Madison Area Lyme Support Group

In 1997, Apple created an award-winning ad campaign called “Think Different.” The creative text written by Rob Siltanen went like this:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

This copy was a huge hit. Why? Because we love the underdog, the hero, the so-called “crazy ones” who break the rules in the name of justice. We love this copy because we relate to it. We love it because it hits a nerve. We love it because we know, without question, that it’s the so-called crazy ones, the ones who go against the grain, the ones who have the courage to stand up to the powers that be, that push for change, who we root for and admire.

Think of David and Goliath, Nelson Mandela, Erin Brockovich, Norma Rae. Everyone loves an underdog. We can relate to this unlikely quintessential hero who has to work hard for his or her heroism. Fight hard for his or her cause. We long to support this archetypal character in movies, plays, literature, fables—and in real life.

The underdog allows us to root for the seemingly less powerful one, revel in a success story, feel something deeply, have our hearts and our minds captured by someone worthy of our attention and admiration. While so many doctors are reluctant, even terrified, to speak out about chronic Lyme disease, there are some true heroes in the Canadian Lyme story.

Dr. Ernie Murakami of Hope, British Columbia, is one of these Canadian heroes. A rebel with just cause. This passionate and highly compassionate eighty-four-year-old former MD and chronic Lyme activist is a voice of reason in the Canadian Lyme War. Murakami has been dedicated to understanding and healing chronic Lyme disease for much of his career.

Dr. Murakami is beloved because he is one of those round pegs in a square hole. Unlike the majority of doctors in this country, he is determined to help Lyme sufferers and to make sacrifices to do so. We admire him because he “gets it,” because he is generous with time and knowledge, and because he cares.

This man has a big heart.

Throughout his medical career, having a degree in bacteriology and immunology, he directly treated more than 3,000 people with chronic Lyme disease, and another 6,000 indirectly. In 2008, after years of being investigated, bullied, and harassed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, he relinquished his medical license.

He suffered at the hands of the College and it affected his health and well-being. Upon the insistence of his wife—who was worried about his health—he eventually decided to give up his license and find other ways to keep serving the Lyme community. But not without a good college try.

Today he stays in the Lyme world by teaching naturopaths in British Columbia how to treat chronic Lyme, by providing free information to medical doctors, and by focusing on his breakthrough research on cannabidiol (CBD)—a derivative of the hemp plant, which is an effective treatment for symptomatic control for Lyme and other chronic illnesses. He also makes himself accessible to support and direct Lyme sufferers by phone or by text when approached.

When I was in the throes of writing Lyme Madness in 2015, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Murakami. Here is what he had to say:

“The medical profession has been misdiagnosing Lyme disease for decades. In Canada, we have the highest M.S. cases in the world according to the MS International Society and we have the lowest Borrelia Burgdorferi cases in the world according to WHO (World Health Organization).

Germany has reported nearly one million cases of Lyme disease in one year recently as evidenced by the cases of Chronic Erythematous Migrans rash clinical diagnosis and laboratory tests. The temperature and environment is the same in Canada as in Germany but we barely come close to the reported number of cases. Canada reports that it has the lowest numbers of Lyme disease in the world by WHO and the highest number of Multiple Sclerosis cases in the world 240-340/100,000 population. No other country comes close to this figure.

Germany’s land size is 349,2233 square kilometers and Canada has 9,982,679 square kilometers or twenty eight times the land size and the rapid warming effect of the world is identical up to the Arctic circle in Canada and the European continent. It is long overdue that we demand an explanation and in my personal feeling a very obvious MISDIAGNOSIS by our medical profession.

The test results and interpretations of them that patients get from infectious disease doctors are seriously wrong because these doctors are uninformed, misinformed and closed-minded about chronic Lyme. In medical school, we are not taught about the Lyme spirochete and the survival forms which require specific prolonged therapy. Instead, the IDSA teaches members that thirty days is all that is needed to cure this disease at any stage.

The ELISA and Western Blot antibody tests are the same around the world. Our results in Canada indicate that there are very low numbers testing positive in Canada. This is not true.

And without question, the long-term use of antibiotics to treat chronic Lyme has more benefits than risks. I’ve seen what this disease can do to people when it’s not treated long term. It can disable people for life.

Because there is not one doctor in Canada who can or will treat Lyme sufferers with antibiotics for more than the 28-day IDSA sanctioned protocol, we are being forced to tap into ‘out of country’ for Lyme treatment—primarily in the US. We are forcing patients to spend upwards of $50,000 for treatment.

Canadian doctors, like myself, who are vocal about treating chronic Lyme have been shut down. It’s never stated directly. But they will harass you and bully you until you’ve had enough. They make you seem incompetent. That’s what happened to me.”

Murakami says doctors regularly phone him for advice about how to treat patients but don’t want anyone to know that they’re consulting with him for fear they will be investigated by their Colleges or peers. He continues,

“My colleagues are all afraid that what happened to me will happen to them.

“The only colleague of mine who stood by my side was Dr. Pat McGeer, Neurological Disease Researcher at UBC and because of his support, he no longer has a license. We have both suffered the same fate because we chose to help Lyme patients.

In my case, the College made me seem incompetent. I couldn’t keep attending their mandated professional development lectures. In my career, I’ve gotten lots of letters of support and commendations. Yet they hired two doctors and sent them to my office—after 40 years of practice—to oversee my work. I ended up with hypertension, ulcers, mild strokes, bleeding bowels. My wife begged me to quit so I resigned, gave up my license. I was condemned for making people better.

The medical world is petrified to diagnose or treat this disease because they will be investigated. It’s tragic. When it comes to chronic Lyme, there is pathological denial. I don’t understand the resistance but I was a victim of it like all of the sufferers out there.”

Murakami’s passion is his research into the use of cannabidiol for the treatment of Lyme disease, as well as cancer, epilepsy, and other chronic illnesses. Says Murakami,

“In the past 20 years, since my first case of this disease when the patients were telling me that when all the standard medications were not helping the severe symptoms of pain, arthritis, fatigue, depression (with suicidal ideation), mental fog with multi-organ failure, they resorted to smoking marijuana.

I was deathly against the use of pot and smoking but I was becoming more interested in the benefits mentally and physically and I directed them to use the cannabidiol oil or paste since there were no psychoactive effects.“

When Murakami learned that he, himself, had an asymptomatic brain tumor—discovered after hitting his head on a beam while playing hockey with his grandson—it led him to investigate the treatment of a brain malignancy. It was then that he came across the use of cannabidiol in dissolving a glioma tumor. Says Murakami,

“I thought this was an impossibility until I saw the MRI reports showing the absolute gradual resolution of the tumor in four months. Other anecdotal cases of cannabidiol treating chronic infections resistant to standard antibiotics convinced me that there was an antibiotic effect with cannabidiol. Patients who had used CBD for up to three years and were unable to continue due to the cost found their symptoms of Lyme disease did not return. CBD appears to also be effective treating other co-infections as well. This made me suspect a potential antibiotic effect on Lyme disease and co-infections.”

Dr. Murakami continues to be involved in the E. Murakami Centre for Lyme: Research, Education and Assistance Society and still answers inquiries.

To those of us in the Canadian Lyme world, Dr. Ernie Murakami will always be a true hero. A doctor who cared enough to risk his own profession, and sacrifice his own health and well-being to support and care for Lyme sufferers from coast to coast. We are all indebted to him, his expertise and his humanitarian efforts that go above and beyond the call of duty.

Lori Dennis, MA, RP is a Registered Psychotherapist and the author of LYME MADNESS, named #1 NEW RELEASE in Immune System Health on Amazon. LYME MADNESS is available on Amazon. For more information on Lyme Madness, go to loridennisonline.com. 

(Above is an excerpt from Lyme Madness – pp 302-309)

Postscript: This past January 27th 2017, Dr. Murakami’s beloved wife Patricia passed away after a prolonged illness, with her husband by her side. She is survived by Dr. Murakami, her sister Lucy, and daughter Julie, sons Paul and Douglas, granddaughter Emily and grandson Che. Patricia met and married Dr. Ernie Murakami at a hospital where she was working as a psychologist and Moved to Hope B.C. and was employed by the upper Fraser Valley School Board as a child psychologist.