Life Cycle of Babesia

Babesia are malaria-like parasites transmitted by blood feeding ticks. Infection with Babesia microti causes humans to become anemic, experience spiking fever and chills, and exhaustion. In some cases, the infection can be fatal. This 3 minute video demonstrates the life cycle of Babesia microti, starting in the blood of white-footed mice. Follow the parasite as it is ingested by deer ticks, and finally is transmitted to humans through tick saliva.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOakxoorjoQ 

To learn more about tick bite prevention and to see more funky graphic movies about ticks, please visit www.TickEncounter.org

A founding member of IDSA says IDSA guidelines are wrong

Chronic Lyme Patients Get Political Victory: New Book by Top Infectious Disease Doctor Supports Long Term Antibiotic Treatment

"Chronic Lyme disease does exist," says Burton A. Waisbren Sr. MD, FACP, FIDSA, in his new book, "Treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease: Fifty-One Case Reports and Essays in Their Regard." The book, released in January, 2012, adds fuel to the already fiery debate over the existence of chronic Lyme disease.

Milwaukee, WI (PRWEB) February 24, 2012 -- Chronic Lyme disease has become one of the most hotly debated diseases in medical history.

Those who claim that the disease is fictitious have stood on the argument that the doctors who treat this condition are untrained in infectious disease and are unqualified to determine whether the syndrome is in fact a legitimate diagnosis.

Dr. Burton Waisbren's new book, "Treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease: Fifty-One Case Reports and Essays in Their Regard", has rendered such an argument invalid. Burton Waisbren, MD, FACP, FIDSA, has been practicing medicine for over 57 years. He is one of the Founding Members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and has published research on Lyme disease in prestigious journals such as The Lancet. He is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, as well as the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is also a founding member of the American Burn Association and the Critical Care Society of America.

One thing is certain: Dr. Waisbren has the credentials to take an authoritative position on the chronic Lyme disease debate. And, like more and more experienced physicians, his position goes against the guidelines of the very organization of which he is a Founding Member: The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Despite mounting scientific evidence, this organization continues to deny the reality of chronic Lyme disease. Sufferers of chronic Lyme disease are encouraged by Dr. Waisbren's position. "This doctor's credentials and experience are turning the tide in the chronic Lyme disease debate," says Bryan Rosner, a recovered Lyme patient and owner of BioMed Publishing Group (South Lake Tahoe, CA), the publishing company that markets Dr. Waisbren's new book.

Read full article:
http://www.canlyme.com/Waisbren_Burton_Treatment_Chronic_Lyme.html

Thriving Gut Bacteria Linked To Good Health

There's no magic elixir for healthy aging, but here's one more thing to add to the list: good gut health.

A study published in the latest issue of Nature finds diet may be key to promoting diverse communities of beneficial bacteria in the guts of older people.

To evaluate this, researchers analyzed the microbiota, or gut bacteria, of 178 older folks, mostly in their 70s and 80s.

Some of the people were living in their own homes, and their diets were rich in fiber, fruits, vegetables, grains, poultry and fish.

Read or listen to the rest of the story:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/07/16/156745291/thriving-gut-bacteria-linked-to-good-health?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-20120722

Recording of House Committee on Foreign Affairs Lyme hearing

If you missed this hearing on Capitol Hill last week, here's the link. It was very good, and productive, even though the IDSA and CDC failed to send anyone to the hearing. 

"Global changes in diagnosing and managing Lyme disease -- Closing knowledge gaps"

For some reason, they recorded about 20 minutes prior to the beginning of the hearing, so skip ahead about 20 or 25 minutes. Otherwise you'll just see a still photo of the US Capitol building and no sound, and you'll think the link was wrong. 

http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings/view/?1455

One Grain More - A song about food allergies

Now for something completely different...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9QbC41oQRo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Canadian radio show on Lyme

Wednesday July 18, 2012

Lyme Disease suffering and misdiagnosis

Chronic Lyme disease -- Why Canadians are going to the US for treatment. 

A bite from a tick opens the door to years of suffering for some Canadians. Open lines with Jim Wilson, president of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, about the challenges of getting diagnosed and treated in Canada.

http://www.cbc.ca/ontariotoday/2012/07/18/thursday-chronic-lyme-disease/

 (Runs 0:51:00 ) 

 

Another article on the same topic:

http://www.researchednutritionals.com/information.cfm?ID=150

 

A number of articles on Lyme in Canada:
http://www.canlyme.com/bottom.html

CDC video about Lyme

Here's the party line about Lyme, and 'post Lyme syndrome', as theorized by Alan Steere, MD, who discovered Lyme in CT, many years ago. Note that although he acknowledges that there is controversy over persistence of symptoms in some patients after typical IDSA-approved treatment, he does not offer any of the supporting evidence for this persistence. E.g., there is no mention of the study of monkeys who still hosted spirochetes after treatment with a typical IDSA-approved course of antibiotics. 

At least the findings about the rise of Lyme infection IS acknowledged.

Please leave comments about this video so others may benefit from your knowledge. 

CDC video:  "Top 7 Notifiable Diseases United States, 2009".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7L61d--GmI&feature=channel_video_title
at 9:33

A link to this video is on the CDC Lyme Disease web page.
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/

Hypercoagulation: The CFS/FM Plot Thickens

Very interesting article on "sticky blood" and how it can contribute to Lyme disease. This is not exactly a new article (it's from 2001), but is still something that chronicly-ill Lyme and other immuno-compromised patients should know about.

This article was found on:

Melissa Kaplan's
Chronic Neuroimmune Diseases
Information on CFS, FM, MCS, Lyme Disease, Thyroid, and more...
Last updated February 27, 2012

Hypercoagulation
The CFS/FM Plot Thickens
Melissa Kaplan, The Carousel Network News, 8(5), 2001
A simplified introduction into hypercoagulable state...

Research conducted by Dr. David Berg and others at Hemex Laboratories1 has found hypercoagulation to be a factor in many patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), myofascial pain syndrome (MPS), and other disorders such as osteonecrosis (bone loss due to inadequate blood supply), and fetal loss.

Hypercoagulation (thickened blood) results from fibrin being deposited in small blood vessels. Fibrin is the body's natural bandaid: strands of fibrin form across a defect (wound, tear) in the walls of blood vessels, forming a mesh that holds platelets and blood cells. This beneficial clotting of cellular matter and fibrin strands plugs the leak, so to speak, holding things together until the body starts to repair itself.

Fibrin production is the last stage in a complex clotting process. The process itself starts off with the release of thrombin which in turn results in the production of soluble fibrin monomer (SFM), a sticky protein that increases blood viscosity. This leads to the deposit of fibrin on the endothelial cells that line the wall of the blood vessels. Under the normal conditions, it takes only a single burst of thrombin to generate a large amount of SFM which in turns produces sufficient amounts of fibrin to clot the defect. Testing of many patients diagnosed with CFS, FM, MPS shows that the thrombin-SFM-fibrin process is not working properly. Instead of a single burst of thrombin producing the amount of SFM needed, the thrombin keeps being produced at low levels. Instead of clots being formed, however, the result is that blood becomes increasingly thickened. The body's own ability to thin blood and break up clots is impaired because the fibrin smothering the endothelial cells prevents those cells from releasing heparans.

Read more:
http://www.anapsid.org/cnd/diffdx/hypercoagulation.html

Lyme Disease Cited in Connection to Woman's Erratic Behavior

Here's an article about Lyme possibly being capable of causing psychiatric conditions.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/lyme-disease-cited-connection-womans-erratic-behavior-waldorf/t/story?id=13564951

Babesiosis, Tick-Borne Disease That Mimics Malaria and Can Be Fatal, Is on the Rise

Here's an article and video about increasing cases of Babesiosis:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/babesiosis-tick-borne-disease-mimics-malaria-fatal-rise/t/story?id=13893546