Love Bite Diary #3: Some Practical Advice from the Dash

The Love Bite Diary started as notes to friends. It was therapeutic, as a writer and as a human, to simply express a long held secret. I was struggling in and out of physical functioning and brain firing, but my friends made it feel safe to write, and encouraged me to do so, when I could. These are friends from all over the world, brought to my laptop through that sorcery called Facebook. Until I catch up, the entries of the diary will not match the dates of the posts, as many entries had to be heavily edited and back dated, after I a great amount of healing - as I was in no shape to write at all for several months. I hope to add the stories of some of the incredible people I am meeting, offer practical advice as I learn and get more on my feet, and eventually interview experts in the treatment of Lyme Disease. And recipes - in time, there will be recipes. In the meantime, I hope you are glad to be on this exploration with me, and that it is helpful to each of you in some way.

~ Thank you, Elisabeth

May 26, 2016

A big update!

I am going to Albany, NY on Sunday and have an appointment with a top Lyme specialist there, Dr. Stram, who works very closely with Dr. Horowitz, an internationally recognized expert who is fully booked, and unable to accept more patients. Although Dr. Minkoff in Florida is another physician who is recognized for his excellent work, I keep hearing success stories about Dr. Horowitz’s protocol, and when a last minute appointment opened up with Dr. Stram, who uses this protocol, I grabbed it. It appears that the Lyme has traveled to my heart and lungs, and this is the urgency that is pushing me to find exactly the right physician and do it quickly. Thanks to you all, I have enough money to at least get started with him and to be able to jump on this appointment, and am acting on faith that the rest will come in as needed. Sue keeps telling me to stop thanking her, but she will have to put up with eternal gratitude for everything that she has done and is doing. Thank you, Sue. And thank you to everyone who has stepped in to help in some way. I feel supported and loved, and grateful.

Important Information from the Experts

As I learn for myself, it is clear that we all need to learn more about Lyme Disease. Here is some excellent information from Dr. Richard Horowitz, M.D., the physician mentioned above. He is the New York Times Best Selling author of "Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Disease." Lyme is on the rise, so please read and share the article below. This is one bug bite that .... if you are informed and act quickly ... if you get the right physician and the right treatment for the specific infections that were transferred.. and get that treatment for a long enough period of time (longer than the CDC suggests) ... you can beat Lyme and many of its co-infecitons. If you don't, the consequences can be devastating and life changing beyond belief.

The Lyme disease debate: Can the condition be chronic?

Read or listen to the interview in full, but here are some of the highlights:

Dear Medical Community, Stop Fighting and Start Learning

There are two sets of guidelines for diagnosing and treating Lyme. One is by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) and the other is by ILADS — Dr. Horowitz was one of the founding members of ILADS, the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society. Here is what he says about the controversy:

These two guidelines are different. One says the tests are reliable and you can cure it with 30 days, and the other guidelines say you can't. Right now, the IDSA are redoing their guidelines. The Lyme groups have sent extensive scientific references to the IDSA on how poor the testing is and that Lyme can exist … the controversy, the politics of Lyme now that [are] really interfering with doctors knowing what to do, but we really need to put our swords aside, because we're in the middle of an epidemic. This is the No. 1 vector-borne spreading epidemic in the U.S.

Some Quick, But Essential Facts

1. More ticks are coming out 3 weeks earlier than usual as our planet warms up

2. The ticks that carry Lyme diseases are younger than before and are so tiny that you can hardly see them - called nymphs

3. Ticks now carry many types of Lyme related diseases - over 100 different types of Lyme in the United States, and over 300 world wide. Just in one tick bite, you can get infected with multiple organisms

4. PREVENTION: Some of the different type of co-infections are Lyme related pneumonia; Babesia, which is a malaria like infection; ehrlichiosis, and many more because of migrating birds, deer, and mice carry ticks with ease from country to country and state to state. There are also NEW co-infections showing up:

You need to do prevention because one of the viruses we're now finding, the Powassan virus can get into your body within 15 minutes of a tick bite, and the mortality rates are 10 to 15 percent — up to 30 percent in some studies. So you could get multiple viruses … relapsing fever bacteria, a malarial organism like babesia, with one tick bite. It overwhelms the immune system and that's one of the reasons people don't get better. ~Dr. Horowitz

5. Lyme is called, "The Great Imitator" because it is a multi-systemic disorder (affects many systems in the body) and can affect each patient uniquely. Alzheimer's, Multiple Schlerosis (M.S.), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFIDS) / M.E., psychiatric disorders like Schizophrenia, ALS, even anxiety and depression. Dr. Horowitz has seen patients with each of these diagnoses get better when treated for Lyme and its co-infections.

6. Send any ticks that you find and suspect that it has bitten you or your pet to a lab for testing. Most state health departments have a form on their sites that you can fill out and send the tick in a vial for testing.

7. Lyme Disease is a clinical diagnosis. Why? Testing is not sensitive enough, not complete enough, and is often inaccurate. If your test comes back negative, yet you have symptoms such as recurring fever, chills, migrating pain, fatigue, sudden memory lapses, muscle aches and weakness, headaches, numbness, burning, joint pain - these are classic signs of the beginning stages of Lyme and also several of the co-infections. . . you may still have Lyme.

8. Less than half of us get a rash when bitten. SO. Whether you have a rash or not, or if you find a tick that is tough to remove or engorged, or if you have symtpoms of Lyme, go see a Lyme literate physician and discuss getting started with antibiotics before any tests come back.

Q: So say I get exposed to Lyme disease and I don't realize it, time goes by, now it's a year later … can I get better?

A: Yes, you can. There is hope for people with chronic Lyme. I've found that there's up to 16 reasons why people stay ill with Lyme. One of the largest parts are these co-infections in the ticks like babesia. Over 80 percent of the time, this malarial organism — it's a parasite — it's getting into people, making them sick … the [patients] who have day sweats, night sweats, chills. I had a woman in a wheelchair for six years paralyzed from the waist down ... within 10 days of treating the babesia with antibiotics and antimalarial [drugs], she was walking.

Lastly, to end this on a positive note, if you are outside, wear light colored clothing so you can see any ticks that might happen upon you. DO TICK CHECKS. Remove the tick with a tweezers but don't squeeze it - this could actually inject organisms into your blood stream! Read more about what Dr. Horowitz says about prevention so that you can enjoy the summer! He recommends types of sprays and how to use them.

Here is the article again: Read it and watch his interview. 

Exercise & The Immune System: Get Your Sexy Back

With food allergies, food sensitivies, celiac disease, or any other issue involving your immune system (like lyme disease,  auto-immune diseases, or cancer), exercise can be a bitch. You might feel stiff, tired, or bloated.  A little extra fat around the middle?  Yep, that could be the sign that your bod isn't loving some food you are eating - especially gluten.  Tight abs can be more difficult to achieve for folks whose intestines, where 75% of your immune system resides, are distressed.  Inflammation could bring even Chuck Norris to his knees, so the first step is finding the cause and eliminating it.  The second step is healing and/or suporting your gut (see WHY and one way HOW). 

Exercise is also crucial for immune health, but there may be times when you need to slow down.  For those warriors who are used to being physical, the act of slowing down and changing a rigourous routine can be as much of a challenge as exercising for the first time. "I USED to be able to do this, no problem.  I used to kick out 5 miles, now I struggle to do one."  Getting older? Maybe, maybe not.  It might be time to examine your diet and adjust your exercise routine as you heal.

One thing is certain: movement is good.  I asked a few experts to help us better understand how exercise affects our immunity, and which exercises best support an immune system that is stressed in some way, so you can keep your sexy, or get it back.

Why is Exercise So Important?

Keri Topouzian, DO, FACOEP of the Center for Healthy LivingOur first expert, Keri Topouzian, DO is a physician who practices holistic and alternative medicine in Grand Rapids and Detroit. He gives us some important insight on how the body, specifically the immune system, is affected by exercise.

1.  Brings Oxygen and Nutrients to Cells

When we move, it improves our circulation.  Circulation carries the nutrients and oxygen to our cells, the building blocks of our bodies.  Oxygen nourishes, but it also can help you ward off infection since, as Dr. Topouzian puts it, "most bugs don't like oxygen". 

2.  Burst Training & Heavy Weights

Burst training & heavy weights can help increase that ever-important growth hormone.  Growth hormone is important in four distinct ways:

• It increases the amount of natural killer cells we produce (Natural killer cells are a type of lymphocyte, a white blood cell, and a part of the innate immune system that fights infection.)
• It can help repair DNA damage
• It enhances the thymus gland (the Thymus gland is where leukocytes learn to chemically identify specific foreign invaders and where young T cells from the bone marrow move to thymus gland and mature.  In other words, it's where T cells grow up and are taught what to do.)
• It helps regulate NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells) a protein complex that controls the transcription of DNA and that inhibits inflammatory responses.

3.  All Exercise Can Increase Endorphins

Endorphins - our favorite feel good stuff actually enhances the immune system and makes you feel better, happier, more energized.
 

What if You Feel Tired After A Workout?

If your adrenal glands are stressed, according to Dr. Topouzian, you might not be making enough cortisol to sustain a workout. You should get at least 8 hours of sleep and may need nutrients like a multi-vitamin, magnesium, vitamin C, and unheated sea salt. Yes. Sea salt. If sleep isn't doing the trick, have a heart-to-heart with your doctor before you go crazy with supplementation. Dr. Topouzian says that adrenal glands can become stressed when a digestive or stomach problem is inhibiting the absorption of nutrients. A first step would be to review your medication with your doctor. Some medication, even over-the-counter pain medication that is "anti-inflammatory" can actually irritate the gut and inhibit nutrient absorption. A next step could be food allergy and sensitivity testing. Healing your gut might get you back in the gym, on the track, on the mat, or renewing your friendship with that tennis racket.
 

Do You Work Out When You Are Sick?

This is where you use your intuition. If you are about to get a cold, you can sometimes ward it off with a work out – and sometimes not. But if your body is under pressure (aka, you are fatigued) and /or you have the flu, it could actually increase the infection. This means rest, pure and simple. So really listen to your body, especially those important adrenal glands. If you do work out, do it at home where you won’t spread your germs, keep yourself warm, prevent yourself from getting a chill, and stop if you feel you need to stop.  

What Kinds of Exercise Can Help?

Melanie McQuowen of PeaceLab Yoga; Photo by Daniel E. Johnson of Wealthy Street Photography

The first step is to choose a routine that you love and can do consistently.  Working out every day, even for 10 minutes, can help.  If you find you cannot sustain a long work out, even if you used to be able to, try the on / off method (i.e. do yoga for 10 minutes, then rest for 10 minutes, jump rope for a set, then rest for a set).  We'll be posting articles that contain some great workouts for your body that support immune system function when you might be down, including a wrap up article in Women's Lifestyle Magazine. 

Stay tuned for Demonstration articles!

Hula Hooping:  Get Your Abs in Sync with the Universe (coming soon)

Yoga:  Releasing the Psoas & The Spine

Yoga:  The IT Band & Its Possibilities (coming soon)

Yoga:  The Thyroid & The Pititary (coming soon)

Jump Rope (coming soon)

Abs on a Ball (coming soon)

Burst Training (coming soon)

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is Good for the Immune System

 

Meditation is Good for the Soul.  Good for the Body.

This week I met with the wonderul Carol Hendershot, owner of Expressions of Grace Yoga Studio in Grand Rapids, MI.  We had a lovely chat about food, stress, the environment, movies, and also the crazy benefits of meditation.  I started practicing meditation a couple of years ago.  I now do it nearly every day.  I confess that I'm still in the toddler stages of meditation, but even so, the benefits I've received have been life changing.  When I start my day wtih even 10 minutes of meditation, the day flows more effortlessly. My appetite improves. I make better decisions. I feel more connected to everything that I do.  When I end the day with meditation, my sleep is more effortless as well.  When you practice meditation, you learn to sort through internal and exteranl junk and move it "out there", so that this ever popular, yet unwanted friend called stress gets less of a foothold in your body and immune system.   The stress doesn't become you.  It's becomes something you can move through and leave behind.

Carol and ApCarol Hendershot, BS, E-RYT 500 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Teacher and Facilitator.ril Hadley, MSW have started a new program called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and are offering a wonderful workshop starting this month.  MBSR was founded by Dr. Kabat-Zinn, and studied by different well-respected medical research centers.  Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, for instance, have found that: 

"Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density."

In real people terms, the study found that mindfulness meditators can better regulate emotions, remember stuff, keep perspective, and learn.  (See study abstract).

What's even cooler is that the benefits of meditation for the immune system is becoming fact. 

 Resarchers Say . . .

April Hadley, MSW Masters of Social Work Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Instructor

"Emotional distress activates neuroendocrine stress response systems and increases stress hormone secretion. Stress hormones are well-known to alter immune function...

Integrative approaches to promote wellness and reduce the distress associated with cancer are increasingly considered as essential components of cancer care. Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) is a program that shows promise as an approach to not only mange the emotional distress that accompanies disease, such as cancer, but to also produce biological benefits that may promote health and contribute to cancer control....

In predominately non-controlled studies of individuals with a variety of medical conditions, MBSR has been shown to assist individuals to more skillfully manage emotions and somatic reactivity to life stressors"

(Read the full article)

~National Institute of Health:  Effect of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction on Immune Function, Quality of Life and Coping In Women Newly Diagnosed with Early Stage Breast Cancer

Sign Up

Interested in checking it out?  Sign up for a free orientation on August 15, 2012 (9:30am).  This free session is required before the workshop.  So if you can't make it to this orientation but would still like to participate, give Carol a call.

Visit www.grandrapiscenterformindfulness.com or call 616-361-3660 for more information, the full class schedule or to register.

More Info on Upcoming Classes

8 Week - Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR, is a unique program developed to help people better understand and work with all the stressors in their lives — medical, psychological and social. It is an education-based class in which you learn to bring the practice of mindfulness into your life, in both formal and informal ways.

The Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a powerful practice that gives you the tools to build a foundation of clarity and calm in the midst of life’s rockiest times.  From this place of stability, you can engage the challenges and joys of your life with a renewed sense of energy and balance.  Mindfulness opens up a greater sense of choice, enabling you to meet each stressful situation more skillfully and with an increased sense of flexibility and creativity.   

Mindfulness is an effective compliment to the traditional treatment of many conditions including:

• Anxiety and depression    
• Insomnia
• Chronic Pain
• High blood pressure
• Cancer treatment and recovery
• Heart Disease
• Demanding work and life situations
• Immune Disorders

Schedule

Free Information Sessions:
Monday, August 13, 6:30 pm at Expressions of Grace Yoga, 5270 Northland Drive 
Wednesday, August 15, 9:30 am at Expressions of Grace Yoga, 5270 Northland Drive

8-Week MBSR Courses Beginning:
Monday, August 20, 6:30 pm • Carol
Tuesday, August 21, 6:30 pm • April
Wednesday, August 22, 9:30 am • Carol

www.grandrapiscenterformindfulness.com or call 616-361-3660 for more information or to register.

Golf Pro Michelle Wie Goes Gluten-free

Wie Inspired by Djokovic

Last Thursday, Michelle Wie, the U.S. golf champion and phemo, announced to the Tapei Times that she has gone gluten-free.  Her choice was inspired by Tennis Champ, Novak Djokovic.  In March, Djokovic announced that a gluten free diet was a key reason that his tennis game has improved so dramatically over the course of that season. 

The Tapei Times quoted Wie:

“I am allergic to everything in this world, I don’t really digest food very well . . . so I just thought maybe if I cut out gluten, I can feel better because I heard that it causes inflammation, everything ... but it’s been week three and I feel a big difference.”

Wei began her career at 16 and is currently going to Stanford.  She mentioned that she has no trouble balancing her class load at Stanford with her golf career. 

“You know, my joints don’t feel sore as much, I digest food a lot better, my hands feel less swollen so I feel really good,” she said.

 The Wall Street Journal wrote about Djokovic's rise from January 2011 to May 2011:

Djokovic's season has gone from good to great to outrageously, impossibly, unrealistically phenomenal.

Recent Studies Conducted Because of Gluten-based Illnesses

This is further evidence that supports Dr. Alessio Fasano's findings that no human being can properly digest gluten. The Tender Palate interviewed Dr. Fasano in December to help the general public become aware of and better understand his resarch.

Gliadin is a strange protein that our enzymes can’t break down from the amino acids (glutamine and proline) into elements small enough for us to digest.  Our enzymes can only break down the gliadin into peptides.  Peptides are too large to be absorbed properly through the small intestine. 

 As with Djokovic, It will be interesting to watch Michelle Wie throughout this year's performance.  It will also be interesting to see how the medical, research, marketing and farming industries behave as more celebrities and athletes adopt this diet. 

Read the articles and interviews with Dr. Fasano

Interview w/ Dr. Alessio Fasano (Part 1):  Should No One Eat Gluten?

Interview w/ Dr. Alessio Fasano (Part 2):  How to Get Tested for Celiac Disease

Interview w/ Dr. Alessio Fasano (Part 3):  Gluten Sensitivity, A New Food Allergy