Reminder about Lyme patient conference April 8 in San Ramon

Is mold hindering your Lyme treatment? 

 

Expert on Lyme & mold to speak at upcoming "MyLymeData2017: Overcoming Lyme Disease" patient conference. April 8, in San Ramon, CA. 

Read up and signup here:

https://www.lymedisease.org/toxic-mold-standing-way-lyme-recovery/https://www.lymedisease.org/toxic-mold-standing-way-lyme-recovery/ 

Hope to see you there.  

Bob

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Bob Cowart

Email: bob@cowart.com

Lyme blog: http://bobcowart.blogspot.com 

Cutaneous Manifestations of Tick-Borne Diseases

Cutaneous Manifestations of Tick-Borne Diseases 

Author(s): Dirk M. Elston   MD , CUTIS

Publish date: March 9, 2017 

 

In this edition of the "Peer to Peer" audiocast series, Dr. Vincent DeLeo speaks with Dr. Dirk M. Elston about the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) and how to identify and manage skin manifestations of tick-borne diseases. He also asks about patient susceptiblity to delayed anaphylaxis associated with lone star tick attachment, which can be triggered by consuming red meat.

 http://www.mdedge.com/cutis/article/133150/infectious-diseases/cutaneous-manifestations-tick-borne-diseases?oc_slh=&utm_source=Clin_CUT_enl-A_032417&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Red%20meat%20anaphylaxis%20from%20ticks%20|%20Primary%20Cutaneous%20Cryptococcosis

 

Vitamin C for sepsis?

A Norfolk doctor found a treatment for sepsis. Now he's trying to get the ICU world to listen.

• By Elizabeth Simpson
  The Virginian-Pilot

The patient was dying.

Valerie Hobbs, 53, was in the throes of sepsis – an infection coursing through her veins that was causing her blood pressure to tank, her organs to fail and her breathing to flag.

"When you have a person that young who's going to die, you start thinking, 'What else can we pull out of the bag?' " said Dr. Paul Marik, who was on duty that day in the intensive care unit of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

In this case, he reached for Vitamin C.

Read the full story: 

http://pilotonline.com/news/local/health/a-norfolk-doctor-found-a-treatment-for-sepsis-now-he/article_7a3063e5-24cf-56c1-b25c-142731604196.html

Sweating eliminates toxins, even those not detected in blood or urine

Just last night at the Marin Lyme Support Group Meetup we were talking about the value of sweating and the theory behind the use of FIR (Far infra-red) saunas for detox. Here are a couple of articles on the National Institute of Health Pub Med site that discuss it. Several people at the meeting were talking about how much they benefit from using their sauna for treating their Lyme disease, too. I'm very happy with mine too, which is made by Clearlight in Berkeley. These studies are about ubiquitous plastics that are in our environment and seem to be excreted in sweat. 

sweating eliminates toxins, even those not detected in blood or urine

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21057782

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22253637

Bob

Can infrared saunas kill cancer, yeast, and chronic infections?

Below is a quote from an LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor) that I saw today on the Web:

My two cents on killing multiple [Lyme related] pathogens include raising oxygen and [raising] core body heat levels.  While [arriving at] the correct combination of pharmaceuticals, herbs, and supplements cause confusion, these elements are clear in their health benefits. Of course those with certain health conditions should not use a sauna but they can raise levels with other modalities.

Below is a link explaining the benefits of infared heat. 

http://www.healthyadviceteam.com/how-infrared-saunas-kill-cancer-parasites-yeast-and-chronic-infection/

Bob's comment:

I'm very interested in other's experiences with infrared sauna because I recently purchased one recently. I've also been in touch with a medical practice in the mid-west that uses 'hyperthermia' (making the body hot, well above the average body temp of 98.6 F) as a treatment for Lyme. Time to fire up my sauna again. It's been a while because it's outside and it has been raining like crazy here in N. California this spring. 

Bartonella and Babesia articles

Report on Bartonella that may provide some answers for anyone suspecting it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18937735

And two on Babesia that are being discussed after surviving blood bank processing and storage conditions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27260107

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23888882

Laboratory Tests That Help to Detect Lyme Disease

http://www.tgdaily.com/health/laboratory-tests-that-help-to-detect-lyme-disease


Clinical diagnosis is just not sufficient to detect Lyme disease because the symptoms are closely similar to those of many other diseases. Headaches, joint pains and numbness in the legs, arms, hands and feet which are usually associated with Lyme disease are also present in many other diseases. Therefore, the clinical diagnosis has to be supported by diagnostic tests to confirm the presence of Lyme disease. Several tests may have to be done as the patient may not test positive in some tests. Only if the same results are corroborated through other tests can the patient be considered to be free from the disease. Multiple tests help to rule out the possibilities of any other diseases that might cause the symptoms. It also helps the doctor to correlate the findings with other patients who suffer from the disease that makes it easy to arrive at a conclusion.

More at the link above.

How to make tick cylinders - Wright Road Journal

How to make tick cylinders - Wright Road Journal

 

How to make tick cylinders

Why Tick Cylinders? Tick cylinders have been found significantly to reduce tick populations in infested environments. The tick cylinder is based on a simple concept:  The main culprit in  spreading...

http://wrightroadjournal.weebly.com/blog/how-to-make-tick-tubes

 

 

Global Lyme Alliance Doubles Funding Commitment for Lyme Disease 

Thu Mar 16, 2017 1:46 pm (PDT) . Posted by: 

"Rick Laferriere" ri_lymeinfo 

Global Lyme Alliance Doubles Funding Commitment for Lyme Disease Research 

GLA Awards Record $2 Million in 2016-2017 Grants to Top Researchers Throughout the U.S. 

February 7, 2017 
https://globallymealliance.org/press-releases/global-lyme-alliance-doubles-funding-commitment-for-lyme-disease-research/ https://globallymealliance.org/press-releases/global-lyme-alliance-doubles-funding-commitment-for-lyme-disease-research/ 
or http://tinyurl.com/hxl9w4s 

Global Lyme Alliance https://globallymealliance.org/ 
222 Railroad Ave. #2B 
Greenwich, Connecticut 06830 

Global Lyme Alliance (GLA), the leading private nonprofit dedicated to conquering Lyme disease through research and education, announced today that it is awarding a record total of approximately $2 million in grants to top researchers at leading academic and medical research institutions across the U.S. These recipients of GLA's 2016-2017 grant cycle are working on a wide array of projects to develop a greater understanding of the disease, improve diagnostics, treatment and prevention. 

"For years our organization has led the Lyme community in identifying and backing innovative research, so we're especially proud and excited that we've doubled our research funding since last year," said Scott Santarella, GLA's CEO. "The more funds we raise, the faster we can solve the mystery of Lyme disease and bring about change for millions who suffer from tick-borne illnesses." 

"GLA prides itself for providing the vision to drive the research agenda, initiating the teaming of top researchers to collaborate on projects and evaluating research proposals received globally. We continue to provide the leadership in scientific research that others follow and build upon," said GLA Chairman and Scientific Advisory Board member Robert Kobre. 

In announcing the new grants, Santarella noted that GLA had received the most grant applications in its history—$4.3 million in funding requests. 

"While we were pleased to receive so many quality grant applications this year, such a profusion underscores the fact that there are far more talented scientists eager to focus on Lyme disease than there is funding to support them," Santarella said. He noted, for example, that $25 million is allocated by the National Institutes of Health annually for Lyme research, which infects more than 330,000 in the U.S. each year, compared with $42 million for the mosquito-transmitted West Nile virus, which affected about 2,000 in the U.S. last year. 

"Federal funding for Lyme research is miniscule, yet the Lyme threat keeps growing," he said. "This speaks to GLA's importance in working with private donors to fill the void and drive advancements in the field." 

GLA's 2016-2017 grants were awarded to researchers at the following institutions: Columbia University; Cornell University; Institute for Systems Biology; Johns Hopkins University; Northeastern University; State University of New York-Stony Brook; Tulane National Primate Research Center; University of California-Davis; University of California-San Francisco; University of Illinois-Chicago; University of North Dakota; University of Pennsylvania, and University of Texas-San Antonio. 

"As the number of Lyme and tick-borne disease cases continues to grow, there is a tremendous impetus to keep the science moving forward," said Mayla Hsu, Ph.D., GLA's Director of Research and Science. "GLA is proud to support the important research being conducted by some of the best and brightest men and women in the field today." 

GLA's research portfolio includes a broad range of projects such as persistence of infection after antibiotic treatment and the development of new diagnostics. Studies focus on microbial physiology; genetic work to determine how the bacteria that causes Lyme survives in a host; efficacy of different modes of antibiotic therapy, and why some people continue to have symptoms despite the seeming absence of bacteria. 

Researchers were selected following a rigorous evaluation process using guidelines established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each proposal was evaluated by Grant Review Committee members of GLA's Scientific Advisory Board and met the same scientific standards that NIH applies to its own grant review process. The resulting 2016-2017 grant awards represent projects judged to have exceptional prospects of delivering measurable advances. 

Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S. There are no accurate diagnostic tests for the disease, no tests to prove that Lyme bacteria are eradicated or that an individual is cured. Some 20 percent of individuals with Lyme end up with long-term health problems. 

ABOUT GLOBAL LYME ALLIANCE 
Global Lyme Alliance is a leading private nonprofit dedicated to conquering Lyme and other tick-borne diseases through research and education. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit is headquartered in Greenwich, CT. For more information go to GLA.org http://globallyme.wpengine.com/. 
Press Release Source: http://tinyurl.com/hxl9w4s http://tinyurl.com/hxl9w4s 

New technique for killing ticks on your property

Ticks: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Douse Their Animal Hosts in Insecticide 
Entomology Today, Entomological Society of America, Annapolis, Maryland 

March 16, 2017 
https://entomologytoday.org/2017/03/16/ticks-if-you-cant-beat-em-douse-their-animal-hosts-in-insecticide/ https://entomologytoday.org/2017/03/16/ticks-if-you-cant-beat-em-douse-their-animal-hosts-in-insecticide/ 
or http://tinyurl.com/jc4z5rq http://tinyurl.com/jc4z5rq 

An emerging tool in the fight against tick-borne disease, host-targeted bait boxes employ a sneaky trick: turning some of ticks' favorite carriers —small mammals like mice and chipmunks —against them. And a new study in Journal of Medical Entomology https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/3070958/Evaluation-of-the-SELECT-Tick-Control-System-TCS-ashows an improved design has made such bait boxes an increasingly viable addition to integrated tick management practices. 

Mice, chipmunks, and other small mammals are common hosts for the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis), providing the ticks a home, food source, and means of spreading, all in one. Host-targeted bait boxes take the common rodent bait box design and add an extra element: a cloth wick soaked in tick-killing insecticide that the animal must contact on its way in and out of the box. Ticks that subsequently attach to the animal die after exposure to the insecticide. 

Such bait boxes have been in production since 2002, but early designs left them prone to damage by squirrels and other large animals. In 2012, a new version, the SELECT Tick Control System (TCS) was introduced by Tick Box Technology Corporation (Norwalk, Conn.), featuring a two-piece metal cover to prevent such damage. That improvement appears to have greatly increased their viability, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Tick-borne Diseases Program in Monmouth County, New Jersey, who helped test the SELECT TCS boxes. 

Their study, published today in the Journal of Medical Entomology https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/3070958/Evaluation-of-the-SELECT-Tick-Control-System-TCS-a, shows that the host-targeted tick control boxes significantly reduced the prevalence of ticks on residential properties where they were deployed. After four nine-week deployments, two each conducted in 2012 and 2013, tick abundance was reduced 97 percent in 2014 on treated properties. 

"These results demonstrate that SELECT TCS may provide a significant reduction in exposure to host-seeking ticks, while reducing the use of pesticide compared with traditional area-wide chemical control," the authors of the study write. 

The researchers deployed the bait boxes on 12 residential, woodland-adjacent properties in Ocean and Monmouth counties in New Jersey in 2012 and 10 properties in 2013. After placing the boxes, they returned periodically to measure whether and how many of the boxes had been visited by animals. Before and after the test periods, they also trapped mice and chipmunks to measure their tick infestations, on both the treated properties and on untreated land for comparison. The researchers also collected tick samples on the treated and untreated properties, before and after deployment of the bait boxes, to measure tick prevalence. 

Because host-targeted bait boxes affect ticks in their larval and nymphal life stages, the method takes longer to affect tick populations than other management methods, the researchers note. And they also suggest further research is needed to measure the optimal density of boxes and their specific effect on the prevalence of disease such as Lyme and babesiosis in ticks and hosts. 

But, the results of this study are promising, the study concludes. "SELECT TCS appears to offer an effective alternative, delayed efficacy notwithstanding, to the use of area application of acaricide in residential situations." 

Entomological Society of America 
3 Park Place, Suite 307 
Annapolis, MD 21401-3722 
Press release source: http://tinyurl.com/jc4z5rq http://tinyurl.com/jc4z5rq 

Microbe-Microbe and Host-Microbe Interactions Drive Microbiome Dysbiosis and Inflammatory Processes

 Microbe-Microbe and Host-Microbe Interactions Drive Microbiome Dysbiosis and Inflammatory Processes - Amy D Proal - Discovery Medicine

An extensive microbiome comprised of bacteria, viruses, bacteriophages, and fungi is now understood to persist in nearly every human body site, including tissue and blood. The genomes of these microbes continually interact with the human genome in order to regulate .

http://www.discoverymedicine.com/Amy-D-Proal/2017/01/microbe-microbe-and-host-microbe-interactions-drive-microbiome-dysbiosis-and-inflammatory-processes/

 

 

QUOTE-  "This is the first case in the literature that has captured the electrocardiographic evolution of Lyme carditis, day by day until complete resolution."

Am J Emerg Med. 2017 Mar 1. pii: S0735-6757(17)30165-1. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2017.02.052. [Epub ahead of print]

Electrocardiographic progression of acute Lyme disease.

Fuster LS1, Gul EE1, Baranchuk A2.

Author information

1

Heart Rhythm Service, Kingston General Hospital, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

2

Heart Rhythm Service, Kingston General Hospital, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: barancha@kgh.kari.net.

Abstract

Lyme carditis poses a challenge to physicians given dramatic clinical presentations like the one presented in this case. 

Quite frequently, these young patients are implanted with permanent pacemakers; given lack of knowledge on the transient nature of the cardiac conduction system inflammation. 

This is the first case in the literature that has captured the electrocardiographic evolution of Lyme carditis, day by day until complete resolution.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PMID:

 

28279540

 

DOI:

 

10.1016/j.ajem.2017.02.052

Link Here

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28279540

Legal precedent for SSDI being awarded for ILADS-diagnosed Lyme patients

TOUCHED BY LYME: Lyme disability ruling is a positive step

Barbara Arnold, an attorney in Oakland, California, specializes in helping people get Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits after Lyme and related diseases force them out of their jobs. She has personal experience with chronic Lyme disease, being a patient herself, and having volunteered for years as a Lyme patient support group leader. She has also testified before state and municipal government officials about the needs of people with tick-borne illness.

Recently, Ms. Arnold's work in representing a Lyme patient plaintiff before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has led to a court order recognizing that chronic Lyme disease can provide a legal basis for a claim for federal disability benefits.

See the rest of the story, and important links to cases:

https://www.lymedisease.org/touched-by-lyme-ssdi/

Wearable Sensors Spot Lyme Disease - IEEE Spectrum

Wearable Sensors Spot Lyme Disease

http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/consumer-electronics/portable-devices/wearable-sensors-spot-lyme-disease

Bob C.

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Bob Cowart
Email: bob@cowart.com
Phone: 510-540-6667
Books: http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Cowart/e/B001HOJ3ZQ
Blog: http://bobcowart.blogspot.com 
Facebook: bcowart1
Twitter: @bobcowart