Your Brain Versus Your Gallbladder? A No-Brainer!
- From: snappy <freyfaxi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 Apr 2007 11:04:40 -0700
I don't know about you, but I would rather take my brain any day than
my gallbladder!!
This is the research from Brian Fallon at Columbia, demonstrating
improvement in cognition after ten weeks of intravenous ceftriaxone:
http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/Fallon_Study.pdf
INTENSIVE TREATMENT HELPS PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC LYME DISEASE
Report from NIH-funded Columbia Study of Chronic Neurologic Lyme
Disease
Jackson, New Jersey, November 2, 2004Patients with chronic Lyme
disease retreated
with 10 weeks of intravenous antibiotics showed significant
improvement in cognition
and other symptoms, said Columbia University neuropsychiatrist Brian
Fallon, MD,
principal investigator for a $4.7 million study funded by the National
Institutes of Health.
Fallon presented the results for the first time at the October 22
conference jointly
sponsored by the national New Jersey-based Lyme Disease Association
(LDA) in
conjunction with Columbia University.
To be eligible for the study, patients had to have chronic Lyme
disease with ongoing
memory impairment. All had previously been treated with at least 3
weeks of IV
antibiotics and relapsed. All patients in the study were tested with
cutting-edge brainimaging
techniques, and significant improvement in neurocognitive function was
seen
over the 10-week IV antibiotic retreatment period.
"This is the first randomized controlled trial of chronic neurologic
Lyme disease; the
results support the benefit of a repeated course of longer-term
intravenous antibiotic
therapy for patients with a return of cognitive problems", said
Fallon.
Lyme disease is caused by spiral-shaped bacteria carried by poppy-seed-
sized ticks and is
rapidly spreading throughout the United States. The numbers of cases
reported to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) increased 40% to
24,000 cases in
2002. The CDC estimates that reported cases represent less than 10% of
true cases
about 240,000 Americans may have contracted new cases in 2002
nationwide.
Almost 300 healthcare professionals from around the country attended
the conference,
which was held in Westchester County, New York, one of the country's
most endemic
areas. Lyme disease is a world-wide emerging infection representing
90% of all cases of
vector-borne diseases in the US. It is often complicated by co-
infections that make
diagnosis and treatment more complex.
Sherwood Casjens, PhD, University of Utah School of Medicine, and a
renowned
genome team including Claire Fraser, PhD, President, The Institute of
Genomic Research
(TIGR), presented new information that Borrelia burgforferi, the
spiral-shaped bacteria
that cause Lyme disease, are able to freely exchange genetic material
among themselves,
potentially making diagnosis and treatment difficult. The team of
researchers concluded
that frequent recombination may help the bacteria survive in ticks and
in the animals they
feed on, including humans. The research was published in the Sept. 28
issue of The
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Your Brain Versus Your Gallbladder? A No-Brainer!
- From: Sewer Rat
- Re: Your Brain Versus Your Gallbladder? A No-Brainer!
- Prev by Date: Re: Biological Warfare and Borrelia issues
- Next by Date: Re: Sarah, consider loving sci.med again
- Previous by thread: Letter to my Congressman and Senators about HR741
- Next by thread: Re: Your Brain Versus Your Gallbladder? A No-Brainer!
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
