Archive for the ‘Lyme’ Category

Can We Cure Lyme Disease….or What?

https://www.lymedisease.org/cure-for-lyme-disease-or-what/

By Dorothy Kupcha Leland
27 AUG 2020

TOUCHED BY LYME: Can we cure Lyme disease…or what?

Can Lyme Disease Cause Dementia?

https://danielcameronmd.com/can-lyme-disease-cause-dementia/

CAN LYME DISEASE CAUSE DEMENTIA?

can lyme disease cause dementia

There have been reports of Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), the bacterial agent of Lyme disease, triggering primary dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers who examined the records of 1,594 patients with dementia found that 1.25% had a positive intrathecal anti-Borrelia antibody index (AI), specific for neuroborreliosis. They concluded,

“Pure Lyme dementia exists and has a good outcome after antibiotics.” 1

In a retrospective study, entitled “Secondary dementia due to Lyme neuroborreliosis,” Kristoferitsch and colleagues describe several case reports of patients diagnosed with dementia-like syndromes due to Lyme neuroborreliosis or Lyme disease.2

Rapid improvement with antibiotic treatment

The authors’ case report featuring a 76-year-old woman demonstrates how Lyme disease can cause dementia-like symptoms. The patient developed progressive cognitive decline, loss of weight, nausea, gait disturbance and tremor over a 12-month period. She was referred to a neurology clinic for evaluation.

Three months earlier, the woman had been diagnosed with tension headaches and a depressive disorder. Medications, however, did not improve her symptoms.

Further testing revealed bilateral white matter lesions and an old lacunar lesion located at the left striatum. Extensive neurocognitive testing found “a severe decline of attention, memory and executive functions corresponding to subcortical dementia,” the authors write.

“LNB [Lyme neuroborreliosis] was diagnosed when further CSF [cerebral spinal fluid] examinations disclosed a highly elevated Bb-specific-AI indicating local intrathecal Bb-specific antibody synthesis,” Kristoferitsch writes.

After a 3-week course of treatment with ceftriaxone, the woman “recovered rapidly,” the authors write.

“In a telephone call in February 2018 at the age of 82 years, the patient reported no gait problems or cognitive impairment and had just returned from a trip to Cuba,” the authors write.

Woman admitted to psychiatric ward with severe dementia

A 71-year-old woman with rapidly progressing dementia and short periods of altered consciousness was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Six months earlier, she was having mild forgetfulness.

MRI results, which indicated slight mesiotemporal atrophy, along with neurocognitive testing supported an initial diagnosis of primary dementia.

“Later, the patient’s daughter reported a tick bite followed by a widespread rash,” the authors write. “Thus, LNB [Lyme neuroborreliosis] was suspected and confirmed by CSF investigations.”

After 2 weeks of antibiotic treatment with ceftriaxone, the woman’s symptoms subsided and her cognition improved.

READ MORE: 80-year-old man with Lyme encephalopathy instead of dementia

At her 5-year follow-up visit, the woman’s “cognition was stable” and memory tests indicated a score above the mean for females her age, “which strongly argued against any dementing process,” the authors write.

In reviewing the literature, Kristoferitsch et al. identified several signs and symptoms that may indicate that Lyme neuroborreliosis (or Lyme disease) is causing dementia in a patient.

Distinguishing features of Lyme-induced dementia

  • Most of the patients or family members did not recall previous tick bites, an EM rash or symptoms of Lyme disease. Therefore, when “EM or other characteristic symptoms of early LB 1–2 years before the onset of dementia may if untreated serve as an indicator for chronic LNB.”
  • Unlike most neurodegenerative dementias, dementia caused by Lyme disease appears to progress rapidly, the authors write.
  • “Weight loss is another symptom observed in LNB [Lyme neuroborreliosis],” the authors explain. “It is also compatible with the diagnosis of AD [Alzheimer’s disease] but when it occurs in chronic LNB, it can be more pronounced, reaching up to 20 kg/year.” Weight loss in patients with Alzheimer’s disease is less prominent, the authors explain.
  • Headache, nausea, malaise and vomiting are typically not symptoms of degenerative dementias, the authors explain. But, “might be associated with secondary dementia and thus also with chronic LNB [Lyme neuroborreliosis].”
  • Gait disturbances at the onset or early in the disease which was observed in all cases of this study, makes the diagnosis of a probable AD [Alzheimer’s disease] uncertain or unlikely.”

Additionally, “In most patients, improvement of symptoms was reported already within a few days of antibiotic treatment,” Kristoferitsch writes.

Early recognition and treatment is important

The authors stress the importance of recognizing Lyme-induced dementia-like syndromes.

“It is essential to be aware of this manifestation of Lyme neuroborreliosis, because early antibiotic treatment will prevent permanent sequelae that may occur throughout the further course of the untreated disease,” the authors conclude.

References:
  1. Blanc F, Philippi N, Cretin B, et al. Lyme neuroborreliosis and dementia. J Alzheimers Dis. 2014;41(4):1087-1093. doi:10.3233/JAD-130446
  2. Kristoferitsch W, Aboulenein-Djamshidian F, Jecel J, et al. Secondary dementia due to Lyme neuroborreliosis. Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2018;130(15-16):468-478. doi:10.1007/s00508-018-1361-9

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**Comment**

The proof is in the pudding. These patients were given treatment and they immediately improved. This is noted again and again with chronic Lyme patients – yet according to mainstream medicine led by the CDC and IDSA, this is a figment of our imaginations – otherwise known as PTLDS, an acronym they give complicated cases so they don’t have to deal with persistent infection, and therefore lengthy treatment.

It also allows them to continue to attempt to peddle their lucrative vaccine they continue to pull out of the hat every couple of years.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/05/16/lyme-disease-awareness-month-kris-kristofferson-was-misdiagnosed-with-alzheimers-memory-loss-was-due-to-ticks/

For more:  

 

 

Northern Michigan Health Department Reports ‘Significant Increase’ in Lyme Disease Cases

https://www.mlive.com/news/2020/07/michigan-health-department-reports-significant-increase-in-lyme-disease-cases

Northern Michigan health department reports ‘significant increase’ in Lyme disease cases

BENZIE COUNTY, MI – A Northern Michigan health department is reporting a “significant increase” in Lyme disease cases this summer.

The Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department has 12 reported cases of the disease since June 1. Lyme Disease is caused by bacterium transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged (deer) ticks.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Please know that cases are wildly underreported due to poor testing which misses over half of all cases.

And, this only includes Lyme which is only the tip of the spear.  Ticks carry far more than just Lyme and often transmit numerous things simultaneously.

 

Successful Treatment for Lyme Arthritis After Knee Surgery

https://danielcameronmd.com/treatment-for-lyme-arthritis/

SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT FOR LYME ARTHRITIS AFTER KNEE SURGERY

bandaged knee for treatment for lyme arthritis

This published case report by Wright and colleagues features what the authors believe is the “first patient with late Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto arthritis-related prosthetic joint infection. They suggest “the case highlights how early, prompt diagnosis and adequate antimicrobial therapy may obviate the need for additional aggressive orthopedic surgical intervention.”

Doctors described a 67-year-old avid outdoorsman who received treatment for Lyme arthritis after having had knee surgery. Ten months earlier, the man had received a partial knee replacement for his left knee due to advanced single compartment degenerative arthritis.

Over a 3-month-period, the man developed progressive left knee pain and swelling.  He later presented with a moderate joint effusion but did not have an erythema migrans rash, warmth, instability, or significant pain with range of motion.

There was no history of a tick bite or trauma to the knee nor was there evidence of joint effusion, infection, or Baker’s cyst.

Aspiration of his knee revealed turbid purulent pleocytosis with 91.8% neutrophils, elevated C-reactive protein, and a positive Borrelia burgdorferi polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Serologic tests were positive for an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive 0.7, and a positive B. burgdorferi antibody enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test and 10 of 10 immunoglobulin G (IgG) Western blot bands were reactive.

Lyme arthritis diagnosis

Based on the detection of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto DNA by PCR, clinicians diagnosed the man Lyme arthritis, a particular type of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI).

The diagnosis was based on criteria established by the Musculoskeletal Infection Society and the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA).

“Although there was no communicating sinus tract or direct result from traditional microbiological culture, our patient met these criterion for PJI based upon elevated synovial fluid leukocyte count (>3000 cell/µL), elevated synovial neutrophil count (>65%), purulence, and evidence of a microorganism with identification to the level of genus and species,” according to Wright and colleagues from the Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Memorial Medical Center in York, Pennsylvania.

The authors summarized their concern over the seriousness of a PJI. “Periprosthetic joint infection is a devastating complication following joint arthroplasty that causes significant morbidity with an estimated cumulative incidence of 1% – 2% for both hips and knees,” the authors write.

IDSA treatment guidelines not applicable

Wright and colleagues concluded that the IDSA recommendations were not applicable to this patient. They cited two guidelines that would have limited the types of treatment to oral antibiotics and duration to no more than four weeks. These included:
  1. “Late Lyme arthritis can usually be treated successfully with antimicrobial agents administered orally (e.g., doxycycline, amoxicillin, or cefuroxime) for 28 days in adult patients without evidence of neurologic disease.”
  2. “Previous studies have also been published demonstrating the efficacy of once-daily ceftriaxone (2 gram dose) for 14 or 28 days in the treatment of late Lyme disease.”

Successful treatment with antibiotics

The 67-year-old man received treatment for Lyme arthritis which included antibiotics rather than undergoing surgical incision and drainage or excision arthroplasty. Twice daily, 100 mg of oral doxycycline was initiated empirically for a week until testing confirmed the diagnosis. The treatment was converted to a six-week course of daily intravenous 2 grams of ceftriaxone.

The antibiotic treatment for Lyme arthritis was successful.

“Clinically, the patient had cessation of his knee pain, resolution of joint effusion, normalization of synovial infection and inflammatory parameters, and negative end-of-therapy detection of B. burgdorferi DNA by PCR,” according to Wright.

However, the authors cautioned that their strategy of prolonged intravenous antibiotics might not be effective in other types of joint arthroplasties.

“Although this patient’s clinical outcome was achieved without the need for surgical incision and drainage or staged excision arthroplasty procedure, it is unclear whether this same strategy would produce similar results in patients with other types of joint arthroplasties,”

Are there any other cases of arthroplasties that might be prevented by antibiotic therapy? More than 82,660 patients underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) across the Medicare and United Health Care populations from 2009 to 2011 at a cost exceeding $10 billion per year. [2]

Authors’ Conclusion

“This case highlights how early prompt diagnosis and adequate antimicrobial therapy may obviate the need for additional aggressive orthopedic surgical intervention,” stressed Wright.

“This case also highlights the value of an aggressive need to further investigate and interpret unexpected findings in clinical practice.”

References:
  1. Wright WF, Oliverio JA. First Case of Lyme Arthritis Involving a Prosthetic Knee Joint. Open Forum Infect Dis, 3(2), ofw096 (2016).
  2. Cohen JR, Bradley AT, Lieberman JR. Preoperative Interventions and Charges Before Total Knee Arthroplasty. J Arthroplasty, (2016).
  3. Fallon BA, Keilp JG, Corbera KM et al. A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of repeated IV antibiotic therapy for Lyme encephalopathy. Neurology, 70(13), 992-1003 (2008).
  4. Cameron DJ. Consequences of treatment delay in Lyme disease. J Eval Clin Pract, 13(3), 470-472 (2007)

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**Comment**

I wish there were more doctors questioning and overriding the extremely limited CDC Lyme “Guidelines” as they are inadequate for nearly everyone – unless it’s an acute case.

Speaking of IV ceftriaxone, IDSA founder Dr. Waisbren successfully used high doses (6-8gms) in his patients, despite the smear campaign against it:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/09/idsa-founder-used-potent-iv-antibiotics-for-chronic-lyme/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/23/no-bias-in-mmwr-for-any-other-infectious-disease-requiring-iv-antibiotics-except-for-lyme/

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/11/latent-lyme-disease-resulting-in-chronic-arthritis-early-career-termination-in-a-u-s-army-officer/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/02/08/a-joint-effort-the-interplay-between-the-innate-and-the-adaptive-immune-system-in-lyme-arthritis/

 

Do You Feel a Tick Bite? Did You Sleep A lot? How Do You Treat Migraines?

https://globallymealliance.org/dear-lyme-warriorhelp-14/

Copy-of-MyLymeLife_2-6

by Jennifer Crystal

August 27, 2020

Every few months, Jennifer Crystal devotes a column to answering your questions. Do you have a question for Jennifer? If so, email her at lymewarriorjennifercrystal@gmail.com.

Do you usually feel a tick bite? Does it itch?

Ticks are sneaky little creatures. You don’t feel them bite, because they inject an anesthetic when they do. Less than 50% of Lyme patients recall a tick bite or rash. This is also because ticks tend to bite in hard-to-spot places such as the scalp, the groin, the armpits, the belly button, and behind the ears. The bite site or rash can itch, but doesn’t always. And while a bull’s-eye rash is a tell-tale sign of Lyme disease, not all Lyme rashes, known as erythema migrans or EM, present as such. They can be spotty or blotchy, appearing any time from immediately after a bite to months or years later, in different parts of the body. My own rash was a series of red dots on my forearm. They weren’t raised, and didn’t itch. I didn’t give them much pause; neither did the nurse at the summer camp where I was working. Years later, after I was already bedridden with multiple symptoms, bull’s-eye rashes appeared on both of my elbows.

The bottom line is, if you have any kind of rash, it’s best to get it checked out by a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD), but you also should not look to a rash as the only indicator of Lyme disease. Instead you should be on the lookout for flu-like symptoms like fatigue, muscle and joint aches, fever, and headache. It is always better to be safe than sorry with Lyme. See an LLMD, and take antibiotics if you suspect Lyme, even if you end up doing so prophylactically.

When you were bedridden, were you sleeping a lot?

You would think the answer to this question would be yes, and I wish it was. That is to say, I was exhausted, and certainly needed the sleep. I could barely muster the strength to walk to the mailbox, or up a flight of stairs. I was too tired to concentrate on books or TV. It felt like the worst case of the flu I ever had, and all I wanted to do was sleep.

But I couldn’t. This was one of the most frustrating parts of battling Lyme, babesia, and ehrlichia; my body could not get the rest it so desperately needed. Sure, I got physical rest from lying in bed, and occasionally, when I got lucky, I nodded off for a bit. However, most days—and nights—my brain would not shut off. I would lie awake praying for sleep, trying every calming exercise possible: meditating, listening to relaxing music, counting sheep. When I did sleep, I had hallucinogenic nightmares that left me even more tired.

I finally saw a sleep doctor who did both neurofeedback and cognitive behavioral therapy. I was able to sleep better at night—though my crazy dreams never fully went away—and was able to nap in the afternoons. Once I started getting adequate rest, my body was able to heal.

What is the best treatment for migraines?

I talked about dealing with headaches stemming from tick-borne illness in my post “Not All Headaches are Alike: What’s Causing Yours?”. Migraines can result not just from Lyme but from other tick-borne illnesses such as babesia or bartonella. Babesia is a parasite that drains oxygen from the red blood cells. This symptom called, “air hunger” can cause excruciating headaches; I used to get migraines several times a week. Over-the-counter painkillers did nothing for them. Prescription migraine medication helped in the short-term, as did rest. It helped to stay away from screens when I felt a migraine coming on.

But my migraines didn’t really ameliorate or disappear until I adequately treated the infections that were causing them. For me, this meant years of antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease and months of anti-malarial treatment for babesia, but everyone’s protocol is different. Now I only get a migraine once in a blue moon, usually when I’ve pushed myself too hard physically or neurologically. Then I know it’s time to slow down and get some sleep.

Related posts:

Living with Lyme Brain
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
What is Air Hunger, Anyway?
Not All Headaches Are Alike: What’s Causing Yours?


jennifer crystal_2

Opinions expressed by contributors are their own.

Jennifer Crystal is a writer and educator in Boston. Her memoir about her medical journey is forthcoming. Contact her at lymewarriorjennifercrystal@gmail.com.

 

 

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**Comment**

Great questions.

For #1, we call that “wired, tired.”  It’s when you would give up your left arm to sleep, but you can’t.  Then there are times when you can literally fall asleep standing up. Both are common with tick-borne illness.  Again, Lyme is only the tip of the spear.  Many patients are infected with numerous pathogens – including parasites.  Parasites are known to cause insomnia and some find this to be even worse during full-moons when there is heightened activity.  If your Lyme treatment isn’t addressing insomnia, please copy this off and discuss parasite treatment with your practitioner:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/03/removing-parasites-to-fix-lyme-chronic-illnesses-dr-jay-davidson/  Some really improve on dewormers like Ivermectin and Albenza (One of Klinghardt’s protocol sis within the link).  Warning: you need to be under the direct supervision of an experienced doctor has dewormers have been known to kill the worms borrelia is hiding in, exposing them now to antibiotic treatment which can cause massive die-off and high levels of inflammation.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/03/borrelia-hiding-in-worms-causing-chronic-brain-diseases/  This is particularly dangerous in the brain:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/08/09/dr-paul-duray-research-fellowship-foundation-some-great-research-being-done-on-lyme-disease/

For #2, I completely agree that the BEST treatment for migraines and headaches caused by tick-borne illness is appropriate treatment.  Get to the root cause of the pain.  This goes for pain anywhere and everywhere within the human body.  Drug levels are also important.  True story: the pharmacist didn’t tell me they ran out of 500mg tablets of Azithromycin and switched my prescription to 250mg – meaning I should have been taking TWO tablets, not one.  Not knowing this, I continued to take one tablet and suffered with the worst shoulder pain known to mankind.  When I finally figured it out and started again with the full dose, guess what?  Yep.  PAIN GONE.  POOF!  This shows the importance of blood levels.  This is also something to keep in mind generally throughout treatment.  It is my opinion that many are not on high enough levels and by switching that up, you can make good progress.  I’ve seen this over and over with patients who don’t seem to be responding.  Dr. Burrascano talks about this important topic here:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/28/the-history-of-lyme-disease-dr-burrascano/ (Video in ILADS link within article)  I highly recommend you watch the entire video, but I highlight it here:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/22/why-mainstream-lyme-msids-research-remains-in-the-dark-ages/  Another nuance he discusses is “cycling” antibiotics – meaning, once you have become symptom-free for 2-3 months, you stop all drugs and wait.  If symptoms return you hit it hard again with antimicrobials until symptom-free status is achieved.  He states that he and many of his patients became symptom-free for good after