Archive for the ‘Lyme’ Category

Hottest Lyme Disease Treatment Update 2022

https://www.treatlyme.net/guide/hottest-lyme-treatment-updates-2022  Video Here (Approx. 11 Min)

Hottest Lyme Disease Treatment Updates in 2022

Marty Ross MD on Top Lyme Treatment Updates of 2022

In the video in the link above Marty Ross MD describes the latest Lyme disease treatment updates in his integrative medicine practice. For more information about the topics discussed in the video article see the following resources:

Dr. Ross’s new book, Hacking Lyme Disease: An Action Guide to Wellness, will be released by early December 2022.

Disclaimer

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

________________

**Comment**

Dr. Ross discusses peptides. These are not antimicrobials but help the body in fighting off infections and restoring the issues infections cause.  Ross as well as Dr. Holtdorf is evidently having a lot of success with them.

Ross also discusses biofilm busters such as lumbrokinase, which helps improve circulation, decrease muscle pain, and improve medicine delivery deep into tissues.  Those with hypercoagulation would also do well to check it out.  

A golden nugget he discussed was the finding that cryptolepis, a drug normally given for Babesia, also has action against Lyme (in vitro – or the lab, which may not transfer over to the human body or in vivo) This study also found that black walnut, Japanese knotweed, sweet wormwood, ccat’s claw, Cistus incanus, and Chinese skullcap at 1% extracts had good activity against Bb’s stationary phase compared to control antibiotics doxycycline and cefuroxime.

Important note: The minimum inibitory concentration (MIC) values of Artemisia annua, Juglans nigra, and Uncaria tomentosa were quite high for the growing phase of Bb, despite their strong activity against the non-growing stationary phase. On the other hand, the top two active herbs, Cryptolepis and Japanese Knotweed showed strong activity against both growing Bb and non-growing stationary phase.  In subculture studies, only 1% Cryptolepis extract caused complete eradication, while doxycycline and cefuroxime and other active herbs could not eradicate B. burgdorferi stationary phase cells as many spirochetes were visible after 21-day subculture.

Ross states both herbs are helpful for Bartonella as well as diflucan/fluconazole.  My LLMD had us pulse diflucan twice a week throughout our entire treatment (5 years).  I can say with experience we herxed on this drug, often.  It is a known anti-fungal; however, Dr. Hoffman (RIP) stated he believed it did far more than that, and I tend to agree having taken it.

In contrast, the study showed that Stevia rebaudiana, Andrographis paniculata, Grapefruit seed extract, colloidal silver, monolaurin, and antimicrobial peptide LL37 had little or no activity against stationary phase B. burgdorferi.  A few years ago all kinds of headlines came out that stevia cured Lyme. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Per usual, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

Dr. Klinghardt uses a sublingual form of Hyaluronic Acid to fool the cyst forms to open and become spirochetes so they can be killed by antimicrobials.  For more on Klinghardt’s treatment:  Klinghardt Lyme Protocol.

Hyaluronic Acid is a type of sugar molecule.  Many other Lyme literate doctors also use forms of sugar such as Stevia or Erythritol as “cyst busters,” in their treatment regimens.  Look for reputable sources of Erythritol as it is most commonly made with GMO cornstarch.

For more:

Documentary: Science For Hire – A Look at the ‘Dark Side’ of the Scientific, Pharma and Military-Industrial Complexes

http://  Approx. 1 Min

Under Our Skin Excerpt

Please know that Science has been for hire for a long, long time.  This 2008 video with investigative journalist and Lyme patient, Kris Newby, shows the importance of understanding that in 1980 the United States allowed government institutions and universities to patent and profit from live organisms.  Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease) was “discovered” in 1981 and all of a sudden there was the equivalent of an Oklahoma land grab with researchers patenting pieces of the organism.  The “experts” no longer shared information about a new, dangerous pathogen – they hoarded it because they wanted to protect future profits.

For a more current example, please learn about Gates-funded pediatrician Dr. Peter Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX., co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for vaccine Development, and health policy scholar in the Baylor Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy.  Twice, the science journal Nature has published articles by Hotez in which he calls for the use of cyberwarfare assaults on Americans who disagree with official COVID narratives. 

Why? And why would he quickly dismiss the lab-leak theory, actually calling it “an outlandish conspiracy theory”?  

  • Hotez received $5.1 million from NIH from 2012-2017 for the development of a SARS “vaccine” in case of an “accidental release from a lab,” a deliberate terrorist attack, or a zoonotic spillover event.
  • Hotez funded gain-of-function research to create a chimeric SARS-related coronavirus
  • Hotez is an irrational defender of the already proven ineffective and dangerous COVID gene-therapy shots – showing even people with 5 doses are still getting sick with COVID.
  • Hotez states that the anti-vaccine movement:

has evolved into a deliberate, organized and well-financed destructive force,” he writes in his latest article. “It kills more people than global terrorism, nuclear proliferation and cyberattacks combined. Yet, we do not treat it as such …

Promoting local vaccine production of the Omicron boosters while countering the anti-vaccine activism … represent the new twin pillars of global vaccine equity. Urgent action to address both forces will help to correct the past mistakes …”  Source

Part of the “countering anti-vaccine activism” that Hotez is repeatedly calling for is cyberterrorist attacks on Americans who disagree.

Read on….

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/science-for-hire-gary-null-cola

Science for Hire: A Look at the ‘Dark Side’ of the Scientific, Pharma and Military-Industrial Complexes

“Science for Hire,” a new documentary produced by Gary Null, tackles some of the most critical scientific issues threatening the health and well-being of the U.S. public.
11/15/2022
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website

Story at a glance:

  • “Science for Hire,” produced by Gary Null, is a film that tackles some of the most critical scientific issues threatening the health and well-being of the U.S. public.
  • Long-standing systemic corruption in medical organizations and medical schools, federal regulatory agencies and academic journals has led to a world where pseudo-science and misinformation rules.
  • Elected officials and the media are captured by the highest bidder, and those who dare speak out against the establishment are attacked, their careers often destroyed in the process.
  • The film covers a wide range of topics — from corruption at Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — an arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — to the opioid epidemic.
  • Set aside two hours to watch the film in its entirety for an eye-opening look at the dark side of the scientific, pharmaceutical and military-industrial complexes.

In 2003, Gary Null, Ph.D., was a co-author of the bombshell “Death by Medicine” article, which described how the conventional American medical system had become the No. 1 leading cause of death and injury in the U.S., claiming the lives of nearly 783,936 people annually.

Now, Null is the executive producer of “Science for Hire,” a film that tackles some of the most critical scientific issues threatening the health and well-being of the U.S. public.

Due to long-standing systemic corruption in medical organizations and medical schools, federal regulatory agencies and academic journals, “we enter a world where pseudo-science and misinformation rules.”

Elected officials and the media are captured by the highest bidder, and those who dare speak out against the establishment are attacked, their careers often destroyed in the process.

There’s no separation between governments and the pharmaceutical industry, which operate, the film notes, “in lockstep … to erect an unregulated global regime, a ‘Great Reset,’ that will dictate what we can eat, what medical interventions are permitted and banned, and the rewards and punishments that legislate our choices.”

The film covers a wide range of topics — from corruption at Fauci’s NIAID — an arm of the NIH — to the opioid epidemic.

I urge you to set aside two hours to watch the film in its entirety for an eye-opening look at the dark side of the scientific, pharmaceutical and military-industrial complexes.

U.S. medical system captured by Big Pharma from the start

Many of the most powerful health strategies cost nothing at all or can be implemented very inexpensively. Yet, not only are these natural strategies not taught in conventional medical schools, but if you go against the standard, pharmaceutical-based treatment options you can be challenged, reprimanded or have your medical license taken away.

This process ostracizing natural therapies began back in 1910 with the release of the Flexner Report, which was written in commission for the Carnegie Foundation.

The Flexner Report essentially eliminated almost every form of natural medicine, because it was a competitor to the emerging class of pharmaceuticals, primarily derived from oil and petroleum products that John Rockefeller was behind.

So Big Pharma’s infiltration of regulatory and public health agencies goes back more than 100 years to the creation of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913. Just two years earlier, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company had been ruled an unreasonable monopoly and split into 34 companies, which became Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Amoco, Marathon and others.

The breakup only served to increase Rockefeller’s wealth, however, and the foundation he created under his name was deemed “a menace to the future political and economic welfare of the nation.”

The foundation, in partnership with Andrew Carnegie and educator Abraham Flexner, then set out to centralize U.S. medical schooling, orienting it to the “germ theory” of disease, which states that germs are solely responsible for disease and necessitates the use of pharmaceuticals to target said germs.

With that narrative in hand, Rockefeller financed the campaign to consolidate mainstream medicine, adopt the philosophies of the growing pharmaceutical industry and shutter its competition.

Rockefeller’s crusade caused the closure of more than half of U.S. medical schools, fostered public and press scorn for homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, nutritional, holistic, functional, integrative and natural medicines, and led to the incarceration of many practicing physicians.

The complete story can be found in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s book, “The Real Anthony Fauci.”

As noted in “Science for Hire”:

“About 100 years ago, things were really beginning to change in the United States. We were changing from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy.

“Titans of industry really wanted to be able to control the world financial system as a whole. When the Rockefellers took over the allopathic medicine, there were many types of medical education in the United States.

“There were homeopathic doctors and there were naturopathic doctors who were using natural medicines to heal, and they were having very good outcomes. Once the Rockefellers took over the system, they closed down those other schools and they only promoted the sale of their drugs.

“They promoted surgery and they promoted radiation. The Rockefellers were also in charge of the oil industry and the chemical industry. And they also made an alliance with a huge German concern called IG Farben, which was a big chemical industry in Germany and the largest financier of the Nazi rise to power.”

‘In the 1930s, the FDA became a monster’

Around the time the Rockefeller Foundation was building momentum, there were serious concerns with the meatpacking industry and the food industry in general.

Unsanitary conditions at meatpacking plants were the norm, while poisonous preservatives and dyes were widely used in foods. Medications also made false “cure-all” claims and often included toxic ingredients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was started in the 1930s to address many of these pitfalls and “was sold to the people of the United States as an agency that was going to protect its food and drug supply,” the film noted.

“There was a lot of mischief going on in the food industry and the FDA was set up to correct that problem,” William Faloon, director of Life Extension Foundation, added. “They evolved into regulating drugs, medical devices, and, at this point, they regulate just about anything that goes into the human body.”

But by 1938, said Jonathan Emord, constitutional lawyer and author of “Restore the Republic,” “the FDA became a monster. And from that point forward, it has grown by leaps and bounds until the ‘60s when it acquired jurisdiction over both safety and efficacy of drugs.”

In 1938, under Franklin Roosevelt, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was passed, which gave the FDA authority to regulate medical devices and cosmetics, and establish standards for foods.

Basically, the FDA appointed itself as the expert. In 1962, an amendment was passed that expanded the FDA’s authority to not only regulate drug safety but also the effectiveness of new drugs.

Emord continued, “At that point, the FDA was largely a captive of industry. The FDA does no clinical testing of drugs itself. It relies entirely on submissions made to it by the drug companies. This would appear to the average person to be a gross conflict of interest. And in fact, it is.”

Leemon McHenry, professor emeritus of philosophy and bioethics with California State University, Northridge, explained:

“We need independent testing to take the clinical trials out of the hands of the pharmaceutical industry. This needs to be the responsibility of government and universities rather than the pharmaceutical industry testing their own products.

“It’s the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse. What we have is a corruption of the system. And it’s particularly alarming that the regulatory agencies of the government don’t do anything about it.”

AMA, WHO, NIH, CDC controlled by Big Pharma

The American Medical Association (AMA) only contributes to the corruption of the healthcare industry, as they sell lists to the drug industry revealing which drugs certain doctors are prescribing. Big Pharma can then reward doctors prescribing the most expensive medications.

McHenry continued:

“The oligarchy of corporations here has basically usurped cherished institutions of democracy, which involve checks and balances in the system but also scientific integrity. So who’s looking out for scientific integrity?”

Dr. Paul Marik, a critical care doctor formerly with Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in East Virginia, who is renowned for his work in creating the “Marik Cocktail,” which significantly reduces death rates from sepsis using inexpensive, safe, generic medications, was interviewed in the film.

He went so far as to call for Big Pharma to be removed from the equation entirely to protect public health worldwide:

“WHO should be there to represent the interests of people on this planet. That’s what their job is. But unfortunately the WHO [World Health Organization], the NIH, CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]  are so influenced by Big Pharma.

“So I think, you know, we need to evolve to the point where Big Pharma gets removed from the equation. Big Pharma is the biggest contributor to lobbyists. They control the media, they control the press.

“So they have a stranglehold on free speech, scientific investigation, scientific integrity. I think COVID has brought up the worst in this respect.

“And I think it’s time that these organizations should go back to what the goal is, what the fundamental job is, to provide the best health to people on this planet. And that profiteering should not be driving this.”

The result is that scientific freedom and academic freedom are myths. “The NIH gets into contractual relationships with companies that, once they patent a drug, the NIH gets a certain amount of the revenue. So they make a lot of money from these patented drugs and their development, including the vaccines,” Marik said.

According to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the FDA gets 45% of its annual budget from the pharmaceutical industry, while WHO gets about half of its budget from private sources such as Big Pharma and its foundations.

Further, the CDC owns 56 vaccine patents and buys and distributes $4.6 billion in vaccines every year, amounting to more than 40% of its total budget. With this level of corporate capture, how can they have the public’s best interests at heart?

Opioid epidemic reveals drug industry’s true motives

Over the last two to three decades, especially in the case of blockbuster drugs, McHenry explained, many medications have been sold where “the risk-benefit ratio is not in favor of taking the drug.”

In many cases, people who shouldn’t have been taking drugs or vaccines in the first place ended up having serious adverse events after taking drugs or getting shots, like the HPV vaccine, they didn’t really need.

The opioid epidemic is a perfect example. Worldwide, 40.5 million people struggle with opioid dependence, a global prevalence of 510 cases per 100,000 people. Opioids have a very high rate of addiction, as they trigger your brain to release endorphins that not only relieve pain but also create feelings of pleasure and well-being.

As the good feelings wear off, the craving to recreate them by taking more pills can be strong, but soon tolerance develops and an even higher dose is needed to get the same feel-good boost.

Using opioids for as few as five days increases the risk of long-term use, and many people who start out taking the drugs for back pain or other chronic pain end up addicted.

An estimated 21% to 29% of people prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them and 8% to 12% develop an opioid use disorder. Many also transition to using heroin; an estimated 80% of heroin users misused prescription opioids first.

Unfortunately, opioids continue to be prescribed in cases where less addictive medications could be used instead. And patients are often kept in the dark about the drugs’ true addictive nature, believing they’re safe since they’re prescribed by a doctor.

From October 2019 to October 2020, there were 91,862 estimated overdose deaths in the U.S., which represents a 30% increase in 12 months.

Opioids, including oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine, accounted for the majority of deaths — 68,399 — followed by synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl and tramadol.

Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of OxyContin, and its owners the Sackler family, will pay up to $12 billion as part of a settlement with 23 states for their responsibility in starting — and sustaining — the opioid epidemic.

This is just one example. Other blockbuster drugs, like Vioxx and statins, have also been implicated in adverse reactions, including deaths, and their makers convicted of fraudulent marketing.

COVID pandemic: the culmination of censorship and control

The second half of the film details the widespread censorship and corruption that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While effective treatments were downplayed and those who attempted to use them ostracized from their professions, COVID-19 shots were foisted upon the population, including children — a population at little risk from the virus and high risk of harm from the shots.

Research showed concerning effects of COVID-19 shots, including myocarditis, decreases in fertility, risk of miscarriage and changes to women’s menstrual cycles. As pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson stated, “If there are fertility issues as a consequence of this, it could be the most grotesque mistake ever made in medical history.”

Dr. Richard Fleming, a physicist, nuclear cardiologist and attorney, also explained:

“The research done by independent researchers have shown that there is damage to the brains and other body organs caused by these viruses and these vaccines that are called prion diseases. So you can have mad cow disease in the brain or Alzheimer’s in the brain or amyloid disease in the heart, which is another type of prion disease.

“But the studies done by people doing the research on the animals have been very clear and very consistent. Prion diseases, inflammation and blood clotting … and real concerns about miscarriages and other health problems and deaths. None of this has been done by Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen or the other companies.”

Cancer is also a possibility, with doctors stating that their patients have come out of remission after years shortly after receiving the shots.

“We have so many fundamental questions in biology right now that need to be answered. And this isn’t in a petri dish. These products are in 5 billion human beings now,” noted Jessica Rose, a data analyst and post-doctoral researcher.

Paving the way for global control

At this point, even though WHO is not qualified to make global health decisions, it is attempting to seize control over global pandemic monitoring and response via the development of a new pandemic treaty.

As reported by Ben Swann of Truth in Media:

“The WHO is on track to get nearly all Western countries to sign on to this agreement on pandemic preparedness that would grant the WHO absolute power over global biosecurity such as the power to implement digital identities, vaccine passports, mandatory vaccinations, travel restrictions globally, standardized medical care and so much more.

“This treaty includes 190 countries and would be legally binding. If a pandemic is declared, the WHO takes over the global health management of the pandemic.

“What’s more here, the WHO would be in full control over what gets called a pandemic. They can dictate how doctors can respond, which drugs can and cannot be used or which vaccines are approved. And this is for the entire globe, not just one country.”

Bill Gates is also building a pandemic response team for the WHO, dubbed the “Global Epidemic Response & Mobilization,” or GERM, Team. This team will be made up of thousands of disease experts under WHO’s purview, and will monitor nations and make decisions about when to suspend civil liberties to prevent spread of an illness.

Swann continued, “Bill Gates has announced the creation of a pandemic German team that will monitor sovereign nations and decide when they need to suspend civil liberties, force people to wear masks and to close borders.

“According to Gates, the global team will be made up of some 3,000 disease experts under [WHO] purview and will receive around $1 billion per year in funding.”

All of these efforts — the orchestration of health agencies captured by industry, gain-of-function research, media manipulation, the downfall of scientific credibility, propaganda and the creation of “pandemic preparedness” treaties — are intended to culminate in one thing — the enabling of global power.

“It is a new vehicle for exerting global economic and political power,” the film notes. “This is the reality that’s behind all this and we need to wake up.”

Originally published on Dr. Mercola’s Substack page.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Children’s Health Defense.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

For more:  

Imaging Techniques Reveal Brain Abnormalities From Post-Treatment Lyme Disease

https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2022/11/imaging-techniques-reveal-brain-abnormalities-from-post-treatment-lyme-disease?

Imaging techniques reveal brain abnormalities from post-treatment Lyme disease

By VICKY ZHU | November 8, 2022  

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COURTESY OF MATT HAUGHEY / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Brain imaging techniques can help scientists understand what is going on inside the heads of patient populations.

In their recent study published in PLOS ONE, Dr. John Aucott and Cherie Marvel found that unexpected white matter activity in the brain, a symptom normally considered pathological, was found to be correlated with better outcomes in patients with post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD).

PTLD occurs in patients who have received treatments for Lyme disease but have yet to fully recover. Persistent complaints about cognitive difficulty are one of the symptoms.

Aucott is an associate professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the School of Medicine. He is also the director of the Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center and a clinical-translational researcher in Lyme disease with a focus on PTLD.

He stressed that PTLD affects 10% to 20% of patients who were previously diagnosed with and treated for Lyme disease in an interview with The News-Letter.

“Post-treatment Lyme disease is not a trivial problem. It is a problem that should be noticed,” he said.

Marvel is a cognitive neuroscientist and an associate professor of Neurology at the School of Medicine. She has been using brain imaging methods to look at different cognitive and motor functions, primarily in clinical populations.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Marvel noted that the complaints of PTLD patients did not align well with the standard cognitive or neuro-psychological testing.

“So we thought we should look inside the brain. The way we can do that non-invasively is through functional MRI,”she said.

Participants were asked to perform working memory tasks while their brain activity was recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI measures brain activity by detecting increased oxygen level in areas of activation.

Aucott highlighted that the decision to use an fMRI test for the study was intentional.

“The mystery behind post-treatment Lyme disease is whether there is something biological going on. Tests that are normally available to clinicians, such as regular MRI or CT, scans can’t identify these,“ he said. “So we hypothesized that stress tests under fMRI would be more sensitive to any biological changes.”

All participants performed two tasks. The easier task, which was the control condition, required participants to remember two letters for a short duration. After, the screen would show a new letter, and the participant would need to evaluate whether it was one of the two letters previously shown.

The harder task, which was the experimental condition, required participants to count two alphabetical letters forward of the same two letters and remember the new letters. Then, they were asked if a newly-appeared letter was one of the two new letters.   (See link for article)

________________

**Comment**

It is disingenuous to use the PTLD moniker for many reasons:

  1. It denies persistent infection
  2. It only includes the smaller subset of patients that have bee diagnosed and treated early and omits the larger subset of patients that are diagnosed and treated late
  3. Those with persistent symptoms may develop secondary psychosomatic & psychiatric disorders.  By using the PTLD moniker, treatment will only address the secondary conditions, but continue to deny life-saving antimicrobials
This is crucial because ignoring these facts will only propagate the continuing under-treatment (or denying treatment altogether) of severely ill patients

SUMMARY:

  • The researchers found expected brain activity in the gray matter but also in the white matter, which wasn’t expected.
  • White matter cells communicate signals between gray matter.
  • The finding caused the researchers to look more closely at the phenomenon.
  • Axial diffusivity (water leaking along the axon) is how the neurons relay electrical signals to each other and increased axial diffusivity was correlated with better outcomes and few symptoms.
  • Aucott states this response appears to be the body’s compensatory response to slower cognitive functions and is similar to a positive response to injury.
  • The researchers want to follow patients longitudinally as well as look for inflammatory markers through cerebral fluid samples.

STARI: The Southern Tick-Borne Illness That Looks, Smells, and Acts Just Like Lyme Disease

https://rawlsmd.com/health-articles/stari-the-southern-tick-borne-illness-that-can-mimic-lyme-disease?

STARI: The Southern Tick-Borne Illness That Can Mimic Lyme Disease

by Stephanie Eckelkamp
Updated 10/27/22

There’s a false narrative that tick-borne diseases aren’t much of a problem in southern states, but we know this to be far from the truth. Not only is Lyme disease present, but ailments like Heartland virus, ehrlichia, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever can be a big problem for people and pets — so it’s important to keep yourself protected.

One primarily southern tick-borne pathogen that’s gotten very little attention is STARI (southern tick-associated rash illness). STARI has caused confusion among doctors and patients because some of its early symptoms closely mimic those of Lyme disease. The promising news: STARI appears to be far less detrimental to long-term health than Lyme.

Here, we cover the signs and symptoms of STARI, how it differs from Lyme, what ticks carry it, and how to protect yourself.

What Is STARI?

STARI is an emerging zoonotic disease transmitted by the bite of the Lone Star tick, which often results in a red, ring-like rash with a central clearing that is almost indistinguishable from the erythema migrans bullseye rash sometimes seen in Lyme disease. The exact causative pathogen is still up for debate — while it was once thought to be caused by the Borrelia lonestari spirochete bacterium, this spirochete has not been detected in all cases of the illness.

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Where Is It Most Commonly Found?

STARI isn’t a reportable condition, meaning it’s not required to be reported to public health agencies at local, state, or national levels. Therefore, it’s hard to get a clear breakdown of where exactly STARI is most concentrated, plus it may be misdiagnosed as Lyme. But in general, you can expect to find it where you’d discover Lone Star ticks — throughout south-central, southeastern, and eastern states.

While these ticks may be more concentrated in the south, their range spans eastward from central Texas and Oklahoma and up the Atlantic coast as far north as Maine. And scientists believe they’ll only get more common in northern states as global temperatures rise.

icon of human and warning symbol

What Are the Symptoms?

A key feature of STARI is the red, ring-like rash with a central clearing surrounding the area of a tick bite. This rash usually appears within a week of the tick bite and may expand to three inches in diameter or more. The STARI rash is generally smaller, more circular, and less tender than a Lyme disease rash (which can reach 12 inches in diameter). Keep in mind that the saliva of Lone Star ticks can irritate the skin, so redness and discomfort aren’t always signs of infection. Nevertheless, any skin irritation after a tick bite is always worth monitoring.

bullseye rash on womans leg

Other symptoms of STARI may include:

  • Fatigue
  • Headache
  • Fever
  • Muscle aches
  • Joint pain

Fortunately, no long-term symptoms related to STARI have been reported, and the tick-borne illness hasn’t been associated with arthritic, cardiac, or neurologic manifestations in patients.

STARI vs. Lyme: What Are the Key Differences?

While there is clearly a lot of overlap between the symptoms of STARI and the early symptoms of Lyme disease, data suggests patients with STARI are less likely to experience neck stiffness, joint stiffness, and swollen lymph nodes than patients with Lyme, as well as the more severe symptoms mentioned above. Additionally, a study from 2005 comparing STARI patients in Missouri to Lyme disease patients in New York noted several other differences:

  • STARI patients were more likely to recall a tick bite than Lyme patients.
  • The time from tick bite to rash onset was shorter in STARI patients (approximately six days).
  • STARI patients with a rash were less likely to have other symptoms.
  • STARI patients were less likely to have multiple skin lesions than Lyme patients, and (as mentioned above) they tended to have rashes that were smaller and rounder.
  • STARI patients recovered more rapidly after antibiotic treatment than Lyme patients.

icon of medical capsule

How Is It Diagnosed and Treated?

Because scientists haven’t actually determined the exact causative agent (e.g., whether it stems from a bacterium, virus, parasite, etc.) that leads to STARI, diagnostic tests have not been developed. Doctors typically use a patient’s symptoms, geographic location, and the possibility of a tick bite to make a diagnosis. Of course, due to the fact that there is significant overlap in the symptoms of STARI and Lyme disease, there’s a real possibility for misdiagnosis.

It’s unknown whether antibiotics help treat STARI, but because this illness so closely resembles early Lyme, doctors often prescribe them to be safe. To date, STARI symptoms have resolved following oral doxycycline treatment, but it’s uncertain if the drugs do anything to speed recovery.

How to Protect Yourself

You certainly want to do what you can to protect yourself from the bite of a Lone Star tick. In addition to STARI, these ticks are known to transmit ehrlichiosis, Heartland virus disease, Bourbon virus disease, and tularemia. The bite of a Lone Star tick can also sometimes lead to alpha-gal syndrome, a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction to red meat.

Lone Star ticks are known to aggressively target and bite both humans and pets. So taking steps to protect yourself and to prevent them from hitching a ride into your home on Fido is key.

Some good strategies:

  • Wear protective clothing when out in nature and shower afterward
  • Avoid brushy areas and stay on the trail when hiking
  • Perform regular tick checks
  • Use an effective tick repellent, featuring essential oils like oil of lemon eucalyptus or insecticides such as DEET, picaridin, or permethrin.

If you get bitten, remove the tick promptly and carefully, following the steps in this article. If you save the tick, you might want to consider sending it to a laboratory such as IGenex or Ticknology to be tested for pathogens.

Pets should be subject to frequent tick checks, too, and you should strongly consider putting your dogs on some type of oral tick-preventative treatment. (Read this article for veterinary-approved tips on protecting your pets from tick-borne pathogens.)

Bottom Line

STARI is a tick-borne illness that closely resembles early Lyme disease, but fortunately, it is unlikely to cause long-term illness, and it may respond well to antibiotic treatment. However, you also have to be mindful of coinfections — the Lone Star ticks that transmit STARI may also transmit a variety of other serious bacterial and viral infections.

As with any tick-borne illness, prevention is the best medicine. But taking steps to boost your body’s natural defenses by eating a nutritious diet, exercising, getting enough sleep, and consuming phytochemical-rich herbs, including Japanese knotweed, cat’s claw, andrographis, Chinese skullcap, reishi, cordyceps, and garlic, may also offer a layer of protection and support overall health before or after a tick bite.

Dr. Rawls is a physician who overcame Lyme disease through natural herbal therapy. You can learn more about Lyme disease in Dr. Rawls’ new best selling book, Unlocking Lyme. You can also learn about Dr. Rawls’ personal journey in overcoming Lyme disease and fibromyalgia in his popular blog post, My Chronic Lyme Journey

REFERENCES
1. Abdelmaseih R, Ashraf B, Abdelmasih R, Dunn S, Nasser H. Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness: Florida’s Lyme Disease Variant. Cureus. 2021;13(5):e15306. Published 2021 May 28. doi:10.7759/cureus.15306
2. Lyme Disease. Mayo Clinic website. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lyme-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20374651
3. Lyme Disease Maps: Most Recent Year. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/datasurveillance/maps-recent.html
4. Slide show: Guide to different tick species and the diseases they carry. Mayo Clinic website. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tick-species/sls-20147911?s=7
5. Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. https://www.cdc.gov/stari/index.html
6. Upstate tick expert predicts huge season for ticks. Upstate Medical University website. https://www.upstate.edu/news/articles/2022/2022-03-24-ticks.php
7. Wormser GP, Masters E, Liveris D, et al. Microbiologic evaluation of patients from Missouri with erythema migrans. Clin Infect Dis. 2005;40(3):423-428. doi:10.1086/427289
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**Comment**
It must be understood that patients in the South have had an extraordinary hurdle to overcome regarding tick-borne illness as “authorities” simply state it doesn’t exist there.  For years, and to this day, doctors illogically look at a map and announce it can not be Lyme disease.
Please remember ticks travel on birds, reptiles, mammals, and go everywhere.

http://  Approx. 5 Min

Dr. Alan McDonald, Dr. Klinghardt, & Dr. Martz on Borrelia, Lyme, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, MS and more

Clip from Under Our Skin

It’s important to remember that new strains of borrelia and other coinfections are being discovered continually.  Rather than studying this crucially important topic and how it affects testing, diagnosis, and treatment, researchers receiving government grants are forever stuck on ‘climate change,’ a hotly contested topic which hasn’t helped patients in over 40 years.

Anaplasma, Babesia odocoilei, and Lyme in Ticks – Found Widely Across Eastern Canada

https://www.jelsciences.com/articles/jbres1586.pdf

Tick-Borne Pathogens Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia odocoilei, and Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato in Blacklegged Ticks Widespread across Eastern Canada

John D Scott1 *, Elena McGoey2 and Risa R Pesapane2,3*

Corresponding author(s) John D Scott, Upper Grand Tick Centre, 365 St. David Street South, Fergus, Ontario N1M 2L7, Canada E-mail: jkscott@bserv.com DOI: 10.37871/jbres1586 Submitted: 13 October 2022 Accepted: 26 October 2022 Published: 27 October 2022 Copyright: © 2022 Scott JD, et al. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0

Abstract

Blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis, can transmit single or multiple infections during a tick bite. These tick-borne, zoonotic infections can become chronic and cause insidious diseases in patients.

In the present tick-pathogen study, 138 (48.9%) of 282 ticks collected from 17 sites in 6 geographic area in eastern Canada harbored various combinations of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Lyme disease), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (human anaplasmosis), and Babesia spp. (human babesiosis). Overall, 167 microbial infections were detected and, of these, 25 ticks had co-infections and two ticks had polymicrobial infections.

  • the prevalence of Babesia spp. was 15.2%
  • the ratio of Babesia odocoilei to Babesia microti was 41 to 1 with this sole B. microti being detected in Nova Scotia
  • we provide the first documentation of B. odocoilei in the Maritimes
  • Eastern Ontario had an infection prevalence for B. odocoilei of 25%―the highest among the areas surveyed in this study
  • the predominant Babesia sp. was B. odocoilei

Based on our findings, health-care practitioners need to recognize that I. scapularis ticks removed from patients may be carrying multiple tick-borne pathogens.  (See link for article)

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For more:

  • https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2021/05/28/study-shows-babesia-odocoilei-is-pathogenic-to-humans/  Study found B. odocoilei in two of 19 participants. DNA amplicons from these two patients are almost identical matches with the type strains of B. odocoilei in GenBank. In addition, the same two human subjects had the hallmark symptoms of human babesiosis, including night sweats, chills, fevers, and profound fatigue. Based on symptoms and molecular identification, we provide substantive evidence that B. odocoilei is pathogenic to humans. Dataset reveals that B. odocoilei serologically cross-reacts with Babesia duncani.