Summer is almost here with all of its beauty, as well as its
pests. Mosquito infestations and ticks' numbers are soaring this year so being
without a good insect repellent is foolhardy. But before you run down to Home
Depot to pick up that safe popular lantern or spray, is it really safe?
What you may not know is that the pads contain a synthetic
chemical derivative of Permethrin which can kill bugs, but did you also know
that it can kill your cat? It is not so harmful to your dog, but do you really
want your 3-year-old hugging your bestie after he has been exposed to this? And
sorry but it begs this question? Since the product is being marketed as the
perfect item to place on your patio table, do you want this stuff sprayed all
over your dinner?
I’m running out to a Barb-B-Que, along with my Tick Tock
spray for all of my friends to use. I can assure that I will finish up this
blog entry later. There is so much more to say.
>>
Hey, I’m back! When I think about
the savvy deep pocketed marketing of my competitors, it makes me wonder why I’m
trying to convince everyone just how dangerous these chemicals are. I’m a doctor
more than a scientist, so I deal with issues of side effects everyday in my
practice.
Rather than take my word for it,
how about the EPA? They have the last word on clean air and water. Permethrin,
in their words, is carcinogenic. Swedish studies performed on workers using DEET
showed an increased link to testicular cancer. That’s something to think about about when you are making your decisions of how to keep the bugs at bay.
© 2012 Tick Tock Naturals. All Rights Reserved.
So. Here we are at the "unofficial" beginning of the summer season: Memorial Day. You're not going far from home this summer? Maybe taking a drive with the family to the beach or lake? Maybe you're going with your honey to watch movies in the park under the starlight or maybe you are joining a group of friends to drive to an outdoor music festival to watch your favorite band and shake your booty. This is a simple reminder: Don't forget the bug spray!
Here are some questions you should ask yourself:
Do you want to come away with mosquito bites, tick bites, spider bites? Do you want to be annoyed by constant buzzing of flying insects that are commonplace in the summer?
Tick Tock Naturals is developing a reputation among the celebrities. We are also developing a name among the organizers of outdoor music festivals. Summer season is here. Happy Memorial Day! And we here at Tick Tock Naturals salute all of the soldiers who have sacrificed their lives and limbs to protect our freedom to watch movies in the park and watch our favorite bands in the great outdoors.
© 2012 Tick Tock Naturals. All Rights Reserved
Summer is coming. We are all planning our vacations. It's been a rough year. Actually a rough couple of years for most of us. When you plan for your vacation, what comes to mind? Where am I going? How am I getting there? What should I wear? These are all very important. We want to have a good time relaxing in a nice sunny location, preferably on the beach stretched out on a chair!
Something that may not be on your radar though is mosquitoes. If you are traveling to Mexico or Belize or even Costa Rica to see the amazing rain forests that grow right down to the ocean, expect to be inundated by mosquitoes. Lots of them. Reports are surfacing that Dengue Fever is becoming endemic to Belize and I expect all countries around Central America.
Global travel has now seen the emergence of Asian Tiger mosquitoes in places they just don't belong. You no longer have to go to Africa or India to find these mosquitoes. They are finding you and may soon be here in America and with them they carry Dengue Fever - a terrible infection and illness. It presents with severe fatigue and intermittent fevers. The CDC in Atlanta clearly states that the only cure for Dengue Fever is not to get it in the first place. Not to get it is code for: Don't get bitten by a mosquito.
Your choice, then remains what bug repellent will you choose. You can choose a synthetic chemical spray with DEET that we all know to work, but is this really what you want? A strong smelling chemical for you and your family? There are many choices out in the marketplace these days. If you are here on this site, I will consider that "organic" and "natural" mean something to you. So before you leave for your vacation only to forget one of the most important items in your suitcase... Don't. It can mean the difference between your health and the health of your family.
Tick Tock Naturals TM Organic Insect Repellent has been traveling the world. So far we have made stops in Pakistan, Mumbai India, Bangkok Thailand, Malaysia and orangutan watching in the Borneo rain forest - all with great success. Not a single bug bite. We've also been making stops in Greenwich CT, Woodstock NY and all around the USA. The word is getting out. Tick Tock Naturals works. Summer is coming in the northern hemisphere and we all know what that means... Bugs. Lots of bugs and the potential diseases they carry.
© 2012 Tick Tock Naturals. All Rights Reserved.
THE DARK SIDE OF LYME DISEASE
Lyme disease... Do many of us
really know what Lyme disease is? We have heard of it, I am sure. Many
Northeasterners have learned the hard way that it is a disease which can become
crippling if left untreated. But do any of the unaffected people really
understand?
Lyme disease actually got its
illustrious name from a town in Connecticut called Lyme. Back about 30 years or
so ago, a large number of children were sharing strange symptoms including
arthritis. Any cluster obviously
requires further inspection and doctors in association with Yale University rightly
investigated and found that their common symptoms were caused by the deer tick
– actually the deer tick is just a carrier for the real host which is the
stomach of the common field mouse found locally in many, if not all states of
our country. The disease, itself, is caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi which is predominant
to North America, though it was recognized that the spirochete was also one
identified in Europe as early as the turn of the last century causing the well
known bull’s eye rash medically referred to as Erythema chronicum migrans or Erythema
migrans for short. These days we should assume that, the tick-borne
disease is probably working
its way to all points south.
Borrelia
burgdorferi has a propensity for nerve, joint and heart tissue. But it is not unlike bacterial
bronchitis, an infection that can be cured with antibiotics. This is the good
news. The bad news is that there is a limited period of time to treat Lyme
disease and cure the disease before it may destroy your life indefinitely.
Lyme disease has a
curious collection of odds symptoms. We have all heard about the joint pains
and arthritic symptoms which can, on the surface, seem innocuous. We all age
right? Let me give you a longer list of possible symptoms starting with a
sensation of being in a fog. Not a fog outside in a forest, but a fog which
seems to be inside your head and it goes wherever you go. Lyme disease also
presents with intense fatigue. Sinusitis is a symptom associated with Lyme
disease. This is a condition that may also be prevalent with allergies. How
many of us suffer with seasonal allergies, can we all stand up? And the list continues,
and gets stranger indeed. You can suffer with insomnia or excessive sleep. Depression,
panic attacks, and muscle tics are also symptoms associated with Lyme disease. Word
retrieval can become difficult… suddenly you find yourself unable to complete
your sentences; your ability to spell diminishes. Would you think that sudden onset of
obsessive compulsive disorder could be a symptom of the disease? It is.
The problem is
most people would be hard put to associate all of these symptoms together to
form a disease. The symptoms can all point to other conditions and thus many
patients fail to get a proper diagnosis in precious time which is paramount in
the treatment of this disease, if you wish to have a lifelong cure without the
crippling and degenerative effects that untreated Lyme can bring.
Having and
treating Lyme disease can be like a second job, believe me. I was met with the
misfortune of being bitten by a tick myself and became infected with the
disease about 5 years ago. I started experiencing a myriad of weird symptoms and
unknowing, didn’t put things together until I slept one Saturday night into
Sunday afternoon for 13 ½ hours; waking up with intense fatigue and
inability to get out of bed. By that Wednesday, I was convinced that I had
Lyme, confirming the presence of the target bull’s eye rash. It prompted me to
look into the full understanding of the disease, not just the CDC’s
understanding. What I found out scared me and interested me at the same time.
My medical doctor was disinterested in giving me the standard three week dosage
set forth by the CDC and I was forced to politely listen to his lecture
regarding the Merck formulary and the recommendation that one 500 mg. dose
of Doxycycline was enough to kill the
disease.
"Yes", I thought
at the time, "that is if you are uninfected. What about someone like me who
was infected and diagnosed early?" I was able to get the standard 21 day dose, but I already knew that 45 days of antibiotic therapy is what is really needed
to cure this disease for once and for all. I had to seek out additional medical
care in order to get my additional medication and I am happy to say that I was
cured and that the aches, brain fog, facial tics, spelling and speaking
difficulties as well as my obsessive compulsive symptoms disappeared. It was almost
comical for me to watch myself with OCD while I was undergoing medication since
I do not normally suffer with those symptoms.
Getting out of the house was maddening since it took a full 10 minutes
for me to be convinced that my front door was actually locked properly.
Let’s now discuss
how to properly treat the disease. As a holistic chiropractic physician, I do want to say
that I believe all patients should be proactive in their healthcare. Certainly,
I had to be and because of that I can live a normal life.
The (CDC) Center for Disease Control in
Atlanta had as short as a few years ago defined the diagnosis of Lyme only with a
positive finding of a faulty blood test and a subsequent cure with
21 days of Doxycycline therapy which involves taking a very strong antibiotic
pill that needs to be taken twice daily. After intense scrutiny and public
outcry, the current CDC recommendations have been upgraded. The presence of a
bull’s eye rash now meets the criteria for 30 days of Doxycycline. What is not
emphasized generally is the importance that the pill must be taken at very
specific intervals and comes with many restrictions… restrictions that most
doctors are not aware of and do not pass on to their patients.
The first
restriction is that this particular antibiotic cannot be taken with milk! Most
prescribing physicians will fail to tell you this. How many doctors are aware
that in order to have fully effectiveness, the patient must not have dairy for
3 full hours before and after taking each dose?
Unfortunately,
what some doctors already know is that 30 days of Doxycycline is not enough to
kill off a disease that rapidly reproduces in our central nervous system as well as our heart tissue. So
what happens to the patients who are being treated according to CDC guidelines
who are inadvertently not being cured of this infection? What if it is being
allowed to continue to fester? And fester this disease will, finding new hot
breeding grounds throughout all of our nervous systems. And that is just the tip of the ice berg.
Untreated Lyme disease will course through your system, first stop, the brain
where there is an abundant supply of fresh nervous tissue. As the disease
progresses, it will continue to attack areas of nervous system attacking the
spinal nerves and other nerves of the body.
A brief
explanation of why it is so hard to kill off this infection is needed. As I
mentioned previously, the Lyme bacteria is a spirochete. What this means is that
it is not round in shape. It is a spiral or worm-like shape and actually wiggles
and curls on itself like a little armadillo when Doxycycline attempts to break
down its cell wall. In order to break down the cellular structure, a long term
war must be waged by the strongest of antibiotics in our arsenal.
The question and
concern that you may not understand is what connection does this untreated
disease have with demyelinating diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Multiple
Sclerosis? Is there a connection? What about Lou Gehrig’s disease? Can there be
a connection with all of these diseases to Borrelia burgdorferi? Has anyone
ever wondered about the increased incidence of Parkinson’s or MS in a young and
healthy population? These are crippling and degenerative neurological
disorders. The question then, is there a connection to untreated Lyme disease? I cannot personally answer this question, but I can tell you that doctors and researchers are working hard every day to find a definitive answer.
Sadly, you can be
infected by a Lyme tick, cured of the disease, and live to suffer with a new
infection. Our bodies will not produce antibodies to this bacteria. There has
been discussion of a Lyme vaccine, but up to now no
perfected vaccine has been approved by the FDA.
What all of this leaves you with is this: It is up to you to make sure you do not get infected by a Lyme tick. If you think that you can only get bitten out on the hiking trail, think again. All you have to do set up your lawn chair in your own backyard. If you kids play outside in your own backyard, they can be bitten. This is no longer a disease found in high grass. It is right beyond your patio.
© 2012 Tick Tock Naturals. All Rights Reserved
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