Archive for the ‘Supplements’ Category

Kratom : A Safer Opioid Alternative

https://www.paintreatmentdirectory.com/posts/kratom-as-an-opioid-alternative

Kratom as an Opioid Alternative

Kratom as an Opioid Alternative

By: Cindy Perlin, LCSW

Richard states, “I have suffered immense pain from fibromyalgia for 25 years, to the point of disability & early medical retirement from my job in government healthcare as a licensed psychiatric clinician at a county facility. I tried many medications to relieve my pain to no avail. I have also been a practicing herbalist for 22 years. It was recommended I try Kratom from another herbalist friend. I cannot begin to tell you of the immense relief immediately felt from the first dose of this amazing plant. I have been using kratom for several months now. I have no adverse effects, no withdrawal if not used, nor noticeable side effects. I can now go through the day with absolutely no pain! Period! This is one of the most valuable herbal remedies I have ever used.”

When Jason was 18 years old he broke his wrist and knuckles. He was given Vicodin and became addicted. He graduated to methadone and heroin. He had never used anything before but pot and alcohol occasionally. For the next seven years he was in and out of detox. All his plans went downhill. He had wanted to be a pro baseball player. He had trouble getting and keeping a job. He got a D.U.I. He watched eight of his friends die from heroin overdoses and he still couldn’t stop using. Then one day a friend posted on Facebook about kratom. Jason ordered a sample pack of a red vein strain, the most calming strain of Kratom. Since he started using kratom, he has not had the urge to use opioids again. Jason’s life is now back on track. He’s been clean for over eight months and is going to school to get a machinist certificate. He uses kratom for pain management,  anxiety, and depression. He doses twice a day and reports that it costs him $30-$40 a month. He’s now confident about his future. 

Millions of Americans now use kratom as an alternative to opioids. Many have similar stories.

Read other inspiring stories

What is Kratom?

Kratom is an herb that is native to tropical Southeast Asia and is part of the coffee family. Its scientific name is Mitragyna speciosa. The American Kratom Association says kratom is “more akin to tea and coffee than any other substances”. It has been used medicinally by the people of Southeast Asia for hundreds of years. More recently, millions of Americans have begun using kratom for pain management, anxiety, insomnia, as an energy booster, and to ease withdrawal from opioids. Many pain patients insist kratom has significantly improved their  quality of life and others, like Jason, say it has literally saved their lives.

The Johns Hopkins Kratom Study

The study, published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence in 2020, was an anonymous, online survey of 2798 kratom users. 59% of users reported taking kratom daily and the most common dosages were 1-3 grams.

Kratom was used by 91% of respondents for pain management, 67% for anxiety and 65% for depression, “with high ratings of effectiveness”. 41% reported using kratom as an opioid alternative. About a third of those using kratom for opioid withdrawal reported they were abstinent from opioids for over a year due to their kratom use.

About one third of respondents said they had adverse effects from kratom such as constipation, upset stomach or lethargy. They rated their adverse effects as mostly mild in severity and lasting less than 24 hours. A very small minority, .6%, sought treatment for adverse effects.

According to researchers, 2% of respondents met the diagnostic criteria for kratom-related substance abuse disorder. When asked how troubled they felt about their kratom use, the mean rating was 3.2 on a scale of 0 to 100.

A previous kratom study showed similar results

The results of this survey are similar to the 2016 online survey of 6150 kratom users by Pain News Network and the American Kratom Association. Nine out of ten respondents said kratom was “very effective” for pain management, depression, anxiety, insomnia, opioid addiction and alcoholism. Less than one percent said it didn’t help. The percentage of patients who rated kratom “very effective” for their pain condition:

  • Irritable bowel syndrome 94%
  • Migraine 93%
  • Fibromyalgia 93%
  • Rheumatoid arthritis 92%
  • Back pain 92%
  • Acute pain 92%
  • Lupus and other autoimmune diseases 91%
  • Osteoarthritis 90%
  • Neuropathy 90%
  • Trigeminal neuralgia 88%
  • CRPS 79% (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome)
  • Ehlers Danlos syndrome 76%

Is there any evidence that kratom has a high potential for abuse so that it would not be a good opioid alternative?

According to Dr. Jack Henningfield, a highly respected addiction specialist at Johns Hopkins, kratom is no more addictive than caffeine and “the factors that appear important in sustaining kratom consumption appear more similar to those that sustain dietary caffeine consumption, namely to better manage fatigue and daily life demands and provide mild effects considered enhancing to quality of life” including pain relief and enhanced work performance.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Compared to deaths from other drugs, a very small number of deaths have been linked to kratom products and nearly all cases involved other drugs or contaminants.”

The federal government’s efforts to ban kratom

In 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration proposed temporarily classifying kratom  as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, a drug with no known medical uses and a high potential for abuse. This would have made the use of kratom illegal. But the agency backtracked after a public outcry and pressure from some members of Congress. The DEA then asked the FDA to expedite scientific and medical evaluation instead.

In November 2017 the FDA issued a warning to consumers against using kratom, saying that there had been 36 deaths related to the herb. Scott Gottlieb, FDA Commissioner at the time, stated that kratom has similar risks of abuse, addiction, and death as opioids. This statement was ludicrous because the purported deaths from kratom occurred over a period of several years and were fewer than occurs in one day as a result of opioid overdoses. The National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) tested the FDA claims that kratom is associated with deaths, and they concluded those claimed deaths were actually caused by poly-drug users who abuse dangerous drugs or were caused by people who used an adulterated kratom product.

In 2018, the FDA published a report claiming that FDA scientists had “analyzed the chemical structures of the 25 most common compounds in kratom and concluded that all of the compounds share structural characteristics with controlled opioid analgesics, such as morphine derivatives. They also found that compounds in kratom that “bind strongly to mu-opioid receptors, comparable to opioid drugs”. This study and its conclusions have been widely criticized as misleading and unscientific. Other substances, such as Imodium, an over-the-counter remedy for diarrhea, also bind to opioid receptors but are not classified as opioids.

About 95% of kratom comes from Indonesia. The FDA reportedly played a role in the Indonesian government’s 2019 decision to ban the export of kratom as of 2022. Kratom advocates in Indonesia and the U.S. have convinced the Indonesian government to delay the export ban at least until 2024. There have been some restrictions placed on export by the Indonesian government that are negatively affecting supply and cost and hurting Indonesian farmers who were earning their living growing kratom.

In 2021, the FDA went to the World Health Organization and asked them for an international ban on kratom. In response, the WHO’s Executive Committee on Drug Dependency (ECDD) voted 11-1 to simply continue to monitor data on health impacts of kratom over the next two to three years, rather than institute strict controls. Members found “insufficient evidence” to warrant any action at the time. The committee based its decision on a scientific review of the benefits and risks of kratom. 80,000 people also submitted comments to the committee about their experiences with the herbal remedy.

The FDA continues to seize shipments of kratom to the United States  with no rationale other than that it is kratom.  The FDA’s continuous attempts to demonize kratom have also caused six states to criminalize kratom: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

These actions by the federal government and states have caused many consumers to be fearful of trying kratom. In my humble opinion, the FDA and DEA are more concerned about protecting pharmaceutical profits than protecting public health.

Conclusion: Kratom is a safe and effective alternative to opioids

Although extensive research is lacking on kratom, all indicators are that kratom is much safer than opioids and provides better pain relief, making it an excellent opioid alternative.

The author, Cindy Perlin, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, certified biofeedback practitioner and chronic pain survivor. She is the founder and CEO of the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory and the author of The Truth About Chronic Pain Treatments: The Best and Worst Strategies for Becoming Pain Free. She’s located in the Albany, NY area, where she has been helping people improve their health and emotional well-being for over 30 years. See her provider profile HERE. She is available for both in-office and virtual consultations.

_________________

**Comment**

Another perfect example of corrupt health “authorities’ banning anything that is considered a threat to Big Pharma and the medical monopoly.

For more:

Category:

Activism, Pain Management, research, Supplements, Treatment

ACTION ALERT: FDA Trying to Ban CBD

https://www.paintreatmentdirectory.com/posts/the-fda-is-trying-to-ban-cbd-supplements

The FDA is Trying to Ban CBD Supplements

The FDA is Trying to Ban CBD Supplements

By: ANH-USA

Editor’s note: The following article and call to action about the FDA’s efforts to ban CBD supplements is being reprinted from the Alliance for Natural Health website. This is not the first time the FDA has tried banning natural treatments relied on by millions of Americans, but part of a long and corrupt history. The FDA has also been trying for several years to ban kratom, an herb being successfully used by millions of Americans to treat pain, opioid addiction and withdrawal, anxiety and more. Recently, the FDA has also taken action against homeopathy, a safe, natural system of medicine used worldwide since its development in 1810. The FDA has been trying to get stronger regulatory authority to take vitamins and other supplements off the market. It seems the FDA is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to protect the profits of the pharmaceutical industry instead of protecting the health of the public.

The FDA Misleads on CBD Safety

…providing further evidence that the agency is trying to engineer a ban on affordable CBD to protect drug industry profits. Action Alert!

As the evidence of CBD’s myriad health benefits continues to pile up, it increasingly looks to us like the FDA is preparing to issue a ban on CBD supplements. We must support bills in Congress that take the issue out of the FDA’s hands by allowing the sale of CBD in supplement form.

Lawmakers do appear to be taking this issue seriously. In addition to the bill introduced by Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA), another similar bill has just been introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) to allow the sale of CBD in supplements. Additionally, Congress is holding a hearing on July 27 during which members will formally scrutinize the impact of the FDA’s failure to develop a regulatory pathway for the sale of CBD in supplements and food. Let’s show the FDA the scale of our opposition to its unjustified plan and demonstrate the huge level of grassroots support for CBD supplements ahead of the hearing.

We want to make it crystal clear what we face if we don’t stop the FDA in its tracks. CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of over 100 natural compounds called cannabinoids found in a wide range of plants, most notably the hemp plant. The cells of our bodies are laced with cannabinoid receptors that form part of the endocannabinoid system that is essential to life and to robust health. We produce cannabinoids internally (endocannabinoids) and we also consume them in some foods (exocannabinoids). Most of these cannabinoids, including CBD, are not psychoactive – THC being an exception – but they all offer profound benefits. CBD is one of the most well researched non-psychoactive cannabinoids and it has an incredible array of health benefits, with evidence showing that has profound anti-inflammatory and immune modulating effects and can help with pain, anxiety, depression, certain cancers, and even heart health.

Let that sink in for a moment. The opioid epidemic is killing an astonishing number of Americans every year; rates of anxiety and depression are reaching new highs, particularly among young people; heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the US. CBD has been found to help with all of these conditions, but instead of working to make this compound more widely available as a supplement, which is the way it should be sold according to the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the FDA wants to stop all supplement sales of CBD. The FDA’s justification is the protection of the profits of one pharmaceutical company that has a CBD drug that will cost patients a stunning $32,500 per year. It will also mean citizens who have been benefiting from low-cost health support from CBD supplements since they became widely available a few years ago will have no further access to the supplements they have relied on. There is something deeply wrong with this picture.

How did we get here? For starters, the FDA says that CBD can’t be a supplement because it has approved a drug version of CBD called Epidiolex that is used to treat two rare forms of epileptic seizure, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) or Dravet syndrome, in children over 2 years. This ability for FDA to rule in favor of drug companies has to do with the FDA back-channel that we’ve written about many times before. In short, if a substance is studied as a drug (i.e. a drug company has made an Investigational New Drug application) before there is evidence it was sold as a supplement (i.e. evidenced by a supplement company’s New Dietary Ingredient notification), then the drug company can ask the FDA to ban the supplement form of that compound.

Yet, as pressure mounts from Congress and a variety of stakeholders to make CBD more widely available, the FDA has been reviewing scientific information on CBD. Earlier this year, the agency released a statement explaining that the “existing regulatory framework” for foods and supplements is not appropriate for CBD and that a new regulatory pathway is needed.

One of the main issues raised by the FDA is that of safety. The agency claims that CBD presents various safety concerns, specifically the potential for harm to the liver and the reproductive system and concerns for vulnerable populations such as children and pregnant women.

These views are articulated in a review article authored in part by FDA staff. To support the assertion that CBD can pose threats to the male reproductive system, the authors cite a 1981 animal study in which monkeys were administered 30, 100, or 300 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day (mg per kg bw/day) of CBD orally. But consider that 300 mg per kg bw/day for a human weighing 154 pounds would be 21,000 mg, or 21g, of CBD—far, far more than anyone would ever take as a supplement!

This is emblematic of a larger problem we’ve discussed before: the deeply flawed risk assessment models used by federal bureaucrats to prevent us from utilizing natural medicines to stay healthy. These types of models have been used by European regulators to set absurd limits on supplement dosages (known as tolerable upper limits, or ULs). ANH’s founder and Executive and Scientific Director, Robert Verkerk, PhD, has published several papers critiquing this approach that was originally developed by the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine), pointing to a fundamental flaw: in trying to restrict vitamin or other micronutrient dosages in this way, regulators completely ignore the fact that risks vary greatly depending on the form and dose of a nutrient used, and for most populations you’ll find overlap in the doses that cause health benefits for the majority and risks for a few. So if you then create a law that aims to eliminate a potential risk for everyone, you actually deprive the vast majority access to the micronutrient and all the benefits it offers.

Bringing it back to CBD: the fact that the FDA is, in part, using a decades-old animal study in which an absurdly high CBD dose was used to demonstrate that CBD has safety concerns once again demonstrates that the federal approach to assessing risk and benefit is fundamentally broken. It’s based on a defunct toxicological model that should have no place in modern day food or supplement law-making. The agency is also not giving proper weight to the incredibly favorable safety record of CBD used as a supplement or the multitude of benefits we can get from using CBD as a supplement. Instead, the FDA has chosen to focus on old evidence of harm that was only found when absurdly high doses were taken experimentally. To us, it seems like the agency is simply grasping at any information it can to demonstrate harm so it can justify its proposed ban on CBD supplements. The driver? Nothing less than preventing competition for the pharmaceutical drug version of CBD, given its the drug companies that are the FDA’s principal paymasters.

And, indeed, the FDA’s view on CBD’s safety is not supported by experts in the industry and elsewhere. A 2020 meta-analysis looked at human trials to assess CBD efficacy and safety. The authors concluded that most studies reported no adverse events with acute administration of CBD and mild to moderate effects with chronic administration, with the most common side effects being tiredness, diarrhea and changes of appetite/weight. Again, these side effects must be weighed against the benefits of CBD use for combatting opioid misuse, heart disease, anxiety, and depression. Harvard Health Publishing, the publication of the Harvard Medical School, states simply that, for adults, “CBD appears to be very safe.”

We cannot allow the FDA to cater to the drug industry at the expense of public health.

Action Alert! Write to Congress in support of bills that allow the legal sale of CBD in supplements. Please send your message immediately.

The FDA has said that they will not be allowing CBD to be in food or supplements, explaining that the “existing regulatory framework” for foods and supplements are not appropriate for CBD. The agency denied three Citizens Petitions requesting the agency issue a regulation that would allow CBD to be sold as a supplement. Clearly the FDA is more interested in protecting Big Pharma profits than with promoting consumer access to a product that can benefit their health. We need Congress to take the issue out of the FDA’s hands to create a legal pathway for CBD supplements.

Write to Congress and tell them to support the Hemp and Hemp-Derived CBD Consumer Protection and Market Stabilization Act of 2023 and the Hemp Access and Consumer Safety Act to protect access to CBD supplements.

Sign the Petition Here

_________________

**Comment**

The FDA wants patients between a rock and a hard place.  On one hand they state extended antibiotics are not to be used for Lyme/MSIDS because they are unsafe, and then they also want to remove important supplements that help us, but when the agency is alerted to the fact doctors have never witnessed so many “vaccine”-related injuries and VAERS reports are higher than any other vaccine in its history, after the mRNA gene therapy injections……crickets.

Something doesn’t smell right.

If the FDA had their way we’d just all die already.

For more:

The FDA has a long & sordid history of attempting to ban anything it views as competition to its lucrative drugs & vaccines due to its vested interests with Big Pharma.

Category:

Activism, Herbs, Inflammation, Pain Management, Sleep, Supplements, Treatment

Study Says Opioids No Better Than Placebos For Back & Neck Pain

https://www.paintreatmentdirectory.com/posts/opioids-no-better-than-placebos-for-back-and-neck-pain-new-study-says

Opioids No Better Than Placebos For Back and Neck Pain, New Study Says

By: Cindy Perlin, LCSW

7/10/23

A new study just published in The Lancet, a highly respected mainstream journal, reported that patients with low back pain and neck pain who were prescribed opioids did no better than patients given a placebo. The randomized, controlled study of 347 patients found that there was no significant difference in pain scores between the two groups at six weeks. A year later, the placebo group had slightly lower pain scores,1.81 compared to 2.37 for the opioid group. The average age of participants in the study was 44.7 years and they all had lower back pain, neck pain or both for 12 weeks or less.

According to the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), 10-12% of those prescribed opioids develop an addiction. Despite the fact that over a million Americans have died of opioid overdoses to date, opioids continue to be widely prescribed as noted by the CDC. After peaking in 2012 at 81.3 prescriptions per 100 persons nationwide, the prescription opioid rate was 43.3 per 100 persons in 2020. However, some counties had rates that were nine times higher than that. This study indicates that many pain patients are being unnecessarily exposed to devastating and potentially fatal risks for absolutely no benefit.

I believe that the reason that opioids continue to be so widely prescribed despite the risks is that healthcare providers and patients have heard so often that “opioids are the best treatment we have for pain”. This statement has been repeated so often by pharmaceutical interests and their enablers despite the lack of evidence that most people believe it. Will this study be enough to change these beliefs? I doubt it.

Besides patients’ and healthcare providers’ frequently reinforced beliefs that “opioids are the best treatment we have for pain”, there are several other barriers that get in the way of change. These include:

Healthcare providers are not educated about safer and more effective alternatives.

One survey of medical school curriculum in the U.S. found that physicians were receiving less than two hours of education about pain during their four years of medical school. Post-graduate education is largely sponsored by the drug companies, who fund the medical journals through advertising, sponsor most of the continuing education courses and conferences that physicians attend and send sales reps to physicians’ offices to peddle their wares on an almost daily basis. There are no comparable platforms for educating physicians about alternatives to pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pain.

Insurance companies won’t pay for alternative treatments or severely underfund them.

They do not pay for acupuncture, biofeedback, massage, nutritional counseling or supplements, exercise programs, herbal treatments, light therapy or other proven pain treatments. They have not raised fees for chiropractors, mental health providers or physical therapists in over 40 years.

Government policy often blocks access to alternative treatments.

Marijuana is still federally illegal, making it inaccessible for many. The FDA has gone to great lengths to try to ban kratom, a very effective southeast Asian pain-relieving herb, and failing that, has done their best to demonize it. Several states have banned kratom. 

The FDA has also recently declared homeopathy illegal, classifying all remedies as unapproved drugs, despite significant evidence that homeopathy is safe and effective and a long tradition of its use being legal.

No federal or state laws require insurance coverage for most alternatives or adequate fees for the treatments, like physical therapy, psychotherapy and chiropractic, that are covered.

Sign My Petition to Require Insurance Companies to Pay for Alternative Treatments

The supply of alternative service providers cannot currently meet increased demand.

For instance, while the demand for chiropractic services has been increasing, the U.S. Small Business Administration reports that the five-year survival rate of chiropractic practices is only 48.9%. This is most likely due to low fees and excessive paperwork demands by insurance companies.

The physical therapy profession is currently hemorrhaging providers despite increasing demand, with over 22.000 physical therapists leaving the workforce in the last quarter of 2021 alone. Over 15,000 licensed clinical social workers left the workforce during the same time period in professions where there were already significant shortages.

There are already shortages of massage therapists and demand for acupuncturists is already increasing compared to supply. These shortages will be even more severe if insurance coverage is made available.

Find the Right Provider

The Placebo Effect and Chronic Pain

The placebo effect refers to the improvement in a patient’s condition, despite receiving a treatment with no active pharmacological properties, for example: a sugar pill. Research has consistently shown that when patients genuinely believe they are receiving an effective treatment, their bodies often respond accordingly, producing measurable improvements.

The power of placebos extends beyond a mere psychological response; it can lead to actual physiological changes in the body. Studies have shown that the placebo effect can trigger the release of endorphins (the body’s natural opioids), dopamine (the body’s natural mood elevators) and other neurotransmitters associated with pain relief and improved mood. This indicates that the mind possesses an innate ability to activate the body’s self-healing mechanisms.

Placebo-controlled clinical trials are now standard practice in drug development, enabling researchers to evaluate the true effectiveness of new medications, or in the case of the above-described study, older medications.

While placebos have the potential to produce positive outcomes, some have raised ethical concerns about their use. They claim that deceiving patients by prescribing placebos without their knowledge undermines the principle of informed consent. However, I would counter that by pointing out that prescribing potentially dangerous drugs without warning patients of the full range of risks or the fact that a safer alternative exists is a much higher order ethical violation.

Researchers are exploring ethical ways to use placebos. Some studies have shown that even if you tell patients they are getting a placebo for their condition, it still seems to have the desired effect.

Placebos and the Power of the Mind/Body Connection

Placebos are an indicator of the power of the mind-body connection to influence our well-being. The effectiveness of placebos in pain management has been observed for both acute and chronic pain. Placebos have shown significant analgesic effects in conditions such as migraines, osteoarthritis, and even post-surgical pain. They have been proven to reduce pain intensity, increase pain tolerance, and enhance overall well-being. Placebos have also been shown to reduce anxiety and depression and to improve sleep.

Want to try a placebo for yourself or a loved one? Here is a placebo you can order on Amazon:

Conclusion

Many safer treatments for back pain, neck pain and other types of pain exist and should be offered to patients instead of misinforming patients that “opioids are the best treatment we have for pain”. A “best” treatment doesn’t have the potential to kill people.

Cindy Perlin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, certified biofeedback practitioner, chronic pain survivor, the author of The Truth About Chronic Pain Treatments: The Best and Worst Strategies for Becoming Pain Free and the founder and CEO of the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory. She has been helping her clients in the Albany, NY area reach their health and wellness goals for over 30 years. She also provides virtual pain consults. See her provider profile HERE. 

For more:

BTW, in the effort of staying real: The Lancet and other journals have been caught numerous times publishing fraudulent studies and pushing politics rather than science:

Category:

diet and nutrition, Hemp Oil, Herbs, Inflammation, Pain Management, research, Supplements, Treatment

About Cytokines in Lyme Disease and Related Conditions

https://www.treatlyme.net/guide/cytokines

Updated: 6/27/23

By Dr. Marty Ross

About Cytokines in Lyme Disease and Related Conditions

Lowering inflammatory cytokines made by the immune system is essential for Lyme disease and related conditions recovery. In this article and video, I discuss why this is so and lay out a nutritional support plan using supplements to lower cytokines.

Cytokines are proteins made by various types of white blood cells to turn on the immune system to attack invaders like:

  • bacteria (for example, Lyme germs and the co-infections),
  • intestinal yeast,
  • parasites,
  • viruses,
  • Lyme and mold toxins,
  • environmental toxins, and
  • heavy metals toxins, like lead and mercury.
Cytokines are Good, Right? Well, Yes and No.

In the right amount, cytokines promote healing. In excess, they cause all of the major Lyme disease symptoms and dysregulate the immune system. The problem in chronic Lyme and associated diseases is that they are usually made in excess. Fortunately, there are some great steps you can take to lower cytokines. (See top link for article and video)

For more:

Category:

Detoxing, diet and nutrition, Inflammation, Lyme, Pain Management, Supplements

Case Report: Lyme Neuroborreliosis Triggers Multiple Strokes

https://danielcameronmd.com/lyme-neuroborreliosis-triggers-multiple-strokes/

CASE REPORT: LYME NEUROBORRELIOSIS TRIGGERS MULTIPLE STROKES

Lyme disease can trigger neurological complications. But neurovascular manifestations are far less common. In this case report, the authors describe a 58-year-old man who suffered multiple strokes due to Lyme neuroborreliosis.

By 

In their article, “A case report of unilateral cerebral vasculitis in adults: keep in mind Lyme neuroborreliosis,” Riescher and colleagues examine the case of a 58-year-old man “with recurrent strokes in the same vascular territory without CSF pleocytosis, reflecting an unusual first manifestation of [Lyme neuroborreliosis].”¹

The authors point out that cerebral vasculitis is reported in only 0.3–1% of all Lyme neuroborreliosis cases, and unilateral or focal vasculitis have only rarely been described, almost exclusively in children.

In this case report, the patient, who had no medical history or cardiovascular risk factors, was admitted to the hospital with sudden right brachiofacial weakness. According to the authors, “He recovered partially, but facial palsy persisted.”

He was referred to the stroke unit but a neurological and general examination was normal.

“Cervical and intracranial CT angiography did not show any abnormalities such as stenosis, occlusion, or dilatation,” the authors wrote.

The man was diagnosed with cryptogenic stroke and prescribed aspirin (160  mg), atorvastatin (80 mg), and perindopril at 2 mg daily.

Two months later, the man exhibited sudden aphasia.

“Burgdorferi-induced cerebral vasculitis is thought to be a very rare manifestation of [Lyme neuroborreliosis]. But it must nonetheless be considered in the differential diagnosis of unexplained recurrent and/or multiple strokes.”

“MRI revealed a new and recent ischemic lesion in the left MCA territory visible on DWI, and another older lesion in the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) territory,” the authors wrote.

The patient was prescribed an oral anticoagulant and a cardiac monitor was inserted.

Over the next several months, the patient developed new symptoms including paresthesia (tingling sensation) in the right hand and foot, headaches, extreme weakness and lack of energy, psychomotor retardation, and unsteadiness.

Thirteen months after his first symptom appeared, he developed paresis (muscle weakness) in his right leg.

“A brain MRI showed a new recent ischemic lesion in the left cingulate cortex on DWI in the left ACA territory as well as other new lesions in the left MCA territory (in the frontal lobe),” the authors wrote.

Additional neurological testing was normal. However, Lyme disease testing was “highly positive” on ELISA and confirmed by Western blot.

The man was successfully treated with a one-month course of doxycycline.

“The patient experienced no further stroke after four weeks of doxycycline treatment.”

“In the following weeks, the patient reported dramatic improvement, with disappearance of his asthenia, dizziness, and right arm paresthesia,” the authors wrote.

The patient later reported that he had a tick bite 2 years prior to his first stroke, along with an erythema migrans rash but he never developed arthritis or pain.

Authors Conclude:

  • “Our patient stood out because he had recurrent ischemic strokes for more than one year (at least four episodes), without other associated symptoms, involving the ICA territory only, and without CSF pleocytosis, which is thought to be highly suggestive of LNB.”
  • “Burgdorferi-induced cerebral vasculitis is thought to be a very rare manifestation of [Lyme neuroborreliosis]. But it must nonetheless be considered in the differential diagnosis of unexplained recurrent and/or multiple strokes.”
  • “This case report reminds clinicians that it can occur without a history of a clear tick bite or erythema migrans, and cranial or peripheral neuritis and that the CSF examination can be normal.”
References:
  1. Riescher, S., Dos Santos, A., Lecomte, R. et al. A case report of unilateral cerebral vasculitis in adults: keep in mind Lyme neuroborreliosis. BMC Infect Dis 23, 283 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-023-08259-z

__________________

**Comment**

I’ve stated this before but it’s worth repeating: many Lyme/MSIDS patients improve by taking blood thinners or anti-coagulants like heparin, systemic enzymes, and things like serrapeptase, nattokinase & lumbrokinase which have a blood thinning effect.  Considering that many pathogens form biofilm, thinning and thereby cleaning the blood seems a logical step in helping treatment be more effective.

Category:

Lyme, research, Supplements, Testing, Treatment