Lisa's blog

The flu season has hit unusually early this year with the pandemic spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus spanning the globe and creating widespread fear and panic. This is a new form of the flu that has never circulated through humans before and therefore is expected to spread rapidly affecting a larger population than the normal seasonal flu. It seems, at this point, that most of the cases have been mild to moderate and have not required medical treatment.  This is quite fortunate although, it is important to keep in mind that the flu can and has mutated during mid-season which has been part of the difficulty in creating effective vaccines from year-to-year.

The current medical treatment for the seasonal and H1N1 flu viruses is vaccination and anti-viral drugs such as tamiflu and, although these are no doubt helpful and sometimes necessary, they are not always enough.  There is not yet a vaccination available for H1N1, but the CDC speculates that one will be available by about mid October. My opinion on vaccinations is provisional as I have heard convincing arguments from both opposing camps and have formulated a middle-of-the-road perspective.  I could, and probably will, provide an entire post on vaccination philosophies, but for this post I will just say that the flu vaccine seems to have moderate efficacy and potentially serious side effects. I will also say that there seems to be controversy, even among medical doctors, on the safety of vaccinations in general.  Paul Bergner gives statistics on flu vaccine effectiveness in his Summer 2009 Medical Herbalism  journal:

                                                             Ragweed in Bloom    

As late summer approaches and the scent of fall is on the wind, many of us are busy harvesting, preserving and eating loads of yummy veggies and berries. It is also high allergy season as I, a long time allergy sufferer, and many of my friends and clients are feeling a strong attachment to the nearest box of Kleenex or our handkerchiefs (save trees!) or even toilet paper, anything that will staunch the sometimes constant sneezing and dripping. It doesn't help that it has been the wettest, rainiest year I ever remember here in the Northeast.  The air is heavy and full with lots of thriving mold and fungi sporing around happily while we all try to figure out how to grow webbed feet and gills.

Lyme disease is a prevalent and often debilitating illness that is spread in the Northeast US by the deer tick /black legged tick.  It is caused by bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi and it is a spirochete. Spirochetes are shaped similar to a corkscrew and have the ability to act like one, burrowing into living tissue as described by Chunhao Li, et al. in Gyrations, Rotations, Periplasmic Flagella: The Biology of Spirochete Motility, “The common morphological structure of spirochetes allows these organisms to bore through highly viscous gel-like media, such as connective tissues, which inhibit the motility of most other bacteria…Leptospira and other spirochetes increase their speed in media with a higher viscosity.” There are eight different types of spirochetes and they are the most ancient bacteria on Earth with some causing disease and some beneficial to other life forms working symbiotically to maintain health. Please remember not to see all bacteria as an enemy, as they are our ancestors and without them life on Earth would not be possible. 

Lyme disease is  an emerging disease and, although not new, it has somehow become the most prevalent vector borne disease in the temperate U.S. In the region where I live, neither Lyme nor deer ticks have been a concern until just recently. We have not had the cold winters of the past and in the last couple of years have seen an increase in tick populations and, naturally, Lyme disease, although there have not been any public announcements made to alert citizens living in my community to this new concern.  I have for the first time this year, pulled several ticks from my dog, one from my daughter and I was just diagnosed with Lyme last week after 3-months of muscle/joint pain and exhaustion.  The first visit to the Dr. brought an array of blood tests for everything but Lyme, all of the tests coming back negative. I, of course, went to see an herbalist (Kate Gilday, naturally) and she suggested a Lyme test which seemed to completely befuddle the nurse at the Dr.’s office when I requested it. When it came back positive, I was pretty surprised and only then remembered that I had noticed a strange circular rash on my arm in the beginning of May. I put some salve on it and it went away. I though nothing of it at the time as it was not a bulls-eye.