tick-borne Archives - Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Top Lifestyle Interventions to Aid Recovery in Tick-borne Illness: An Interactive Discussion with Concrete Takeaways

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

BAL Spotlights Series

In this article transcribed from our Distinguished Speaker Series webinar, Sunjya Schweig, MD, founder and CEO of the California Center for Functional Medicine and member of Bay Area Lyme’s Scientific Advisory Board, discusses how recovering from tick-borne illnesses can be aided through carefully devised combinations of conventional and functional medicine, tailored to the individual person. Nancy Chimsky, retired interior designer and Lyme patient, who has been challenged with tick-borne infections since 1997, shares her personal Lyme story in the first part of this webinar.

Dr. Schweig discussed the top four lifestyle areas critical to aiding recovery and explains how and why optimizing each area is key to treating and managing Lyme and tick-borne disease. The lifestyle areas are:

Diet and nutrition
Stress reduction and neuroplasticity
Sleep
Detoxification

Dr. Schweig also discussed the important role that botanical and herbal medicines have in recovery. He discusses the individualized nature of treatment and testing for Lyme disease, including the use of various lab tests and the consideration of co-infections. Finally, Dr. Schweig emphasizes the importance of finding the right healthcare practitioner who can address the complexity of Lyme disease and provide appropriate treatment. The session concludes with a Q&A session about what people are doing to manage their health, and Dr. Schweig provided practical suggestions and concrete takeaways based on these questions from attendees.

Dana Parish’s Personal Odyssey: Her Quest for the Right Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme Disease

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

BAL Spotlights Series

Dana Parish is a singer/songwriter based in New York City, signed with SonyATV. She is renowned for her captivating vocals and emotionally charged performances. Her debut single, ‘Not My Problem,’ from her album Uncrushed, reached the #23 spot on the Billboard charts, establishing her as one of the highest-charting independent artists in history. She notably contributed two songs, ‘Thankful’ and ‘Always be Your Girl,’ to Celine Dion’s album Loved Me Back to Life. Additionally, her song ‘Someday I’ll Fly’ by G.E.M. became a #1 hit in China. Another one of her compositions, ‘Broken Ones,’ performed by Jacquie Lee, a finalist on Season 5 of The Voice, achieved chart success. A fearless advocate for the Lyme community, Dana champions the cause of individuals suffering from Lyme and tick-borne diseases. In May 2016, she delivered a heartfelt performance of ‘Pull You Through’ at LymeAid^Ⓡ, Bay Area Lyme’s annual fundraising event, contributing to raising more than $815,000 for Lyme disease research. In 2021, she co-authored Chronic: The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Pandemic and How to Get Healthy Again with Steven Phillips, MD. Dana hosts the Ticktective podcast and video series for Bay Area Lyme Foundation and is a member of our advisory board.

In this interview, Dana Parish discusses her life before being diagnosed with Lyme disease and the challenges she faced in getting accurate diagnosis and correct treatment. She talks about her career in the music industry before she was bitten by a tick. Dana shares her experience with being misdiagnosed and the physical and mental symptoms she experienced. She also discusses the importance of raising awareness about Lyme disease and advocating for better treatment options. Dana also touches on the similarities between persistent Lyme disease and Long Covid and the potential for overlap in research and treatment. She emphasizes the importance of being your own advocate and demanding proper treatment. Finally, Dana shares her thoughts on the current protocol for treating tick bites and the need for aggressive and early treatment.

Ticktective with Dana Parish: Stealth Invader: Unveiling Lyme’s Hidden Past

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Kris Newby

Kris Newby is an award-winning medical science writer and the senior producer of the Lyme disease documentary UNDER OUR SKIN, which was a 2010 Oscar semifinalist. Her book BITTEN: The Secret History of Biological Weapons and Lyme Disease has won three international book awards for journalism and narrative nonfiction. She has two engineering degrees and has worked as a science/technology writer for Stanford Medical School, Apple, and other Silicon Valley companies.

To read the podcast transcript, click here.

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Ticktective with Dana Parish: From Harvard MD to MS Patient: Wisdom from Both Sides

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Annie Brewster, MD

Annie Brewster is an Assistant Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, a writer and a storyteller. She is also a patient, diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2001. In response to the disconnection she experienced in healthcare, both as a patient and a provider, and motivated by her belief in the power of stories, she started recording patient narratives in 2010. Integrating her personal experiences with the research supporting the health benefits of narrative, she founded Health Story Collaborative (HSC) in 2013. HSC is dedicated to helping individuals navigating health challenges find meaning, and ultimately heal, through storytelling. She is excited by interdisciplinary, cross-institutional collaborations that break through resistance to change. She is widely published in the press and is author of The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss (2022).

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Ticktective: Healthy Nutrition Is Crucial for Those with Lyme Disease and Chronic Health Conditions

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Lindsay Christensen, MS, CNS, LDN, A-CFHC, CKNS

Lindsay Christensen is the author of the book, “The Lyme Disease 30-Day Meal Plan: Healthy Recipes and Lifestyle Tips to Ease Symptoms”. She provides nutrition consulting services at the California Center for Functional Medicine and her private practice, Ascent to Health.

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Ticktective with Dana Parish: On the Front Lines of Lyme Treatment—a Conversation with Pioneer Kenneth Liegner, MD

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Ken Liegner, MD

Dana Parish interviews Dr. Kenneth Liegner, a Board Certified Internist practicing in Pawling, New York. He has been on the front lines of treating chronic Lyme and related infections since 1988. He has published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is the author of In the Crucible of Chronic Lyme Disease—Collected Writings & Associated Materials.

To read the podcast transcript, click here.

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Treating Complex Chronic Diseases: Novel Therapeutic Options for Lyme Patients

Bay Area Lyme Speaker Series with Steven Harris

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

BAL Happenings Series

Bay Area Lyme Speaker Series San Jose 2022 — Dr Steven Harris speaking at the Bay Area Lyme Speaker Series in San Jose, September 29, 2022

Dr. Steven Harris, a physician specializing in Lyme at Pacific Frontier Medical, was guest speaker as part of our Distinguished Speaker Series. His presentation on the complexity of tick-borne diseases is transcribed below to share his invaluable insights into novel treatment options for those living with chronic/persistent Lyme and other intractable infections that severely curtail patients’ quality of life, bringing hope and restoring health to many. Note: This transcribed presentation has been edited for clarity.

What is “Precision Medicine”?

“The concept of precision medicine, which is a growing area, is where we look at an individual and try to create a tailored plan for that person. I think many doctors wish that we could have a ‘cookbook’ approach to medicine that would work for our patients. But unfortunately, that approach doesn’t work. Luckily, here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are doctors offering precision medicine including Dr. Sunjya Schweig in Berkeley, Dr. Christine Green, with us at Pacific Frontier Medical, and Dr. Eric Gordon, at Gordon Medical Associates in Marin and others. And thankfully, we have Stanford and UCSF (our local medical centers) that we work peripherally with. In addition, the Open Medicine Foundation is making great strides in understanding illness and Dr. Mike Snyder’s group at Stanford who are working on multi omics for chronic fatigue that track an individual patient’s data.

“These doctors are working in their own fields, not necessarily just tick-borne diseases, but our work overlaps. For example, the Snyder Lab multi-omic study involves genomics, epigenomics, metabolomics, where they are looking at tons of data and assimilating a lot of this different data to try to create treatment plans that work for the individual, because of the fact that a ‘cookbook’ approach doesn’t work for this group of chronic complex patients. For example, we look at someone’s multi-ome and the parts that make them up, including their microbiome, epigenome among many others, which is becoming a bigger and more exciting field. One of the practical aspects we try to determine is how to address an individual’s level of inflammation, the diversity of their personal bacterial flora, and how to help compensate for any deficiencies—or over abundances—that help contribute to disease.

Ticktective with Dana Parish: All About Kids with Lyme, PANS, Mold Illness

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Charlotte Mao, MD

Dr. Charlotte Mao is a pediatric infectious diseases (ID) physician with special focus on Lyme disease and associated infections. She received her medical degree at Harvard Medical School and did her pediatric and infectious disease training at Boston Children’s Hospital. Ticktective Video and Podcast Editor: Kiva Schweig.

To read the podcast transcript, click here .

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Ticktective with Dana Parish: The Misunderstood Infection That Is Wreaking Havoc

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Edward B. Breitschwerdt, DVM, DACVIM, PhD

Dr. Edward B. Breitschwerdt is the Melanie S. Steele professor of medicine and infectious diseases at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, and Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Ticktective Video and Podcast Editor: Kiva Schweig. Click here for this podcast transcript.

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Ticktective with Dana Parish: From Long Covid to Long Lyme: Persistent Infections Drive Chronic Illness

By Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Amy Proal, PhD

Microbiologist Amy Proal, PhD, serves as President/CEO of PolyBio Research Foundation and Chief Scientific Officer of the Long Covid Research Initiative (LCRI). Her work examines the molecular mechanisms by which viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens dysregulate human gene expression, immunity, and metabolism. Ticktective Video and Podcast Editor: Kiva Schweig. Click here for this podcast transcript.

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