On Sunday 15th November 2015, a conference was hosted by The Academy of Nutritional Medicine (AONM) in London featuring some of the best brains in the Lyme disease community. The presentations will shortly be available on the AONM website and a DVD will be released in the future.
Professor B K Puri
Professor Puri talked about some of the cardiac anomalies found in Lyme disease patients such as Long QT syndrome which can be caused by some antibiotics and SSRIs (antidepressants) as well as Lyme carditis and heart block.
Dr Jean Monro
Dr Monro gave a talk about food intolerances, allergies and sensitivities, and how these impact homeostasis and the autonomic nervous system. She also talked about the importance of IgA markers, chronic strep infections and mast cell disorders.
Dr Dietrich Klinghardt
Dr Klinghardt described the multifactorial nature of chronic illness and outlined many complex causes and complications. He feels that a combination of genetics, environmental toxins and the immune system’s response to infection causes illness.
He touched on the following subjects:
- Heavy metal toxicity (in particular, aluminium and mercury)
- Mould exposure
- Electromagnetic frequency exposure
- HPU/KPU pyroluria
- CCSVI (linked to MS)
- Dental issues
- Epigenetics
- Potential causes of autism
- Glyphosphate poisoning
- Products such as curcumin, chlorella and zeolite
- Some spirochetes have over 600 genes whereas a similar bacteria, the syphilis spirochete, has roughly 30
- Some routine blood tests can point to Lyme disease such as a low WBC count, high MCV, high fasting blood sugar and low alkaline phosphate.
In the Q&A session, Dr Klinghardt mentioned that he interviewed 100 recovered patients in the USA and discovered that all of them had used some kind of energetic, frequency-based treatment alongside more conventional antimicrobial agents.
Mr John Caudwell
UK entrepreneur and philanthropist John Caudwell talked about the shock of learning that so many of his family members were suffering from Lyme disease. He aims to start a charity to lobby the government to take Lyme disease more seriously.
Dr Sarah Myhill
Dr Myhill gave a talk about fatigue conditions and how symptoms are caused by a fundamental energy production deficit. She also talked about the importance of diet and outlined a basic supplement regime that will help with chronic fatigue (CoQ10, vitamin B3, magnesium, D-ribose, vitamin B12) which is unlikely to do any harm. Dr Myhill also briefly touched upon thyroid and adrenal function.
Dr Myhill also shared that she was sometimes ashamed to be a doctor and that the biggest problem to modern medicine is the medical profession. She was once reprimanded for prescribing too few drugs and subsequently left the NHS.
Dr Alan MacDonald
Dr MacDonald gave a Skype presentation about the link between Lyme disease and Alzheimer’s disease and included detailed information about spirochetes and biofilms.
Dr Armin Schwarzbach
Dr Schwarzbach revealed that approximately 1,000 UK patients have been tested at his laboratory in Germany and he is astonished by how many have a positive blood test result for Lyme disease. He also drew attention to the high rate of Coxsackie virus in the UK population.
The immunoblot test (Dr Schwarzbach uses a SeraSpot test) looks for antibodies from B cells and has a 60% sensitivity rate and a 99% specificity rate. The EliSpot test looks for a response from T cells and has an 84% sensitivity rate. The EliSpot is criticised for not being specific enough but its specificity has been found to be 94%. ArminLabs’ tests are all CE certified.
Dr Schwarzbach mentioned that vets often know more about Lyme disease than doctors as the illness is not as politicised in veterinary medicine. He also highlighted the fact that co-infections are extremely common and most patients have other infections in addition to Lyme disease. 40% of ticks in Germany, for example, carry Bartonella.
Dr Chris Newton
Dr Newton is starting a campaign called ‘Fight Lyme Now’ to produce a new, more direct testing method. He plans to crowdfund to raise the necessary money and he will be launching the campaign very soon. He is also distributing a survey for patients to fill out to take to Parliament. More details will be published soon!
More detailed notes from the conference can be found on Joanne Drayson’s Looking at Lyme Blog.