From: Mark Stroud
Sunday, 10:14 a.m.

For the last 14 years, I have been searching for a reason for my sickness.  I have been thrown around from doc to doc without a diagnosis, or if they have tried to diagnose me then it has been "all in my head".

When I finally found the cause, I was amazed at just how unreliable the testing for this pathogen is.  That's why I have pulled out all the stops and I am trying to teach people how to implement the SAME strategies that I use to see Borrelia Burgdorferi in a tiny drop of blood from my finger.

The technique described below is so astoundingly easy to do yet we still hear that Bbsl is not very easily found in the blood leaving 1,000s of potential lyme patients with a non diagnosis due to the testing set out by the CDC.

So I've spent a lot of time looking for a solution that's easy to use...

Now, I am not saying that this procedure is to be used as a diagnosis tool for your own illness.  That would be wrong. It is more of an interesting hobby to prove to yourself what is really going on.  It appears that you can not only see the spirochetes, you can see the l-forms as well (see the videos at the top of this page)

That said, let's get into the procedure...

I look at my own blood under a normal microscope.  My microscope was bought from Digilens in the far east but there is nothing special about this scope, so perhaps you can find an equivalent locally or on ebay.  These people ship world wide and the URL is http://www.digilens.com.tw/06/product_dtl.asp?T_ID=25&ID=544  

As I said, there is nothing special about this microscope, but I will say that you should get a "BIO" microscope and one that follows the DIN standard.  The DIN standard means that the objective lenses are interchangeable with other DIN standard scopes. (don't worry if you don't understand what that means at the moment - all will be clear later)

About the microscope. 

You will notice from the picture below that the objective is quite big. This is a full size microscope with the DIN standard of lens.  It is this lens that looks directly at the slide.

We are going to modify the scope and put a different lens on it.  More on that later.

Below, and just under my finger, is what you place the slide on and that is called the "stage". There is adjustment underneath the scope so that you can move the slide around without touching it yourself.

Under the stage is the condenser. This is responsible for focusing the light onto the slide you are looking at. It is important to have an adjustment on this for the dark field modification, but a little hard to explain why at this point..

The pic below is showing the condenser.  

OK, now for the modifications..

The darkfield condenser needs to be the same diameter as the brightfield one on your scope - otherwise it will not fit!  I measured the one out of the scope above and it was 37mm in diameter.  It is also worth taking a note of the height if the condenser.  If it is too short, it will not make contact with the slide and will not work.  This was the case with the condenser I bought below, and I had to modify it to work.

This is the darkfield condenser and objective I used.  It is best if you buy the condenser and the objective at the same place.  The objective is a 100x with an IRIS (OIL filled).  I bought mine from Labserv Technologies.  Their web address is http://www.labserv.ca/  

Again, there is nothing special about the condenser, but it is worth telling them that you are going to look at live blood and that you would like the darkfield condenser with the 100x objective with the IRIS.  The IRIS is important.  

You will need to tell the supplier the diameter of the brightfield condenser you noted above and that your objective is the DIN standard.  You should be able to get these items locally to yourself as well.

Objective - 100x with IRIS (OIL filled):

Darkfield condenser

With the scope above and the condenser used above, I needed to modify the condenser to make contact with the slide (it was too short).  To do this, I first removed the two centering screws.

Then unscrewed the bottom ring of the unit.

And then removed the condenser from the rest of the body by unscrewing it.

Remove the stainless steel part and re assemble the two black halves.

Next, you need to attach it to the scope.  With the ring you unscrewed in the first instruction, you need to balance the condenser in the recess and then fit the ring into the scope with the centering screws that came with the original scope.  See the pic below:

Of course, if you bought a darkfield condenser that was made for your scope, you will not need to do this modification - I am just telling you how I did this.

With the darkfield condenser in place, you now need to attach the 100x , OIL filled objective and IRIS.  This is simply done by unscrewing an objective from the scope and screwing in the replacement.

Last of all is the lighting.  Now, you can see the bacteria in the blood with the normal 20W halogen light, but it tends to be quite dim and the focus is not all that great.  I have found that upgrading the scope to a 50w halogen is better, but then it starts to melt things inside the scope because of the increased heat from the halogen... The halogen lights are also white - which means that they give off all colours in the spectrum.  

The items we are looking at are 0.2 micro meters or 200 nano meters in width which is just under half the wavelength of green light.  Viewing things this small, there is noticeable diffraction as the light passes through the slide.  The angle of diffraction varies with different wavelengths of light, so if you have a monochromatic light source, this only happens once and you have a clearer image.

It is for this reason, I have developed a system to deliver a very clean monochromatic green light under the slide.  This is done with a very high power LED.  The LED I used is from Lumileds at the following URL:  http://www.lumileds.com/products/family.cfm?familyId=10

The output power of the LED is equivalent to 50 normal LED's and is the one I used to get the results shown in the movies at the top of this page. If you use a different LED from a local supplier, tell them that you would like one that is at least 150 Lumens.

The LED light source needs a heat sink to take away the extra heat generated by the illumination process.  Infra red (heat) will also cause the image to blur if there is enough of it - especially if you use a black and white camera to view it with.

Here is the finished lighting assembly with the power supply for the LED.  The LED needs to be current regulated.

To focus the light straight into the condenser, I then unscrewed the top lens off of the brightfield condenser and placed it on the top of the LED lighting like this:

Finally , I unscrewed the lens on the microscope that would normally collimate the light into the condenser and put the LED assembly in it's place.  See below.

You will need a separate power supply to run the LED assembly.  I will be posting details on how to do this at a later date.

Now you are ready to go, so fist things first - For god sake WASH YOUR HANDS

Clean a slide and cover slip with 90% ethanol (you can easily buy this at the chemist)

Then dip each corner of the slide lightly in Vaseline and put on a sterile surface for later.  This will make sure that the final slide is air tight.  You can skip this part if you do not wish to keep the slide for long.

Then sterilize a needle and put on a sterile surface for later.

WASH YOUR HANDS AGAIN and allow them to air dry. Then swab the finger that you are going to prick with 90% ethanol to kill any germs on your skin.  Wait for them to air dry.  It is important to have dry hands at this point.

Take the sterile needle and carefully prick your finger so that a small amount of blood comes out.

Put the smallest amount of blood on the slide that you can and quickly put the cover slip on the top before it dries.  If you need to keep the slide for any length of time, you can use a sterile sealant used specially for the purpose.  You should be able to get this at any microscope shop.  Be careful not to get the sealant all over the top of the cover slip, but smear it just around the sides making an airtight slide.

Put the slide to one side.

Now, you need a spot of immersion oil on the condenser and put the slide on top so that the condenser oil is in contact with the slide.  To get rid of air bubbles, move the stage around with the controls underneath.

Next put a drop of oil on the top of the cover slip and bring the objective into contact with the oil on top.  Do the same to get rid of the bubbles.

Now we are ready to start viewing.  Center and turn on your light source and open up the iris all the way (anti clockwise as you look down on the slide).

Make sure that the end of the objective just touches the top of the cover slip. (most are sprung loaded at the tip, so you can see the tip slightly retract as it touches the cover slip.

You now need to center the darkfield condenser so that it is in line with the objective.  Once you have done this, you should see the light come centrally  through the eyepiece.  Once you see the light, you need to back off on the focus until you see the red blood cells on the slide.  This is usually not very much, so if you back off and the oil comes separated such that there is an air gap, you have more than likely gone too far.

When you have got the blood cells in focus, carefully turn the IRIS on the objective so that you get the dark background and the objects light up white (or the colour of your illumination).

You are now ready to look for the spirochetes! They are more easily found in the plasma, but I believe that allot of the red cells are infected as well - you just can't see them.  When a red cell is infected, it looks spiky on the outside.  

If you leave the sample overnight, you should see more, as the Borrelia come out of the cells when the nutrients are low.

Best of luck and good hunting,

Mark Stroud    

Mark Stroud.  mstroud@lyme-diagnosis.nospam.org.uk  (pls remove the .nospam)

PS.  Don't forget to wash your hands.

PPS.  Don't forget to wash your hands.