Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Dr. David Baewer – Coppe Labs

Approx 1 hour:  Published on Jun 6, 2016
Dr. David Baewer, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of Coppe Laboratories, Waukesha, WI presents information about the relation of arboviruses to MSIDS (multi systemic infectious disease syndrome – or Lyme with friends) to the Madison Area Lyme Support Group

While there is no “standard” treatment for most viruses, please know there is much you can do to make your body a tough target:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/03/28/combating-viruses/

Coppe is collecting ticks for their research.  If you are interested in being a part of some excellent research, put your tick(s) in a baggie in the freezer and contact them at:
Coppe Laboratories
W229 N1870 Westwood Dr.
Waukesha, WI 53186
(262) 574-0701
(262) 574-0703
info@coppelabs.com
They will send you what you need to get them to the lab alive.

Coppe is a CLIA-certified lab that is the only lab besides the CDC who tests for Powassan Virus.  They also provide advanced testing for leukotropic herpesviruses: EBV, CMV, HHV-6A and HHV-6B, as well as tick-borne pathogens, and their tests distinguish between latent and active infections.  Their Lyme panel uses recombinant VlsE and OspC antigens to increase sensitivity as well as tests multiple strains of borrelia, the European species B. garinii, B. afzelii, and B. miyamotoi.  Testing recommended 4-6 weeks after initial tick bite.

For those of you who are new to this, please do not wait 4-6 weeks to be seen by a doctor if you are bitten by a tick.  Time is of the essence with MSIDS.  The longer you wait, the deeper the pathogens travel making treatment infinitely more difficult.  You have a few options – see your regular practitioner if you are certain they will treat you immediately.  Chances are very high you can nip this in the bud with doxycycline; however, the fear is if you have remaining symptoms.  Some practitioners will allow you a second round of doxy which may do the trick.  If not, and you have symptoms, do not mess around.  Get to an LLMD (Lyme Literate Doctor – someone trained by ILADS) immediately.  Remember, Lyme (borrelia) rarely travels alone.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

Also, be careful about feeling “safe” if a tick has not been attached for 24-48 hours.  This video, created by Lyme Action Network shows that transmission times have never been experimentally determined with humans.  All the transmission times have been determined using animal studies and transmission has occurred in under 16 hours.  They have no idea of the transmission times of the various co-infections; however, they estimate it only takes 15 minutes for transmission of Powassan Virus.   

Also worth noting:  I believe strongly it’s just a matter of time before science conclusively shows Lyme (borrelia) and various coinfections to be STD’s as well as passed congenitally and via breast milk:

Borrelia found in semen and vaginal secretions – with couples having the identical strain: Presented at the Western Regional Meeting of the American Federation for Medical Research, Carmel, CA, January 25, 2014. http://afmr.org/Western/.

http://www.lymerick.net/Transmission-Bb-contact.htm

Spirochete-like bacteria in vag smears

https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-basics/lyme-disease/children/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mothers-may-pass-lyme-disease-to-children-in-the-womb/

 

Category:

Uncategorized

The Coffee Enema

The MSIDS (multi systemic infectious disease syndrome – or Lyme with friends) patient learns fairly quickly that treatment includes killing pathogens, detoxifying, and supporting the body.  For a primer on what this entails, please read:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/12/06/tips-for-newbies/

There are a thousand ways to do all of these things and many are listed in the above article, but one that has much success is the coffee enema.  Unlike a standard enema, only 1-2 Cups of organic, cooled, coffee is used and held for approximately 15 minutes.  It’s purpose is also slightly different in that the coffee enema is absorbed into the enter-hepatic system which causes the liver ducts and bile ducts to empty toxins into the sigmoid colon. Also, the alkaloids in the caffeine stimulate production of glutathione-S-transferase, an enzyme that encourages detoxification.  And, unlike drinking the coffee, which has to travel through the digestive tract, the coffee enema remains in the sigmoid colon – so it’s safe for those sensitive to caffeine, but if you still feel the effects of being wired, reduce the coffee amount by half for a few days or weeks.  You can gradually increase as the body adjusts.

In the following video, Dr. Jay Davidson explains what he considers to be some missing links in standard coffee enema practice.  For one, he feels it important to do two enemas back to back.  He also recommends taking activated charcoal to bind with the toxins that are released by the enema.  He recommends taking a few tabs prior to and after the enema for best results.  He gives trusted brands as well as information on where to get supplies.  And lastly he recommends taking LB (Liver Gallbladder by Systemic Formulas) to soften the thick bile for a greater release.  He recommends taking this a week prior to taking the enema.

http://drjaydavidson.com/coffee-enema-missing-links/  This link goes into much more detail and has videos as well as sources.  Coffee enema info starts about 7 minutes into the video.  

Category:

Detoxing, Uncategorized

Tiny Tick Big Controversy ABC Special Report

  Published on Feb 4, 2016 WMDT-TV Channel 47 Documentary on Lyme.  Approx. 25 minutes

See local Lyme patients, hear interviews with specialists, as well as medical professionals who don’t necessarily believe in chronic Lyme disease. Emily Lampa, senior reporter for WMDT-TV, courageously took on this challenge and created the documentary, “Tiny Tick Big Controversy”.

The prevention of tick-borne illnesses is much more complicated than just avoiding ticks. One of the major reasons is that the diagnosis and treatment of the most common vector-borne infection, Lyme Disease, is still such a mystery and so often clouded by controversy.

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks, Uncategorized

Study Showing Results Testing Babesia Microti

Babesiosis in the blood supply is a big problem.  This study was to determine the effectiveness of Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA).  The study, in Transfusion, showed that (EIA) for B. microti had a specificity in a non endemic population of 99.93%.  It had a sensitivity of 91.1% among clinical babesiosis patients who are IFA-positive, and is said to work well and is cost effective.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/trf.13618/abstract  Levin, A. E., Williamson, P. C., Bloch, E. M., Clifford, J., Cyrus, S., Shaz, B. H., Kessler, D., Gorlin, J., Erwin, J. L., Krueger, N. X., Williams, G. V., Penezina, O., Telford, S. R., Branda, J. A., Krause, P. J., Wormser, G. P., Schotthoefer, A. M., Fritsche, T. R. and Busch, M. P. (2016), Serologic screening of United States blood donors for Babesia microti using an investigational enzyme immunoassay. Transfusion. doi: 10.1111/trf.13618
This project was supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health through SBIR Phase I and Phase II Contract HHSN268201000047C, and by Blood Systems Research Institute Contract 10734.

BACKGROUND
The tick-borne pathogen Babesia microti has become recognized as the leading infectious risk associated with blood transfusion in the United States, yet no Food and Drug Administration–licensed screening tests are currently available to mitigate this risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of an investigational enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for B. microti as a screening test applied to endemic and nonendemic blood donor populations.
STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS
The study aimed to test 20,000 blood donors from areas of the United States considered endemic for B. microti and 10,000 donors from a nonendemic area with the investigational B. microti EIA. Repeat-reactive samples were retested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), blood smear, immunofluorescent assay (IFA), and immunoblot assay. In parallel, serum samples from symptomatic patients with confirmed babesiosis were tested by EIA, IFA, and immunoblot assays.
RESULTS
A total of 38 of 13,757 (0.28%) of the donors from New York, 7 of 4583 (0.15%) from Minnesota, and 11 of 8363 (0.13%) from New Mexico were found repeat reactive by EIA. Nine of the 56 EIA repeat-reactive donors (eight from New York and one from Minnesota) were positive by PCR. The specificity of the assay in a nonendemic population was 99.93%. Among IFA-positive clinical babesiosis patients, the sensitivity of the assay was 91.1%.
CONCLUSION
The B. microti EIA detected PCR-positive, potentially infectious blood donors in an endemic population and exhibited high specificity among uninfected and unexposed individuals. The EIA promises to provide an effective tool for blood donor screening for B. microti in a format amenable to high-throughput and cost-effective screening.

Category:

Babesia, Uncategorized

Fry and Die

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-six-minute-plan-to-rid-clothes-of-ticks-1464635032

A study in the journal Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases, says just six minutes spinning dry clothes in a hot dryer should kill all ticks and reduce the risk of tick-related illnesses.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends washing tick-infested clothes and then drying them for one hour.

The recent research found that drying time can be significantly reduced if clothes aren’t washed first, as ticks are extremely sensitive to dryness.

“The researchers washed and dried hundreds of lab-raised blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) and immature nymphs, five at a time, in cloth bags in residential washers and dryers in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. Ticks and nymphs that survived washing were dried with wet towels at low and high heat. Control ticks were placed in containers at room temperature. In separate experiments, bugs were dried—without pre-washing—with dry towels at various temperatures.

The bugs survived cold-water washes, 94% survived warm-water washes, and 50% survived hot-water washes. Ticks that survived washing took 70 minutes to kill in dryers on low heat and 50 minutes at high heat. All control ticks survived for 24 hours.

By comparison, all ticks and nymphs dried with dry towels were killed in four to 11 minutes, depending on the temperature.

The researchers did include a caveat. The cloth bags that the ticks were washed and dried in may have protected the ticks from heat and dryness.”

While it might give all of us maniacal pleasure to “Fry and Dry” ticks, how about we collect them for researchers?

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/18/send-ticks-on-vacation/  You can send them to Arizona or to Coppe Lab in Wisconsin:

Coppe Laboratories
W229 N1870 Westwood Dr.
Waukesha, WI 53186

(262) 574-0701
(262) 574-0703
info@coppelabs.com

If you want to send them to Coppe, put the tick in a zip lock baggie and stick in your freezer.  Contact the lab and they will send you what you need to get them to the lab alive.

While this may not seem as fun you can relish the fact the researchers have to squish all the stomach contents out and spin them in a centrifuge or something – so they will still suffer.

For more info about how ticks survive extreme cold, see:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/20/polar-vorticks/

Category:

Ticks, Uncategorized