Looking at Lyme

Fasten your seatbelts! In this podcast, Dr. Patrick Porter takes us on a journey into our brains, and shares with us his cutting edge technology aimed at improving our lives through brainwave technology. Dr. Porter is a researcher, educator, author and creator of technologies that use light, sound and other strategies to improve brain function and performance. He has written several books including Awaken the Genius: Mind Technology for the 21st Century.

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• Health practitioner education grants

Our fourth season of the Looking at Lyme podcast is on its way! We’re gearing up to start exploring some new avenues and opportunities for learning and healing. When it comes to healing, science is showing us that our minds and bodies operate as one system and need to be studied and treated that way. Our physical and mental health are directly impacted by what is going on in our brain and nervous system. Neuroscience is proving that the opposite is also true, and this is good news indeed! Techniques that improve the function of our brain and nervous system can improve our physical health and mental health. In season four, we’ll explore some of these modalities along with other resources aimed at healing. See you soon in season four!

That’s a wrap for season three of our podcast!

As we prepare for some time off from production, we’ve started accepting applications for our education funding. 

If you’re a healthcare practitioner that is looking to advance your education and have a better understanding of Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment, please take a look at our education granting process.

If you know a healthcare practitioner that might benefit from an upgrade, please share our education funding opportunities with them. 

Thank you, and thank you so much for listening! 

CanLyme is currently offering education grants for Canadian healthcare providers caring for patients with vector-borne illnesses. ILADS educational opportunities enable clinicians to better understand the fundamentals of treating Lyme and associated diseases and many of the more complex issues associated with these diseases. If you are a healthcare provider or know of one who would like to learn more about vector-borne illnesses, grant application and information can be found at lookingatlyme.ca.

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Sarah explores the latest advances in Lyme disease treatment with Dr. Kim Lewis, a researcher, author, University Distinguished Professor and director of Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern University in Boston. He specializes in molecular science and is currently researching persister cells that lead to tolerance to antibiotics, uncultured bacteria of the environment and the microbiome and the search for new drugs. We’ll find out what role nature plays in all of this important work.

Dr. Lewis became interested in studying Borrelia burgdorferi, the pathogen responsible for Lyme disease, when he realized that some people who had been treated for Lyme disease did not fully recover and went on to experience chronic Lyme disease.

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In today’s podcast, Sarah speaks with Victoria Sanderson about her exciting new research into Lyme disease testing at the University of Guelph. Sanderson is a current medical student and previously completed her Master’s degree at the University of Guelph and became interested in Lyme disease after seeing how much the disease impacted her mother’s life and the lives of so many others. Having an acute interest in biology, she started to study Lyme disease and quickly became fascinated with its complex microbiology and pathology. She connected with the G. Magnotta Lab at the University of Guelph where she works with a team of world class researchers. You can find out more about the G. Magnotta Lab in this episode of the Looking at Lyme podcast. 

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In today’s podcast, Sarah speaks with Maddie Gravelle about her research into the consequences of illness uncertainty for Lyme disease patients. Maddie is a student and researcher at Queen’s University in Kingston. She shifted her research focus from cancer to Lyme disease after witnessing the challenges her mother faced in dealing with both of these diseases. Her mother noticed that some aspects of Lyme disease were more challenging when compared to similar aspects of dealing with cancer. When Maddie discovered that there was very little research regarding the psychological effects of Lyme disease, she decided to make that her research focus.

Maddie describes four different types of illness uncertainty that patients can be faced with as described in Mishel’s Illness Uncertainty Theory. She points out that many Lyme patients are faced with uncertainty in the areas of diagnosis, ambiguity around the disease, unpredictability and complex healthcare experiences. She highlights some of the many uncertainties that Lyme patients are faced with, not only in relation to the complex and unpredictable nature of the disease, but also as a result of “complex healthcare experiences” that many Lyme patients deal with.

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In today’s podcast Sarah explores Lyme carditis with Dr. Adrian Baranchuk, a cardiologist from Kingston, Ontario. Lyme carditis is inflammation of the heart and can cause lightheadedness, palpitations, fainting, chest pain and shortness of breath. In severe cases, it can be fatal. Dr. Baranchuk tells Sarah he has now seen 16 patients with Lyme carditis. He met his first patient when a physician in a nearby hospital requested transfer of a young 14 year old patient with something called AV block, a disruption of the electrical pathway that stimulates the heart to contract. 

The young patient had a life saving temporary pacemaker inserted, and the transferring physician mentioned that she had sent blood work for Lyme disease. This prompted Dr. Baranchuk to investigate something called Lyme carditis and question whether antibiotics might resolve the heart block and prevent the need for a permanent pacemaker to be inserted in this young patient. He did initiate antibiotics, and within one week, the patient had a completely normal electrical system in his heart. The temporary pacemaker was removed, and his cardiac stress test showed normal results. 

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In this episode of Looking at Lyme, we go to Augsburg, Germany to learn about diagnostic testing with Dr. Armin Schwarzbach, MD, PhD. 

Dr. Schwarzbach is a specialist in laboratory medicine and infectious diseases, having worked in the field for over 20 years. He recalls one of his patients who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and tested positive for a test that was then called a lymphocyte transformation test for Borrelia burgdorferi even though she subsequently tested negative for antibodies to the bacteria. The patient had not responded to previous treatment for her MS (with steroids) but recovered after being treated for Lyme disease.

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• Coinfections checklist (PDF)
• Heading to Finland to find ways to accurately diagnose tick-borne diseases

Join Sarah in today’s podcast as she explores everything ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) with Dr. Amy Offutt. Dr. Offutt is the medical director and co-owner of Heart & Soul Integrative Medicine in Marble Falls, Texas, and is also an ILADS board member. 

Dr. Offutt made the shift into integrative medicine in order to better understand and care for patients that were experiencing chronic inflammation, often caused by underlying infections. This path led her to ILADS, where she found an abundance of educational resources along with experienced practitioners to help further her knowledge and better serve her patients. Dr. Offutt recalls her first ILADS conference and the common desire amongst practitioners to be able to help patients heal and become stronger.

In this episode we discuss ILADS membership, better outcomes through education and the ILADS 2021 Conference, infection, immune response, and inflammation.

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• 2021 ILADS Conference
• Heart & Soul Integrative Medicine
• ILADS