Lyme Disease: Medical Myopia & the Hidden Global Pandemic
A Patient's Guide to Navigating the Labyrinth of Diagnosis and Treatment
What if, at this very moment, hundreds of thousands of people were unaware that they were living in midst of an epidemic so large that it dwarfs the AIDS epidemic by sheer numbers in North America?
What if this epidemic cut across all populations: women and men, children and adults, the infirm and the fit, the very poor and the very rich?
And what if many of our best doctors in cities like New York, London, Paris, Dublin, Sydney and San Francisco were unaware of this very same problem?
This epidemic is upon us. It lurks in the most seductive of locations outside our cities - sought after vacation places frequented by urban dwellers. These are the favorite getaway spots for the often millions of people who work in our city centers, many of whom are unaware that they are at risk of infection from this insidious microbe.
The epidemic in question is a tick-borne disease, namely the spirochete bacterium Borrelia burdorferi, or Lyme disease, as it is more commonly known. Along with a number of other co-infection pathogens, including deadly viruses, this bacterium has become the scourge of the Northern Hemisphere and is now spreading into Asia and even Australia.
In this book, Dr. Bernard Raxlen attempts to answer many of those questions through the perspectives of patients and physicians from around the world, exploring the reasons for the medical myopia that blocks accurate diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne disease. He draws on his thirty years in the field and more than forty thousand clinical hours listening to and treating TBD patients and also invites other expert physicians in TBD from around the world to share their experiences and expertise. His recovered former patient, co-collaborator and Lyme advocate, Allie Cashel, author of Suffering the Silence: Chronic Lyme Disease in an Age of Denial, contributes a section of the book, illuminating life after TBD and the difficulties encountered in the post-Lyme world.
Also includes contributions from international authorities Dr. Laura Alonso Canal (Spain), Dr. Jennifer Armstrong (Canada), Michael Cook (UK), Doug Fearn (US), Dr. John Lambert (Ireland), Jenna Luché-Thayer (United Nations), Dr. Mualla McManus (Australia), Zhaneta Misho (Germany), Dr. Omar Morales (Mexico), Dr. Christian Perrone (France), Dr. Armin Schwarzbach (Germany), and Dr. Leo Shea (US); with illustrations by Rolo Ledesma.
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Dr Bernard Raxlen MD specializes in neuropsychiatry and neurocognitive complications. Over the past 30 years, he has successfully treated over 6500 cases of tick-borne disease, and today over 90% of his practice is devoted to chronic Lyme disease (CLD) and co-infections. He was an original member and co-founder of AIMS (Academy for Integrated Medical Studies) and served for several years on the Board of Directors of the Omega Institute. He is founding member and secretary of the board of governors of ILADS (the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society) and also is serving as the chairman of its Ethics Committee. He was awarded the Humanitarian Award by the Turn the Corner Foundation, and has been a featured speaker in more than 40 workshops over the years on topics ranging from psychiatry, drug abuse, psychoneuroimmunology and tick-borne diseases. He has appeared on national television (ABC, NBC, Fox) discussing medical concerns pertaining to TBD and on Discovery Life Channel's "Mystery Diagnosis" discussing Lyme disease.
Allie Cashel is the author of Suffering the Silence: Chronic Lyme disease in an Age of Denial (North Atlantic Books) and is the co-founder and president of The Suffering the Silence Community, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking the stigma surrounding chronic illness and disability. Since starting work with STS, Allie has been invited to facilitate workshops and to speak about disability, inclusion, and storytelling at events around the country. She has appeared in a number of global media outlets, including Good Day NY (Fox5) and NowThis Live News, and has presented her work at a United States Congressional Forum.
Alongside her advocacy work in the illness and disability community, Allie works as a marketing and content development consultant for nonprofit and mission driven companies in the United States and Europe. Highlights from her current consulting work include managing the 2018 Our World is Kind Photography contest with Envision Kindness, empowering youth activism with The Service Learning Project, and bringing community voices into the marketing strategy and brand development at the social impact startup, Mighty Well.
Harnessing the power of storytelling, she gives voice to individuals and organizations working to create positive change in the world. Allie graduated from Bard College in 2013 with a BA in Written Arts and lives in Burlington, VT.
