PUBLIC HEALTH ALERTVol. 3, Issue 5 Investigating Lyme Disease & Chronic Illnesses in the USA May 2008

In This IssueDr CharlesRay Jones:

A letter from Dr.Jones explainingthe status of hismedical boardreview p. 3

Dawn IronsPrescription

assistance avail-able throughPrescription

Hope p. 4

Lisa Copen:6 Reasons Not

to Worryp. 5

Laura Zeller:Dancing in the

Rainp. 7

KathleenLiporace:

Worker’s com-pensation victory for

Lyme patientp. 13

Tina GarciaThe ABC’s &

XYZ’s of LymeDisease pt 2:

MonkeyBusiness p.8

SusanWilliams

Geocaching:Learning to

enjoy the out-doors again

p.12

JoanVetter:

Delete Worryp. 5

PPuubblliicc HHeeaalltthh AAlleerrtt wwwwww..ppuubblliicchheeaalltthhaalleerrtt..oorrgg PPaaggee 11

Virginia T.Sherr, M.D.When Lymegoes undertreated or

undiagnosedp.9

Share Your StoryLyme Disease SupportWildcondor’s World

www.wildcondor.comA gripping, chilling novel exposing

the Lyme disease controversy...www.poisonplum.com

Dr. RobertC. Bransfield Spirochetes on

the Brainp. 15

Bartonella is Becoming the MostImportant Issue in Treatment of Lyme

FREE

by Dr. James Schaller, M.D.

Powerful DiagnosticBartonella Skin Findings

Bartonella may be oneof the most important issues inthe treatment of Lyme disease.Why? In last month's issue weshowed it was a staggeringimmune-suppressive infection.We have visualized theseunusual bacteria covering redblood cells, and yet the patienthad no fever. If this were anyother bacteria, e.g., Staph orStrep, the patient would bedead in days! At this time, Ibelieve it is impossible to fullykill off all Lyme in the pres-ence of Bartonella, simplybecause we know from manyspecialized labs that Bartonellaturns off immunity in manyways missed until recently.Lyme body volume will godown with treatment but not acure. How could it with aninfection that is so powerful itturns off immune chemicals toallow it to safely float in theblood?

It is also very easy tomiss because no lab in theworld can test for all the newspecies. New Bartonellaspecies are being found everymonth using DNA techniques

similar to those used to mapand identify our humangenomes. Some unpublishedresearch talks about 32 speciesand 212 variants. An antibodytest for one is one too few if itis another strain. We currentlyare using a wide range of labsto identify Bartonella. Onesample lab, which still occa-sionally misses noticing it, wasdiscussed in the August 2007issue.

The Use of Skin Findings toDiagnose or to Raise thePossibility of Bartonella

Some of these proposedskin findings we feel are solid-ly diagnostic of Bartonella.And with new advanced anddiverse lab testing which looksfor Bartonella over 8 ways, wefind the positive labs matchthese proposed Bartonella skinfindings very well. Therefore,since routine lab testing done isvery poor, and since even onelarge lab is raising its titer cutoff for a positive, due to somany positive "past" infectionsthat are supposedly "not clini-cally meaningful," we can useall the help we can get in diag-nosis. And since Bartonella hasfar more ways of infectinghumans and damages all organs

in 12-20 ways, we feel offeringa sample of some of our imagesnow could save lives, decreaseillness, prevent psychiatric act-ing out and prevent organ dam-age. While vast numbers ofimages of Bartonella will be inmy upcoming books, The 16Reasons Lyme DiseaseTreatment Fails and The

Diagnosis and Treatment ofBartonella, the editor and Iagreed it was too important todelay at least a sample of thesematerials.

See a variety of Dr.Schaller’s Bartonella PhotoGallery on page 2.

“Bartonella” ...cont’d pg 2

This man has no mold toxin exposure or other chemical toxin exposure.His Babesia was killed quickly and fully. His Lyme is being treated withmany strong interventions. This serious skin erosion of the hands onlybegan to improve with new treatments only found helpful withBartonella. He has profound Bartonella in his blood.

Cleansing Neurotoxin Overloadby Victoria Bowmann, PhD

Detoxification can bean important method to supportthe patient during their healingcrisis. As with many autoim-mune cases, there are manyfactors. Neurotoxin overload isa common problem that affectsmany patients. The source ofneurotoxins may be heavy met-als, viruses, bacteria (in thecase of Lyme), fungi, molds,parasites and protozoans. Someof the toxins actually target,impair and even damage thenervous system and the detoxi-fication organs. This can fur-ther impair and block the routefor normal excretion, causingan accumulation of toxins. Thisresults in intracellular damageand further progression of dis-ease.

In Lyme disease, thebacteria is a "smart" bug whichwants to maintain its life withinthe person. It actually hidesitself from the immune system.The Lyme bacteria is neurotox-ic and, in order to survive,clogs up the lymphatic systemand causes the blood to thick-en. This leads to poor bloodflow through the liver and astickiness to the interstitialfluid. The interstitial fluid isthe fluid that bathes and nour-ishes the tissue cells. It alsopicks up microorganisms, for-eign particles, enzymes, pro-teins, and hormones for pro-cessing through the lymphatic

system. In addition to the lym-phatic system, Lyme prefers totravel through the collagenmore than the blood. Lyme dis-ease is a systemic infection andit can invade and damage anyand all organs, glands, and sys-tems of our body. Lymepatients are also challenged byother co-infections that areoften overlooked.

Because of its ability tohide from the immune system,Lyme makes itself difficult todiagnose through testing andthereby difficult to design aneffective treatment protocol.Often it can mask itself as adifferent disease such asChronic Fatigue Syndrome,Fibromyalgia, MultipleSclerosis, Parkinson's,Obsessive CompulsiveDisorder (OCD), orAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(Lou Gehrig disease). It isimportant for the physician toascertain if Lyme is at a causallevel in these diseases.Assuming the patient is beingtreated with an appropriate pro-tocol, effective detoxificationplays an extremely importantrole in eliminating the neuro-toxins from the body.

When the Lyme isbeing killed, it produces itsown neurotoxin in defense.This subsequently clogs theblood, lymph, liver and colonwhich slows down the detoxifi-cation pathways. And as longas the patient is in treatment for

Lyme, detoxification needs tobe ongoing. When the body isoverburdened with a toxic load,the patient might experience aHerxheimer (Herx) reaction.One of my patients explainedher Herx reactions like a badhangover. She had extremefatigue, headaches, nausea, flu-like symptoms, and a tinglingsensation throughout her body.She also noticed that her usualsymptoms were made muchworse. It is during theseepisodes, the detoxificationprocess becomes even moreimportant.

Since there are numer-ous methods for detoxification,one must select those whichoffer the most support. The twoprimary pathways of detoxifi-cation are: 1) the colon whichremoves solid wastes and 2)the kidneys and bladder whichremoves liquid wastes. Thesepathways have external elimi-nation, those being feces andurine. The liver is also a pri-mary detoxification organ fortoxins, hormones, and proteinand fat metabolism. The path-way for water-soluble toxins isthrough the urine. Hormonesare excreted through bile in theGI tract. The lungs and skin arethe secondary pathways. Thelungs outgas toxins from thebloodstream and the skin actsas an excretion pathway byerupting with pimples, pus-tules, abscesses or oozing soresin the attempt to remove toxins

from the body.

Colon Functions

The functions of the colon(also called the large intestineor large bowel) are numerous.These functions work very wellwhen the intestinal bacteria isof beneficial varieties and insufficient quantities. The colonactually manufactures certainnutrients for us, including B 12and Vitamin K. It absorbsnutrients which might havebeen missed in the small intes-tines which helps to keep usnutrient dense. Third, it blocksthe absorption of pathogensand toxins from returning tothe blood stream. Next, it reab-sorbs and recycles water andbile. The water is used to keepthe body from dehydrating andthe bile is reused in digestionof fats. Finally, the colondecomposes chyme (digestedfood) into fecal material as thefinal component of the lifecycle. It is essentially our ownpersonal compost pit.

Colon Detoxification

For effective elimination ofsolid waste, it is important tohave a proper binding agentsuch as fiber or chlorella. Thisis especially true with neuro-toxins. One needs to also havenumerous daily bowel move-ments or colon hydrotherapy. “Detoxification” ...cont’d pg 6Obituaries p.18

IN THE NEWS

PPaaggee 22 wwwwww..ppuubblliicchheeaalltthhaalleerrtt..oorrgg PPuubblliicc HHeeaalltthh AAlleerrtt

Therasage is proud to bring you the world's largest storefront featuring products with far infrared heat. Far infraredheat has been widely used for its many therapeutic benefits in the Far East for the past twenty-five years and is

now becoming very popular in North America.

(888) 416-4441 www.therasage.com

Massage Bed

Dr. James Schaller’s Sample of Bartonella Photos

Bartonella makes VascularEndothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)which makes and opens capillaries andcauses unusual vascular images. The inkcircles are sitting on top of red circles.(Chicken wire pattern.)

Here is an older Veterinarian withno Lyme or other tick-borne infections,who developed a sudden eccentric leftsided mouth and lower cheek skin thick-ening. She has Bartonella papules on herneck. She was positive for Bartonellaand feels her new types of treatment arestarting to help this leather-like one-sided skin problem.

This woman has Bartonella,Lyme and Babesia. The Babesia wasquickly treated with new speed killingagents. She had varicose looking veinsall over her body and Bartonella papulesin her inner thighs. We suspect her vari-cose veins could be increased byBartonella; especially since after a tickbite they became worse over three years.During that time she also received twosteroid shots. Please note that the skinsurface area over the steroid injectionsite shows marked nodules with scalingand skin thickening and are very vascu-lar. We suggest that the steroid wasreleased on entrance and exit of the nee-dle, leaving a high concentration in thisone-inch location and it further weaken-ing the immune system and Bartonella,perhaps together with Lyme, made thesetwo eccentric skin findings.

This 46 year old woman had vir-tually no vein troubles until she wentcamping in North Carolina. Then overthe next 6 years she became sicker andsicker and was found to have a hugeVEGF (in a mold-free home) and wasfound to have Babesia, Bartonella andLyme. These did not improve in anymanner with over a dozen commonlyused Tick-borne disease treatments. Itwas only newer treatments for Bartonellathat helped these decrease. She has norelatives with this high level of bloodvessel trouble.

A city-dwelling older man had apast history of fleas brought into hishome by his cats. He was Lyme negativefrom three labs and had a good CD57count, which was 187. His skin discol-orations with different levels of pigmen-tation, we suggest, may be associatedwith various levels of VEGF, possiblyMSH and Bartonella bacteria just underthe surface of the skin inside vascularwalls.

This middle aged man withBartonella has many papules on hisbody. Here is a dark one in the center ofhis chest. The papule can be mistakenfor a skin tag or a mole, but it is a slight-ly raised tiny bump with red, brown or askin color and is usually missed.

Bartonella causes them routinelyaccording to even basic articles. He hadabout 15 in different locations on hisbody and all were missed or ignored inhis yearly physicals.

This marine has never beenheavy. He has no vascular disorders.His back developed pimples and side toside blood vessels after training in awooded area when he caught a cold. Atthe same time he had a very raw sorethroat. His DHEA and DHT are high.Both are found in Lyme disease andpromote acne. He has never been treat-ed. He also has Bartonella.

This is a purple-burgundythinned skin area in a patient withBartonella in the inner thigh area. Itturned white repeatedly with the use ofnew Bartonella treatments. But thenreversed to this original color becauseno treatment works in weeks to cureBartonella.

This man has Bartonella with burgundylines shown in thin black flair. Theselines turned white with Bartonella treat-ment.

Bartonella turns off many partsof the immune system. It is the onlybacteria I know of that can float inblood for years and not kill. When itturn off some newly found immunestimulators, it increases the activity ofLyme and other bacteria. Here we seetoes which are not able to hold off sim-ple toe fungus in a man with clearBartonella.

An image of a thigh showingunusual bands of side to side thick pink-ish blood vessels between normal col-ored skin.

You should not have wide bloodvessels going side to side across yourthighs.

Similarly, you should not havehuge wide red or white "stretch marks"on your thighs or lower hips.

Dr. Schaller is the author of 20books including: The Diagnosis andTreatment of Babesia, Mold Illness andMold Remediation Made Simple, TheComplete Guide to Artemisinin, WhenTraditional Medicine Fails, 100 Solutionsto Out of Control Youth, Suboxone-PainTreatment with Addiction Relief.

He is currently preparing the mostup-to-date textbook on Bartonella, whichhe feels is a top vector in the world-pos-sibly more common than Lyme.

Dr. Schaller has 25 National andInternational Medical Publications insuch journals as JAMA, Medscape, andsome of the largest pediatric journals inthe world.

www.PersonalConsult.com

PPuubblliicc HHeeaalltthh AAlleerrtt wwwwww..ppuubblliicchheeaalltthhaalleerrtt..oorrgg PPaaggee 1133

FEATURES

by Kathleen Liporace

Phil Wood was anactive, energetic South Carolinacitizen who had nary a doctorvisit before contracting Lymedisease while on the job as atimber buyer for Canal Wood inGreenwood, SC. His employ-ment duties included cruisingtracts of land on foot andassessing the value of timberfor potential purchasing by hisemployer. As a Timber Buyer,Wood faced a largely unknownrisk of being bitten by a Lymecarrying tick, because such adanger is generally unrecog-nized in South Carolina.

After being diagnosedwith advanced or chronic Lymedisease, an assistant wasassigned to Phil and he wasgiven the opportunity by hisemployer to work a modifiedschedule, based on his limitingphysical condition. Specifically,Phil was reassigned to tele-phone business communica-tions with customers whom hehad served for years. Wood alsowent into the office weekly tomake sure that accounting wasdone and loggers were paid.He performed his job so wellthat he was given a pay raise.Phil's productivity is part of thelegal record in his disabilitystruggle that began in

December of 2004. Since Mr. Wood

acquired Lyme disease on thejob, his health insurer delegatedthe responsibility for healthrelated expenses to his Workers'Compensation plan. As aresult, Wood was abandoned byhis health insurer and left todeal with both illness andLiberty Mutual, the Workers'Compensation carrier. Becauseof this course of action and ulti-mate cessation in reimburse-ment , Phil and his wife Kimwere forced to pay for bothdoctor visits and medicine out-of-pocket. It was their hopethat it would be a tolerablyshort period of time. However,that hope turned into an acri-monious and protracted legalbattle.

Despite being a diligentemployee with a medical dis-ability, Phil's job was terminat-ed. It was noted that his officewas slated to close and thatWood was to be part of a down-sizing, yet others have beenhired subsequent to Phil beinglaid off. Additionally, theoffice remains open thus far.Prior to his job being unexpect-edly terminated in April of2007, the church that Phil andhis wife attend paid for planetickets for Kim to accompanyPhil to see another Lyme liter-ate physician, Dr. StevenPhillips in Ridgefield,Connecticut. Given this devas-tating and simultaneous dualimpact of a debilitating illnessand loss of livelihood, Phil'schurch stepped in to offerfinancial assistance. Mr. andMrs. Wood paid the cost of thehotel, rental car and food dur-ing the trip to the Connecticutphysician, and further paid the$600.00 doctor bill. These out-of-pocket costs to this day havenot been reimbursed by LibertyMutual. Dr. Phillips concurred

that Phil indeed had contractedLyme disease and that hissymptoms were and are consis-tent with this disease. He fur-ther wrote a letter to sustain thediagnosis of Lyme to supportMr. Wood in his legal proceed-ings. Before seeing Dr. Phillips,Phil had received the same con-sensus opinion on his diagnosisfirst from his primary care doc-tor and subsequently by a Lymeliterate Infectious Disease doc-tor in North Carolina.

As is tragically typicalfor advanced cases of LymeBorreliosis, Phil has sufferedwith multiple unremitting phys-ical issues. A list of these prob-lems includes: body swelling,mental confusion, tingling andnumbness of the hands,migraine headaches, dizziness,muscle pain, joint pain, chestpain, ringing of the ears, nau-sea, fever, and of course unre-lenting fatigue. As a conse-quence of Lyme disease, Philalso had to have his gallbladderremoved, not an uncommonoccurrence... He experiencesother issues such as multiplerashes, intracranial pressure,blurry vision, sinus infections,and left knee, calf and footproblems. Mr. Wood frequentlystruggles with brain fog. Healso has experienced such seri-ous bouts of vomiting anddehydration that he hasrequired intravenous infusion offluids. There were many timesthat Phil was so seriously illthat he didn't know if he wouldwake up the next morning.He has been hospitalized bysevere reactions to medicine.One such example is that hebroke out with an excruciating-ly hyperesthetic rash from headto toe. This necessitated him toreceive maximum doses ofBenadryl for approximatelyfive days while being vigilantlymonitored in the hospital. It

took two full weeks for thatrash to fully dissipate. It isabundantly clear that Mr. Woodhas suffered greatly due toLyme Borreliosis. His unimag-inable suffering, shared by hiswife Kim, has been compound-ed by the torturous legal issuesand attendant delays in gainingincome for daily living causedby the obstructionist behaviorof his disability carrier.

As part of this night-mare, termination by hisemployer has caused Phil andKim Wood to sell many of theirpossessions in order to avoidbankruptcy. Additionally, inview of the fact that his disabil-ity insurer stopped paying hismedical claims, Phil's credit hassuffered significantly. He alsohad to spend thousands of dol-lars to hire an attorney to com-pel Liberty Mutual to acknowl-edge their contractual obliga-

tion to pay for his medical billsand provide benefits during hisinvoluntary illness and associat-ed disability. Despite the posi-tive precedent outcome of thecase in favor of Wood, therestill remains a struggle. Henow has income for daily liv-ing, yet no payments have beenmade for medical coverage orcost of prescriptions. LibertyMutual remains in derogationof full court orders.

Unfortunately, this sce-nario of bad faith, job loss,incapacitation and near, if nottotal, bankruptcy plays itselfout in the lives of many chronicLyme patients. This is theshocking, but typical experi-ence of many who suffer fromvarious forms of persistent ill-ness. phaaphaa

Precedent South Carolina Workers' Compensation“Victory” for Lyme Patient

Part 1