Archive for the ‘Treatment’ Category

Returning to Nature Helped Heal This Lyme Survivor

https://www.lymedisease.org/returning-to-nature-after-lyme/

Returning to nature helped heal this Lyme survivor

By Fred Diamond

When I was researching my book Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know, I had no idea how traumatizing being out in nature could be for some persistent Lyme disease survivors. Even seeing a deer on the side of the road could be triggering.

But I met some people who have attributed embracing the nature they once loved as helpful in healing while still maintaining tick prevention habits.

One such person, marine scientist Alayna Bellquist, discussed on my Love, Hope, Lyme podcast how she was able to reduce her Lyme anxieties and challenges by fully embracing her love for the sea and horseback riding as critical to her recovery.

“I’m a classic Lyme person in that I was very overachieving, very people-pleasing, very go, go, go. I live in San Diego, had a relatively frantic life (before being infected),” she said.

Although she was bitten by tick in Southern California, she said she was not tick aware growing up.

“I grew up on Vancouver Island where no one ever spoke about Lyme. I had no tick awareness until I moved to Southern California, and it came up a bit more,” she said.

She said she was bitten when riding her horse, noticed the infection, and immediately sought antibiotic treatment, which mildly helped. In 2020, her symptoms increased, and she became bedridden for a year. Although she tried a lot of conventional and alternative healing methods, and did mental and emotional work, it was getting back into the nature she loved that accelerated her healing.

“Fearing nature is understandable when you have Lyme, but I think that mindset is dangerous. I want chronic Lyme survivors to know that getting back into nature can be helpful, while, of course, ensuring you take proper precautions,” she advised.

Missing nature was brutal, but led to healing

“Before I got sick, horseback riding was a big part of my identity. I was a marine scientist and a horseback rider. Every minute I wasn’t working, I wanted to be on the back of a horse. I’ve been nature and animal oriented my whole life,” she said. “There was no limit to how much time I could spend around them.”

She said becoming bedridden and not being out in nature was brutal.

“Having had worked in fisheries for 20 years, I learned that nature always heals, given the chance. Nature is inherently resilient and heals from devastation that you cannot even grasp. These are principles that people are not really taught,” she said.

“Growing up in Vancouver Island, there’s nature everywhere and we are a part of it. I learned that if certain species, such as white sharks, can be in such terrible shape for a long time and then recover, that principle can apply to me, too.”

She said since the bond with nature was so intrinsic to her, she did not realize how fearful of it Lyme survivors might be.

“There is a lot in science to back the healing properties of doing that, especially for your nervous system,” she said.

“My nervous system was 100% fried when I was bitten. I was running all of time and had chronic anxiety and a racing heart. My stomach was always in knots. I also had Babesia, but sitting on the earth, calming my nerves, taking the time to look at the stars healed me. I know it’s so basic, but I never looked at the stars before,” she said.

“Being back in nature, while at the same time ensuring that I am preventing another tick bite, has been the most important to my recovery,” she said.

Getting back into nature healed her

“If you want to bring a species back from depleted numbers, you work on the ecosystem. You work on the things that depleted its resiliency. If there’s pollution or problems in the food chain or warming oceans, for instance, those are the things that you address so that the species can flourish,” she said.

“I asked myself, ‘What are the things that are attacking my ability to heal?’ People-pleasing, never saying no, running 12 to 14-hour days nonstop, perfectionism came to mind. Those are my pollution and overfishing and ocean warming. That was the connection I made. Those are the things that made me incapable of healing,” she realized.

Alayna said although she accepted that she was infected, she didn’t accept it as a lifelong diagnosis. Returning to nature helped with her emotions and mindset.

“I’ve chosen, through a lot of work, to shift from victim to ownership. I radically own what happened to me. Wanting to be a people-pleaser and an overachiever is on me. That’s radical acceptance and responsibility,” she surmised.

“But in owning it, it’s up to me how the direction this goes. I don’t want to lose control. I want control of the next 40, 50 years of my life and returning to nature helped me realize that,” she summarized.

She also advised bringing family members into the healing process.

“You can be there simply by answering the phone, going and doing something in a Lyme friendly way. If all your Lyme family member can do is sit on a rock, go sit on a rock together.”

Click here to listen to all episodes of the Love, Hope, Lyme Podcast or on YouTube.

Fred Diamond is based in Fairfax, Virginia and can be contacted via Facebook. His book, “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know” is available on Amazon. The e-version of the book is always free to Lyme survivors. PM Fred on Facebook for your copy.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks, Treatment

Podcast: Advancements in Babesia Research

https://www.globallymealliance.org/videos/the-lyme-insider-podcast-a-conversation-with-dr.-choukri-ben-mamoun-and-gla-cso-dr.-tim-sellati?

The Lyme Insider Podcast: Advancements In GLA Funded Babesia Research And Clinical Implications

by Admin at Global Lyme Alliance on April 3, 2024

http://  Approx. 1.5 hours

Advancements in Babesia Resarch and Clinical Implications

Lyme Insider

Episode 1

Host Dr. Tom Moorcroft, DO, joins GLA-funded researcher Dr. Choukri Ben Mamoun and GLA Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Tim Sellati on the Lyme Insider Podcast. Together they unpack the recent GLA-funded study led by Dr. Mamoun, “Tafenoquine-Atovaquone Combination Achieves Radical Cure and Confers Sterile Immunity in Experimental Models of Human Babesiosis.”

The conversation navigates key findings, such as the promising outcomes of combination therapy in Babesia treatment and the potential for enduring immunity. They discuss nuances between tick-borne infections and the challenges of translating research into clinical applications, emphasizing the imperative for further research on dosing strategies and therapeutic indexes for Babesia treatment.

You won’t want to miss this conversation, as it highlights the implications for patient care and the evolving landscape of infectious disease management.

Key Takeaways:

  • Combination therapy with tafenoquine and atovaquone has shown promising results in the treatment of Babesia infection.
  • Immunocompromised mouse models are valuable tools for studying the efficacy of different treatments.
  • Understanding the differences between tick-borne infections is crucial for accurate diagnosis and treatment.
  • Further research is needed to determine optimal dosing and the therapeutic index of different drugs for Babesia treatment.
  • Recrudescence and treatment failure are important considerations in Babesia treatment.
  • Combination therapy can reduce the probability of resistance in parasites.
  • Dormant parasites may be responsible for relapse in Babesia infections.
  • The terminology used in scientific research may differ from the general public’s understanding.
  • Factors like sleep, stress, and nutrition can contribute to immunocompromised states.
  • Diagnostic testing for Babesia needs improvement to reduce false negatives and false positives.
  • The ultimate goal is to help patients get better by finding the right diagnosis and treatment.
  • There is a need for collaboration between clinicians, researchers, and patients to advance the understanding and treatment of tick-borne infections.

Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and Overview 03:00 The Study and Key Findings 06:35 Understanding the Research and Clinical Implications 11:56 The Importance of Animal Models 14:43 Immunocompromised Mouse Models 23:22 Differences Between Tick-borne Infections 26:34 Combination Therapy: Tafenoquine and Atovaquone 32:26 Dosing and Therapeutic Index 36:48 Artemisinin as a Treatment Option 46:20 Recrudescence and Treatment Failure 48:23 Combination Therapy and Resistance 50:24 Dormant Parasites and Relapse 53:18 Terminology and Immunocompromised 56:15 Immune Dysregulation and Cold Exposure 59:14 Diagnostic Testing for Babesia 01:03:22 Improving Diagnostic Testing 01:12:12 The Goal of Helping Patients 01:20:22 Caring and Finding the Truth

Link to the paper we discussed: Tafenoquine-Atovaquone Combination Achieves Radical Cure and Confers Sterile Immunity in Experimental Models of Human Babesiosis – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38169… 

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Category:

Babesia, research, Treatment

COVID Clots or ‘Vaccine’ Clots? That is the Question

http://  Approx. 7 Min

COVID Clots

Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson

Apr 8, 2024

For whatever reason, America’s health officials haven’t seemed publicly interested in answering a crucial question: How many illnesses and deaths can be attributed to COVID versus the vaccines or some combination?

Today, we look at shocking and graphic evidence that independent researchers are trying to make sense of, in the absence of helpful guidance from the usual authorities: a mysterious fibrous material being discovered in the veins and arteries of the dead.

A caution: some of the images in our report are graphic. 

______________

**Comment**

This information has been reported on for literally years, yet crickets from mainstream media, medicine, government and public health.

They simply don’t care.

Embalmer Steve Hirschman has been reporting on these mysterious, fibrous white clots for some time.  He’s finding them in every age group. He also states they are not made of blood like standard “blood” clots.  He has been accused of being unethical by sharing what he’s seeing.

Every single other embalmer he has had contact with is finding the same thing.

Since no governmental agency is following up on this, Former Airforce Major Tom Havalind has started to document and quantify these cases. Through a survey, he has asked over 200 embalmers what they are seeing, if they are seeing these clots, when they started seeing them, where on the body, and what percentage have them.

  • 73% of embalmers responded that they are seeing this type of clot
  • about 1 in 5 corpses have these clots in 2023
  • none reported seeing these clots prior to the ‘pandemic’ or the beginning of mass ‘vaccination’ with the COVID gene therapy
Havalind submitted his results to the FDA but he’s heard nothing back.

The FDA; however, did respond back to Full Measure with the following trite statement:

The FDA and the CDC place a high priority on vaccine safety and are committed to our vaccine safety monitoring program. The FDA has not identified any safety signals for fibrous blood clots with COVID-19 vaccines.

True to form the FDA wiggled out of responsibility by stating that since the observations were made on cadavers, it falls outside their purview.  

The top video is an excerpt from the following full program:

http://  Approx. 23 Min

COVID Concerns

Apr 8, 2024

In recent days, Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert announced she had emergency surgery for a blood clot and was diagnosed with an iliac vein problem called May-Thurner syndrome. Though it’s impossible to know the root cause, we’ve been reporting on a notable uptick in this very disorder, as reported by independent physicians treating thousands of patients. It’s one of many illnesses they say could be caused by, or worsened by, COVID or COVID vaccines.

One estimate from a NIH study implies up to one in four adults may be afflicted with long-term problems.

Today, the latest on what cutting-edge doctors are learning. 

Full Measure is a weekly Sunday news program focusing on investigative, original and accountability reporting. The host is Sharyl Attkisson, five-time Emmy Award winner and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting. She is backed by a team of award winning journalists. 

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Category:

Activism, Treatment, vaccines, Viruses

Congress’ Lip Service Against ‘Pandemic’ Treaty & WHO Focused on Profitable Disease X

http://

4/2/23

Senate Resolution 81 and ‘No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act’ Rots in Committee

Congress is simply doing lip-service in protecting the public from global tyrants while the Biden Administration is all in to have our rights taken away.

Without intervention, we hand over our rights to the WHO to do the following:

  • Define the next pandemic
  • Determine lockdowns
  • Surveillance power
  • Determine treatments
  • Vaccine Mandates
  • Vaccine distribution
  • Vaccine IP and profits
  • Redistribution of …..everything – all resources.

The Louisiana Senate has passed legislation (SB 133) to make the state independent from directives and mandates that originate from international institutions including the WHO, UN, and WEF.  It states that the WHO, UN, and WEF shall have no jurisdiction or power within the state of Louisiana.  No rule, regulation, fee, tax, policy, or mandate of any kind of the WHO, UN, and the WEF shall be enforced or implemented by the state of Louisiana or any agency, department, board, commission, political subdivision, governmental entity of the state, parish, municipality, or any other political entity.  It now needs to be passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law by the governor.

The anti-commandeering doctrine, under the U.S. Constitution’s Tenth Amendment, holds that the federal government cannot commandeer state and local resources for its own purposes, it follows that international bodies would not be able to either.

“We have watched a horror story unfold in front of us as time has shown that the ‘recommendations’ and coercive regulations from outside organizations such as the WHO have harmed hundreds of thousands of Americans who took a vaccine that they were told was safe and effective. Now, we are witnessing severe, long-term side effects and countless deaths because the ‘experts’ were wrong.” ~ Louisiana State Senator Valarie Hodges

The video also reviews history of how internal documents show the corrupt WHO paid sexual abuse victims in the Congo $250 each to cover up their crimes.

https://brownstone.org/articles/pandemics-a-business-opportunity/

Pandemics: A Business Opportunity

BY    APRIL 2, 2024 
 

Relax for a few minutes, sit back, and pretend morals and business ethics are redundant. Then imagine an infallible, risk-free business scheme in which you get to create the market, decide the product, manage its regulation, then have the power to confine people to their homes or remove their income until they submit to buying it. And no one can sue you or take you to court if it all goes wrong.

No legitimate government would allow that within its borders (except perhaps a few family-run or completely totalitarian ones), so aim higher and make this international, as it then ceases to be fantasy. All this is being negotiated within the WHO pandemic documents to be agreed by your government in two months’ time.

So, imagine:

  • Your organization will be a public-private partnership, so using taxpayer money but guided by the private sector.
  • You spin a story that a series of plagues are about to engulf humanity, exponentially increasing in frequency and severity (your partners own the media, so don’t be troubled by reality).
  • Then use public money to set up a surveillance network guaranteed to find virus variants (i.e. go and find nature, you can’t miss it).
  • Governments have agreed ahead of time to give you power to control healthcare policy when you decide these variants pose a threat (not harm, just a threat). They have agreed that this includes border closures, restrictions on daily life of their citizens, and of course mandated vaccination (in return for them ‘getting freedom back’).
  • Then transfer these virus variants to laboratories and pharmaceutical companies of your choice (your friends and supporters, who will in return give your organization some money).
  • The pharmaceutical companies are ready: They have been receiving free billions from taxpayers annually under the same scheme, to keep their production lines ready to profit from the market you are about to create.
  • Your Pharma-investor sponsors also sponsor disease modelers willing to produce the most fantastic death figures to shore up public compliance. They do this.
  • You then use your powers to impose these lockdowns and insist that a 100-day vaccine must be rushed out to save hapless humanity and allow a return to an “inter-pandemic” period.
  • Once your chosen companies rush out the vaccine, you get to control the regulatory bit (more money changes hands), bypassing pesky safety trials and those interminable ethics reviews.
  • All the while, you can note any dissenting opinions that may reduce your market size; your governmental partners having already agreed to deal with them.
  • Once you have the profit flowing, you get to decide when the profiteering can stop (think “respiratory virus vaccine” and more sponsored modeling – rapid waning of efficacy so lots of boosters to keep humanity safe).
  • All the while, you have ensured freedom from liability for your pharma partners and your own regulatory process.
  • You, of course, have no liability either – you are above any national jurisdiction. You don’t even have to pay tax to anyone!

(See link for article)

________________

**Comment**

I highly recommend reading, “For Some, There is Not Enough Infectious Disease in the World – So They Want to Pay You to Be Infected.”

Within this article you will learn of the egregious violations of human rights that have occurred historically in medical research.  Many state Lyme disease falls into this category as well.

COVID is a perfect example of how these experiments have shaped current ethic standards – or lack there of.  

“They serve as a grim reminder of what can occur when ethical considerations are sidelined for the sake of scientific inquiry or under the guise of political and racial ideologies…..these best practices appear to have all but been forgotten by Vaccine Manufacturers and Public Health.” ~ James Lyons Weiler

In short, a recent Guardian article spotlights Australia’s the Doherty Clinical Trials (DCT), a new facility dedicated to human challenge trials designed to expedite the understanding of diseases and the development of vaccines and treatments by intentionally exposing consenting participants to infectious agents or pathogens in a controlled environment.

The trials, which focus on a variety of diseases, from influenza to malaria and gonorrhea, involve compensating volunteers, typically young adults and travelers, for their participation – demonstrating enticement to consent and potential long-term health impacts.

The article points out glaring problems:

  • lab leaks
  • generation of more virulent or resistant strains of pathogens
  • the rapid deployment and approval of dangerous gene therapy injections falsely labeled as ‘vaccines’
  • the deliberate exploitation of socioeconomic vulnerabilities through financial enticement on populations already marginalized by the healthcare system 
  • risk of long-term chronic illnesses due to the long-term impacts of pathogen exposure – known as pathogenic priming
  • repeated exposures to infection and then injection will likely cause autoimmunity as history has shown

Weiler calls for a ban on human challenge trials which is rooted in the principle of “first, do no harm,” a cornerstone of medical ethics that appears to be all but forgotten.

Category:

Activism, Treatment, vaccines, Viruses

LSU Obtains Grant to Synthesize Affordable Nootkatone

https://www.lsu.edu/eng/news/2024/03/che-nsf-pfi-grant-lyme-disease.php

Chemical Engineering, Biological Sciences Faculty Receive Largest NSF PFI Grant Ever Awarded to LSU

Mike Benton, Kerry Dooley, Roger Laine
Nootkatone Studies Could Lead to Prevention of Lyme Disease

March 25, 2024

BATON ROUGE, LA – Thanks to a $550,000 National Science Foundation Partnership for Innovation grant—the largest NSF PFI grant ever awarded to LSU—LSU Chemical Engineering (ChE) Professor Kerry Dooley, LSU ChE Department Chair and Professor Mike Benton, and LSU Department of Biological Sciences (Biol. Sci.) Professor Roger Laine will continue their work on a project that could bring affordable and effective insect repellent to the masses, possibly decreasing the number of Lyme disease, malaria, and West Nile virus cases around the world.

The project involves the use of nootkatone, an FDA-approved organic compound found in grapefruit skin and Alaska yellow cedar trees that is a natural deterrent for many insects, including the deer tick responsible for Lyme disease. The LSU researchers propose decreasing the cost of the nootkatone synthesis, making any products made with the compound affordable to the general public.

“The family of compounds that make up nootkatone is already proven to be both safer and more effective than existing commercial repellents,” principal investigator Dooley said. “However, it’s now too expensive for consumer insect repellents. We plan to greatly streamline, optimize, and reduce the costs associated with the synthesis.”

According to Laine, there have been few insect repellents on the market since DEET, which is found in most insect repellent sprays and creams currently available. However, a mosquito test showed that nootkatone at 5% in rubbing alcohol was superior to DEET, which usually needs to be administered at greater than 20% concentration, even six hours after application.

Years ago, Laine discovered the efficacy of nootkatone as an insect repellent while collaborating with retired LSU AgCenter Entomologist Gregg Henderson in Laine’s lab. They found that nootkatone repelled insects like mosquitos, gnats, wood ticks, fleas, termites, lice, and fire ants because the insects weren’t eating the vetivone grass that, unbeknownst to them, contained nootkatone. Former LSU Biol. Sci. Senior Research Associate Betty Zhu tested 15 other compounds that resembled the structure of the vetivone and discovered that nootkatone was the best repellent compound. Nootkatone had already been approved by the FDA at the time, with the CDC later discovering that it also repels deer ticks.

Though nootkatone was found to be the best repellent, the problem was the cost to buy it in pure form.

“Nootkatone costs $2,500/kg, which is too costly for insect repellent,” Laine said. “It should be $200-$300/kg, then you can add it to lotions and sunscreens.”

Dooley discovered that one important way to save on the cost would be to modify a step in the eight-step synthesis of nootkatone.

“I did a cost analysis of the synthesis process, and 70% of the cost is concentrated in the fourth step of the eight-step process,” Dooley said. “I decided this step in particular could be significantly reduced in cost.”

The eight-step synthesis was created in just two years by former LSU Chemistry Graduate Student Anne Sauer, who was working under retired professor William Crowe as a collaboration with Laine and Henderson. To simplify two oxidation steps in the eight-step synthesis, which is patented by LSU, Laine subsequently obtained a Board of Regents seed grant and hired synthetic chemist Xuefeng Gao to successfully modify the synthesis using ozone, now covered by new U.S. and Japanese LSU patents authored by Laine.

In the fourth step, the original paper and patent uses potassium hydride and 18-Crown-6 ether, along with tetrahydrofuran, as a solvent. Dooley read up on how people were trying to execute this step without using these expensive components and thought he and Benton should come up with a catalyst and solvent that could significantly reduce the cost of this step.

“It’s incredibly complicated and it takes a long, sustained effort to go from making a few grams of something to making kilograms or kilotons,” Dooley said. “There’s a lot of work on optimizing separations, minimizing the solvent use, getting certain impurities down, and getting yields slightly up. These things take a lot of time and effort.”

The LSU research team hopes to sell their synthesis process to a manufacturing company, who would then be able to mass produce affordable nootkatone products that could save people’s lives by preventing bites from infectious insects.

A 2024 CDC report states that there were 62,551 Lyme disease cases in 2022. Recent estimates using new data collection methods suggest approximately 476,000 people may be diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the U.S.

“The deer tick is spreading throughout the U.S.,” Dooley said. “It’s not just prevalent in the Northeast.”

In other words, insects are going nowhere. A 2023 CDC report states there were 2,406 cases of West Nile virus across 43 states with the number of cases expected to increase in 2024. Per the World Health Organization, there were a reported 249 million cases of malaria worldwide last year.

“Sixty million people die of malaria each year,” Laine said. “It’s possible that if this eight-step synthesis process could produce nootkatone products that get to poorer countries, then WHO could possibly fund it. Mosquito nets could be covered with it, or they could have cloth ankle bands with nootkatone so ticks can’t crawl up your leg. The Department of Defense is also interested in ways to protect military personnel against tick-borne diseases. There are a lot of marketing niches with this.”

Contact: Libby Haydel
Communications Manager
225-578-4840
ehaydel1@lsu.edu

For more:

Category:

mosquitoes, Prevention, research, Ticks, Treatment