What the FDA’s Actions Mean for Dietary Supplements

February 14, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/02/11/health/ap-us-med-dietary-supplements-qa.html?partner=IFTTT

What the FDA’s Actions Mean for Dietary Supplements

By The Associated Press

Feb. 11, 2019

NEW YORK — The Food and Drug Administration announced plans Monday to step up its policing of dietary supplements, which it said has mushroomed into a $40 billion industry with more than 50,000 products. The agency warned 17 companies for illegally making claims about their products’ ability to treat diseases.

Here’s a look at what the FDA’s announcement means:

Q: How are dietary supplements regulated?

A: Dietary supplements, including vitamins, are regulated more like foods than drugs. They can make claims similar to what’s found on cereals or snack bars such as “calcium builds strong bones.” But they can’t contain drug ingredients or make claims about treating diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer or diabetes.

Q: Does the FDA plan to change that rule?

A: No. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency isn’t questioning what’s permitted under the dietary supplements law of 1994. He said dietary supplements are regulated like foods because they pose less of a risk than drugs.

“Nothing in what we’re doing would try to attempt to re-contemplate” the existing standard, he said.

Instead, the agency is addressing criticism that it hasn’t enforced rules prohibiting supplements from containing drugs or being marketed like them. Gottlieb said the risk posed by such illegal products has grown with the industry.

The FDA’s dietary supplements review group has 23 employees, he said, and is planning more oversight on products that make illegal health claims.

Q: What about supplements that don’t make disease claims?

A: Qualified health claims on dietary supplements may lead people to think they’re more effective than they are, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who now heads the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Lurie noted the FDA doesn’t review such claims before they’re marketed.

“It’s very hard to take on this industry comprehensively when the law shackles the agency to the extent that it does,” he said.

Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, said dietary supplements are unnecessary for most people unless a doctor recommends them for a specific reason. He noted there are exceptions, such as women who may be planning to become pregnant.

Q: Is the FDA considering any changes to the rules for supplements?

A: The FDA is still figuring out exactly how it might tighten oversight, but one possibility is a mandatory database for dietary supplements to improve transparency and make enforcement easier. It also said it’s developing a way to more quickly and consistently alert people about supplements that might have illegal ingredients.

The dietary supplements industry group, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said it looked forward to working with the FDA, and praised Gottlieb for “rooting out bad actors.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

__________________

**Comment**

I take issue with Dr. Cohen’s unsubstantiated statement that dietary supplements are unnecessary for most people. How do you even prove that? Patients with Lyme/MSIDS find through blood tests they are often low in magnesium, hormones, and other crucial things. These important substances control thousands of chemical reactions in the human body. Without them we suffer. With them we improve.

The proof is in the pudding.

For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/21/supplements-you-get-what-you-pay-for/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/04/22/systemic-enzymes/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/02/dmso-msm-for-lyme-msids/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/10/the-endocannabinoid-system-and-the-important-role-it-plays-in-human-health/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/18/ldn/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/03/12/the-importance-of-vitamin-d-k-and-magnesium-for-lyme-msids-patients/

Patients on this journey learn quickly they spend as much if not more on supplements than they do on drugs!

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Activism, Supplements

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Study Shows Ticks PCR Positive for Bartonella and Two Strains of Borrelia

February 13, 2019

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1877959X18302942

Regional prevalences of Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia bissettiae, and Bartonella henselae in Ixodes affinis, Ixodes pacificus and Ixodes scapularis in the USA

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2018.11.015 Get rights and content

Abstract

The objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of Borrelia and Bartonella species in Ixodes spp. ticks collected from 16 USA states. Genus PCR amplification and sequence analysis of Bartonella and Borrelia16SsRNA-23SsRNA intergenic regions were performed on DNA extracted from 929 questing adult ticks (671 Ixodes scapularis, 155 Ixodes affinis, and 103 Ixodes pacificus).

Overall, 129/929 (13.9%) Ixodes ticks were PCR positive for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, 48/929 (5.1%) for B. bissettiae whereas 23/929 (2.5%) were PCR positive for a Bartonella henselae. Borrelia bissettiae or B. burgdorferi s.s. and B. henselae co-infections were found in I. affinis from North Carolina at a rate of 4.5%; in a single I. scapularis from Minnesota, but not in I. pacificus. For both bacterial genera, PCR positive rates were highly variable depending on geographic location and tick species, with Ixodes affinis (n = 155) collected from North Carolina, being the tick species with the highest prevalence’s for both Borrelia spp. (63.2%) and B. henselae (10.3%). Based on the results of this and other published studies, improved understanding of the enzootic cycle, transmission dynamics, and vector competence of Ixodes species (especially I. affinis) for transmission of Borrelia spp. and B. henselae should be a public health research priority.

________________

**Comment**

One of the most understated studies yet. Research on transmission and vector competence is screaming to be done – especially for Bartonella as mainstream medicine still thinks it’s a simple disease caused by the scratch of a cat that only affects immunocompromised people. They also insist the black-legged tick is the sole perp for Lyme. Both of these tenets are being shattered on a daily basis.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/10/bartonella-henselae-neuroretinitis-in-patients-without-cat-scratch/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/23/chest-imaging-of-cat-scratch-disease-in-2-year-old-immunocompetent-baby-with-no-history-of-cat-contact/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/05/cat-scratch-disease-in-a-1-5-year-old-girl-case-report/ A 1.5-year-old girl who was seen in hospital for the sparing use of her left arm when crawling. Tested positively for Bartonella henselae.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/03/encephalopathy-in-adult-with-cat-scratch-disease/ Case of a 53-year-old healthy man, presenting with confusion. Serology confirmed Bartonella henselae infection.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/09/transverse-myelitis-guillain-barre-associated-with-bartonella/ Healthy 10 year old girl had coexisting transverse myelitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) related to infection with Bartonella henselae.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/05/skull-infection-due-to-bartonella/ A 3-year-old female with a recent history of typical CSD involving lymph nodes who developed osteomyelitis of the skull.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/02/bartonella-langerhans-cell-histiocytosis-cancer/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/16/study-shows-lyme-in-15-species-of-canadian-ticks-6-of-which-bite-humans-numerous-new-bird-species-acting-as-hosts/ Overall, 1,265 ticks consisting of 27 tick species belonging to four genera were collected. Of the 18 tick species tested, 15 species (83%) were positive for Bbsl and, of these infected ticks, 6 species bite humans.

Two ticks species known to be transmitters of disease (I. affinis and I. minor) were transported into Canada and are actually more important vectors of Bbsl in the southeastern U.S. than the blacklegged tick.

THESE FINDINGS UNDERSCORE THE FACT PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE TO GO AN ENDEMIC AREA TO CONTRACT LYME DISEASE AND ASSOCIATED TICK-BORNE DISEASES.

Category:

Bartonella, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks

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Mitral Valve Endocarditis: A Supposed Rare Manifestation of Lyme Disease

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/30690018/

Mitral Valve Endocarditis: A rare Manifestation of Lyme Disease.

Haddad O, et al. Ann Thorac Surg. 2019.

Show full citation

Abstract

Valvular involvement in Lyme disease is rare. Confirmation of Borrelia species as the causative agent by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was done in a few cases in Europe and the US. We describe a case of mitral regurgitation with a preoperative diagnosis of myxomatous mitral valve degeneration. During surgery, the surgeon suspected infective rather than degenerative; etiology; tissue cultures were negative. However, universal bacterial PCR on explanted valve tissue detected Borrelia burgdorferiDeoxyribonucleic Acid(DNA). If a surgeon suspects infective endocarditis at the time surgery, appropriate specimens should be sent for histopathology, culture, and PCR.

____________________

**Comment**

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1,000 times: researchers need to obstain from using the word “rare” in anything they write about MSIDS. Nobody has a clue about numbers. Testing misses over half of all cases and this study is a perfect example in that it proves tissue cultures can be negative yet a person can still be infected with Lyme. Lyme experts have talked about seronegativity for decades yet mainstream medicine continues to deny it exists. This must change.

Lyme/MSIDS causes all sorts of heart issues:

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/14/vermont-resident-dies-of-rare-lyme-disease-complication-that-isnt-rare/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/17/lyme-carditis-heart-block-other-complications-of-ld/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/16/advanced-heart-block-in-children-with-lyme-disease-2/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/08/23/video-dr-neil-spector/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/03/heart-problems-tick-borne-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/10/lyme-carditis-presenting-with-atrial-fibrillation/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/10/lyme-carditis-with-complete-heart-block/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/04/correlation-of-natural-autoantibodies-heart-disease-related-antibacterial-antibodies-in-pericardial-fluid-mycoplasma-bb-chlamydia/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/30/13-common-infections-that-can-raise-your-heart-attack-risk-including-lyme-msids/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/09/28/bartonella-infective-endocarditis-with-dissemination-a-case-report-literature-review/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/04/endocarditis-consider-bartonella/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/02/20/babesia-and-heart-issues/

Does this look rare to you?

Category:

Heart Issues, Lyme, research, Testing

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Industry-Sponsored Doctors: New Study Shows Depth of Commercial Influence

February 11, 2019

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/industry-sponsored-doctors-new-study-shows-depth-commercial-influence?

“© [2/7/19] GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.”

Professional education events are heavily sponsored by drug companies promoting their products as the solution. This widely used coercive and misinformation technique where drug risks are exaggerated and side effects minimized was exposed in a recent BMJ Open study.

The online medical journal BMJ Open recently published a retrospective cohort study titled Does industry-sponsored education foster overdiagnosis and overtreatment of depression, osteoporosis and overactive bladder syndrome? An Australian cohort study. Looking at publicly reported industry-sponsored events in Australia from October 2011 to September 2015, the researchers focused on three conditions subject to over diagnosis and over treatment: depression, osteoporosis and overactive bladder.

Over the 4-year study period 3,132 events were identified consisting of approximately 96,660 attendees. These events were attended by primary care doctors more often than sponsored events without a focus on the three conditions identified in the study. The researchers found a strong concentration of sponsorship among just a few companies. Two companies sponsored over 70% of depression events; another two companies over 80% of overactive bladder events.

The researchers concluded the following:

“…primary care clinicians were often targeted, dinner was often provided and that a few companies sponsored most events. In most cases, sponsors’ products are not cost-effective choices for the specified condition.”

The researchers initially hypothesized that company’s marketing treatments for each condition would sponsor related events and that target audiences would mainly work in primary care, reflecting a broad patient population. What they found was in alignment with their hypothesis. The results from the study showed the following:

“Servier, which markets agomelatine and AstraZeneca (quetiapine) sponsored 51.2% and 23.0% of depression events, respectively. Amgen and GlaxoSmithKline, which co-market denosumab, sponsored 49.5% of osteoporosis events and Astellas and Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) (mirabegron and solifenacin) sponsored 80.5% of overactive bladder events.”

The study highlights the need for professional education to be free of commercial sponsorship. Medical professionals are continually influenced, both directly and indirectly, by pharmaceutical and commercial interests which can have negative, real-world consequences for their patients.

While the recent Australian study highlights the problem of industry-sponsored influence, another more insidious method may be just as alarming. The fraudulent and selective nature of industry-sponsored research often captures the intellectual and regulatory pillars of medicine. For example, in 2015 the BMJ published Restoring Study 329, a decade-long effort by researchers to uncover the truth about the health risks and treatment value of an antidepressant approved for use by adolescents. Using the same data GlaxoSmithKline used to market their blockbuster antidepressant Paxil, researchers doing the restorative study 14 years later found that,

“Neither paroxetine nor high-dose imipramine demonstrated efficacy for major depression in adolescents, and there was an increase in harms with both drugs.”

Meanwhile, a 2012 Cochrane systematic review found that AstraZeneca’s antipsychotic quetiapine, highlighted in the recent BMJ Australian study, had limited efficacy evidence for depression.

Industry influence upon the knowledge base, prescribing habits and beliefs of medical professionals often renders natural remedies and true healing solutions to depression, osteoporosis and overactive bladder invisible. Modalities with less potential for serious side effects too often become the casualties with the net effect seeing the patient shouldering the burdens of risk and substandard results.

How bad can it get? A look back at the past twenty-years reveals a cautionary tale of a racing American opioid epidemic caused in part by the combination of both industry-sponsored education and fraudulent research.

Dr. David Kessler, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner when Purdue Pharma’s opioid OxyContin, the drug that kicked off the American epidemic, won the agency’s green light in 1995 acknowledged,

“No doubt it was a mistake. It was certainly one of the worst medical mistakes, a major mistake.”

It was the first opioid to win the stamp of approval from the FDA, despite the lack of testing and demonstrated proof of the drugs safety and efficacy. Purdue then went on to sent a promotional video to approximately 15,000 doctors who were told OxyContin was “less than 1 percent addictive” — a figure subsequent studies proved false.

Once the overwhelming evidence of devastation from the opioid crisis began to be spotlighted by the media, then-president Richard Sackler of Purdue wrote in a confidential email,

“…we have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible. They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.”

Established medicine appears to be at the beginning stages of confronting its industry-sponsored blindspots. As more in the profession began escaping their myopic pharmaceutical shackles in search of true healing, it is essential for patients to empower themselves alongside this awakening become active participants in their individual healing journeys. Please use the GreenMedInfo research dashboard to access over 10,000+ evidence-based topics related to natural and integrative medicine. And share the resource, and this article and others to friends and family, who can subscribe to our complimentary newsletter here.

Jefferey Jaxen is a researcher, independent investigative journalist, writer and voice for health freedom on the front lines of society’s shift towards higher consciousness. Visit his website here to learn more.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

_____________________

For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/24/financial-kickbacks-for-vaccinations-abusive-illegal-fraudulent/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/28/sit-down-science/

Industry funded “science” has tainted our world and turned science-based evidence into science-biased propaganda. Universities are laundering money through foundations to intentionally hide relationships, while scientists secretly nurture their relationships with corporate executives.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/02/fake-science/ Weiler covers 9 ways science can be skewed to obtain the desired outcome. The 8th one is quite frightening because it concerns the media and how we get information. Excerpt below:

Bias #8. News Media Blackout: Blackout on Ebola when White House asked the AP to stop reporting on it. It took De Niro’s pulling “VAXXED” from a film festival for the media to report on vaccines even though it was produced by a reputable producer, had two celebrity doctors who did a 180 on their stance on vaccines as well as a vaccine whistleblower who showed the CDC “sanitized” results. Weiler also shows how Andrew Wakefield’s study was retracted after a reporter, not a scientist, alleged impropriety in the study design approval.The CDC whistleblower states this is what the CDC does all the time.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/11/levels-of-evidence-media-liability-double-standards-zika-vs-aluminum/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/09/cochrane-no-longer-a-collaboration/

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Wormser’s Worthless Study & Waste of Taxpayer Money

February 10, 2019

https://www.change.org/p/the-us-senate-calling-for-a-congressional-investigation-of-the-cdc-idsa-and-aldf/u/24149441?

Wormser’s waste of your taxpayer dollars!

FEB 10, 2019 —

Yet another useless study out of New York Medical College funded by the US Centers for Disease Control. Please see the following letter of disgust sent to Wormser with carbon copy to the TBD Working Group, Assistant Secretary for Health and Mark Holodniy Editor-in-Chief, Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease.

——— Original Message ———-
From: CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net>
To: gwormser@nymc.edu, tickbornedisease@hhs.gov, brett.giroir@hhs.gov
Cc: (82 Undisclosed recipients)
Date: February 9, 2019 at 9:42 AM
Subject: Efficacy of a 14-day course of amoxicillin for patients with erythema migrans

ScienceDirect

Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Efficacy of a 14-day course of amoxicillin for patients with erythema migrans.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0732889318303304

Wormser GP1, Brady KC2, Cho MS2, Scavarda CA2, McKenna D2.

Excerpt:

“….findings provide additional evidence that a 14-day course of 500 mg amoxicillin given 3 times per day is highly effective therapy for patients with early Lyme disease.”

Feb 9, 2019

Division of Infectious Diseases,
New York Medical College,
Valhalla, NY 10595
Attn: Gary P. Wormser, MD

Dr. Wormser,

Once again, as previously stated in the email below; “Your fixation on the acute stage of disease [with bulls-eye rash] after early treatment has done nothing to advance our understanding of how Lyme disease disables its victim.”

Early treatment of strep throat prevents patients from advancing to rheumatic fever which as you know causes irreversible heart damage. If we focused on the acute stage of strep we would never have realized that missed early treatment caused serious life-altering/life-threatening health consequences.

Ignoring the late stage horribly disabled Lyme population which could total in the millions worldwide is the equivalent of denying the Holocaust.

I noticed that your manuscript did not include the following reference:

July 2017- In Vitro Susceptibility of the Relapsing-Fever Spirochete Borrelia miyamotoi to Antimicrobial Agents.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28674060

Excerpt:

“We were able to show that both B. miyamotoi strains and B. hermsii demonstrated greater susceptibility to doxycycline and azithromycin, equal susceptibility to ceftriaxone and proved to be resistant to amoxicillin in vitro as compared to the B. burgdorferi s.l. isolates.”

Your retirement Dr. Wormser is highly, highly anticipated.

Carl Tuttle

Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH

NOTE: Wormser’s study was funded directly from the US Centers for Disease Control

Funding: RO1 CK 000152 which appears to be an open checkbook for his junk science. (Wasteful taxpayer spending)

Cc: Tick Borne Disease Working Group
Assistant Secretary for Health, ADM Brett P. Giroir, M.D.
Mark Holodniy Editor-in-Chief, Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease.

_________________________________________________________

Previous email sent to Wormser on Jan 4, 2019:
On January 4, 2019 at 10:48 AM CARL TUTTLE <runagain@comcast.net> wrote:

JAMAShapiro ED, Wormser GP. Lyme disease in 2018: what is new (and what is not).
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2696480

Jan 4, 2019

Division of Infectious Diseases,
New York Medical College,
Valhalla, NY 10595
Attn: Gary P. Wormser, MD

Dr. Wormser,

In reference to your response to my letter to the Editor published in the December 18th issue of JAMA, it would appear that you and your coauthor Dr. Shapiro conveniently ignored my question highlighted below:

Excerpt from my letter to the editor:

Controversies About Lyme Disease
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2718786

-Carl Tuttle

“It is well known that untreated streptococcal pharyngitis can progress to rheumatic fever, causing irreversible heart damage. Untreated syphilis leads to progressive disability and dementia, and untreated HIV infection progresses to AIDS with significant disability and death. What happens to the patient with Lyme disease who goes months, years or decades before diagnosis because of a false negative serological test?”

___________________________

Untreated Lyme is destroying lives, ending careers while leaving the patient in financial ruin as reported by the disabled Lyme community for the past three decades. The absence of a bulls-eye rash after tick bite allows patients to progress to severe neurological disease instead of obtaining a prompt diagnosis and early treatment.

I would like to call attention to the following quote taken from an interview with Professor Willy Burgdorfer, the discoverer of the Lyme disease spirochete:

“The controversy in Lyme disease research is a shameful affair. I say that because the whole thing is politically tainted. Money goes to people that have for the past thirty years produced the same thing. Nothing.” – Willy Burgdorfer

Source: (Live interview)

Prof. Willy Burgdorfer Talks About Lyme Disease
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCnrUmAPcOE

Your fixation on the acute stage of disease after early treatment Dr. Wormser has done nothing to advance our understanding of how Lyme disease disables its victim.

For example:

Subjective symptoms after treatment of early Lyme disease.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20102996

Gary Wormser, New York Medical College

(Financed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control)

RESULTS:

“At 12 months after enrollment, only 5 (2.2%) of 230 evaluable patients reported new or increased symptoms, and in none of the patients were these symptoms of sufficient severity to be functionally disabling”

_____________________________

Summary of Wormser’s study: Anyone experiencing symptoms after the one-size-fits-all treatment approach is just experiencing nothing more than the “aches and pains of daily living.”

So basically Wormser’s results are then assumed to apply to the entire patient population; in other words, Lyme is no big deal which has wrongly influenced our nation’s response to this serious life-altering health threat. The research into how Lyme disables should have been completed by now but the misclassification of Lyme as a simple nuisance disease (hard to catch and easily treated) has paralyzed the response to this runaway plague.

Many infections as I continue to point out evolve into an entirely different and serious life-altering/life-threatening disease when left untreated.

Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) after early treatment and untreated Lyme of months, years or decades are two entirely different disease states; the latter being ignored for three decades. Patients who have had a prolonged exposure to the pathogen are almost always incapacitated.

Purposely avoiding the advanced stage of disease hides the horribly disabled and anyone unable to see this is somewhat naive.

So I ask the question Dr. Wormser, What is the motivation for downplaying the severity of Lyme disease while ignoring patient outcry for thirty years?

A prompt response to this inquiry is requested.

Please hit Reply-All as I have carbon copied the Tick Borne Disease Working Group and Assistant Secretary for Health, ADM Brett P. Giroir, M.D.

Carl Tuttle

Lyme Endemic Hudson, NH

___________________

Study found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0732889318303304

Efficacy of a 14-day course of amoxicillin for patients with erythema migrans

Abstract

Although a 14-day treatment course with amoxicillin is in wide clinical usage to treat early Lyme disease, only a few published studies exist to validate its efficacy and safety, with none in the United States. In this study, we reviewed the records of 24 prospectively followed adult patients with erythema migrans who were prescribed a 14-day course of amoxicillin, 500 mg 3 times daily. Treatment with amoxicillin was well tolerated and uniformly successful in resolving the erythema migrans skin lesion and in preventing the development of an objective neurologic, cardiac, or rheumatologic manifestation. Although the study was relatively small and only involved a single center, the findings provide additional evidence that a 14-day course of 500 mg amoxicillin given 3 times per day is highly effective therapy for patients with early Lyme disease.

__________________

For appropriate treatment, see: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/02/13/lyme-disease-treatment/

For a fantastic overview listen to Dr. Burrascano on the history of Lyme, and important considerations in treatment: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/28/the-history-of-lyme-disease-dr-burrascano/

In brief:

Treat ALL forms of Bb
Treat coinfections
Treat long enough (Bb is slow-growing and persistent)
Make sure blood levels of antibiotics are high enough as people vary. He discusses amoxicillin and how they found that increasing the dosage to 1,000mg 3X/day and adding probenecid to increase the antibiotic in the blood, people did even better. He goes on to tell of an unpublished study with Stoneybook where there was a failure rate of 100% of patients taking 300mg of doxycycline a day for 21 days. Yet, how many people are given this exact treatment?
Cycle treatment. This means, once you are symptom-free for 2-4 months, stop treatment. If symptoms return, treat again. Burrascano has found that it typically takes 3-4 Cycles before a person remains symptom-free. The 3rd cycle often yields the worst herx in his experience.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/04/13/chronic-lyme-post-mortem-study-needed-to-end-the-lyme-wars/ In this astute editorial, Microbiologist Tom Greer states:

From the very beginning, treatment failures were seen in virtually every antibiotic study done. The longer the patient follow up, the higher the incidence of treatment failure. The medical community blamed early treatment failures on the older antibiotics erythromycin, tetracycline, and penicillin, and determined that these antibiotics were not very effective at curing Lyme disease. Ignored was the fact that the newer antibiotics were also consistently failing to prevent relapses of active infection. Since these early treatment studies, the concept that two weeks of antibiotic therapy is adequate treatment for Lyme disease has remained ingrained in the medical community’s collective consciousness. [The Long-Term Follow-up of Lyme Disease: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study. Authors: Shadick NA; Phillips CB; Sangha O et al. Ann Intern Med 1999 Dec 21;131(12):919-26]

*Data presented by Dr. Nancy Shadick at an International Lyme Symposia showed that patients in the Nantucket Island study followed for up to 5.2 years after initial antibiotic treatment had ever-climbing relapse rates. Relapse rates in patients receiving two weeks of IV Rocephin (ceftriaxone) could expect a relapse rate to exceed 50% after five years.

There is a smart way to treat this, yet few are nuanced in this skill. We desperately need post-mortem studies to determine what is keeping people ill. We need current transmission studies. We need doctor education on the polymicrobial aspect of this disease. And, we need the stigma & polarization to go away so insurance companies will cover Lyme/MSIDS medical expenses, patients will be believed and supported and the bullying will end.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Treatment

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Madison Area Lyme Support Group