Archive for the ‘research’ Category

Pathogenic Mycoplasma Infections in Chronic Illnesses: General Considerations in Selecting Conventional and Integrative Treatments

https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=95720

Pathogenic Mycoplasma Infections in Chronic Illnesses: General Considerations in Selecting Conventional and Integrative Treatments

Author(s)  Garth L. Nicolson
Department of Molecular Pathology, The Institute for Molecular Medicine, Huntington Beach, California, USA.

ABSTRACT

The presence of pathogenic mycoplasmas in various chronic illnesses and their successful suppression using conventional and integrative medicine approaches are reviewed. Evidence gathered over the last three decades has demonstrated the presence of pathogenic mycoplasma species in the blood, body fluids and tissues from patients with a variety of chronic clinical conditions: atypical pneumonia, asthma and other respiratory conditions; oral cavity infections; urogenital conditions; neurodegenerative and neurobehavioral diseases; autoimmune diseases; immunosuppressive diseases; inflammatory diseases; and illnesses and syndromes of unknown origin, such as fatiguing illnesses.
Only recently have these small intracellular bacteria received attention as possible causative agents, cofactors or opportunistic infections or co-infections in these and other conditions. Their clinical management is often inadequate, primarily because of missed diagnosis, under- and inadequate treatment and the presence of persister or dormant microorganisms due to biofilm, resistence and other mechanisms.
Pathogenic Mycoplasma species infections have been suppressed slowly by anti-microbial and integrative treatments, resulting in gradual reductions in morbidity, but not in every patient. Even if mycoplasmas are not a cause or an initial trigger for many chronic illnesses, they appear to play important roles in the inception, progression, morbidity and relapse of chronic illnesses in rather large patient subsets. Ignoring such infections can result in failure to achieve eventual patient recovery, even with application of potentially curative treatments.
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**Comment**
As Dr. Breitshwerdt is the Bart Guru, Dr. Nicolson is the Mycoplasma King.  Both are involved intimately with pathogens that have changed their lives.  We owe these men a great debt as without their expertise and fortitude, we would be completely in the dark.  To read about Dr. Nicolson’s experience with bioweaponized Mycoplasma read the provocative book, “Project Daylily.”  I notice that he dedicated this article to his deceased wife who survived a lethal mycoplasma infection.
Please refer to the full-length article in the link at the top of the story but I’ve highlighted a few things below on how Mycoplasma evades the immune system as well as effective treatment.  There’s much, much more in the full-length article you should understand.
According to Dr. Nicolson, 80% of Lyme/MSIDS patients also have Mycoplasma.
CFS/ME patients according to PCR have various mycoplasmas.
Excerpt from section 2 on Host Response Systems:
Pathogenic mycoplasmas can evade immune recognition and destruction by undergoing rapid surface antigenic variations [7] [27]. Even with their slow intracellular growth rates, by rapidly altering their cell surface antigenic structures as well as modulating host immune responses, pathogenic mycoplasmas can evade host surveillance mechanisms [7] [27]. This helps explain the chronic nature of mycoplasmal infections and the inability of hosts to completely suppress pathogenic mycoplasmal infections via host responses that are effective against other more rapidly growing bacteria [27].
Excerpt from 4.12 Fatiguing Illnesses:
The most common fatiguing illness is chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or myalgic encephalomyelitis. This is an unexplained, long-term, persistent illness characterized by disabling fatigue plus additional signs and symptoms [98] [99]. Most if not all patients with CFS show evidence of chronic viral and bacterial infections (reviewed in [45] [47] ). In fact, the odds ratio for the presence of chronic infections was calculated to be 18.0 (p < 0.001), suggesting that CFS patients have a very high probability of multiple chronic infections [100]. The most commonly found infections (by PCR of blood monocytes) were various pathogenic species of mycoplasmas [100] [101].  M. pneumoniae was the most common mycoplasma species found, followed by M. fermentans, M. hominis, and M. penetrans [101].
Excerpt from Section 5 Treatment of Pathogenic Mycoplasmal Infections:
In many cases mycoplasmal infections are not the definitive infection that defines the condition. An example of this is chronic Lyme disease, a complex clinical condition with Borrelia species as the prominent infectious agent but with other bacterial, parasite, and viral components as co-infections [47] [119] [120] [121]. Pathogenic mycoplasmal co-infections are important in such multiple infection diseases, being present in up to 80% of chronic Lyme diseases cases [120] [122].
Excerpt from Section 5.1 Antimicrobial Treatments:

The conventional antimicrobial treatments of pathogenic mycoplasmal infections usually involve systemic therapy with oral antibiotics, but the choice of antibiotic(s) depends to a certain degree on the mycoplasma species being treated. Since mycoplasmas do not have a cell wall, antibiotics that act on cell wall synthesis are ineffective [2] [3] [7] [40] [50] [59] [124] [125]. Instead, mycoplasmas are treated with anti-microbials that attack their metabolism, replication, synthetic machinery or other specific bacterial targets. Since most mycoplasmas and ureaplasmas are generally sensitive to tetracyclines (doxycycline, minocycline, among others), with some notable exceptions, these should be considered for frontline treatment, and quinolones (ciprofloxacin, sparfloxacin, levofloxacin, ofloxacin, among others) [125] [126] [127] [128] , as alternative treatment. However, M. pneumoniae and M. genitalium strains are especially sensitive to macrolides (azithromycin, clarithromycin, erythromycin, among others), whereas M. hominis strains are usually resistant [126] [127] [128]. Ureaplasmas are moderately susceptible to macrolides [127] [128]. M. hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum are generally more resistant to tetracyclines than other species [129] [130] , and M. hominis strains have been observed to be resistant to quinolones [131]. Some discussion of these antimicrobials and their uses in treating pathogenic mycoplasmal infections in chronic illnesses can be found in [132] [133] [134].

Treatment of pathogenic mycoplasma infections with oral antibiotics generally involves daily or pulsed treatment, such as every-other-day administration, at the maximum dose recommended for a particular antibiotic [132] [133] [134] [135]. Due to the cyclic nature of mycoplasmal proliferation some organizations recommend every-other-day antibiotic regimens [135].

Another important consideration is antibiotic resistance, which can occur during treatment [132] [138]. A major problem has been the shifting minimum inhibitory dose concentrations required to treat mycoplasmal infections with antibiotics, such as treatment of M. genitalium infections with oral tetracyclines [139]. This requires increasing dose levels or shifting to a different antibiotic regimen [132].

In most chronic illness patients pathogenic mycoplasma infections do not respond quickly to anti-microbial therapy, so long-term therapy must be considered [123] [132] [133] [135].

When antibiotics are used to treat pathogenic mycoplasmal infections, Jarisch-Herxheimer reactions (J-H reactions) usually occur [132] [141]. These are observed as temporary increases in the severity of signs and symptoms, and J-H reactions generally involve fevers, chills, muscle aches, fatigue, skin rashes, pain and other signs and symptoms related to cytokine release [141].

In most patients this has required prolonged treatments that have resulted in very slow recoveries, often requiring a year or more of treatment [48] [121] [123] [132] [133].

There are some alternative procedures that can increase the in vivo effectiveness of antimicrobial therapies. One method that has been used to increase the effectiveness of antibiotics has been the use of agents that increase the penetrability or the intracellular activities or effectiveness of antibiotics or other drugs. For example, the anti-malarial drug Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) has been used to alkalize intracellular compartments and improve antimicrobial entry and cytotoxic effects [121] [132] [145].

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/08/12/connecting-dots-mycoplasma/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/07/mycoplasma-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/14/clinical-association-lyme-disease-and-guillain-barre/Epstein-Barr, also known as Mono, is an infection that triggers Guillain-Barre as well as mycoplasma and cytomegalovirus.  http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/guillain-barre-syndrome-topic-overview#1

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/16/mycoplasma-and-other-intracellular-bacterial-infections-in-rheumatic-diseases-comorbid-condition-or-cause/

Category:

Mycoplasma, research, Treatment

5-Week Old Girl With Lyme Disease Podcast

LYME PODCAST: 5-WEEK-OLD GIRL WITH LYME DISEASE

Lyme Disease Podcast: 5-week-old girl with Lyme disease

Welcome to an Inside Lyme case study. I find that the best way to get to know Lyme disease is through reviewing actual cases. In this case study, I will be discussing a 5-week old baby girl with Lyme disease. This case series will be discussed on my Facebook and made available on podcast and YouTube.

By

In this episode, I will be discussing a 5-week old baby girl with Lyme disease.

This case was described in the journal Pediatrics, written by Handel and colleagues in 2019.

This paper reminds parents of the need to look for a tick bite and Lyme disease even in babies. The authors described a healthy 5-week-old girl who was diagnosed with Lyme disease. The baby girl lived in Long Island, New York, an area endemic for Lyme disease.  The baby was rarely outdoors, but the family dog was allowed outdoors. The dog could have brought the baby in contact with the tick.  Other researchers have reported a higher risk of Lyme disease in pet owners.

The parents did not report seeing a tick. Instead, the parents removed “an engorged, black “bug” from behind her left ear six days before symptoms started.” writes Handel. This highlights the difficulties parents can face in recognizing a tick.

The fact that the presumed tick was engorged was also important. The risk of Lyme disease from an engorged tick is much higher.  The number of spirochetes rises as the tick takes a blood meal. The spirochetes in a tick have more time to multiply and migrate from the midgut of the tick to the salivary glands.  The higher numbers of spirochetes in the salivary gland, the more likely the bite will lead to a tick-borne disease.

The baby girl was diagnosed with early disseminated Lyme disease.  The rashes were typical with “multiple flat rings with peripheral blanching erythema, a central clearing, and outward expansion without tenderness or peripheral scaling” writes Handel.  He added, there was also a rash near the bite.  Early disseminated Lyme disease often occurs without the initial erythema migrans rash when the bacteria have already spread throughout the body.

The doctors hospitalized the baby.  The baby had a fever 101.1 and was irritable.  The tick-borne tests were negative, which is common in early Lyme disease. The western blot Lyme disease test was not performed, as the ELISA screen was negative.

The doctors were concerned that the baby might suffer from Lyme meningitis.  This is an uncommon but important concern for the doctor treating Lyme disease.  The spinal tap was not successful. The doctors treated for Lyme meningitis with intravenous antibiotics since they were still concerned the baby might have Lyme meningitis. The baby girl was discharged from the hospital after two weeks of intravenous ceftriaxone.

There were no complications on follow-up, according to the doctor.

The authors noted that there are few cases of babies being treated for tick-borne illnesses in the published literature. That does not mean that young children aren’t contracting tick-borne diseases in practice.  Children under the age of 5 years-of-age are the most likely to be infected with Lyme disease according to the CDC.

What can we learn from this case?

  1. Babies can be infected with a tick-borne infection even with little outdoor exposure.
  2. The family pet can bring a baby into contact with ticks.
  3. It can be difficult to determine if a baby has Lyme meningitis. The spinal tap in this 5-week-old baby girl was unsuccessful.  Even if the spinal tap had been successful, the spinal tap may be negative in neurologic Lyme disease.

What questions does this case raise?

  1. Would it have been helpful if the parents had recognized the “bug” as a tick?
  2. Would the parents or the doctor have recognized Lyme disease if the rash were single or atypicial?  The most common rash is a flat red rash in one study.
  3. Would the baby have been successfully treated with oral antibiotics rather than intravenous antibiotics?
  4. What if the baby did not have a rash? Would the doctor have been willing to use clinical judgment to diagnose Lyme disease in a baby?
  5. Would the IgM western blot test for Lyme disease have been positive if the doctor had ordered a western blot test?  The IgM western blot test is often positive in early Lyme disease.
  6. Would antibiotic treatment at the time of the engorged tick bite have prevented the need for a 24 days hospitalization, a spinal tap, and intravenous antibiotics in the baby girl?
  7. When is it important to perform a spinal tap?
  8. Will the baby girl develop a co-infection like Ehrlichia, Anaplasmosis, and Babesia? This is particularly important as the intravenous ceftriaxone prescribed for the baby would not be effective for these tick-borne infections.
  9. Will two weeks of intravenous antibiotics prevent chronic manifestations of Lyme disease?

TREATING TICK-BORNE DISEASE IN MY PRACTICE

In my practice, each individual requires a careful assessment. That is why I order tests a broad range of tests, including blood counts, liver and kidney function, thyroid disease, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis in addition to tests for tick-borne infections. I also arrange consultations such as neurologists, rheumatologists, and ophthalmologists.

Many patients are complex, as highlighted in this Inside Lyme Podcast series.

We need more doctors with skills diagnosing and treating Lyme disease in children. We could use a reliable test to determine who has Lyme disease and a test to be sure Lyme disease has resolved. We need to determine the best course of treatment for babies.  In this case, were there oral antibiotics that would have been effective? We hope that if a professional sees a baby that they can use this case to remind them to look for Lyme disease and treat accordingly.

We also need to give doctors the freedom to treat these difficult cases without undue interference by colleagues, insurance companies, medical societies, and medical boards.

Inside Lyme Podcast Series

This Inside Lyme case series will be discussed on my Facebook and made available on podcast and YouTube.  As always, it is your likes, comments, and shares that help spread the word about this series and our work. If you can, please leave a review on iTunes or wherever else you get your podcasts.

Sign up for our newsletter to keep up with our cases.

References:
  1.  Two Neonates With Postnatally Acquired Tickborne Infections Andrew S. Handel, Harriet Hellman and Saul R. Hymes Pediatrics 2019;144;

Category:

Lyme, research, Testing, Treatment

Clinical Trial in the Works Using IV Vitamin C Against the 2019-nCoV Virus

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04264533

Brief Summary:

2019 new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infected pneumonia, namely severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) has caused global concern and emergency. There is a lack of effective targeted antiviral drugs, and symptomatic supportive treatment is still the current main treatment for SARI.

Vitamin C is significant to human body and plays a role in reducing inflammatory response and preventing common cold. In addtion, a few studies have shown that vitamin C deficiency is related to the increased risk and severity of influenza infections.

We hypothize that Vitamin C infusion can help improve the prognosis of patients with SARI. Therefore, it is necessary to study the clinical efficacy and safety of vitamin C for the clinical management of SARI through randomized controlled trials during the current epidemic of SARI.

Condition or disease Intervention/treatment Phase
Vitamin CPneumonia, ViralPneumonia, Ventilator-Associated Drug: Vit CDrug: Water for infusion Phase 2

Detailed Description:

At the end of 2019, patients with unexplained pneumonia appeared in Wuhan, China. At 21:00 on January 7, 2020, a new coronavirus was detected in the laboratory, and the detection of pathogenic nucleic acids was completed at 20:00 on January 10. Subsequently, the World Health Organization officially named the new coronavirus that caused the pneumonia epidemic in Wuhan as 2019 new coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and the pneumonia was named severe acute respiratory infection (SARI). Up to February 4, 2020, over 20000 cases have been diagnosed in China, 406 of which have died, and 154 cases have been discovered in other countries around the world. Most of the deaths were elderly patients or patients with severe underlying diseases. SARI has caused global concern and emergency.

Statistics of the 41 patients with SARI published in JAMA initially showed that 13 patients were transferred into the ICU, of which 11 (85%) had ARDS and 3 (23%) had shock. Of these, 10 (77%) required mechanical ventilation support, and 2 (15%) required ECMO support. Of the above 13 patients, 5 (38%) eventually died and 7 (38%) were transferred out of the ICU. Viral pneumonia is a dangerous condition with a poor clinical prognosis. For most viral infections, there is a lack of effective targeted antiviral drugs, and symptomatic supportive treatment is still the current main treatment.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, has antioxidant properties. When sepsis happens, the cytokine surge caused by sepsis is activated, and neutrophils in the lungs accumulate in the lungs, destroying alveolar capillaries. Early clinical studies have shown that vitamin C can effectively prevent this process. In addition, vitamin C can help to eliminate alveolar fluid by preventing the activation and accumulation of neutrophils, and reducing alveolar epithelial water channel damage. At the same time, vitamin C can prevent the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps, which is a biological event of vascular injury caused by neutrophil activation. Vitamins can effectively shorten the duration of the common cold. In extreme conditions (athletes, skiers, art workers, military exercises), it can effectively prevent the common cold. And whether vitamin C also has a certain protective effect on influenza patients, only few studies have shown that vitamin C deficiency is related to the increased risk and severity of influenza infections. In a controlled but non-randomized trial, 85% of the 252 students treated experienced a reduction in symptoms in the high-dose vitamin C group (1g / h at the beginning of symptoms for 6h, followed by 3 * 1g / day). Among patients with sepsis and ARDS, patients in the high-dose vitamin group did not show a better prognosis and other clinical outcomes. There are still some confounding factors in the existing research, and the conclusions are different.

Therefore, during the current epidemic of SARI, it is necessary to study the clinical efficacy and safety of vitamin C for viral pneumonia through randomized controlled trials.

Study Design
Go to  sections
Study Type : Interventional  (Clinical Trial)
Estimated Enrollment : 140 participants
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Triple (Participant, Care Provider, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
Official Title: Vitamin C Infusion for the Treatment of Severe 2019-nCoV Infected Pneumonia: a Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial
Estimated Study Start Date : February 10, 2020
Estimated Primary Completion Date : September 30, 2020
Estimated Study Completion Date : September 30, 2020
Arms and Interventions
Go to  sections
Arm Intervention/treatment
Experimental: Vit C

24g Vitamin C+water for injection, total volume 50ml. 7ml/h; infusion pump.
 Drug: Vit C

24g Vitamin C will be infused in the experimental group per day for 7 days by the infusion pump with a speed of 7ml/h.
Other Name: Vitamin C
Placebo Comparator: Water for injection

50ml water for injection. 7ml/h; infusion pump.
 Drug: Water for infusion

50ml water for infusion will be infused in the placebo comparator group per day for 7 days by the infusion pump with a speed of 7ml/h.
Outcome Measures
Primary Outcome Measures :

  1. Ventilation-free days [ Time Frame: on the day 28 after enrollment ]
    days without ventilation support during 28 days after patients’ enrollment
Secondary Outcome Measures :

  1. 28-days mortality [ Time Frame: on the day 28 after enrollment ]
    wether the patient survives
  2. ICU length of stay [ Time Frame: on the day 28 after enrollment ]
    days of the patients staying in the ICU
  3. Demand for first aid measuments [ Time Frame: on the day 28 after enrollment ]
    t t the rate of CPR
  4. Vasopressor days [ Time Frame: on the day 28 after enrollment ]
    days of using vasopressors
  5. Respiratory indexes [ Time Frame: on the day 10 and 28 after enrollment ]
    P O2/Fi O2 which reflects patients’ respiratory function
  6. Ventilator parameters [ Time Frame: on the day 10 and 28 after enrollment ]
    Ecmo or ventilator
  7. APACHE II scores [ Time Frame: on the day 10 after enrollment ]
    Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation
  8. SOFA scores [ Time Frame: on the day 10 after enrollment ]
    Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment

 

Category:

research, Supplements, Treatment, Viruses

Classification & Staging of Morgellons Disease: Lessons From Syphilis

https://www.dovepress.com/classification-and-staging-of-morgellons-disease-lessons-from-syphilis-peer-reviewed-article-CCID

Classification and Staging of Morgellons Disease: Lessons from Syphilis 

Authors Middelveen MJ, Martinez RM, Fesler MC, Sapi E, Burke J, Shah JS, Nicolaus C, Stricker RB

Received 24 November 2019

Accepted for publication 16 January 2020

Published 7 February 2020 Volume 2020:13 Pages 145—164

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/CCID.S239840

Video abstract presented by Melissa C. Fesler.

Introduction: Morgellons disease (MD) is a contested dermopathy that is associated with Borreliaspirochetal infection. A simple classification system was previously established to help validate the disease based on clinical features (classes I-IV).Methods: Drawing on historical and pathological parallels with syphilis, we formulated a more detailed staging system based on clinical features as well as severity of skin lesions and corresponding histopathological infection patterns, as determined by anti-Borrelia immunohistochemical staining.

Results: Clinical classes I-IV of MD are further categorized as mild, moderate and severe, or stages A, B and C, respectively, based on histopathological findings. Stage A lesions demonstrated little or no immune infiltrates and little or no disorganization of cells; macrophages were not present, and hemorrhage was negligible. Extracellular isolated spirochetes and intracellular staining of keratinocytes in the lower epidermis was occasionally seen. Stage C lesions demonstrated positive staining of keratinocytes in the stratum basale and stratum spinosum and positive intracellular staining of macrophages for Borrelia. Aggregate Borrelia colonies were frequently encountered, hemorrhage was frequent, and intracellularly stained fibroblasts were occasionally seen. Stage B lesions demonstrated a pattern intermediate between Stages A and C.

Conclusion: The enhanced staging system provides objective criteria to assess the severity of dermopathy in MD. Further studies are needed to determine the optimal treatment for MD based on this staging system related to Borrelia infection.

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/02/15/morgellons-disease-foundation-goes-skin-deep-with-groundbreaking-documentary/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/29/mixed-borrelia-burgdorferi-helicobacter-pylori-biofilms-in-morgellons-disease-dermatological-specimens/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/17/morgellons-believe-it/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/10/27/research-on-morgellons/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/10/morgellons-in-dogs/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/19/interview-marianne-middelveen-on-morgellons/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/05/morgellons-not-a-delusion-states-new-study/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/11/20/interview-with-morgellons-expert-dr-ginger-savely/

Category:

Morgellons, research

Latest Look at Lyme – Dr. Waters

latest look at Lyme july 2018Paper Here

Written by Dr. Robert Waters, https://www.watersbiomed.com

1416593336

Waters’ 8 pronged approach to treating Lyme/MSIDS:  https://www.watersbiomed.com/integrative-approach-to-lyme-disease.html  All of which are discussed in the paper above.

He also discusses typical deficiencies patients have and the importance of supplementation to boost the body’s ability to fight for itself.

For Doctor Waters’ presentation:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/04/18/dr-waters-presentation/

You can also watch videos, read published papers, and read newsletter on various topics.

Category:

diet and nutrition, Gut Health, Herbs, Inflammation, Lyme, research, Treatment