Thursday, January 11, 2007

Lyme Disease & Fibromyalgia - Part 3 (final)

It could be that previous studies attempting to discover the true cause of fibromyalgia or studies attempting to correlate fibromyalgia with Lyme disease simply used the accepted tests which have now been proven to be less than effective in discovering the spirochetes responsible for Lyme disease. Despite this, one such study discovered that over 20 percent of fibromyalgia patients in this particular study tested positive for Lyme disease. This statistic makes me wonder what the percentage of Lyme disease positive patients would have been if a more sensitive or accurate testing procedure had been used.

Lyme Disease & Fibromyalgia - Part 2

Dr. Joanne Whitaker has developed what appears to be the most reliable test ever for Lyme disease. Her lab actually tests for the presence of the bug itself, not just the antibodies. Her methods also detect the cell wall deficient (CWD) form. Her test is called Q-RIBb for quantitative rapid identification of Bb (the abbreviation of Lyme disease's scientific name). The test simply uses an antibody to Lyme derived from animals which is then modified to carry a fluorescent molecule, easy to see under the microscope. The antibodies will attach to both the spirochete form and the CWD form and, under the right color, will light up under a microscope. With this test, Dr. Whitaker not only can detect Lyme directly, but she can do it in only 20 minutes and she can tell you how bad the infection is by the number of bugs present.
Dr. Whitaker's lab can be reached on the internet at www.bowen.org or at 727-937-9077.