Dr. Burrascano's Unionville, Pa. Lecture 9/20/08 W/ New Treatment News

hey folks-

here is what i gathered from my notes. keep in mind there are things he mentioned that I did not write down, I wrote down what i felt pertained to me or my situation. Also, Dr. Burrascano's comeplete lecture notes can be viewed on the SE PA Lyme website. They can be viewed here------> www.lymepa.org

The DVD for the lecture will also be available later this month (October 2008)

I hope you find these helpful.

Key Factors in End Stage Lyme-

-Hormonal inbalances
-Diet
-lifestyle
-rest (or lack thereof)
-toxins
-nerve damage
-physciatric disturbances
-metabolic imbalances
-mitocondrial damage


Signs and Symptoms of tick borne illness
(i only wrote down the things i thought I needed to remember)

Lyme- afternoon elevated fever
Bart- CNS irritant, insomnia, jumpy, Gi upset, rapid relapse upon abx removal
Babesia- night sweats, global headaches, air hunger, severe picture of lyme
Ehriclia- Headaches behind eyes, sore muscles, low wbc
Myco- patients symptoms worse with exercise, major neuro symptoms, found IN SICKEST PATIENTS & MOST IMPORTANT CO INFECTION

Testing-

Lyme- Western Blot W/ all bands, PCR, & urine antigen testing
Babesia- Sereology, Fish, PCR, or blood smear
Bart, Ehricilia, Myco, HHV-6, EBV, CMV- Sereology or PCR

Treatment-

Best Combo for long term chronic treatment-

Cell wall drug
Intracellular drug
Fluid & Tissue Drug
Spiral, L Form, and Cyst drug
example- bicillin, rifampin, biaxin, flagyl

Doses of abx MUST be pushed to maximum tolerable levels

Best orals in Dr. B's experience in order of effectiveness: biaxin, ketek, doxy, zith, minocin

Patients require a course of Flagyl

Treat Bartonella before babesia

Give any regimen 6-12 weeks before changing it

Treatment length must continue 2-3 months AFTER all signs & symptoms have disappeared

Consider "cycle therapy" (discussed in "cure unknown")

not reccommended for very ill patients. when ready, hit it hard with everything, then stop. wait 3-4 weeks for all symptoms to come back hard, repeat. expect brutal herxing.

Co-infection treatment

Babesia- Mepron, maleron. blood levels must be monitored. combine w 2 other drugs such as zith & art. 5 months treatment minimum. NO tetras w mepron or maleron

Bartonella- Levaquin drug of choice, do not pair w an erithromycin (biaxin, etc)
combine w cell wall drugs
can use w tetras & azoles
alternatives to levaquin are combos of rifampin, sulfur, biaxin, and rarely gentamycin

Ehriclia- easy to cure, 2-4 weeks tetras

Mycoplasma- worst case scenario for lyme patients
best regimen not known altho current info suggests 2-3 year treatment of therapy. combos of intracellular drugs are currently most promising

DNA viruses- HHV, EBV, CMV, ETC

Valcyte always better than valtrex
treat 3 months minimum, often patients respond after 3 months but have no response whatsoever prior. treatment can be applied to igg or igm, no one knows yet..

and for the best part....the NEW stuff-

igenex can now test for Bb surface proteins for bands 31, 34, and 41 which means all you band 41ers can tell if your band is lyme or not! doesnt mean u dont have lyme, but can help narrow down..

new fish tests for ducani and Wa-1

new better cd57 test thru labcorp

new better cytokine testing

new infections rising such as micro worms, west nile virus, q fever, tularemia, and TBE virus

bartonella may in fact be tularemia in some patients due to the similar symptoms

DR B NEEDS YOU ALL TO GET YOUR DRS TO SIGN YOU UP FOR THE LYME REGISTRY. it is the ONLY way we will win the war, we have to document our info for the idsa, etc...

EXERCISE- crucial as we all know, push yourself, the more you do, the better youll get. NO exercise, not going to get well. Gym or health club regimens are best. ones designed for ill lymies are best also.

and finally-- TIGACYL. dr b says this has ALOT of promise, has built in efflux pump inhibitor, and combine w biaxin or ketek has a good chance at helping people get to a better place of health. very effective for most co infections. studies on the drug not out yet for lymies, but is PROMISING. if insurance will pay for, try it. very expensive otherwise

and thats it.

hope it helped