Archive for the ‘Treatment’ Category

MTHFR & Lyme

https://www.treatlyme.net/guide/mthfr-and-detoxification-a-lyme-byte

MTHFR detoxification in Lyme disease by Marty Ross MD image

updated 6/26/20

Marty Ross MD on MTHFR & Lyme

In this video article, Marty Ross MD discusses MTHFR detoxification genetic defect in Lyme disease. Watch the video to learn:

  • what the MTHFR genetic defect is,
  • how MTHFR defect can interfere with detoxification,
  • why it is not always necessary to correct for this defect,
  • how the gut microbiome can fix this problem even if you have a genetic defect,
  • when to take supplements to correct this problem.
(See link for article and video)
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https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/13/folate-you-perfect-together/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/01/methylation-what-you-need-to-know/

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/

https://suzycohen.com/articles/methylation-problems/  Pharmacist Suzy Cohen states 100’s of diseases are the result of methylation problems, including Lyme, chronic viral infections, schizophrenia, Dementia/Alzheimer’s, addictive behavior, insomnia, cancer, and more. (Wonderful 1 minute video explaining methylation in link)

While methylation problems do not directly cause Lyme (it is caused by a pleomorphic bacteria called borrelia) it causes severe symptoms due to the inability to clear infections & their by-products, as well as repairing the damage they cause.

If you are extremely sensitive to medicine you probably have a methylation problem.

 

Category:

Detoxing, Gut Health, Supplements, Treatment

Everything You Want to Know About Zinc

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/topics/zinc?

By Dr. Rhonda Patrick

Background

Zinc is an essential nutrient that participates in numerous biological processes and modulates the activity of more than 300 enzymes and 2,000 transcription factors.[1] First identified for its influence on growth and development, zinc is now understood to play critical roles in immune function, protein synthesis, wound healing, DNA synthesis, and cell division.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Great read on the importance of zinc.  The article goes on to discuss zinc’s role in the immune system which includes T cell regulation as well as its ability to destroy pathogens as well as inhibit RNA viruses.

Important excerpt:

One study in particular identified zinc as an inhibitor of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase – an enzyme that drives the replication of RNA from an RNA template – in the virus SARS-CoV-1. Zinc is a positively charged ion and cannot enter cells without a transporter. As described above, zinc requires an ionophore, a molecule that can transport ions across a lipid membrane. The zinc-ionophore (pyrithione) in combination with supplemental zinc inhibited RNA polymerase activity and blocked viral replication of SARS-CoV-1.[84]

Hydroxychlorquine is an ionophore, which is why the combination of zinc and HCQ is so effective for COVID-19:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/03/25/what-exactly-is-hydroxychloroquine-the-drug-that-is-being-tested-as-the-first-potential-coronavirus-treatment/

Please see Dr. Eric Berg‘s FB video explaining HCQ vs Remdesivir:  https://www.facebook.com/135796882846/posts/10158628517062847/?sfnsn=mo&d=n&vh=e

Zinc also helps control infections by preventing excess inflammation.

 

 

Category:

Inflammation, Supplements, Treatment, Viruses

NH Lyme Insurance Bill Heads To Governor

https://www.lymedisease.org/nh-lyme-insurance-bill/

TOUCHED BY LYME: New Hampshire Lyme insurance bill heads to governor

wendy thomas, New Hampshire

Wendy Thomas and five of her six adult children have all been diagnosed with Lyme disease and co-infections. So, she knows a thing or two about what families go through to obtain proper treatment for tick-borne illness. And about how difficult it can be to get insurance companies to pay for it.

Wendy Thomas is also a New Hampshire state lawmaker. She has authored a Lyme insurance coverage bill that has now passed both houses of the legislature.

She explained it to me like this in an email:

The idea for this bill originated when I asked local docs who treat Lyme disease what kinds of changes to laws would help them. In New Hampshire, because a previous rep was sick with Lyme disease, we are allowed to prescribe antibiotics for long-term (and it’s covered by insurance). However, insurance would only cover 18 rounds of IV antibiotic therapy even if a doc thinks more is needed. This bill changes that and allows the doc to prescribe as she feels necessary and the insurance will now cover it. 

Click here to read the text of the bill.

The measure now heads to the desk of Governor Chris Sununu. Will he sign it into law? That remains to be seen. Stay tuned.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s Vice-president and Director of Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.

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**Comment**

For those of you who are asking why Wisconsin doesn’t do something like this, please understand that an undertaking like this might drag on for years so it requires an unwavering tenacity and commitment.  Most of us are patients who can not handle a lot of stress.  Politics is stressful, and watchdogging bill language particularly so.

Those experienced in this type of work tell me that bill language can and often changes in the eleventh hour which can make things much, much worse not only for patients but especially for the doctors who are treating Lyme/MSIDS appropriately.  The last thing we need is for those committed doctors to have even more to contend with than they already do.

Ideally, conferring with treating doctors AND those with bill experience would ensure a bill of this nature wouldn’t go side-ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Treatment

Treatment with HCQ, Azithromycin, and Combination in Patients With COVID-19 Reduced In-Hospital Mortality

https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30534-8/fulltext

Treatment with Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, and Combination in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19

Henry Ford COVID-19 Task Force
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.06.099

Highlights

  • As of May27, 2020 there are over 1,678,843 confirmed cases of COVID-19 claiming more than 100,000 lives in the Unites States. Currently there is no known effective therapy or vaccine.
  • According to a protocol-based treatment algorithm, among hospitalized patients, use of hydroxychloroquine alone and in combination with azithromycin was associated with a significant reduction in-hospital mortality compared to not receiving hydroxychloroquine.
  • Findings of this observational study provide crucial data on experience with hydroxychloroquine therapy, providing necessary interim guidance for COVID-19 therapeutic practice.

Abstract

Significance

The United States is in an acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently there is no known effective therapy or vaccine for treatment of SARS-CoV-2, highlighting urgency around identifying effective therapies.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of hydroxychloroquine therapy alone and in combination with azithromycin in hospitalized patients positive for COVID-19.

Design

Multi-center retrospective observational study

Setting

The Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) in Southeast Michigan: large six hospital integrated health system; the largest of hospitals is an 802-bed quaternary academic teaching hospital in urban Detroit, Michigan.

Participants

Consecutive patients hospitalized with a COVID-related admission in the health system from March 10,2020 to May 2,2020 were included. Only the first admission was included for patients with multiple admissions. All patients evaluated were 18 years of age and older and were treated as inpatients for at least 48 hours unless expired within 24 hours.

Exposure

Receipt of hydroxychloroquine alone, hydroxychloroquine in combination with azithromycin, azithromycin alone, or neither.

Main Outcome

The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality.

Results

Of 2,541 patients, with a median total hospitalization time of 6 days (IQR: 4-10 days), median age was 64 years (IQR:53-76 years), 51% male, 56% African American, with median time to follow-up of 28.5 days (IQR:3-53). Overall in-hospital mortality was 18.1% (95% CI:16.6%-19.7%); by treatment: hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin, 157/783 (20.1% [95% CI: 17.3%-23.0%]), hydroxychloroquine alone, 162/1202 (13.5% [95% CI: 11.6%-15.5%]), azithromycin alone, 33/147 (22.4% [95% CI: 16.0%-30.1%]), and neither drug, 108/409 (26.4% [95% CI: 22.2%-31.0%])​.
Primary cause of mortality was respiratory failure (88%); no patient had documented torsades de pointes. From Cox regression modeling, predictors of mortality were age>65 years (HR:2.6 [95% CI:1.9-3.3]), white race (HR:1.7 [95% CI:1.4-2.1]), CKD (HR:1.7 [95%CI:1.4-2.1]), reduced O2 saturation level on admission (HR:1.5 [95%CI:1.1-2.1]), and ventilator use during admission (HR: 2.2 [95%CI:1.4-3.3]). Hydroxychloroquine provided a 66% hazard ratio reduction, and hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin 71% compared to neither treatment (p < 0.001).

Conclusions and Relevance

In this multi-hospital assessment, when controlling for COVID-19 risk factors, treatment with hydroxychloroquine alone and in combination with azithromycin was associated with reduction in COVID-19 associated mortality. Prospective trials are needed to examine this impact.
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Excerpt:
Dr. Meryl Nass has uncovered a hornet’s nest of government sponsored Hydroxychloroquine experiments that were designed to kill severely ill, Covid-19 hospitalized patients. On June 14th Dr. Nass first identified two Covid-19 experiments in which massive, high toxic doses – four times higher than safeof hydroxychloroquine were being given to severely ill hospitalized patients in intensive care units.

Regarding the anti-viral Remdesivir:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/02/remdesivir-for-covid-19-not-backed-by-results/

Excerpt: 

Remdesivir isn’t cheap.  In fact, this article states it costs $320 per vial and will be sold for $3,120 per 6 vial treatment:  https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/stunning-faucis-remdesivir-costs-9-per-dose-will-sold-3000-per-dose-china-company-linked-soros-will-also-mass-produce-drug/ That’s a lot of money for a drug that hasn’t even been shown to lower viral load.

Hydroxychloroquine in the other hand costs $1 per treatment, while chloroquine costs a measly 30 cents!  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/05/11/podcast-evidence-supporting-hcq-azithromycin-for-covid-19/

The article also points out an ugly conflict of interest web between Gilead, the manufacturer of Remdesivir and UNITAID which Soros, Gates, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, are large investors – with Drs. Fauci and Birx associated with the Clinton Health Access initiative.  And of course, Dr. Fauci has worked with Gilead for a long, long time. Government employees should not be allowed to have financial ties to manufacturing companies and then turn around and make public health policy.

 https://principia-scientific.org/a-tale-of-2-drugs-deep-state-chose-money-power-over-lives/

Excerpt:

Approximately $70 million in U.S. taxpayer funding began Gilead’s partnership with the U.S. Army, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop remdesivir. Initially for treating Ebola, it failed to show benefit and was shelved. If remdesivir is used to treat COVID-19, Gilead shareholders, not the taxpayers, will profit.

Category:

research, Treatment, Viruses

Case of Cerebral Vasculitis Due to Neurobartonellosis

https://nn.neurology.org/content/7/5/e791

September 2020; 7 (5) CLINICAL/SCIENTIFIC NOTESOPEN ACCESS

A case of cerebral vasculitis due to neurobartonellosis

Meryim Poursheykhi, Farhan Mithani, Tanu Garg, Christian Cajavilca, Siraya Jaijakul, Steve Fung, Richard Klucznik, Rajan Gadhia
First published June 4, 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/NXI.0000000000000791

We report a case of a 60-year-old right-handed woman with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hypothyroidism who presented with a three-week history of:

  • recurrent thunderclap headaches 
  • photophobia (aversion to light)
  • phonophobi (aversion to sound)
  • nausea
  • vomiting

She reported one brief episode of:

  • slurred speech
  • expressive aphasia (inability to understand and formulate language)
  • right facial droop
  • right hemiparesis suggestive of a TIA

Family history was remarkable for primary angiitis of the CNS (PACNS) in the mother. Neurologic examination was unremarkable. CT of the head was negative; CT angiography (CTA) of the head and neck suggested fibromuscular dysplasia in bilateral cervical internal carotid arteries and distal right vertebral artery. MRI of the brain showed no correlating abnormalities. A digital subtraction angiography (DSA) revealed multivessel intracranial medium and large vessel narrowing and fusiform dilatations, suggestive of reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS) vs vasculitis. Subsequent MR intracranial vessel wall imaging (IVWI) showed multifocal concentric vessel wall thickening and enhancement consistent with vasculitis (figure). Transcranial Doppler showed no evidence of elevated intracranial velocities. CSF studies were unremarkable with an opening pressure of 10 cm H2O, 2 white blood cells (normal 0–5/mm3), 2 red blood cells (normal 0–1/mm3), 58 mg/dL glucose (normal 40–70, serum glucose 87), 41 mg/dL protein (normal 15–45), normal Q-albumin ratio, normal IgG synthetic rate, and IgG index. Serum inflammatory and infectious studies had been negative thus far. Empiric high-dose IV steroids lead to complete symptom resolution.

Final infectious workup revealed strongly positive serum Bartonella IgM titer of 1:256 and negative IgG, consistent with her reported cat exposure.

She was started on an outpatient two-week course of doxycycline, rifampin, and oral steroids. Four weeks later, repeat vessel wall MRI and Bartonella serologies (IgM titer 1:80) showed improvement.

Figure
FigureVessel imaging

(A) Angiogram of the left internal carotid artery showing multifocal narrowing and fusiform dilatations (arrows) pretreatment. (B) Intracranial vessel wall MRI showing multifocal concentric vessel wall thickening and enhancement (arrows) pretreatment. (C) Intracranial vessel wall MRI showing reduction in vessel wall enhancement (arrows) posttreatment. (D) Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) head showing multifocal stenoses (arrows) pretreatment. (E) MRA head showing improvement of stenoses (arrows) posttreatment.

Discussion

We present an individual with symptoms initially concerning for RCVS vs vasculitis who was subsequently found to have secondary CNS vasculitis due to cat-scratch disease (CSD). To our knowledge, this is the first adult case of Bartonella henselae-associated CNS vasculitis, particularly without encephalopathy as the presenting symptom.

CSD typically presents with self-limited regional lymphadenopathy and fever.1 Neurologic complications are rare, occurring in 2% of cases with encephalopathy as the most common manifestation.2 Neuroretinitis, seizures, coma, myelopathies, and cranial and peripheral nerve involvement have also been reported. CNS vasculitis associated with CSD, however, has only been reported in 2 pediatric cases which presented with strokes.3,4

Diagnostically, identifying primary and secondary CNS vasculitis can be challenging both clinically and radiographically. No specific studies in serum or CSF are available for the diagnosis of CNS vasculitis. As in neurobartonellosis, CSF may be unremarkable or reveal nonspecific mild lymphocytic pleocytosis. Cerebral vasculopathies can present with similar luminal patterns, and therefore, imaging modalities such as DSA, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), and CTA provide nonspecific results leading to difficulties identifying and differentiating between common etiologies of intracranial disease including vasospasm, atherosclerosis, and inflammation. Although DSA remains the gold standard for vessel imaging, it is an invasive study that provides information limited to the vessel lumen. Conversely, IVWI allows direct visualization of the vessel wall by subtracting the signal of blood in the vessel lumen and has shown to improve diagnostic specificity.5 In CNS vasculitis, IVWI shows multifocal concentric vessel wall enhancement and thickening as seen in our patient. In RCVS, vessel wall thickening may be present but with minimal or no enhancement.5

At this time, there is no clear evidence-based treatment regimen or duration for neurologic manifestations of CSD including CNS vasculitis.1 We recommend concomitant treatment of the infection with antibiotics and secondary vasculitis with high-dose steroids. Our patient received a 2-week combination of doxycycline 100 mg and rifampin 300 mg twice daily per current expert opinion.6 In addition, we initiated 5 days of high-dose IV steroids, followed by a 1-week oral steroid taper. To avoid recurrent invasive testing, we repeated IVWI 4 weeks later for treatment monitoring and found significant reduction in vessel wall enhancement (figure).

Our case reiterates the importance of ruling out rare causes of CNS vasculitis including assessing animal exposure before diagnosing PACNS. Detection of the etiology of vasculitis is essential to guide treatment and for prognostication. Noninvasive imaging such as an IVWI provides valuable diagnostic information and can be useful in assessing the treatment response over time by minimizing the need for repeat invasive DSA.

Study funding

No targeted funding reported.

Disclosure

M. Poursheykhi, F. Mithani, T. Garg, C. Cajavilca, S. Jaijakul, S. Fung, R. Klucznik, and R. Gadhia report no disclosures. Go to Neurology.org/NN for full disclosures.

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Dr. Gadhia for his mentorship.

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**Comment**

Since Bartonella is a vascular disease, it follows that it will cause vasculitis pretty much anywhere in the body.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/01/05/bartonella-endocarditis-masquerading-as-systemic-vasculitis-with-rapidly-progressive-glomerulonephritis/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/24/human-bartonellosis-an-underappreciated-public-health-problem/

It also creates tumors, many neurological manifestations including PANS and other mental health issues.

The concern with their treatment is it wasn’t long enough and she could relapse, which is common.  Bartonella, in my opinion, is as bad if not worse than Lyme disease and together it’s a one, two punch – you are out.

Marna Ericson’s work has demonstrated it to survive right along side a PICC line with antibiotics being pumped directly into the body:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/27/advanced-imaging-found-bartonella-around-pic-line/  The subject is her son who has chronic bartonellosis.

 

 

 

Category:

Bartonella, research, Treatment