Author Archive

The Thorny Question of Persistent Lyme, Or IACI

https://www.lymedisease.org/nasem-takes-on-lyme-iaci/

The thorny question of persistent Lyme, or rather “Lyme IACI”

July 18, 2024

By Dorothy Kupcha Leland

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (known collectively as NASEM) are private, nonprofit institutions that examine challenging issues and offer advice to the nation.

Academy members are elected based on their outstanding achievements and contributions to their fields. They are considered the cream of the cream.

NASEM works by convening committees of experts from various fields to study specific topics. Sometimes, these committees organize workshops to bring together experts, policymakers, and the public to share knowledge and explore solutions.

That’s what happened July 11, in Washington DC. A NASEM committee held a workshop examining the question of what they called “Lyme infection-associated chronic illness”—or “Lyme IACI.” (Pronounced “Lyme eye-ACK-ee” by most participants, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?)

Apparently, Lyme IACI is the label the committee landed on to avoid the polarizing effects of such terms as “chronic Lyme” or “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.”

Based on input from this public workshop as well as a review of medical literature, the committee will develop a report of its findings. This document will put forth recommendations for how to bring about better treatments for people with Lyme IACI.

You may remember that NASEM held a groundbreaking workshop last year that focused on the commonalities of several “long haul” diseases—long COVID, persistent Lyme disease, multiple sclerosis and ME/CFS (chronic fatigue). Read more about last year’s event here: “Words matter.” A new way of thinking about long-haul diseases.

The 2024 conference continued in that vein, but this time focused only on Lyme IACI. The event was significant on several fronts.

Why this matters

For starters, you had important scientists exploring the question of why some people with Lyme disease continue to have symptoms despite treatment. This major change comes after decades of “Lyme denialism,” when medical professionals, health officials, researchers, the NIH, and the CDC, all told us that what we call “chronic Lyme” didn’t even exist. So, just the fact that you have a NASEM committee considering the issue is a huge step forward.

Furthermore, the Lyme community actively participated in the event.

Retired US Air Force Col. Nicole Malachowski—a prominent advocate for those with tick-borne disease—served on the workshop’s planning committee.

Rhisa Parera

Rhisa Parera, the writer/director/producer of the Lyme film “Your Labs are Normal,” delivered a keynote address on the patient perspective.

Read what she told the panel: Patient tells scientists “Lyme is a literal emergency. Help us.”

The committee lined up an impressive array of researchers from prominent academic centers to shed light on the following questions:

  • Describe the current state of Lyme IACI research for treatments and diagnostics to clarify barriers in development of new, effective therapeutic interventions;
  • Explore recent advancements from other biomedical research fields with the potential to address these barriers by catalyzing scientific breakthroughs or translation of discoveries to treatments;
  • Understand patient-defined priorities for research and discuss potential opportunities for engaging this perspective in developing a biomedical research agenda; and
  • Discuss research strategies and infrastructure that could facilitate the application of innovations from other fields into the Lyme IACI research context.

See the list of speakers here.

Patient priorities

LymeDisease.org CEO Lorraine Johnson, principal investigator of the MyLymeData project, spoke on a panel about patient-defined priorities for research.

Lorraine Johnson, Principal Investigator of MyLymeData

She emphasized the importance of outcomes that patients themselves care about—namely, getting their health back and being able to return to work and other activities.

But that’s often not the way clinical trials are structured. For example, many are geared to evaluating something called the SF-36 score.

“However, a change in the SF-36 score is not inherently meaningful or important to patients,” Lorraine noted. “This is obvious on its face. If you ask any patient what they want in healthcare – none of them will say, ‘I want to improve my SF-36 score.’”

Videos from the workshop should be available soon. When they are, I strongly recommend you watch Lorraine’s presentation. I think you’ll find it riveting.

More on this event still to come. Stay tuned.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, President of LymeDisease.org. She is co-author of Finding Resilience: A Teen’s Journey Through Lyme Disease and of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.

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**Comment**

I have a far dimmer view of this gathering of the ‘cream of the cream.’

Until Lyme literate doctors and independent researchers are equally represented within these groups, I hold little hope for much change.

First off, this group proudly deploys the climate, health, and equity  propaganda pushed by globalists.

The sponsors of the organization are none other than:

AstraZeneca
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Grantham Foundation
JPB Foundation​
McCall MacBain Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation

Go here for more.

Are you getting this yet?

Now, this elitist group with Big Pharma ties has developed yet another acronym instead of just stating what it is: a complex, polymorphic, polymicrobial, chronic infection that has destroyed lives for over 40 years and shows no sign of slowing down.

The fact this group will “not make recommendations on specific approaches to diagnosis and treatment when it issues a report in early 2025, but will instead present ‘consensus findings’ on treatment for chronic illness associated with Lyme disease, including recommendations for advancing treatment,” does not comfort me much.

I can tell you right now what ‘consensus’ states since Lyme literate doctors have been persecuted for stepping outside this rigidly defined box.  It will simply regurgitate 40 year old dogma created at Dearborn, MI when they took the most sensitive band for borrelia out of testing so it wouldn’t conflict with the highly lucrative, but deadly Lymerix vaccine.

Nothing’s changed – but has only become more entrenched.  

Category:

Activism, Lyme

Aussie, German, Korean, Japanese, & Scandinavian Studies on COVID Shots: Excess Deaths, Organ Damage, Auto-Immunity, Myocarditis & Pericarditis, & Deadly Batches

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/covid-vaccine-excess-deaths-australia/

Australian Researcher Finds Link Between COVID Vaccines and Excess Deaths

The number of excess deaths in Australia was positively correlated with the number of COVID-19 booster vaccinations, according to a new peer-reviewed study. However, critics cautioned that the study’s methods were too simplistic and that its results could be misleading.

by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.
AUGUST 15, 2024

Article excerpts:

Denis Rancourt, Ph.D., lead author of a recent study examining excess mortality in 125 countries, cautioned against drawing conclusions from Allen’s analysis. He told The Defender:

“This type of correlation analysis between bulk measures of excess mortality and vaccine doses administered has many caveats, pitfalls and known confounding factors.

“It should never be used as a stand-alone result, as was done here. On its own, it has a high likelihood of being misleading, and it does not imply any meaningful relation.”

Rancourt said that even if a relationship exists between COVID-19 vaccination and excess death, there are better ways of statistically showing it.

“Scientists should avoid being right for the wrong reasons,” Rancourt said. “A better approach is to look for temporal associations, which has been done in some detail for Australia.”  (See link for article)

Also, please see:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2024/08/15/study-of-125-countries-meta-analysis-on-covid-shots/  The shots are worthless but dangerous.

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https://slaynews.com/news/top-study-links-covid-shots-surge-organ-damage-among-children/

Top Study Links Covid Shots to Surge in Organ Damage among Children

Frank Bergman

A team of leading scientific researchers in Germany has just issued a warning to the public after finding direct links between Covid mRNA shots and vital organ damage among children.

Specifically, the researchers found that Pfizer’s mRNA injection is responsible for skyrocketing cases of Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) in children aged 5 to 11 years old.

IgG4-RD is a condition that causes inflammation inside the body and damages internal organs, according to Oxford University.

It can affect many different organs, meaning people can have wide-ranging symptoms.

The pancreas is most commonly affected, followed by the bile ducts in the liver, the salivary glands, and the kidneys.  (See link for article)

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https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/large-korean-study-recommends-monitoring

Large Korean Study Recommends Monitoring mRNA Vaccinated Patients for Auto-immunity

Modest Risks Identified, but Cumulative Effects with Repeated Boosters are Concerning

 
JUL 27, 2024

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

Article excerpts:

There is great concern that with continued dosing of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, the human body is forced to produce not only the foreign and potentially lethal Wuhan Spike protein, but probably about a dozen additional frameshifted proteins as shown by Boros and colleagues. Invariably these peptides induce an immune attack against the human body as they are expressed on cell surfaces and in some cases like Spike protein, trimerize and are circulatory in blood for months after injection.

Now a large study from Korea by Jung et al, suggests there are increased risks for some autoimmune illnesses after at least two mRNA shots, but not nearly as high as the established dangers of vaccine myo-pericarditis or Guillain-Barre Syndrome.  (See link for article)

https://www.jiac-j.com/article/S1341-321X(24)00209-5/abstract

Japanese Study: COVID mRNA Shots “Significantly Associated” With Myocarditis & Pericarditis

Abstract

Background

The association between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mRNA vaccines and myocarditis/pericarditis in the Japanese population has not been systematically investigated. This study was aimed at clarifying the association between SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines (BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273) and myocarditis/pericarditis as well as influencing factors by using the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database.

Methods

Reporting odds ratios (RORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) for the association between the vaccines and myocarditis/pericarditis were calculated using data from the database (April 2004–December 2023). Age, sex, onset time, and outcomes in symptomatic patients were evaluated.

Results

The total number of reports was 880,999 (myocarditis: 1846; pericarditis: 761). The adverse events associated with the vaccines included myocarditis (919 cases) and pericarditis (321 cases), with the ROR [95 % CIs] being significant for both (myocarditis: 30.51 [27.82–33.45], pericarditis: 21.99 [19.03–25.40]). Furthermore, the ROR [95 % CIs] of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 were 15.64 [14.15–17.28] and 54.23 [48.13–61.10], respectively, for myocarditis, and 15.78 [13.52–18.42] and 27.03 [21.58–33.87], respectively, for pericarditis. Furthermore, most cases were ≤30 years or male. The period from vaccination to onset was ≤8 days, corresponding to early failure type based on analysis using the Weibull distribution. Outcomes were recovery or remission for most cases; however, they were severe or caused death in some cases.

Conclusion

In the Japanese population, SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination was significantly associated with the onset of myocarditis/pericarditis. The influencing factors included age of ≤30 years and male. Furthermore, although most adverse events occurred early after vaccination, overall outcomes were good.
 

Scandinavian Study Confirms Pfizer Pushed ‘BAD BATCHES’ of Covid Shots onto Public

by Vibeke Manniche1, Max Schmeling2, Jonathan D. Gilthorpe3 and Peter Riis Hansen4,5,*
 
Medicina 2024, 60(8), 1343; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina60081343
Submission received: 17 July 2024 / Revised: 13 August 2024 / Accepted: 14 August 2024 / Published: 19 August 2024

Abstract

Background and Objective: An unexpected batch-dependent safety signal for the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was recently identified in a nationwide study from Denmark, but the generalizability of this finding is unknown. Therefore, we compared batch-dependent rates of suspected adverse events (SAEs) reported to national authorities in Denmark and Sweden. 
 
Materials and Methods: SAE and vaccine batch data were received from national authorities in Denmark and Sweden, and analyses of heterogeneity in the relationship between numbers of vaccine doses and SAEs per batch were performed, along with comparison of SAE rates and severities for batches that were shared between the two countries. 
 
Results: Significant batch-dependent heterogeneity was found in the number of SAEs per 1000 doses for both countries, with batches associated with high SAE rates detected in the early phase of the vaccination campaign and positive correlations observed between the two countries for the severity of SAEs from vaccine batches that they shared. Mild SAEs predominated in the batches used in the early part of the vaccination roll-out, where markedly higher SAE rates per 1000 doses in Denmark for the batches that were shared between the two countries suggested that a large proportion of these SAEs were under-reported in Sweden. 
 
Conclusions: The batch-dependent safety signal observed in Denmark and now confirmed in Sweden suggests that early commercial batches of BNT162b2 may have differed from those used later on, and these preliminary and hypothesis-generating results warrant further study.
 
They simply couldn’t allow too many people to be maimed and killed early on.  People would have noticed.
 
For more:

Category:

Activism, research, vaccines, Viruses

Elucidating Host-Microbe Interactions to Address Vector-Borne Diseases

https://medicine.yale.edu/internal-medicine/infdis/news-article/elucidating-host-microbe-interactions-to-address-vector-borne-diseases/

Elucidating Host-microbe Interactions to Address Vector-borne Diseases

July 08, 2024
by Serena Crawford
Article Excerpts:
In a new study, Yale researchers identified the targets in the human body to which pathogens transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, and other vectors bind. Their findings, they say, could help address the rising threat of vector-borne diseases, a leading cause of death worldwide.

The study was published in Cell.

“We wanted to better understand the precise mechanisms by which pathogens interact with humans to infect the host and cause disease,” said first author Thomas Hart, PhD, postdoctoral associate at Yale School of Medicine (YSM). “To do so, we tested for interactions between thousands of human proteins and dozens of microbial pathogens, then examined the importance of those identified,” he said.

Pathogens must interact with host molecules, namely host proteins, to infect a host, evade the immune system, and cause symptoms, Hart explained.

One surprising finding was that Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, appears to interact with epidermal growth factor (EGF), said corresponding author Erol Fikrig, MD, Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and professor of microbial pathogenesis at YSM; and professor of epidemiology (microbial diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health. “Why Borrelia interacts with EGF and what that does for Borrelia pathogenesis is not yet known, and that could have implications for Lyme disease,” he said.
Many of the host-microbe interactions uncovered were unpredictable and unexpected, revealing a suite of novel host-pathogen interactions that can potentially be leveraged to create new classes of anti-infectives that target unique and previously unknown host-microbe interaction nodes, Palm added.  (See link for article)

Category:

Lyme, research

Control Cytokines – A Guide

https://www.treatlyme.net/guide/cytokines

Updated: 8/8/24

By Dr. Marty Ross

About Cytokines in Lyme Disease and Related Conditions

Lowering inflammatory cytokines made by the immune system is essential for persistent infections, like Lyme disease, and related conditions recovery. In this article, I discuss why this is so and lay out a nutritional support plan using supplements to lower cytokines. I also recommend adequate sleep.

Cytokines are proteins made by various types of white blood cells to turn on the immune system to attack invaders like:

  • bacteria (for example, Lyme germs and the co-infections),
  • intestinal yeast,
  • parasites,
  • viruses like Covid,
  • mold toxins,
  • environmental toxins, and
  • heavy metals toxins, like lead and mercury.

In the video found in the top link, Dr. Ross discusses cytokines plus two of his favorite supplements to address cytokine excess. For dosing information see the Treatment Approach in the article.

Cytokines are Good, Right? Well, Yes and No.

In the right amount, cytokines promote healing. In excess, they cause most of the major persistent infection and mold toxicity symptoms and dysregulate the immune system. The problem in persistent infections and mold toxicity is that cytokines are usually made in excess. Fortunately, there are some great steps you can take to lower cytokines.

Good: The Right Amount of Cytokines
  • make antibodies work more effectively,
  • increase active white blood cells,
  • recruit white blood cells to where they are needed,
  • turn on white blood cells, and
  • decrease viral and bacterial replication.
Bad: Too Many Cytokines
  • dysregulate the immune system,
  • cause pain,
  • decrease hormone production from organs, like the thyroid and the adrenal glands,
  • disturb sleep,
  • decrease brain function,
  • increase fatigue and tiredness,
  • waste muscles,
  • cause depression, and
  • decrease the function of various organs throughout the body, resulting in many other symptoms and medical problems.  (See link for article and video)

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For more:

Category:

Lyme, Mold, Treatment

The Truth About Ivermectin and Sterility

I purposely sat on claims that ivermectin affects fertility until someone with a higher pay grade then mine took it on.  Thankfully, that someone came forward.

**UPDATE**

Now, Dr. Lawrie has added this analysis of ivermectin usage in Africa where it has been taken safely for decades. Ever since its introduction, countries using ivermectin have had greater fertility than non-ivermectin countries.  There is no evidence that ivermectin reduces fertility.  A study on heifers showed fertility improved 25-56% in cows treated with ivermectin.

https://drtesslawrie.substack.com/p/is-ivermectin-really-a-genocidal?

Is ivermectin really a genocidal tool of the globalists?

TESS LAWRIE, MBBCH, PHD​
AUG 16, 2024

The emerged globalist agenda

It is now clear to many including me that the globalist agenda is one of eugenics, with the aim of significantly reducing world’s population and changing the genetics of the remainder of us.

The possibility that ivermectin, through a potential effect on fertility, may be part of the globalists dastardly genocidal plan is a fairly novel one that I will explore here today.

The notion that ivermectin may cause infertility has been floating around since 2021 based on decade-old, mainly animal studies. After scanning such studies in 2021, I did not find the claim to be credible based on the supporting evidence.  The animal studies being shared as proof, I found to involve very high doses of ivermectin, given for long periods with very short term follow up. Anything given in high doses, including overdosing on water, can cause harm. In my opinion as a research scientist with expertise in evaluating bodies of evidence, much more research was needed before making a claim that ivermectin is harmful to human fertility.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

While most of the rabbits in the study did not have offspring during the two months of observation, there were more offspring during the second mating, suggesting that fertility might have returned to normal after time; however, giving a female 20X the normal dose of ivermectin for 56 days is probably not a good idea.  20X the normal dosage of aspirin for 56 days would probably kill a person.  The fact 20X the normal dose of ivermectin didn’t kill the rabbits actually demonstrates how safe it is.  A world famous toxicologist couldn’t find a single death caused by ivermectin overdose.

While everyone is different, 12mg of ivermectin on days 1,3,6, and 14 helped me tremendously with COVID, along with IV C.

Ivermectin has been attacked mercilessly since COVID rollout despite being found effective for both COVID and cancer.   It doesn’t make a lot of sense for globalists to be using this drug for their depopulation plan due to these facts.

Category:

Activism, Treatment, Viruses