Lyme Handbook

In 1961, Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments to study how people (the teachers or volunteers) would react to being instructed to  apply increasingly painful electric shocks to a subject (the learners, and in this case actors) if instructed to do so by an authoritarian figure.  In a nutshell, the learner was given pairs of words to remember.  The words were then presented back to the learner and the learner was asked to provide the corresponding word pair.  If a wrong answer was provided, the Learner would receive a shock.  The shocks would increase for each subsequent wrong answer.

The experiment studied whether average people have a propensity to bypass morality and civility, in this case refusing to harm another individual when instructed to do so by an authoritarian figure, much like the Nazis during W WII (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr5cjyokVUs ) The experiment’s results horrified the public.

I present this to you because there appears to be a SLIGHT parallel between these experiments and many countries’ medical systems when it comes to Lyme disease.  I realize that many people enjoy a good scandal, BUT IN KNOW WAY AM I INSINUATING THAT ANY MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL IS A NAZI.   I am merely saying that many medical professionals have a propensity to rationalize away what may appear to be a viable diagnosis and treatment to many common ailments solely because higher authorities dictate them to do so.  This is true even though a copious number of studies support Lyme disease as being prevalent and a likely prognosis to many ailments.  Those doctors dismissing Lyme disease sometimes results in their patients’ health decaying to a tortuous state and/or even death.

It’s unconscionable to think that doctors can watch their patients develop migraines, fibromyalgia, spasms, convulsions, dementia, etc. and still preach that three weeks of doxycycline is more than sufficient to rid the patient of the disease, or that antibiotics are bad for you and worse than chronic Lyme disease just because they were mandated to follow IDSA guidelines.  Additionally, the thought of treating patients for non-curable neurological diseases like Parkinson’s ALS, MS, etc. without exploring the possibility of it being induced by Lyme seems ludicrous.

Of course, there are a number of outliers in the medical community who are  heroes willing to put the patient’s needs ahead of themselves.  These  Lyme literate doctors who are willing to challenge authority, IDSA guidelines, risk their careers and do what is morally right for their patients  can’t be thanked enough.  And they themselves should be personally proud to know that they would not have made good experimental subjects for Stanley Milgram.

All the best,

Rob

~ by Rob on January 30, 2014.

Posted in Commentary, IDSA, Lyme, MS
Tags: Commentary, Doctors, IDSA, Lyme, Lyme Disease