New book about deficiencies in generic drugs

There are many deficiencies in international generic drugs. This book addresses some of these issues.

 

Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom

In this sometimes frightening book, Eban delves into the dangerous market of generic pharmaceutical drugs. 
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2019-12-10/bottle-lies-inside-story-generic-drug-boom

Paper-based Lyme tests available

https://phys.org/news/2019-12-paper-based-lyme-disease-early-stages.html 

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20191218/New-paper-based-test-for-early-Lyme-diagnosis.aspx 

Point-of-Care Serodiagnostic Test for Early-Stage Lyme Disease Using a Multiplexed Paper-Based Immunoassay and Machine Learning

Deep Brain Stimulation impacts ability to swim

The electronic implants reduced Parkinson's symptoms, but also erased some patients' ability to swim.

(C) NY Times

A surgical team prepared a patient for deep brain stimulation surgery in Hungary. Doctors warn that several patients who were good swimmers and had an implant to ease their Parkinson's symptoms were unable to swim when the implants were on.Credit...Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

By Denise Grady

• Nov. 27, 2019
  
  
  A lifelong swimmer leapt into deep water near his lakeside home, and was horrified to find himself completely unable to swim. Had his wife not rescued him, he might have drowned.
  
  
  He had recently received an electronic brain implant to control tremors and other symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and somehow the signals from the device had knocked out his ability to coordinate his arms and legs for swimming.

He was one of nine patients, all good swimmers despite having Parkinson's, who had the same strange, dangerous side effect from deep brain stimulators.

Three of them tried turning off the stimulators, and immediately could swim again, according to an article in the journal Neurology by a medical team from the University of Zurich.

Read the rest of the story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/health/swimming-Parkinsons-brain-implants.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Launch of a NEW group to improve Lyme identification and treatment

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/advocates-launch-national-group-to-improve-identification-treatment-of-lyme-disease-300945163.

Dusulfiram--New hope for Lyme and coinfections treatment?

Disulfiram--breakthrough drug for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases? Early reports show promising results. Disulfiram--breakthrough drug for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases?

Gut Bacteria Linked to Depression Identified

"Gut Bacteria Linked to Depression Identified." NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 4 February 2019.

<http://neurosciencenews.com/depression-gut-bacteria-10685/>.

Why Is Lyme Disease So Hard to Understand? - The Atlantic

Here's a good article about Lyme and complications, coinfections, etc…

Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts

But new insights are at last accumulating.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/09/life-with-lyme/594736/

Financial aid for Lyme patients - a new source

This is reprinted from Lyme Times Aug 8, 2019. Also see other sources for financial assistance down at the bottom of the article. 

Touched by Lyme

Dorothy Kupcha Leland

08

AUG

2019

TOUCHED BY LYME: New source of financial aid for Lyme patients

Back in 2011, a young Florida woman named Wendy Phillips traveled to Vermont with her now-husband to attend a wedding. At one point, they walked through fields and woods with the family dog. Afterwards, they were both covered with what looked like flecks of dirt.

Alas, it wasn't dirt. The tiny specks were ticks—lots of them.

For Wendy, that unfortunate incident set in motion a cascade of weird physical symptoms that ebbed and flowed over the years. At various times, she experienced memory problems, stomach aches, headaches, heart palpitations, neuropathy and seizures, to name a few.

She saw many doctors, who assured her it couldn't possibly be Lyme disease. (But they had no useful alternative diagnosis to propose.) Eventually, an ILADS-trained doctor diagnosed her with Lyme and Bartonella, and started treatment.

As her health improved with treatment, she reports, life threw another curve ball. Up until that point, her husband had seemed perfectly fine. Then, one day, he woke up in the morning and could not walk. He was subsequently diagnosed with three tick-borne infections: Lyme disease, Bartonella and Ehrlichia.

Throughout this process, Wendy says, they were shocked to discover how much Lyme patients had to pay out of pocket for appropriate treatment. And how so many people had no way to pay for the medical care they needed. She vowed to do something about it.

Fast forward to August 2019. The organization Wendy founded, the Lyme Treatment Foundation, is now accepting applications for treatment grants. Patients can receive up to $4000 towards treatment with a Lyme-literate doctor. There are no age restrictions.

The deadline for the first round of grants is September 6. Click here for details.

Other sources of financial assistance for Lyme patients

After a short hiatus, the LymeTAP program (test access program) is once again accepting applications. This program helps pay for Lyme diagnostic testing. No age restrictions.

The LymeLight Foundation provides treatment grants for young people, through age 25. Applications for the next round of grants are due August 23, 2019.

LivLyme Foundation provides treatment grants for those under age 21.

LymeAid 4 Kids provides up to $1000 for treatment of those under age 21.

Ticked Off Foundation provides grants and counseling to Lyme patients in crisis. Age 26 and above.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org's Director of Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent's Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.

Related posts:

1. TOUCHED BY LYME: Financial destruction from Lyme disease
2. TOUCHED BY LYME: IVs remain financial stumbling block for many Lyme patients
3. TOUCHED BY LYME: Financial help for Connecticut Lyme patients
4. TOUCHED BY LYME: Florida patients protest local reprinting of now-infamous Chicago Tribune article; "There's been enough bashing of Lyme patients."

Lyme Disease Fact Sheet: College of Dental Hygienists, Canada

Lyme Disease Fact Sheet: College of Dental Hygienists, Canada:

http://www.cdho.org/Advisories/CDHO_Factsheet_Lyme_Disease.pdf

Lyme disease: considerations for dentistry  (1996!)

Dentists can help fight against tickborne diseases
Lyme Disease Often Resides in the Mouth

Did You Know About The Chronic Lyme And Dental Health Connection?

National Listing of Lyme Literate MDs (LLMDs)

Here is an excellent link to many, many Lyme-literate MDs, NDs and other medical associates in various states around the USA, including some notes about them, how they work, what they charge, etc.  

There are also some other useful links regarding what to do if you get bitten, how to protect against ticks, how to treat chronic Lyme disease (Joe Burrascano's Lyme Treatment protocol), etc. 

This is a goldmine of information. I suggest you bookmark it. 

https://sites.google.com/site/lymedoctors/home?authuser=0

-=Bob=-

Virginia: Looking for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Viriginia: State health officials search for evidence of rare tick-borne disease. Read what Rocky Mountain spotted fever can do to a human. 

https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/state-health-officials-search-for-evidence-of-rare-tick-borne/article_9f0aae35-b7bd-5c38-b57c-3ddccc152593.html 

-Bob

Homeopathy successful in a Parkinson’s case

I have not tried this myself but have been considering it. I came across this article today so I am posting the link to it for anyone who might be interested. 

-Bob

https://thehomeopathiccollege.org/tautopathy/parkinsons-disease-cured-homeopathy/

Lyme can cause fatal seizures

I am posting this to my blog because this tragic story and information about Lyme could save someone's life.

-Bob

https://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/letter-lyme-disease-can-cause-seizures 

 

Editor:

My family faced a tragedy, and the information that I learned needs to be brought to the public's attention.

In June, my 19-year-old daughter had a seizure that killed her. She was having seizures for a few months and was being treated for them. However, toxicology tests revealed that she had Lyme disease, which can cause deadly seizures. We did not know that, and she regularly went hiking.

The public must be made aware that Lyme disease can cause seizures. If it is properly treated, a person can be restored to good health.

Diane Yoder

Upper Bern Township 

 

 

Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases

Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases

Human Seroprevalence of Tick-Borne Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Borrelia burgdorferi, and Rickettsia Species in Northern California

Emily L. Pascoe

, 

Nicole Stephenson

, 

Ashley Abigana

, 

Deana Clifford

, 

Mourad Gabriel

, 

Greta Wengert

, 

Richard Brown

, 

Mark Higley

, 

Evan M. Bloch

, and 

Janet E. Foley

Published Online:11 Jul 2019https://doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2019.2489

Abstract

There is a paucity of data on human exposure to tick-borne pathogens in the western United States. This study reports prevalence of antibodies against three clinically important tick-borne pathogens (Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Rickettsia spp.) among 249 people in five counties in northern California. Individuals from Humboldt County were recruited and answered a questionnaire to assess risk of exposure to tick-borne pathogens. Samples from other counties were obtained from a blood bank and were anonymized. Seventeen (6.8%) samples were seropositive for antibodies against at least one pathogen: five for A. phagocytophilum, eight for B. burgdorferi, and four for Rickettsia spp. Women and people aged 26–35 had higher seroprevalence compared to other demographic groups. Santa Cruz County had no seropositive individuals, northern Central Valley counties had three seropositive individuals (all against A. phagocytophilum), and Humboldt County had 14 (all three pathogens), a significant, four-fold elevated risk of exposure. The Humboldt County questionnaire revealed that a bird feeder in the yard was statistically associated with exposure to ticks, and lifetime number of tick bites was associated with increasing age, time watching wildlife, and time hiking. Three-quarters of respondents were concerned about tick-associated disease, 81.0% reported experiencing tick bites, and 39.0% of those bitten reported a tick-borne disease symptom, including skin lesions (76.4%), muscle aches (49.1%), joint pain (25.5%), or fever (23.6%). Despite high levels of concern, many individuals who had been bitten by a tick were not tested for a tick-borne pathogen, including those with consistent symptoms. We highlight the need for further research and dissemination of information to residents and physicians in Northern California regarding tick-associated disease, so that appropriate medical attention can be rapidly sought and administered.

Mounting Evidence That Parkinson's Starts in The Gut - Not The Brain

from - https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-mounting-evidence-that-parkinson-s-starts-in-the-gut-not-the-brain?fbclid=IwAR3uTCY-8-WCsO0XiNfUrxpZuWB2G-mxfAe0FhSFtUWG5Y4WT0_od3xkKTc

There's Mounting Evidence That Parkinson's Starts in The Gut - Not The Brain

(c)DAVID NIELD
17 MAR 2019

Scientists have found mounting evidence that Parkinson's could start in the gut before spreading to the brain, with one study in 2017 observing lower rates of the disease in patients who had undergone a procedure called a truncal vagotomy.

The operation removes sections of the vagus nerve - which links the digestive tract with the brain - and over the course of a five-year study, patients who had this link completely removed were 40 percent less likely to develop Parkinson's than those who hadn't.

According to the team led by Bojing Liu from the Karolinska Instituet in Sweden, that's a significant difference, and it backs up earlier work linking the development of the brain disease to something happening inside our bellies.

If we can understand more about how this link operates, we might be better able to stop it.

"These results provide preliminary evidence that Parkinson's disease may start in the gut," said Liu.

"Other evidence for this hypothesis is that people with Parkinson's disease often have gastrointestinal problems such as constipation, that can start decades before they develop the disease."

The vagus nerve helps control various unconscious processes like heart rate and digestion, and resecting parts of it in a vagotomy is usually done to remove an ulcer if the stomach is producing a dangerous level of acid.

For this study, the researchers looked at 40 years of data from Swedish national registers, to compare 9,430 people who had a vagotomy against 377,200 people from the general population who hadn't.

The likelihood of people in these two groups to develop Parkinson's was statistically similar at first - until the researchers looked at the type of vagotomy that had been carried out on the smaller group.

In total, 19 people (just 0.78 percent of the sample) developed Parkinson's more than five years after a truncal (complete) vagotomy, compared to 60 people (1.08 percent) who had a selective vagotomy.

Compare that to the 3,932 (1.15 percent) of people who had no surgery and developed Parkinson's after being monitored for at least five years, and it seems clear that the vagus nerve is playing some kind of role here.

So what's going on here? One hypothesis the scientists put forward is that gut proteins start folding in the wrong way, and that genetic 'mistake' gets carried up to the brain somehow, with the mistake being spread from cell to cell.

Parkinson's develops as neurons in the brain get killed off, leading to tremors, stiffness, and difficulty with movement - but scientists aren't sure how it's caused in the first place. The new study gives them a helpful tip about where to look.

The Swedish research isn't alone in its conclusions. In 2016, tests on mice showed links between certain mixes of gut bacteria and a greater likelihood of developing Parkinson's.

What's more, earlier in 2017 a study in the US identified differences between the gut bacteria of those with Parkinson's compared with those who didn't have the condition.

All of this is useful for scientists looking to prevent Parkinson's, because if we know where it starts, we can block off the source.

But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves - as the researchers behind the new study point out, Parkinson's is complex condition, and they weren't able to include controls for all potential factors, including caffeine intake and smoking.

It's also worth noting that Parkinson's is classed as a syndrome: a collection of different but related symptoms that may have multiple causes.

"Much more research is needed to test this theory and to help us understand the role this may play in the development of Parkinson's," said Lui.

The research was published in Neurology.

A version of this story was first published in April 2017.

Cranberry Compounds Help Prevent Antibiotic Resistance - The People's Pharmacy

Both in test tubes and in insect models, cranberry compounds keep infectious bacteria from developing resistance to common antibiotics.

As bacteria develop resistance to an increasing number of antibiotics, doctors have been searching for a way to counter antibiotic resistance and increase the power of antimicrobial agents. This is a complicated problem, however. As a last resort, researchers have turned to bacteria-munching viruses called bacteriophages. On the other hand, new antibiotics appear to be far in the future. Could cranberry compounds hold a key against resistance?

Read the rest of the story here:

https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2019/05/29/cranberry-compounds-help-prevent-antibiotic-resistance/

What is the future outlook for Lyme disease and tick-borne illnesses?

Lyme Disease educational opportunities for Health Care Professionals and Patients   |  View Online

May 29, 2019 Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center     What is the future outlook for Lyme disease and tick-borne illnesses? The cumulative prevalence of chronic illness due to Lyme disease in the US is high and growing. One study indicates prevalence may be over a million and as high as 1.9 million in 2020. In the future, geographic expansion of ticks and tick-borne diseases will continue, and climate change will likely further exacerbate the problem. More ticks More regions More tick-borne diseases More people sick with Lyme disease and tick-borne diseases Solutions our Center provides Improved education and awareness Enhanced rash recognition SLICE Studies biorepository 7000 well-characterized individual blood and tissue samples collected for research SLICE Studies research and collaborations Multidisciplinary research to better understand and validate disease mechanisms and the patient experience Research toward improved diagnostics and treatments Programs with 22 different researchers  18 different institutions or affiliations   Visit Our Site for the Latest in Education and Research Updates     Rash Recognition   Curious how we are improving rash recognition? Interested in how our program is helping our neighbors to the north?    Learn More in Our Spring Newsletter       June 14, 2019 : Lyme Disease Topics at Johns Hopkins   Lyme Disease affects over 300,000 new patients every year which are clustered in and around the major metropolitan regions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. Timely diagnosis of acute Lyme Disease depends on the accurate identification of the early erythema migrans skin lesion. Untreated, Lyme Disease can progress to disseminated infection involving the nervous system, heart, and joints. Antibiotic treatment of Lyme Disease is effective in resolving the objective manifestations of infection, however, a subset of patients develop persistent symptoms called Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS). Experts from Johns Hopkins have carefully described the patient symptoms, physical findings and laboratory finding in a well document case series of patients with PTLDS.The diagnosis of all manifestations of Lyme Disease and PTLDS in the clinical practice of medicine is challenging and this course seeks to provide education to healthcare practitioners who may see patients with the spectrum of illness associated with Lyme Disease and PTLDS.  Target Health Care Professional Audience:  Family Practice, General Practice, Infectious Diseases, Nurse Practitioner, Rheumatology        Learn More and Register Today     Live Online Webinar     Lyme Disease Awareness Webinar May 30, 2019 12:00 PM   Find out what you need to know about Lyme disease and tick-borne illness to help keep you and your loved ones safe while enjoying the outdoors.   John Aucott, MD;     Mark Soloski, Ph.D.       Learn More         Join the Fight Against Lyme!   Give Today

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