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Did you know that Lyme Disease affects Americans at a rate possibly as high as 10 times that of AIDS? Did you know that the test recommended by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) to diagnose Lyme misses it 3/4ths of the time? Or that in areas of the country where infectious deer ticks are closest to the population — like nearby Loudoun County — entire households are often afflicted? Or that it can and does result in death? All of these facts are covered in Andy Abrahams Wilson's new documentary, Under Our Skin. But simply raising awareness of these and other facts isn't the point of the film — what concerns Wilson more greatly is why there is so little public discussion of the most common vector-borne disease in the country, and why the disease has become so politicized and controversial.
The existence of Lyme itself isn't in question. Exactly what the bacteria — a kissing cousin to syphilis that exhibits many of the same traits — is capable of is what brings some of the most prominent minds in the medical community to the point of bickering and insults. One one side of the debate are a group of doctors who believe that Lyme can have severe and shifting effects that can last for the lifetime of the patient, and that the only effective treatment is aggressive, long-term intravenous antibiotic therapies. On the other side are the doctors of the IDSA and the CDC, who maintain that Lyme is limited to a short term infection that is easily treated and overcome. Stuck in the middle? The majority of the medical community, who are often woefully mis- or uninformed about the disease; some even misunderstand the position of the IDSA to the point where they tell patients that the disease is entirely mythical. All but forgotten in all this furor? Thousands and thousands of sick people, some profoundly debilitated by a mysterious malady that many IDSA doctors dismiss as a widespread psychosomatic disorder.
Wilson engaged in an exhaustive four year shoot, interviewing over 150 people, and most importantly, covering the long-term treatment stories of seven Lyme sufferers. It's here where Under Our Skin is at its best, and most deeply affecting. Each of his subjects is living with Lyme Disease. And typical of the chameleonic nature of the sickness (one of the ways it mimics Syphilis), it manifests in different ways for each, from neurological and physical symptoms that render some nearly unable to walk or talk, to intense chronic pain for others, to repeated miscarriages for another. In each case, Wilson demonstrates how careful attention under the watchful eyes of dedicated medical professionals helps these people to begin to return to a normal life, though few experience a complete loss of symptoms. In his study of these subjects, Wilson's camera is sensitive, yet unflinching, capturing the arduous battles these people must engage in just to live from day to day. Thoughts of suicide are a common theme. Wilson adorns these deeper stories with dozens of short clips from interviews with other Lyme patients, graceful notes skillfully attached to illustrate points made in the larger story.
Where the film stumbles somewhat is a tone that often strays into a distancing and panicked sensationalism. At worst, it plays into the hands of insurers and interest-conflicted physicians who claim that those who maintain the existence of chronic Lyme are practicing dangerous pseudo-science. Particularly mortifying is a moment when the husband of one Lyme patient complains of mild Lyme-like symptoms and the pair engage in conjecture over the potential of sexual transmission. One suspects even the most sympathetic doctors in the film might shy away from this as irresponsible.
And all the sky-is-falling rhetoric, an unfortunate tendency in a lot of position-based documentaries, is really unnecessary. The facts as they're presented are damning enough on their own. Wilson makes a compelling case for the complicity of insurance companies in influencing the medical community's very definition of Lyme in such a way that their payouts will be limited. More egregious than that, he shows how insurers — not patients, not colleagues — are responsible for bringing complaints against the doctors who are willing to aggressively treat Lyme. They carry these cases through to medical licensing boards where these doctors are essentially put on trial, usually with their grateful patients tearfully watching physicians they consider their personal saviors being bureaucratically crucified. Many end up with their careers destroyed. In some of the best-edited sections, Wilson juxtaposes evidence that directly contradicts the claims of the naysayers immediately after they've finished saying nay. All of these moments have a subtle and powerful effectiveness that proves that Under Your Skin, like so many documentaries of its kind, doesn't need to shout: it is far more effective when it whispers.
Under Our Skin opens today at The Avalon.
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At the SilverDocs Festival, CNN producer Ronnie Berke interviewed the UNDER OUR SKIN team for several hours, then put together a well-crafted segment on Lyme disease that ended up being the “Most Emailed” CNN story for several days. We felt this segment was a watershed moment in mainstream media coverage of the disease, because it went beyond the medical dogma and hit on the important things that anyone who thinks that they might have Lyme disease needs to know..Fat loss 4 idiots
Did you know that Lyme Disease affects Americans at a rate possibly as high as 10 times that of AIDS? Did you know that the test recommended by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) to diagnose Lyme misses it 3/4ths of the time? Or that in areas of the country where infectious deer ticks are closest to the population — like nearby Loudoun County — entire households are often afflicted? Or that it can and does result in death?
My Cousin's husband had Lyme disease several years ago and is still unable to work or do much of anything anymore. More needs to be done in this area.
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