Topic: Medical Care
The Great Imitators are those pesky diseases which have symptoms in common with other conditions. This makes the job of determining the proper diagnosis a bit more tricky in some cases. The Great Imitator label was originally applied to Syphilis, but now equally fits and applies to other diseases as well including Lyme Disease, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, MS, CFS/CFIDS/ME, AIDS and various others. The great imitators are often bacterial or viral in origin. Some of these conditions are better understood than others, and the medical research continues....
Some interesting information about the great imitators which will be explored in this series includes:
People with Lyme Disease and Lupus can test false positive for Syphilis
Some of these great imitator illnesses have similar effects on the heart
Patients with Lyme can develop brain lesions and myelin damage just like patients with Multiple Sclerosis
MS may very well be a spirochete bacterial infection-caused disease
Patients with Lupus appear less likely to get HIV/AIDS
Patients with CFIDS/ME develop defective red blood cells
Patients who have CFIDS/ME or chronic Epstein Barr are at a higher risk for developing lymphoma. And interestingly, sometimes lymphoma is misdiagnosed as Fibromyalgia
The Lymerix Lyme vaccine was pulled from the market following a class action lawsuit by injured patients, because people who have the gene HLA-DR4 can develop permanent and debilitating autoimmune illnesses after receiving the vaccinations
There are links between the Lyme Borrelia bacteria and some cases of ALS, Autism and Alzheimer's Disease
Some patients with Lupus are diagnosed with Fibromyalgia as a co-condition.
