However you feel about the mild winter we just experienced (Yay for less shoveling! Boo for global warming!), one thing no one’s excited about: The explosion in the tick population it caused. And while most people know that ticks can carry Lyme disease, many of us know very little about the hard-to-pin-down disease. Here’s how to recognize the symptoms and protect yourself from Lyme disease.

What is Lyme disease? There’s a reason experts call it “The Great Imitator.” Lyme disease results from inflammation caused by Lyme bacteria, and the symptoms can mimic everything from rheumatoid arthritis and lupus to anxiety disorders and depression. Most often the result of a tick bite, Lyme disease’s range of devastation is daunting: The same Lyme germ causing joint pain in one person could lead to symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s disease in another.
Prevent Lyme Disease In Pets

Caught early, short-term antibiotic treatment can usually wipe out Lyme disease, but left untreated, the disease can move from organ to organ, creating a wide variety of physical symptoms that come and go. On the symptom list:
Headache
Stiff Neck
Swollen lymph nodes
Ringing in the ears
Heart palpitations
Brain fog
Acid reflux
Sensitivity to light and sound
Extreme fatigue
Fever and chills
Muscles and joint pain
Bloating and diarrhea in children and teens

What about psychological symptoms? Lyme disease can also cause startling changes in personality and mental health, including depression, self-mutilation, and panic attacks, says Leo Shea, PhD, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. “There can be a decline in processes of brain function—attention and concentration problems, memory problems, and the inability to deal with multitasking.” How? Lyme disease causes increased pressure in your head, and blood can’t flow well into a high-pressure zone, says Andrea Gaito, MD, a New Jersey rheumatologist specializing in the treatment of Lyme disease.

Who’s at risk? While most of us associate Lyme disease with long walks in the woods or tick-infested areas like Connecticut and Pennsylvania, the truth is, tick bites usually occur in people’s own backyards—all around the country.

How is Lyme disease diagnosed? The bull’s eye rash is often called a “classic” Lyme symptom because it guarantees you’ve been infected, but studies show that the majority of infected people never get the telltale rash. The ELISA test, the standard blood test commonly used to diagnose Lyme disease, is only 45-65% percent accurate, and other tests are even less accurate. “It’s really a worry because patients can be misdiagnosed with another disease while the causative Lyme disease may go untreated and worsen,” says Dr. Gaito.

What’s the best way to prevent Lyme disease? Your best line of defense is a tough offense—preventing ticks from latching onto you in the first place.
Exercise and eat well. Heat and oxygen help demolish Lyme bacteria, which makes regular workouts a must. It’s also key to avoid disease-fueling processed foods and excess sugar (good advice in general!).
Fend off ticks with lemon. Dr. Gaito favors natural moisturizers or sprays containing pure essential oils from lemons to repel ticks instead of harmful, chemical-based products like DEET.
Feel for unfamiliar bumps. Get to know the natural raised areas on your body, like moles and scars. Then, run your fingers over your skin and scalp before you go to bed every night, particularly if you’ve spent time outside. An unfamiliar raised area could be a tick getting ready to hunker down for a blood meal. Pay special attention to the places ticks like to hide—armpits, bra and panty lines, and the groin.
Scrub-a-dub-dub. Bath time presents a great opportunity for Lyme prevention, not only giving you a chance to check for ticks, but also the ability to wash off ticks that haven’t attached yet. A Yale study confirmed this works: The combination of doing a body scan and taking a shower within two hours of being outside significantly reduces the chance of getting Lyme disease.

What do you do if you find a tick?
First, remove it. Pull it out with a tweezers and don’t squeeze it, as this may force any bacteria in the tick into the body, says Dr. Gaito. Clean the area with alcohol and apply an antibacterial ointment.
Get it tested. It’s wise to have the tick tested, particularly if you live in an endemic area for Lyme disease (Not sure? Click here). Look online for a lab that can test ticks, such as New Jersey Laboratories, and follow directions for sending them in.
See your doctor. “Early treatment is the most effective,” says Dr. Gaito. “I like to see patients within 24 hours of finding the tick to get them treated early.”
Consider a specialist.  Before receiving a Lyme diagnosis, many patients report seeing dozens of doctors and undergoing countless tests. If you believe you have Lyme disease and your current doctors aren’t helping you, keep looking. You can find a specialist through the International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society’s website. You’ll also find info about other tick-borne infections you could be dealing with, such as babesiosis, anaplasmosis, and bartonella.

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Those suffering from the effects of Lyme in Virginia have been joined by elected representatives and medical professionals in agreeing that the biggest challenge to dealing with the increasing threat of the disease locally is working with doctors to ensure patients are diagnosed and treated correctly—and to convince them that the disease is real and needs to be addressed.

The dozens of doctors gathered in Ashburn last week to discuss the science behind Lyme and how best to address the growing number of cases in the region seemed to belie such contentions. The doctors came from Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William counties, and each seemed committed to better understanding the disease and their role in the solution.

That, said Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA-10) who put together the forum, was exactly the intent.

“We want to educate doctors about what this is,” Wolf said. “We wanted to get everyone together and provide this information to them.”

Dr. Samuel Shor, of Reston’s Internal Medicine of Northern Virginia, who has researched extensively on Lyme, walked the medical professionals through the history of Lyme research—including the first known case of the Lyme organism discovered in a mummy from 5,300 years ago—and how the controversy over the treatment of the disease in its chronic form has reached the point it is now.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have concluded through studies that a majority of Lyme can be treated with no more than four weeks of antibiotics, and that patients do not show marked improvement when treated for longer than that period. That directly contradicts studies done by the International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society, which has come up with its own set of guidelines for treating Lyme. Also, in 2011, a committee on Lyme at the Institute of Medicine released a study on chronic Lyme treatment and committee chairman Dr. Lonnie King said, “significant gaps in knowledge exist that require new studies and research.”

These contradictions have led to conflicts in how to treat patients as they walk into doctors’ offices around the region.

“How does it get like this? We were taught in med school and residency that we’re supposed to listen to the CDC. Where is the problem?” one doctor asked during the forum.

According to Shor, the problem evolved from a “perfect storm” where a growing population of very small ticks that “are often unidentifiable can generate an introduction of a disease without having an overt or obvious sign.” Lyme creates common symptoms that can mimic other diseases, and combined with what Shor called “insurance pressures” and “restrictive guidelines,” has put the medical community in a difficult position.

Another doctor called out problems with the IDSA and CDC requirements that patients can only receive one antibiotic at a time, noting that with his patients that often does not work.

“The fact is that this bug does convert, it metamorphoses to a totally different form,” the doctor said. “When it is under attack by an antibiotic it changes shape, and one antibiotic doesn’t address that. I am using two simultaneously and getting better results.”

Shor said a lot more research is needed on therapeutic intervention, noting, “We’re doing this flying by the seat of our pants. But that is how medicine evolves.”

Also causing difficulties for doctors is that the commonly thought-of first sign of Lyme—a bull’s-eye rash from a tick bite—is not always seen. Shor said he has seen up to 50 percent of patients in a series who were bitten who did not develop the rash.

“Or it may be atypical. Or it may be in a location and not identified, like the hairline or back,” he said. “A flu-like illness without [Erythema Migrans] rash has been clearly documented.”

Potential problems also exist with the tests for Lyme, to which many patients and residents have testified at public hearings in Loudoun. Testing for Lyme has historically been a two-step process—first the antibody test called ELISA and then the Western Blot test. But questions about ELISA’s accuracy have been raised, especially in patients with later stage Lyme. More recent, although expensive, methods have emerged, such as testing the tick directly when possible or one lab that is growing Lyme from a blood specimen to determine infection. But more research needs to be done, Shor said.

Shor maintained that lab results are not needed to make a diagnosis of Lyme and encouraged doctors to “look at the whole picture” when evaluating a patient. He noted the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria that causes Lyme is cousin to the syphilis bacteria.

“It is the great imposter,” he said.

He also noted that patients who are the most sick from Lyme can also test negative because their “immune systems are profoundly disabled and therefore unable to create the immune response” needed for testing. He encouraged doctors to review and think through all the research into Lyme as they prepare to work with patients.

“This is the art of medicine. We each need to weigh the risks and benefits, the pros and cons of treating or not treating,” he said. “It is the clinician’s responsibility to have an understanding and provide choice to the patient. Don’t be willing to accept a negative blood test if you really think someone has Lyme disease… We should be counseling patients that there are different schools of thought and they have different options.”

Doctors also questioned what, besides antibiotics, could be used to treat Lyme, even in combination with traditional medicine, suggesting the use of herbal supplements and acupuncture.

“I think we need to be all encompassing and holistic in how we deal with this disease,” Shor said.

Questions also were raised about what was being done in the government to determine just how bad Lyme could get in the community.

“I want to know if there are plans for a tick survey in Northern Virginia,” one doctor asked, “not just for Lyme, but for other infections.”

Dr. David Trump, the state’s new epidemiologist, said that was truly a question of money.

“That is not something that we at the health department are funded to do right now. I think there is an opportunity but it would have to likely be through a research activity,” he said. Trump told the audience he had spoken with an entomologist about the possibility of a tick survey, but was told that human diseases are not a priority of those who study insects.

“We want to hear about cases. We need the clinicians to report them,” Trump said of the best chances for getting a clear picture about the extent of Lyme in Virginia. “Especially with Lyme and the EM rash and the early diagnosis, it is a clinician diagnosis. We need you to report.”

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Joyce Cate had finished playing tennis one day in early May of 2010 when she realized she was far more fatigued than normal. By the time she returned home to Westmoreland after a grocery shopping trip, she was more worn out.

“I felt like a dish rag,” she said. Within the next couple of days, she noticed her neck and shoulder were very stiff and sore. “I thought I pulled something,” she said.

It was the beginning of her six-month bout suffering from the symptoms of Lyme disease.

For the six weeks that followed that day — she remembers it was May 4 — her health steadily deteriorated.

“I’m healthy; I’ve led an athletic life,” she said. “I’m not one to easily be put down.”

Fatigue and muscle aches were her most prevalent symptoms. She also had a constant dull headache and nausea: she lost 17 pounds that month.

Six weeks later, after two trips to the emergency room at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene for stomach issues, she asked for a blood test that would determine if she had Lyme disease. She insisted on the test at the suggestion of her friends, who told her that her symptoms sounded like those caused by Lyme. The test came back positive.

Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, spread — mostly in New England — by the bite of the deer tick. It was first identified in the U.S. in Lyme, Conn. in 1977. More than 20,000 cases of the disease are reported in the U.S. each year.

Data collected by the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services shows there were more than 1,342 cases reported in New Hampshire in 2010, 29 of those in Cheshire County — those numbers are more than double the number reported in 2006.

More than 60 percent of deer tick samples taken that same year in Cheshire County were infected with the Lyme disease-carrying bacterium.

Cate believes she wasn’t diagnosed with Lyme disease sooner because she did not have the telltale “bulls-eye” rash, a large circular rash that develops around or near the site of a tick bite within the first month in about 80 percent of Lyme disease patients. She never felt or saw a tick bite.

Although Lyme disease can affect anyone, those who spend time in wooded or grassy areas are at greater risk, because of the increased exposure to ticks.

The symptoms Cate suffered two years ago are typical of Lyme disease. Others are flu-like symptoms (chills, fever, swollen glands) and facial paralysis (Bell’s palsy).

Symptoms usually begin within a month of exposure, but onset ranges from three to 32 days.

Standard treatment for early Lyme disease (within the first six months) is a 14- to 28-day course of the antibiotic doxycycline — Cate had a 21-day dosage of the drug.

Dr. Jodie Dionne-Odom, who works in the infectious disease section at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, emphasized seeing a doctor as soon as symptoms manifest or if the bulls-eye rash appears.

“If you have a tick bite or if you’ve been hiking or outdoors recently and have symptoms, don’t wait,” she said. “The treatment has the most effect when it’s early.”

If Lyme disease is left untreated for a few weeks or months, complications such as meningitis, arthritis and heart abnormalities may occur and other body systems (including the brain, digestive and respiratory systems) may be affected.

About 20 percent of patients may experience long-term symptoms after treatment.

Although this patient population does not benefit from an extra course of antibiotics, Dionne-Odom said, controversy surrounds how to treat them.

These patients suffer from post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, often called chronic Lyme disease. Symptoms can be similar to acute Lyme disease such as fatigue and joint pain, and include neurological issues such as decreased concentration and memory disorders.

Medical authorities, including the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Academy of Neurology and the National Institutes of Health say there isn’t an effective treatment for chronic Lyme disease. Their consensus is that any long-term symptoms are not related to Lyme disease but to other conditions.

Dr. Daniel Cameron, who operates a primary care practice in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., disagrees. He is a member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, a group of health care professionals involved with Lyme disease since the late 1980s. The nonprofit group advocates greater acceptance of chronic Lyme disease in the medical community.

He said a few studies have shown the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment for chronic Lyme disease, but they were conducted using too small number of patients to change guidelines.

Cameron began treating patients with chronic Lyme disease in the late ’80s. In 1990, he read a report by Allen Steere, a former Yale University professor of rheumatology credited with discovering and naming Lyme disease in the ’70s.

The report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, outlined neurological Lyme disease, with long-term symptoms including poor memory and concentration, sleep disturbance and irritability.

Cameron treats chronic Lyme disease patients with neurological issues such as depression, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as he would treat a patient with fatigue or joint pain — with a longer course of antibiotics.

These patients are conventionally treated with other medications that treat the symptoms and not the underlying disease, Cameron said.

Likewise, patients who suffer from chronic Lyme disease symptoms such as fatigue and muscle and joint pain might be diagnosed by their primary care physician with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue.

“These patients are usually frustrated that they can’t get better,” Cameron said. “When these symptoms persist, they’re sent to another specialist.”

Cameron uses a holistic approach, encouraging a low-carbohydrate, low-sugar diet and exercise.

Dr. Jeffrey Greenfield, who practices osteopathic medicine at his family practice in Manchester, also prescribes a diet low in sugar and high in protein and vegetables along with immune system-boosting herbs like garlic to his chronic Lyme disease patients.

Also a member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, he treats these patients with a longer course — at least a month — of antibiotics. Often, he will treat the patient for other infections that can go along with Lyme disease, such as babesiosis. The disease is caused by a parasite, babesia, found in one in three ticks in New Hampshire.

“It mimics the symptoms of malaria,” Greenfield said.

It doesn’t respond to doxycycline because it’s not a bacterium — instead, he treats it with anti-malarial drugs.

Greenfield said treating chronic Lyme disease is a hard pill to swallow for the majority of the medical community, which is reluctant to prescribe antibiotics long-term.

“These are not benign medications,” he said. “They can cause significant side effects,” including gastrointestinal issues, yeast infections and liver dysfunction.

Chronic Lyme disease sufferers need to weigh the pros and cons of taking antibiotics long-term. Cameron said about 80 percent of his patients with chronic Lyme disease improve after treatment.

Those who tests positive once for Lyme disease and receive treatment are not immune to becoming infected with it again. These patients can receive a prophylactic dose of doxycycline within the first 72 hours of a tick bite to prevent infection from a new bacteria.

“It’s not a treatment,” Dionne-Odom said. “It’s to keep the disease from setting in again.”

Cate took a dose of doxycycline last week after she found a tick crawling inside her pant leg after working in her garden.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer tips for preventing a tick bite while outdoors, including walking in the center of a hiking trail, tucking pants into socks and shirts into pants, using insect repellent containing 20 percent DEET, bathing as soon as possible after coming indoors, keeping grass short at home, removing leaf litter and creating a wood chip or gravel barrier where the lawn meets the woods.

People should also examine their hiking or camping gear and pets for ticks, which can attach to a person later. Any remaining ticks found on clothing can be killed in a clothes dryer on high heat.

If a tick is attached to your skin for less than 24 hours, your chance of getting Lyme disease is extremely small. But to remove a tick, you should do so with a tweezer as close to the skin as possible to the attachment site, being careful not to squeeze or puncture the body of the tick.

The attachment site should be disinfected with rubbing alcohol or an antibacterial wash and hands should be washed with hot water and soap.

Of course, people should be alert for any signs or symptoms of illness.

Dionne-Odom’s most important tip is to check the body for ticks once indoors after each time spent outside. That includes under the arms, in and around ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, between the legs, around the waist and in the hair.

Cate is playing tennis again and feels back to her normal self, but she will never forget what it was like suffering from the symptoms of undiagnosed Lyme disease.

“It was six horrible, horrible weeks,” she said.

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Dr. Samuel Shor – internist, private practice and associate clinical professor at George Washington University.

Dr. Brian Fallon- professor of clinical psychiatry.
director, Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center. and
director, Center for the Study of Neuroinflammatory Disorders & Biobehavioral Medicine
Columbia University

Stephen Barthold – professor,department of pathology, microbiology and immunology
Center of Comparative Medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis

Program Highlights

Questions as to whether chronic Lyme disease exists, how to test for it, and how to treat it are dividing doctors and confounding patients. Diane’s guests discuss why diagnosing and treating the disease remains so challenging and controversial.

Best Treatment Practices

Doses of specific antibiotics are recommended for both early-stage Lyme disease and for patients who may be experiencing some neurological problems or arthritis, like knee swelling, Dr. Auwaerter said. But as for the question about whether or not it’s possible to have so-called “chronic” Lyme disease, Auwaerter said that carefully performed studies have shown no evidence that bacteria seems to persist in people with ongoing complaints after being treated for Lyme disease.

A Different View On Chronic Lyme Disease

Dr. Shor believes that there’s “no scientific basis” for concluding that 30 days of treatment in all patients with Lyme disease is going to be adequate to cure the disease. Dr. Barthold has found in his veterinary practice and research that the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is very
good at persisting in an animal’s body for that animal’s entire lifespan. It’s possible, Dr. Barthold said, that this could be the same pattern for the disease in humans.

What Happens With “Chronic” Lyme Disease?

“The infection is persistent, the disease is not,” Dr. Barthold said. “And what’s curious about Lyme disease is in the early phase of the infection you have arthritis and inflammation of the heart and other manifestations in animals as you see in humans. And then the immune response, particularly antibody, comes in and clears a large number of the bacteria from tissues leaving behind persisting organisms that are sequestered away in connective tissue,” he said.

Difficulties In Diagnosis And Treatment

Dr. Fallon said that it’s certainly possible for some patients to have Lyme disease but to not test positive for it. Dr. Shor agrees that the available testing is “insensitive.” “And we have managed care which pushes physicians to see very complex patients in short periods of time and insurance companies that are loathe to pay any more than they have to,” Dr. Shor said.

You can read the full transcript here.

You can listen here.

Warm Weather Means Ticks Will Be Out Early; A ‘Horrific’ Season for Lyme and Other Diseases

They can wait for months, clinging to the edge of a blade of grass or a bush, for the whiff of an animal’s breath or vibration telling them a host approaches.

They are ticks—and when they attach to your skin and feed on your blood over many days, they can transmit diseases. Often hard to diagnose and tricky to treat, tick-borne illnesses—led by Lyme disease—can cause symptoms ranging from headache and muscle aches, to serious and long-term complications that affect the brain, joints, heart, nerves and muscles. Preventing bites to head off illness is particularly important, experts say, because the complex interaction between ticks, their hosts, bacteria and habitats isn’t completely understood.

Warmer temperatures are leading some experts to warn that tick activity is starting earlier than usual this year, putting more people at risk.

“This is going to be a horrific season, especially for Lyme,” says Leo J. Shea III, a clinical assistant professor at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, part of New York University Langone Medical Center. He is also president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society.

Lyme may be identified after a tick bite, for example, by an expanding rash that looks like a bull’s-eye. But that doesn’t always happen, and even after a tick bite, antibodies against Lyme may not show up for weeks, so early blood tests can turn up false negatives. Symptoms such as fatigue, chills, fever, headache and swollen lymph nodes may be misdiagnosed. Some infections can go undetected for months or even years. When caught early, tick-borne diseases can be treated successfully with two weeks of antibiotics, but doctors and researchers still argue about whether a chronic form of Lyme exists, and whether it should be treated with longer courses of the drugs.

Between 1992 and 2010, reported cases of Lyme doubled, to nearly 23,000, and there were another 7,600 probable cases in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But CDC officials say the true incidence of Lyme may be three times higher. Other infections, including babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and anaplasmosis are steadily increasing, too. While not all ticks carry disease, some may spread two or three types of infections in a single bite.

“We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the type of pathogens ticks can be harboring and transmitting,” says Kristy K. Bradley, state epidemiologist and public health veterinarian for the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Animals “are a traveling tick parade,” Dr. Bradley adds, with pet dogs “bringing them into the home and onto furniture and carpets.”

Regularly checking the body for ticks can reduce exposure, because removing them quickly can prevent transmission of disease, says Kirby C. Stafford III, chief entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, or CAES, in New Haven.

Showering or bathing quickly after being outdoors can also help wash off crawling ticks or make it easier to find them. What won’t work: simply jumping in the pool or lake, because ticks can hide in bathing suits and don’t quickly drown in water. There are tick-repellent sprays for clothes, but it is wise to immediately launder and dry garments at high temperatures after hiking or golfing in areas where ticks are present.

The CDC is conducting the first study of its kind to determine whether spraying the yard for ticks can not only kill pests, but also reduce human disease. Participating households agreed to be randomly assigned a single spray with a common pesticide, bifenthrin, or one that contained water, without knowing which they would receive.

Paul Mead, chief of epidemiology and surveillance activity at CDC’s bacterial-illness branch, says preliminary results from about 1,500 households indicate that a spray reduced the tick population by 60%.

“But there was far less of a reduction in tick encounters and illness,” indicating that even a sharp drop in tick populations leaves infected ones behind. “We may have to completely wipe out ticks to get an effect on human illness,” he says. The CDC is enrolling households for a second arm of the study and expects final results late in the fall. Organic repellents such as Alaska cedar are also being tested in other studies.

Sometimes fire is the only solution: Wildlife biologist Scott C. Williams roams Connecticut’s woods armed with a propane torch to incinerate clumps of Japanese barberry, an invasive plant species that chokes off native vegetation and provides a favorite habitat for ticks.

The CAES program to control the red-berried shrub—once cultivated as decorative—is part of the growing, multifaceted effort around the country to prevent the spread of infections like Lyme, which Dr. Williams has been treated for twice since beginning the project in 2007.

Dr. Bradley’s home state of Oklahoma is one of several working with the One Health Initiative, a global program to improve communication between physicians and veterinarians to prevent the spread of infectious disease from animals to people, such as recommending tick collars, sprays or topical treatments with pesticides for dogs.

One problem, says Laura Kahn, a founder of One Health, is that “vets don’t like to advise people on human health and physicians don’t typically think about these things, so it falls through the cracks.” About 75% of new diseases that have emerged globally in the last 30 years are spread from animals to people, many of them through ticks, says Dr. Kahn, who is also a science-and-global-security researcher at Princeton University.

Jason Lipsett, 21 years old, was diagnosed with Lyme in November, after suffering for three years with symptoms including problems with his jaw, recurring sinus infections, migraines and trouble sleeping. He had to give up playing tennis and take a medical leave from Bentley University in Waltham Mass., where he was a senior. He doesn’t remember being bitten by a tick but had been camping in the woods in New Hampshire and often spent time outdoors during the summers at a family home in Cape Cod.

Doctors told him he might have chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. Depressed about his health, he began seeing a therapist who knew about the symptoms of Lyme and referred him to another physician. That doctor determined he had Lyme—and babesiosis, caused by a parasite that destroys red blood cells.

Mr. Lipsett has been on an antibiotic regimen for four months. He says he has felt better each month and that he is prepared to stay on the drugs until he and his doctor are confident the disease is under control. He is making up courses and hopes to graduate next year. He plans to participate in a 5K run on April 29 to raise money for Time for Lyme, a Stamford, Conn. nonprofit that supports research into Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses.

“I may not be able to run, but I’m going to try to walk it,” he says.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577305630267988716.html

The peak Lyme disease transmission season in New Jersey is May through August. Knowledge about this devastating disease, the importance of quick treatment and understanding of typical co-infections, are concerns for anyone living in Monmouth County.

The Holmdel High School Parent Teacher Student Organization, in cooperation with the non-profit Lyme Disease Association, invites the public to learn more about the silent disease at “Lyme Disease Lecture Night” taking place on April 26, 7-9 p.m. at the Holmdel High School Auditorium, 36 Crawfords Corner Road.

Medical experts will talk about the physical, neurological, psychological and emotional aspects of Lyme disease and the infections that can come along with it.

Topics to be discussed include common misdiagnoses and symptoms, testing choices, IEPs and school dynamics, reasons people don’t get better, treatment options, supportive therapies and the importance of early detection.

Speakers include:
•Robert Bransfield MD, a Lyme-literate psychiatrist in private practice in Red Bank and Riverview Medical Center
•Judith Leventhal PhD, a neuropsychologist from NY specializing in children and adolescents
•Gerald Simons PA-C, former physician assistant for Joseph Burrascano MD, foremost authority on Lyme and Tick-borne infections
•Pat Smith, president of the national non- profit Lyme Disease Association.

According to the Lyme Disease Association, those who should are people who suffer from M.S. Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Epstein- Barr Fibromyalgia, IBS, Vertigo ADHD, ADD, Autism, Learning Disabilities, Auditory Processing, Dyslexia, Autoimmune disorders, Scleroderma, Raynauds, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hypothyroid, Prediabetes, Heart palpitations, Heart Block, Carditis.

People who suffer from the following might also find the information helpful:

Sleeping difficulties, Night Sweats, Anxiety, Depression, Lethargy, Irritability, Migratory aches and pains, Chronic Neck Headaches, Back and sinus problems, Visual problems, Light or Sound Sensitivity, Tingling, Tics, Seizures, Brain Fog, Restless Leg, Temperature Regulation Cognition, executive functioning deficits.

Fewer acorns equal fewer white-footed mice, this results in “ticked off ticks” so to speak. The ticks will increasingly look to humans for their blood meals. According to the study, this will cause a spike in Lyme disease risks.

Monte Skall of McLean was bitten in the past right in her front yard. Since then, she’s made it her mission to inform the public about tick-borne illnesses. She is the Executive Director of the National Capital Lyme and Tick Borne Disease Association.

Skall says, “The best thing to do is be aware, education is key here.”

Be careful in areas with high grassy areas, including backyards and golf courses.

“You need to be educated to dress properly, to check yourself for ticks after you’ve been outdoors and done outdoor activities. And to seek the proper medical treatment if you to have a tick attachment.”, says Skall.

If you see a tick attached to you, use tweezers to remove the tick.

Skall adds, “The proper way is to use fine point tweezers, get at the base where the head of the tick is attached and very gently pull it straight up and try to get the head with the body. Once it is removed, place it in a baggie and take it to a lab.”

Dr. Samuel Shor of Internal Medicine of Northern Virginia, says a tick bite may or may not produce a bullseye rash. However there are other symptoms to look for.

Dr. Shor says, “anywhere from five days to 15 days after the tick bite there could be a flu-like illness, low grade fever, aches and muscle pain.

Lyme disease is easily treated if caught early. The peak tick season is also longer this year because of our milder-than-average winter and spring.

“The 19 women being honored this year represent a cross-section of backgrounds and abilities,” said Freeholder Mark Caliguire, commission liaison. “It is our pleasure to recognize them for the many contributions they have made to their communities.”

Medicine/Health Services: Andrea Gaito, M.D., Bernards. Gaito is a graduate of New York University and is board certified in internal medicine and rheumatology. In 1998, Gaito and 11 other physicians formed the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society. The purpose of this non-profit is to promote understanding of Lyme disease among physicians and health-are professionals through research and education. Gaito has served as past president of the society. She maintains a practice in Basking Ridge, is married and along with her husband has raised three children.

To read more,  click here.

A year ago, Chris Harriss’ hands shook so badly that he couldn’t consistently place a small ball into a big basket.

He could barely climb stairs and couldn’t drive a car. His speech became so slow and slurred that it was almost incomprehensible.

A year later, after controversial treatment for Lyme disease, Harriss seems to have made an almost complete recovery.

At a physical therapy session last month, Harriss easily skipped across a rubber mat, taking the black squares two by two almost without falter.

His therapist, Becky Bliss, says Harriss has regained 95 percent of his physical abilities, the remaining impairment being mostly a little loss of balance.

Harriss, a chief warrant officer 3 at Fort Bragg, has improved so much that he has gone back to work. His boss at U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Col. Patrick V. Pallatto, said in a letter dated Jan. 17 that Harriss’ work performance “has been nothing less of superior.” Pallatto called Harriss “a talented and tested senior Mobility Warrant Officer” and a “great asset to this command.”

Harriss, who is now assigned to Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion, wants nothing more than to remain in the Army. When he got sick, he said, he set a goal for himself and his family that he would complete 20 years of military service. He has less than three years to go.

But the Army – whose doctors have misdiagnosed Harriss with a dizzying array of illnesses – isn’t allowing him to return to duty.

In January, an Army medical evaluation board disqualified Harriss.

That was followed last month by a ruling from an informal Army physical evaluation board in Washington that found Harriss unfit for the Army, his wife, Karin Harriss, said she has been told.

The latest ruling was made despite:

Col. Pollatto’s memo saying Harriss is doing a great job at work, and U.S. Army Special Operations Command would welcome him there.

A report dated Jan. 31 from Harriss’ commander in the Warrior Transition Battalion, Capt. Steven Jeffery Coon, saying Harriss is capable of making complex decisions, can solve logistical situations and can multi-task projects. Coon recommended that the Army retain Harriss.

Bliss’ evaluation that Harriss has regained 95 percent of his physical abilities.

A medical reassessment by Womack Army Medical Center in November that rated his cognitive and speech abilities as superior.

Harriss said he wanted to stand before the physical evaluation board and show its members that he is almost back to normal. He wanted to jump up and down and do pushups and run in circles and do anything else to prove that he is fit for the Army.

But the board doesn’t allow that. Harriss is expected to get his chance later, during a formal physical evaluation board.

For now, at least, the Army seems intent on discharging a man who has given more than 17 years of his life for his country.

Chris Harriss’ physical condition began to deteriorate more than two years ago.

What started as a slight hand twitch quickly became an illness so debilitating that Harriss could barely walk or talk.

Documents provided by Karin Harriss show that Army doctors initially thought he had encephalopathy. Then came a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease along with a combination of medications, including the neurotransmitter dopamine, that Karin Harriss believes did her husband far more harm than good.

The Parkinson’s diagnosis was followed by a positive test for Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness that can attack the central nervous system if left untreated.

After the Lyme diagnosis, Chris Harriss received powerful antibiotics for a month. His wife said the antibiotics seemed to be making a difference, but the Army, following federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, stopped the medication.

The Centers for Disease Control says “studies have shown that patients treated with prolonged courses of antibiotics do not do better than patients treated with placebo.”

According to the centers, most medical experts believe symptoms that linger after a two- to four-week antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease are caused by residual damage to the tissues and the immune system that occurred during the infection. The centers said people with the lingering symptoms almost always get better, but it can take months or even years to feel completely healthy.

After the Army stopped the Lyme treatment, Chris Harriss was sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he received a new diagnosis: Fahr’s disease. The rare disorder is characterized by calcium deposits on the brain. Fahr’s is a degenerative and irreversible disorder for which there is no known cure.

The diagnosis came as a crushing blow to Karin Harriss, who had already endured so much.

“How would you like to be told that?” she said. ” ‘So sorry … but your husband has an illness that will calcify his brain. There is no known treatment or clinical trials. We as doctors do not even know much about this illness. We believe your husband has approximately five years left. And each day is his last good one. Each day is a day downhill.’ ”

Two months after the Fahr’s diagnosis, Karin Harriss drove home to Canton, Ohio, to say goodbye to her father. He died from Alzheimer’s disease the day after her arrival.

Her father had suffered from the disease for seven years. When he died, she said, she couldn’t help but think that her husband, just 35 at the time, was about to meet an even crueler fate.

About the same time that Chris Harriss received the Fahr’s diagnosis, he was transferred into Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion for physically and mentally wounded soldiers. That’s where the Army began its medical evaluation board process to put him out of the service.

The Harrisses were introduced to Dr. David Weitzman, who told them that he had once treated a Fahr’s patient and did not believe Chris Harriss suffered from the disease. Its symptoms, he told the Harrisses, don’t manifest themselves so quickly.

Karin Harriss said Weitzman told them something else: The way your husband’s condition is deteriorating, he probably has only six months to a year to live.

Medical records dated Jan. 6, 2011, show that Weitzman paved the way for Chris Harriss to begin seeing a controversial Lyme disease specialist, Dr. Joe Jemsek, in Washington.

In 2006, the N.C. Medical Board suspended Jemsek’s license for a year after finding that he inappropriately diagnosed and treated 10 patients for Lyme disease. The board found that Jemsek’s method of diagnosing Lyme disease was not based on objective evidence and that his patients were not adequately told that his long-term treatment departed from the four-week standard.

Afterward, Blue Cross filed a $20 million lawsuit against Jemsek, accusing him of unnecessary antibiotic treatments. The lawsuit was later dropped, but Jemsek has said that it forced him into bankruptcy protection.

Jemsek left the state and eventually set up shop in the nation’s capital, where Chris Harriss began undergoing monthly intravenous antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease.

As the Harrisses were told to expect, the first treatments did not go well.

“He hardly has any appetite,” Karin Harriss wrote in an email dated March 4, 2011. “He is really hot when I am cold, and it is cold outside … or cold when he shouldn’t be. He says his head feels worse in a way he cannot describe. And he is emotional. He can cry for no reason. Or he can get upset very easily. He does not think this medicine is working at all. And for me, well, I am not sure either.”

But just three weeks after that email, Karin Harriss wrote another one that was far more upbeat.

“We went and saw Dr. Weitzman yesterday. And Chris is improving!” she wrote. “He no longer stutters when he speaks, and forms sentences. He isn’t falling all over the (place) either. He has more energy also. The dr. did an exam and found that the reflex in his right leg is returning.”

For the Harrisses, the entire spring seemed to consist of major accomplishments followed by disheartening setbacks. But Karin Harriss refused to give up. Throughout her husband’s illness, she has been a bulldog, complaining about Army doctors, writing her congressman, doing anything possible to get someone to help find a cure.

By July, after six antibiotic treatments, Chris Harriss’ health started to rapidly improve.

“Chris is nearly recovered now! You just won’t believe it!” Karin Harriss wrote July 21. She said her husband was going to take a road test the following week so he could get his driving privileges back.

The doctors at Womack, however, apparently weren’t seeing the same signs of improvement. Either that, or they weren’t looking for them.

In August, Karin Harriss became enraged because a review of her husband’s condition for the Army medical evaluation board didn’t include the substantial progress that she had seen in him. The summary, she said, was written by a doctor who had never even met her husband and had based his review primarily on medical records from January.

The summary, dated Aug. 4, said Chris Harriss suffers from “Fahr’s Disease with early onset dementia, ataxia and tremor that is disqualifying for service.”

But it also said Chris Harriss believes he has Lyme disease, which would not disqualify him from military service. The doctor who wrote the review recommended further evaluation by a neurologist to get a clear diagnosis.

That recommendation led the Harrisses to the University of North Carolina’s Department of Neurology, where another doctor found Chris Harriss to be “alert, oriented, with fluent speech, normal language and comprehension.”

The physician wrote that a brain scan came back “normal so the suspicion for progressive neurodegenerative disorder in his case is extremely low, almost negligible.”

The doctor also wrote that Chris Harriss’ Lyme antibody appeared to be back to normal and that he didn’t appear to be suffering any symptoms of chronic Lyme disease. The doctor recommended discontinuing the antibiotic treatments.

After that diagnosis, the Army sent the Harrisses to UCLA in November, where a Fahr’s specialist painted a different picture. The neurologist found “potential sub-acute and acute cognitive impairment which fluctuates” and recommended that Chris Harriss be followed for the next several years to see if the impairment progresses.

The doctor also described Chris Harriss as having “increased fatigue, is tired by noon, increased stiffness, difficulty walking and increased slurred speech.” Although the doctor seemed to exclude Fahr’s as a diagnosis, he did say some brain calcification was apparent.

Two months later, Army doctors signed a medical evaluation board report saying Chris Harriss could not effectively fire a weapon, evade direct or indirect fire or live in an austere environment without worsening his medical condition. The board disqualified him, citing a central nervous system disorder.

The following day, Frank L. Christopher, deputy commander for clinical services at Womack Army Medical Center, wrote a memo to the president of the Army’s physical evaluation board in Arlington, Va.

In the memo, Christopher, citing the UCLA findings, the medical evaluation board and other documents, concluded that Chris Harriss’ central nervous system disorder is a disqualifying condition.

Karin Harriss was livid. She thinks the Army picked and chose from the UCLA findings and discounted the findings from UNC and elsewhere.

Christopher declined to talk specifically about Chris Harriss’ case, despite Harriss signing a waiver that would allow him to do so.

Speaking generally, Christopher said, it is possible that a soldier’s condition could improve significantly between the time he is diagnosed and when the medical evaluation board report becomes official. He said he has seen it happen.

Regardless, the board’s decision cannot be reversed, he said.

So Chris Harriss’ options are running out. If, as Karin Harriss asserts, the physical evaluation board has already ruled that her husband is unfit for the Army, he can appeal the decision to a formal physical evaluation board.

There, he can use all of his supporting evidence, including his physical therapist, his boss and his commander in the Warrior Transition Battalion. He can jump up and down and do pushups and run in circles and do anything else he can think of to demonstrate that he is almost back to normal.

The board will have two options: to find Harriss fit for duty or unfit. If he is found fit, he would be allowed to return to duty but would probably face restrictions.

Nine days ago, Dr. Jason Hawley emailed Karin Harriss with encouraging news. Hawley is the doctor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who diagnosed Chris Harriss with Fahr’s disease.

In the email, Hawley said the physician reviewing her husband’s medical evaluation board had contacted him seeking clarification of Chris Harriss’ diagnosis and current condition.

“With the diagnosis not being so clear, and Chris recovering both physically and cognitively, I would like to give him the opportunity to continue his military service if that is what he wants to do,” Hawley wrote. “I don’t know if that will be the final determination, but that was my input to the (physical evaluation board). I thought you’d like to know that.”

In another email the next day, Hawley hinted more strongly that the physical evaluation board is re-evaluating Chris Harriss’ condition and could return him to duty.

That is all Chris Harriss – a big, unassuming, aw-shucks kind of guy – has ever asked for.

Harriss said that was his goal from the moment he got sick, and he cannot understand why the Army didn’t seem to believe him.

It was as if the Army’s decision-makers thought, “No you are going to die, don’t worry about it,” he said.

But Chris Harriss didn’t die, and his wife refused to stop fighting, no matter how sad, long and lonely the battle had become.

Karin Harriss still isn’t convinced that her husband suffered from Lyme disease, even though she believes the antibiotic treatments helped him immensely. She has documents showing that the Army has spent more than $100,000 to treat him for Lyme disease.

She wonders whether her husband’s illness could be linked to the anti-malaria drug mefloquine, which the Army banned because of adverse side effects. Chris Harriss had to take the drug whenever he deployed.

Whatever the cause, there is no mistaking that Chris Harriss’ physical condition has improved dramatically in the course of a year.

Whether it has improved enough for the physical evaluation board to deem him fit for duty is likely to be known soon.

And this time, Chris Harriss will have plenty to say.