Archive for the ‘research’ Category

A Daily Musical Allowance For Health?

https://www.britishacademyofsoundtherapy.com/musical-daily-allowance/?

The study in the link above asked 7581 people questions about music. The conclusion states:

There was a general agreement of dosage time across 3 of the 4 domains with 11 minutes being the most common amount of time it took for people to receive the therapeutic benefit from their self- selected music preferences. The only exception was the domain of happiness where the most common length of time for people to become happier after listening to their chosen music was reduced to 5 minutes, suggesting that happy music takes less time to take effect than other music. More studies would need to be undertaken to establish a ‘before’ and ‘after’ mood-state to support these findings. This study revealed many interesting elements of how people use music as medicine.

the-musical-prescription-infographic-BAST-2

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/06/study-finds-listening-to-music-can-help-regulate-mood-during-a-stressful-situation/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/09/23/top-nine-tips-for-coping-with-social-anxiety/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/11/30/cope-with-depression-anxiety-when-you-have-lyme/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/02/09/6-traits-to-look-for-in-a-therapist-when-you-have-chronic-lyme/

New article on “noise pollution”:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiegold/2020/02/25/the-hidden-dangers-of-noise-pollution-at-home/#487060c67504  It’s pretty common for Lyme/MSIDS patients to have sound, smell, and touch sensitivities.  

Category:

Psychological Aspects, research, Treatment

Bacterial Community Profiling Highlights Complex Diversity & Novel Organisms in Wildlife Ticks

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32051105

2020 Feb 5:101407. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2020.101407. [Epub ahead of print]

Bacterial community profiling highlights complex diversity and novel organisms in wildlife ticks.

Egan SL1, Loh SM2, Banks PB3, Gillett A4, Ahlstrom L5, Ryan UM6, Irwin PJ7, Oskam CL8.

Abstract

Ticks Acari:Ixodida transmit a greater variety of pathogens than any other blood-feeding group of arthropods. While numerous microbes have been identified inhabiting Australian Ixodidae, some of which are related to globally important tick-borne pathogens, little is known about the bacterial communities within ticks collected from Australian wildlife.

In this study, 1,019 ticks were identified on 221 hosts spanning 27 wildlife species. Next-generation sequencing was used to amplify the V1-2 hypervariable region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene from 238 ticks; Amblyomma triguttatum (n = 6), Bothriocroton auruginans (n = 11), Bothriocroton concolor (n = 20), Haemaphysalis bancrofti (n = 10), Haemaphysalis bremneri (n = 4), Haemaphysalis humerosa (n = 13), Haemaphysalis longicornis (n = 4), Ixodes antechini (n = 29), Ixodes australiensis (n = 26), Ixodes fecialis (n = 13), Ixodes holocyclus (n = 37), Ixodes myrmecobii (n = 1), Ixodes ornithorhynchi (n = 10), Ixodes tasmani (n = 51) and Ixodes trichosuri (n = 3).

After bioinformatic analyses, over 14 million assigned bacterial sequences revealed the presence of recently described bacteria ‘Candidatus Borrelia tachyglossi’, ‘Candidatus Neoehrlichia australis’, ‘Candidatus Neoehrlichia arcana’ and ‘Candidatus Ehrlichia ornithorhynchi’. Furthermore, three novel Anaplasmataceae species were identified in the present study including; a Neoehrlichia sp. in I. australiensis and I. fecialis collected from quenda (Isoodon fusciventer) (Western Australia), an Anaplasma sp. from one B. concolor from echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) (New South Wales), and an Ehrlichia sp. from a single I. fecialis parasitising a quenda (WA).

This study highlights the diversity of bacterial genera harboured within wildlife ticks, which may prove to be of medical and/or veterinary importance in the future.

____________________

**Comment**

This article clearly shows that so much more needs to be done in the area of pathogen transmission.  Thousands of Australian patients are suffering with a Lyme-like illness but are told Lyme doesn’t exist there.  Well, they have something!  Figure it out!

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/21/our-battle-ongoing-lyme-disease-in-australia/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/11/03/ld-not-in-australia-here-we-go-again/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/19/tbis-in-australia/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/03/aussie-widow-of-lyme-disease-victim-to-sue-nsw-health/  A SYDNEY woman launches a class action against NSW Health after autopsy results showed her husband was riddled with Lyme in his liver, heart, kidney, and lungs. He was only 44 years old and was bitten by a tick while filming a TV show in Sydney.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/14/python-covered-with-more-than-500-ticks-rescued-in-australia/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/28/human-tick-borne-diseases-in-australia/

The following infections are on record in Australia:

  • Q fever
  • Queensland tick typhus (QTT)
  • Flinders Island spotted fever (FISF)
  • Australian spotted fever (ASF)
  • Babesiosis
  • Anaplasma spp.
  • Bartonella spp.
  • Burkholderia spp.
  • Francisella spp. (Tularemia)
  • Dera Ghazi Khan virus (DGKV)
  • tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV)
  • Lake Clarendon virus (LCV)
  • Saumarez Reef virus (SREV)
  • Upolu virus (UPOV)
  • Vinegar Hill virus (VINHV)

 

 

 

Category:

research, Ticks, Transmission

Woman Tripped 34 Hours on LSD. Said it Cured Pain From Chronic Lyme Disease

https://www.insider.com/woman-who-overdosed-on-lsd-said-it-cured-lyme-disease-2020-2

A woman who tripped for 34 hours on LSD after taking 550 times the normal dose said the drug cured her pain from chronic Lyme disease

Julia Naftulin
Feb 25, 2020
psychedelic trip

Photo by Horacio Villalobos – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

During the first 12 hours, the woman blacked out for most of it, but remembered vomiting a lot.

  • A woman overdosed, but didn’t die, after consuming 550 times an average dose of the psychedelic drug LSD. She had mistaken it as cocaine and ended up tripping for 34 hours.
  • Following her overdose, the woman microdosed LSD and found it eliminated her chronic pain, a symptom of her Lyme disease.
  • Other psychedelics like DMT and psilocybin also have been shown to manage conditions, like anxiety and depression.  (See link for article)

___________________

**Comment**

Case report found here:  https://www.jsad.com/doi/10.15288/jsad.2020.81.115

Important excerpt:

She’d stopped taking morphine for five days after her LSD experience, and then her chronic pain returned, so she decided to take the morphine again but at a lower dose, and to also microdose LSD, every three days. A microdose of LSD is about a quarter of the typical 10-milligram dose and doesn’t cause a hallucinogenic effect.

Three years later, the woman was able to completely stop using morphine to manage her pain and said she had no withdrawal symptoms.

The pain Lyme/MSIDS can cause is of a magnitude that makes life unbearable.

I remember the story of a woman with Lyme who went into the garage, took a hammer and broke all her fingers on one hand to get her mind off her shoulder pain.

Category:

Lyme, Pain Management, Psychological Aspects, research

PTLD as a Model for Persistent Symptoms in Lyme Disease

The following petition update by Lyme advocate Carl Tuttle is about this recent publication:  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00057/full In it, the authors discuss the subgroups of those who go on to develop persisting symptoms, as well as the continuing controversy in medicine over this disabling disease(s). The authors present both sides of the fence and state:

However, ILADS CLD is a symptom-based definition and therefore ongoing infection is difficult to assess in individual patients with no currently available biomarker test, and given the large degree of symptom overlap between CLD and other illnesses.

This is important, as the IDSA on the other side of the fence wants to define everything by testing – which research has proven to be abysmal. It’s important for medical professionals to remember that the criteria for reporting Lyme disease is extremely stringent and that even the CDC states diagnosis should be clinical.  Their own website indicates that doctors should be looking for signs, symptoms, and exposure.  Then, it says “results of laboratory testing when indicated.” https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/diagnosistesting/index.html  Regarding testing, you’d have to have your head under the sand to not know it misses over half of all cases, and not to mention takes precious time to develop antibodies for the test to even pick it up – which means the patient, if it’s Lyme, will worsen and be added to the ever growing large group with persisting symptoms. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/12/direct-diagnostic-tests-for-lyme-the-closest-thing-to-an-apology-you-are-ever-going-to-get/

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” so why on earth would a doctor WAIT when the signs, symptoms, and exposure indicate a Lyme disease infection?

https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/25808085?

Post-treatment Lyme Disease as a Model for Persistent Symptoms in Lyme Disease

FEB 26, 2020 — 

Today’s letter…….

———- Original Message ———-
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: tickbornedisease@hhs.gov, jaucott2@jhmi.edu
Cc: (98 Undisclosed recipients)
Date: February 26, 2020 at 9:44 AM
Subject: Post-treatment Lyme Disease as a Model for Persistent Symptoms in Lyme Disease

Frontiers in Medicine

Post-treatment Lyme Disease as a Model for Persistent Symptoms in Lyme Disease
Alison W. Rebman and John N. Aucott*
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00057/full
Feb 26, 2019

Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center
At Greenspring Station  Joppa Concourse
2360 W. Joppa Rd, Suite 320
Lutherville, MD 21093
Attn: John N. Aucott, M.D.

Dr. Aucott,

The content of this letter should not be misconstrued as disrespectful.

As someone whose entire family with firsthand experience of the late stage disabling effects of Lyme, it becomes crystal clear when reading your manuscript that we don’t know how to treat Lyme disease. And yet, state medical boards will go after those clinicians who are attempting to help these patients: (Past IDSA president Paul Auwaerter testified against this doctor)

Before the Virginia Board of Medicine
In RE: Leila Haddad Zackrison, M.D.

Order of Summary Suspension
http://www.dhp.virginia.gov/Notices/Medicine/0101045689/0101045689Order09122019.pdf

I stopped reading your publication at page three simply because it’s the same information that we have seen over and over and over and over again for the past four decades.

The suppression of a mountain of evidence identifying persistent infection after extensive antibiotic treatment has misclassified this disease as a low-risk and non-urgent health threat.

The deliberate avoidance of the horribly disabled allows the CDC to ignore public outcry:

From your publication:

“….the CDC does not track disease outcomes or cases of persistent symptoms (34). Estimating the population-level prevalence of persistent symptoms following Lyme disease is challenging due to this lack of standardization or consensus in operationalizing a case definition.”

If we’re not counting the number of lives ruined by the disease we can continue the well-established racketeering scheme indefinitely.

Until those responsible for this health disaster are removed from positions of authority we will have another decade of unimaginable pain and suffering.

We have a public health emergency that requires a response on the level of a Manhattan Project [1] as patient testimony all across America (and the globe) is describing a disease that is destroying lives, ending careers while leaving its victim in financial ruin.

We are dealing with a life-altering/life-threatening infection with faulty/misleading antibody tests, inadequate treatment, no medical training and absolutely no disease control whatsoever; a public health disaster misclassified as a simple nuisance disease.

Lyme disease is a 21st Century incurable plague hidden in plain site as we are dealing with an antibiotic resistant/tolerant superbug and it is time to acknowledge the severity of this crippling disease.

Respectfully Submitted,

Carl Tuttle
Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH

Reference:

1. Lyme Disease: Call for a “Manhattan Project” to Combat the Epidemic
Raphael B. Stricker, Lorraine Johnson

Published: January 02, 2014 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.100379

http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003796

In summary, preliminary studies from the CDC indicate that the Lyme disease epidemic has reached an unprecedented level with at least 300,000 people and as many as one million people, a majority of them women and children, diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the United States. The staggering magnitude of the epidemic should prompt the CDC to show leadership in developing new guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. A coordinated “Manhattan project” similar to the attack mounted against the HIV/AIDS epidemic is urgently needed to address the serious worldwide threat of Lyme disease.

_______________

**Comment**

While Rebman and Aucott respectfully present both sides of the controversy, I agree with Tuttle that nothing has been done for the sickest patients.  I also realize from a researcher’s perspective that the PTLDS group is the easiest to study as the parameters are extremely narrow and defined.  The problem is, the sickest patients don’t fit into this group yet continue to suffer – with nobody studying them.  

We desperately need researchers to dig into this group of patients that is growing exponentially by the minute:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/25/medical-stalemate-what-causes-continuing-symptoms-after-lyme-treatment/

According to microbiologist Holly Ahern,

60% go onto develop chronic/persistent symptoms.
That’s nothing to sniff at.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research

Global Prevalence of Toxoplasmosis in Cats. A Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis

https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-020-3954-1?

Review, Open Access, Published:

The global serological prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in felids during the last five decades (1967–2017): a systematic review and meta-analysis

Mahbobeh Montazeri, Tahereh Mikaeili Galeh, Mahmood Moosazadeh, Shahabeddin Sarvi, Samira Dodangeh, Javad Javidnia, Mehdi Sharif & Ahmad Daryani

Parasites & Vectors volume 13, Article number: 82 (2020)

Abstract

Background

Felids (domestic and wild cats) are important in the epidemiology of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii because they are the only hosts that can excrete the environmentally resistant oocysts. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the global prevalence of T. gondii in species of the family Felidae.

Methods

We searched seven databases (PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Proquest and Web of Science) for studies reporting seroprevalence of T. gondii in felids from 1967 to 31 December 2017. A total of 217 published papers, containing 223 datasets were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis, comprised 59,517 domestic and 2733 wild cats from 1967 to 2017.

Results

The pooled global T. gondii seroprevalence was estimated to be 35% (95% CI: 32–38%) and 59% (95% CI: 56–63%) in domestic cats and wild felids, respectively, using random effects model. The seroprevalence was higher in Australia and Africa where the T. gondii seropositivity in domestic cats was 52% (95% CI: 15–89%) and 51% (95% CI: 20–81%), respectively. The lowest seroprevalence was estimated in Asia 27% (95% CI: 24–30%). The seroprevalence values for T. gondii in wild felids were 74% (95% CI: 62–83%) in Africa, 67% (95% CI: 23–111%) in Asia, 67% (95% CI: 58–75%) in Europe and 66% (95% CI: 41–91%) in South America.

Conclusions

Our study provides the global prevalence of T. gondii in species of the family Felidae and is a source of information to aid public health workers in developing prevention plans.

_________________
**Comment**
The following excerpt from the study is important:
Based on formal reports, over one billion people in the world are estimated to be infected with T. gondii[3], which is transmitted mainly by ingestion of food, water, vegetables and fruits contaminated with sporulated oocysts shed from cats or ingesting tissue cysts from raw or undercooked meat [1]….The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that toxoplasmosis is the second most common cause of death due to food-borne diseases.
T. gondii has been found in ticks:  http://europepmc.org/article/med/25780833
Here it was found in 64.91% of all examined ticks.
Transmission by ticks has been questioned with mixed results:  https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jp.2015.142.150#1508959_ja
Excerpt:
Nymphs of Ixodes ricinus are most susceptible to infection with T. gondii and they reported that the role of ticks in transmitting of toxoplasmosis should be considered in further investigations. They also added that Toxoplasma artificially (intracoelomatically) introduced into the organism of I. ricinus females can penetrate and multiply in hypoderma, salivary glands, peritracheal connective tissue and muscular tissue. Moreover, Jagow and Hoffmann (1970) found that Toxoplasma lived in Nymphs and adults of Ornithodoros moubata up till 10 and 2 days, respectively. They also found transmission was unsuccessful either through sucking or with the next stage of the same ticks or through the F1-generation of the ticks infected with Toxoplasma. Whereas, Gidel and Provost (1965) isolated Toxoplasma gondiifrom to the genus Amblyomma parasiting a bovine in Centre African Republic by inoculation into rabbits and guinea pigs and proved pathogenic for mice.
Prudence would err on the side of caution and transmission of T. gondii by ticks should be highly suspected.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/05/21/toxoplasmosis/ T. gondii is responsible for about 1/5 of schizophrenia cases.  

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/12/31/psychiatric-disorders-are-infectious-agents-to-blame/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/01/risky-business-linking-t-gondii-entrepreneurship-behaviors/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/06/toxoplasmosis-outbreak-due-to-undercooked-deer-meat-from-illinois/

And lastly, I’ll never forget this information on how parasites affect human behavior by Dr. Klinghardt, which I found here:  http://www.betterhealthguy.com/a-deep-look-beyond-lyme

  • Parasite patients often express the psyche of the parasites – sticky, clingy, impossible to tolerate – but a wonderful human being is behind all of that.

  • We are all a composite of many personalities. Chronic infections outnumber our own cells by 10:1. We are 90% “other” and 10% “us”. Our consciousness is a composite of 90% microbes and 10% us.

  • Our thinking, feeling, creativity, and expression are 90% from the microbes within us. Patients often think, crave, and behave as if they are the parasite.

  • Our thinking is shaded by the microbes thinking through us. The food choices, behavioral choices, and who we like is the thinking of the microbes within us expressing themselves.

  • Patients will reject all treatments that affect the issue that requires treating.

  • Patients will not guide themselves to health when the microbes have taken over.

With this information in mind, it’s quite clear how Lyme/MSIDS is such a complex disease as many are dealing not only with Lyme but other coinfections including parasites which are either directly transmitted by a tick or activated due to a trigger and a dysfunctional immune system.

Category:

research, Testing, Toxoplasmosis