Looking at Lyme

Welcome back to the Looking at Lyme Podcast... here we are in Season 3! In this episode, Sarah explores how the brain functions with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Dr. Jill was working as a neuroanatomist, teaching and conducting research at the Harvard School of Medicine when she experienced a severe hemorrhagic stroke. After recovering from that stroke, Dr. Jill wrote about her experience and has travelled the world giving inspirational talks, including one of the first TED talks to go viral! She describes that fascinating experience in her first book “My Stroke of Insight” and joins us today to talk about what she refers to as “Whole Brain Living”, which is also the title of her new book.

• Read the show notes, Looking at Lyme 
• Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life
• TED Talk: My stroke of insight

On season three of Looking at Lyme we'll meet a cardiologist who has developed a new protocol for diagnosing and treating Lyme, we're going all the way to Germany to learn about blood testing for Lyme disease, and don't miss out on our interview with a world renown brain scientist who had a massive stroke then studied her recovery. Welcome back!

• See our show notes and website
• Index of previous episodes

Thank you so much everyone for joining us for season two. We had the privilege of speaking so many amazing people this season, including Dr. Vet Lloyd, Dr. Betty Maloney, and Dr. Theoharides, and with outdoor educators like Mike Horembala and Lauren Hudson.

If you haven't checked it out already, please check out our Educators' Resource. Our Second Edition is finished and available for download.

We love hearing from our listeners. Please send us your ideas and questions! 

We’re on a break but we are getting ready for season three and we want to share our excitement with you. We have so many new excellent interviews lined up and will continue to dive into the science with leading experts.

Stay tuned, and see you after the summer. Remember, check for ticks after outdoor adventures and stay safe in the outdoors!

Read the show notes.

This week Sarah is joined by Dr. Shelley Ball, an evolutionary ecologist, fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and Founder and President of Biosphere Environmental Education, a social enterprise focused on connecting people with nature. She was also a founding member of the inaugural Homeward Bound Women In Science Leadership Expedition to Antarctica. In this episode, Sarah and Dr. Ball discuss her newly-published book: Lyme Disease, Ticks and You: A Guide To Navigating Tick Bites, Lyme Disease And Other Tick-borne Infections.

Dr. Ball became involved with Lyme disease as a person suffering from Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses. Dr. Ball did as much research into Lyme as she could...she is a former research scientist, university professor and self-proclaimed “knowledge sponge.” Self-education and advocacy is vital due to the current lack of support from the public health care system for Lyme disease patients.

Get the show notes and resources.

We are excited to give away ten free tick removal kits, courtesy of CanLyme! Pack this in your backpack or in your first aid kit and take it on adventures with you. All you need to do is tag us in a photo on Instagram having fun and saying safe in the outdoors. Our Instagram handle is @canlyme_canada. #StaySafeInTheOutdoors

Episode show notes.

This week Sarah is joined by Gina Valles, a fitness coach with a degree in exercise science who founded Gina’s Total Fitness in Connecticut. In 2018, Gina was diagnosed with Lyme disease, which changed her life and outlook on fitness. Through her Instagram account, which has almost 180,000 followers, Gina shares her journey, workouts, and inspiration.

Gina explains that she lived with undiagnosed Lyme disease for a year in 2017 before being diagnosed. She knew nothing about the disease then, but has educated herself and learned how to adjust her exercise routine and manage on a day-to-day basis. Gina was a competitive athlete throughout her life, and when she got sick she had to adjust her workout routines to focus more on lower intensity movement and listening to her body. She emphasizes that it took time, trial and error to find a fitness routine that works for her.

Get the show notes and resources.

We have a book giveaway! In episode 31 we interviewed Dr. Kenneth Bock about his integrative approach to medicine. You can enter to win Dr. Bock’s recent book, Brain Inflamed, by following us on Twitter: @Lookingatlyme_

Many patients with Lyme disease and co-infections such as Bartonella experience the effects of inflammation in the brain and central nervous system. One of the chapters of Dr. Bock’s latest book, Brain Inflamed, is dedicated to the effect of Lyme disease and co-infections in the brain. He explains that infections, stress, toxicants and brain trauma can all cause inflammation of the brain. Some of the symptoms familiar to Lyme patients are decreased memory and word finding difficulties. 

Read the show notes.

In this episode, Sarah speaks with Rossana Magnotta, who established the G. Magnotta Foundation in honour of her late husband, Gabe, who passed away after a courageous battle with Lyme disease. The G. Magnotta Foundation leads scientific research into Lyme disease at the University of Guelph in Ontario.

Rossana tells Sarah that Gabe was an avid outdoorsman who spent much of his life camping, hunting, and fishing. When he developed symptoms including balance issues, eye problems, and memory loss, he was tested for everything from Alzheimer’s to ALS, before finally being tested for Lyme disease. However, the Canadian Lyme tests came back negative. 

This experience echoes the stories of so many other Lyme patients who are shuffled between different doctors and specialists, with no answers. Rossana emphasizes how difficult this experience can be for families as well.

Even when Rossana insisted to her husband’s doctors that Gabe was an avid outdoorsman and that she believed he had Lyme disease, she was dismissed because of the negative tests. When Gabe’s blood was sent to the US for testing, the results were positive. But at that point, they had lost precious time and he never recovered.

Having worked in hematology, microbiology, and biochemistry, Rossana was able to investigate Canada’s ELISA test (a two-tiered serological test), the apparent “gold standard” test for Lyme disease. Rossana explains that when she dug into it, she realized it was faulty, as it only measures a narrow immune response rather than identifying whether the person has an active infection or not and whether Borrelia is the causative agent of the illness. 

The test is still not a reliable indicator for doctors. With determination, Rossana set out to develop a reliable and trustworthy test to support doctors in diagnosis and consequently early treatment. From this painful experience, the G. Magnotta Foundation was born.

Get the show notes and resources.

CanLyme is excited to kick off May which is Lyme Awareness Month! In this episode, we introduce a Canadian tick map designed by Justin Wood. Justin is the CEO and founder of Geneticks laboratory in Ontario, where he tests ticks from across Canada for many tick-borne pathogens.

For the past several years, Justin has been planning and developing a platform to share his tick data from across Canada. By removing identifying information and applying a degree of randomization to his data, he is able to add information to the map including tick species, lifestage, pathogens detected, location, and type of host the tick was found on. This data can be retrieved in various ways depending on the interest of the reader. For example, if someone is only interested in finding out about Blacklegged ticks, that data can be explored by applying a filter which excludes other types of ticks.

Get the show notes and resources.

In this episode, Sarah is joined by Dr. Joseph Jemsek, an infectious disease physician who runs the Jemsek Specialty Clinic in Washington, DC. Dr. Jemsek has been on the leading edge of both the HIV and Lyme disease epidemics. He became intrigued by reports of a small cluster of patients with outbreaks of Kaposi Sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia in New York and San Francisco. He intuitively felt that this was an indication of something much bigger.

He recalls diagnosing the first HIV patient in North Carolina in 1983, before the disease was even called HIV. In the years that followed, the virus was identified, tests were created and treatments were researched, including an early study for azidothymidine (AZT) which Dr. Jemsek co-authored. This pioneering research study allowed patients access to this early treatment, clinical trial involvement and medical follow up.

Get the show notes and resources.