Archive for the ‘Bartonella’ Category

Unraveling Bartonella: Dr. Mozayeni

https://www.betterhealthguy.com/episode185

Episode #185: Unraveling Bartonella with Dr. B. Robert Mozayeni, MD

 
 
About My Guest

My guest for this episode is Dr. B. Robert Mozayeni.  B. Robert Mozayeni, MD is an expert in Translational Medicine, the science and art of advancing medical science safely and efficiently.  He is the Chief Medical Officer of Galaxy Diagnostics, LLC.  He is a co-founder of the Foundation for the Study of Inflammatory Diseases.  He serves as an advisor to pharmaceutical and nutraceutical companies and serves on an Institutional Review Board specializing in nutraceutical products for pain management.  He is the immediate past President of ILADS, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society where his goal was to advance the science of translational medicine.  In late 2019, Dr. Mozayeni launched T Lab Inc., a research and clinical laboratory engaged in research using advanced microscopy to understand better the pathogenesis of disease in inflammatory conditions associated with persistent infections.  He has research and clinical expertise with regard to autoimmune diseases and the effects of chronic infection and inflammation on vascular physiology and neurovascular conditions seen commonly with autoimmune and neurovascular diseases.  With a strong foundation in the basic sciences and evidence-based medicine, he analyzes complex medical cases using a combination of basic scientific principles and clinical experience along with the balance of the evidence base.  Dr. Mozayeni has published numerous papers on immunology and cerebrovascular blood flow hemodynamics.  He has been actively researching and publishing his work on chronic rheumatic diseases and their relationship to persistent human Bartonella spp. infection.  Of note, chronic persistent Bartonella spp. infections are strongly associated with neurovascular diseases.  Thus, Dr. Mozayeni is uniquely qualified in the combined areas of chronic persistent endovascular infections and related rheumatological and neurovascular diseases.   He has also published papers providing new insights as to a potential infectious  (Bartonella spp.) cause of osteoarthritis and also, a case of arthritis associated with hypermobility that was likely caused by Bartonella spp.

Key Takeaways
  • What advances have been observed in recent years in the realm of Bartonella?
  • What are common symptoms of Bartonella?
  • How is Bartonella transmitted?- Might Bartonella lead to autoimmunity?
  • Can Bartonella be a trigger for PANS?
  • Might Bartonella be a contributor to osteoarthritis?
  • Is there a connection between Bartonella and hypermobility or EDS?
  • Does Bartonella contribute to MS?
  • What is the connection between Bartonella and SIBO?
  • Can Bartonella act as a trigger for MCAS?
  • Is Bartonella activation observed in those with COVID?
  • What is the state of the art in Bartonella testing?
  • What is Babesia odocoilei?
  • What agents are most helpful in the treatment of Bartonella?
  • Is there a place for herbs and other natural interventions in Bartonella treatment?
  • Should pets be considered as a potential source of exposure to Bartonella?
Connect With My Guest

http://TMGMD.com

Related Resources

Article: Unraveling the Mystery of Bartonellosis

Transcript

Go to top link for transcript, video, and audio

For more:

Category:

Bartonella, Cancer, Eye Issues, Heart Issues, Inflammation, Psychological Aspects

Relocated Cats & Disseminated Vector-Borne & Other Pathogens of Potential Relevance

https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-022-05553-8

Vector-borne and other pathogens of potential relevance disseminated by relocated cats

Parasites & Vectors volume 15, Article number: 415 (2022) Cite this article

Abstract

Large populations of unowned cats constitute an animal welfare, ecological, societal and public health issue worldwide. Their relocation and homing are currently carried out in many parts of the world with the intention of relieving suffering and social problems, while contributing to ethical and humane population control in these cat populations. An understanding of an individual cat’s lifestyle and disease status by veterinary team professionals and those working with cat charities can help to prevent severe cat stress and the spread of feline pathogens, especially vector-borne pathogens, which can be overlooked in cats. In this article, we discuss the issue of relocation and homing of unowned cats from a global perspective. We also review zoonotic and non-zoonotic infectious agents of cats and give a list of practical recommendations for veterinary team professionals dealing with homing cats. Finally, we present a consensus statement consolidated at the 15th Symposium of the Companion Vector-Borne Diseases (CVBD) World Forum in 2020, ultimately to help veterinary team professionals understand the problem and the role they have in helping to prevent and manage vector-borne and other pathogens in relocated cats.  (See link for article)

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Category:

Activism, Bartonella, research, Toxoplasmosis, Transmission

A Child Can No Longer Walk. Before COVID, There Was Lyme Disease Denial

https://rescue.substack.com/p/a-child-can-no-longer-walk-before

A Child Can No Longer Walk. Before Covid, There Was Lyme Disease Denial.

Lyme disease left her paralyzed at 11. Now 19, the girl blessed by the Pope is suing doctors who refused to treat.

MARY BETH PFEIFFER
APR 29, 2023
Julia Bruzzese, now 19, whose Lyme disease went undiagnosed and untreated for nearly two years, causing paraplegia at age 11. A medical malpractice lawsuit has been filed in New York City on her behalf.

This is a story of medical ignorance: How an infection was allowed to fester even when safe, generic drugs could have stopped it.

No, this is not about covid-19. This is a story of Lyme disease.

Before a pandemic came along, Lyme disease was among the most controversial and, in late stages, abysmally treated infection in medicine.

As covid wanes, the tick-borne illness is still all those things. That is why a nineteen-year-old woman, who represents chronic Lyme sufferers worldwide, is suing a dozen doctors, a pediatric practice, and three hospitals in New York City for medical malpractice.

If anybody can change the image and practice of Lyme disease, it is Julia Rose Bruzzese of Brooklyn, the girl in a wheelchair who met the Pope on an airport tarmac at the age of twelve in hope of a miracle. Maybe, just maybe, she will get it.

First, her odyssey.  (See link for article)

SUMMARY:

  • Julia had a glaring EM rash the doctors simply ignored.
  • This error of ignorance was repeated over two more years and she was accused of making it all up.
  • When her dad suggested it might be tick-borne illness he was treated like he was using profanity.
  • Julia’s lawsuit contends that the continued refusal of doctors and hospitals resulted in her life in a wheelchair and she is seeking judgement and financial damages that would be fair, adequate and just.
  • Her father has fought battles for Julia before when attempting a medical insurance appeal.
  • Author of the article, Mary Beth Pfeiffer, has interviewed scores of others with similar stories of Lyme ruin and denial.
  • Due to this medical controversy another group of doctors has formed the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) which faults the IDSA for using low-quality and flawed evidence behind their entire paradigm.
    • This group still insists upon using a 30 year old diagnostic test that is wrong some 40% of the time with early infection and anywhere from 70–86% in late infection.  Yet this test is followed like the Rosetta Stone.
    • This group also recommends longer prophylactic antibiotics after tick bites and initial infection, and retreatment for persisting symptoms.  Due to this approach, Julia finally felt her feet for the first time in months.
  • Julia experienced extremely abusive situations by doctors throughout this journey including gas-lighting, taking away her wheelchair to see if she would get up to use the bathroom, poking prods into her lifeless legs when she slept, waking up to a large group of doctors looking down on her to observe a supposed case of “conversion disorder,” being dragged along a hospital hallway, and taking all her weight but then dropping her despite her cries of pain.
  • The family has had financial troubles due to this.
  • Julia has faced frightening litany of symptoms that have progressed and worsened over time due to lack of treatment. She has had GBS, POTS, distended bladder, cognitive impairment, vision and hearing difficulties, insomnia, atrophy, migratory joint pain, encephalitis, seizures, severe fatigue, osteopenia, and many other problems.
  • The defendants have denied all claims in the lawsuit, filed in March 2021.
  • Julia made global news when she sought a blessing from the Pope in 2015.
  • Finally able to obtain testing, she now had evidence of 5 infections: Lyme, Babesia, Tularemia, and Bartonella and received treatment which helped but did not cure her long-ignored condition.
  • Julia’s story is now chronicled in a critically acclaimed documentary that is now screening around the country.
  • The ignorance being experienced is largely to a one-size-fits-all medical model which is a huge ongoing problem.
  • While Julia’s lawsuit is a year or more from trial, another trial is coming in May for a “wrongful death” in a young man who had a negative test but ended up dying from Lyme carditis.  A case report in Cardiovascular Pathology journal two years later documented the damage to his heart. There, in color, were corkscrew-shaped Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Similarly to Julia, he was not treated with a round of antibiotics that likely would have spared him.  Journal articles continue to minimize the severity of tick-borne illness by insisting that they are self-limiting conditions.  Therefore, doctors are lazy and apathetic toward a complex illness that has and will kill or maim a good number of patients.
  • A false narrative also continues to insist that people are over diagnosed with Lyme due to supposed false positive tests.
  • Despite stories like this (and thousands more) nothing has changed in Lymeland. 
  • What’s the answer?  Good question.  Pfeiffer thinks maybe big money payouts will help our plight. Recently a Maine lawsuit awarded a family 6.5 million from a hospital and doctor in the Lyme carditis death of a twenty-five-year-old man in 2017.
    • The lawyer who won the case is the same lawyer in Julia’s case as well as in the other Lyme carditis death.  He has yet to earn a dime.  How many lawyers will fight for sick Lyme patients without a living wage?  Food for thought.
  • Like all good dads, Julia’s father is worried for her future, but Julia’s greatest weapon continues to be her optimism.  She is in pre-med, paints, crochets, bakes, and is a make-up artist.

Category:

Activism, Babesia, Bartonella, Lyme, Tularemia

May 3, 2023 Tick Boot Camp Podcast: Eva Sapi, PhD

https://tickbootcamp.com/eva-sapi-geneticist-and-molecular-biologist-at-university-of-new-haven/

April 1, 2023

Eva Sapi, Geneticist And Molecular Biologist At University Of New Haven

Eva Sapi

Tick Boot Camp Podcast
Dr. Michael Snyder was featured on the Tick Boot Camp Podcast:

Launching May 3…

Background
Professor Eva Sapi is a Hungarian-American microbiologist and researcher who has dedicated her career to advancing our understanding of Lyme disease.

Early Life and Career
Born in Hungary, Sapi comes from a family of engineers and scientists. She studied biology at a university in Hungary from 1987 to 1995 and earned her Ph.D. in biology from the same university. She went on to complete postdoctoral work in Germany and Switzerland, where she focused on studying gene regulation in bacteria, and understanding how genes are turned on and off in response to environmental cues.

Early Research
Professor Sapi started her research career studying breast cancer until she was hit with chronic Lyme disease and it paused her life. After finally getting a proper Lyme diagnosis and spending years trying many different pharmaceutical and herbal treatments, Sapi began to feel better and started collecting and studying ticks. She discovered that ticks carry Bartonella and that ticks could carry many different species of bugs that can infect humans, which was not received well by the medical community at the time.

Official Lyme Career Pivot
Next, Professor Eva Sapi joined the University of New Haven in Connecticut as an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Science. She was also appointed as the Director of the Lyme Disease Research Group at the university, where she continued her research on Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

Popular Work
Sapi is known for her groundbreaking research on the persistence and treatment of Lyme disease. She was the first to discover that Borrelia burgdorferi can form biofilms that protect it from antibiotics and the immune system. Her current research, with James Goldman, a Columbia University professor of pathology and cell biology, centers on a case in which a woman received 16 years of antibiotic therapy and still died from Lyme disease. Their findings – published in Healthcare 2018 – supported her earlier discoveries that Borrelia can form biofilm, a protective layer around itself, making it extremely resistant to antibiotics.

Notable Achievements
Professor Sapi has authored 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers on Lyme disease and trained more than 100 graduate students in Lyme disease research. She is a sought-after speaker and presenter and has appeared on radio and television programs. Her groundbreaking research has earned her several recognitions, including the research trailblazer award from LymeDisease.org in 2018, and the Courage Award from Lyme Connection of Ridgefield. Her ultimate goal is to identify novel antibacterial agents that are effective in killing all forms of Borrelia.

Recent Breakthroughs
Sapi’s research has also shown that some herbal remedies, such as Stevia, can be effective in treating Lyme disease. Her recent breakthrough, with her students, is in the potential of liquid, whole-leaf Stevia extract in reducing biofilm mass. In a recent study, they found that liquid, whole-leaf Stevia extract is an effective treatment for Lyme biofilm. This finding is significant because Borrelia biofilm is a protective layer around itself, making it extremely resistant to antibiotics.

Lyme and Cancer
Sapi’s research has also found evidence that Borrelia may be present in breast cancer tissues, as well as ovarian and endometrial cancer. She and her students are focusing on Borrelia, examining more than 400 invasive breast cancer tissues. A significant number of samples were positive for Borrelia, suggesting that the bacteria may play a role in breast cancer development and metastasis.

Looking Ahead
Professor Eva Sapi’s work on breast cancer and its link to Lyme disease has opened new avenues for research and has the potential to lead to novel discoveries in the field. The scientific community and the Lyme disease community are fortunate to have such a dedicated and passionate researcher leading the charge in advancing Lyme disease research, including its role in cancer.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts

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Category:

Activism, Bartonella, Cancer, Lyme, research, Ticks

Methylene Blue for Lyme & Bartonella (Also COVID)

https://www.treatlyme.net/guide/methylene-blue-for-lyme-and-bartonella  Video Here

Methylene Blue for Lyme and Bartonella: The Ins and Outs

By Dr. Marty Ross

Methylene Blue for Lyme and Bartonella Persisters

The Ins and Outs of Methylene Blue

Methylene blue is a repurposed drug used to treat persister Lyme (Borrelia) and Bartonella. There is also lab evidence showing it treats growing Bartonella. It likely kills growing Lyme too. While methylene blue may treat growing germs, the main reason to use it in Lyme or Bartonella infectious is to treat persisters.

In this video article, Marty Ross, MD discusses the ins and outs, including risks factors, of using methylene blue. Below the video, you can find sample antibiotic protocols for Lyme and Bartonella that include methylene blue.

Notice-How to Use This Article

Be aware, most of the important information in this article is in the video in the top link

(See link for article and video)

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**Comment**

Methylene blue, like DMSO and ozone are more like therapeutic principles than drugs and work for many disease processes including COVID, yet mainstream medicine & media is remarkably silent because these safe, cheap, effective alternatives interfere with their conflicts of interest.  The same can be said for ivermectin and HCQ/zinc, as well as long-term antibiotics for Lyme/MSIDS sufferers who continue to have symptoms.

For more:

For more on Bartonella treatment:

For more on MB for COVID:

  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92481-9  MB displays broad-spectrum virucidal activity in the presence of UV light and inactivates various viruses in blood products prior to transfusions.  It’s validated for treating methemoglobinemia and malaria.  Our findings reveal that methylene blue displays virucidal preventive or therapeutic activity against influenza virus H1N1 and SARS-CoV-2 at low micromolar concentrations and in the absence of UV-activation. We also confirm that MB antiviral activity is based on several mechanisms of action as the extent of genomic RNA degradation is higher in presence of light and after long exposure. Our work supports the interest of testing methylene blue in clinical studies to confirm a preventive and/or therapeutic efficacy against both influenza virus H1N1 and SARS-CoV-2 infections.
  • https://biomedres.us/pdfs/BJSTR.MS.ID.006723.pdfSeven outpatients with confirmed cases of severe COVID-19 received oral MB (the reduced form: 1mg/kg T.I.D. for 2-days, followed by 1mg/kg B.I.D. for the next 12 days) along with standard care. Outpatients recovered completely.  Considering all properties of MB such as anti-viral, antibiotic, anticoagulant, immunomodulatory, antioxidants, anti-hypoxemia, and anti-respiratory; it could be applied as an adjunct therapy along with standard care protocols in the clinical management of COVID-19 outpatients. MB is a cheap and FDA-approved drug for methemoglobinemia.
  • https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220325/Study-finds-methylene-blue-is-a-low-micromolar-inhibitor-of-the-the-SARS-CoV-2-spike-protein-and-ACE2-interaction.aspx  Authors of this study revealed that MeBlu is a low‐micromolar inhibitor of the PPI that suppresses interaction between the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 and its cognate receptor ACE2. The dye was also found to be effective against the Delta variant and to suppress virus replication in Vero E6 cells. Scientists believe that MeBlu could be used as an inexpensive drug for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
  • https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04933864  Since methylene blue can work as a photosensitizer, photodynamic therapy as an antiviral treatment has great potential in the treatment of COVID-19. (The study is ongoing so results are yet to be known)
  • https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34019535/  The addition of MB to the treatment protocols significantly improved SpO2 and respiratory distress in COVID-19 patients, which resulted in decreased hospital stay and mortality.
  • https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.600372/full  Screening of our organic dye-based library identified MeBlu as a low-micromolar inhibitor of the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and its cognate receptor ACE2, a PPI that is the first critical step initiating the viral entry of this coronavirus. While MeBlu shows strong polypharmacology and might be a somewhat promiscuous PPI inhibitor, its ability to inhibit this PPI could contribute to the antiviral activity of MeBlu against SARS-CoV-2 even in the absence of light making this inexpensive and widely available drug potentially useful in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 as an oral or inhaled medication.
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332221008064  Currently, the treatment of COVID-19 involves use of antiviral and anti-cytokine drugs. However, both the drugs have low efficacy because they cannot inhibit the production of free radicals and cytokines at the same time. Recently, some researchers have reported the use of methylene blue(MB) in COVID-19 management. MB has been used since a long time as a therapeutic agent, and has been approved by the US FDA for the treatment of other diseases. The additional advantage of MB is its low cost. MB is a safe drug when used in the dose of < 2 mg/kg. In this review, the applicability of MB in COVID-19 and its mechanistic aspects have been explored and compiled. The clinical studies have been explained in great detail. Thus, the potential of MB in the management of COVID-19 has been examined.  The results are satisfactory and provide a ray of hope in this direction. Thus, MB can be termed as a “rescue magic bullet” for COVID-19 treatment. However, for MB administration, meticulous consideration of the dosage is necessary to prevent any untoward effects. MB can be administered thrice orally at a dose of 2–3 mg/kg per day for 7–10 days in newly infected COVID-19 patients. However, this needs to be further studied, and finding the optimal dosage should be the objective of clinical study [43]. The use of MB in novel dosage forms like an anti-COVID mouthwash may also be beneficial [77].  **Warning** MB can interact with antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and MAO inhibitors) to cause sever toxicity of serotonin.  It also has been found to interact with with dapsoneto form hydroxylamine, which oxidizes hemoglobin and may cause hemolysis [84]. Also, MB is contraindicated in patients with severe renal insufficiency. The use of MB in patients with G6PD deficiency can be detrimental, as it may cause severe hemolysis [53]. In such cases, the use of vitamin B12 and ascorbic acid has proven to be beneficial [85], [86], [87]. Additionally, concomitant use of NSAIDs may block the bradykinin activity pathways. Thus, NSAIDs may add benefit to MB therapy in COVID-19 [64], [88].

Category:

Bartonella, Lyme, Treatment