Archive for the ‘Lyme’ Category

Acute Transverse Myelitis – A Clinical Manifestation of Lyme (That Nobody Has a Clue About Prevalence)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30622896

2018 Dec 29;15:e00479. doi: 10.1016/j.idcr.2018.e00479. eCollection 2019.

Acute transverse myelitis – A rare clinical manifestation of Lyme neuroborreliosis.

Dumic I1,2, Vitorovic D3, Spritzer S4, Sviggum E5, Patel J6, Ramanan P7.

Abstract

Acute transverse myelitis (ATM) is a rare, potentially devastating neurological syndrome that has variety of causes, infectious being one of them. Lyme disease (LD) is the most common vector borne zoonosis in the United States (U.S.). While neurologic complications of LD are common, acute transverse myelitis is an exceedingly rare complication.

We present a case of a previously healthy 25-year-old man who presented with secondary erythema migrans, aseptic meningitis and clinical features of transverse myelitis including bilateral lower extremity motor and sensory deficits manifesting as weakness and numbness, urinary retention and constipation.

Despite negative serum antibodies against Borrelia burgdoferi, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was positive for Borrelia burgdorferi PCR.

Following treatment with methylprednisolone and ceftriaxone, he attained complete recovery apart from neurogenic bladder necessitating intermittent self-catheterization. We report rare manifestation of a common disease and emphasize the importance of considering LD in the differential diagnosis of acute transverse myelitis, particularly in residents of endemic areas.

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**Comment**

Nobody has a CLUE about how often anything is occurring in Lyme/MSIDS, when testing misses over half of all cases and folks are commonly misdiagnosed or undiagnosed for years.  Again, because words mean things, and research has been used against patients for over 40 years, a more accurate statement would be, “This is the first recorded case of ATM caused by Lyme Disease.”  And remember, just because something isn’t on record doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.  Important distinction.

According to https://myelitis.org/living-with-myelitis/disease-information/afm/

The predominant presentation is weakness that may affect the limbs, face, oral or eye muscle. Weakness varies greatly ranging from subtle to very severe. AFM may result in total paralysis, partial paralysis, or weakness of just one limb. The combination of paralysis and how individuals present are widely variable. The limbs or muscle structures of individuals with AFM appear weak, flaccid, or limp and are not spastic as seen in classic cases of transverse myelitis. Since it is markedly the gray matter of the spinal cord that is inflamed in individuals with AFM, sensory, bowel and bladder functions can remain intact, however there are individuals that have both upper and lower motor neuron involvement.

The enterovirus (EV-D68) has been suspect in many of these cases however, it has not been definitively proven that it is this particular virus that has caused the paralysis,(1) although several cases of AFM occurred at around the same time as an outbreak of the EV-D68 virus.(2)

There has been a spike in AFM:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/19/rise-in-acute-flaccid-myelitis-cases-and-the-link-to-vaccinations/

Within the above link, you will learn there are numerous theories on what causes AFM including viruses & vaccinations.  Lyme/MSIDS patients often have viral involvement, and reactivation of Lyme has been documented after vaccinations:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/02/scottish-doctor-gives-insight-on-lyme-msids/, as well as Bartonella:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/24/gardasil-and-bartonella/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/11/07/connection-of-acute-flaccid-myelitis-and-vaccinations/  In this article, James Lyons Weiler states:

The US press has been pushing a view of acute flaccid paralysis as a mysterious condition of unknown etiology (unknown cause). Checking the scientific literature, however, tells us that AFP is most often Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS), a condition that appears on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program as a “Table Condition” – i.e., one that the US HHS has no defense against when parents file in the NVICP for compensation for GBS as a vaccine injury in their children.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/07/acute-flaccid-paralysis-is-most-often-guillain-barre-syndrome/

GBS is also often a player with Lyme/MSIDS:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/09/transverse-myelitis-guillain-barre-associated-with-bartonella/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/14/clinical-association-lyme-disease-and-guillain-barre/  In Dr. Waisbren’s book, Treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease, the majority of his 51 cases of chronic Lyme had high EBV titers.  He also states,

“As will be seen in other cases, the Epstein-Barr virus may be a candidate for a co-infection associated with LD.”  

Waisbren often treated this co-infected patients that had EBV with 1000mg of Valtrex three times a day with good success.  He also used gamma globulin (4cc twice a week).

So Lyme/MSIDS patients are at the top of the list for AFM for numerous reasons.  Personally, I had a MRI at one point due to the excruciating pain in my spine and occipital headaches.  This pain was unrelenting.  Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) loves the brain and spinal column.  Many viruses hang out in the spine.  The MRI showed nothing abnormal and I was sent home with the same pain I came with.  While I believe proper antimicrobial treatment to be imperative, what finally relieved this pain for me was MSM:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/02/dmso-msm-for-lyme-msids/

Along with swelling in the spine, patients can have brain swelling as well.  Within one week, I met 3 Lyme patients with Chiari, another supposed “rare” condition:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/02/chiari/  While Chiari is often caused by structural defects in the brain and spinal cord that occur during fetal development, it can also be caused due to injury, exposure to harmful substances, or infection. 

When you study the Bb organism, along with the numerous coinfections, spine and brain swelling makes complete sense and needs to be studied further:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

There is so much research begging to be done, yet main stream medicine wants to wrap Lyme into a pretty box with a bow on top.  Again, if there is any box involved with Lyme/MSIDS, it’s Pandora’s.

 

 

Category:

Eye Issues, Inflammation, Lyme, Pain Management, research, Treatment

2018 Review of Previous Pathogen Transmission Time Studies in Deer Ticks

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29398603

2018 Mar;9(3):535-542. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2018.01.002. Epub 2018 Jan 31.

Pathogen transmission in relation to duration of attachment by Ixodes scapularis ticks.

Eisen L1.

Abstract

The blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is the primary vector to humans in the eastern United States of the deer tick virus lineage of Powassan virus (Powassan virus disease); the protozoan parasite Babesia microti (babesiosis); and multiple bacterial disease agents including Anaplasma phagocytophilum (anaplasmosis), Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia mayonii (Lyme disease), Borrelia miyamotoi (relapsing fever-like illness, named Borrelia miyamotoi disease), and Ehrlichia muris eauclairensis (a minor causative agent of ehrlichiosis).

With the notable exception of Powassan virus, which can be transmitted within minutes after attachment by an infected tick, there is no doubt that the risk of transmission of other I. scapularis-borne pathogens, including Lyme disease spirochetes, increases with the length of time (number of days) infected ticks are allowed to remain attached. This review summarizes data from experimental transmission studies to reinforce the important disease-prevention message that regular (at least daily) tick checks and prompt tick removal has strong potential to reduce the risk of transmission of I. scapularis-borne bacterial and parasitic pathogens from infected attached ticks.

The most likely scenario for human exposure to an I. scapularis-borne pathogen is the bite by a single infected tick. However, recent reviews have failed to make a clear distinction between data based on transmission studies where experimental hosts were fed upon by a single versus multiple infected ticks. A summary of data from experimental studies on transmission of Lyme disease spirochetes (Bo. burgdorferi and Bo. mayonii) by I. scapularis nymphs indicates that the probability of transmission resulting in host infection, at time points from 24 to 72 h after nymphal attachment, is higher when multiple infected ticks feed together as compared to feeding by a single infected tick.

In the specific context of risk for human infection, the most relevant experimental studies therefore are those where the probability of pathogen transmission at a given point in time after attachment was determined using a single infected tick. The minimum duration of attachment by single infected I. scapularis nymphs required for transmission to result in host infection is poorly defined for most pathogens, but experimental studies have shown that Powassan virus can be transmitted within 15 min of tick attachment and both A. phagocytophilum and Bo. miyamotoi within the first 24 h of attachment. There is no experimental evidence for transmission of Lyme disease spirochetes by single infected I. scapularis nymphs to result in host infection when ticks are attached for only 24 h (despite exposure of nearly 90 experimental rodent hosts across multiple studies) but the probability of transmission resulting in host infection appears to increase to approximately 10% by 48 h and reach 70% by 72 h for Bo. burgdorferi. Caveats to the results from experimental transmission studies, including specific circumstances (such as re-attachment of previously partially fed infected ticks) that may lead to more rapid transmission are discussed.

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**Comment**

There are a number of problematic issues with this study:

  1. This is a review of previous studies.  There is nothing NEW here.  
  2. It’s important to note that ticks typically carry more than just borrelia and transmission times have not taken this fact into account: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/01/co-infection-of-ticks-the-rule-rather-than-the-exception/ and https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-basics/co-infections/about-co-infections/  Infection with more than one pathogen is associated with more severe illness.https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/30/study-shows-lyme-msids-patients-infected-with-many-pathogens-and-explains-why-we-are-so-sick/  For the first time, Garg et al. show a 85% probability for multiple infections including not only tick-borne pathogens but also opportunistic microbes such as EBV and other viruses.  This is a BIG DEAL.  Finally, a study showing what we face as patients in the real world.  They also never take into account nematodes (worms), mycoplasma, tularemia, and/or Bartonella.  These are infections many if not most patients have to contend with.  Some have been bioweaponized.
  3. They assume that the most likely scenario is for a person to be bitten by one tick.  Assuming makes an ass out of u and me.  When you take into account the latest information on the Asian tick, you quickly realize the probability of coming into contact with hundreds if not thousands of ticks at one time:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/12/three-surprising-things-i-learned-about-asian-longhorned-ticks-the-tick-guy-tom-mather/  While human infection has yet to be found in the U.S., this tick is responsible for plenty of misery in Asia:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/12/first-longhorned-tick-confirmed-in-arkansas/  It spreads SFTS (sever fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome), “an emerging hemorrhagic fever,” but the potential impact of this tick on tickborne illness is not yet known. In other parts of the world, it has been associated with several tickborne diseases, such as spotted fever rickettsioses, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and Borrelia, the causative agent of Lyme Disease.
  4. While they discuss the probability of multiple tick attachment, they never discuss the issue of partially fed ticks, where spirochetes would be in the salivary glands – leading to quicker transmission: http://iai.asm.org/content/61/6/2396.full.pdf  Ticks can spontaneously detach – and the authors of this study found that they did so 15% of the time in mice.  They also state that about a tenth of questing nymphs appear distended with partially fed sub-adult ticks being common.
  5. While the current review states, “There is no experimental evidence for transmission of Lyme disease spirochetes by single infected I. scapularis nymphs to result in host infection when ticks are attached for only 24 h (despite exposure of nearly 90 experimental rodent hosts across multiple studies), this study shows transmission can occur in under 16 hours:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278789/
  6. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/14/transmission-time-for-lymemsids-infection/  Within this video, microbiologist Holly Ahern discusses the numerous problems with animal Bb transmission studies.  Transmission Time:  Only one study done on Mice. At 24 hours every tick had transmitted borrelia to the mice; however, animal studies have proven that transmission can occur in under 16 hours and it occurs frequently in under 24 hours.  No human studies have been done and https://www.dovepress.com/lyme-borreliosis-a-review-of-data-on-transmission-time-after-tick-atta-peer-reviewed-article-IJGM  no studies have determined the minimum time it takes for transmission.  And, never forget the case of the little girl who couldn’t walk or talk after a tick bite attachment of 4-6 hours:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/07/igenex-presentation/
  7. They continue to blame Lyme/MSIDS on the black legged tick as the sole perp when experience and studies show there’s more potential transmitters at play:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/are-mosquitoes-transmitting-lyme-disease/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/07/23/german-study-finds-borrelia-in-mosquitos/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/17/remember-deer-keds-study-shows-bartonella-causing-deer-ked-dermatitis-in-humans/
Please, quit doing reviews of previous data and do something new using better laboratory techniques!  We don’t need MORE of the same thing.

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Ehrlichiosis, Lyme, research, Ticks, Transmission, Viruses

Coffee With the Supervisor: Lyme Disease

 Approx. 21 Min.

Coffee With the Supervisor:  Lyme Disease

Published on Oct 5, 2018

In this episode of Coffee with the Supervisor, Supervisor Ed Romaine meets with Eva Haughie and Dr. Anna Satalino to discuss the long term effects of untreated and misdiagnosed Lyme disease on Long Island.

Excellent round table discussion on all things Lyme.  Many accepted myths discussed.

For more with Dr. Satalino:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/11/lyme-psychological-issues-dr-anna-satalino/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Uncategorized

Study Shows Diminished Pathogen-specific Antibody Production in Coinfected Mice Contributing to Persistent Infection

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30619263

Age-Related Differential Stimulation of Immune Response by Babesia microti and Borrelia burgdorferi During Acute Phase of Infection Affects Disease Severity.

Djokic V1, Primus S1, Akoolo L1, Chakraborti M1, Parveen N1.

Abstract

Lyme disease is the most prominent tick-borne disease with 300,000 cases estimated by CDC every year while ~2,000 cases of babesiosis occur per year in the United States. Simultaneous infection with Babesia microti and Borrelia burgdorferi are now the most common tick-transmitted coinfections in the U.S.A., and they are a serious health problem because coinfected patients show more intense and persisting disease symptoms. B. burgdorferi is an extracellular spirochete responsible for systemic Lyme disease while B. microti is a protozoan that infects erythrocytes and causes babesiosis. Immune status and spleen health are important for resolution of babesiosis, which is more severe and even fatal in the elderly and splenectomized patients.

Therefore, we investigated the effect of each pathogen on host immune response and consequently on severity of disease manifestations in both young, and 30 weeks old C3H mice.

At the acute stage of infection, Th1 polarization in young mice spleen was associated with increased IFN-γ and TNF-α producing T cells and a high Tregs/Th17 ratio. Together, these changes could help in the resolution of both infections in young mice and also prevent fatality by B. microti infection as observed with WA-1 strain of Babesia. In older mature mice, Th2 polarization at acute phase of B. burgdorferi infection could play a more effective role in preventing Lyme disease symptoms. As a result, enhanced B. burgdorferi survival and increased tissue colonization results in severe Lyme arthritis only in young coinfected mice. At 3 weeks post-infection, diminished pathogen-specific antibody production in coinfected young, but not older mice, as compared to mice infected with each pathogen individually may also contribute to increased inflammation observed due to B. burgdorferi infection, thus causing persistent Lyme disease observed in coinfected mice and reported in patients.

Thus, higher combined proinflammatory response to B. burgdorferi due to Th1 and Th17 cells likely reduced B. microti parasitemia significantly only in young mice later in infection, while the presence of B. microti reduced humoral immunity later in infection and enhanced tissue colonization by Lyme spirochetes in these mice even at the acute stage, thereby increasing inflammatory arthritis.

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**Comment**
Glad to see more work done on the polymicrobial nature of Lyme/MSIDS as most of us out here in Lyme-land struggle with numerous pathogens, not just Lyme (borrelia).

Key Quote:  “Our findings recognize that microbial infections in patients suffering from TBDs do not follow the one microbe, one disease Germ Theory as 65% of the TBD patients produce immune responses to various microbes.”

Another problem:  

83% of all commercial tests focus only on Lyme (borrelia), despite the fact we are infected with more than one microbe.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/17/investigating-disease-severity-in-an-animal-model-of-concurrent-babesiosis-lyme-disease/  These findings suggest that B. Burgdorferi coinfection attenuates parasite growth while B. Microti presence exacerbates Lyme Disease-like symptoms in mice.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/02/1st-documented-case-of-girl-with-blood-stream-infection-with-bartonella-with-coinfection-of-another-bartonella-strain/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/01/co-infection-of-ticks-the-rule-rather-than-the-exception/  Our study reveals high pathogen co-infection rates in ticks, raising questions about possible co-transmission of these agents to humans or animals, and their consequences to human and animal health. We also demonstrated high prevalence rates of symbionts co-existing with pathogens, opening new avenues of enquiry regarding their effects on pathogen transmission and vector competence.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/11/babesia-found-in-patient-with-persistent-symptoms-following-lyme-treatment/  Because the Ixodes scapularis tick can harbour and transmit multiple parasites simultaneously, the possibility of coinfection should be considered in any patient not responding to appropriate initial medical therapy.

To date, ticks can transmit 18 and counting pathogens – ALL as devastating as Lyme: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/01/one-tick-bite-could-put-you-at-risk-for-at-least-6-different-diseases/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/28/lyme-wars-part-5-coinfections/  (Click on NBC link for new story.  Approx 5 Min.)  All tests came back negative.  Don’t be fooled.  This stuff ISN’T RARE!  Dr. Phillips discusses how Bartonella isn’t even on the radar and is often confused with Lyme as symptoms overlap greatly.

 

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks, Transmission

Did Charles Darwin Have Lyme Disease?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/did-charles-darwin-have-lyme-disease-180971189/

Did Charles Darwin Have Lyme Disease?

New study attributes British naturalist’s persistent poor health to tick-borne disease

By Meilan Solly

SMITHSONIAN.COM
JANUARY 8, 2019

Throughout his adult life, Charles Darwin was plagued by bouts of poor health, including “incessant vomiting,” trembling hands, a “swimming” head,” “singing in the ears” (likely linked with tinnitus), and “violent palpitation of the heart.” Historians have long puzzled over the exact nature of Darwin’s ailments, proposing diagnoses like Chagas disease, lactose intolerance and a mitochondrial disorder. But as George Dvorsky reports for Gizmodo, a new study identifies a previously unmentioned culprit: Lyme disease.

The findings, now published in Denisea, the official scientific journal of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, posit that the naturalist contracted the tick-borne disease in the somewhat surprising locale of his home country, Great Britain. Although Darwin visited numerous tropical regions during his famed voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle and subsequent research expeditions, the researchers argue it’s more likely he encountered an infectious tick while roaming the expanses of England, Wales and Scotland. Despite the fact that Lyme disease wasn’t formally diagnosed until 1976, Dvorsky notes that instances of the tick-borne disease abound in late 19th- and early 20th-century European records.

Lead researcher Erwin Kompanje of Rotterdam’s Erasmus University medical centre tells the Guardian’s Ian Sample that “[Darwin] had a lot of different symptoms: involuntary twitching of muscles, swimming of the head, a shortness of breath, trembling hands.”

He adds, “All of them came and went, and that is quite typical of Lyme disease.”

To analyze Darwin’s maladies, Kompanje and study co-author Jelle Reumer of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam sifted through the scientist’s copious body of correspondence and personal writings. These accounts, many of which are available through the University of Cambridge’s online Darwin portal, offer a portrait of a man beset by chronic illness. In a March 28, 1949, letter to a friend named Joseph Hooker, for example, Darwin explains,

“I was not able to do anything one day out of three, [and] was altogether too dispirited to write to you or to do anything but what I was compelled.”

According to the study, Darwin’s symptoms can be divided into three categories: dysautonomic (or related to the autonomic nervous system), neurological and psychiatric; gastrointestinal; and cutaneous (affecting the skin). The first group of ailments closely resembled what we would now call a panic disorder, with key complaints, including fatigue, dizziness and heart palpitations. Some studies have drawn on these symptoms to suggest Darwin suffered from agoraphobia, but the new study points out that his wife, Emma, once wrote “he always tells me how he … never wants to be alone”— a sentiment not likely shared by most true agoraphobics. Indeed, the authors note that recent research has linked the sudden onset of panic attacks with underlying Lyme disease. Upon receiving treatment for Lyme, some patients have reported these symptoms abated. Overall, the researchers attribute this group of symptoms to “atypical panic attacks.”

The second category of gastrointestinal symptoms—amongst others, flatulence, vomiting and nausea—has previously been attributed to Crohn’s disease or lactose intolerance. Adding to the mix, the study proposes yet another disorder: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome, which is marked by periods of debilitating vomiting triggered by “stress, excitement and fatigue.”

Finally, in reference to Darwin’s recorded battles with rashes and eczema, the authors suggest that such skin inflammations emerged as a side effect of panic disorder, which they in turn identify as “a rare symptom of chronic borreliosis,” or Lyme disease.

As the Guardian’s Sample notes, the popular diagnosis of Chagas disease, an infection spread by insects native to the Americas, originates from Darwin’s mention of being bitten by a “great black bug of the Pampas” during an 1835 trip to Argentina. But Kompanje and Reumer say that the naturalist’s symptoms align more closely with Lyme disease, in part because certain recurring complaints appeared before the South American expedition.

The pair’s final assessment of a “complex condition with multisystem symptoms” pinpoints Lyme as Darwin’s major affliction, but as Dvorsky explains for Gizmodo, the researchers believe another illness, likely lactose intolerance, contributed to the scientist’s poor health. Combined with what the study terms Darwin’s “hypochondriac predisposition,” it’s unsurprising that his litany of illnesses continues to fascinate.

Still, not everyone is convinced: Richard Wall, a tick expert at the University of Bristol, tells the Guardian, “Borreliosis is a particularly difficult infection to diagnose symptomatically even when the patient is available … so retrospective diagnosis at a historical distance of 200 years, while interesting, must be considered as highly speculative.”

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For more:  

Panic Attacks:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/19/panic-attacks-may-be-lyme-msids/  The author describes the histories of three patients with panic-like episodes that turned out to be related to underlying, previously unsuspected tick-borne diseases.

Tinnitus, tingling, numbness, twitching:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/09/16/bizarre-symptoms-msids/

Hearing Loss:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/19/panic-attacks-may-be-lyme-msids/

Shortness of breath/air hunger:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/22/what-is-air-hunger-anyway/

Brain fog:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/22/what-is-air-hunger-anyway/

Heart issues:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/03/heart-problems-tick-borne-disease/

Rashes:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130422132507.htm?

Clinical diagnosis must consider any skin rash, regardless of its resemblance to the bull’s-eye.  Many people never recall a rash or tick bite. “Researchers note that multiple textbooks and websites prominently feature the bull’s-eye image as a visual representation of Lyme disease.” They write, “This emphasis on target-like lesions may have inadvertently contributed to an underappreciation for atypical skin lesions caused by Lyme disease.” — Some Visible Signs of Lyme Disease Are Easily Missed or Mistaken, Science Daily, Apr 22, 2013

“Not everything is Lyme, but Lyme can be anything.”  Dr. Hoffman RIP

 

 

Category:

Activism, Heart Issues, Lyme, Psychological Aspects