TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
I watched the 3 Dr. Alan MacDonald videos talked about here recently. They are from 2013.
I took a few notes on what he said. The notes don't cover everything he said. I just took notes on things of interest or new to me.
Some interesting stuff here:
Dr. Alan MacDonald, pathologist 8/26/13
Biofilms
He discussed the subject of biofilms. He stated that ALL biofilm infections are, by definition, chronic. (Biofilms protect the bacteria from the immune system, antibiotics, etc.) So, to say that lyme disease forms biofilms goes against the CDC.
Other spirochetes are known to form biofilms. For example, the spirochetes found in the mouth and the syphilis spirochetes. So, why not the borrelia spirochete?
Eva Sapi proved that borrelia (lyme) forms biofilms also.
Numerous strains of borrelia
Why does one part of the body get hit with lyme and another part won't?
This is common among diseases. The strep bacteria seeks out the throat, so you get strep throat. West Nile virus seeks out the brain.
We recently found the 101st strain of lyme disease--myomotoi (which is in the relapsing fever group of borrelia). There is no blood test for this strain. Because of this fact, we do NOT know how long it has been here in the United States.
Australia has its own strains of borellia. The American strain is Bergdorferi. Germany has many strains. They can manifest very differently from the American strain.
The United States is ill prepared to deal with the strains from other countries. Europe, for example, has 3 different lyme test kits. Each tests for a different strain. This is good. But, in the U.S., all of the lyme tests (ELISA, Western Blot) were developed using the DNA from one tick with lyme disease back in the 1980s.. This tick had never even had contact with humans. (This is significant because when the lyme gets into a human, it alters the DNA of the lyme.) (I believe he said that this strain we are testing for in the U.S. is called 31.)
So, if you have any other strain of lyme, the U.S. tests will not pick it up.
So, our lyme tests really need to be thrown out and we need to develop all new lyme test kits using all of the varieties of lyme DNA that are currently found among the U.S. population.
When you consider that our population travels to many other countries such as Germany and Europe, and when you consider that our military personnel are sent to many other countries in the world for various periods of time, you can easily see that we could and probably do have many strains of lyme disease from many other countries here in the U.S. This is the globalization of lyme disease.
Also, the DNA of any disease changes and evolves over time. So, this will affect the ability of a test to detect lyme.
Herxheimer reactions
In some patients, the erythema migrans (bulls eye) rash comes back when they have a herxheimer reaction to lyme treatment. Herxing can produce a skin reaction. You can get the bulls eye in another location plus the original location, for example. And, there are many, many different types of rashes that lyme can cause. The bulls eye is NOT the only appearance it takes.
If a physician accepts only the bulls eye appearance, he is going to miss a lot of cases of lyme disease.
Steere
Dr. Steere was a rheumatologist. He named borrelia with the name "Lyme." He also discovered that lyme could cause bells palsy, heart issues, joint issues, and meningitis. These are the only four things Steere said lyme can cause.
So, when the CDC gets wedded to this lyme disease that can only cause these 4 reactions, that leaves out all of the other strains of borrelia around the world that can cause other types of reactions. For this reason, the name of “Lyme” is not helpful. The disease should be called borreliosis. That name covers all of the types/strains found around the world.
Borreliosis can affect ALL of the parts of the body.
Acquiring Lyme in Another Location
It might be best to go back to the country or state in the U.S. where you got your disease. Get tested there. So, if it was in Germany, go there. Those doctors will be more familiar with its symptoms and how to test for it than the doctors where you live permanently/currently. If you live in Arizona but got ill on the east coast, go back there for testing and treatment. You will get the best diagnosis and treatment there where the doctors are most familiar with it and how it manifests itself.
In England, if you want tested or treated for lyme, you must go to Germany. Doctors' offices in England often have signs that they don't treat lyme disease.
Treatment
Pulsed therapy (meaning one week on meds and one week off) may be the best treatment. The week off helps the gut and the probiotics also. The pulse treatment may also rotate antibiotics.
Another possibility is using electromagnetic energy (a certain type of ultrasound). He is not talking about a rife machine.
Dr. Bill Costerton (the “father” of biofilms) is investigating this to break up biofilms.
If you have a lyme biofilm type infection, it will NOT grow in any microbiology lab test.
Biofilms
He described the biofilm colonies or communities as having various specialized members including tubes to take in food and discharge waste, communication members, etc. A lyme biofilm will have some spirochetes around on the outside of it, but will have many forms of borrellia on the inside being protected from every disease detection system the body has. The biofilm also prevents antibiotics from reaching the borrelia.
So, because of the makeup of the biofilm, the disease inside of it cannot be detected by a lab.
(Lyme) Endocarditis is an example of a lyme biofilm. There are floating and fixed biofilms. Pieces of biofilms can break off and float around freely in the body. He said that pieces of a biofilm community can metastasize and cause problems in other organs, such as if they leave the heart and go to the kidneys, lungs, etc.
This is how they can cause death.
He said that when doctors or the medical community speak of a patient “failing therapy,” they are really misspeaking because it is the therapy (or the doctor) that failed the patient.
If a person dies from a herxheimer reaction, the doctor failed to respond properly to the herx or failed to watch the patient closely enough to notice what was happening. People don't "fail" therapies. The therapy fails the patient.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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posted
Thank you for the excellent note taking. We all here appreciate the time it took to do that.
My son who was bitten in Norway was positive for borrelia through Labcorp and Igenex. I was worried that it would not be picked up by the labs here and I spoke to IGenex about this. They said, from my best understanding, is that there is enough similar DNA in the various strains that corresponds to the test here in the US.
I am sure I just complicated matters,, but I wanted to put that out there for other who may fall into a similar situation regarding testing.
I am praying they find a way to break up the bio films, but also know that some other types of bio films in your body serve useful purposes. So I am not sure how that can be managed. This is a very complicated disease to navigate.
Posts: 160 | From somewhere | Registered: May 2010
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Lymedin2010
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Member # 34322
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+1 on notes.
I've been meaning to watch his new videos & this weekend sounds like a good time.
Posts: 2087 | From NY | Registered: Oct 2011
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springshowers
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 19863
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Yes. I watched too.
Biofilms !! Huge issue and we need to find a way to erradicate.
High powered current devices were mentioned.
I believe it is electronic / light / frequency / current / magnetance / sound / etc. Type things that will be what can break them down and keep them from growing back too
We need real research and testing It's mostly put into medical equipment and dentistry. But vets are very interested and involved and they seem to be a step ahead in the vector borne illness area
Biofilms are causative factor in all inflammatory chronic diseases keeping them chronic.
Dr MacDonald said that the proof of biofilms proves Lyme us chronic disease. Along with all his evidence based research and medical information compiling of autopsy research and reporting as well.
When will ccd recognize it officially ? Has to be soon'
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surprise
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Member # 34987
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Thank you. I always enjoy reading your notes, most helpful.
-------------------- Lyme positive PCR blood, and positive Bartonella henselae Igenex, 2011. low positive Fry biofilm test, 2012. Update 7/16- After extensive treatments, doing okay! Posts: 2518 | From USA | Registered: Nov 2011
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
Because of HK111's post regarding his son who was bitten in Norway but tested positive for lyme here in the U.S. by both Labcorp and Igenex, I listened again to Dr. MacDonald's video regarding U.S. lyme test kits.
I do not want to do a disservice to Dr. MacDonald. So, here are additional statements he made about the subject of U.S. test kits finding lyme from Europe:
The B31 strain of lyme is the basis for all U.S. lyme test kits.
"There are a lot of flaws in betting on one tick." "Strains around the world do not react very well with our U.S.A. test kit."
So, if you come from Europe and have a European strain and get tested with a U.S.A. test kit, you will get a negative result. "Betting the ranch on one (tick) is a flawed concept."
(Then a journal article entitled "Performance of U.S. Serologic Assays in the Diagnosis of Lyme Borrelia Acquired in Europe" is put on the screen. This was published in "Clinical Infectious Diseases Advance Access" publication date May 3, 2013.)
When discussing Europe's three or more strains of lyme and three test kits, he says "Therefore you have a wider net and a better chance of finding out if the infection is due to one of these borrelia or due to all three of them."
He then gives examples of people infected in Europe who got negative test results with the U.S. lyme test kit.
He also says, "We don't get good success with testing our soldiers infected in the trenches in Germany."
[end of notes]
So, based on all of that, I think Dr. MacDonald would say that HK111's son was fortunate to get a positive test result by using a U.S. test kit to find lyme acquired in Europe.
I would say the thrust of his argument in this section of the video is that the U.S. isn't doing as good a job as Europe when it comes to lyme test kits, and that it is rather foolish for the U.S. to depend on test kits developed from just one tick, representing only one strain of lyme disease.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
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I would tend to think that it would be difficult to test for European strains here in the US as well. Maybe there is some cross reactivity going on, I do not know. I do not have a scientific mind, other than what I've come to learn since having lyme myself and having to educate myself. I am thankful we did get a positive test was able to treat . I know Dr. MacDonald has devoted tremendous time and effort into researching this disease and am grateful for it. It is because of doctors and researches like him that one day a cure will be found. I do not want to take anything away from his thorough and valuable research.
Just wanted to put it out there that it can be found in some instances, it did for us.
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CherylSue
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Member # 13077
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Camping is very popular in Europe, especially along the Rhine River in Germany. With all those forests, it's no wonder Lyme is found there.
Posts: 1954 | From Illinois | Registered: Aug 2007
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