Finding a Good Lyme Doc

The Issues Over Including Referrals

The issues over whether or not to publish the names of good (and I emphasize the term “good”) doctors, is a little bit emotionally charged. As many know, there is tension within the medical community over the issue of lyme disease. There are some who firmly state there there is no such thing as lyme that exists beyond 4-6 weeks treatment. Anything beyond this, they say, indicates a patient who must then be a hypochondriac. These have furthermore succeeded in having their viewpoints published in the prestigious medical journals (New England Journal of Medicine, etc.), adding credibility to their viewpoint. And, tragically, not only credibility, but now an increasing body of uninformed doctors who, upon assuming that this viewpoint is correct, then themselves become champions of it. The blind leading the blind.

On the other hand, there are a number of doctors who have seen from personal experience in their practices that this is simply, totally untrue — that lyme does exist in the long term, or chronic state. And that it needs to be treated as such; usually with long term antibiotics. These people believe that lyme is no light-weight disease: it is often hard to find a definitive diagnosis or correct treatment, and that it absolutely is a tenacious infection.

And herein lies the rub.

The group who believe that lyme as a major infection doesn’t really exist, have staked their reputations on their viewpoints, and are therefore automatically threatened by the growing existence of doctors who recognize long term. For this reason, many “good” doctors have found themselves under unexpected attack where they need to suddenly defend their medical licenses (generally from the false charge of “over prescribing”. Some have incurred extraordinary legal fees in the defense, and at least one lost his license over it. (See The Story of Dr. Bleiweiss for one early example.)

For this reason, anyone who have found the “buried treasure” of a good lyme doc, is highly reluctant to expose him or her to the scrutiny of vicious attack. You will find that lyme patients will share — and be happy to share — the names of their doctors from their area, they will frequently just not do it with an open Internet posting. Generally you will find that these recommendations will come by return email (or similar contact).