Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

Methylation – What You Need to Know

https://vitalplan.com/blog/methylation-what-you-need-to-know?

Methylation: What You Need to Know

by Dr. Bill Rawls | Posted June 9, 2018

Methylation-What-you-need-to-know
If you haven’t yet heard the term methylation, there’s a good chance you’ll soon start hearing it a lot more. Many people are beginning to clue into the importance of this biochemical process, which is a key component of overall wellness, and yet myths and misconceptions are more common than facts. Understanding methylation, and knowing how to optimize it, can give you an edge on staying healthy as you age.
So what is methylation? In biochemical terms, methylation is when a “methyl group” consisting of three hydrogen atoms and one carbon atom are linked to another molecule. Attaching a methyl group to an organic molecule (a chemical compound that contains carbon) makes it less reactive.
In more laymen terms, methylation is a process of making molecules more stable, which is important for a wide range of metabolic functions in the body. For starters, it balances hormone and neurotransmitter activity, and regulates protein synthesis and cellular energy. It processes DNA/RNA, the molecules that are responsible for storing and reading our genetic information, and repairs DNA. And it optimizes the functions of T-cells, white blood cells that play a key role in immune response.
Methylation also helps neutralize toxic substances: When methyl groups attach to organic toxins such as heavy metals, it reduces their toxicity and allows for easier removal from the body. When you consider that the modern world is loaded with higher concentrations of artificial toxins than ever before in history, maintaining optimal methylation is increasingly vital.
One of the most important roles of methylation is regulating the expression of genes. At any given time, you are using only about 1% of your genetic material; the rest of it is in “off” mode. But there are certain factors notorious for turning on “bad” genes that are associated with chronic illness, many of which are unique to the modern world. These include eating a poor diet high in processed food products, exposure to environmental toxicants, dealing with chronic stress, and having a sedentary lifestyle.
This is where methylation comes in — the way the body turns off “bad” genes is by attaching methyl groups to genetic material. Of course, if you don’t change your diet and lifestyle, the bad genes will turn on and/or stay on. Keep stressing your genes, and all the methyl groups in the world aren’t going to help you stay well.

The role of poor methylation in chronic illness

This is a huge misconception: People with symptoms of chronic illness — typical ones being fatigue, neurological symptoms, mood disorders like anxiety, and insomnia, to name a few — are being told that poor methylation is the cause of their illness. But in fact, it’s those same stressors that activate bad genes that increase susceptibility to illness; poor methylation just compounds the problem.

The Western diet is the biggest culprit. The body relies on a steady stream of methyl donors from certain foods to support the metabolic functions that are dependent on methylation. (Methyl donors are any substance that can transfer a methyl group — three hydrogen atoms and one carbon atom — to another substance.) It can use a variety of methyl donors, but the four most important components are methionine (an amino acid) and the B vitamins: methylfolate (B-9), B-12, and B-6.

Unfortunately, modern grain- and meat-based diets are very poor sources of methylfolate and other B vitamins. Food companies often try to compensate for the loss of natural folate by adding folic acid to their products, but it’s not an adequate substitute. What’s more, people who over-consume processed foods tend to develop gastrointestinal problems and lose the ability to produce a substance called intrinsic factor, which is essential for absorption of vitamin B-12.

Genetics also play a role in methylation proficiency. About 50% of the population carries a mutated gene (MTHFR) for an enzyme called 5-MTHF reductase. This gene is necessary to convert homocysteine (an amino acid most abundant in meat) into methionine, an amino acid that’s essential for the methylation process. About 40% of the population carries one MTHFR mutation, and 12% of the population carries a double mutation.

Having MTHFR mutations, however, may be less of a factor in chronic illness than some experts suggest. The evidence linking concerns such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and Parkinson’s disease to the presence of a mutated 5-MTHF reductase gene is mild at best. Scientific investigations have shown only a very slight increased incidence of chronic illnesses in affected individuals.

That’s because this genetic pathway is only one of a variety methylation pathways. The human body would never rely on a single option for a function like methylation which is so essential for life. In addition, for most of history, humans consumed large amounts of plant matter that provided all the components necessary for methylation (methionine, B-9, B-12, and B-6). It’s only in recent history, as our diet has become more plant- and nutrient-deficient, that this particular genetic methylation pathway has become “essential.”

How to know when it’s time to test

People often ask which symptoms indicate they should get tested for poor methylation, but there are no pure telltale signs. My answer is, if you have classic symptoms of chronic illness such as fibromyalgia or ME/CFS, and you eat a lot of processed foods and very few vegetables, it’s pretty safe to assume have poor methylation.

The biggest reason to have the test is to determine whether you have a double mutation, in which case supplementation with natural folates may be valuable. Determining whether you have a MTHFR mutation requires a simple blood test that costs about $150.

Checking for elevations of homocysteine in your blood can tell you the degree of the problem: The higher your homocysteine levels, the lower the formation of methylfolate for making methionine, if methylation mutations are present. More than anything else, elevations of homocysteine indicate over-reliance on grains and meat as a food source.

6 ways to support proper methylation

Maintaining proper levels of methylation is important for health, but it must be part of a more comprehensive strategy. Again, nothing can balance the damage that comes from eating a nutrient-poor diet, living in a toxic environment, allowing stress to get the best of you, and sitting all day. Follow the simple steps below to help ensure optimal methylation, and whether or not you carry a MTHFR mutation will become a non-issue:

1. Eat your veggies.


Focus especially on dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach and kale, as well as asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, and peas and beans (preferably sprouted). A healthy, plant-based diet containing these foods is the number one way to ensure you take in plenty of methylfolate, one of the primary methyl donors.

2. Get plenty of B vitamins.


Folate is a B vitamin, but vitamins B6 and B12 can be important methyl donors, too. You’ll find them in salmon, eggs, nuts and seeds, plus bananas, avocados, and soy.

3. Look for active forms of B-vitamin methyl donors.


If you take daily vitamin and mineral supplements to support your health, check ingredient lists to be sure they contain bioactive forms of the B vitamin methyl donors, which means they’re in a form your body can actually use. Here’s what they’ll look like on the label:

  • Folate (active forms: 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate or l-Methylfolate) Note that folic acid found in most multivitamin products is not satisfactory. It is not absorbed and utilized in the body properly, especially if you have a MTHFR mutation. This is particularly true if you are pregnant, in which case supplement with methylfolate, instead of folic acid, and consume plenty of leafy greens.
  • B6 (active form: Pyridoxal 5-Phosphate)
  • B12 (active forms: Methylcobalamin or Hydroxocobalamin)

4. Supplement with glutathione, if needed.


Glutathione is an essential antioxidant and another methyl donor, and it’s important for a myriad of processes in the body. Supplementing isn’t as necessary for young, healthy people, but chronic illness and aging put extra pressure on the body, so extra glutathione can be beneficial. Taking SAMe is another way to support the methylation process, but again, it’s unnecessary for young, healthy people, or if you’re getting adequate bioavailable B vitamins.

5. Consider restorative herbs.


Opt for herbs that support your immune system, microbiome and other functions such as andrographis, Japanese knotweed, milk thistle and sarsaparilla. “Any of the restorative herbs will help counteract a wide spectrum of stress factors in the body, and therefore help take pressure off of detoxification and healing systems,” Dr. Rawls says. “Cordyceps and reishi are also good examples, because they support immune system functions.”

6. Stay active, manage stress, and cut back on alcohol.


It’s common sense that living a healthy lifestyle helps keep everything in your body running smoothly. But research has started connecting the dots between lifestyle factors such as sedentary behavior, stress, and toxins such as alcohol with changes in DNA methylation.

Proper methylation impacts so many health systems of the body, and the simple steps outlined above can help support and enhance the process — MTHFR gene mutation or not. Enjoy your favorite produce, take steps to stay active and keep stress in check, and supplement with the right nutrients and herbs, and you’ll be paving a path toward a long, healthy, vibrant life.

References
1. Richardson, B. “DNA methylation and autoimmune disease.” Clinical Immunology 2003 Oct;109(1):72-9
2. de Vega, WC et. al. “DNA Methylation Modifications Associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.” PLoS One 2014; 9(8): e104757.
3. Sokratous, M. et. al. “Deciphering the role of DNA methylation in multiple sclerosis: emerging issues.” Autoimmunity Highlights. December 2016, 7:12
4. Varela-Rey, M. et. al. “Alcohol, DNA methylation, and cancer.” Alcohol Research. 2013;35(1):25-35.
5. Phillips, T. “The Role of Methylation in Gene Expression.” Nature Education 1(1):116
6. Jones, MJ et. al. “DNA methylation and healthy human aging.” Aging Cell. (2015) 14, pp 924-932
7. Jones, Meaghan J. et. al. “DNA methylation and healthy human aging.” Aging Cell (2015) 14, pp 924-932
8. De Vocht, F. et al. “DNA methylation from birth to late adolescence and development of multiple-risk behaviours.” Journal of Affective Disorders. 2018 Feb; 227: 588–594.

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/23/altered-dna-methylation-mental-illness-lyme-msids/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/09/3-part-series-on-genetic-mutations/

 

 

Category:

Activism, Detoxing, diet and nutrition, Genetic Mutations, Gut Health, Herbs, Inflammation, Lyme, Supplements, Testing

Risky Business: Linking T. gondii & Entrepreneurship Behaviors

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/285/1883/20180822

Risky business: linking Toxoplasma gondii infection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries

Stefanie K. Johnson, Markus A. Fitza, Daniel A. Lerner, Dana M. Calhoun, Marissa A. Beldon, Elsa T. Chan, Pieter T. J. Johnson
Published 25 July 2018.DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0822

Abstract

Disciplines such as business and economics often rely on the assumption of rationality when explaining complex human behaviours. However, growing evidence suggests that behaviour may concurrently be influenced by infectious microorganisms. The protozoan Toxoplasma gondii infects an estimated 2 billion people worldwide and has been linked to behavioural alterations in humans and other vertebrates. Here we integrate primary data from college students and business professionals with national-level information on cultural attitudes towards business to test the hypothesis that T. gondii infection influences individual- as well as societal-scale entrepreneurship activities. Using a saliva-based assay, we found that students (n = 1495) who tested IgG positive for T. gondii exposure were 1.4× more likely to major in business and 1.7× more likely to have an emphasis in ‘management and entrepreneurship’ over other business-related emphases. Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, T. gondii-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (n = 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on T. gondii infection from the past 25 years with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of entrepreneurial activity, we found that infection prevalence was a consistent, positive predictor of entrepreneurial activity and intentions at the national scale, regardless of whether previously identified economic covariates were included. Nations with higher infection also had a lower fraction of respondents citing ‘fear of failure’ in inhibiting new business ventures. While correlational, these results highlight the linkage between parasitic infection and complex human behaviours, including those relevant to business, entrepreneurship and economic productivity.

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**Comment**

I’ve always been fascinated with parasites.  Call me crazy – maybe I have them….

The take home here is that parasites can affect behavior.  This is important for Lyme/MSIDS patients to know as a tick’s gut is a literal garbage can full of bizarre and complex creatures that feast on the human body, wreaking all manner of havoc.

In Lyme circles, it won’t take long before you hear patients stating that they aren’t feeling well and then within the same breath, state it’s due to a full-moon.

For a number of reasons, Lyme/MSIDS patients can be coinfected with T. gondii.  While food, congenital, blood transfusions, and organ transplants are the common route of transmission, sexual transmission is theorized.  Also, people can get it from cleaning a cat’s litterbox and then not washing their hands well.  If you go to the following link, you will read of a case of a person with Lyme and Toxoplasmosis:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/05/21/toxoplasmosis/  This article will also reveal T. gondii is responsible for about 1/5 of schizophrenia cases.  Women carrying IgG antibodies when giving birth have a greater risk for self-harm.  The article also gives testing and treatment options.  

It’s a common parasite:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/20/brazil-569-confirmed-cases-of-toxoplasmosis-of-which-50-are-pregnant-women/

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 dysfunctional immune system.

This article has a lot of great info regarding parasites:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/03/removing-parasites-to-fix-lyme-chronic-illnesses-dr-jay-davidson/

as well as this one:  http://drallisonhofmann.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/TownsendLetter-Parasitosis.pdf

Please consider parasites and discuss with your medical practitioner.

Category:

Lyme, Parasites, Psychological Aspects, research, Testing, Ticks, Toxoplasmosis, Transmission, Treatment

What the Mystery of the Tick-Borne Meat Allergy Could Reveal

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/magazine/what-the-mystery-of-the-tick-borne-meat-allergy-could-reveal.html

What the Mystery of the Tick-Borne Meat Allergy Could Reveal

Unraveling why tick bites are suddenly causing a strange reaction in some people who eat meat could help scientists better understand how all allergies work.

By Moises Velasquez-Manoff

One spring evening in 2016, Lee Niegelsky’s underarm began to itch. An investment manager, he was doing housework around his condo, and he thought he’d been bitten by a chigger. But within 15 minutes, hives had erupted all over his body. He responded with what he calls a “typical man reaction” — if the hives didn’t clear up by the next day, he would have them checked. Fifteen minutes later, the itch had become unbearable. He needed help right away.

His wife wasn’t home, so he drove himself to the university hospital emergency room near where he lived in Chapel Hill, N.C. As he explained his symptoms at the check-in counter, he began to feel faint, then fell to one knee. An orderly offered a wheelchair. He sat down — and promptly lost consciousness.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

I find it interesting that no one is mentioning the fact ticks have been tweaked in a lab for biowarfare purposes.  

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/07/hantavirus-tularemia-warnings-issued-in-san-diego-county/  Tularemia, brucella, certain Rickettsia’s, numerous viruses, some chlamydia’s, and of course mycoplasma have all been weaponized.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/08/12/connecting-dots-mycoplasma/

http://www.immed.org/infectious%20disease%20reports/InfectDiseaseReport06.11.09update/PHA_Nicolson_0709_v4.07.pdf

“According to Dr. Nicolson, some of the experiments used Mycoplasma while others utilized various “cocktails of microbial agents” such as Mycoplasma, Brucella, and DNA viruses such as Parvovirus B19. This project later become the topic of a book by Dr. Nicolson entitled Project Day Lily.

Dr. Nicolson believes that Mycoplasma fermentans is a naturally occurring microbe. However, some of the strains that exist today have been weaponized. Dr. Nicolson’s research found unusual genes in M. fermentans incognitus that were consistent with a weaponized form of the organism. Weaponzing of an organism is done in an attempt to make a germ more pathogenic, immunosuppressive, resistant to heat and dryness, and to increase its survival rate such that the germ could be used in various types of weapons. Genes which were part of the HIV‐1 envelope gene were found in these Mycoplasma. This means that the infection may not give someone HIV, but that it may result in some of the debilitating symptoms of the HIV disease.”

Regarding the weaponization of tick pathogens:  https://www.lymedisease.org/lymepolicywonk-questioning-governments-role-lyme-disease-make-conspiracy-theorist/  (Go here to read excerpts of an interview with a biologist who acknowledged doing biowarfare work on ticks and mosquitoes.  He admits every time he has a strange illness his physician says it’s probably a rickettsia – an idiopathic condition that never tests positive but symptoms indicate it.)

‘The interview suggests to me that the reason we have such a large problem with our tick population today may be related to military experiments in the 50s. They were part of a biological warfare effort against the Russians. One goal was to figure out how to get ticks to reproduce quickly and abundantly, as well as how to distribute ticks to targeted areas.”

For a lengthy but informative read on the Lyme-Biowarfare connections:  CitizensAlert_Bob13  (Scroll to page 44 to see an executive summary.  Please notice the names of Steere, Barbour, Shapiro, Klempner, and Wormser, the first four are affiliated with the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS).  Wormser, lead author of the fraudulent Lyme treatment guidelines, lectures as an expert on biowarefare agents and treatments).  The author of the pdf believes borrelia (Lyme) has been bioweaponized due to (excerpt from pdf footnote):

226 An article was put out by the Associated Press mentioning the study of Lyme disease at a new biowarfare lab at the University of Texas, San Antonio. The article was quickly retracted and mention of Lyme disease was scrubbed from the article. Here is the text of the original article: “A new research lab for bioterrorism opened Monday at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The $10.6 million Margaret Batts Tobin Laboratory Building will provide a 22,000-square-foot facility to study such diseases as anthrax, tularemia, cholera, lyme disease, desert valley fever and other parasitic and fungal diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified these diseases as potential bioterrorism agents.” MSNBC, 11/21/2005. For a comparison of the censored and uncensored articles, see: http://members.iconn.net/~marlae/lyme/featurearticle02.htm

So you tell me.  Could all this lab tweaking have something to do with tick borne illness and allergies?

Category:

Activism, Alpha Gal Meat Allergy, Malaria, Parasites, research, Testing, Ticks

Tickborne Diseases – Confronting a Growing Threat

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1807870

Tickborne Diseases — Confronting a Growing Threat

Catharine I. Paules, M.D., Hilary D. Marston, M.D., M.P.H., Marshall E. Bloom, M.D., and Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

July 25, 2018, at NEJM.org.

Every spring, public health officials prepare for an upsurge in vectorborne diseases. As mosquito-borne illnesses have notoriously surged in the Americas, the U.S. incidence of tickborne infections has risen insidiously, triggering heightened attention from clinicians and researchers.

nejmp1807870_f1

Common Ticks Associated with Lyme Disease in North America.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of reported cases of tickborne disease has more than doubled over the past 13 years.1 Bacteria cause most tickborne diseases in the United States, and Lyme disease accounts for 82% of reported cases, although other bacteria (including Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Rickettsia rickettsii) and parasites (such as Babesia microti) also cause substantial morbidity and mortality. In 1982, Willy Burgdorfer, a microbiologist at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, identified the causative organism of Lyme disease, a spirochete eponymously named Borrelia burgdorferi. B. burgdorferi (which causes disease in North America and Europe) and B. afzelii and B. garinii (found in Europe and Asia) are the most common agents of Lyme disease. The recently identified B. mayonii has been described as a cause of Lyme disease in the upper midwestern United States. Spirochetes that cause Lyme disease are carried by hard-bodied ticks (see graphic), notably Ixodes scapularis in the northeastern United States, I. pacificus in western states, I. ricinus in Europe, and I. persulcatus in eastern Europe and Asia. B. miyamotoi, a borrelia spirochete found in Europe, North America, and Asia, more closely related to the agents of tickborne relapsing fever, is also transmitted by I. scapularis and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of febrile illness occurring after a tick bite.

Patterns of spirochete enzootic transmission are geographically influenced and involve both small-mammal reservoir hosts, such as white-footed mice, and larger animals, such as white-tailed deer, which are critical for adult tick feeding. The rising incidence and expanding distribution of Lyme disease in the United States are probably multifactorial, but increased density and range of the tick vectors play a key role. The geographic range of I. scapularis is apparently increasing: by 2015, it had been detected in nearly 50% more U.S counties than in 1996.

Lyme disease’s clinical manifestations range from relatively mild, nonspecific findings and classic erythema migrans rash in early disease to more severe manifestations, including neurologic disease and carditis (often with heart block) in early disseminated disease, and arthritis, which may occur many months after infection (late disease). Although most cases are successfully treated with antibiotics, 10 to 20% of patients report lingering symptoms after receiving appropriate therapy.2 Despite more than four decades of research, gaps remain in our understanding of Lyme disease pathogenesis, particularly its role in these less well-defined, post-treatment symptoms.

Meanwhile, tickborne viral infections are also on the rise and could cause serious illness and death.1 One example is Powassan virus (POWV), the only known North American tickborne encephalitis-causing flavivirus.3 POWV was recognized as a human pathogen in 1958 after being isolated from the brain of a child who died of encephalitis in Powassan, Ontario. People infected with POWV often have a febrile illness that can be followed by progressive and severe neurologic manifestations, resulting in death in 10 to 15% of cases and long-term sequelae in 50 to 70% of survivors.3 An antigenically similar virus, POWV lineage II, or deer tick virus, was discovered in New England in 1997. Both POWV subtypes are linked to human disease, but their distinct enzootic cycles may affect their likelihood of causing such disease. Lineage II seems to be maintained in an enzootic cycle between I. scapularis and white-footed mice — which may portend increased human transmission, because I. scapularis is the primary vector of other serious pathogens, including B. burgdorferi. Whereas only 20 U.S. cases of POWV infection were reported before 2006,3 99 were reported between 2006 and 2016. Other tickborne encephalitis flaviviruses cause thousands of cases of neuroinvasive illness in Europe and Asia each year, despite the availability of effective vaccines in those regions. The increase in POWV cases coupled with the apparent expansion of the I. scapularis range highlight the need for increased attention to this emerging virus.

The public health burden of tickborne pathogens is considerably underestimated. For example, the CDC reports approximately 30,000 cases of Lyme disease per year but estimates that the true incidence is 10 times that number.1 Multiple factors contribute to this discrepancy, including limitations in surveillance and reporting systems and constraints imposed by available diagnostics, which rely heavily on serologic assays.4 Diagnostic utility is affected by variability among laboratories, timing of specimen collection, suboptimal sensitivity during early infection, imperfect use of diagnostics (particularly in persons with low probability of disease), inability of a single test to identify coinfections in patients with acute infection, and the cumbersome nature of some assays. Current diagnostics also have difficulty distinguishing acute from past infection — a serious challenge in diseases characterized by nonspecific clinical findings. Moreover, tests may remain positive even after resolution of infection, leading to diagnostic uncertainty during subsequent unrelated illnesses. For less common tickborne pathogens such as POWV, serologic testing can be performed only in specialized laboratories, and currently available tests fail to identify novel tickborne organisms.
Such limitations have led researchers to explore new technologies. For example, one of the multiplex serologic platforms that have been developed can detect antibodies to more than 170,000 distinct epitopes, allowing researchers to distinguish eight tickborne pathogens.4 In addition to its utility in screening simultaneously for multiple pathogens, this assay offers enhanced pathogen detection, particularly in specimens collected during early disease. Further studies are needed to determine such assays’ applicability in clinical practice.

Nonserologic platform technologies may also improve diagnostic capabilities, particularly in identifying emerging pathogens. Two previously unknown tickborne RNA viruses, Heartland virus and Bourbon virus, were discovered by researchers using next-generation sequencing to help link organisms with sets of unexplained clinical symptoms. The development and widespread implementation of next-generation diagnostics will be critical to understanding the driving factors behind epidemiologic trends and the full clinical scope of tickborne disease. In addition, sensitive, specific and, where possible, point-of-care assays will facilitate appropriate clinical care for infected persons, guide long-term preventive efforts, and aid in testing of new therapeutics and vaccines.

In the United States, prevention and management of tickborne diseases include measures to reduce tick exposure, such as avoiding or controlling the vector itself, plus prompt, evidence-based treatment of infections. Although effective therapies are available for common tickborne bacteria and parasites, there are none for tickborne viruses such as POWV.

The biggest gap, however, is in vaccines: there are no licensed vaccines for humans targeting any U.S. tickborne pathogen. One vaccine that was previously marketed to prevent Lyme disease, LYMErix, generated an immune response against the OspA lipoprotein of B. burgdorferi, and antibodies consumed by the tick during a blood meal targeted the spirochete in the vector.5 Nonetheless, the manufacturer withdrew LYMErix from the market for a combination of reasons, including falling sales, liability concerns, and reports suggesting it might be linked to autoimmune arthritis, although studies supported the vaccine’s safety. Similar concerns will probably affect development of other Lyme disease vaccines.5

Historically, infectious-disease vaccines have targeted specific pathogens, but another strategy would be to target the vector.5 This approach could reduce transmission of multiple pathogens simultaneously by exploiting a common variable, such as vector salivary components. Phase 1 clinical trials are under way to evaluate mosquito salivary-protein–based vaccines in healthy volunteers living in areas where most mosquito-borne diseases are not endemic. Since tick saliva also contains proteins conserved among various tick species, this approach is being explored for multiple tickborne diseases.5

The burden of tickborne diseases seems likely to continue to grow substantially. Prevention and management are hampered by suboptimal diagnostics, lack of treatment options for emerging viruses, and a paucity of vaccines. If public health and biomedical research professionals accelerate their efforts to address this threat, we may be able to fill these gaps. Meanwhile, clinicians should advise patients to use insect repellent and wear long pants when walking in the woods or tending their gardens — and check themselves for ticks when they are done.
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**Comment**

While this article repeats much of the same verbiage that’s been repeated for years, particularly the vaccine push, they are ignoring the following:

  1. Many TBI’s are congenitally transmitted:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/19/33-years-of-documentation-of-maternal-child-transmission-of-lyme-disease-and-congenital-lyme-borreliosis-a-review/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/24/congenital-transmission-of-lyme-myth-or-reality/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/26/transplacental-transmission-fetal-damage-with-lyme-disease/
  2. There is a real probability of sexual transmission:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/06/lyme-in-the-southern-hemisphere-sexual-transmission/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/02/24/pcos-lyme-my-story/
  3. While they mention Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, Rickettsia, and Babesia, there are many other players that are hardly getting a byline.  For a list to date:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/01/one-tick-bite-could-put-you-at-risk-for-at-least-6-different-diseases/.  This is an important issue because to date the medical world is looking at this complex illness as a one pathogen one drug illness when nothing could be further from the truth.  No one has done any research on the complexity of being infected with more than one pathogen.  It will reveal the CDC’s guidelines of 21 days of doxy to be utter stupidity.
  4. Also, worth mentioning is that only a few of these are reportable illnesses so there is absolutely no data on how prevalent any of this is.  Surveillance is a real problem.
  5. Regarding what ticks are where….this ancient verbiage needs to change.  Ticks are moving everywhere.  This is on record in numerous places:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/16/ticks-that-carry-lyme-disease-are-spreading-fast/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/10/we-have-no-idea-how-bad-the-us-tick-problem-is/, https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/22/citizen-scientists-help-track-tick-borne-illness-exposure/
  6. No tick is a good tick.  They all need blood meals and have the potential to transmit disease.  
  7. This article is silent about the Asian Longhorned tick that propagates itself by cloning and can drain cattle of their blood.  Found in six states so far it was recently found on a child in New Jersey:  https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2018/07/24/bergen-county-nj-child-may-first-carrying-longhorned-tick-us/825744002/.  Word in the tick world is it had NOT bitten the child and tested negative for pathogens.  What is concerning is that it is known to transmit SFTS virus and Japanese spotted fever in Asia. This story is a reminder that this tick is NOT just a livestock problem and that a normal child going about a normal day with NO contact with livestock had this tick on her.  Another clear reminder that it is foolish to put any of this in a box.
  8. They need to emphasize that the “classic erythema migrans rash” while indicative of Lyme, is unseen or variable in many patients.
  9. Constraints in testing is a true problem but an even bigger problem is untrained and uneducated medical professionals.  This stuff may never test clearly.  Get over it.  Get trained to know what to look for!
  10. The Lyme vaccine was a bust.  It still is.  Unless safety concerns are dealt with we want nothing to do with any vaccine.
  11. All I know is that mosquitoes and Zika get more attention that this modern day 21st century plague that is creeping everywhere and is a true pandemic.  It still isn’t being seriously dealt with or researched.  What research is being done is same – o – same -o stuff we already know.  Study the tough stuff – the unanswered questions or things that are just repeated as a mantra for decades.
We need answers out here not repeated gibberish that isn’t helping patients.
Afterthought:

The one thing I didn’t deal with that I will point out now is this regurgitated number in the NEJM article of 10-20% of patients moving on to chronic/persistent Lyme. The following informative article written by Lorraine Johnson points out this number to be considerably higher which corresponds to my experience as a patient advocate: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/22/lyme-costs-may-exceed-75-billion-per-year/. Excerpt below:

Besides the staggering financial cost to this 21st century plague, this paper, based on estimates of treatment failure rates associated with early and late Lyme, estimates that 35-50% of those who contract Lyme will develop persistent or chronic disease.

Let that sink in.

And in the Hopkins study found 63% developed late/chronic Lyme symptoms.

For some time I’ve been rankled by the repeated CDC statement that only 10-20% of patents go on to develop chronic symptoms. This mantra in turn is then repeated by everyone else.

While still an estimate, I’d say 35 to over 60% is a tad higher than 10-20%, wouldn’t you? It also better reflects the patient group I deal with on a daily basis. I can tell you this – it’s a far greater number than imagined and is only going to worsen.

 

 

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Lyme, Lyme Vaccine, Parasites, Testing, Ticks, Treatment, vaccines, Viruses

Citizen Scientists Help Track Tick Borne Illness Exposure

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180712141710.htm

Who got bit? By mailing in 16,000 ticks, citizen scientists help track disease exposures

Study offers new insight into potential exposure to tick-borne diseases

Date:  July 12, 2018
Source:  Colorado State University
Summary:
A bite from a disease-carrying tick can transmit a serious, potentially fatal infection, such as Lyme disease. But many ticks go unnoticed and unreported. Now, with the help of citizen scientists, ecologists are offering better insight into people’s and animals’ potential exposure to tick-borne diseases — not just the disease reporting and prevalence that’s only tracked when people get sick.
Western black-legged ticks.
Credit: Ervic Aquino/California Department of Public Health

A bite from a disease-carrying tick can transmit a serious, potentially fatal infection, such as Lyme disease. But many ticks go unnoticed and unreported.

Now, with the help of citizen scientists, ecologists at Colorado State University and Northern Arizona University are offering better insight into people’s and animals’ potential exposure to tick-borne diseases — not just the disease reporting and prevalence tracking that only occur when people get sick.

The result is a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. The team was funded by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to informing the public about Lyme disease and finding a cure. Foundation officials urge people to take tick bites seriously, since early detection is key to treating most conditions.

The study’s lead authors are Daniel Salkeld, a research scientist in CSU’s Department of Biology, and longtime collaborator Nathan Nieto of Northern Arizona University.

“Our study may be a new way of understanding exposure to tick-borne diseases,” explained Salkeld, a disease ecologist. “Normally the approach is to rely on reported disease cases, or to look at ticks in natural habitats. Our data represent that in-between, middle ground: It shows when people or animals got bitten, and where, and what they got exposed to.”

Salkeld and Nieto’s study examined over 16,000 ticks sent in by citizen scientists from 49 states (all but Alaska) and Puerto Rico. Nearly 90 percent of the ticks were reported to have been removed from either humans or dogs. The researchers tested for several bacteria, including those that cause Lyme disease and babesiosis. One of the pathogens they tested for, Borrelia miyamotoi, was discovered relatively recently, and is not typically tracked by public health officials.

In their data, the researchers found 83 counties, in 24 states, where ticks carrying disease-causing bacteria had never been previously documented. The scientists’ original goal was to collect about 2,000 ticks, and they expected most to come from California’s San Francisco Bay Area. The nationwide response to their experiment underscores the public’s intense interest in better understanding tick diseases.

“The overwhelming participation from residents throughout the country and the surprising number of counties impacted demonstrates that a great need exists throughout the country for this information,” said Nieto, who led the diagnostic testing of each tick received in the mail. “This study offers a unique and very valuable perspective, as it looks at risk to humans that goes beyond the physician-reported infection rates and involved ticks that were found on or near people.“

The researchers stress that citizen science data has limitations; some of their findings may be tied to human error, or lack of access to information. For example, the citizen scientists reported where they lived, and where the ticks were found, but not where they had traveled recently.

Tick scientists like Salkeld and Nieto can typically collect around 100 ticks for a localized study. Inviting citizen scientists to send in ticks opened up a whole new way of seeing how such ticks are distributed, and their activity patterns. Approaches like this could lead to new insights such as how diseases spread, and new human pathogens yet to be discovered.

“For example, we could start to look at what species of ticks are active, when, and where,” Salkeld said. “And how does this differ from across the north or south, or the Midwest to California? There could be all kinds of subtle variations.”

Story Source:

Materials provided by Colorado State University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

  1. Nathan C. Nieto, W. Tanner Porter, Julie C. Wachara, Thomas J. Lowrey, Luke Martin, Peter J. Motyka, Daniel J. Salkeld. Using citizen science to describe the prevalence and distribution of tick bite and exposure to tick-borne diseases in the United States. PLOS ONE, 2018; 13 (7): e0199644 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199644
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Related article:
  • ticks in places they weren’t supposed to be
  • ticks are born carrying disease and do not require a blood meal to pick it up 
  • ALL life stages of common ticks (deer, Western black-legged, and lone star) carry the bacteria that cases Lyme disease
  • they found Babesia in 26 counties across 10 states which
  • isn’t even a reportable illness to the public health department  
  • all of this blows holes in commonly held doctrine 

Canada is also making use of citizen scientists for the tick borne illness problem:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/10/canadian-citizen-scientists-helping-with-tick-surveillance/

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Babesia, Borrelia Miyamotoi (Relapsing Fever Group), Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks