Author Archive

WA Man Hospitalized With Tick-borne Disease. Here’s How to Keep Yourself Safe

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/wa-man-hospitalized-with-tick-borne-disease-heres-how-to-keep-yourself-safe/

WA man hospitalized with tick-borne disease. Here’s how to keep yourself safe

By  

Seattle Times staff reporter
The first local human case of anaplasmosis, a tick-borne disease, was reported this month in Washington state.

The case was discovered on Aug. 8 after a Whatcom County man in his 80s was hospitalized with severe disease after working in the brush in Mason County, according to the Washington State Department of Health. The man, likely bitten by an infected tick, is recovering.

While human cases of anaplasmosis have been identified in the state before, this is the first case that did not involve travel outside of Washington. There have been cases of dogs diagnosed with anaplasmosis after being bit within the state, DOH said.

In humans, symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches and nausea and typically begin within one to two weeks of a tick bite. There is no vaccine to prevent the disease, which is treatable with antibiotics, according to DOH.

The disease is spread by the western blacklegged tick, which is found in the western parts of the state and along the eastern slopes of the Cascades.

“Not all tick bites will cause disease,” said Washington state epidemiologist Scott Lindquist in a news release. “However, people across Washington are at risk for tick-borne illnesses and should take precautions to prevent tick bites.”

(See link for article)

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**Comment**

The article then gives tick prevention tips.  You will be helped more by reading this:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/12/tick-prevention-2019/

The article then explains what to do if you are bitten by a tick.  Again, you will be helped better by reading these:

Do NOT take the “wait and see” approach.

If you are bitten by a black legged tick, get on treatment asap.  The risk just isn’t worth it.

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Prevention, Ticks

Scientists Scrambling as ‘Science’ is Retiring in December

https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/science-in-retiring-in-december

Science is Retiring in December.

Scientists around the world are scrambling to figure out what to do with their lives, since Science itself will be retiring in December, 2022
James Lyons-Weiler

Science, who has been running the NIAID and who has been serving on President Biden’s COVID-19 task force, has announced (for the second time) that it will be resigning and moving on to new ventures.

Since Science will be retiring, millions of Scientists around the world are now scrambling to figure how they will be making a living.

Some have speculated (against decree) that it’s really just Dr. Anthony Fauci retiring, not Science itself. Others are baffled by such claims, and believe this is just misinformation.

To make matters worse, mainstream media have used the term “Dr. Anthony Fauci” in a manner inconsistent with him being Science incarnate – leaving the public puzzled.  (See link for article)

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http://  Approx. 14 Min

Fauci Could Become More Dangerous & Powerful in “Retirement”

Kim Iverson explains that Fauci knows an investigation is forthcoming so he’s hitting the road.  She also explains how he could do more damage and be more powerful in retirement.

https://www.lifezette.com/video/2022/08/tucker-fauci-engineered-the-single-most-devastating-event-in-american-history-retires-as-a-hero  Video Here (Approx. 4 Min)

Tucker: Fauci ‘Engineered the Single Most Devastating Event in American History,’ Retires as a Hero

By

CARLSON: “… it’s not Fauci who has been damaged by this kind of behavior serially over the years. It’s anyone who criticized him. The Biden Administration arrested one of Tony Fauci’s top critics, Peter Navarro.”  (See news video in link above)

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There are now calls from politicians and media personalities for Fauci to be investigated and jailed.  One senator has demanded that HHS preserve all records related to Fauci and Collins.  Another senator has asked the acting director of the NIH to preserve all documents and communications within Fauci’s possession relating to his tenure at NIH.

Daily Wire host, Michael Knowles, an outspoken critic of Fauci, states that Fauci’s tenure has pocketed the most money out of any other federal employee, yet his record is “one of absolute failure.”

“Deception, intentional lies, incompetence, screw-ups going all the way back to AIDS — all the way up through the 90s — especially right after the war on terror,” Knowles said.

For more:

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https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/watch-why-dr-fauci-wont-be-missed/

Why Fauci Won’t Be Missed

Good riddance to bad science

and • August 22, 2022 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, 81, is finally stepping down. The chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden said Monday he will be “moving on” from his career in medical bureaucracy but is “not retiring in the classic sense.” He will formally exit the Biden administration at the end of the year, after which the liberal sex symbol said he plans to “devote himself to traveling, writing and encouraging young people to enter government service.”

The good doctor will not be missed. Fauci is leaving at a time when public trust in the medical bureaucracy is at an all-time low. His so-called leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to a cult of freaks who cheered as children suffered due to prolonged school closures. Fauci and his fellow health “experts” gave widely inconsistent advice throughout the pandemic while accusing their critics of being “anti-science.”  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Yet, despite all the horrific things this man has done and gotten away with, many in the public worship the ground he walks upon, and are even writing children’s books about him.  Others; however, are selling merch far closer to the truth.  The question we are all asking is will he be held accountable for his actions?  I’m not holding my breath.

Head of NIAID for 7 presidencies, he’s been at the helm of every ‘pandemic’ that wasn’t:

Category:

Activism, Viruses

Pfizer CEO Tests Positive for COVID, Tweets He’s Grateful for Quadruple Vax and Paxlovid

https://thevaccinereaction.org/2022/08/pfizer-ceo-tests-positive-for-covid-tweets-hes-grateful-for-quadruple-vax-and-paxlovid-treatment/

Pfizer CEO Tests Positive for COVID, Tweets He’s Grateful for Quadruple Vax and Paxlovid Treatment

by The Hill
Published August 22, 2022 | Best in Video

Albert Bourla is the CEO of Pfizer and just announced on Twitter that he has COVID. He said, “I would like to let you know that I tested positive for COVID-19. I am thankful to have received four doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and I am feeling well while experiencing mild symptoms. I am isolating and have started a course of Paxlovid.” … He’s 60, this guy is not at a high risk, so the argument they would make is that the more doses you’ve gotten, while it won’t prevent the spread, which they told us it would but it won’t prevent you from getting it but the symptoms will be milder.

If you would like to receive an e-mail notice of the most recent articles published in The Vaccine Reaction each week, click here.

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**Comment**

Despite all the evidence in reality, data proving the ineffectiveness of BOTH the shots AND paxlovid, predictably the CEO of Pfizer must keep the narrative rolling.  There’s lots of money to be made.

For more:

Category:

Activism, Treatment, vaccines, Viruses

Scientists: No Evidence for ‘Chemical Imbalance” Causing Depression

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/depression-chemical-imbalance-theory-big-pharma-profits/

Depression and ‘Chemical Imbalance’ — Big Pharma Profits From Theory Scientists Say Doesn’t Exist

After reviewing decades of research, a group of University College London scientists concluded there’s no evidence changes in serotonin levels cause depression. But the chemical imbalance theory — which overnight gave drugmakers a highly profitable income stream, doctors a ready-made, patient-pleasing tool, the media, reliable new advertisers and Wall Street, hot new stocks — remains popular.

big pharma profit depression chemical imbalance feature

By Martha Rosenberg

“Lexapro appears to relieve the symptoms of depression and anxiety by increasing serotonin,” says an ad on the Bonkers Institute, a website that archives drug ads and also satirizes pharma claims and shaky science.

“Zoloft works to correct a chemical imbalance in the brain which may be related to symptoms of depression,” another ad says.

“Paxil CR blocks serotonin from being reabsorbed back into the sending nerve cell. This process increases the availability of serotonin to the receiving nerve cell and may help message [depression] transmission return to normal,” a third ad says.

As many Epoch Times readers may have heard, the serotonin “chemical imbalance” theory of depression was recently put to rest by a group of University College London scientists in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

After reviewing decades of research, there’s no evidence that serotonin levels or serotonin activity are responsible for depression, they wrote.

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SUMMARY:

  • Similarly to the Cabals that control research in Alzheimer’s, Cancer, and Lyme/MSIDS (among many others), a cabal has also controlled mental health  with a false narrative that has literally driven the entire mental health field.
  • This control has snuffed out any dissenting voices – forcing the flow of money, research, and effort through a narrow straw of singular thought. 
  • In mental health, the singular narrative is the basis for profitable selective seratonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs used for depression despite being questioned for decades by scientists.
  • SSRIs have caused severe side effects, withdrawals, and are known to increase bone loss and fracture risk, as well as the risk of the dreaded intestinal condition of Clostridium difficile, yet prescription rates continue to rise.  The good news for Big Pharma is that these side effects will necessitate yet more prescriptions – making lifelong customers.  What a business model!
    • Harvard Health Publishing estimated that about 1 in 4 American women in their 40s and 50s were taking antidepressants
    • The faulty “chemical imbalance of seratonin causing depression” theory allowed drug makers and doctors a ready-made, patient pleasing tool not to mention hot new profitable stocks. Worldwide sales of SSRIs have been estimated to soar as high as $18.29 billion by 2027.
  • Psychiatrists and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) are highly funded by Big Pharma – and 70% of the authors of the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders were funded directly by Big Pharma (sound familiar?). These, BTW, were the first to push back against the Molecular Psychiatry article refuting the serotonin theory.

Important quote:

As Mark Horowitz, co-author of the Molecular Psychiatry article, put it, “One interesting aspect in the studies we examined was how strong an effect adverse life events played in depression, suggesting low mood is a response to people’s lives and cannot be boiled down to a simple chemical equation.”

If depression comes from stress, trauma, grief, loneliness and social conditions such as poverty, as Horowitz suggests, it wouldn’t be amenable to medication treatment.

Regarding depression, and mental health in general, I found that my low mood paralleled with how I felt physically.  In other words, the worse I felt physically, the worse I felt mentally.  Getting to the root of the problem (infections) with appropriate, effective antimicrobial treatment is key and the best and first place to start; however, as always – we are all so very different.

Some patients will really have to deal with past trauma like my husband.  The more trauma that happened to you before you became infected, the more this will rear its ugly head.  Nobody really talks about this, but it is yet another crucial issue as we must deal with the body, mind, and spirit. Since Lyme/MSIDS infects the brain, it does a number on your emotions as well as your hormones, neurotransmitters, etc. – all of which can extrapolates out to having to deal with things you thought you had forgotten or dealt with long ago.  Nope.  It all comes back to haunt you in the wee hours of the night when you have unrelenting insomnia.  Developing tools/skills to deal with this will be another challenge in this pot-holed riddled journey.  I’m no expert in this but for us we talked and prayed a lot – often between the hours of 3-5 a.m.  Here’s a few resources, particularly on fear as this is a common emotion of Lyme/MSIDS patients as they struggle with feeling no longer in control of their body and mind:

Inflammation appears to be a huge disease driver and lowering inflammation will help every other issue.  There are many things you can experiment with at home and as always – bounce things off of your doctor to make sure what you add doesn’t have negative interactions with what you are already taking.  Lyme literate doctors are versed in all of this as it’s a common problem for those struggling with infections.

My only advice is only try ONE thing at a time so you can track progress and know if it’s helping or not.  No sense in paying for things that don’t work.  If it doesn’t help – drop it and move on to experiment #2, 3, 4 and so on until you find something that helps.  IF something helps BUT you can still improve, then it’s time to begin layering in other things ONE AT A TIME, making sure to keep track of responses.  This has been how we have gotten to the other side of health.  Effective, antimicrobial treatment for Lyme/MSIDS was the BIG important necessary step, but then we have had to add in many supplements/treatments to lessen and eliminate symptoms that remained.

Knowing when something is driven by infection vs when something is driven by inflammation, or other causes will test your sleuthing abilities like nothing else.

Notice how the patient in the article had a mold problem.  In my experience, patients who have tick-borne illness and mold are some of the sickest people I know.  The mold MUST be dealt with or the patient will not improve.  The same could be said about having MCAS, the inability to detox, and so many other issues.

Category:

Psychological Aspects, research, Treatment

The Fuss About Intestinal Microbiome in Lyme Treatment

https://www.treatlyme.net/guide/intestinal-microbiome-function-protection-strategies  Video Here  (Approx. 2 Min)

Intestinal Microbiome Function & Protection Strategies in Lyme Disease Treatment

Dr. Marty Ross

Aug. 23, 2022

Intestinal Microbiome Function & Protection Strategies Image

Intestinal Microbiome Considerations in Lyme Treatment

The exponential growth in research on the activity and importance of the intestinal microbiome indicates the important role the bacteria, viruses, yeast, and parasites living in our intestines play in health. This is especially true in chronic illnesses like Lyme disease and tick-related infections.

As a person considers using antimicrobials to treat Lyme and related infections, they must weigh risks and benefits. There is the risk of harm to the gut microbiome. But for most people the benefit of using antimicrobials is a return to a quality life that makes this risk worthwhile.

In this article, I describe the role of the microbiome. I also layout strategies to protect the gut microbiome using

  • herbal antibiotics rather than RX antibiotics when possible,
  • diet,
  • exercise, and
  • probiotics.

Bricks and Mortar of The Intestinal Microbiome

According to intestinal microbiome expert Gomaa:

  • “The intestinal microbiota consists of more than 1500 species, distributed in more than 50 different phyla”.
  • “As a result of their abundance in the digestive tract, bacterial species make up to 60% of the feces dry mass. Fungi, protists, archaea, and viruses are also present in the gut flora, however, less is known about their activities.”

The Institute for Functional Medicine teaches that 90 percent of the genetic material in human bodies comes from the viruses, bacteria, yeast, and parasites that make up the microbiome.

Key Functions of the Intestinal Microbiome

A well balanced microbiome

  • supports a healthy immune system,
  • decreases inflammation,
  • protects against intestinal infections,
  • promotes cell growth and proliferation,
  • supports the blood vessels,
  • regulates the hormonal systems,
  • provides brain and nerve signaling,
  • supports and regulates mental health
  • promotes bone density,
  • provides energy to the body,
  • makes key vitamins and metabolic chemicals,
  • makes neurotransmitters,
  • eliminates toxins,
  • eliminates allergens, and
  • more.

How to Protect the Microbiome in Lyme Disease

Use Herbal or Prescription Antibiotics Only if You Have Symptoms

If someone tests positive for an infection like Lyme, but has no symptoms, I do not recommend herbal or prescription antibiotics. First, the test could be a false positive. Second, even if the test is true, I do not want to disrupt the microbiome and potentially cause more long-term harm down the road.

When Possible Choose Herbal Over Prescription Antibiotics

In my experience, herbal antibiotics cause less disruption of the gut microbiome. I say this because I rarely see intestinal yeast overgrowth infections when someone is on herbal antibiotics. I see intestinal yeast overgrowth infections much more frequently when someone is using prescription antibiotics. The presence of intestinal yeast overgrowth means the microbiome is out of balance.

Unfortunately, I am not able to find any research that supports the idea that herbal antibiotics are less harmful to the gut microbiome – but clinically they seem to be.

In each of my articles on how to treat Lyme and related infections, I provide herbal antibiotic options with a description of the relative chances the herbs will help versus prescription options. For more information see the Infection Treatment Plans chapter on this site.

Emphasize Plant-Based Food

Fiber in plant-based diets supports a healthy microbiome much better than foods found in the SAD (Standard American Diet). Types of diets rich in plant-based foods include Mediterranean style diets and plant-forward paleo type diets. And obviously, vegetarian diets do this too!

Exercise for Microbiome Health

Athletes tend to have healthier intestinal microbiomes than those that do not exercise regularly. This finding has to be interpreted with some consideration that athletes may also tend to eat healthier as they focus on all aspects of health.

I do recommend exercise to my patients, but at a level that does not flare a person up. In Lyme and tick related illnesses this may mean no exercise is good, or a 5 minute walk, or even long-distance running if a person can tolerate it.

Use Probiotics During Treatment

Probiotics are shown to protect and maintain microbiome health. There are a variety of probiotics including

  • human strains like Lactobacillus acidophilus
  • spore-forming soil-based strains like Bacteroides, and
  • healthy yeast like Saccharomyces boulardii.

For my patients, I recommend they take human and spore-forming strains together. At times I also recommend adding Saccharomyces Boulardii.

For an extensive article on how to use probiotics during treatment and which products I recommend see: Probiotic Strategies in Lyme Disease Treatment.

Disclaimer

The ideas and recommendations on this website and in this article are for informational purposes only. For more information about this, see the site-wide Terms & Conditions.

References

  1. Gomaa EZ. Human gut microbiota/microbiome in health and diseases: a review. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek. 2020;113(12):2019-2040. doi:10.1007/s10482-020-01474-7 (View)
  2. Lynch SV, Pedersen O. The Human Intestinal Microbiome in Health and Disease. N Engl J Med. 2016;375(24):2369-2379. doi:10.1056/NEJMra1600266 (View)
  3. Sharon I, Quijada NM, Pasolli E, et al. The Core Human Microbiome: Does It Exist and How Can We Find It? A Critical Review of the Concept. Nutrients. 2022;14(14):2872. Published 2022 Jul 13. doi:10.3390/nu14142872 (View)

About the Author

Marty Ross, MD is a passionate Lyme disease educator and clinical expert. He helps Lyme sufferers and their physicians see what really works based on his review of the science and extensive real-world experience. Dr. Ross is licensed to practice medicine in Washington State (License: MD00033296) where he has treated thousands of Lyme disease patients in his Seattle practice. 

Marty Ross, MD is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine and Georgetown University Family Medicine Residency. He is a member of the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) and The Institute for Functional Medicine.

Category:

diet and nutrition, Gut Health, Lyme, Treatment