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Twenty years ago I started ActiveMSers to give people with chronic disease hope for a brighter tomorrow. As promised, that tomorrow has finally arrived. And what an incredible adventure we’ve shared as optimistic misfits, teammates with an unlikely bond that brought us together called multiple sclerosis. Call it karma, kismet, or something bigger.
Unexpectedly, I found a fatal mistake in one of the foundational pillars of modern medicine—autoimmunity. When it fully collapsed, it rapidly took down every other supporting pillar that has propped up our understanding of health, the consequences directly affecting you, your family, and your friends. The rising sickness swamping society today has a straightforward explanation. Those of us diagnosed with MS were just lucky enough to have such an active case that the doctors had to give it a label.
Autoimmune diseases have been an enigma ever since scientists hypothesized their existence. Why do they largely impact women? Why in the prime of their lives? Why?
The very concept of the body attacking itself is a cascade of contradictions, defying Darwin. Instead of rates falling, they’ve been increasing steadily with every recent generation. Instead of symptoms fading, inflammation and disability rage. Mental illness, metabolic disorders, and cancer are frequent partners. Autoimmunity would appear to be an unsolvable mystery of the ages, destined to vex scientists for eternity.
Or not.
Seventy years ago, when frustrated scientists kept finding unusual antibodies accompanying a swath of diseases—yet never finding an attacker—they came to the fateful conclusion that the immune system must be turning on itself. Fateful, because there is a telling maxim in science: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There was a deviously hidden invader—and it still lurks within most of us.
The evidence is clear, overwhelming, indisputable. But blink, and you’d miss it. Everyone blinked. Everyone missed it.
There is only one organism on the planet that can produce the unique, signature characteristics of “autoimmunity.” A bacterial infection today known as Lyme disease—vindication for everyone who has been gaslit and disbelieved. The evidence lies in a trace mineral required for the spirochete to survive and cause disease: manganese.
The damning clue is in the distinctive interplay between iron and manganese. As manganese levels rise, iron levels fall and vice versa. In childhood, boys and girls have similar levels of manganese. But once young women begin their monthly period, and start routinely losing blood, iron levels dip and manganese levels spike. The enduring mystery—why women, why in their prime—cleanly answered.
We've unknowingly been trying to treat Lyme for decades. The bacteria derive energy from glucose, essentially carbohydrates. Every intervention that works across an inexplicable range of conditions—from GLP-1s to carb-limiting diets to exercise—works because it restricts the bacteria’s food supply. They all effectively lower blood sugar. That’s why exercise helps to prevent the recurrence of cancer and why ketogenic diets aid in mental health conditions. The bewildering success of the newest weight-loss drugs—improving 175 health conditions and counting—isn't bewildering at all. It’s starving out the bacterial infection.
Borrelia's appetite for manganese is the elusive missing puzzle piece. The body absorbs manganese from food, but several common substances block that absorption: iron, fiber, calcium, tetracycline antibiotics, and tannins. What’s rich in tannins? Coffee, tea, dark chocolate, and red wine—their inexplicable health benefits now fully explainable. (Now it makes total sense why cranberry juice, which is chock-full of tannins, is often recommended for preventing UTIs.)
Once you realize that virtually everything we have been doing has been to control Lyme disease—our drugs primarily tamp down inflammation brought on by our own immune system desperately trying to fight the bacterial infection—everything crystallizes.
Again, call it karma, kismet, or something bigger, a week ago the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in combination with LymeX and the NIH, issued a national call to action to solve the chronic disease crisis disproportionately affecting women.
Hallelujah booyah!
I’ve written an open letter to the global scientific community—and to these government agencies specifically. I had hoped to release this first through a major media outlet, but the HHS challenge changes that calculus. (Plus, patience has its limits—some things are too important to wait.) Instead, you’ll get to learn with them how merely correcting a single mistake resolves a legion of towering medical mysteries—fully rewriting modern medicine. I recommend you sit down before reading.
As of yesterday, HHS has in hand my discovery and I’ve communicated personally with the project leader. You’ll find The Letter in its entirety on my free Substack page, davebexfield.substack.com, including instructions of how to thoroughly stress test my theory. It will not break. If you feel so inspired, maybe share it with your community and medical team. What happens next is bound to be wicked exciting. Be active, stay fit, and keep exploring!
https://davebexfield.substack.com/p/...before-reading
Unexpectedly, I found a fatal mistake in one of the foundational pillars of modern medicine—autoimmunity. When it fully collapsed, it rapidly took down every other supporting pillar that has propped up our understanding of health, the consequences directly affecting you, your family, and your friends. The rising sickness swamping society today has a straightforward explanation. Those of us diagnosed with MS were just lucky enough to have such an active case that the doctors had to give it a label.
Autoimmune diseases have been an enigma ever since scientists hypothesized their existence. Why do they largely impact women? Why in the prime of their lives? Why?
The very concept of the body attacking itself is a cascade of contradictions, defying Darwin. Instead of rates falling, they’ve been increasing steadily with every recent generation. Instead of symptoms fading, inflammation and disability rage. Mental illness, metabolic disorders, and cancer are frequent partners. Autoimmunity would appear to be an unsolvable mystery of the ages, destined to vex scientists for eternity.
Or not.
Seventy years ago, when frustrated scientists kept finding unusual antibodies accompanying a swath of diseases—yet never finding an attacker—they came to the fateful conclusion that the immune system must be turning on itself. Fateful, because there is a telling maxim in science: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There was a deviously hidden invader—and it still lurks within most of us.
The evidence is clear, overwhelming, indisputable. But blink, and you’d miss it. Everyone blinked. Everyone missed it.
There is only one organism on the planet that can produce the unique, signature characteristics of “autoimmunity.” A bacterial infection today known as Lyme disease—vindication for everyone who has been gaslit and disbelieved. The evidence lies in a trace mineral required for the spirochete to survive and cause disease: manganese.
The damning clue is in the distinctive interplay between iron and manganese. As manganese levels rise, iron levels fall and vice versa. In childhood, boys and girls have similar levels of manganese. But once young women begin their monthly period, and start routinely losing blood, iron levels dip and manganese levels spike. The enduring mystery—why women, why in their prime—cleanly answered.
We've unknowingly been trying to treat Lyme for decades. The bacteria derive energy from glucose, essentially carbohydrates. Every intervention that works across an inexplicable range of conditions—from GLP-1s to carb-limiting diets to exercise—works because it restricts the bacteria’s food supply. They all effectively lower blood sugar. That’s why exercise helps to prevent the recurrence of cancer and why ketogenic diets aid in mental health conditions. The bewildering success of the newest weight-loss drugs—improving 175 health conditions and counting—isn't bewildering at all. It’s starving out the bacterial infection.
Borrelia's appetite for manganese is the elusive missing puzzle piece. The body absorbs manganese from food, but several common substances block that absorption: iron, fiber, calcium, tetracycline antibiotics, and tannins. What’s rich in tannins? Coffee, tea, dark chocolate, and red wine—their inexplicable health benefits now fully explainable. (Now it makes total sense why cranberry juice, which is chock-full of tannins, is often recommended for preventing UTIs.)
Once you realize that virtually everything we have been doing has been to control Lyme disease—our drugs primarily tamp down inflammation brought on by our own immune system desperately trying to fight the bacterial infection—everything crystallizes.
Again, call it karma, kismet, or something bigger, a week ago the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in combination with LymeX and the NIH, issued a national call to action to solve the chronic disease crisis disproportionately affecting women.
Hallelujah booyah!
I’ve written an open letter to the global scientific community—and to these government agencies specifically. I had hoped to release this first through a major media outlet, but the HHS challenge changes that calculus. (Plus, patience has its limits—some things are too important to wait.) Instead, you’ll get to learn with them how merely correcting a single mistake resolves a legion of towering medical mysteries—fully rewriting modern medicine. I recommend you sit down before reading.
As of yesterday, HHS has in hand my discovery and I’ve communicated personally with the project leader. You’ll find The Letter in its entirety on my free Substack page, davebexfield.substack.com, including instructions of how to thoroughly stress test my theory. It will not break. If you feel so inspired, maybe share it with your community and medical team. What happens next is bound to be wicked exciting. Be active, stay fit, and keep exploring!
https://davebexfield.substack.com/p/...before-reading