Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Statins Against Lyme

statin-drug-risks-2Picture taken from:  http://www.regenexx.com/statin-drugs-beat-up-nerve-cells/

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/310138.php  According to a new study co-authored by Janakiram Seshu, associate professor of biology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), statins can reduce borrelia in mice due to inhibiting an enzyme required for its cell wall.

It won’t completely eliminate LD, but it has the potential to reduce the numbers of new cases.  Seshu and his graduate students are now turning their efforts to understand how statins can be modified to affect the survival of borrelia.  Their hope is to reduce organisms which can block transmission to where LD doesn’t affect people significantly.

In our hope for a cure it appears we are quite willing to throw the baby out with the bath water – to our own demise.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/20/the-truth-about-statin-drugs-revealed.aspx  According to Mercola, statins deplete your body of CoQ10, impair the function of all sterols, including cholesterol and vitamin D, all your sex hormones, cortisone, and the dolichols which are needed to keep healthy membranes.  It is also classified as a Category X medication which means it can cause serious birth defects.  

Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors which block the enzyme in your liver responsible for making cholesterol.  There is currently over 900 studies proving adverse effects ranging from muscle problems to increased risk for cancer.  

Reported side effects:

Muscle problems including nerve damage and degeneration

Anemia

Acidosis

Sexual dysfunction

Immune depression

Cataracts

Pancreas or liver dysfunction

Memory Loss

On top of all of this, statins have been shown to increase the risk for diabetes.  And, by causing increased insulin resistance, there is chronic inflammation, the bedrock of most diseases, including heart disease which ironically is the primary reason many take statins in the first place.  Statins promote belly fat, high blood pressure, heart attacks, chronic fatigue, thyroid disruption, and diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.

They also injure adult stem cells in culture, the mitochondria of cells, and motor nerve cells.  http://www.regenexx.com/statin-drugs-beat-up-nerve-cells/

Most of these side effects are already experienced by the MSIDS patient (multi systemic infectious disease syndrome – or Lyme with friends).  Why on earth would we want to knowingly promote damage in our bodies?!

In this case, the poison is as bad as the disease.

I say, “Head back to the drawing board!”

Category:

Lyme, research, Uncategorized

Hope for Canada

canada_flag

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/lyme-disease-canada-conference-ottawa-1.3582872

A three-day conference in Ottawa with politicians, patients and scientists will attempt to determine a national framework for how Lyme Disease is dealt with in Canada.  So far patients have been excluded from discussions about how the disease should be handled, but this topic will be discussed at the conference.

Currently, many Canadians with Lyme Disease have to travel to the U.S. to get proper treatment.

For some excellent expert interviews with Dr. McShane, Dr. Horowitz, Dr. Donta, Dr. Chan, and Dr. Barthhold, go here:  http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/video-expert-interviews

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Uncategorized

May Meetings – Coppe Labs

Next Madison Lyme Support Group meeting: Regular meeting on May 14 from 2:30-4:30 as well as May 28 same time with Dr. David Baewer from Coppe Labs in Waukesha.

Baewer

Dr. David Baewer, Chief Medical Officer of Coppe Laboratories, will be speaking on May 28 from 2:30-4:30 at the Madison Lyme Support Group.

Baewer received his MD from the Medical College of Wisconsin where he had previously been awarded a PhD in cellular biology, neurobiology and anatomy.  His pathology studies were completed at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and a GI pathology fellowship was completed at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has lectured on the Role of Serology in Herpesvirus Infection and most recently on Arbovirus Infection as Proposed Etiology of Antibiotic Resistant Chronic Lyme Disease.

Baewer has co-authored a number of publications in peer reviewed journals, as well as a GI text book chapter. His most recent publications have looked at the role of HHV-6 in a post-transplant patient with myocarditis and a case of fulminant hepatic failure in an immunocompetent individual.

For the support group he will explain the role of arboviruses in tick-borne diseases, provide information on the Powassan/Deer Tick virus and how it affects the MSIDS patient, particularly how it  may explain lingering symptoms in patients, and will present Coppe’s TBI research.
Hope to see you all there!

Category:

Lyme, Meetings, research, Ticks, Uncategorized, Viruses

Leprosy Drug For Lyme?

https://www.lymedisease.org/touched-by-lyme-dapsone/

“In a preliminary clinical trial of 100 patients at his Hyde Park medical office, Horowitz gave Dapsone in combination with assorted other antibiotics. He found that patients reported significant improvement of ALL symptoms, except for headache. He told of one woman who, after being on Dapsone for five weeks, said this was the best she’d felt in 12 years. Her brain fog had cleared and her joint and muscle pain had diminished considerably.

However, Horowitz found that patients who stopped treatment after they began to feel better would relapse. This was true in leprosy as well. He says successful leprosy treatment uses a 12-month regimen of Dapsone and rifampin. He is now extending the protocol with his patients to see if 12 months is the right length of treatment for them as well.

Alas, Dapsone is not without a downside. It can cause serious side-effects, such as anemia, which must be closely monitored during treatment. Furthermore, Horowitz says, there are many unanswered questions about the use of persister drugs such as Dapsone to treat chronic Lyme, and much more research is needed.

You can read Dr. Horowitz’s published journal article about the Dapsone trial here.  http://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/the-use-of-dapsone-as-a-novel-persister-drug-in-the-treatment-of-chroniclyme-diseasepost-treatment-lyme-disease-syndrome-2155-9554-1000345.pdf

More about who should consider using Dapsone, and how best to minimize side-effects, will be included in his forthcoming book to be released at the end of 2016, ‘How Can I Get Better? An Action Plan for Treating Resistant Lyme and Chronic Disease.'”

 

 

Category:

Lyme, Treatment, Uncategorized

Lyme Disease Symptom Tracker

https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-disease-symptom-checklist/

For Lyme Disease Awareness Month, the good folks at LymeDisease.org have launched a new tool on their website—the Lyme disease symptom checker. The goal is to give patients a way to determine if Lyme disease is likely. This will give them the information they need to educate themselves and their physicians about the disease. After answering a series of diagnostic questions with our tool, patients can print out a checklist of symptoms for their physicians.

It’s a brief symptoms checklist that asks up front, “Do you have Lyme disease?” Then it has people check yes or no on various questions. As they check, a text box pops up with some detailed info.

What a wonderful interactive tool that educates at the same time as discovers the likelihood of a tick borne infection.

Take it today and share with others!

Category:

Uncategorized