Rebecca Stadnicki

Rebecca has struggled with chronic Lyme disease for over 10 years. She knows all too well what it is like to live with a chronic illness every day. She has learned so much through this journey, especially how to navigate through all the information that is available to find the best ways to thrive while living with Lyme. She has come to a place of gratitude for her experiences as it has led her to a purpose she would not have found otherwise: health coaching.

Although she is in the beginning stages of creating her health coaching career, her intention is to reach other amazing Lyme challengers and to share her journey, as well as educate, support, guide and empower them into creating the best quality of life possible.

Rebecca has been in the medical field for 30 years as a medical assistant and secretary working in various physician’s offices. Currently, she is a nursing secretary at a local hospital where she sees firsthand the difficulties and obstacles patient’s face when dealing with chronic illness which inspire her to continue improving her health and wellness.

She owes the positive progress she has made to her supportive and loving husband, three daughters and the wonderful team of practitioners she has met along the way.

The post Episode 62: Surviving as a Lyme Disease Warrior appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Dr. Neil Nathan

Neil has been practicing medicine for 47 years, and has been Board Certified in Family Practice and Pain Management and is a Founding Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and a Board member of The International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness. With Dr. Rich van Konynenburg he did the ground-breaking clinical research which demonstrated the importance of methylation chemistry in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and he has recently completed a study with Dr. Robert Naviaux on the metabolomics of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

He has written several books, including Healing is Possible: New Hope for Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Persistent Pain, and Other Chronic Illnesses and On Hope and Healing: For Those Who Have Fallen Through the Medical Cracks. He has hosted an internationally syndicated radio program/podcast on Voice America called The Cutting Edge of Health and Wellness Today.

He has been working to bring an awareness that mold toxicity is a major contributing factor for patients with chronic illness and lectures internationally on this subject which led to the publication of his book, Mold and Mycotoxins: Current Evaluation and Treatment, 2016 and now to his most recent book Toxic: Heal Your Body from Mold Toxicity, Lyme Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and Chronic Environmental Illness.

His current medical practice is the Redwood Valley Clinic in Northern California. He can be contacted most easily through his website, www.neilnathanmd.com, through which consultations are available.

Neil has been treating chronic complex medical illnesses for 25 years now, and Lyme disease for the past 15 years. As his practice has evolved, he finds himself increasingly treating the patients who have become so sensitive and toxic that they can no longer tolerate their usual treatments, and his major current interest is in finding unique ways of helping them to recover. The recent findings that mast cell activation and porphyria are more common than has been appreciated by the medical profession are of particular importance in this regard.

The post Episode 61: Toxicity and the Impact of Our Environment on Chronic Illness appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Dr. Brandon Nielson

Jane Barlow

Jane is an herbalist who owns and runs Barlow Herbal Specialties. She lives in Salt Lake City, where she enjoys hiking all over the mountains of Utah and teaching fitness classes. Jane loves everything natural, holistic, wellness, fitness and nutrition oriented and believes it is our right as humans to be vibrantly healthy and that if given the right tools our body knows how to heal. She believes that each of us are responsible for ourselves and the love, joy, spiritual and physical health that we experience. Jane is the second-oldest of 14 kids and grew up in rural Idaho. Jane has two grown sons and two grandchildren.

Dr. Nielsen graduated with his doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine from SCU and his second doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from the American Naturopathic Institute of Medicine. He has been practicing functional medicine for the past 15 years and is the founder of Emotional Stress Release. He resides in Utah with his wife and four children. He has the blessed opportunity to live by his motto of, “Living In Wholeness Every Day” by restoring the health of the family.

The post Episode 60: Holistic, Herbal and Wholeness Methods for Health and Wellness appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Wendy Myers

Wendy founded Myersdetox.com and is the best-selling author of Limitless Energy: How to Detox Toxic Metals to End Exhaustion and Chronic Fatigue.

She is the host of theheavymentalssummit.com and also hosts two podcasts: the Live to 110 Podcast about detox and the Supercharged Podcast about bioenergetics.

Passionate about the importance of detox to live a long, disease-free life, Wendy created both the revolutionary Myers Detox Protocol and the Mitochondria Detox system after working with thousands of clients.

The post Episode 59: My Talk with Detox Expert Wendy Myers appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Ashley Lenz

After a successful career in Atlanta, where she worked in the highly regulated insurance marketing sector as marketing director for a 16M lead gen company — and losing her father to Alzheimers over a very long and painful goodbye — Ashley decided to use her skill set to launch something she cares deeply about — helping people improve their quality of life with simple, natural products.

Showing them options and natural, earth-grown alternatives. Teaching them to look at ancient traditions under the lens of modern day science, and to take charge of their own well-being. Ashley now co-owns Healing Harbors with founder Stacy Moore.

The post Episode 58: Using Natural, Earth-Grown Alternatives to Treat Lyme appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Pamela Weintraub

Pamela is health and psychology editor at Aeon, a website that covers science, health, culture and “big ideas.” She’s also former senior editor of Discover Magazine and is the author of “Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic.”

When Pamela learned that her oldest son tested positive for Lyme disease, she thought she had found an answer to the symptoms that had been plaguing her family for years. But her nightmare had just begun. Almost everything about Lyme disease turned out to be deeply controversial, from the microbe causing the infection, to the length and type of treatment and the kind of practitioner needed.

On one side of the fight, the scientists who first studied Lyme describe a disease transmitted by a deer tick that is hard to catch but easy to cure no matter how advanced the case. On the other side, rebel doctors insist that Lyme and a soup of “co-infections” cause a complicated spectrum of illness often dramatically different – and far more difficult to treat – than the original researchers claim.

Instead of just swollen knees and a rash, patients can experience exhaustion, disabling pain, and a “Lyme fog” that leaves them dazed and confused. As patients struggle for answers, once-treatable infections become chronic.

Pamela’s book is a nuanced picture of the intense controversy and crippling uncertainty surrounding Lyme disease. Pamela sheds light on one of the angriest medical disputes raging today. The most comprehensive book ever written about the past, present and future of Lyme disease, “Cure Unknown” exposes the ticking clock of a raging epidemic and the vulnerability we all share.

The post Episode 57: The Science and History of Lyme Disease appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Shona Curley

Cindy Kennedy, FNP, is joined by Shona Curley, who discusses meditation treatments for Lyme Disease.

Shona has been involved with pilates-based movement rehabilitation for more than 20 years. As part of her Lyme journey she published “The Cells’ Breath,” an album of meditations for healing chronic Lyme disease. Her practice of meditation was a strong part of her journey to wellness.

For more information about Shona and her work, check her website, redkitemeditations.com.

Shona Curley lives in San Francisco with her man, two kids and their odd duck of a cat, Timo.

The post Episode 56: Meditation Treatments for Lyme Disease appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Lillian McDermott

McDermott has been in sales and marketing most of her career and is the owner of Lillian M. McDermott & Associates. A daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, cousin and friend, her purpose is to reach out to all who are open. McDermott’s belief is that life is perfect and a huge classroom full of gifts and lessons if one chooses to look at life with gratitude!

Even though Lillian has a full-time career in legal and medical marketing, she is also a soloist at her church, a Certified Life Coach and the host of The Lillian McDermott Radio Show. The Lillian McDermott Show has listeners all over the world through the internet, YouTube and on-demand through iTunes, Google Play Music and iHeartRadio. Visitors can listen live at http://www.lillianmcdermott.com/.

The post Episode 55: Self Care, Healing and Growth for Lyme Disease Sufferers appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Cindy Kennedy, FNP, is joined by Dr. Leona Gilbert, who discusses how she worked with her team to create a better testing for tick-borne illnesses.

Dr. Leona Gilbert

She has a doctorate in biotechnology and a very long experience in bio-innovation and biobusiness. She supervises various PhD, MSc and BSc students and is extremely active in lecturing undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Jyväskylä.

Her numerous peer-reviewed articles span turning research results into translational value with developing novel delivery vectors that can be used for imaging and biotechnological tools as well as to developing diagnostic lab-on-chip platforms. In addition, Gilbert’s publications also demonstrate the thorough investigation of how a common virus or bacterium can contribute to autoimmune diseases.

Another highlight in these publications is the demonstration of a multi-disciplinary background and collaborative effort between microbiologists, diagnostic developers, nano-scientists, physicists and engineers. Gilbert knows how to build effective and loyal teams. Concurrent research in Borrellia and Human parvovirus lead to her initiation and involvement in the EU and international projects to develop a highly sensitive and specific vector-borne disease diagnostic tests.

Gilbert’s research initiatives into complete diagnostic platforms and clinical profiling of patients for tick-borne diseases will allow a better understanding of how chronic conditions could be established with tick-borne pathogen infections. Because of the break throughs in her research group, Gilbert has established Te?ted Oy in Oct 2016 with the goal to improve diagnostic for tick-borne diseases.

The post Episode 54: Better Testing for Tick-Borne Illnesses appeared first on Living With Lyme.

Cindy Kennedy, FNP, is joined by Sue Faber, R.N., who discusses Lyme disease and pregnancy. After suffering from Lyme disease for more than 15 years, Faber co-founded of LymeHope in Ontario, Canada.

As a result of her diagnosis, she started conducting extensive research on Lyme disease and soon discovered pathology reports and case studies which had identified the potential for the Lyme bacteria to be passed transplacentally, from an untreated mother to her unborn child.

Faber is a married mother of three daughters. She is trained as a registered nurse (BScN) with a background in emergency room nursing as well as case management in the community. She is a co-founder of the nonprofit organization LymeHope along with colleague Jennifer Kravis.

Sue was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2016, after over 15 years of being symptomatic with over 20 “strange symptoms” that were progressively getting worse, including tachycardia, memory problems, choking, coughing, migratory pain and profound fatigue.

Faber’s story is echoed by so many fellow Canadians. The truly tragic thing is that as an RN, she never once considered Lyme as the culprit. After all, she never had the “mandatory tick bite” or “bullseye rash.”

As Faber read about common symptom clusters of congenitally infected babies, she started connecting the dots to each of her own daughters who had also struggled with health issues from birth. Subsequent testing revealed confirmation that all three had been exposed to Lyme disease, two of whom were symptomatic. Faber has heard from families all across North America and Europe who are concerned about congenital Lyme borreliosis and she believes this is an urgent area for meaningful research.

Faber recently co-authored a nursing resolution for the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario – based on the needs and voiced concerns of Canadians coast to coast. The resolution, Patient First Treatment for Ontarians with Lyme Disease, was passed at the annual general meeting in Toronto last spring.

Sue has been invited to speak at several public forums and events and has also compiled a list of direct quotes from the medical and scientific literature regarding gestational Lyme and congenital Lyme borreliosis – highlighting that this alternate mode of transmission has been proven and agreed upon by experts all over the world.

The post Episode 53: Lyme Disease and Pregnancy appeared first on Living With Lyme.