Health care experts are not trying to ignore anything to do with lyme disease. It is just that most doctors do not find it ethical (outside of a clinical trial anyways) to treat people without proof of benefit. Sadly internet anecdotes are not proof of benefit. Read this.
MMS: Error NEJM 2007 A Critical Appraisal of “Chronic Lyme Disease”
Admittedly the problem is more complex than the article addresses. Supposedly these lyme studies show that roughly 40% of people get better with treatment, and 40% get better with placebo (fake treatment). That means the drug used has no measurable effect. It does not tell us, however, how many people would get better if their doctor told them just to go home and live with it. Maybe 40%, but quite possibly way less. The fact that someone cares about your problem and takes time to help you with it, and the fact that you gain hope and belief that the treatment will work may be more important for getting better than the actual drug itself. Very definitely there are instances were the
treatment itself rather than the drug is what helps. Here is where the ethics of medicine get sketchy.
Is it ethical to give some one a drug (with its associated risks) you know doesn't work when doing so might help them get better via placebo effect? Is it ethical to pretend the drug may work even when you know it doesn't so the patient can benefit from the placebo effect? Is it ethical to get paid well while doing so? Apparently some doctors and many patients decide yes. For those who respond all is well. For those who don't, who is to say until they are in that situation themselves?
Threaded Mode