Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

More CDC Overreach – Quaranteened for a Cold

http://www.thevaccinereaction.org/2017/02/cdc-publishes-final-rule-on-quarantine-powers/  Article in full here by Dr. Mercola, guest writer

On the last day of the Obama administration, a final rule was issued by the CDC giving them expanded authority to quarantine for at least 72 hours a person entering the U.S. or even traveling between states who is suspected or at risk for cholera, plague, diphtheria, smallpox, yellow fever, infectious tuberculosis, viral hemorrhagic fevers, severe acute respiratory syndrome and influenza.  

The new rule also allows for federal surveillance of travelers for non-quarantinable diseases like measles, pertussis and meningococcal disease.  

Over 15,000 public comments were given expressing concern of governmental overreach, which the CDC denied but did serve to eliminate the part that people would be forced to submit to hospitalization, vaccination, and medical treatment, and that medical examination can only be done with informed consent.  

What symptoms could cause containment?

*fever

*headache

*cramps

*loose stools

*vomiting

*possibly rashes and coughing

Pilots and ship operators also need to report signs and symptoms of sick travelers to the CDC before arriving into the U.S.

Pilots need to report:

  1. Fever (100.4 F or greater), feels warm to the touch or gives history of feeling feverish and one of the following:

*Skin Rash

*Difficulty breathing

*Persistent cough

*Decreased consciousness or confusion

New unexplained bleeding or bruising

*Persistent diarrhea

*Persistent vomiting

*Headache with stiff neck

*Appearing unwell; OR

2.  Fever that has persisted more than 48 hours; OR

3.  Other symptoms in the Federal Register

Ship Operators are to report similar symptoms with the addition of:

Acute gastroenteritis defined as 3 or more episodes of diarrhea within 24 hours, and vomiting with one or more of the following:  1 or more episodes of diarrhea in a 24-hour period, abdominal cramps, headache, muscle aches or fever OR other symptoms in the Federal Register.

New regulations will not take effect until at least the end of March, 2017.

 

Category:

Activism, Uncategorized

Grant to Study How Bb Survives Hostile Environment

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-02/uota-upr020217.php

PUBLIC RELEASE: 2-FEB-2017
UTSA professor receives grant to study how Lyme disease survives in hosts

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO

Janakiram Seshu, associate professor of biology and associate dean of The Graduate School at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), has received a $404,250 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to support his research to better understand and prevent the spread of Lyme disease.

“Dr. Seshu’s top-tier efforts in infectious disease research are a source of immense pride for the UTSA College of Sciences,” said George Perry, Semmes Foundation Distinguished University Chair in Neurobiology and dean of the UTSA College of Sciences. “His work will undoubtedly have a great impact on our knowledge of Lyme disease, as well as our efforts to fight it.”

“As Lyme disease-carrying ticks increasingly spread to new areas of the country, we need to improve our understanding of the disease. Dr. Seshu’s bacteria research will help us limit Lyme disease’s spread and allow folks here in Texas and across the nation to live healthier lives,” said U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro. “Thanks to UTSA’s continued leadership, science thrives in San Antonio.”

Seshu, a member of the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, is best known by his peers for his inventive approach to stop the spread of Lyme disease. His work, described in a recent paper, leverages medication that is normally used to lower cholesterol.

“As a member of The South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (STCEID), Dr. Seshu’s work is always interesting and innovative. With Lyme disease-carrying ticks now present in over half the country, his research and findings will provide new insights in the treatment against the particular bacterium,” said Bernard Arulanandam, UTSA interim vice president for research.

The big question at the heart of Seshu’s research is how the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, called Borrelia burgdorferi, is able to adapt to its immediate environment inside the tick vector or infected mammalian hosts. Mammalian bodies are very rich in nutrients and fatty acids, which make it very easy for the bacteria to thrive. The tick’s body is very different. It’s very poor in nutrients. Yet the bacterium adapts very quickly and allows the disease to spread.

To limit the transmission of the disease, Seshu’s entire laboratory is focused on understanding how the Lyme disease-carrying bacterium can reinvent itself to live for so long in such a disagreeable environment.

“This award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease is an exciting investment to tackle a major debilitating disease in the US,” Seshu said. “I’m looking forward to advancing our understanding of this disease, so we can start finding better solutions.”

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Ticks, Uncategorized

Lyme Patients Denied Care & Insurance Coverage – no Codes

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-network-on-institutional-discrimination-lyme-disease-patients-denied-care-and-insurance-coverage-because-of-missing-diagnostic-codes-300403749.html

The World Health Organization (WHO) has over 68,000 diagnostic codes for illnesses, but Lyme symptoms aren’t listed, making Lyme patients invisible.

But, Jenna Luche-Thayer, Director of the Global Network on Institutional Discrimination, is hoping to change all that.  Thayer has requested a meeting with the WHO to modernize the Lyme Disease diagnostic codes.

Category:

Uncategorized

Lyme Disease Biobank

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-01/ts-nnl012317.php

PUBLIC RELEASE: 24-JAN-2017

New national Lyme Disease Biobank to accelerate research by making samples available

Qualified researchers now have one-stop access to patient samples from Long Island, San Francisco Bay Area, Martha’s Vineyard, and Marshfield, Wisc.

BAY AREA LYME FOUNDATION
Portola Valley, Calif., Jan. 24, 2017 – Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a national organization funding research to make Lyme disease easy to diagnose and simple to cure, announces the launch of the Lyme Disease Biobank, which is the first program to provide researchers with blood and urine samples from people with acute Lyme disease from multiple regions across the country, including the East Coast, West Coast and Upper Midwest.

“One of the biggest barriers to research is a lack of samples from people confirmed to have Lyme disease – our program aims to alleviate this,” said Liz Horn, PhD, MBI, principal investigator, Lyme Disease Biobank. “Our efforts will unlock a huge bottleneck and make it possible for more scientists to conduct desperately needed research in Lyme disease.”

The Lyme Disease Biobank will dramatically increase the volume of well-characterized samples to enable research efforts to accelerate medical breakthroughs in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease as well as co-infections. More than 95% of Lyme disease researchers (n=50) reported that they do not have access to the samples they need for their research, according to a 2016 survey conducted by Lyme Disease Biobank.

Because the bacterial strains which cause many tick-borne infections have been shown to vary from region to region, the Lyme Disease Biobank offers researchers the unique opportunity to explore potential new diagnostics against a range of bacterial strains. Samples from patients and healthy controls are currently available from East Hampton, New York, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and Marshfield, Wisc., and collections will soon become available from centers in the San Francisco Bay Area, Calif. Each sample undergoes several tests, including Serology (ELISA, Western Immunoblot IgM/IgG; C6 Peptide) and PCR, in order to confirm the diagnosis of Lyme disease and any co-infections (or for the controls, to rule out a diagnosis). Currently there are samples available from more than 250 individual participants.

Each application for samples from researchers undergoes a peer-review process by three members of the Lyme Disease Biobank reviewer pool, which consists of 39 scientists and clinicians each with specific expertise related to tick-borne illness. The Lyme Disease Biobank Board will use the recommendations of these experts and the Principal Investigator to determine allocation of samples. Approvals will be based on technical merit, potential to advance diagnostics, the likelihood of increasing understanding of Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections, and alignment with the Lyme Disease Biobank scientific goals and objectives. Nine investigators have thus far been approved to receive samples.

Lyme Disease Biobank is fully supported by Bay Area Lyme Foundation, which has received several substantial grants that help fund this effort. Bay Area Lyme Foundation’s financial commitment has included: investigations and research to develop criteria for collections and distribution of samples; identification of appropriate initial locations and initiation of collections at pilot sites; enrollment of clinical participants at multiple sites; collection and storage of samples; sample testing; maintenance of the proper environment for samples; and appropriate follow-up on research to ensure completion and scientific collaboration as appropriate. Researchers approved to receive samples are required to pay a nominal fee for samples to cover the cost to retrieve and ship the requested samples.

About Lyme Disease Biobank

Launched in 2015, the Lyme Disease Biobank is collecting human biological samples, including blood and urine samples, from people with early suspected Lyme disease or other tick-borne infections, as well as people who have never had Lyme disease as the control group. The Lyme Disease Biobank is a Type I supporting organization of Bay Area Lyme Foundation. Researchers interested in obtaining samples should visit http://www.lymebiobank.org.

About Lyme disease

One of the most common infectious diseases in the country, Lyme disease is a potentially debilitating infection caused by bacteria transmitted through the bite of an infected tick to people and pets. If caught early, most cases of Lyme disease can be effectively treated, but it is commonly misdiagnosed due to lack of awareness and unreliable diagnostic tests. There are about 329,000 new cases of Lyme disease each year, according to statistics released in 2015 by the CDC. As a result of the difficulty in diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, as many as one million Americans may be suffering from the impact of its debilitating long-term symptoms and complications, according to Bay Area Lyme Foundation estimates.

About Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a national organization committed to making Lyme disease easy to diagnose and simple to cure, is the leading public not-for-profit sponsor of innovative Lyme disease research in the US. A 501c3 non-profit organization based in Silicon Valley, Bay Area Lyme collaborates with world-class scientists and institutions to accelerate medical breakthroughs for Lyme disease. It is also dedicated to providing reliable, fact-based information so that prevention and the importance of early treatment are common knowledge.

A pivotal donation from The Laurel Foundation covers all overhead costs and allows for 100% of all donor contributions to Bay Area Lyme Foundation to go directly to research and prevention programs. For more information about Lyme disease or to get involved, visit http://www.bayarealyme.org or call us at 650-530-2439.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Category:

Lyme, Uncategorized

NASEM Report on Cannabis

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=24625

Jan. 12, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nearly 100 Conclusions on the Health Effects of Marijuana and Cannabis-Derived Products Presented in New Report; One of the Most Comprehensive Studies of Recent Research on Health Effects of Recreational and Therapeutic Use of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products

WASHINGTON – A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers a rigorous review of scientific research published since 1999 about what is known about the health impacts of cannabis and cannabis-derived products – such as marijuana and active chemical compounds known as cannabinoids – ranging from their therapeutic effects to their risks for causing certain cancers, diseases, mental health disorders, and injuries. The committee that carried out the study and wrote the report considered more than 10,000 scientific abstracts to reach its nearly 100 conclusions. The committee also proposed ways to expand and improve the quality of cannabis research efforts, enhance data collection efforts to support the advancement of research, and address the current barriers to cannabis research.

“For years the landscape of marijuana use has been rapidly shifting as more and more states are legalizing cannabis for the treatment of medical conditions and recreational use,” said Marie McCormick, chair of the committee; the Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health, department of social and behavioral sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass. “This growing acceptance, accessibility, and use of cannabis and its derivatives have raised important public health concerns. Moreover, the lack of any aggregated knowledge of cannabis-related health effects has led to uncertainty about what, if any, are the harms or benefits from its use. We conducted an in-depth and broad review of the most recent research to establish firmly what the science says and to highlight areas that still need further examination. As laws and policies continue to change, research must also.”

Currently, cannabis is the most popular illicit drug in the United States, in terms of past-month users. Based on a recent nationwide survey, 22.2 million Americans ages 12 and older reported using cannabis in the past 30 days. This survey also reports that 90 percent of adult cannabis users in the United States said their primary use was recreational, with about 10 percent reporting use solely for medical purposes. Around 36 percent reported mixed medical and recreational use. In addition, between 2002 and 2015, the percentage of past-month cannabis users in the U.S. population ages 12 and older has increased steadily from 6.2 percent to 8.3 percent.

Therapeutic Effects

One of the therapeutic uses of cannabis and cannabinoids is to treat chronic pain in adults. The committee found evidence to support that patients who were treated with cannabis or cannabinoids were more likely to experience a significant reduction in pain symptoms. For adults with multiple sclerosis-related muscle spasms, there was substantial evidence that short-term use of certain “oral cannabinoids” – man-made, cannabinoid-based medications that are orally ingested – improved their reported symptoms. Furthermore, in adults with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, there was conclusive evidence that certain oral cannabinoids were effective in preventing and treating those ailments.

Injury and Death

Evidence suggests that cannabis use prior to driving increases the risk of being involved in a motor vehicle accident. Furthermore, evidence suggests that in states where cannabis use is legal, there is increased risk of unintentional cannabis overdose injuries among children. In one study, ingestion was the most common route of unintentional pediatric exposure, accounting for 78 percent of all incidents. Another study reported that from 2000 to 2013, the annual rate of poison center calls related to cannabis exposures among children younger than 6 years of age was 2.82 times higher in states that had legalized medical cannabis prior to 2000 than in states where medical cannabis remained illegal as of 2013. The committee called for more research to determine whether and how cannabis use is associated with death or with occupational injury.

Cancer

Regarding the link between marijuana and cancer, the committee found evidence that suggests smoking cannabis does not increase the risk for cancers often associated with tobacco use – such as lung and head and neck cancers. The committee also found limited evidence that cannabis use is associated with one sub-type of testicular cancer and insufficient evidence that cannabis use by a mother or father during pregnancy leads to a greater risk of cancers in the child.

Heart Attack, Stroke, and Diabetes

The committee said that more research is needed to determine whether and how cannabis use is associated with heart attack, stroke, and diabetes. However, some evidence suggests that cannabis smoking may trigger a heart attack.

Respiratory Disease

The evidence reviewed by the committee suggests that smoking cannabis on a regular basis is associated with more frequent chronic bronchitis episodes and worse respiratory symptoms, such as chronic cough and phlegm production, but quitting cannabis smoking is likely to reduce these conditions. The committee stated that it is unclear whether cannabis use is associated with certain respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, or worsened lung function.

Immunity

There is a lack of data on the effects of cannabis or cannabinoid-based therapeutics on the human immune system, as well as insufficient data to draw overarching conclusions concerning the effects of cannabis smoke or cannabinoids on immune competence, the committee stated. There is also insufficient evidence to support or refute a statistical association between cannabis or cannabinoid use and adverse effects on immune status in individuals with HIV. Nevertheless, limited evidence suggests that regular exposure to cannabis smoke may have anti-inflammatory activity.

Mental Health

The evidence reviewed by the committee suggests that cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia, other psychoses, and social anxiety disorders, and to a lesser extent depression. Alternatively, in individuals with schizophrenia and other psychoses, a history of cannabis use may be linked to better performance on learning and memory tasks. Heavy cannabis users are more likely to report thoughts of suicide than non-users, and in individuals with bipolar disorder, near-daily cannabis users show increased symptoms of the disorder than non-users.

Problem Cannabis Use

The evidence reviewed by the committee suggests that with greater frequency of cannabis use, there is an increased likelihood of developing problem cannabis use. There is also evidence to suggest that initiating cannabis use at a younger age increases the likelihood of developing problem cannabis use.

Cannabis Use and the Abuse of Other Substances

The committee found limited evidence that cannabis use increases the rate of initiating other drug use, primarily the use of tobacco. However, the committee found moderate evidence to suggest that there is a link between cannabis use and the development of substance dependence and/or a substance abuse disorder for substances including alcohol, tobacco, and other illicit drugs.

Psychosocial

The committee found that learning, memory, and attention are impaired after immediate cannabis use. Limited evidence suggests that there are impairments in cognitive domains of learning, memory, and attention in individuals who have stopped smoking cannabis. In addition, there is limited evidence to suggest that cannabis use is related to impairments in subsequent academic achievement and education as well as social relationships and social roles. Adolescence and young adulthood are when most youth begin to experiment with substances of abuse, including cannabis, and it is during these periods that the neural layers that underlie the development of cognition are most active. The committee also found limited evidence of an association between cannabis use and increased rates of unemployment and low income.

Prenatal, Perinatal, and Neonatal Exposure

Smoking cannabis during pregnancy is linked to lower birth weight in the offspring, some evidence suggests. However, the relationship with other pregnancy and childhood outcomes is unclear.

Challenges and Barriers in Conducting Cannabis Research

In addition to recommending more research on the beneficial and harmful effects of cannabis and cannabinoid use, the committee emphasized several challenges and barriers in conducting such research. For instance, specific regulatory barriers, including the classification of cannabis as a Schedule I substance, impede the advancement of research. Researchers also often find it difficult to gain access to the quantity, quality, and type of cannabis product necessary to address specific research questions. The committee said a diverse network of funders is needed to support cannabis and cannabinoid research.

The study was sponsored by Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, Arizona Department of Health Services, California Department of Public Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CDC Foundation, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Mat-Su Health Foundation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse, Oregon Health Authority, Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, The Colorado Health Foundation, Truth Initiative, and Washington State Department of Health. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The National Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org.

 

Category:

Activism, Herbs, Lyme, research, Uncategorized