We will have a regular support group meeting this Saturday November 7 from 2:30-4:30. My LLMD recently attended the ILADS convention and I will be sharing some things he learned. Please bring your questions, successes, frustrations, and anything to add to the group. “A man of many counselors is wise.”
Hope to see you there!
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to Drs. Youyou Tu, William C. Campbell, and Satoshi Omura for their discoveries of Artemisinin and Avermectin, natural substances that treat parasitic diseases.
Campbell from Duke University and Omura of Kitasato University in Japan are sharing half of the $960,000 Nobel Prize award to develop Avermectin which has greatly reduced lymphatic filariasis which causes chronic swelling and “elephantiasis,” and river blindness – both caused by parasitic worms. The purified version was named Avermectin and was later developed into the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin which is used in both animals and humans to treat a variety of parasites.
Youyou Tu, a pharmacologist turned to traditional Chinese herbal medicine when chloroquine’s effectiveness was waning with malaria on the rise. She had to go back to the ancient literature to successfully extract the active component from Artemisia annua. Artemisinin is able to rapidly kill malaria parasites at an early stage of development and is highly effective in both animals and humans. When used in combination therapy, Artemisinin is estimated to reduce malaria deaths by more than 20 percent overall and more than 30 percent in children which amounts to more than 100,000 lives saved each year in Africa alone.
Dr. Klinghardt addresses parasitic infections first in his MISIDS patients by giving them wormwood (Artemisinin), phospholipids, vitamin C, and various herbs.
Also, eating raw garlic that has been smashed first to activate the beneficial properties and raw pumpkin seeds may also help. Maintaining a health GI is paramount and using fermented foods and taking high-quality pro and prebiotics may help to prevent and eradicate parasitic infections.
Carl Tuttle, a Lyme activist from New Hampshire, has written a letter to Dr. Klempner regarding the safety of the monoclonal antibody injection proposed to prevent Lyme Disease.
A nymph stage blacklegged tick
Scientists have found an illness similar to Lyme which is resistant to many antibiotics. The unnamed disease is carried by the bacteria Borrelia miyamotoi which has been found to be present in 3 out of 954 ticks in southern England. While there are no reports of illness in the UK, there have been 18 diagnoses in the United States in 2013.
There is concern that this unnamed illness could be mistaken for the flu or viruses as it causes relapsing fevers. If people do not receive prompt treatment symptoms become far more serious and pervasive.
Borrelia miyamotoi was identified 20 years ago in Japan but was not known to cause disease until 2011 when Durland Fish, Emeritus Professor at Yale School of Public Health said, “We stumbled across it at our laboratory in our colony of ticks. We reported it, but we could not get any funding. I happened to be at a conference in Cyprus where there were posters about an infection in Russia. I met the guy who was dealing with it and we exchanged notes.” He is hopeful a new antibiotic will be found for the disease.
Doctors have successfully treated the Borrelia miyamotoi illness with stronger varieties of antibiotics.
We will have a regular support group meeting on Saturday November 7 from 2:30-4:30. On Saturday November 21 from 2:30-4:30, Dr. Brown will be speaking on PANDAS, PANS, Autism, and MSIDS – please spread the word to family and friends.
Hope to see you there!
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 