Articles

Authored by Michelle McKeon Why 2019 is the Worst Year Ever in Tick Numbers Tick, Tick, Tick Boom! This season it is as if a “ticking” time bomb has exploded across the country! Ticks are found in parks, yards, fields, and even beaches! Along with ticks, can come some pretty devastating diseases. Many of you are probably familiar with Lyme disease, which is caused from the Lyme bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, spread through the bite of an infected tick.1 However, it is very likely that if a tick is carrying Lyme disease, it may also be infected with co-infections such as Babesia, Bartonella, and Ehrlichia just to name a few. The combination of having a mild winter and the absence of acorns this year has [...]

Authored by Michelle McKeon | Original article from the Townsend Letter Hyperthermia treatment…not really a treatment that is often talked about in the United States, is it? Similar to Lyme disease, this treatment has been around for a while, though it has not received the recognition that it deserves. We are at the cusp of acknowledging the immense impact Lyme disease has on our society and the complexity of tick-borne illnesses in general. I like to think of tick-borne illnesses as a puzzle – like those puzzles called Impossibles where all of the pieces look the same, yet they are not; there are no edges or corner pieces, and there are a few extra pieces in the package just, you know, for the fun of it, to [...]

Plasmapheresis is a process where the liquid part of the blood, or plasma, is separated from the blood cells. Usually, the plasma is replaced with another solution such as saline or albumin, or the plasma is treated and then returned to your body. Some people refer to this procedure as apheresis but these are two slightly different procedures. Apheresis is the procedure where a patient’s blood is filtered and a particular component of that blood is removed and the rest is returned to circulation. But plasmapheresis is the procedure where the plasma is filtered out and then replaced with a fresh plasma infusion. If you have Lyme disease, the plasma in your blood can sometimes be full of inflammatory compounds from the Borrelia and other co-infections. These [...]

After a difficult and at times, life threatening battle with Lyme disease, Avril Lavigne is making a return to the music scene with the release her new single – Head Above Water – which she wrote from her bed during the height of her illness. Lavigne took to social media and wrote a letter to her fans on her website, announcing her new single will be released on September 19, with a full album to follow. In her letter to her fans, she says she wrote her new single during one of the scariest moments of her life: “I had accepted death and could feel my body shutting down. I felt like I was drowning. Like I was going under water and I just needed to come up [...]

Authored by Michelle McKeon Lyme Disease, the devastating infection that affects more than a third of a million people each year, if treated immediately it can be cured by one of several possible antibiotics - many people, however, either never fully recover from the symptoms, or experience a relapse. Chronic Lyme Disease, can be an ongoing condition that is highly debated in the medical and scientific communities. Others will appear to be completely cured and free from the disease, only to find the infection wreaking havoc on their bodies once more, several months or even years later. In terms of relapse, it is said that dormant spirochete can spontaneously, and with little warning, begin replicating in the bloodstream. These leftover spirochetes can be likened to the remnants [...]

Authored by Michelle McKeon Working with Lyme and Cancer Services, we are huge advocates of two things: hyperthermia treatment through the use of infrared heat, and detoxification to aid in the recovery process.  One of the main points I have my clients try to take away is DETOX, DETOX, DETOX! While hyperthermia treatment kills a significant amount of pathogens, we see that people who detox before treatment are able to tolerate hyperthermia treatment better, and people who detox after treatment have a more optimal sustained recovery.  Detoxing has been a crucial part of my recovery process with Lyme disease.  Sweating out toxins through the use of infrared saunas has been one of my go-to therapies, and I still use it for maintenance therapy today.  One [...]

Lyme Disease, caused by the bite of a bacteria-infected tick with Borrelia burgdorferi, mayonii, afzelii or garinii (depending on the region of the world), not only attacks the patient’s organs and joints, but causes significant changes in their neurological state, sometimes called “Lyme brain.” This serious and debilitating illness affects an estimated 365,000 individuals each year - and numbers are rising. For those who suffer from the cognitive impairments of Lyme, such as short-term memory loss, difficulty with speech and word recollection, loss of motor skills, depression, anxiety, hallucinations and other symptoms that may closely resemble Alzheimer’s disease or schizophrenia, finding a way to fight back is an absolute must. Fortunately, the cognitive impairments often associated with Lyme Disease are well documented, and there are doctors, specialists [...]

With Lyme disease now one of the fastest growing infectious diseases worldwide, a state-of-the-art lyme disease clinic called Sanoviv Medical Institute, located one hour’s drive from San Diego airport in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, is giving Lyme patients from all around the world new hope with its wide range of innovative treatments. While Australia still doesn’t officially recognise Lyme disease, the number of Australian residents who’ve tested positive for Lyme disease is on the increase. Last year, a Senate Inquiry was held, though despite many good recommendations the Australian government has chosen not to act on these.  So until Lyme disease is recognised here, many Australians who are suffering from a ‘Lyme-like’ illness end up seeking treatment overseas where similar diseases have been treated for many years. What [...]

Authored by Michelle McKeon Recovering from Lyme disease has been a huge part of my life for almost a decade now. When I first began this journey I had no idea how many pieces to this puzzle I would have to put together to solve my body’s health crisis. What I had learned is that the devil is in the detail. The devil for me was MOLD, and boy did it put me through hell and reek havoc on my already Lyme immunosuppressant body. As, being in an environment with mold, can make ones Lyme disease experience much more severe. Mold can develop indoors and outdoors and while it can grow in any season or environment, it flourishes in warm, damp, and humid places. Mold implies many [...]

Authored by Michelle McKeon In 2010, when I was first diagnosed with Lyme disease, I remember sitting in my Lyme Literate Medical Doctor’s (LLMD) office. He asked to look inside my mouth. As I opened up real wide, I thought Now what is he going to find inside my mouth? Later I learned that he was checking to see how many dental amalgam or “silver fillings” I had. Well, I was hiding quite a few in there, and as my LLMD shook his head, I asked him if he had found any buried treasure? When he responded No gold just silver, I realized he was talking about my cavities. For the past 200 years dentists have used mercury as the prime component of amalgam fillings. Amalgam fillings [...]