Like Watching A Dog Chase Its Tail...

Okay, okay... so in my last post, I may have been just a little bit harsh towards the doctors who prescribe synthetically made anti-inflammatory steroids to Lyme patients (and for good reason!)... BUT, in order to level out the playing field a bit, let's take a look at how your own body's natural hormonal steroid may be contributing to the exacerbation of your infection...

Cortisol is a hormonal steroid produced by your adrenal glands (Note: this is not its only function.) Although this hormone, produced at normal levels, is essential to the body to maintain homeostasis, if it starts to go into "over-drive" and secrete abnormally high amounts over lengthy periods of time, it will suppress the immune-system and thus allow your Lyme infection to spread. 

When do these levels go into over-drive? - Well, in a person who has no other health maladies regarding adrenal function...it happens when you are experiencing high amounts of stress or anxiety.

Now, everybody knows of the infamous "fight-or flight" response. It is literally a life-saving mechanism that been hard-wired into the brain, and managed by the hypothalamus since the very evolution of man. Let's take a look at what is actually happening to your body when this response triggers, so that we can understand its purpose, and also understand why this is a BAD thing for Lyme patients.  

If you go back to prehistoric times, humans often found themselves in situations where their survival was, quite often, in serious peril (aka: Holy Shit - I'm being chased by a HUGE, carnivorous, MONSTER of an animal, who would absolutely like nothing more than to DEVOUR and have me for dinner!!!).

Back then, when those situations occurred, your body was VERY good to you. It noticed your distress and immediately started initiating a sequence of nerve-cell firings that directly sent signals to the adrenal glands, shouting at them to secrete large amounts of chemical agents such as cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine directly into the bloodstream. 

Lol - the minute those chemicals reach your blood...BAM!! - You now can congratulate yourself on suddenly having "Super-Human" qualities...How?? - here's the list: 

• Your heart starts pounding to allow circulation to increase and get more energy to your muscles, enabling you to run or fight faster and harder than ever before. 
• An anatomical part of your eyes will literally contract and suddenly you become far-sighted, allowing you to visually see further away so that you can plan your route of escape more efficiently. 
• Endorphins are released and your perception of pain diminishes, so that if you ARE attacked, you will not be phased by it and will be able to continue fighting.
• Your impulses and decision making skills become lightning quick.
• ALL of your five senses become heightened and amplified to help you become acutely aware of your surroundings. 
• And finally, the "adrenaline rush" will make you stronger than ever before, so that if you do intend on "fighting" instead of "flighting"... at least your body gave you one HELL of shot!

So...in other words, having this amazing response embedded into our system was rather awesome back then. But even though times have changed drastically since those days, the hard-wiring in our brains for this response have not, and because of this, we often experience what we now refer to as "anxiety" and "panic attacks".


Often, and quite logically, Lyme patients have SEVERE anxiety and/or panic attack issues. My god, why wouldn't they?? - their central nervous system is literally being attacked by foreign invaders!! It's really not that big of a stretch to imagine that the body would consider that to be a rather HUGE threat...and what do we already know about what happens to the body when it feels "threatened"?? You guessed it! It tries to protect you by getting that damn flight or fight response going. So we have ourselves being tag-teamed in way...our anxiety stems from both our inner panic and alarm caused by the Lyme itself, AND the outer stress of what it "means" to HAVE Lyme in such a controversial and obscenely expensive climate...(Lucky Us!).

Now, from where I'm standing...I can't help but find this to be both entirely ironic and VERY amusing...

In our case, the very thing that was originally hard-wired into our systems to help SAVE us, has now become (Gasp!) our worst enemy. Why? - because those natural steroids and other "superhuman" chemicals that are constantly being released into our bodies as our infection progresses, weakens our immune system, and is now actually causing the disease to PROGRESS more...which, in turn, causes MORE chemicals, and MORE immune suppression, and on, and on, and on...Sigh...and THIS is why I liken the whole thing to "watching a damn dog chase its own tail"...It gets nowhere, never accomplishes what it meant to do, and in the process - exhausts itself.

However, before you start getting all upset about this (Sob - HOW could my body betray me like that!!!), please, be happy in knowing that this is ONE aspect of Lyme you CAN do something about! Talk to your doctor and figure out what will work best for YOU on controlling your anxiety while you are sick. Lol - please, just DO it!!


Sarah

Additional Note: Here's something you might not know about anxiety that may be of interest: 

While the mind is capable of acknowledging time in a linear fashion - as either the past, present or future, the body is NOT. It ONLY knows and comprehends the present. This is so important to understand, because if you're worrying about something that may happen in the future, or stressing over something that happened in the past, your body will take that thought, and literally interpret it as something that is happening RIGHT NOW; thus you unknowing just triggered your flight-or-flight response (to varying degrees), and now are wondering why on earth you feel anxious... 

If you don't have Lyme and are experiencing anxiety or panic attacks, but are a little leery about taking SSRI's for it, or anti-anxiety drugs, I would highly recommend (only because it helped me so much at one time in my life) purchasing the "anxiety and depression" program from The Midwest Center For Attacking Anxiety. If you're interested in checking it out, go to: www.midwestcenter.com and see for yourself. Hint: Buy the program on e-bay if you can...so much cheaper! All my best : )

Not Your Typical "Roid Rage"...

If you were to gather 100 Lymie Veterans and ask them, "What is the Number One rule regarding Lyme Disease and anti-inflammation medications?", here's what would happen:


At first you might hear some regretful sighs, angered mumblings, and painful groans, but then, once those memories have passed, they would all say aloud - in complete unison and perfect harmony (tap, tap, tap),


"Never, ever, ever (EVER!) allow your doctor to prescribe anti-inflammatory steroids!!"     



Unfortunately, I had to learn this very important fact the hard way...
You see, back in 2002, when I was initially searching for an answer as to why the joints along my spine had suddenly become the source of an extremely painful and debilitating experience, I had first thought to go see an orthopedic physician about it; logically assuming that something had "structurally" gone wrong in that area after having fallen in volleyball practice.


Although, all the MRI's, X-Rays, and tests showed no abnormal results, the doctor I saw knew that "for some reason" , I was in agony, and referred me to the office's Pain Management Specialist. 


So, for the next several days, I would visit him about three times a week and receive cortisone injections along the areas of my back and neck that were inflamed. 
That, however, only seemed to make my pain worsen and my symptoms progress to other areas of my body, so I rather quickly decided to stop with the injections. 


Because of this sudden progression, I then decided to see another doctor for a "second opinion", but ended up with the same answer...nothing "looked" wrong. The only difference with this guy was that he had the courtesy to ask me about my past medical history in detail.
As he was asking me questions about various medical conditions I had in the past, checking off no, no, no, one at a time, I'll never forget how he literally seemed to freeze for a split second and raise his head up at me with a VERY concerned look on his face when I happened to answer "Yes" to Lyme Disease. He then cocked his head to one side, asked if I had been treated, and when I said yes to that too, he relaxed a bit and kept on going down the list. So...no luck there.


I then went back to the original Orthopedic I had seen, and practically holding back tears, told him that I was getting worse and didn't have a CLUE what do to about it. The only response he had to say to that was, "Don't let a back problem (Wait - WHAT back problem?? You haven't even given me a diagnosis yet!!) become a head problem", and proceeded to prescribe me a weeks' worth of prednisone tablets. (Sure, let's go systemic...why not??)


I remember the first day I took those pills VERY clearly...I had decided to visit my sister for the night at Fairfield University, and although I had driven that same route to her school about twenty times prior to that day, I began to slowly feel an odd infectious-type pain start to creep down my spine, around my head, and suddenly, I had absolutely NO IDEA where I was...I become so disorientated while driving, that I actually had to call my sister to verbally get directions to her school.


As you can imagine, when I finally got there, she was very alarmed about the whole situation and forcefully took me to the ER the moment I arrived. We waited over two hours for some doctor to come in for two seconds and tell me that the prednisone pill I had taken had caused a "psychotic episode", and that I'd be fine as long as I stopped taking them. I tried desperately to tell him that this felt like an INFECTION, but he just waved the notion aside, and left to see his next patient.


Now, I know you're probably thinking, "Yes, but how does this story relate to Lyme Disease??" Well, I'd be happy to explain:


Inflammation is actually a result of your body's natural immune-response attempting to help "clean-up" or repair an injury you may have sustained, or to help fight off foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses that may have "infected" certain areas of the body. This is normally, although uncomfortable, a GOOD thing. Sometimes, however, doctors seem to think (and this may very well be true) that your immune-response is "overly doing it" and creating much more inflammation and pain then necessary. This is one reason why they would prescribe you an inflammation reducing steroid. (Another reason would be because of an auto-immune illness, which I'll get to in another post...)


Now, when you're prescribed a corticosteroid, its sole purpose and action is to prohibit your immune-response from activating and thus you experience less inflammation and...less pain. However, if the reason you are experiencing this is because you have an active foreign bacterial infection, what you really just did is completely remove the only line of defense within you that could help fight it (imagine that...). Thus, people who unknowingly have Lyme Disease and are taking steroids to reduce inflammation and pain in their joints are really just allowing the bacteria to spread more quickly, and also enabling the infection, along with your symptoms, to get WORSE.


The reason why seasoned lyme patients become SO enraged over this is actually very simple - they feel that their doctors unknowingly prescribed medications to them that not only made their condition worse, but also (if the steroids were taken over a long period of time) further damaged their already weakened immune systems and now, because of that, their overall prognosis sharply declines and THEY (not those doctors who were only following their specific protocols, and thus take no blame in the matter) are the only ones who suffer the retributions from it... Now, isn't that something to be just a little "ticked-off" about??


Well, I can't help but think so, and from my experience with doctors and the effects the drugs they've prescribed had on me in the past, the only thing for me to feel about the whole matter is perfectly summed up in a favorite quote of mine by Voltaire:

"Doctors prescribe medications of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human being of whom they know nothing."

Sarah