Under Our Skin

Perhaps the most difficult part about covering the issue of Lyme disease is the diverse symptomatology that it causes from patient to patient. Under Our Skin does an amazing job spotlighting patients across the spectrum - from patients who do not visually appear to be ill to the unknown observer, to the severely handicapped. This film is an outstanding step towards educating the country on the true effects of this horrendous epidemic!!! As the mother of one of the more severely handicapped patients, I know all too well the devastation that this disease causes. I also know the ins and outs of the controversy surrounding the two-sided treatment options. Although I have been fortunate to not be faced with the financial burdens that many patients are confronted with, I was threatened with insurance denial and thus can feel their pain. It is a crime that people so ill should have to fight to get the treatment that as human beings they so fully deserve!!!

What is apparently happening according to this mostly convincing documentary is that

(1) some people get a chronic form of Lyme disease and, (2) the insurance companies don't want to pay for the long-term treatment required, and (3) their method for avoiding the costs is to deny the disease exists. (4) Additionally, the sufferers are accused of faking it or having it all in their heads.

Furthermore, doctors who treat (and apparently cure) patients with chronic Lyme disease are threatened with losing their medical licenses because the medical establishment believes that the long- term use of intravenous antibiotics (as seen in this film) is harmful.

If all of this is true then this is a national disgrace of a criminal nature.

However, according to the article in Wikipedia, "Chronic Lyme disease is a generally unrecognised diagnosis that encompasses 'a broad array of illnesses or symptom complexes for which there is no reproducible or convincing scientific evidence of any relationship to B. burgdorferi infection.'" One of the citations that Wikipedia gives is an article in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The documentary shows several persons who were bitten by a tick or ticks and contracted Lyme disease but continued to have horrendous symptoms months or years after they should have been cured. Then these same persons are treated with intravenous antibiotics over months or years and then become free of symptoms.

At issue here is did the antibiotics cure them? And if so, what was it that was cured?

My belief is twofold (1) that the infectious agent Borrelia burgdorferi disrupted or compromised the immune system of these people so badly that it took months or years for their bodies to recover, and (2) the infectious agent was able to hide from the immune system in biofilms within the body for months or years. Consequently, in the first case, the antibiotics did not cure them. The passage of time and perhaps love and good life style choices did. In the second case gradually the antibiotics may have cured the disease. In other cases the immune system may be keeping the bacteria at bay.

By the way, the disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi is only one of many similar diseases caused by tick bites throughout the world. Consequently, when doctors are not able to find the Lyme disease agent in a chronically sick person it may be the case they are looking for the wrong bug.

I invite the reader to see the recent Australian documentary "Our Battle Ongoing: Lyme Disease in Australia" (2017) for more information. There is also an "Under Our Skin 2: Emergence" 2015 that brings the viewer more up to date. Interested people should also read relevant literature on the Web and reach your own conclusions.

As far as this documentary goes, it is very well done, nicely edited, clearly presented and seemingly fair, but alarming. Perhaps a subject like chronic Lyme disease IS alarming and should be treated as such.

I hope that this documentary will encourage more research so that we can understand what happens to the relatively few people who get "chronic Lyme disease" and find a cure that spares them months and years of pain and suffering.

--Dennis Littrell, author of "The World Is Not as We Think It Is"

You, know------ one that sends a sick person to doctor after doctor where they're either not treated or they're treated with arrogance and disdain.

Not everyone who fits the above description will have Lyme disease or one of the other tick borne illnesses. But SO MANY DO------ THAT IT BEHOOVES THEM TO CHECK IT OUT.

For that, you'll need to contact a local Lyme support group who can suggest the labs and the doctors who really know these diseases! It's an epidemic. And it's being swept under the rug by the medical establishment.

This is a disease that's been 'disappeared'. Please see Under Our Skin. Please think about it long and hard.

This film is not only superior in quality and professionalism, it is probably the most important health documentary in the world today. It uncovers a pandemic that affects millions of people in every state in the U.S. and every continent in the world. It exposes the politics and greed that lead to massive ignorance in the medical community and keeps millions of people sick. It is the eye opener that has paved the way for thousands to get the help they desperately need and has opened the door of baby steps toward badly needed reform. It takes a long and hard look at a disease that affects millions who are misdiagnosed with more than 300 other diseases and conditions, it is amazing to see the time, information, creativity, and comprehensive overview that is covered in the film.

How many people have symptoms that have no easy diagnosis? How many family members suffer untold agony, lose their jobs and social standing, just because of a bite from an insect? Many more than the medical community would have us know.

Under Our Skin gives us some insight about the devastation of Lyme Disease, by following the lives of a few Lyme Disease sufferers.

As a woman who is recovering from Lyme Disease, I KNOW these people, empathize with them, share some of their stories.

Under Our Skin gives the viewer insights that may help give them an "AHA!" moment, which could help themselves or a loved one to find a diagnosis and treatment.