Looking at Lyme

Hello, and welcome to season six of Looking at Lyme! We’re thrilled to be kicking off this season talking with contributors of an important new research report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which studied current gaps in research and treatments for Lyme Infection-Associated Chronic Illnesses.

Dr. Kent Kester is board certified in both internal medicine and infectious diseases, is the chair of the publication committee, and is the vice chair of the National Academy of Medicine Forum on Microbial Threats. During his 24-year career in the U.S. Army, Kent led multiple re...

We’re excited to announce season six of the Looking at Lyme podcast! New conversations with scientists, advocates, experts, and others will bring you interesting and fresh perspectives from across Canada and around the world.

The more we learn, the better equipped we’ll be to create positive change. Building Lyme literacy that places the patient first is what our podcast is about in so many ways. To better understand where we’re at in diagnosing, and treating Lyme, and other tick-borne diseases and exploring possible solutions.

Wherever we go, we...

We hope you enjoyed season 5 of Looking at Lyme. We're very grateful to Catherine Kinsella for leading the many interesting conversations with scientists, advocates, experts, and more. Thank you, Catherine. We're excited to announce that season 6 of Looking at Lyme will be coming in the new year. We would also like to welcome Kim Cairns, who will be hosting the new season. We're really looking forward to getting season 6 started. 

Clinician-researcher Dr. Jack Lambert shares his experience working on emerging infectious diseases and his approach to treating Lyme disease. In this episode we speak with Dr. Jack Lambert, an infectious disease consultant at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and professor at the University College Dublin School of Medicine. Originally from Scotland, Dr. Lambert completed his medical training in the US and has specialty certifications in adult and pediatric infectious diseases, general medicine, and sexual health. He’s founder of the Lyme Resource Centre and serves as an advisory board member to Invisible International. We spoke with Dr...

In this episode, we speak with Nova Scotia Lyme disease advocate Donna Lugar. She currently runs the Nova Scotia Lyme Support Group, the Nova Scotia Lyme Advocacy Group, and is working to develop the Nova Scotia Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Association. She also writes a Lyme disease blog, Shining the Lyme Light. We spoke with Donna about her experience as an advocate, including her work educating the public and working to improve Lyme disease policy in Nova Scotia and the rest of Canada.

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In this podcast, we speak with Dr. Nevena Zubcevik, a Harvard trained and board certified physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, and Chief Medical Officer of Invisible International. Dr. Zubcevik talks about some of the challenges that doctors and Lyme patients face within the medical system, including time constraints and the “syndromizing” of symptoms rather than addressing their cause. 

In this episode, we speak with Canadian naturopathic doctor, Dr. Marie Mathieson. Dr. Matheson is one of a growing number of Canadian clinicians who are helping Lyme patients find solutions and gaining valuable expertise in the process. She's co-founder of BioHeal Ottawa and creator and facilitator of the Lyme Bright Collective and Tick Bite Ready. She completed the ILADS Physicians Training Program with the late Dr. Charles Ray Jones. She also serves on the advisory board for the Forum of Integrative Medicine. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Matheson.

In this podcast we speak with Sarah Quillen, executive director of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, and ILADS sister organization, The International Lyme and Associated Disease Education Foundation. Sarah received her Masters in Public Affairs from University of North Carolina and is a Certified Fundraising Executive. With over 25 years of experience in the healthcare arena, including fundraising, public relations and program development, Sarah is building on the important work that ILADS has done over the years to support researchers, clinicians and their patients.

Sarah was raised in upstate New York, and grew up with ticks...

In this podcast we speak with Mario Levesque, Associate Professor of Canadian Politics and Public Policy in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Mount Allison University. His teaching and research focus on Canadian politics and public policy, with interests in Atlantic Canadian politics and Lyme disease policy in Canada. He recently co-authored a paper with colleague Marilyn Cox called Small Wins for Those with Lyme Disease in Canada, Patients in an Embodied Health Movement. www.lookingatlyme.ca

Mario talks about his entry into policy work, navigating policy between the private sector and government. This early...

In this episode of the Looking at Lyme podcast we welcome Dorothy and Rachel Leland, a dynamic mother and daughter duo who are changing the way we understand Lyme disease through their writing and their drive to convey important information to help Lyme patients and those around them. Rachel and Dorothy are co-authors of the book Finding Resilience: A Teen's Journey Through Lyme Disease. In the book, Rachel recounts her difficult journey through Lyme disease and co-infections. She is now a speech language pathology assistant. Dorothy is president of Lymedisease.org, an internationally renowned organization and platform for Lyme...

In this podcast, we're excited to speak with Dr. Monica Embers, associate professor in the division of immunology, director of vector borne disease research, and director of the education and training program at the Tulane Primate Research Center. Dr. Embers’ research is focused on the detection of persistent Lyme disease in human autopsy tissues, identifying treatments to eradicate Borrelia infection and immunodiagnosis of Borrelia burgdorferi infection and cure. Her team is also developing research models for Bartonella infection.

Janet Sperling is an entomologist, researcher and president of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation. During her early years studying entomology, she recalls that at that time, Lyme disease seemed very simple. When living in the US, Janet interacted with several people that had a much broader understanding of the disease. When her son contracted Lyme disease years later, it became evident how complicated the disease could be. She points out that not only is it very complicated, it can be very different from one person to the next. 

Welcome to Season 5 of the Looking at Lyme podcast! As we move forward with Season 5, we’d like to thank Sarah Cormode for the incredible work she’s done over the past several years, leading the way with the podcast and several other CanLyme educational initiatives. 

Sarah carried the podcast from our first episode of Season 1 to the end of Season 4. In Season 5 we welcome Sofia Osborne, podcast host and science journalist, along with Catherine Kinsella, who has been working behind the scenes on the podcast for the past four seasons. 

We have an exciting lineup...

In this podcast we catch up with Dr. Leona Gilbert to take an inside look at the Lyme bacteria, Borrelia, and find out how it interacts with our cells and how it can evade our immune system. Dr. Gilbert has a doctorate in biotechnology with an extensive background in bio-innovation and bio-business. We’ll also find out more about her research and the impact it is having on how we understand Lyme disease and associated infections. Dr. Gilbert is originally from Canada and is now based in Finland. Learn more at www.lookingatlyme.ca.

In this podcast, Sarah is joined by Dr.Diane Mueller, a naturopathic physician from Colorado who specializes in treating Lyme disease, mold illness and hormonal imbalances. She is also an educator and speaker, and author of the book It's Not In Your Mind: Solutions and Strategies for Lyme Disease, Mold Illness, and Chronic Infections. She joins us from Colorado.

Read our full show notes on www.lookingatlyme.ca: episode 57.

In this episode of Looking at Lyme, we explore how Lyme disease and other infections can appear dramatically different in children. Sometimes strep and other infections can even cause a sudden onset of neurological and behavioral changes in children. We welcome a world leader in this field to the podcast, Dr. Nancy O’Hara. Read the full show notes at www.lookingatlyme.ca.

Are your employees at risk of a tick encounter in their workplace? There are several ways to reduce the risk of tick bites and Lyme disease. Education is paramount and includes learning how to avoid ticks, what to do when bitten, and knowing the early signs of Lyme disease. Safe and timely tick removal can also reduce the risk of infection with Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. CanLyme is offering a significant price reduction for bulk orders for our Tick Removal Kit. CANLYME’S TICK REMOVAL KIT has everything you need to properly remove and store a tick fo...

Thank you to all of our guests for sharing your time and expertise with us! We launched season four with several back-to-back episodes that were all about the brain and limbic system, including different approaches to address these issues. We then looked to the outdoors and explored prevention strategies, including ways to address tick encounters in school grounds and workplaces. We wrapped up season four with an important discussion (our 55th podcast!) with Dr. Brian Fallon about Lyme disease and mental health. AND…we launched our new podcast survey.

Read more about season four.

In this podcast, Sarah talks with Dr. Brian Fallon about the cognitive and mental health manifestations of Lyme disease, and about some of his past and future research collaborations. Dr. Fallon is a physician, researcher, author, and Director of the Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases (TBD) Research Center and the Lyme and TBD Clinical Trials Coordinating Center at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. His work is focussed on the neuropsychiatric and persistent symptoms related to Lyme disease. 

We are approaching the end of Season 4, and Looking at Lyme is looking for your feedback in our new podcast survey! We have interviewed so many interesting guests over the past few years: it’s hard to believe that we are finishing up our 4th Season with our 55th podcast!

We want to hear from you. We want to know what content you are enjoying and ideas about who we might interview in future episodes. Please fill out the survey and let us know!

Take our survey: www.canlyme.com/survey/

A growing concern for industries and employees across the country is the risk of a tick encounter in the workplace. Both employers and employees can take important steps to raise awareness and reduce the risk of tick bites and tick-borne illnesses.

Sarah addresses safety in the workplace in these podcasts with Jordan Tesluk and Tim Tchida. Providing employees with a CanLyme Tick Removal Kit helps to ensure safe and timely tick removal, and testing ticks for pathogens can provide important information regarding potential exposure to those pathogens.

Show notes.

A growing concern for many outdoor workers across the country is the risk of a tick encounter in their workplace. Fortunately there are steps that employers and employees can take to reduce the risk of tick bites and tick-borne illnesses. Increased awareness is an important first step, and creating and implementing policies in the workplace helps keep employees safe and businesses running efficiently. In this podcast, Sarah is joined by Jordan Tesluk, a Forestry Safety Advocate for silviculture and consultant forestry in British Columbia.

Ticks can be found in our backyards, parks and school grounds, and for thousands of Canadians, they can also be found in their workplace. Foresters, linesmen, landscapers, and tree planters are among the many outdoor workers who are at risk of encountering ticks in their day-to-day work. Even people who work indoors such as veterinarians and pet groomers are potentially exposed to this occupational hazard. In this podcast, we connect again with Tim Tchida, a business operator in the reforestation industry. He has been an industry leader in raising awareness about tick borne illnesses.

Read the full...

When it comes to Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, prevention is paramount! There are some basic steps you can take to protect yourself and your family, including applying insect repellent before going outdoors. Keeping a supply of insect spray near the door, in your pack and in your car makes that important step even easier.

Read the show notes.

In this podcast, Sarah is joined by two Canadian women who have joined forces to create, research, and sell tick repellants made without harsh chemicals. Lisa Learning is an Indigenous entrepreneur and founder of AtlanTick repellent products. She joins us from Blockhouse, Nova Scotia. Nancy Thompson is her business partner and research collaborator. She joins us from Squamish, British Columbia. 

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What can employers do to protect staff who work in the outdoors? In this flashback podcast, Sarah explores some answers to that question with Tim Tchida, Owner and CEO of Summit Reforestation in Smithers BC. When Tim first heard about Lyme disease, he never imagined getting the disease himself. Tim recalls first learning he had Lyme disease after receiving a positive Canadian Lyme test (western blot) following mild symptoms of the disease. As time went on, he realized how fortunate he was to receive a diagnosis in light of so many others who have found it very challenging to...

This flashback episode is from season two! Sarah announces an Educator Resource for Lyme disease, and speaks with the lead resource developer, Lauren Hudson. Lauren is an educator and parent with a passion for science, life and for going into nature with her students and her family. She took a deep dive into the world of Lyme disease to help develop an educator resource to help other teachers both learn and teach about ticks and tick-borne illnesses. Lauren recalls her own journey of learning about tick-borne illnesses from members of the Lyme Education Awareness and Prevention (LEAP) team.

This interview with Dr. Ralph Hawkins is from season one! Dr. Hawkins has been treating Lyme patients in Canada for many years, gaining a wealth of knowledge about the disease. He recounts his introduction to the shortcomings of Lyme disease testing in Canada while treating a patient with a history of multiple previous tick bites, many common symptoms of Lyme disease, but a negative Canadian Lyme test. Dr. Hawkins had the patient’s blood tested at a University Lab in New York, revealing test band patterns consistent with Lyme disease. He referred this patient to Infectious Diseases colleagues for tr...

In this flash back episode, Sarah explores the latest research on astrocytes, gut bacteria and neuroinflammation with scientist and medical researcher Dr. Francisco Quintana. Dr. Quintana is a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He describes some of the causes of neuroinflammation including infection, tumours and auto-immune disease. So what does all of that have to do with astrocytes?  

Astrocytes are a type of glial cell found in the central nervous system. These cells were first described over 100 years ago and were given the...

As Dr. Maloney says, “Research is our way out of this.” This is our kind of expert leading the way in the field. In today’s podcast, Sarah explores a comprehensive (and free!) online education program designed for healthcare professionals, which was founded by Lyme disease expert, Dr. Betty Maloney. Listen to this flashback interview with Dr. Maloney who became interested in Lyme disease when she realized that what she was seeing in her medical practice did not align with her medical training and scientific education. This led her to apply her clinical skills, listen carefully to her patients, and ev...

Dr. Rebecca Trout Fryxell is a medical and veterinary entomologist, researcher and associate professor at the University of Tennessee and joins us from Knoxville, Tennessee. In this podcast, Dr. Trout Fryxell talks about tick biology, tick populations in the southeastern US, and strategies to keep ticks away from people in our backyards and school yards. 

Dr. Trout Fryxell became interested in Veterinary entomology when she learned that even a very small organism, such as a caterpillar, could have a very big impact on something many times its size such as a horse. That sparked her in...

Dr. Neil Nathan is a physician and author, and has practiced medicine for over 50 years in the areas of family medicine and pain management. In part 2 of our podcast with Dr. Nathan, he talks about Bartonella, helpful strategies for treating tick-borne illnesses, resources for a deeper dive into the diagnosis and treatment mold, Lyme disease and multiple chemical sensitivities. We’ll also get a sneak peak into his new book that addresses causes and solutions for the growing problem of increased sensitivity.

Dr. Nathan explains that, although Bartonella is often overlooked, it is the nastiest and hardest ti...

Dr. Neil Nathan is a physician and author, and is a Founding Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, and the International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness (ISEAI). He has practiced medicine for over 50 years including 30 years treating patients with chronic complex illnesses, and 20 years treating patients with Lyme disease. He has written several several books about chronic illness, mold toxicity and other environmental illnesses, Lyme and energetic diagnosis. He joins us from Northern California to explore the foundations of mold toxicity, Lyme disease and other infections, and the impact they have on our cells and our...

In this episode from Season 3, 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...

Posttraumatic growth is not only the topic of this podcast from Season 2, it is also the process that birthed the Looking at Lyme podcast. Sarah explores posttraumatic growth with Dr. Richard Tedeschi, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of North Carolina, faculty member of the Posttraumatic Research Group and distinguished chair of the Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth.

Dr. Tedeschi and his colleague, Dr. Lawrence Calhoun, have been working in this area since the 1980s and have developed the academic theory of posttraumatic growth. As psychologists, the pair were interested in finding out what makes...

Dr. Cornish is an integrative functional physician working at the Amen Clinics. She was introduced to chronic Lyme disease when working with a patient who was not cured by a short course of antibiotics. The patient, a landscaper who presented with a bullseye rash followed by ongoing Lyme symptoms, had been labeled as a “drug seeking” patient. This caused Dr. Cornish to ask the question, “Who in the world drug-seeks antibiotics?” After joining a medical practice in a Lyme endemic area, Dr. Cornish learned about the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), and eventually became a Board member.

Today we're flashing back to an interview on outdoor education. In this podcast, Sarah reaches Mike Horembala in the Foothills of Alberta. Mike, known to his students as “Mr. H’, is a Vice Principal and teacher with a passion for the outdoors. He developed a program within the Foothills School District called “Go Wild,” where students can learn about the outdoors while earning credits. Students participate in day trips and multi-day expeditions...hiking, canoeing, kayaking, backcountry skiing and snowshoeing amongst many other outdoor activities. They’ve even gone on an eco-tourism adventure to Belize! We’d have to agree with Mike wh...

Interest in meditation has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years and is now practiced by millions of people worldwide. In this podcast, we find out how meditation can help people throughout their health challenges and beyond. Nicholas Arsenault is an outdoor educator who discovered the healing power of meditation through his own journey with Lyme disease, and is now drawing on what he has learned to help others.

Nicholas turned to meditation in order to address the mental health component of Lyme disease. He wanted to be able to direct his own...

When we sense danger, our limbic system causes us to react in order to stay safe. This system can become impaired, causing a reaction even when we are no longer in danger. In this podcast, Annie Hopper explains limbic system impairment and shows us that the limbic system can be retrained, moving us into a state of rest and repair.

Annie Hopper is a limbic system rehabilitation specialist and founder of the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS). She is also author of the book Wired for Healing: Remapping the Brain to Recover from Chronic and Mysterious...

Summer camps are in full swing and fall education programs are on their way! CanLyme’s Educator’s Resource is the perfect companion for all educators, including parents, who want to learn how to prevent Lyme disease and keep children (and themselves!) safe in the outdoors.

The Educator’s Resource is free to download on the Looking at Lyme website, and is full of activities and projects to help kids learn about ticks, and how to prevent and recognize Lyme disease. It’s all about learning, having fun and staying safe in the outdoors!

Also che...