📣 🐶 What a THRILL to speak to biologist / co-founder of @DogAgingProject, Dr. @mkaeberlein abt the incredible promise of Rapamycin, which turned my 15.5 y/o 🐶 back into a puppy a year ago!

‼️Could be important for #LONGCOVID! ‼️

In animal studies it:
✅ increased lifespan & immune function
✅reduced arthritis & other inflammation
✅ has activity against some cancers & helps cognitive function
✅improves ❤️ & oral health etc!

bayarealyme.org/blog/ticktecti… 🚨 “In that (small study), there was statistically significant decrease in ppl taking rapamycin in severity of COVID infection and…Longcovid”

“I’ve been saying for a long time that there’s a lot of potential in rapamycin for ppl suffering w Longcovid.” rb.gy/1ji4cz

Doxycycline is an important drug to consider as part of treatment for COVID & using it confers better outcomes. I made the case to hospital doc to give it to my dad, along w Paxlovid, & he did.

My dad is home now & will be on all treatment for ~10–14d.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
My MD has been using it (or other abx like zith) in most of his COVID patients for years (all outpatient) as it helps on multiple levels, including prevention of secondary bacterial infections like pneumonia.

❤️ THANK YOU ALL SOOO much for the well-wishes for my beloved dad.

You have no idea how much I appreciate it.

He is a lot better today! 🙏❤️

See next tweet for details: Dad was started on Paxlovid last night (after ridiculously intense efforts & refusing remdesivir, which is somehow still hospital standard & which they greatly pushed, even after I said no) & they plan to send him home by tomorrow if he continues trending well. 

Some background: My dad is healthy, active, & immune-competent, & prior to COVID, none of us remember him ever even having a bad cold or the flu etc. 

So, he had a minor stuffy nose on Fri. I wanted him to test for COVID, but when he was feeling better a few hours later, he thought it was overkill.

I explained that COVID often starts with a whimper & ends with a bang. It’s deceptive. I said an important reason to test is so we can get you on treatment BEFORE it gets worse. 

Well. It is hard to overcome the barrage of gov/ media/ PH minimizing messages. He didn’t test. 

As feared, he woke up yesterday morn sounding awful. 

He went downstairs to eat something and when he got up from kitchen table, walked over to the steps and collapsed on them “like a rag doll,” according to my mom, who understandably thought he was in cardiac arrest.

He was conscious but too weak to move at all. 

Ambulance came. He was still lying on the steps when they arrived. An EMT got on phone with me after initial eval & said he didn’t think it was a heart attack.

 I said I think it’s COVID. He said, “Why? It could be anything!” I said it seems obvious given his “sniffle” turned him into a rag doll overnight. 🤦🏻‍♀️

The other EMT yelled that his o2 was 94 (normal is 95 & above) and the one I was one phone with said, “OH. Yeah. You’re prob right about COVID.” 😬

His o2 was 89 and BP was 70/40 by the time he reached the ER 15 min later. He was passing out and couldn’t stay awake. He was in shock. 

They gave him IV fluids and he started to feel better. His COVID PCR came back positive and his bloodwork showed signs of shock/ dehydration & of covid infection. 

His o2 returned to normal level (97) on room air, so internist and I called and asked for them to start him on Paxlovid right away. Virus replicates quickly & every hour counts, esp at his age and considering how quickly he deteriorated at home.

They said they don’t administer it in ER (WHY?!!) and that once he is admitted, they’ll start him on remdesivir. 

We are not in favor of remdesivir as it can be toxic to kidneys (& liver) & hasten bad outcomes. We have known ppl who died from it & there are many such reported cases (I am also not saying it never helps, but it is not my drug of choice).

For additional context, early data showed it conferred no mortality benefit and WHO & others came out against its use. 

I am happy to report he sounds good, seems stable, & is looking forward to going home.

FYI - he, like many who got very ill from COVID—never had fever! So CDC should not be using “no fever” as a marker of going back to work! He is still very contagious & will stay home until he’s not. Because that’s the right thing to do. If we can spare one other family of going through this, we will. 

We’ll keep him on Paxlovid for 10d and add metformin when he gets home tomorrow. This will be in addition to “all the supplements” you know about. 

About advocating: I ALWAYS start off being extremely nice, respectful, collaborative, & try to be unintrusive with my parents’ medical providers. I have great relationships w most of them. 

But when things don’t make sense, like not administering a life-saving antiviral quickly in a case like my dad’s, I am not going to sit quietly on the sidelines and hope for the best.

When I realized ED doc was going to “follow the hospital rules” and not do what was best for my dad, I did contact the admin. I nicely but firmly said we needed to get him on Paxlovid stat. 

In a shockingly smug tone, she said I needed a privacy code to speak to her about him “due to HIPAA.” (See next tweet)

The @CDCgov is essentially a front for WH, pharmaceutical companies, and other large corporations.

They don’t do public health. Stop expecting them to. Direct anger where it belongs. Above them. ‘Memba this? npr.org/2021/12/29/106…

The reason I take a moment to engage w tweets like this occasionally is not bc I care about the original poster. I do not.

I care that 1500 people have been exposed to dangerous misinformation that could lead them or their loved ones to severe illness, as happened to me.

I am disturbed that most who liked her tweet are in the medical field.

We now have top scientists at Yale, MIT, Mount Sinai, Harvard, Hopkins, etc studying &/or treating CHRONIC LYME!

That anyone— esp clinicians—would not bother to do a quick literature search before dismissing what is actually *A HALLMARK* of a common, notoriously insidious infectious disease that has been likened to HIV and cancer (!!!) is ridiculous and embarrassing.

So, yes. Chronic Lyme is real! And it can be similar in presentation to #LongCovid. COVID is also chronic. Are you following me here?

There are, in fact, many infections that are chronic and can cause multi-systemic illness, induce autoimmunity, psychiatric and neurological diseases.

THESE ARE FACTS.

I am perplexed at why this concept seems so difficult for many doctors etc to grasp, or why they exhibit such dogma and lack of curiosity. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 🐑

I am going to continue this thread with some chronic Lyme data and documentation so that we can put this insanity to rest. Here’s a (long but incomplete) chronic Lyme reference list, mostly by @IDSAInfo, put together for me by a Harvard MD / prof.

docs.google.com/document/d/11l…

Via CBS: From coughing up blood to CNS symptoms, to very early-onset dementia, this whole fam was poisoned by toxic mold in a multi-million $ mansion.

“Dr. David Straus, one of the nation's leading mold experts, ordered the Ballards to evacuate their house. They had to leave at a moment's notice. They left dishes in the dishwasher and food in the refrigerator.

Dr. Straus believed they became sick from breathing in mycotoxins. The mold most commonly grows as a result of water damage, according to Dr. Straus.

This mold began with a leak in the downstairs bathroom, Ballard said.

"It needs water and it needs some type of organic food source," said Dr. Straus, who is at Texas Tech University. "They like cellulose," he added. "Most of the material we use to build houses - like Sheetrock, ceiling tile, wood - fungi can grow on."

The mold infiltrated under the flooring, 2,500 square feet of a wooden floor, according to Ballard.

And the mold contaminated all of the family's possessions, including photographs, Dr. Straus said. It got into the air-conditioning unit and spread toxins throughout the house. Removing every trace of the mycotoxins may be impossible, said experts…”

cbsnews.com/news/an-insidi… “Reese developed asthma and had trouble in school. Allison went to New York with Reese to see a doctor specializing in treatment of mold exposure illnesses: Dr. Eckhardt Johanning, of Albany, who has studied more than 600 patients exposed to toxic mold.

Ballard said that Dr. Johanning said Reese should never again be exposed to the mold.

"I'm not saying this is necessarily a permanent condition," Dr. Johanning said. "The brain can repair itself a lot. But it may take some time to do. Stachybotrys produces very potent chemicals that can cause brain fogginess, tremors, problems with the memory."

Allison, Ballard and their son are not the only family to have trouble with the mold. In Southern California, Julie and Richard Licon found Stachybotrys in the walls and floors of their condomnium.

"All the wood was pretty much black from the mold," said Richard Licon.”

As I’ve said many times, I can’t overstate the role of toxic mold in chronic illness.

FYI - you generally can’t see toxic mold bc it grows in dark places, behind walls, & releases microscopic toxins (mycotoxins) that can cause severe health problems, even death. Some mycotoxins are so toxic they can be used as Biowarfare. (Ref in 🧵)

They’re airborne, & travel like smoke (sound familiar) & can aerosolize all over your home & belongings without you realizing. Mold is also a huge cause of “sick building syndrome.”

Most MDs will NEVER consider toxic mold illness bc they’re not taught. And like many topics they don’t know about & insurance companies/ PH authorities want to keep quiet, they dismiss & downplay it without ever looking into it. 🙄

It’s a huge prob that’s been covered up bc it’s so expensive to fix.

Homeowner’s insurance policies largely carved it out of their plans decades ago (just as music touring insurance companies carved out COVID!!) bc they lost so much $ on it a multimillion dollar claims & lawsuits.

See next tweets for info, data. 👇🏼 Mycotoxins in Biowarfare (can download the whole PDF from this link):

researchgate.net/publication/27…

A young husband & wife both develop #MS, which their Cleveland Clinic neurologist pegged as a 1-in-a-million chance, “I’ve never seen [both spouses have it] and we follow 12k patients.”

So, let me share something important I learned along my Lyme journey. People who share the same environment often share the same microbes (and other disease-causing exposures).

So, while it may be rare for a couple to express the same symptoms like this, it is not at all rare for entire families to have a number of different diagnoses/ varying symptoms in the autoimmune/ psych/ neuro fam. In the Lyme world, it is common.

We also know from 100 years of literature that spirochetal infections (lyme is a spirochete) & other infections like EBV (that data is much newer) can cause MS.

Lyme is indistinguishable from MS.

See next tweet:

apple.news/A3u8MyBFhR3-Yp… From my interview w brilliant expert @StevePhillipsMD, who blew my mind. He has helped more #MS (etc) patients than I ever imagined. Highly rec reading the whole article:

“Another common presentation is MS. When we say that Lyme can mimic MS, it can do so literally 100%. So, we have to ask what percentage of MS is caused by Lyme.

If you look at the epidemiology of Lyme, it overlaps with MS identically. If you look at the diagnostics--whether it's white spots on the brain or spinal cord or optic neuritis, oligoclonal bands in the spinal fluid, or evoked potentials--every single clinical descriptor has been reported with Lyme.

There is NO clinical, laboratory, or radiologic feature which accurately differentiates the two.

Keep in mind that the majority of symptoms of Lyme are caused by the immune system going after the organism. If you induce immune suppression, you can reduce symptoms in most patients, but at the huge cost of allowing the bacteria go deeper and become more entrenched. So, it's no surprise that steroids given before antibiotics increase the risk of antibiotic treatment failure. Back in the early MS literature, they found spirochetes in the brains of patients who were autopsied. They called it by a Latin name that meant myelin destroyer.

They knew it was a spirochete that wasn't syphilis but they didn't know what it was, and they did a number of animal studies taking the spinal cord fluid and tissue of those with MS and putting it into baby animals, and the animals got progressive neurologic illness.

But when steroids were discovered, they realized they could suppress symptoms quickly, and this whole concept of autoimmune disease sprang up.

So, before steroids, MS was known as an infectious disease.
This is also where a 180 degree turn was made in the field of rheumatology. In the older rheumatology literature, there was an ever-present investigation into the causes of inflammatory conditions.

Now it seems that everyone focuses on newer and more lucrative immunosuppressive drugs without looking for the cause of the inflammation.”huffpost.com/entry/where-cd…

🎙️SO many mic-drop moments from my latest w top #LongCovid expert/ researcher, Mt. Sinai’s @PutrinoLab 🔥🔥🔥

Here, he shares the average pt in his LC Sinai clinic is:

✅ 38 y/o & previously healthy
✅ vaccinated
✅had “mild” acute infection
✅ many pro athletes/ military 🔥 “Viral persistence IS A FACT.”

Denying this “makes you a fringe scientist.” 🔥

Woke up with @celinedion on my mind. 🎤

Made me so happy to see her last night ❤️

Can you imagine waking up to this letter from her assistant?! I don’t think I’ve ever shared it before. You never know what magic 🪄 can be made when you cold-email someone! 😆

A once-in-a-lifetime dream to hear this legend on our songs “Thankful” and “Always Be Your Girl.” 🎤

Prayers that she is improving & finding relief from her suffering. 💕

Right on. There is an enormous body of literature on pathogen persistence that goes back decades demonstrating stealth, chronic infections can cause a range of cancers, autoimmune, psych, & neurologic disease. (We present hundreds of these studies in our book.)

We know COVID can be chronic & wreak havoc after “mild” or asymptomatic infection. There is 4 years of data showing persistence / reactivation of SARS2 infection (see next tweet)!

Therefore, Longcovid should not be called “post-viral” or “post-infectious.” These are intentional misnomers spread by @NIH & others to deflect attn from chronic infection. This nonsense been going on forever. (See: history of Alzheimer’s, Lyme, etc)

Semantics inform understanding and treatment of disease.

Calling persistent infections “post-infectious” implies the infection is gone & will relegate pts to lifelong palliative treatments. That’s Bc chronic illness is a cash cow! No $ in cures.

Same playbook as Lyme.

Do not fall for it. There are HUNDREDS of papers here dating back to Feb 2020! There is NO EXCUSE to make the claim that Longcovid is “post”-infectious.

https://twitter.com/freitasabr/status/1407611399593996288

📢 EARLY TREATMENT NEWS

Strongly rec showing this METFORMIN data to your MD if you want to be treated early w it.

It’s an old, largely safe, $1 generic drug, & overall seems better/ safer than $1200 Paxlovid for reducing Longcovid etc.

I’ve had it in my arsenal for a year+.

https://twitter.com/boulware_dr/status/1748653987086455235

HT @sri_srikrishna

Friend: I have THE WORST COLD. Chills, drenching sweats, 102 temp, headache, exhausted.

Me: 🤔….doesn’t sound like “a cold.”

Friend: (raised voice) IT’S *NOT* COVID. OK??? NOT COVID!!!

Me: Why are you yelling?

Him: BC I AM F-ING SICK OF COVID.

Me: So stop getting it 🤷🏻‍♀️ ? This is a wild but increasingly common reaction.

People are angry, but they don’t know where to direct their anger.

They don’t know how to protect themselves, they don’t advocate for clean air.

No one *wants* to deal w it but then they’re forced to.

I hear this all day, every day AND AGREE. 5 days Paxlovid is nothing. Not enough. More harm than good for some.

https://twitter.com/thekingmother21/status/1743797191842378084

I have a close friend right now who only took 5d Paxlovid and is sicker now, from her Paxlovid rebound, many days after seemingly “recovering”— than she was initially.

I tried to tell her.

Unless guidelines change, the public is screwed. Follow the $.

I am v concerned this message is being propagated. Some large data sets (& “real world” evidence) show nominal LongCovid benefit (0-15%).

Many led to believe vax would prevent Longcovid were in for a rude awakening & feel furiously betrayed. Incl my dad.

See next tweet. 👇🏼

https://twitter.com/erictopol/status/1742688077389369778

Look at what this misinformation has done to people.

https://twitter.com/ahandvanish/status/1580972680269860864?s=21&t=FDGEa-GYw9YFHKNUgnG8OQ

https://twitter.com/ahandvanish/status/1580972680269860864

I get A LOT of panicked phone calls from ppl when they are dx’d w Covid Bc they’re unprepared to treat early & don’t know what to take & don’t have a doc half the time to Rx.

Do not scramble! Have a plan in advance. You can even get some drugs/ supps in advance. Not med advice but what I would do approx:
10d Paxlovid
10-14d metformin
10d Doxy
Maybe rapamycin based on small study where it hugely reduced LC

OTC stuff:
Bromhexine, Vit D, NAC, bromelain, zinc, Quercitin, C, red light therapy, hot bath, maybe melatonin

What else?

📣 I was honored to tell my chronic #Lyme recovery story to @BayAreaLyme for their latest blog.

I share abt what happened to me as often as poss Bc I found so few recovery stories when I was sick. I felt hopeless.

I hope my journey can help others.

Please share 🙏 🙌🏻❤️‍🩹 I almost died from lyme/bartonella-induced❤️ failure when 12 “top” NYC docs missed my obvious diagnosis.

I was STUNNED by the misinfo, medical & political landscape, & by the decision of @IDSAInfo @CDCgov @NIH & others to cover up the truth abt Lyme.

bayarealyme.org/blog/dana-pari…

📣 THIS SHOULD BE FRONT PAGE NEWS! 📰

Longevity drug rapamycin significantly slashed both Longcovid (!!) risk & severity of infection, acc to data presented by expert, Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D. on @PeterAttiaMD podcast.

This is a cheap, generic drug!!

My 🐶 is on it! Link to podcast episode: peterattiamd.com/davidsabatini-…

Just another day where a young athlete collapses & dies after working out. The world appears numb to these new, never-ending atrocities.

UM Duluth Football Player Reed Ryan Dead at 22 After Collapsing During Workout people.com/reed-ryan-um-d… Kids collapse now all over the place. All normalized in a few short years.

news.com.au/sport/tennis/a…

⚠️This is propaganda ⚠️

The best protection from #LongCovid is not getting COVID.

Vaccine protection is limited acc to ALL data, w a large VA study pegging it at a mere 15%!

Don’t be duped by gov/ pharma spin! Read the fine print!

time.com/6338434/vaccin…
“The study looked only at original COVID-19 vaccines, not newer boosters…& did not assess Long COVID after reinfections, which [can] lead to long-lasting health problems. As such, the findings may not translate…to the present day.” 🙄

🚨 The first superspreader was at the World Military Games in Wuhan, Oct 2019, where 10k athletes from 100 countries gathered. It’s been reported that ~1000 got sick there & brought it back to their countries. Military Games SEEDED THE WORLD. Why does USG wanna this covered up?

https://twitter.com/biorealism/status/1711347489234980923

Covid is not start at the wet market in Jan 2020. THAT IS A RUSE.

prospect.org/coronavirus/di…