Research: Measuring antibiotic effectiveness on Bb, cysts and biofilm

Here's the link to new research results on culturing Bb and testing antibiotics' effectiveness for its various forms. This paragraph summarizes the results:

Results: Doxycycline reduced spirochetal structures ~90% but increased the number of round body forms about twofold. Amoxicillin reduced spirochetal forms by ~85%–90% and round body forms by ~68%, while treatment with metronidazole led to reduction of spirochetal structures by ~90% and round body forms by ~80%. Tigecycline and tinidazole treatment reduced both spirochetal and round body forms by ~80%–90%. When quantitative effects on biofilm-like colonies were evaluated, the five antibiotics reduced formation of these colonies by only 30%–55%. In terms of qualitative effects, only tinidazole reduced viable organisms by ~90%. Following treatment with the other antibiotics, viable organisms were detected in 70%–85% of the biofilm-like colonies.

Please read the full report for more details.

Lyme humor

Here's the link to this cartoon. We've got to laugh, right?

It's official. May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month in SLO County

Tuesday, May 3, the SLO County Board of Supervisors proclaimed May to be Lyme Disease Awareness Month. Seven members of SLO Lyme participated in the ceremony with the Board of Supervisors. Special thanks to Marla for making this happen and to Supervisor Patterson for sponsoring it.

To view the event, click here to go to the BOS website. Click on year 2011, then click on "Watch" in May 3 meeting link; once the video opens, click on item B-4 to see this segment.

Nobel prize winner supports homeopathic medicine

In dealing with Lyme, we're open to multiple paths to healing. This article explains homeopathy well and tells of the story of how criticized its early practitioners were. Kind of reminds me of how LLMDs are treated today.

Link to article: Homeopathy taken seriously

Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French virologist who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering the AIDS virus, has surprised the scientific community with his strong support for homeopathic medicine. 

In a remarkable interview published in Science magazine of December 24, 2010, Professor Luc Montagnier has expressed support for the often maligned and misunderstood medical specialty of homeopathic medicine. Although homeopathy has persisted for 200+ years throughout the world and has been the leading alternative treatment method used by physicians in Europe, most conventional physicians and scientists have expressed skepticism about its efficacy due to the extremely small doses of medicines used.

Tick Repellent Study

A new tick repellent is being tested now that sounds promising. Here's a link to the webpage about it:
Tick repellent study
The company, GenoPrint, is looking for volunteers to test the repellent during 2011. Initial testing showed it to be very effective. And what I like about it is it's supposed to be very nontoxic with no fragrances. I know none of us is tramping in the woods currently, but if you know some hikers, you might want to let them know about it. The initial testing showed it to be 100 percent effective! Wow, that sounds like it could really help us. Gee, if I get well again (oops, when I get well), I might be brave enough to go hiking again with help like this.

"my lyme disease is not the IDSA lyme disease"

This Facebook movement, "My Lyme Disease is not the IDSA Lyme Disease" is a reaction to the anti-Chronic Lyme disease article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Dec. 8, 2010. (Google "Chronic Lyme Disease: A dubious diagnosis" if you want to read the article)

People are encouraged to tell their own Lyme stories either on a blog or on Facebook (use the "Notes" section and change your privacy settings). Post your link on Facebook: Lyme Friends.

This article was so disturbing to me. It also ran in the LA Times and Hartford Courant, which are owned by the same company. I posted comments on-line to all three papers, as well as sending emails to the authors and Trib editor.

I decided to participate in the movement, so I started a blog with my story. Out of respect for my daughter's privacy (which is very important to her these days) my blog is private.

I encourage you to tell your story. You can do it anonymously through a blog or on Facebook.

Marla

Wisdom from Elizabeth Edwards

I love this quote from Elizabeth Edwards. She was dealing with cancer, but the concept works well with chronic illness too:
“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.”
It's sad that she died, but her resilient spirit will continue on.

Hypercoagulation, another charming feature of Lyme disease!

Hi, I'm JoAnn....a relatively new member of SLO Lyme.  I asked Ginny if I could post today about hypercoagulation ("thick blood"), because I just recently found out that I have this problem.

Hypercoagulation is actually very, very common in people who have Lyme disease.  I read an article where one Lyme doctor actually said that 90% of his Lyme patients tested positive for thick blood.  Apparently it's one of the many clever tactics that the spirochetes use to avoid Lyme treatments....they increase the various clotting factor levels (fibrinogen, fibrin, thrombin/antithrombin complexes, fragment 1+2, and Factor II (prothrombin) activity) in your blood and this creates little clumps of fibrin that cling to the walls of blood vessels.  The bacteria use these fibrin nests to hide in....this helps them survive.

Of course, hypercoagulation can lead to many other serious health problems, even strokes.  So not only are the spirochetes better able to fight back against your Lyme meds when you have "thick blood", but they are even putting your life in danger!

I have a few questions for the members of our group: (1) How many of you have heard of hypercoagulation (in connection with Lyme disease) before?  (2) How many of you have been tested by your LLMDs or other doctors for hypercoagulation?  (3) If you were tested, did your doctors use the Hemex Labs tests (hereditary hypercoagulation and the ISAC panel)?

If you're interested, I've recently created my own Lyme disease blog and I wrote a post about this issue, here.  My LLMD has now put me on heparin injections (5000 units/1cc) twice a day, subcutaneously.

Ouch!

But I'd rather inject myself with heparin twice a day than have a stroke....wouldn't you?  :)

Inspiring words . . .

Here's a quote from Winston Churchill that can help us in our lyme journey:

If you're going through hell,

KEEP GOING.

Lyme disease on the increase in the US

from Digital Journal, posted Nov. 16, 2010 by Jane Fazackarley
The number of confirmed cases of the tick-borne illness Lyme disease is on the rise in the United States and around the world. An upsurge in the amount of cases have been reported in recent times. An expert on the disease discusses why there's a surge.

Statistics from the Centers for Disease control and Prevention show that there were approximately 30,000 confirmed cases of Lyme disease in 2009 and close to 40,000 probable cases.

Throughout 2010 there has been an increase in cases of the disease. Cases have been reported in Massachusetts and Virginia, Earlier this year the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services advised people to take precautions to protect themselves from Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.