OT: Lymes & discovery of a new magazine

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Today I stumbled on a magazine that caught my eye. It’s called Townsend

Letter, The Examiner of Alternative Medicine. I was able to go on line and

find some articles, one in particular about Lyme’s Disease. I’m just

sharing, not selling, and I hope the lengthy information below is of use to

at least some. http://www.townsendletter.com/July2009/ed_lyme0709.html is

the link in case the pasted info below gets truncated.

There is an article in the April 2010 magazine that discusses a new test for

the thyroid, i.e., TRH Stimulation test. TRH = thyrotropin releasing

hormone. Regards, El

<http://www.townsendletter.com/index.htm> Townsend Letter The Examiner of

Alternative Medicine <http://www.townsendletter.com/conferencecalendar.htm>

Alternative

Medicine Conference Calendar

<http://www.townsendletter.com/tablescontents.htm> Check recent tables of

contents

From the Archives of the Townsend Letter

July 2009 <http://www.townsendletter.com/July2009/July2009.htm>

<http://www.townsendletter.com/July2009/July2009.htm> Our July 2009 cover

Order this <http://www.townsendletter.com/subscriptions.htm#backissue>

issue!

Guest Editorial

Why Lyme Treatments Fail, Part 1

by Schaller, MD

<http://www.townsendletter.com/search.htm> Search this site

Added online May 2010

My average patient has been to 10 to 50 physicians before me. Below are some

sample reasons for treatment failure.

1. Many patients and health-care workers are profoundly ignorant about how

to read a western blot. If a person has one " fingerprint band, " he/she has

Lyme disease. These specific bands are the 18, 23, 25, 31, 34, 39, 83, or 93

bands. The lab can be a junk lab that invests nothing to optimize its kit;

but if one of these is positive, even once – Lyme is present. IGeneX has the

best western blot in the world. No other lab has invested so much for so

long to create the best test. If your clinician wants to first use an ELISA

(enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), simply run. The ELISA as a screen test

is utter junk, and misses profoundly PCR-positive patients.

2. Ten years of Lyme treatment is not acceptable. The use of IV treatment

year after year means that the practitioner has a 1990s treatment approach.

" Cure " treatments often merely lower body loads or decrease symptoms without

fully killing all the infectious agents.

3. Some treatments simply are useless. For example, hyperbaric oxygen

therapy (HBOT) for tick infection treatment fails. Its use in mice is not

applicable. I self-funded a study examining HBOT results on Lyme, Babesia,

Ehrlichia, and Bartonella. After 120 treatments at 2.4 atmospheres for 90

minutes each, all participants still had clear positive findings for all

four infections. So advertising that HBOT " kills " Lyme disease has no

validity. I have talked to the late Dr. Fife in detail and carefully

evaluated the HBOT research of Dr. Lombard. I love this treatment for

many medical problems, but it is not a tick infection cure.

4. Ignoring new data leads to treatment failures. For example, I have

published many new books on advanced tick-borne infections. Some

" Lyme-literate " MDs only buy them after years have passed and educated

patients are throwing copies at them. They all show new critical

information.

5. Some health-care workers believe in a pope or president of Lyme literacy.

But no perfect expert exists. Some offer useful information from past

investigations. No one has mastered all of tick-borne medicine and all the

newest coinfection information.

6. I have been asked by a number of physicians to share my new findings.

Most ask because they are ill themselves. I have told them to stop treating

themselves and to do an hour consultation with very extensive labs. Most

have refused. What they could have learned by fixing themselves would have

translated into real help for their patients.

7. Current treatment recommendations are often profoundly flawed. IV

treatments are often used without a herbal or synthetic antibiotic cyst

buster. The most common treatment for Babesia is 750 mg/teaspoon of Mepron

taken twice a day. The most commonly used Babesia herbal cures are

artemisinin, or artesunate (Zhang Artemisiae from Hepapro.com

<http://www.Hepapro.com> ), one capsule three times a day. All four of these

approaches listed above fail even after long trials.

8. The flaw in all Bartonella treatment is the lack of one-year follow-up

studies. I have found that Levaquin, rifampin, Zithromax, doxycycline,

Mycobutin, Cumunda, Banderol, and Rife machines at various frequencies and

power may lower body load and lead to initial feelings of improvement. None

of these treatments lead to Bartonella cure.

9. The current testing for Babesia, Bartonella, and Ehrlichia is markedly

flawed. Some DNA or PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests processed by an

East Coast lab often miss a positive infection ten times. If you need to do

ten urine or blood samples to show a positive, this is not functional. Some

labs are only fair at tissue PCR testing, when the tissue has clear Lyme,

Babesia, and Bartonella that can be visualized microscopically. This is a

diagnostic disaster. Amazingly, some use large national labs to do manual

examination of red blood cells to look for Babesia and Bartonella. I have

never seen a large national lab detect Babesia or Bartonella in over 1,000

manual smears.In patients with certain Babesia and Bartonella, no large

national lab captured these infections even once. I repeatedly offered to

assist them in improving their technology by linking them with hematology

experts in tick infections. They were not interested.

10. The knowledge base about both Bartonella testing and treatment borders

on the disastrous. Bartonella is one of the most common infections in the

world. Calling it a " coinfection " is nonsense; if anything, Lyme is the

" coinfection. " It is found in vast numbers of common vectors, including dust

mites, fleas, flea feces, pet saliva, and ticks. Amazingly, it can turn off

or lower antibodies to Lyme disease, Babesia, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, and even

itself. Bartonella floats in blood and also enters all blood vessel walls

without causing a fatal fever, and indeed actually lowers fevers. It is the

ultimate stealth infection. It turns off antibodies, fevers, and immune

function defense chemicals as it damages organs in 20 to 60 ways.

11. The use of fixed " protocols " or " procedures " in the treatment of tick

infections is sadistic medicine. Why? It treats each ill human person as a

machine that is built the same and has the exact same problems. This is

making a patient into an object and has hints of the sociopathic. A serious

criminal makes people into things to fit his perceptions of the world. To

force an immensely unique human body, with a unique infection cluster, and a

unique biochemical response, into a protocol is objectification of the

patient. It is junk " mill medicine. "

12. Since Bartonella turns off the production of antibodies to infections

like Babesia microti or Babesia duncani and Lyme disease, I suggest that

this infection must be considered in all initial consults. I would encourage

learning the 40 skin patterns from Bartonella or Bartonella/Lyme mixed

infections that are made by increased tissue and blood vessels. It is also

useful to know the indirect labs associated with Bartonella alone, or

Bartonella with Babesia, such as IL-6, IL-1B, TNF-a, ECP, and VEGF. I

discuss clinical patterns from lab results of thee infections in my book

Babesia Update 2009.

13. Some patients have very few Babesia protozoa parasites, but they cause

serious trouble in the body. Their small numbers cause them to be missed in

a visual FISH (fluorescent in-situ hybridization) exam or a PCR test.

14. If your lab does not test for new species such as Babesia duncani or the

many other documented species of Babesia or Bartonella that infect humans,

you cannot rule out these infections with a " negative result. " One way to

decrease treatment failures is to use a new medical trick to detect stealth

Babesia, whose presence can cause ongoing fatigue, headaches, weight gain,

and Lyme treatment failure.

The " trick " is simple. A patient is given at least two Babesia-killing

medications such as Mepron, artesunate at a high useful dose, or Malarone

(for the proguanil). These medications are used for ten days at a dose you

and your physician think is worth the risk, and usually at least one will

kill a few Babesia parasites. Approximately 10 to 14 days later, a second

ECP (eosinophil cationic protein) level is taken to compare with baseline.

If the ECP pops up significantly, it is usually a sign of Babesia die-off.

Eosinophils are releasing ECP, possibly injecting Babesia debris. ECP is

meant to kill parasites.

An alternative or added option is to wait five weeks and have the patient

tested for antibodies to B. microti or duncani. One young patient with

profound illness was finally diagnosed in this manner, and after three weeks

of triple Babesia treatment, had significant clinical improvement for the

first time in six years. Stealthy low-volume Babesia is a common problem in

tick and flea infection treatment. Talented health-care workers commonly

miss these red blood cell parasites, but this trick usually causes them to

show up and can save someone from years of failed treatment.

15. The Bartonella testing of most national labs is useless. It is stunning

to read of " sages " reporting that a patient does not have Bartonella because

a large lab has found negative antibodies. First, they do not understand

that Bartonella turns off its own antibodies; these large labs only check

for one (or two) species that infect humans, and their cut-off titers are

unrealistically high. Thankfully, IGeneX Bartonella FISH testing is expected

to be available this month to everyone but citizens of New York State.

16. Infections and inflammation decrease insight. Tick-borne infections

routinely lead to a personality change and/or rigid resistance to testing.

This is largely due to an impaired frontal lobe that is the part of the

brain involved in self-awareness. Examples of decreased insight are shown in

the following situations:

a. Some think they are cured when they are only improved.

b. Others intentionally go to practitioners using inferior labs.

c. Some refuse to be tested with eccentric resistance.

d. Positive results are amazingly dismissed with a wave of the hand.

17. Some patients think that their trouble is not tick-borne infections but

mold. They cannot believe that both are important, and either could be " the

last straw. " Some patients get ill after a flood, large leak, or other

water-intrusion problem. They think that they are ill only because of mold

mycotoxins that form 36 to 48 hours after water intrusion into drywall,

insulation, carpeting, and other dust- or cellulose-filled materials. The

Environmental Protection Agency reports that 30% of US structures have

indoor mold. Some of these indoor molds have war-grade chemicals on their

surfaces. When the mold-filled tomb room of the last king of Poland, Casimir

IV, was opened in Paris in 1973, 10 of the 12 scientists present died. One

survivor had expertise in mold and subsequently found three toxic mold

species.

Given the average of 40,000 to 120,000 inhalations per week by those

residing in a moldy location, it is no wonder that some are not easily cured

of tick and flea infections. This is why I have written two mold remediation

books.

We have also known since the 1880s that dust and high humidity lead to mold

and bacteria growth indoors. Their presence makes Lyme disease much more

difficult to cure.

18. Lyme has at least one surface biotoxin, the patented BbTox1. Patients

with 15/16–6/5–51 HLA patterns probably are unable to remove Lyme biotoxins

and require a binder, like cholestyramine, which has been used to bind

biotoxins since the 1970s.

19. Many patients who have had tick-borne infections have very high

inflammation levels. Therefore, all starting doses of medications or herbs

should be very low and then raised to high levels with liver-protecting

substances. Starting at full dosing in a " medically sensitive " patient is

chemical battery. Massive die-offs can be confused with allergic reactions

and can cause panic attacks, shortness of breath, chest pain, and severe

migraines. This sloppy, one-size-fits-all approach, is common in large

practices in which a few major " protocols " are routine.

20. Medical " Band-Aids " are often required to save a job or a marriage and

to care for children. They are often a normal part of care. Pain, fatigue,

severe insomnia, depression, and anxiety often are increased with the

die-off of any of the infections carried in deer ticks. Band-Aid treatments

are often useful and helpful. I treat people who run companies, schools,

very large families, and professional teams. They want to sleep 13 hours per

day. They need stimulants for a period of time. The use of natural or

synthetic stimulant options is discussed in my book The Diagnosis and

Treatment of Babesia. Patients do not benefit from sleep in excess of 8½

hours. It may just serve to get them fired!

21. If you have health-care workers who are uncomfortable being aggressive

with treatment and diagnosis of all the top tick and flea infections, you

are at the wrong place. If your health-care provider has not spent 1,000

hours learning this complex emerging area of medicine requiring a great deal

of study, find someone who is serious about it, not someone " doing you a

favor " by simply running a few tests.

22. Some relapse due to treatment fatigue. Meaning, you have been treated

for many years. You have done IV antibiotics or IV nutrients, you have taken

40 pills per day, you have tried a wide range of specialized treatments, and

now you are fed up with it all. You can now function at 80% of your

baseline. You are at the end of your treatment rope. This is what happens

when someone does not treat you fully and effectively at the beginning of

your treatment. You can get treatment fatigue. Consider a short treatment

break, and discuss this frankly with your health-care provider. Do not

confuse cure with improvement.

23. The treatment approach that leads to cure is not the same dose that

leads to stunning organisms. Cure does not does not equal a reduction in

bacteria load. For example, using Bicillin once a week with no cyst buster

will never cure you of Lyme disease because it does not remove cysts. So

years after receiving this treatment, your cancer-fighting cells, marked by

some as the CD57 level, may be under 90. This is one good test that is

possibly specific for Lyme disease or at least tick-borne infections. (The

C3a and C4a test is definitely not specific for Lyme).

24. Cynical relatives, friends, or other health-care workers may defame Lyme

experts and persuade patients to drop providers who are helping. They

usually use the " money " or " speed of your recovery " argument to cut you off

from someone sincerely trying to help you. If you have been infected years

with multiple infections, you cannot be cured in six months.

25. In 2008 a Lyme biofilm appeared to have been discovered. Organizations

with millions in grants and research money have never addressed this issue.

We know that many spirochetes have biofilms. Indeed, many spirochetes in

your mouth are known to cause biofilms, and they are believed to limit

antibiotic effectiveness.

I am currently working on a textbook that addresses the many options for

attacking biofilms. No article nor book yet exists that explores the 20-plus

ways I would propose to beat a Lyme biofilm. It is believed by some

professionals that highly specific enzymes (or one mineral) can undermine a

Lyme biofilm. Yet enzymes are like keys, and no single enzyme is a proven

" key " to undermining a Lyme biofilm.

26. Self-treatment is easy to pursue. Many experts are expensive, and you

are uncertain of their level of knowledge. The Internet seems to offer many

effective options. Some health-care providers seem too narrow. Others are

open to virtually everything. So you get in a medical boat and push yourself

out to sea. You read like crazy. You try A, B, and C. You read testimonies

of hundreds of patients. You try a wide range of nonprescription options.

Some days, weeks, or months you feel better; other weeks, you are not so

good. You are upset. You ask yourself, why do I have to do all the work and

learning? This is not a good place. There are people who have already

explored virtually all the things you are going to explore in the next ten

years. You need a mentor. Many practitioners will do nonpatient consults

with you to save you time.

27. In many of my books and many Internet sites, you can read about

preventing flea and tick bites. You do not need to be reinfected with

Bartonella, Lyme, Babesia or any other infection. So learn the basic steps

to protection in about 30 minutes of reading.

28. Tick and flea-borne infections cause isolation. They ruin relationships

due to resulting fogginess, poor insight, depression, various addictions,

rage, extreme hostility – even violence – and refusal to get treatment.

Bartonella is likely the worst offender, but Lyme and Babesia and their

die-offs can also increase these problems. Isolation leads to decreased

treatment options. It can ultimately lead to divorce and the loss of family

relationships and friendships. This, in turn, leads to decreased resources

and support while ill. Isolated humans, as Mother often said, are the

poorest beings on earth.

Schaller, MD

239-263-0133

www.personalconsult.com

Schaller, MD, has been elected by his physician peers a " Best Doctor

in America. " He has published more books on tick infections than probably

any physician in history. He is the author of 26 books and 27 papers

published in highly respected medical journals on topics covering 10 areas

of medicine. He is the author of Babesia Update 2009: A Cause of Excess

Weight, Migraines and Fatigue? A Common Reason for Failed Lyme Disease

Treatment; The Health Care Professional's Guide to the Treatment and

Diagnosis of Human Babesiosis: An Extensive Review of New Human Babesia

Species and Advanced Treatments; Artemisinin, Artesunate, Artemisinic Acid

and Other Derivatives of Artemisia Used for Malaria, Babesia and Cancer; The

Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention of Bartonella: Atypical Bartonella

Treatment Failures and 40 Hypothetical Physical Exam Findings; A Laboratory

Guide to Human Babesia Hematology Forms; Mold Illness and Mold Remediation

Made Simple: Removing Mold Toxins from Bodies and Sick Buildings; When

Traditional Medicine Fails, Your Guide to Mold Toxins; A.D.D., Irritability

and Oppositional Disorders: Cutting Edge Solutions Sincere Therapists and

Doctors Miss; and Suboxone: Take Back Your Life From Pain Medications.