Lyme Disease - The Great Masquerader

Which tick is the most infectious????

The smallest tick is the nymph (about 1mm in size), which is also the most infectious. Imagine trying to find a tick that small on your skin, especially if you have dark hair or skin!

I've been contacted by patients with difficult cases and who've had multiple visits to other doctors, with little to no success. In reviewing patient history and exploring all other possibilities, it occurred to me - could any of this be attributed to Lyme disease? I look back on my practice in Maine, where Lyme was common among my patients, and it piqued my curiosity that the disease could be making its way into Colorado. Sure enough, these patients tested positive for chronic Lyme disease (which IS treatable, by the way!) When we look at the fact that people move around all the time, it only makes sense that Lyme has very likely found its way to Colorado by way of Oregon, Washington, Northern California, Texas, the Midwest, and the Northeastern Seaboard, where it is most prevalent.

I encourage people to watch the documentary "Under Our Skin" (available on streaming through Hulu, Netflix and other providers. It offers an eye-opening view into the disease, how it impacts people, and why it's often cast aside in the medical community.

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Vaccination and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

I get asked about vaccination frequently by parents. I'm not anti-vaccination, I'm PRO thinking about sensible timing and number of vaccines given at once.

Did you know that the current CDC recommended vaccination schedule has children taking about 24 doses of 10 vaccines by age 1 year and 50 doses of 15 different vaccines by age 6? It may be getting to be too much. Check out the full text of an article that shows the clear link between number of vaccinations and the correlation to the SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) rate. Click here to go to the article.

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What You Eat Affects Your Mood

Check it out! Mainstream medicine is finally catching on that diet affects mood.

This large research study found that people who ate fresh fruits, veggies, unprocessed grains and clean LEAN ANIMAL PROTEIN were at the least risk for anxiety and depression.

They also reported that young women who relied on a "modern" diet such as fruits, salads, fish, tofu, beans, nuts, yogurt, and red wine — was associated with a higher, rather than lower, likelihood for depression among younger, more educated women.

Even better, the study draws the ever-important distinction between feed-lot, GMO corn and soy fed beef and grass fed beef.

Everyone knows Omega-3 fatty acids such as those found in fatty fish are important for heart, brain and mood health. What not very many people have known up until now (in the mainstream anyway), is that grass fed beef has as much Omega-3 fatty acids as those cold-water fish.

Take home message:

Eating free range, grass fed meats with fruits, veggies and unprocessed grains is a great way to help prevent and treat anxiety and depression.

Sugar Really Does Kill

Sugar Really Does Kill

I've maintained for years that sugar (and high fructose corn syrup) consumption is not only the primary cause of diabetes, but also a major player in other conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, ADD/ADHD, and even epilepsy. Sugar causes inflammation, which is the root of many health evils, depletes the body stores of many vital nutrients, including B1, B3, B5 and magnesium, just to name a few.

Before the 1950's, Americans ate FAR more saturated fats and far less sugars. Heart disease and cancer rates were a small fraction of what they are now.

Don't just take my word for it,

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Coffee: The Original Wonder Drug?

OK - fibroid and anxiety sufferers close your ears, but the rest of you, check this out, fresh off the Medscape press.

The best part of waking up...is reducing your risk of neuro-degeneration. And depression, and cancer, and cardiovascular disease... It's becoming increasingly clear that coffee is more than just a morning routine. The body of data suggesting that the world's most widely used stimulant is beneficial in a variety of mental and medical conditions is growing at a staggering rate. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that coffee consumption lowered all-cause mortality by over 10% at 13-year follow-up.

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Leave the Donuts Alone

A recent study published on Medscape confirmed that people who eat a diet high in junk and processed food have a higher risk for developing depression. Processed foods include pastries, dairy products, fried goods, breakfast cereals, and sugary snacks.

Even though these foods may feel rewarding in the short term, the reaserch shows that frequent consumption of processed food to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even depression as this study shows.

One patient put it this way:

If it has more than 5 ingredients or anything you can't pronounce, don't eat it. If it comes out of a box, think twice about eating it.

Take the time to nourish yourself and your family with home-cooked food prepared from scratch. For info on where to get locally grown pasture fed, grass fed and free range meats, visit http://www.eatwild.com/

(More) Reasons to Avoid Roundup

Dr. J knows that many of you already take the extra effort to eat organic foods. Here are a few more good factoids to confirm that avoiding Roundup-ready foods and use of Roundup in your lawn is the right way to go:

According to a PhD Plant Biologist Don Huber, Roundup has a half -life of 22 YEARS. In layman's terms, this means the pesticide will persist in the soil for about 100 years. It persists in the crops for 6-8 years AFTER use is discontinued. Roundup doesn't kill weeds directly - rather, it binds with the minerals in the soil, making them unavailable for food crops as well as for the weeds.

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