Archive for March, 2021

Take Steps Now To Protect You & Your Family From Tick Bites

https://www.lymedisease.org/protect-tick-bite-alexis-chesney/

Take steps now to protect you and your family from tick bites

By Alexis Chesney, ND, LAc

March 8, 2021

As we are enjoying warmer days here in New England, I am seeing new cases of Lyme disease in patients who have had recent tick bites. I am a naturopathic physician specializing in Lyme and tick-borne disease (TBD).

Prevention is one of the foundational principles of naturopathic medicine. While I mainly work with patients who are chronically ill, I am passionate about tick bite prevention.

Overcoming Lyme and TBD once does not protect you from further exposures. Being on treatment for one tick-borne disease will not protect you from all of the pathogens that may be transmitted through a new tick bite. And if you have not had Lyme disease, at the rate this epidemic is progressing, it may be more accurate to say you haven’t contracted it yet.

Without an effective vaccine, accurate testing, or simple effective treatment, each of us must do our part to educate ourselves and each other in order to stop the Lyme and tick-borne disease epidemic.  Fortunately, there are many proactive strategies you may take to prevent Lyme and TBD.

Tick tubes

As the snow melts outside my window, now is the time to make or purchase tick tubes. Tick tubes are an excellent intervention to target ticks in areas where mice nest.

tick tubes

As Richard Ostfeld explains, “White footed mice are consistently shown to be the most efficient wildlife reservoirs of Borrelia burgdorferi, infecting between 75 and 95 percent of larval blacklegged ticks that feed on them.”

Place these biodegradable tick tubes filled with permethrin-treated cotton in areas where mice are found. The mice will take the permethrin-treated cotton to build their nests. The permethrin will not harm the mice or other animals, but it will kill ticks and, most important, at the larval stage.

It is the larvae that most often feed on mice, and the permethrin kills them before they have a chance to acquire pathogens from the mice and before they reach the nymph and adult stages, when they might use humans as hosts.

Research shows that over an 8-year period, there was on average a 93.6 percent reduction in exposure per hour to infected ticks in treated areas of the Fire Island Pines, New York.

Learn how to make your own tick tubes by going to page 72 of Preventing Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases.[You can also purchase ready-to-use tick tubes online.]

Personal prevention

Next, let’s discuss personal tick bite prevention strategies. Here are effective strategies for when you’re in tick territory:

  • Use personal tick repellent.
  • Wear permethrin-treated clothing.
  • Wear light-colored clothing.
  • Tuck pants into socks and shirts into pants.
  • Avoid walking through grass and leaf litter.
  • Treat your pets with tick-control products, and check them for ticks every few hours while outdoors and when they come indoors.
  • When you come in from the outdoors, place your clothes directly in the dryer on high heat for 6 minutes to kill ticks.3
  • Shower soon after coming indoors. (Note: This in and of itself will not wash off attached ticks, but it will aid you in spotting them and may wash off crawling ticks.)
  • Conduct a full-body tick check. Use sight and touch to sense for any ticks crawling on or attached to your entire body. Ticks are attracted to warmth and moisture, so make sure to search under your arms, behind your knees, between your legs, inside your belly button, between your buttocks, in your genitals, under your bra, around your waist, around and in your ears, on your head, and between your toes. Use a mirror or another set of eyes to check hard-to-see places.

ticks on body

Illustration by Beverly Duncan, excerpted from Preventing Lyme & Other Tick-Borne Diseases.

 

Permethrin

The most effective way to kill and repel ticks is to use pyrethroids. I do not recommend using pyrethroids on the land because when wet they are toxic to bumblebees, butterflies, and aquatic life, and moderately toxic to birds.

However, I do recommend the careful use of permethrin (a type of pyrethroid) in treating materials. Permethrin-treated clothing and gear is highly effective against tick bites and safe for use. In one study, researchers reported that “subjects wearing permethrin-treated sneakers and socks were 73.6 times less likely to have a tick bite than subjects wearing untreated footwear.”

When you treat your own clothing with permethrin, it is effective for six weeks before requiring another treatment. You can buy clothes that have already been treated with permethrin, but if you have clothing that you wish were treated, there are companies that will do it for you.

Insect Shield has created a factory-based technique for long-lasting permethrin impregnation of clothing that allows for clothes to hold their pesticidal activity against Ixodes scapularis (blacklegged “deer” ticks) for 70 washes.

A study conducted on workers from the North Carolina Division of Water Quality wearing clothing treated by Insect Shield found a 99 percent decrease in the rate of tick bites acquired during work hours and a 93 percent decrease in the total incidence of tick bites.

While research is not conclusive about the effectiveness of using essential oils on the land, research and experience shows that essential oils on the skin are effective as a personal tick-repellent spray while we are in tick habitat. The product I recommend and use myself is 20 percent cedarwood oil and 80 percent hydrated silica. I recommend reapplying every 1 to 2 hours. It is nontoxic to bees, butterflies, and fish.

What if you get a tick bite?

Implementing tick bite prevention strategies is crucial, but equally important is knowing when to administer prophylaxis — that is, a measure taken to prevent disease. Prophylactic measures can be initiated by anyone immediately after finding a tick bite, and they can be used regularly by people at high risk for tick bites.

The prophylaxis I recommend is a specific herbal formula designed to target the pathogens specifically carried by ticks in your area. For example, if you are at risk for a blacklegged (deer) tick bite, “deer tick bite formula” which contains cat’s claw, cryptolepis, Japanese knotweed and houttuynia would be the appropriate formula.

In addition to killing the pathogens that may be carried by the blacklegged tick (Borrelia burgdorferi, B.mayonii, B. miyamotoi, Babesia species, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia muris eauclairensis, and Powassan virus), the herbs activate the immune system in a beneficial way in the face of those pathogens.

Discuss whether the herbal prophylaxis is appropriate for you with a trained professional.

If you develop a rash or symptoms after a tick bite, you have passed from the realm of prophylaxis into a symptomatic tick bite and possible acute tick-borne disease. Therefore, please contact a Lyme-literate medical professional to discuss your signs/symptoms and get the appropriate comprehensive testing and treatment required.

While Lyme and other tick-borne diseases are on the rise, you are now equipped with some tick control and personal tick bite prevention tactics, as well as herbal prophylaxis. My hope is that I may empower a movement to halt the spread of Lyme and TBD through prevention. Prevention is the best medicine!

Excerpted from “Preventing Lyme and Other Tick-Borne Diseases” by Alexis Chesney. Used with permission from Storey Publishing.

Alexis Chesney ND, LAc is a naturopathic physician and acupuncturist specializing in the treatment of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. For more information about her book and her protocols, see her website dralexischesney.com.

References

Richard S. Ostfeld, Lyme Disease: The Ecology of a Complex System (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

“Damminix Tick Tubes Test Results on Fire Island, N.Y.,” Ecohealth Inc., http://www.ticktubes .com/downloads/ticktubes_fire_island_study.pdf. Accessed March 11, 2018.

Christina A. Nelson, et al., “The Heat Is On: Killing Blacklegged Ticks in Residential Washers and Dryers to Prevent Tickborne Diseases,” Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases 7, no. 5 (2016): 958–63, doi:10.1016/j.ttbdis.2016.04.016.

Nathan J. Miller, Erin E. Rainone, Megan C. Dyer, and Liliana Gonzalez, “Tick Bite Protection with Permethrin-Treated Summer-Weight Clothing,” Journal of Medical Entomology 48, no. 2 (January 2011): 327–33, doi:10.1603/me10158.

“Knockdown Testing,” Insect Shield, www.insectshield.com/Knockdown-Testing.aspx. Accessed March 11, 2018.

Meagan F. Vaughn and Steven R. Meshnick, “Pilot Study Assessing the Effectiveness of Long- Lasting Permethrin-Impregnated Clothing for the Prevention of Tick Bites,” Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases 11, no. 7 (July 2011): 869–75, doi:10.1089/vbz.2010.0158.

________________________

For more:

Category:

Activism, Prevention, Ticks

Lyme Disease Patient With Permanent Tinnitus & Hearing Loss

https://danielcameronmd.com/lyme-disease-tinnitus-hearing-loss/  Podcast here

LYME DISEASE PATIENT WITH PERMANENT TINNITUS AND HEARING LOSS

lyme-disease-tinnitus

Hello, and welcome to another Inside Lyme Podcast. I am your host Dr. Daniel Cameron. I find that the best way to get to know Lyme disease is through reviewing actual cases. In this episode, I’ll be discussing a case involving a 46-year-old man with Lyme disease who developed permanent tinnitus and hearing loss.

By

Jozefowicz-Korczynska and colleagues first described this case in the journal Frontiers in Neurology in 2019.

A 46-year-old male farmer was hospitalized with a “sudden onset of tinnitus and hearing loss in the left ear, dizziness, severe balance instability, and gait ataxia,” the authors write.  (Gait ataxia consists of lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements.)

Doctors initially suspected vestibular schwannoma, which is a benign tumor of the 8th nerve (also referred to as an acoustic nerve) that affects hearing and balance. But diagnostic testing was normal.

However, a Western blot test and spinal tap revealed the patient was positive for Lyme disease. He was treated with a 3-week course of oral doxycycline, but his dizziness and gait problems persisted.

The patient did not receive any additional oral or intravenous antibiotics. Instead, he was referred to a Balance Disorders Unit for vestibular evaluation.

“Upon his examination, the patient presented with severe gait disturbance and imbalance,” the authors write.

Audiology tests indicated the man had mild to moderate sensory-neural hearing loss in both ears.

He underwent vestibular rehabilitation therapy for 10 consecutive days which significantly improved his balance. But his hearing loss and tinnitus remained.

“Unfortunately, the antibiotic therapy was not successful in decreasing hearing loss or tinnitus, suggesting permanent damage to the hearing nerve and cochlea,” write the authors.

Another study by Logigian et al. from Tufts University of Medicine found that 4 out of 27 patients with chronic neurologic Lyme disease presented with hearing loss and tinnitus.2

Meanwhile, a study in Poland revealed that 162 out of 216 patients with tick-borne diseases had otolaryngological (ear, nose, throat) symptoms.

“The most common complaint was tinnitus (76.5%) accompanied by vertigo and dizziness (53.7%), headache (39%), and unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (16.7%).”3

The following questions are discussed in this episode:

  1. Initially, doctors suspected vestibular schwannoma. Can you explain this condition and why it was considered as a possible diagnosis?
  2. The patient was tested for Lyme disease. His symptoms were not typical for Lyme, so why was testing ordered?
  3. Would more than a three-week course of doxycycline have helped resolve the man’s tinnitus and hearing loss?
  4. How common is hearing loss, vertigo, tinnitus, and gait impairment in Lyme disease?
  5. What are other causes of tinnitus and hearing loss?
  6. Why was the patient referred to a balance disorder unit and was his treatment successful?
  7. There have been several cases of hearing loss reported in the literature. Can you discuss the Tufts University and Poland studies featured in one of your blogs?
    Thanks for listening to another Inside Lyme Podcast. You can read more about these cases in my show notes and on my website @DanielCameronMD.com. As always, it is your likes, comments, reviews, and shares that help spread the word about Lyme disease. Until next time on Inside Lyme.

Please remember that the advice given is general and not intended as specific advice as to any particular patient. If you require specific advice, then please seek that advice from an experienced professional.

Inside Lyme Podcast Series

This Inside Lyme case series will be discussed on my Facebook and made available on podcast and YouTube.  As always, it is your likes, comments, and shares that help spread the word about this series and our work. If you can, please leave a review on iTunes or wherever else you get your podcasts.

References:
  1. Jozefowicz-Korczynska M, Zamyslowska-Szmytke E, Piekarska A, Rosiak O. Vertigo and Severe Balance Instability as Symptoms of Lyme Disease-Literature Review and Case Report. Front Neurol. 2019 Nov 12;10:1172.
  2. Logigian EL, Kaplan RF, Steere AC. Chronic neurologic manifestations of Lyme disease. N Engl J Med. 1990;323(21):1438-1444.
  3. Sowula K, Skladzien J, Szaleniec J, Gawlik J. Otolaryngological symptoms in patients treated for tick-borne diseases. Otolaryngol Pol. 2018;72(1):30-34.

_______________________

For more:

Category:

Hearing Loss, Lyme, research

Tuttle’s Letter to CDC Director: “Will You Do the Right Thing & Upgrade Lyme Disease to Highest Alert & Promote a Manhattan Project to Find a Cure?”

https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/

Certified Mail to Rochelle Walensky, MD Director of The US Centers for Disease Control

MAR 21, 2021 — 

The maniacal suppression and censorship of evidence that we have been dealing with an antibiotic resistant/tolerant superbug has left hundreds of thousands if not millions in a debilitated state. The following letter and attachments have been forwarded to the New Hampshire Study Group Members and NH Governor Chris Sununu.

“In the fullness of time, the main stream handling of chronic Lyme disease will be viewed as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of medicine because elements of academic medicine, elements of government and virtually the entire insurance industry have colluded to deny a disease.”  –Dr. Kenneth Liegner

Next Zoom meeting for the NH Lyme Study Commission:03/26/2021 9:00 AM

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/statstudcomm/details.aspx?id=1515&rbl=1&txtbillnumber=hb490

———- Original Message ———-

From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: All members of the NH Lyme Study Commission
Cc: NH Governor Chris Sununu
Date: 03/19/2021 4:57 PM
Subject: Certified Mail to Rochelle Walensky, MD Director of The US Centers for Disease Control

To members of the Lyme Study Commission,

I would like to add the attached communication as a topic for discussion at a future meeting and have copied all committee members so they can review the documents prior to the meeting.

Please reserve any discussion of these documents until our next scheduled Zoom meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Carl Tuttle

The following letter was sent VIA Certified Mail to Rochelle Walensky, MD Director of The US Centers for Disease Control:

Tracking Number: 70201290000232782577

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?tRef=fullpage&tLc=2&text28777=&tLabels=70201290000232782577%2C&tABt=false

Your item was picked up at a postal facility at 9:32 am on March 15, 2021 in ATLANTA, GA 30329.

Status: Delivered

March 15, 2021 at 9:32 am

Delivered, Individual Picked Up at Postal Facility

ATLANTA, GA 30329

NEW HAMPSHIRE COMMISSION TO STUDY TESTING OF LYME AND OTHER TICK-BORNE DISEASES

NOTE: The general public only has access to serology for Lyme disease which cannot be used to gauge treatment failure or success but in 1991. The Centers for Disease Control in Fort Collins, Colorado identified chronic persistent Lyme disease in a patient who was previously treated with extensive oral and IV antibiotics.

Cover letter to Dr. Walensky VIA Certified Mail:

Dr. Walensky’s public email address as obtained from the HHS online Directory:  aux7@cdc.gov

Mar 10, 2021

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30329
Attn: Rochelle Walensky, MD Director

Dear Dr. Walensky,

New Hampshire has one of the highest rates of Lyme disease in the country. Patient testimony all across America is describing a disease that is destroying lives, ending careers while leaving its victim in financial ruin. (read the written comments posted to the TBDWG website)

The attached email sent to you on Feb 17, 2021 has been shared with all members of New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu’s Lyme Disease Study Commission. Included in this correspondence is the positive CDC culture report for Vicki Logan who had been treated for Lyme disease with extensive IV and oral antibiotics.

The CDC had culture confirmation that we were dealing with an antibiotic resistant/tolerant superbug in 1991 when Borrelia burgdorferi was grown from the cerebrospinal fluid of Dr. Kenneth Liegner’s patient Vicki Logan at the Centers for Disease Control in Fort Collins, Colorado.

You are in a position to right the wrongs that your predecessors have chosen to ignore.

Will you do the right thing and upgrade Lyme disease to Highest Alert and promote a Manhattan Project to find a cure for this antibiotic resistant/tolerant superbug?

A response to this inquiry is requested.

Sincerely,

Carl Tuttle
Hudson, NH 03051

Member of the NH Lyme Disease Study Commission
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/statstudcomm/details.aspx?id=1515&rbl=1&txtbillnumber=hb490

Cc: All members of the NH Lyme Disease Study Commission,
Governor Chris Sununu

Attachments:

1. Email sent to Dr. Walensky on Feb 17, 2021 (Personal Dropbox storage area)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l06t9qm1fhfqzl9/Email%20to%20Walensky%20Feb%2017%20%202021.docx?dl=0

2. Positive culture report for Lyme patient Vicki Logan (Personal Dropbox storage area)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vthfdpn7gv8bne2/Logan%20CDC%20Fort%20Collins%20Positive%20CSF%20%20Culture%20Report.JPG?dl=0

CDC Director
CDC Director  Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, is the 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
https://www.cdc.gov
___________________________
 
**Comment**
 
Interestingly, Walensky fears “impeding doom”  about COVID.  
 
Excerpt:
 
At the start of her tenure, Walensky said she had pledged to always tell the truth even if it wasn’t something Americans wanted to hear.

“I’m going to pause here,” she said, and her voice began to shake.

“I’m going to lose the script and I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom,” said Walensky, her eyes growing wider and starting to shine.

“We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope. But right now I’m scared,” she said.

Let’s see if Walensky equally fears Lyme/MSIDS, the number ONE vector-borne disease that has been denied and ignored by our government and our health ‘authorities’ for over 40 years, with thousands of patients being told their symptoms are “all in their head.”
Let’s see if she’s willing to “tell the truth” about tick-borne illness even if it isn’t something people want to hear.

I’m not holding my breath.

Category:

Activism, Lyme

‘Highly Probable’ Military Developed COVID, Leaked From Lab

http://  Approx. 12 Min.

March 21, 2021

The former lead investigator who spearheaded a taskforce for the US government into the origins of COVID-19 has declared the virus may have been the result of work done for a biological weapons program in Wuhan.
 
David Asher – a now senior fellow at the Hudson Institute – spoke to Sky News about investigations into the origins of COVID-19 and suspicions as to who may have been first infected with the virus in Wuhan. He spoke of work undertaken at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as well as the theory it may have developed SARS-COV-2 while working on a potential coronavirus vaccine.
 
The possible vaccine was potentially being developed as an antidote to a bioweapen, he said.
 
“Whether they were developing this vaccine, if it exists, as an antidote … hard to know,” he told Sky News host Sharri Markson. “There’s going to be the need for a huge global investigation, well beyond the WHO”. He said events and information have arisen which “made us feel the Wuhan Institute was highly probably the source of the COVID epidemic”.
 

STORY AT-A-GLANCE 

  • According to David Asher, former lead investigator for the U.S. State Department’s task force that looked into the origins of COVID-19, the data “made us feel the Wuhan Institute was highly probably the source of the COVID pandemic”
  • Asher also admits there is evidence in the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 suggesting it’s been synthetically altered
  • An assessment report by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency states SARS-CoV-2 was likely an accidental release from an infectious diseases laboratory. Intentional release was ruled out
  • The Chinese tried to remove viral sequencing data from a European database. The sequences included adenovirus, a vaccine vector, which could indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is part of a vaccine program. Such a vaccine would likely be the antidote to a biological weapon
  • There’s evidence the Wuhan Institute of Virology worked on classified military programs, and since the NIH has funded gain-of-function research on coronaviruses at the WIV, this could mean the U.S. funded research that ended up being used in a Chinese military bioweapons program Source
Former CDC Director, Dr. Redfield also recently announced COVID was in Wuhan as early as September or October 2019.

But WHO states state it’s extremely unlikely COVID escaped from a lab despite pushback from scientists.

Jamie Metzl, former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration and member of a WHO advisory committee on genetic engineering, blamed the Chinese government for failing to cooperate with the WHO investigative team.

Metzl told 60 Minutes that even though there have been accidental lab leaks of viruses in China in the past that have infected people and killed at least one, “no one on the WHO team was trained in how to formally investigate a lab leak.”

Metzl is part of an international group that, on March 4, released an open letter calling for a full and unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of the pandemic. He told 60 Minutes that the lab leak theory is plausible and deserves a full investigation. He said that the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) own lab reports show that it sent field researchers to the bat caves and that they brought back samples with coronaviruses:

“ … we do know that there were nine viruses at least that were brought back. And it’s extremely possible that among these viruses is a virus that’s much more closely related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. And when I put all those pieces together, I said, ‘Hey, wait a second, this is a real possibility. We need to be exploring it.’”

Matt Pottinger, former Trump administration deputy national security adviser, also told 60 Minutes he believes China withheld information from the WHO team, including that the Wuhan lab director “published studies about manipulating bat coronaviruses in a way that could make them more infectious to humans, and there were reports of lax safety standards at the lab.”  Source

For more:

Category:

Viruses

Human Trials Begin for Shot Against Lyme Disease

http://  Approx. 3 Min.

Human Trials Begin For Shot Against Lyme Diease

March 23, 2021

Lyme PrEP still uses OspA, the outer surface protein connected to Lyme-like symptoms caused by the previous Lymerix vaccine.

Excerpts:

Safety concerns began to emerge soon after people began getting LYMErix. Some recipients began to report joint pain and other effects that they attributed to the vaccine. Within a year of the vaccine’s approval, a class action lawsuit was filed against SmithKline Beecham on behalf of 121 people. Although the suit was eventually settled — it provided no compensation to the plaintiffs — publicity about it dampened interest in the vaccine.

Meanwhile, growing distrust of vaccines may have compounded LYMErix’s struggles.

But there is another possible point of contention: VLA15 and Lyme PrEP both target the same protein on Borrelia bacteria that LYMErix did — outer surface protein A (OspA).

The approach used to target OspA in LYMErix was linked to concerns that arose about potential side effects. While studies have not confirmed the connection, VLA15 uses a slightly modified vaccine approach and Lyme PrEP delivers a single antibody directly — both of which could circumvent the purported issue. But Telford said some people might still take issue with a vaccine that targets OspA.

“I anticipate Valneva is going to have a problem with activists,” he said, noting that he had informally spoken with some community groups. “The broad statement was ‘No OspA vaccine, no how.’”

Klempner, similar to other Lyme Cabal players has a history with biological weapons as both Director and investigator of a bioweapons lab.  He’s been accused of research fraud, and single-handedly has convinced mainstream medicine that extended treatment doesn’t help Lyme/MSIDS patients. The “Klempner” Report has ruled Lyme-land for over 20 years.

Further, I’m with Lyme advocate Carl Tuttle in that we don’t want a vaccine until the issue of chronic/persistent infection is acknowledged. As you can see from this article, there are those who still believe what we are suffering from is a “scam that should be condemned”.

Excerpt:

The Lyme disease controversy keeps on getting bigger, with an hypothetical presentation of “chronic Lyme disease” that some believe to be responsible for late subjective symptoms experienced by patients who are supposedly victims of this chronic infection despite negative examination results and unrelated clinical signs.

This irrational diatribe has been picked up by the media and orchestrated by sectarian supporters of such syndrome – i.e., off-the-rails physicians, associations proclaiming to “defend” the patient’s interests, and even political figures – and has grown into an absurd and troubling polemic. Untruths told by Lyme pseudo-specialists (i.e., the Lyme doctors) and assertions made by people convinced to have chronic Lyme disease are indeed picked up by the media – too eager to disseminate fake news and happy to see the medical authorities flouted – and work to the disadvantage of patients. Patients are fooled, taken advantage of, betrayed, and even encouraged to physically threaten physicians contesting the existence of such syndrome!

Tick-borne illness has been ruled by a Cabal doing pseudoscience, just as COVID has.

In fact, for those paying attention, there are many similarities between how Lyme/MSIDS & COVID have been handled.

For more:

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Lyme Vaccine, vaccines