Hi, Everyone,

I saw an article in New Scientist a few weeks ago called “Chronic Lyme disease may be a misdiagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome.”

Here are the first two paragraphs:

“Most people who think they have a long-lasting form of Lyme disease, triggered by a tick bite, may really have chronic fatigue syndrome, a panel of UK infectious disease experts said today.

Some people who mistakenly believe they have Lyme disease are endangering their health by taking long courses of antibiotics, leading to other infections such as sepsis, the doctors warned.”

The timing is ironic, given that just two days later, a study was published in the journal Antibiotics called “The Long-Term Persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi Antigens and DNA in the Tissues of a Patient with Lyme Disease.”

Researchers performed an autopsy on a 53-year-old woman from New York who had suffered from Lyme disease for 16 years and had taken multiple courses of antibiotics during that period. 

They examined tissues in her brain, heart, kidney, and liver, and found Borrelia burgdorferi—the organism that causes Lyme disease—in all of these organs. 

They also found clear evidence of Borrelia biofilms, which is significant because biofilms are known to be antibiotic-resistant. And they detected significant numbers of infiltrating lymphocytes present next to the biofilms, which indicates that Borrelia was causing chronic inflammation. 

Most health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, and apparently, this infectious disease panel in the United Kingdom, have insisted for years that “chronic Lyme” is a mythical condition. 

The idea has been that if you get Lyme disease and receive proper antibiotic treatment, there’s almost no chance that the infection could persist. 

Yet numerous studies over the past several years have documented persistence of Borrelia in animals (including primates), and also several papers have indicated that Borrelia spirochetes can metamorphose into other forms like biofilm.

In fact, even the CDC had a special webinar back in 2014 where they acknowledged that persistence of Borrelia might be more common than previously believed, and that further study is warranted. 

So, why are patients still being told that chronic Lyme disease doesn’t exist?

Imagine if this 53-year-old woman who was the subject of this new autopsy study had consulted the panel of infectious disease experts in the United Kingdom.

She would have been told that she had chronic fatigue syndrome, not a persistent chronic infection with a dangerous pathogen. 

They would have told her that she was foolish for continuing to take antibiotics. They may have even submitted a complaint to the Medical Board about the doctor who was prescribing them.

Yet this study clearly and unequivocally demonstrated that she had a serious Borrelia infection that had spread to her brain, heart, kidney, and liver (and likely other tissues not included in the autopsy) that was causing chronic inflammation.

Unfortunately, this kind of misdiagnosis happens every day, all around the world.

And both patients and the doctors that are current with the research and doing their best to help people suffering from Lyme disease are affected. 

My hope is that this new study, along with others like it, will finally turn the tide and force conventional medical authorities to recognize the existence of chronic Lyme disease—and more important, dedicate the resources needed to develop better options for diagnosis and treatment.

In health,
Chris 

P.S. Tune in next week, November 19th at 11 a.m. PT, as I head back to The Joe Rogan Experience to debunk the new film, The Game Changers. Don’t worry if you can’t watch the full event live; we’ll send a recording of the show.