Archive for the ‘Treatment’ Category

Caffeine More Dangerous Than Cannabis

 Approx. 2:30

According to Dr. David Bearman, in 1988 after a two rescheduling hearing, the DEA’s chief administrative law judge recommended rescheduling Cannabis to a schedule II substance.  He also said it was one of the safest therapeutic agents known to man & that it was safer than eating 10 potatoes.

According to two well-known addictionologists, Dr. Jack E. Henningfield (National Institute on Drug Abuse) and Dr. Neal L. Benowitz (University of California at San Francisco), Cannabis is less dangerous than caffeine.  http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax5.htm

 They ranked six psychoactive substances on the following five criteria:
  • Withdrawal — The severity of withdrawal symptoms produced by stopping the use of the drug.
  • Reinforcement — The drug’s tendency to induce users to take it again and again.
  • Tolerance — The user’s need to have ever-increasing doses to get the same effect.
  • Dependence — The difficulty in quitting, or staying off the drug, the number of users who eventually become dependent
  • Intoxication — The degree of intoxication produced by the drug in typical use.
The tables listed below show the rankings given for each of the drugs. Overall, their evaluations for the drugs are very consistent. It is notable that marijuana ranks below caffeine in most addictive criteria, while alcohol and tobacco are near the top of the scale in many areas.

 

The rating scale is from 1 to 6. 1 denotes the drug with the strongest addictive tendencies, while 6 denotes the drug with the least addictive tendencies.

HENNINGFIELD RATINGS

Substance   Withdrawal   Reinforcement   Tolerance   Dependence   Intoxication

Nicotine           3                         4                       2                     1                   5

Heroin             2                          2                       1                     2                  2

Cocaine          4                          1                       4                     3                   3

Alcohol           1                           3                       3                     4                  1

Caffeine          5                          6                       5                     5                  6

Marijuana      6                          5                        6                     6                 4

 

BENOWITZ RATINGS

Substance   Withdrawal   Reinforcement   Tolerance   Dependence   Intoxication

Nicotine             3*                       4                     4                        1                6

Heroin                2                        2                      2                        2               2

Cocaine              3*                      1                      1                        3               3

Alcohol               1                        3                      4                        4               1

Caffeine              4                        5                     3                         5               5

Marijuana          5                        6                     5                        6                4

*equal ratings

A neurobiologist shows the under explored potential of cannabis to address opioid addiction:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170202141322.htm

Excerpt:

For example, previous research shows that cannabinoids have a stronger effect on inflammation-based chronic pain, while opioids are particularly good at relieving acute pain. Problematically, opioids can quickly lead to a deadly addiction.

“If you look at both drugs and where their receptors are, opioids are much more dangerous in part because of the potential for overdose. The opioid receptors are very abundant in the brainstem area that regulates our respiration so they shut down the breathing center if opioid doses are high,” says Dr. Hurd. “Cannabinoids do not do that. They have a much wider window of therapeutic benefit without causing an overdose in adults. However, children have overdosed from consuming edible marijuana so that’s something to consider when making decisions regarding medical use.”

…..Accumulating evidence suggests that cannabinoids could have long-lasting therapeutic effects.

 

You may not be aware that medical cannabis is legal in 28 states and the District of Columbia, yet the DEA classifies cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance, the same category as heroin, yet there is no toxic or lethal overdose effects of cannabis.  No one has ever died from cannabis.

You may also be surprised to learn the United States Department of Health Services owns a patent on cannabis:  https://patents.google.com/patent/US6630507B1/en.

The Patent covers the use of cannabinoids for treating a wide range of diseases. Yet under U.S. federal law, cannabis is defined as having no medical use. The patent (US6630507) is titled “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants”. It was awarded to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in October 2003. It was filed in 1999, by a group of scientists from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), also part of the National Institutes of Health.

Even the U.S. government’s own NIH researchers concluded:  “Based on evidence currently available the Schedule 1 classification is not tenable; it is not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that information on safety is lacking.”  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358713/

For a video guide on the science of cannabis & opioid information: https://healer.com/cannabis-and-opioids-video-guide-the-science/

If you want to learn more on the medicinal uses of cannabis:

Airing FREE June 20-27, 2018 Register here: http://bit.ly/2sGRiuY The Sacred Plant: Healing Secrets Examined is a groundbreaking 7-part documentary series centered on the most powerful and potent healing plant on earth.

Category:

Activism, Herbs, Inflammation, Marijuana, Pain Management, Psychological Aspects, Treatment

In the Battle Against Lyme Disease, the Ticks Are Winning

https://www.lymedisease.org/ticks-winning-lyme-sci-am-pfeiffer/

Scientific American, June 11, 2018:

by Mary Beth Pfeiffer

In the space of two generations, the natural landscape in many American states has been slowly transformed from a place of refuge and peace to one of peril and menace.

Blacklegged ticks that transmit Lyme disease and other illnesses inhabit half of US counties, where they infect some 300,000 people yearly in grassy meadows, urban parks, backyards and many other places.

Although children are the most frequently diagnosed group and thousands of infected patients develop long-term infirmity every year, little has been done to curb the spread of ticks or to control the harm inflicted by the Lyme bacterium. Instead, the list of new and threatening tick species and illnesses grows. READ MORE:  https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/in-the-battle-against-lyme-disease-the-ticks-are-winning/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Testing, Ticks, Treatment

7-Part FREE Series About Medical Cannabis

https://two.thesacredplant.com/docuseries/ty-bollinger?utm_campaign=June2018&utm_medium=email&utm_source=TTAV&utm_content=TyBD2Lander&utm_term=int-aff&oprid=44683

Ty Bollinger: Season 2 – Healing Secrets Examined Docuseries

Airing FREE June 20-27, 2018.

Register here: http://bit.ly/2sKefgT

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What is The Sacred Plant? Cannabis sativa. Its natural and non-toxic healing powers have been used for 5,000+ years to prevent, treat, and even beat hundreds of medical conditions and disorders. Including Cancer, PTSD, Autism, Seizures, Dementia, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain, Anxiety, and hundreds more with no harmful side effects, which are common with pharmaceutical drugs.

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Category:

Activism, diet and nutrition, Herbs, Inflammation, Lyme, Pain Management, Psychological Aspects, research, Supplements, Treatment

First Longhorned Tick Confirmed in Arkansas

http://www.4029tv.com/article/first-longhorned-tick-confirmed-in-arkansas/21274301  (News Video here)

First Longhorned Tick confirmed in Arkansas

Adam Roberts, DMM   
Digital Media Manager

BENTON COUNTY, Ark. —The USDA confirmed the presence of the Longhorned Tick in Arkansas for the first time.

The tick came from a dog in Benton County, according to the Arkansas Agriculture Department.

The Longhorned Tick is an exotic East Asian tick associated with bacterial and viral disease of both humans and animals. The USDA considers it a serious threat to livestock.

The tick is also believed to cause diseases in humans, including severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome. That disease was described in a 2014 CDC dispatch as “a newly emerging infectious disease.”

“Multiorgan failure occurs in severe cases, and 6%-30% of case-patients die,” according to the dispatch.

The Longhorned Tick was first confirmed to be in the United States in November 2017, when a specimen was identified in New Jersey. It has also been found in Virginia and West Virginia.

Longhorned Ticks are very small and resemble tiny spiders. The Arkansas Agriculture Department warns they can easily go unnoticed on animals and people.

The department asks that animal owners, veterinarians and farmers notify the Arkansas Agriculture Department if they notice unusual ticks or ticks that occur in large numbers on a single animal.

______________

**Comment**

The spread of the “tick from hell” has begun.  The reason we need to take note of this particular tick:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/01/asian-ticks-mysteriously-turn-up-in-new-jersey/

 

  1. IT CLONES ITSELF & MULTIPLIES QUICKLY…..
  2. It can drain cattle of their blood:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/12/asian-tick-found-in-new-jersey-can-kill-cattle-by-draining-them-of-blood/
  3. It spreads SFTS (sever fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome), “an emerging hemorrhagic fever,” causing fever, fatigue, headache, nausea, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, disease of the lymph nodes, and conjunctival congestion, but the potential impact of this tick on tickborne illness is not yet known. In other parts of the world, this Longhorned tick, also called the East Asian or bush tick, has been associated with several tickborne diseases, such as spotted fever rickettsioses, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and Borrelia, the causative agent of Lyme Disease.
  4. A top ecologist wonders if infection by this tick has gone undetected in the past.
  5. There isn’t a systematic national method to look for invasive ticks.
  6. It’s quickly showing up in other states:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/26/tick-from-hell-now-sited-in-west-virginia/
  7. It survives cold temps:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/21/ticks-from-hell-survived-the-winter/  (Again, the spread infection has ZIPPO to do with climate change)

For a 2016 literature review on SFTS:  http://infectious-diseases-and-treatment.imedpub.com/research-advances-on-epidemiology-of-severefever-with-thrombocytopenia-syndrome-asystematic-review-of-the-literature.php?aid=17986

Although the clinical symptoms of SFTS and HGA are similar to each other, but the treatment methods of the two diseases are totally different. Doctors notice that the biggest difference between the clinical symptom of SFTS and HGA is that SFTS patients generally without skin rash, the dermorrhagia is also not seriously, and few massive hemorrhage cases were reported [23]. It is also reported that SFTS patients had gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which are rarely observed in HGA patients [2]. So these differences can be used as the auxiliary basis of differential diagnosis.

At present, there is still no specific vaccine or antiviral therapy for SFTSV infection. Supportive treatment, including plasma, platelet, granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF), recombinant human interleukin 11, and gamma globulin is the most essential part of case treatment [44]. Meanwhile, some measures were taken to maintain water, electrolyte balance and treat complications are also very important.

Ribavirin is reported to be effective for treating Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) infections and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, but it is still inadequate to judge the effect of ribavirin on SFTS patients because of the study limitation without adequate parameters were investigated [45]. Host immune responses play an important role in determining the severity and clinical outcome in patients with infection by SFTSV.

For Viral treatment options:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/28/combating-viruses/

 

Category:

Activism, Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme, Rickettsia, Ticks, Transmission, Treatment, Viruses

Two Cases of Babesia

Severe Babesia microti infection presenting as multiorgan failure in an immunocompetent host.

Ripoll JG, Rizvi MS, King RL, Daniels CE.
BMJ Case Reports, online first 2018 May 30.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2018-224647https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2018-224647

Abstract

A previously healthy 67-year-old farmer presented to an outside hospital after a 2-week history of non-specific respiratory symptoms. A certain diagnosis was not initially apparent, and the patient was discharged home on a regimen for presumed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation.

He re-presented to the emergency department with shock and hypoxaemic respiratory failure requiring prompt intubation and fluid resuscitation. He was then transferred to our institution due to multiorgan failure.

On arrival, the patient demonstrated refractory shock and worsening acute kidney injury, severe anaemia and thrombocytopaenia. The peripheral smear revealed absence of microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia. A closer review of the smear displayed red blood cell inclusion bodies consistent with babesiosis.

The patient was started on clindamycin and loaded with intravenous quinidine, and subsequently transitioned to oral quinine. A red cell exchange transfusion was pursued with improvement of the parasite load.

The patient was discharged home on clindamycin/quinine and scheduled for outpatient intermittent haemodialysis.

_______________

A Walk in the Park: A Case of Babesiosis in the South Bronx

Hajicharalambous C, Rattu M, Leuchten S.
Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine. 2018 Jan 11;2(1):61-63. eCollection 2018 Feb.

https://doi.org/10.5811/cpcem.2017.8.35924

Abstract

Babesiosis, mainly endemic within the Northeastern and upper Midwestern regions of the United States, is a zoonotic disease that invades and lyses red blood cells, which can result in hemolytic anemia. Its decreased incidence in comparison to Lyme disease is often attributed to the greater asymptomatic infection proportion and insufficient physician awareness or suspicion of this disease. Here we describe a case of undifferentiated febrile illness with hemolytic anemia that yielded the diagnosis of babesiosis.

__________________

**Comment**

What mainstream medicine as YET to acknowledge and learn is that Lyme patients are typically coinfected with a plethora of pathogens that all demand attention and treatment.  I find the statement in the second abstract telling:  “Its decreased incidence in comparison to Lyme disease is often attributed to the greater asymptomatic infection proportion and insufficient physician awareness or suspicion of the disease.”

What happens in treatment is symptoms disappear one by one only to be replaced by new ones that the patient never noticed before.  My husband and I both had Babesia but didn’t really know it until some of the Lyme symptoms began to abate with treatment.  I was told, and it certainly is true, that treating for tick borne illness is like peeling an onion layer by layer.  This was our exact experience.

Physicians desperately need education on all things TBI as throwing all the doxy in the world at this isn’t going to help many people.  Babesia is a cousin to malaria and requires anti-malarial drugs.  Babesia is also extremely persistent and Dr. Horowitz recommends 9 months to a year of solid treatment.  We treated with Mepron, Arthemisinin (Allergy Research Brand), and an intracellular for a year.  All Babesia symptoms are gone.

http://www.wildcondor.com/dr-horowitz-on-babesiosis.html Dr. Krause published in the New England Journal of Medicine that when a patient has Lyme and Babesia, Lyme is found three-times more frequently in the blood, proving Babesia suppresses the immune system. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/28/concurrent-babesiosis-and-lyme-in-patient/.  It also means you are sicker than a dog.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/16/babesia-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/31/widespread-babesiosis-in-canada/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/20/babesia-and-heart-issues/

 

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, research, Testing, Treatment