Vermont Articles: BACK
Lyme disease is an uphill battle
Andrew McKeever, Manchester JournalBennington Banner
Bennington, VT
August 7, 2006
SUNDERLAND - Lyme disease is often a baffling, hard-to-diagnose illness, but there was nothing unclear about Joseph Moody's performance at Saturday's "Gear Up for Lyme" uphill bike race at Mount Equinox.
Moody, of Watertown, Mass., set a new course record for event, now in its third year, traveling the 5.4 miles from the mountain's base to its summit in 38 minutes, 37 seconds, eclipsing last year's mark by a full 6 seconds.
Moody, who is part of an elite amateur riding team that includes two members from Burlington, said it was his first crack at Equinox, and the trick was to know what bike gears to use, he said.
"If you use regular road gears, you couldn't spin fast enough," he said after the race. "It's that, and pacing yourself."
Moody said his team uses the race to train for the Mount Washington bicycle hill climb event in New Hampshire that comes in two weeks. But they, along with the other 150 riders who made up the field, were also there to raise money and the public profile of Lyme disease.
Often difficult for doctors to diagnose, because its symptoms often mimic other illnesses, the disease is usually spread by deer ticks, although other types of ticks also carry the disease, which originates in field mice and other rodents.
Successful event
More than $35,000 was raised during the event, which will be evenly split between the Lyme Disease Association, a nonprofit organization that supports research about the disease, and the charities supported by the Manchester Rotary Club, which hosted the event, said Andy Holzman, the event's main organizer.
Bob Allen of Dorset, the former CEO of the Vermont Country Store, said he was riding in part for the fun and the challenge of making it up the hill, but mostly to help spread awareness and raise money for the struggle against Lyme, he said.
"I know a couple of friends who have Lyme disease, and it's real important," he said. "It's scary that it's so prevalent and still so unknown."
According to statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control, the actual number of reported Lyme disease cases in Vermont remains small relative to neighboring states. Only 50 such cases were reported in 2004, the last year such statistics are available, compared with about 5,100 in New York and 1,532 in Massachusetts. But those numbers can be misleading, medical professionals say, because Lyme is often not recognized in its beginning stages when it is most reversible.
When detected early enough, treatment with the right antibiotic medications can lead to a complete cure. The most common sign is a bull's eye-shaped rash, but that warning appears only about half the time, said Stephanie Woolwich-Holzman, a Manchester veterinarian who said she contracted Lyme disease in early 1999. The official confirmation didn't come through until 18 months later, she said.
The original rash that she developed was thought to be an allergic reaction to sunscreen lotion, but she began to experience many more severe effects as the disease progressed and before it was diagnosed as Lyme, she said.
Irregular heart rate, short-term memory loss, swollen hands and knees and jaw pain so intense that she had trouble eating were only some of the issues she coped with while trying to get an explanation from an expanding team of doctors before a lengthy series of tests ruled out everything except Lyme disease, she said.
"If it weren't for them, I'm not sure if I'd still be here to be honest," she said. "The tests don't give you an idea of how seriously infected you are and are not always 100 percent effective."
But Woolwich-Holzman said she continues to be affected by the disease up to the present day.
The bike race is one part of the weekend's events designed to focus attention and elevate public knowledge about Lyme disease. A symposium Friday night at Burr and Burton Academy that featured a panel discussion by leading Lyme experts drew about 100 people, Woolwich-Holzman said.
"We got good clinical information about Lyme disease out to the public," she said. "The most important thing is trying to get that information out so they don't end up like me."
http://www.benningtonbanner.com/headlines/ci_4145355Courtesy: www.lymeinfo.net
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© 2006 The National Lyme Disease Memorial Park Project
