Dr. Ken Friedman's presentation "The Positive Side of Lyme Disease" presented at the Medical Conference
"Similarities & Paradoxes in Chronic Illnesses" held on January 19, 2008 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

LIFELYME originally began as a Lyme support group and has been holding meetings in Tallahassee, Florida for the last four years. In that time LIFELYME has roughly educated over 2,000 people with Lyme disease in the state of Florida. Our mission has been to educate, and offer support to people with Lyme disease and related CSID - chronic, systemic, infectious diseases, so they can become pro-active in the treatment of their disease and in regaining their health.

By acting as a educational resource for both patients and advocates, LIFELYME believes we can spread the truth about Lyme disease and CSID and bring about an awareness of the seriousness of these diseases. In the last few months we have been encouraging other communities to start support groups in other states. Education empowers us! Spreading the truth about Lyme disease and CSID by word of mouth is also a powerful way to change.

Anyone interested in learning more about Lyme and CSID is encouraged to contact the leaders of LIFELYME groups listed under Support groups in the left hand column on this page.

CSID includes chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and autoimmune disorders such as MS, RA, Lupus, Parkinson's and ALS. In addition to Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, there are other pathogens that often accompany Lyme disease. A recent study at the University of New Haven by Eva Sapi showed that ticks are infested with not only the bacteria Borrelia. Ticks have been found to be carrying Mycoplasma, Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Richettsia and Morgellons.

For specific information on these pathogens read the articles under Educational Basics, Research and Links in the left hand column on this homepage.