I\u2019m warning you in advance. You\u2019re entering a minefield here, with explosive views among seemingly conservative health care professionals. At least wear a helmet. Protective eyewear wouldn\u2019t hurt either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You wouldn\u2019t think a slew of conditions you\u2019ve heard about (including chronic Lyme disease<\/a>, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic Epstein-Barr, toxic mold syndrome, food sensitivities, intestinal dysbiosis, chronic inflammatory response syndrome, and mast cell activation syndrome) would, at one time or another, be the topics of very uncivilized debates among professionals, with threats of lawsuits, reports to the \u201cauthorities,\u201d and even suggestions that medical licenses be revoked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All for the alleged crime of making a diagnosis or initiating treatment. Believe me, this is all true, though fortunately it happened to me just once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Years ago, when I was opening what would become WholeHealth Chicago, the chief of medicine at the hospital where I\u2019d been an attending physician (both the chief and the hospital long deceased) warned me that if I were going to become \u201cone of those candida quacks,\u201d he\u2019d work to cancel my admitting privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Worth noting, by the way, that I actually did become \u201cone of those candida quacks\u201d and have certainly treated a lot of patients over the past 25 years with candida overgrowth syndrome (now far more accepted as a valid diagnosis).<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was yesterday Here in the Midwest, where everyone acknowledges there are lots of ticks and lots of Lyme disease, the chronic Lyme specialists are not so much threatened as ignored. Worth noting that if you call Mayo Clinic and ask for an appointment to treat chronic Lyme, they\u2019ll tell you they don\u2019t treat it (same goes for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome).<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did this conflict come about? It\u2019s actually an interesting story, to me, at least, though you may think otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To my mind, the problem is that conventional medical education in both the US and Canada is simply stuck in about 1955 and, with the exception of a few new surgical techniques and some interesting new medications, has remained there, mired in tradition. If statistics show we\u2019re healthier, it\u2019s mainly because we\u2019re taking steps to be healthy by eating better, exercising, and not smoking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tradition I\u2019m referring to is how doctors actually think<\/em> when confronted with a patient who has a plethora of symptoms and wants nothing more than to feel better. The way physicians interview patients and these doctors\u2019 thought processes and note taking has pretty much stayed unchanged for almost 75 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How your doctor is trained Once she\u2019s got one or more positive test results she can initiate a cure, or at least begin treatment based on evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But let\u2019s return to the litany of questions. There are virtually none that address topics such as \u201cSo what\u2019s been happening in your life?\u201d or \u201cWhat else have you been noticing, no matter how trivial?\u201d No questions that address how well you think your body has been functioning. Remember that word functioning. It\u2019s key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, if your diagnostic tests return negative results then woe! In your doctor\u2019s mind, you have no disease except an emotional one. (\u201cYou must be depressed. Let me refer you for therapy. Here\u2019s an antidepressant.\u201d) You\u2019re supposed to be reassured by the idea that there\u2019s nothing wrong with you and that nothing can be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so you move on, from one doctor to the next and then the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s medical thinking, circa mid-20th century. The same questions, the same tests. I recently had a patient who\u2019d been ill for several years, had seen at least ten doctors, and literally had the same normal blood tests endlessly repeated. She would tell the doctors \u201cI don\u2019t need another blood count.\u201d Leafing out her test results she\u2019d say, \u201cSee I\u2019ve had 20!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then, for far too many patients, it goes from bad to worse \u201cWhat gives?\u201d she says to herself. \u201cI can\u2019t have them all, can I?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She tries to discuss this with her family doctor but is dismissed out of hand. \u201cYou\u2019ve been reading online about the latest fad diagnosis. There\u2019s no such thing as ——-” (insert candida, chronic Lyme, Epstein-Barr, etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n She finds someone–an MD, osteopath, chiropractor, naturopath, anybody–willing work with her and, lo, the tests for Lyme are positive. But wait. So are the tests for mold, for Epstein Barr, and for food sensitivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now she wonders, \u201cCould I possibly have them all?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She starts treatment: antibiotics for Lyme, antifungal for candida, antivirals for the Epstein-Barr virus, anti-parasite meds for parasites, and probiotics for intestinal dysbiosis and she thinks she\u2019s feeling better for a while, but then her symptoms start returning and she gets really depressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs this my life?\u201d she wonders. \u201cKnocking down illness after illness like the whack-a-mole game at carnivals?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s going on here? In a sentence: somewhere our patient\u2019s body is not functioning properly and because of this dysfunction she\u2019s susceptible to a variety of illnesses that normally she\u2019d be able to render inactive and harmless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These illnesses, recently dubbed \u201cstealth organisms,\u201d had likely been acquired years earlier (the average age of acquiring Lyme disease is 11, herpes-varicella-HHV-6<\/a> and Epstein-Barr are acquired in childhood and adolescence), but had been held in check until her poorly functioning body lost control and the organism woke up and started causing trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can paying attention to how the body is functioning actually cure these conditions? Well, cure is a big word, but certainly a properly functioning body can return these infections to their dormant state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a quick example, when we see someone with chronic Lyme disease we\u2019ll often prescribe antibiotics initially to reduce the population of Borrelia<\/a>, followed by tests to ensure all systems are functioning properly so the organism remains dormant. With stealth organisms, flare-ups can occur but they\u2019re usually easy to treat with herbs, homeopathy, or ozone therapy rather than multiple rounds of antibiotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>But today, in some states (Illinois not among them) doctors treating chronic Lyme are facing unpleasant pressure. At the Lyme disease meeting held last month in Chicago there was a well-attended session entitled \u201cProtecting Your Lyme Practice.\u201d The session was chock full of advice on strategies for how you could continue to diagnose and treat chronic Lyme patients without having to deal with self-styled authority figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Your doctor is trained to look for disease. To do so, she first asks a litany of questions that all medical students can recite in their sleep. Then she looks for evidence of that disease via tests, imaging studies, biopsies, and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Out of desperation, our patient goes online and encounters one or more of the controversial conditions listed above. Yes, the symptoms are vague (tired, achy, poor concentration), but she thinks to herself that one of them could be a possibility. Unfortunately, though, the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome are very similar to those of chronic Lyme, toxic mold, Epstein-Barr, etc., etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>The answer comes from a relatively new specialty called functional medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n