Lyme disease and Multi-Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome (MSIDS): Answers for chronic fatiguing/musculoskeletal illness
Richard Horowitz, MD
Format: Video of Slides

The talk will discuss the clinical presentation of Lyme Disease and associated co-infections, and how to make a clinical and laboratory diagnosis. Extensive scientific references discussing diagnosis and treatment will be presented on different tick borne infections causing fatigue and musculoskeletal pain syndromes including bacterial infections such as Lyme disease, Ehrlichiosis, Anaplasmosis, Bartonella, Mycoplasma, Chlamydia, RMSF, Typhus, Tularemia, Q-Fever, Brucellosis, Tick paralysis, STARI, B. miyamotoi and other new borrelia species. There will also be discussions on tick-borne parasitic diseases such as Babesiosis and other piroplasms, and the expanding number of new viral infections being found in ticks, including the Heartland virus, Powassan encephalitis and other viral encephalopathies. Classical medical treatments will be discussed for each infection, including side effects, drug interactions, and laboratory follow-up.

Integrative approaches to Lyme and associated co-infections, and how to use the 16-point MSIDS map developed by Dr. Horowitz will be discussed in detail. MSIDS is a comprehensive approach to the chronically fatigued patient with musculoskeletal symptoms who suffers from a multisystemic illness. The session will include detailed discussions of a functional medicine approach to bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal/candida infections including treatments with natural herbal regimens. It will also discuss the role of immune dysfunction, inflammation, toxicity, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Environmental Illness (E.I.), heavy metals, mold, and neurotoxins, food and environmental allergies, nutritional and enzyme deficiencies with functional medicine abnormalities in biochemical pathways, mitochondrial dysfunction, psychological disorders, neurological dysfunction, endocrine disorders, sleep disorders, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, G.I. disorders and deconditioning as overlapping factors keeping patients ill.

The different musculoskeletal and neurological pain syndromes that present in Lyme Disease will be also be discussed in detail, as well as the biochemical and biological basis for the pain. This will particularly entail a discussion on cytokines and their role in Jarish-Herxheimer reactions, how sleep deprivation and environmental toxins such as heavy metals may play a role in increasing pain, and different approaches to modulating the immune system hyper reactivity seen in these chronically ill patients. Both classical treatment methods and integrative protocols including herbs, nutrition, diet, homeopathy, supplements and detoxification will be discussed as methods to modulate pain and fatigue.