Archive for April, 2019

The Powerful Aspirin Alternative Your Doctor Never Told You About

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/powerful-aspirin-alternative-grows-trees-1?

The Powerful Aspirin Alternative Your Doctor Never Told You About

Friday, April 12th 2019 at 4:15 am
Written By: Sayer Ji, Founder
“© [Originally published: 2017-07-23, Article updated: 2019-04-11] GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.”
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Given the newly released cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines recommending against daily low-dose aspirin use, natural, safe and effective alternatives are needed now more than ever. Thankfully, one particularly therapeutic alternative has been known about by the biomedical research community for decades…

In a previous article titled “The Evidence Against Aspirin and For Natural Alternatives,” we discussed the clear and present danger linked with the use of aspirin as well as several clinically proven alternatives that feature significant side benefits as opposed to aspirin’s many known side effects.

Since writing this article, even more evidence has accumulated indicating that aspirin’s risks outweigh its benefits. Most notably, a 15-year Dutch study published in the journal Heart found that among 27,939 healthy female health professionals (average age 54) randomized to receive either 100 mg of aspirin every day or a placebo the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding outweighed the benefit of the intervention for colorectal cancer and cardiovascular disease prevention in those under 65 years of age. Most recently, last month, new cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines submitted jointly by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Associated and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, earlier this year, contradict decades of routine medical advice by explicitly advising against the daily use of low-dose or baby aspirin (75-100 mg) as a preventive health strategy against stroke or heart attack, in most cases.

Of course, aspirin is not alone as far as dangerous side effects are concerned. The entire non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) category of prescription and over-the-counter drugs is fraught with serious danger. Ibuprofen, for instance, is known to kill thousands each year, and is believed no less dangerous than Merck’s COX-2 inhibitor NSAID drug Vioxx which caused between 88,000-140,000 cases of serious heart disease in the five years it was on the market (1999-2004). Tylenol is so profoundly toxic to the liver that contributing writer Dr. Michael Murray recently asked in his Op-Ed piece, “Is it Time for the FDA to Remove Tylenol From the Market?” Just as serious are tylenol’s empathy destroying properties that were only identified four years ago.

Given the dire state of affairs associated with pharmaceutical intervention for chronic pain issues, what can folks do who don’t want to kill themselves along with their pain?

Pine Bark Extract (Pycnogenol) Puts Aspirin To Shame

When it comes to aspirin alternatives, one promising contender is pycnogenol, a powerful antioxidant extracted from French maritime pine bark, backed by over 40 years of research, the most compelling of which we have aggregated on GreenMedInfo.com here: Pycnogenol Research. Amazingly, you will find research indexed there showing it may have value for over 80 health conditions.

In 1999, a remarkable study published in the journal Thrombotic Research found that pycnogenol was superior (i.e. effective at a lower dosage) to aspirin at inhibiting smoking-induced clotting, without the significant (and potentially life-threatening) increase in bleeding time associated with aspirin use. The abstract is well worth reading in its entirety:

“The effects of a bioflavonoid mixture, Pycnogenol, were assessed on platelet function in humans. Cigarette smoking increased heart rate and blood pressure. These increases were not influenced by oral consumption of Pycnogenol or Aspirin just before smoking. However, increased platelet reactivity yielding aggregation 2 hours after smoking was prevented by 500 mg Aspirin or 100 mg Pycnogenol in 22 German heavy smokers. In a group of 16 American smokers, blood pressure increased after smoking. It was unchanged after intake of 500 mg Aspirin or 125 mg Pycnogenol. In another group of 19 American smokers, increased platelet aggregation was more significantly reduced by 200 than either 150 mg or 100 mg Pycnogenol supplementation. This study showed that a single, high dose, 200 mg Pycnogenol, remained effective for over 6 days against smoking-induced platelet aggregation. Smoking increased platelet aggregation that was prevented after administration of 500 mg Aspirin and 125 mg Pycnogenol. Thus, smoking-induced enhanced platelet aggregation was inhibited by 500 mg Aspirin as well as by a lower range of 100-125 mg Pycnogenol. Aspirin significantly (p<0.001) increased bleeding time from 167 to 236 seconds while Pycnogenol did not. These observations suggest an advantageous risk-benefit ratio for Pycnogenol.” [emphasis added]

As emphasized in bold above, pycnogenol unlike aspirin did not significantly increase bleeding time. This has profound implications, as aspirin’s potent anti-platelet/’blood thinning’ properties can also cause life-threatening hemorrhagic events. If this study is accurate and pycnogenol is more effective at decreasing pathologic platelet aggregation at a lower dose without causing the increased bleeding linked to aspirin, then it is clearly a superior natural alternative worthy of far more attention by the conventional medical establishment and research community than it presently receives.

Not Just A Drug Alternative

Pycnogenol, like so many other natural interventions, has a wide range of side benefits that may confer significant advantage when it comes to reducing cardiovascular disease risk. For instance, pycnogenol is also:

  • Blood Pressure Reducing/Endothelial Function Enhancer: A number of clinical studies indicate that pycnogenol is therapeutic for those suffering with hypertension. Pycnogenol actually addresses a root cause of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in general, namely, endothelial dysfunction (the inability of the inner lining of the blood vessels to function correctly, e.g. fully dilate).[1] It has been shown to prevent damage in microcirculation in hypertensive patients, as well as reducing the dose of blood pressure drugs in hypertensive patients,[2] including hypertensive diabetic patients.[3] It has even been found to reduce intraocular hypertension found in glaucoma patients.[4]
  • Anti-Inflammatory Effects: There is a growing appreciation among the medical community that inflammation contributes to cardiovascular disease. Several markers, including C-reactive protein are now being fore grounded as being at least as important in determining cardiovascular disease risk as various blood lipids and/or their ratios, such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Pycnogenol has been found to reduce C-reactive protein in hypertensive patients.[5] Pycnogenol has been found to rapidly modulate downward (inhibit) both Cox-1 and Cox-2 enzyme activity in human subjects, resulting in reduced expression of these inflammation-promoting enzymes within 30 minutes post-ingestion.[6]Another observed anti-inflammatory effect of pycnogenol is its ability to down-regulate the class of inflammatory enzymes known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs).[7]Pycnogenol has also been found to significantly inhibit NF-kappaB activation, a key body-wide regulator of inflammation levels whose overexpression and/or dysregulation may result in pathologic cardiovascular manifestations.[8] Finally, pycnogenol has been found to reduce fibrinogen levels, a glycoprotein that contributes to the formation of blood clots; fibrinogen has been identified as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease.[9]
  • The Ideal Air Travel Companion: In a previous article entitled, “How Pine Bark Extract Could Save Air Travelers Lives,” we delve into a compelling body of research that indicates pycnogenol may be the perfect preventive remedy for preventing flight-associated thrombosis, edema, and concerns related to radiotoxicity and immune suppression.

Given the evidence for pycnogenol’s pleotrophic cardioprotective properties, we hope that pycnogenol will become more commonly recommended by health care practitioners as the medical paradigm continues to evolve past its reliance on synthetic chemicals, eventually (we hope) returning to natural, increasingly evidence-based interventions. However, it is important that we don’t fall prey to the one-disease-one-pill model, convincing ourselves to focus on popping pills – this time natural ones – as simply countermeasures or ‘insurance’ against the well-known harms associated with the standard American diet, lack of exercise and uncontrolled stress. The ultimate goal is to remove the need for pills altogether, focusing on preventing cardiovascular disease from the ground up and inside out, e.g. letting high quality food, clean water and air, and a healthy attitude nourish and sustain your health and well-being.

References

[1] Ximing Liu, Junping Wei, Fengsen Tan, Shengming Zhou, Gudrun Würthwein, Peter Rohdewald. Pycnogenol, French maritime pine bark extract, improves endothelial function of hypertensive patients. Life Sci. 2004 Jan 2;74(7):855-62. PMID: 14659974

[2] Gianni Belcaro, Maria Rosaria Cesarone, Andrea Ricci, Umberto Cornelli, Peter Rodhewald, Andrea Ledda, Andrea Di Renzo, Stefano Stuard, Marisa Cacchio, Giulia Vinciguerra, Giuseppe Gizzi, Luciano Pellegrini, Mark Dugall, Filiberto Fano. Control of edema in hypertensive subjects treated with calcium antagonist (nifedipine) or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors with Pycnogenol. Clin Appl Thromb Hemost. 2006 Oct;12(4):440-4. PMID: 17000888

[3] Sherma Zibadi, Peter J Rohdewald, Danna Park, Ronald Ross Watson. Reduction of cardiovascular risk factors in subjects with type 2 diabetes by Pycnogenol supplementation. Nutr Res. 2008 May;28(5):315-20. PMID: 19083426

[4] Robert D Steigerwalt, Belcaro Gianni, Morazzoni Paolo, Ezio Bombardelli, Carolina Burki, Frank Schönlau. Effects of Mirtogenol on ocular blood flow and intraocular hypertension in asymptomatic subjects. Mol Vis. 2008;14:1288-92. Epub 2008 Jul 10. PMID: 18618008

[5] Maria Rosaria Cesarone, Gianni Belcaro, Stefano Stuard, Frank Schönlau, Andrea Di Renzo, Maria Giovanna Grossi, Mark Dugall, Umberto Cornelli, Marisa Cacchio, Giuseppe Gizzi, Luciano Pellegrini. Kidney flow and function in hypertension: protective effects of pycnogenol in hypertensive participants–a controlled study. J Cardiovasc Pharmacol Ther. 2010 Mar;15(1):41-6. Epub 2010 Jan 22. PMID: 20097689

[6] Angelika Schäfer, Zuzana Chovanová, Jana Muchová, Katarína Sumegová, Anna Liptáková, Zdenka Duracková, Petra Högger. Inhibition of COX-1 and COX-2 activity by plasma of human volunteers after ingestion of French maritime pine bark extract (Pycnogenol). Biomed Pharmacother. 2006 Jan;60(1):5-9. Epub 2005 Oct 26. PMID: 16330178

[7] Tanja Grimm, Angelika Schäfer, Petra Högger. Antioxidant activity and inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases by metabolites of maritime pine bark extract (pycnogenol). Wei Sheng Yan Jiu. 2011 Jan;40(1):103-6. PMID: 14990359

[8] Tanja Grimm, Zuzana Chovanová, Jana Muchová, Katarína Sumegová, Anna Liptáková, Zdenka Duracková, Petra Högger. Inhibition of NF-kappaB activation and MMP-9 secretion by plasma of human volunteers after ingestion of maritime pine bark extract (Pycnogenol). J Inflamm (Lond). 2006;3:1. Epub 2006 Jan 27. PMID: 16441890

[9] G Belcaro, M R Cesarone, S Errichi, C Zulli, B M Errichi, G Vinciguerra, A Ledda, A Di Renzo, S Stuard, M Dugall, L Pellegrini, G Gizzi, E Ippolito, A Ricci, M Cacchio, G Cipollone, I Ruffini, F Fano, M Hosoi, P Rohdewald. Variations in C-reactive protein, plasma free radicals and fibrinogen values in patients with osteoarthritis treated with Pycnogenol. Redox Rep. 2008;13(6):271-6. PMID: 19017467

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/08/three-alternative-strategies-that-can-address-severe-chronic-pain/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/09/live-webinar-the-pain-solution-with-dr-bill-rawls/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/10/fatigue-joint-pain-and-low-testosterone-had-lyme-podcast/

 

Category:

Inflammation, Pain Management, research, Supplements, Treatment

It’s True: Armed SWAT Team in Arizona Breaks Down Door of Family With Unvaccinated Child

https://thevaccinereaction.org/2019/04/armed-swat-team-in-arizona-breaks-down-door-of-family-with-unvaccinated-child/

Armed SWAT Team in Arizona Breaks Down Door of Family with Unvaccinated Child

by Barbara Loe Fisher
Published April 11, 2019
Armed SWAT Team in Arizona Breaks Down Door of Family with Unvaccinated Child

Just after 1 a.m. the morning of Feb. 25, 2019, a SWAT team with guns drawn broke down the door of a suburban home in Chandler, Arizona where parents were caring for an unvaccinated child with a fever. The armed policemen had a “temporary custody notice” from a judge to remove a two year old from the home after his mother refused to obey the order of a doctor to take the child to the hospital for testing earlier in the day. The child and his siblings, ages four and six, were taken into state custody and placed in foster homes and the mother and father both have been charged with child abuse.1 2 3 4 5

The story began that day when the mother, who is pregnant, took her toddler to Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, AZ after his fever rose to over 100 F. When the doctor asked the mother if the child was vaccinated and she said, “No,” the doctor told the mother to take her son to the emergency room at the Banner Cardon Children’s Medical Center in Mesa, AZ to be tested for meningitis.

According to The Arizona Republic, the mother said that after the doctor’s office visit, the child was laughing and playing with his siblings and, when she took his temperature again, it was near normal. She then called the doctor to say she would not be taking her son to the emergency room and also expressed worry that, because her son was not vaccinated, she would get in trouble with the Department of Child Services (DCS). When the mother did not follow the doctor’s orders to take the child to the hospital emergency room, the doctor contacted DCS.

DCS called the Chandler Police and “requested officers to check on the welfare of a two year old infant.” At 10:30 p.m., two police officers knocked on the family’s door but nobody answered. After a DCS caseworker arrived, a call was made to the doctor, who still insisted the child should be taken to the hospital. However, in a phone conversation between one of the police officers and the child’s father, who was inside the home, the father said that his son’s “fever broke and he was fine.” There are indications that the father was concerned about the high cost of an emergency room visit in light of the fact the child’s fever was down and he was acting normally.6

Just after midnight, the DCS caseworker obtained a “temporary custody notice” signed by a judge and police officers called the criminal investigations bureau. About 1:30 a.m., a SWAT team with guns drawn and yelling “Chandler Police Department” kicked down the family’s door. A video recorded by a security surveillance camera shows the father emerging walking backwards with his hands up and being immediately handcuffed, as the mother follows with her son in her arms.

The officers reported they found two other young children in their beds, one of whom was sick and had vomited, and that the home was “messy.” All three children were taken to the children’s medical center and then placed in foster care in separate homes.

Juvenile Court Hearing 10 Days Later

At a juvenile court hearing 10 days later, the parents asked for their children to be returned. Attending the hearing was state Rep. Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa) and members of Arizona DCS Oversight Group, which is composed of Arizona citizens concerned about abuse of power by DCS state government officials. According to The Arizona Republic covering the hearing, DCS was represented by a lawyer for the state Attorney General’s Office.7

The state’s attorney asked the judge to close the hearing to the public, commenting that members of the news media were in the audience and the family had spoken with the media, which he said was not in the “best interest” of the children. Judge Jennifer Green declined and pointed out that, in Arizona, “we like our courts to be open.”

The parents’ attorneys said they were unaware of restrictions about speaking with the media and that the parents had been allowed only one visit with their two older children since the night they were taken but had not seen their youngest child at all. Apparently, DCS officials told the parents they could not see their two year old son, who did not test positive for meningitis but had a common respiratory infection (RSV), because he was at a “medical appointment” the day of the scheduled visitation.

The state’s attorney opposed returning the children to their parents. He said the parents were “hostile” and not cooperating with DCS and they had brought members of the DCS Oversight Group to a DCS visit, while the grandfather had tried to videotape a meeting with DCS.

At the request of DCS, the judge approved psychological evaluations for both parents, ordered the father to continue drug and alcohol testing, and reminded the parents and grandparents that they were no longer in control of the children’s medical and health decisions, which were now being made by the state.

Doctor Professor: “I’ll Have to Call Child Protective Services”

A New York Times article quoted Seattle Children’s Hospital emergency room doctor and University of Washington School of Medicine bioethics professor Douglas S. Diekema, MD, who commented on the case. He appeared to side with the doctor who reported the mother to DCS for failing to follow orders.

Dr. Diekema said he personally encounters parents refusing a recommended treatment plan and sometimes will get a second physician’s opinion to convince the parents to comply so he can “avoid coercion.” Still, he does recall having told parents:

I hate to say this, but I have to let you know that if you walk out of this emergency room department, without agreeing to something that makes me comfortable, I’ll have to call child protective services.8

Arizona State Rep: “We used A SWAT Team on a family with a child with a high fever”

According to The Arizona Republic, after the early March juvenile court hearing, Rep. Townsend was interviewed outside the courthouse and said she was disturbed by the case.

“It was brought to my attention that these parents may have been targeted by the medical community because they hadn’t vaccinated their children,” but parents who don’t vaccinate their children because of medical concerns aren’t criminals and shouldn’t be treated as such.

She also questioned whether DCS labeling the family as “hostile” was appropriate.

“It doesn’t say anywhere that after your kids are taken, after police bust down your door, that you have to be nice to DCS to get your kids back.” Critical of the use of force, Townsend added:

We’re not talking cartels holding someone who’s been kidnapped, we’re not talking about a drug bust, we’re not talking about a flight risk. We’re not talking about any of that. This was a family with a child who has a fever…We used a SWAT team on a family with a child with a high fever.”

Rep. Townsend helped write legislation requiring DCS to obtain a warrant before removing a child from their parents or guardians in non-emergencies. She said,

“It was not the intent of (the law) that the level of force after obtaining a warrant was to bring in a SWAT team. The imagery is horrifying. What has our country become that we can tear down the doorway of a family who has a child with a high fever that disagrees with their doctor?”

During discussions in the Arizona legislature this year about whether vaccine exemptions should be restricted or expanded, Rep. Townsend, who has a vaccine injured child, defended parents’ right to make voluntary vaccine use decisions for their minor children.  She said:

Our country is sovereign, our State is sovereign, our family is sovereign, our God is sovereign and the most holy and sacred last frontier of sovereignty is our own body. Dearest friends and people of Arizona, it seems we are prepared to give up our liberty, the very sovereignty of our body, because of measles. I read yesterday that the idea is being floated that if not enough people get vaccinated, then we are going to force them to…. I am going to ask you to educate your children, educate your family, educate those around you about the fundamentals of liberty and what that means. It seems we have lost those fundamentals along the way and are chasing our fears.9

Children Placed in Custody of Grandparents

On Mar. 15, DCS agreed to allow the three children to live with the children’s paternal grandparents but the state still retains custody. In a statement sent to The Republic, the children’s father said in part:

 We have been through a very traumatic experience with our encounter with DCS. We would like other parents out there to know and realize the amount of power DCS has over the welfare of your children.  Even though we remain confident in our innocence through our case, it is immediately an uphill struggle of what to do or not to do….The process of removal in our opinion was uncalled for and we would like to see the laws/process change when dealing with expedited removal of children. Our children have sure been through a traumatizing experience and hope they have not been harmed psychologically or emotionally as we are a very happy family who love each other and would do anything for each other.

On Mar. 28, 2019, the Chandler Police recommended the mother and father be charged with child abuse.10

References:

1 Nanez DM. A couple decided not to take their feverish child to the hospital. Hours later police kicked down their door. The Arizona Republic Mar. 25, 2019.
2 Navarro D. SWAT Team with Guns Drawn Raids Arizona Home for Toddler with Fever. ABC News Mar. 28, 2019.
3 Farzan AN. Armed police bust down the door at Arizona home and seize unvaccinated toddler. The Washington Post Mar. 29, 2019.
4 Hassan A. With Guns Drawn, Officers Raided Home to Get Feverish Child. The New York Times Mar. 29, 2019.
5 Billeaud J. Police in Arizona Kick in Door to Bring Sick Boy to Hospital. Associated Press Mar. 30, 2019.
6 See Footnote 3.
7 See Footnote 1.
8 See Footnote 4.
9 Innes S. State Rep Kelly Townsend says mandatory vaccinations are ‘Communist.’ The Arizona Republic Mar. 1, 2019.
10 Roberts L. Were Chandler police who raided a home of toddler with high fever wrong? No….and yes. The Arizona Republic Mar. 29, 2019.

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**Comment**

I’ve got news for you.  This isn’t going to stop with vaccinations.  It will continue to snowball into every avenue of health.  As it stands, parents around the world are being accused of child abuse due to using treatments for Lyme/MSIDS outside the accepted narrative:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/24/dutch-lyme-patients-accused-of-child-abuse/

I just read a paper written by an advocate that this is also happening in Canada.

I’m also aware of personal cases where this has happened in the U.S.

This is why I support the Parental Rights Amendment so parents are not forced to comply with the arbitrary U.N. Rights of the Child which effectively imposes international law upon families which is NOT in the best interest of children.  The U.N. Rights of the Child are being adopted piecemeal in every state in the nation. For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/20/why-we-need-the-parental-rights-amendment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/21/parental-rights-in-medical-settings/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/18/first-peer-reviewed-study-of-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-children/  For families struggling with Lyme Disease, they are already fighting a system that doesn’t know how to cope with very ill children who often can’t keep up. Their little bodies are in a raging war of epic proportions. They are often bullied and mocked not only by peers but even by teachers and standard medical professionals who believe they are just being lazy. Infected, exhausted parents often don’t have the energy to fight the “mandatory vaccine” regimens being pushed upon them so just go along rather than weighing in their child’s current health issues. The entire system is stacked against them – forcing many to homeschool just to avoid the unbelievable pressure to conform.

BTW:  Vaccines carry risk.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/30/association-of-american-physicians-and-surgeons-statement-on-federal-vaccine-mandates/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/21/measles-propaganda-can-have-dire-public-health-ramifications/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/02/mic-drop-at-the-acip-cdc-meeting-vaccine-science-not-settled/

The elites refuse vaccines for their own children.  Maybe they know something:   https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/22/bill-gates-former-doctor-says-billionaire-refused-to-vaccinate-his-children/

Vaccines can reactivate latent infections:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/02/scottish-doctor-gives-insight-on-lyme-msids/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/24/gardasil-and-bartonella/

Sometimes when I look around I actually wonder if I still live in the United States.

 

Category:

Activism, vaccines

Lyme Disease & Corruption in Our Healthcare System

https://livingwithlyme.us/episode-65-lyme-disease-and-corruption-in-our-healthcare-system/

Episode 65: Lyme Disease and Corruption in Our Healthcare System

April 11, 2019

Cindy Kennedy, FNP, is joined by Jenna Luché-Thayer, who discusses Lyme disease and corruption in the healthcare system.Jenna is a uniquely qualified expert on the vital issues of transparency and accountability, human rights and the political representation of marginalized groups. She has over 30 years of policy and grassroots experience in 42 countries, representing all regions throughout the world, and over 75 publications.

She was the first woman to hold critical Senior advisory posts in both United Nations and U.S. government, has dedicated years combatting gender-based violence, trafficking and gender-based inequities.

Jenna established the Ad Hoc Committee for Health Equity in ICD11 Borreliosis Codes, an international, professional and all voluntary group that successful added many codes to signify Lyme borreliosis complications to the globally utilized ICD11.

Her awards include: International Woman’s Day Award for Exemplary Dedication and Contributions to Improving the Political and Legal Status of Women, Highest Ranking Technical Area in Accomplishment, Innovation and Comparative Advantage for United Nations Capital Development Fund, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society Power of Lyme Award 2018. She is the Founder of the Global Network on Institutional Discrimination, a nonprofit that helps institutions remedy entrenched practices of discrimination and cruelty toward vulnerable groups.

_______________________

For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/11/14/thayer-interview-commentary-on-tick-borne-disease-working-group/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/25/the-shortfalls-of-h-r-220-national-lyme-and-tick-borne-diseases-control-and-accountability-act-of-2019-the-devil-is-in-the-details/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/19/will-the-idsa-dare-to-give-lyme-patients-coal-for-christmas/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/16/corruption-in-the-lyme-caucus/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/14/corruption-human-rights-violations-against-lyme-doctors-scientists-and-parents-now-on-united-nations-record/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/13/1st-officially-recognized-report-on-violations-of-lyme-patients-human-rights-is-released-updating-borreliosis-diagnostic-codes/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/19/ad-hoc-committees-historical-improvement-in-the-icd-codes-for-lyme/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/02/recognition-of-lyme-borreliosis-in-11th-international-classification-of-diseases/

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme

CEO of Galaxy Diagnostics: ‘Important Research is Emerging That Implicates a Range of Fastidious, Low-level Infections in Complex Immunological Disease processes’

https://www.galaxydx.com/galaxys-president-amanda-elam-reflects-on-decade/

Amanda Elam, President and CEO of Galaxy Diagnostics, Reflects on the Past 10 Years

Amanda-headshot-298x300

Amanda Elam, President & CEO of Galaxy Diagnostics


Ten years ago, I joined the Galaxy Diagnostics founding team to make the BAPGM testingtechnology and Bartonella ePCR™ available for clinical and research use in both animal and human medicine.

After over a decade in research on entrepreneurship and innovation and multiple start-up experiences, I was excited to organize and launch a high-technology company in healthcare.

Healthcare is a complicated industry and marketplace with multiple layers of highly bureaucratic regulatory structures and multiple stakeholders, including patients, practitioners, government and third-party regulators, professional societies, medical boards, guideline writers, researchers, insurance providers, health IT providers, patient advocates, and more. Consequently, resistance to change is strong in healthcare and medicine.

As an experienced entrepreneur and a completely nerdy organizational sociologist, I was thrilled with the opportunity to work with my co-founders on this new, innovative start-up. While the lessons in entrepreneurship and medical innovation, to date, have been hard won, the positive impact on patient outcomes has been thrilling.

So, what did I learn?

Commercialization of New Tests is Hard

The hardest lesson I have learned as a Galaxy leader these last 10 years is how unbelievably difficult it is to commercialize a new medical technology. For diagnostic labs, there are four main challenges to commercializing new tests:

  1. Laboratory regulations change continuously, which dramatically increases the costs of doing business and introduces a lot of uncertainty into the odds of maintaining a sustainable business model.
  2. Medical guidelines lag behind new discoveries and raise the accepted standards for clinical evidence.
  3. Pricing standards and insurance reimbursements do not support an early-stage business model, but are instead based on high volumes of established medical tests run by very large companies.
  4. Access to patient samples and funding for clinical validation are both limited, especially in areas of new discovery and small patient populations.

Wait, wait—there’s more.

Investors will fund commercialization activities that lead quickly to revenue but are reluctant to fund the clinical research required to translate clinical tools into the marketplace. New labs are left with the enormous task of raising grant funding or bootstrapping the research studies needed for commercialization. Many never bother.

This reality places a tremendous burden on conscientious founders to make personal and financial sacrifices to commercialize new technologies “the right way” (with research and publication). In the case of emerging medical discoveries, like those surrounding tick-borne disease, founders are responsible for building markets for new technologies through healthcare provider education, often amid the highly contested terrain of expert medical opinion and patient advocacy.

Thank goodness for the NIH SBIR program, our local North Carolina Biotechnology Center, our corporate partners at Bayer Healthcare, IDEXX, the One Health Commission, our research collaborators, and our early stage investors. It is through these relationships that we have been able to cobble together the resources required to move our science, technology, and commercial offerings forward to the direct benefit of patients.

Disease vs. Infection

The most surprising lesson that I have learned from my Galaxy experience is that, from a clinical standpoint, disease and infection are two different things. A person can be infected with a pathogen, but that does not mean s/he will get sick, even if there is a disease associated with that pathogen. In other words, you can be infected, or more precisely “colonized,” with a pathogen and not show symptoms. These types of infections are sometimes referred to as subclinical or latent.

Biology is complex. Our bodies are made up of billions of microbes; some are beneficial, some are pathogenic, and others are opportunistic (only a problem under the certain conditions). In the world of infectious disease, disease is caused primarily by the host’s response to the infection (i.e., immune response). And, despite all the significant advances in medicine over the past century, we still don’t actually know what causes many well-known diseases.

In fact, scientists are still making discoveries about how the body works, including recent discoveries suggesting that blood is not sterile (especially not in sick people and animals), that a lymphatic vasculature provides a pathway between the bloodstream and the central nervous system, and most recently showing vascular structures in bone.

In the field of emerging infectious disease, important research is emerging that implicates a range of fastidious, low-level infections in complex immunological disease processes, including Bartonella species, Borrelia species, and other vector-borne infections. Concepts like stealth infection and the pathobiome are helpful as researchers try to sort out these questions, but progress is very slow and hampered by the lack of research funding for chronic infectious disease. To complicate things further, our bodies are complex biological systems with only a few ways to express disorder and disease, leaving our doctors with the challenging task of figuring out which of a long list of potential causal and complicating factors could be involved.

Science Cannot Prove Everything

In my well-considered opinion, the most surprising assumption dominating medicine today is that doctors should only practice what science has proven. Unfortunately, people and animals will get sick with diseases that we may not know about at all. While much of the controversy related to the role of infection in chronic disease could be addressed by research on chronic disease, not every clinical question can be answered even by the most rigorous research designs (e.g., prospective, controlled experimental designs), especially where new discoveries are concerned.

Disease is an organic process. Simply defining a sample population can be challenging in diagnostics research. How do you design a study to determine the clinical utility of a new test if the symptoms are non-specific and potentially caused by myriad factors, or if they only appear in some people with the disease? In the case of bartonellosis, most studies have focused on patients with suspected cat scratch disease (e.g., persistent swollen lymph nodes and contact with cats). However, persistent swollen lymph nodes can be caused by other infections and by blood cancers. Research from NCSU and other Bartonella research teams around the world further suggest that atypical presentations of cat scratch disease (Bartonella henselae infection) are much more common than previously recognized.

We see similar issues in research on borreliosis. For instance, most diagnostic studies have focused on individuals with a bullseye rash, when only 50% or fewer of acute infections present with this nebulous clinical sign. Study methodologies and subsequent findings are limited when new diagnostics are tested only on patient groups with specific symptoms and compared with prior diagnostic methods.

Clinical utility demands better research designs that include patients with typical and atypical signs as well as healthy controls.

One Health and a New Frontier of Medicine

In my opinion, we are now on the verge of a whole new frontier of medicine — the infectious etiology of chronic disease. This area of medical discovery is a central point of interest in the global One Health movement, which includes researchers around the world focusing on the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health.

To better address the challenges of substantiating new medical discoveries and translating new diagnostic and therapeutic tools into clinical practice, we have to work together to identify disease risks and to educate medical practitioners, patients, disease advocates, public health authorities, and the general public on the emerging science.

As a sometime patient myself, I want my doctor to have the access to the latest research and diagnostic tools, not just medical guidelines based on decades-old science. We all have to recognize the complexity of chronic illnesses and be open to understanding the role that multiple factors, from immune function to infection, potentially play in each individual case of chronic illness. We also have to recognize that due to our complex biology, current technical limitations, and highly competitive funding priorities, science cannot answer every clinical question today.

Yet doctors still seek to provide individualized care and patients still want the best that science and medicine can offer to solve their problems today. Somehow, some way, we have to find the means to provide patients with the best possible care today while moving new medical discoveries forward in a landscape that is very inhospitable to medical innovation and clinical translation.

References

Bhattacharyya, M. et al. (2017). The conserved phylogeny of blood microbiome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 109, 404-408. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.02.001 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28216014

Potgieter, M. et al. (2015). The dormant blood microbiome in chronic, inflammatory diseases. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 39(4), 567-591. doi:10.1093/femsre/fuv013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25940667

Davenport, A. C. et al. (2013). Phylogenetic diversity of bacteria isolated from sick dogs using the BAPGM enrichment culture platform. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 27(4), 854-861. doi:10.1111/jvim.12094 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23647339

Raper, D. et al. (2016). How do meningeal lymphatic vessels drain the CNS? Trends in Neurosciences, 39(9), 581-586. doi:10.106/j.tins.2016.07.001 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27460561

Louveau, A. et al. (2015). Structural and functional features of central nervous system lymphatic vessels. Nature, 523(7560), 337-341. doi:10.1038/nature14432 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26030524

Ben-Tekaya, H. et al. (2013). Bartonella and Brucella – Weapons and strategies for stealth attack. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine, 3(8), a010231. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a010231 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3721268/

Vayssier-Taussat, M. et al. (2015). Emerging horizons for tick-borne pathogens: From the ‘one pathogen-one disease’ vision to the pathobiome paradigm. Future Microbiology, 10(12), 2033-2043. doi:10.2217/fmb.15.114 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4944395/

Cochran, G. M. et al. (2000). Infectious causation of disease: An evolutionary perspective. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 43(3), 406-448. doi:10.1353/pbm.2000.0016 http://muse.jhu.edu/article/25974

Nelson, C. A. et al. (2018). Cat scratch disease: U.S. clinicians’ experience and knowledge. Zoonoses and Public Health, 65(1), 67-73. doi:10.1111/zph.12368 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28707827

Breitschwerdt, E. B. (2017). Bartonellosis, One Health and all creatures great and small. Veterinary Dermatology, 28(1), 96-e21. doi:10.1111/vde.12413 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28133871

Regier, Y. et al. (2016). Bartonella spp. – A chance to establish One Health concepts in veterinary and human medicine. Parasites & Vectors, 9(1), 261. doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1546-x https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27161111

Steere, A. C. et al. (2016). Lyme borreliosis. Nature Reviews. Disease Primers, 2, 16090. doi:10.1038/nrdp.2016.90 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27976670

Garg, K. et al. (2018). Evaluating polymicrobial immune responses in patients suffering from tick-borne diseases. Scientific Reports, 8, 15932. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-34393-9 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6206025/

O’Connor, S. M. et al. (2006). Emerging infectious determinants of chronic diseases. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 12(7), 1051-1057. doi:10.32-1/eid1207.060037 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16836820

North Carolina State University. (2012). 7th international conference on Bartonella as animal and human pathogens. Retrieved from the NC State YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZImyyRzi70

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Bartonella, Lyme, research

Folate & You: Perfect Together

https://kellybroganmd.com/folate-perfect-together/

Folate and you: Perfect Together

By

Methylation also helps you clear toxins such as hormones from chemicals, and rogue neurotransmitters that can cause seizures, anxiety, rage, and insomnia.

If you are extremely sensitive to medicine you probably have a methylation problem.  Cohen also states that while some of this stems from genetics, there are other reasons for it such as a lack of the following vitamins:

  • Zinc
  • B2/riboflavin
  • Magnesium
  • B6/pyridoxine
  • B12/methylcobalamin
  • Folate (from food or folinic acid)

1) Poor diet, poor probiotic status, digestive issues, medications, medical conditions like Crohn’s or Celiac, and other genetic traits may cause any or all of these nutrient deficiencies.

2) Xenobiotics – which are chemicals found in our air, water, food, home, work, schools, parks, beds, cosmetics and more.

3) Taking medications that are drug muggers that deplete you of the nutrients in #1 above. Some of the worst offenders (in terms of stealing your methylation nutrients) are methotrexate, metformin, antacids, acid blockers, proton pump inhibitors, corticosteroids, estrogen-containing drugs and nitrous oxide.

4) Drinking alcohol will pretty much shut down your methylation and wipe out your glutathione stores.

5) Green coffee bean extract is incredibly high in catechols and those use up your methylation pathway nutrients fast!

7) If you have Lyme disease, and many people do whether they know it or not, the Borrelia burgdorferi germ uses up all your magnesium (this supplement is a unique and highly absorbable form) to make biofilms and hide. Low mag reduces your ability to methylate. As an aside, this explains why some ‘Lymies’ have bad reactions during antibiotic treatment. Those drugs kill the organism but then your body is faced with poison such as ‘dead bug parts’ as well as ammonia which spikes when Borrelia dies off. Point is, you can’t remove easily the toxins from your body and it backs up in your system (by christopher at www.dresshead.com). If this is you, then use really low doses if you have to take antibiotics, until you’ve opened up your methylation (and other detoxification) pathways.

8) If you take nutrients that deplete methyl groups (like high dose niacin, or the prescription version of that called Slo-Niacin and Niaspan).

9) Heavy metals (think mercury in your diet, or your teeth) or lead in your bloodstream, cadmium if you smoke, high copper, arsenic, etc.

10) High levels of acetylaldehyde, this is a potent neurotoxin released by Candida, and also a by-product of drinking alcohol (even red wine). Don’t drink if you’re a poor methylator. Most of you know who you are, meaning you are a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. Yep, it is likely you are a poor methylator. I will share more about the Candida toxin known as “acetylaldehyde” shortly.

12) Anxiety or a lot of stress. I’m not sure why, but a pessimist or “I can’t do it” kind of outlook seems to make things worse. I think it has to do with your belief systems and how they impact your genes. In my summary, I’ll give you some links to an author and lecturer that has clues on how to change your outlook. (Dr. Bruce Lipton).

Please see Cohen’s article for options if you suspect a methylation defect:  https://suzycohen.com/articles/methylation-problems/

 

 

 

 

Category:

Psychological Aspects, research, Supplements