Full article: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/healthcare/view.bg?articleid=1268561&srvc=rss

Excerpt:

A new state law that spells out the rights of physicians to treat chronic Lyme disease patients with long-term antibiotics is being heralded as a victory by advocates of people afflicted by the tick-borne illness, reports the Cape Cod Times.

The law is meant to prevent doctors who treat patients with antibiotics beyond the 30 days recommended by some professionals from billing insurance, said Brenda Boleyn, who chairs the Cape and Islands Lyme Disease Task Force, a community organization comprised of local government, agencies and Lyme disease patients.

While short courses of antibiotics appear to work when Lyme is detected in its early stages, more aggressive and longer treatment seems to be the only solution for seemingly intractable cases of Lyme, Boleyn said.

Full article: http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/78/12/1409.extract

Excerpt:

Retrobulbar optic neuritis (RON) is an unusual complication of Lyme disease. The diagnosis of early Lyme disease is difficult, and the relationship between RON and Lyme disease remains controversial. None of the 14 cases of optic neuritis described in the literature in association with Lyme disease fulfilled the Halperin and Sibony criteria for active Lyme disease. We report the first case of acute Lyme disease complicated by RON established using the Halperin and Sibony criteria.

Lyme disease is a multisystem infectious disease caused by tick borne spirochetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi group. Diagnosis of this infection can be difficult and serological testing such as western blot can be useful. Cranial neuropathies are common but RON has been reported in a few isolated cases.1 A causal link between optic neuritis and Lyme disease has not been established and remains controversial. We report a case of active neuro-Lyme disease complicated by RON

Full article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1939-1676.2010.0563.x/abstract

Excerpt:

Suspected Needle Stick Transmission of Bartonella vinsonii

subspecies berkhoffii to a Veterinarian

1. A.M. Oliveira¹,
2. R.G. Maggi¹,
3. C.W. Woods²,
4. E.B. Breitschwerdt¹

Article first published online: 2 AUG 2010

DOI: 10.1111/j.1939-1676.2010.0563.x

Full article: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/court-grants-lyme-disease-autopsy-20100719-10hyx.html

Excerpt:

A SYDNEY woman has been awarded a Supreme Court injunction to have her dead husband tested for a disease the Health Department says does not exist in Australia.

Mualla Akinci’s husband, Karl McManus, died last Wednesday - three years after he was bitten by a tick she says carried Lyme disease, a bacterial infection which, if left untreated, can cause profound neurological damage.

Mr McManus, 43, from Turramurra, was bitten on the left side of his chest during filming for the television show Home and Away in bushland in Waratah Park, northern Sydney. Within six weeks he lost mobility in one of the fingers on his left hand. That quickly spread to paralysis in his left arm and across to his right arm.

Mr McManus was diagnosed with multifocal neuropathy after testing negative for Lyme disease, but Ms Akinci, a pharmacist, insisted he be tested again at clinics in the US and Germany. Both tests returned positive for Lyme disease.

She argues that Australian tests are inadequate because pathologists looks for antibodies in the blood, rather than for proteins in specific bacteria within tissue.

”Lyme doesn’t usually live in the blood. It lives in tissues unless someone’s system is flushed with it so it stands to reason that every test will come back negative,” Ms Akinci said.

The Health Department maintains that no case has been transmitted in Australia and the organisms that cause it - three species of the genus borrelia - are not carried here by wildlife, livestock or their parasites.

The NSW Health Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, said in May there was not enough evidence to support the existence of ticks carrying the borrelia organism.

”Until there is solid evidence to indicate that locally acquired Lyme disease is a significant public health matter in Australia, specific measures to educate the general public or clinicians are difficult to justify,” she said.

Probiotics are rapidly becoming essential for life if we want to enjoy optimal health. This may be related to the excessive use of antibiotics in agriculture, but whatever the reasons are, this 16 page attachment may provide you with the science on this soon to be essential nutritional supplement.

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

Full article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/719654?sssdmh=dm1.625756&src=journalnl&uac=81207PR

Excerpt:

Probiotics are rapidly becoming essential for life if we want to enjoy optimal health. This may be related to the excessive use of antibiotics in agriculture, but whatever the reasons are, this 16 page attachment may provide you with the science on this soon to be essential nutritional supplement.

This IS A MUST for any patients with autoimmune or allergy related issues, including acne, autism, asthma, Auto immune disease and even cancer and, of course, all GI related issues. Use probiotics whenever there could be food sensitivities present. We can expect to see better results when we recommend a proven effective and stable probiotic.

However, whether you are using Kyodophilus, which Longevity Plus is carrying, as it is stable without refrigeration, or some other Probiotic, the need to facilitate their benefits by lowering the number of pathogens or unhealthy flora is very important.

I like the PREBIOTIC function of Beyond Fiber because it is not just the perfect combination of soluble with insoluble fiber but because it has stabilized rice bran, one of the most nutrient dense foods and that helps eliminate toxins but it also includes a special artichoke component from Germany that helps sustain friendly flora so well that over 2 months or so, Candida has been shown to significantly regress.

Please when maximizing probiotic benefits also consider the proven benefits of zeolite and silver, as available in what is called Total Body Detox, the two bottle package from Longevity Plus. The silver is needed because in many patients, the overgrowth of unhealthy flora is preventing implantation of friendly flora, so they need to be eliminated. Silver does that while the ACZ (Zeolite) component of Total Body Detox concurrently acts to neutralize many toxins, organic and inorganic. This permits restoration of a healthier gut flora and even improves immune functioning since the gut associated lymphoid tissue is
dramatically benefitted with this combined  probiotics/detox approach.

Full article: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=20618664&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

Ixodes affinis, which is similar morphologically to Ixodes
scapularis, is widely distributed in North Carolina. Collections
have documented this species in 32 of
41 coastal plain counties, but no piedmont or mountain counties.
This coastal plain distribution is similar to its distribution in
Georgia and South Carolina, where it is considered an enzootic
vector of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto.
An updated list of hosts for I. affinis in the U.S.A. is
included, increasing the number to 15 mammal and one bird
species. The presence of questing adults of I. affinis from April
to November reinforces the need for confirmed identifications of
suspected tick vectors of Borrelia spirochetes collected during
warm months.

Excerpt:

Results

We demonstrate that B. garinii OspA serotype 4 (ST4) PBi resist complement-mediated killing by binding of FHL-1. To identify the primary ligands of FHL-1 four CspA orthologs from B. garinii ST4 PBi were cloned and tested for binding to human CFH and FHL-1. Orthologs BGA66 and BGA71 were found to be able to bind both complement regulators but with different intensities. In addition, all CspA orthologs were tested for binding to mammalian and avian CFH. Distinct orthologs were able to bind to CFH of different animal origins.

Conclusions

B. garinii ST4 PBi is able to evade complement killing and it can bind FHL-1 to membrane expressed proteins. Recombinant proteins BGA66 can bind FHL-1 and human CFH, while BGA71 can bind only FHL-1. All recombinant CspA orthologs from B. garinii ST4 PBi can bind CFH from different animal origins. This partly explains the wide variety of animals that can be infected by B. garinii

Excerpt:

Background: The clinical value of antibiotic prophylaxis in preventing Lyme disease remains uncertain, owing to a meta-analysis lacking sufficient power to demonstrate efficacy and a more recent trial showing effectiveness but lacking precision. Our objective was to update our prior meta-analysis on antibiotic prophylaxis for the prevention of Lyme disease, to obtain a more precise estimate of treatment effect.

Methods: Clinical trials were identified by searching MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Library and trial registries, and by an assessment of the bibliographies of retrieved articles and reviews. Trials were selected if their patients were randomly allocated to a treatment or placebo group within 72 hours following an Ixodes tick bite and had no clinical evidence of Lyme disease at enrollment. Details of the trial design, patient characteristics, interventions and outcomes were extracted from each article. Study quality was assessed using the Jadad scale.

Results: Four placebo-controlled clinical trials were included for review. Among 1,082 randomized subjects, the risk of Lyme disease in the placebo [fake dose] group was 2.2% [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.2%-3.9%] compared with 0.2% (95% CI, 0.0%-1.0%) in the antibiotic-treated group.

Antibiotic prophylaxis significantly reduced the odds of developing Lyme disease compared with placebo (pooled odds ratio=0.084; 95% CI, 0.0020-0.57; P=0.0037). [Risk of developing Lyme was 10 times greater in those who didn't get an antibiotic.]

Full article: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=20569437&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The metabolism of amyloid precursor protein
(APP) and beta-amyloid (Abeta) is widely studied in Alzheimer’s
disease, where Abeta deposition and plaque development are
essential components of the pathogenesis.
However, the physiological role of amyloid in the adult nervous
system remains largely unknown. We have previously found altered
cerebral amyloid metabolism in other neuroinflammatory
conditions. To further elucidate this, we investigated amyloid
metabolism in patients with Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB).

METHODS: The
first part of the study was a cross-sectional cohort study in 61
patients with acute facial palsy (19 with LNB and 42 with
idiopathic facial paresis, Bell’s
palsy) and 22 healthy controls. CSF was analysed for the
beta-amyloid peptides Abeta38, Abeta40 and Abeta42, and the
amyloid precursor protein (APP) isoforms alpha-sAPP and
beta-sAPP. CSF total-tau (T-tau), phosphorylated tau (P-tau) and
neurofilament protein (NFL) were measured to monitor neural cell
damage. The second part of the study was a prospective
cohort-study in 26 LNB patients undergoing consecutive lumbar
punctures before and after antibiotic treatment to study
time-dependent dynamics of the biomarkers.

RESULTS: In the cross-sectional
study, LNB patients had lower levels of CSF alpha-sAPP, beta-sAPP
and P-tau, and higher levels of CSF NFL than healthy controls and
patients with Bell’s palsy.
In the prospective study, LNB patients had low levels of CSF
alpha-sAPP, beta-sAPP and P-tau at baseline, which all increased
towards normal at follow-up.

Excerpt:

Lyme disease is reported across Canada, but pinpointing the source of infection has been problematic. In this three-year, bird-tick-pathogen study (2004–2006), 366 ticks representing 12 species were collected from 151 songbirds (31 passerine species/subspecies) at 16 locations Canada-wide. Of the 167 ticks/pools tested, 19 (11.4%) were infected with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.). Sequencing of the rrf-rrl intergenic spacer gene revealed four Borrelia genotypes: B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (s.s.) and three novel genotypes (BC genotype 1, BC genotype 2, BC genotype 3). All four genotypes were detected in spirochete-infected Ixodes auritulus (females, nymphs, larvae) suggesting this tick species is a vector for B. burgdorferi s.l. We provide first-time records for: ticks in the Yukon (north of 60° latitude), northernmost collection of Amblyomma americanum in North America, and Amblyomma imitator in Canada. First reports of bird-derived ticks infected with B. burgdorferi s.l. include: live culture of spirochetes from Ixodes pacificus (nymph) plus detection in I. auritulus nymphs, Ixodes scapularis in New Brunswick, and an I. scapularis larva in Canada. We provide the first account of B. burgdorferi s. l. in an Ixodes muris tick collected from a songbird anywhere. Congruent with previous data for the American Robin, we suggest that the Common Yellowthroat, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and Swainson’s Thrush are reservoir-competent hosts. Song Sparrows, the predominant hosts, were parasitized by I. auritulus harboring all four Borrelia genotypes. Our results show that songbirds import B. burgdorferi s.l.-infected ticks into Canada. Bird-feeding I. scapularis subadults were infected with Lyme spirochetes during both spring and fall migration in eastern Canada. Because songbirds disperse millions of infected ticks across Canada, people and domestic animals contract Lyme disease outside of the known and expected range.