRONG!

I'm so sad to find that Dr. Neil Spector passed away. I hope his important research will continue on and that his team will be able to get the funding they need for clinical trials

Doctors who don't believe their patients need to lose their license. Just because they aren't smart enough to figure it out Mr doctor or MS doctor that doesn't mean that somebody's lying, faking It, or psychosomatic. Doctors like that need to go away in shame.

I went to an outdoor museum on a warm day in November 2022 about an hour outside of New York City. When I was laying in bed about to go to sleep that night, I felt a pinch on my lower back, like someone was poking me with a pin. I reached back and pulled off a live tick, and fortunately, knowing about the risk, had it sent to a lab for testing. It came back positive for Lyme, and I took antibiotics for a few weeks. Luckily, that was good enough. ALWAYS check yourself after you go outside in the summer if you live in an area with ticks.

My friend G. went for a short vacation with his kids to the Northern California forests. Two of his children got tick bites and their arms and necks after the first day of hiking. They came back to Mexico. A couple of years later, both started showing strange symptoms that couldn’t be pinpointed to a particular disease. Both got Lyme’s. A., passed away after 13 years of fighting for her life with enormous courage. JP is alive with a myriad of neurological issues but happy to help others with Lyme. They had to travel to the ONLY place in San Francisco where they “believed” in Lyme’s disease. Their story is unimaginable and heartbreaking. 15 years fighting and a beautiful child who gave her life for science should be a wake-up call for many researchers. Bravo for this documentary!

If the doctors can’t figure it out.. the sick person has to be crazy? Horrific. I hope they come up with better treatments. 😢😢😢😢😢

I was bitten by a tiny tick. No rash, but it oozed and itched like crazy for a month. Then, i started having random fevers that would come and go along with joint pain that moved around. I told my doctor and was given the western blot test. It was negative so my doctor did nothing and acted like it was great news. I questioned the fevers again and was told i needed to rest - that it was probably stress! My health went seriously downhill and i paid out of pocket about a year later (after a complete medical odyssey in which it was determined that my growing list of symptoms were imaginary) that i had contracted tickborne relapsing fever as well as Alpha-Gal syndrome and a number of co-infections. Im still struggling to get my life and health back and am completely disgusted with how the majority of the medical community has treated me. No one goes from being happy, healthy and "fine" to having a laundry list of symptoms because they're suddenly obcessed with spending all their money on visits to the doctor.

This is a pattern with chronic inflammatory diseases. We see it with long covid today and ME/CFS. Doctors think they understand everything about the human body and when patients don't fit their paradigm they start to antagonize them. The medical profession is far too arrogant and vastly overestimates its understanding. There is much more to learn and these chronic inflammatory diseases are real and need further study until we can diagnose and treat them.

I’m watching this now and am covered in sweat from watching it. This is what happened to me.

I live in Oklahoma and have been battling RMSF and Lyme for 10 years. 8 people have died from this in a ten square mile where i contracted mine. It's chronic and debilitating for me and I'm treated like it's no big deal by medical community. I wouldn't wish this on my enemies. Prayers to everyone going through this.

I have lived with this for 28 years now...first it just attacked my joints, but later on my brain...I am to be considered invalid and keeping up with my hygiene is enough for me. I was also a very active person before, I was working as a constructor and member of a MC Club. There is absolutely no reason me or any of these persons would just decide to lay in bed the rest of our lives!