Dr. Breitchwerdt

[tpotter]

DH and I started to go, but he got home from work late (after I asked him at least 4 times to be home by 5:00...not LEAVING at 5:00. Anyway, GPS said there was a traffic problem enroute, and we would have been very late, so we aborted, and went and got some amazing chocolate sorbet (GF, DF, no corn syrup, and kosher) instead.

 

Anyway, did anyone get there, and could they please share what Dr. Breitchwerdt had to say about Bartonella?

 

Thanks.

[mdmom]

My DD13 has a wicked case of some strain of Bartonella that we haven't figured out and she is the reason I was planning on going.

 

However, she went to visit her grandparents home in PA (4 hours away) and went into a Bart flare as soon as she got there. I had to go retrieve her and bring her home since her gparents aren't understanding or comforting.

 

I was bummed, as I was hoping to gain more insight about this awful disease. Our LLMD heard him speak and said he is awesome. Our doc also knows some of his story...

 

Dr. B is convinced that his own father died of Bart (on the Eastern shore of MD) and this spawned his work (he's a veterinarian) on human strains of Bartonella and his subsequent development of Galaxy labs, which tests for all strains of Bart that infect humans. LabCorp and Quest only test for 2 strains - Bartonella Henselae and Bartonella Quintana.

[SSS]

I found this online: (pasting)

 

Dr. Breitschwerdt stated what most of us Lymies already know…. that not too many physicians know a thing about vector borne diseases. He acknowledged that veterinarians are going to have to be the ones to educate people. He, also, emphasized on the importance of veterinarians role in helping to stop the spread of these diseases from animals to humans. (Yes, you can get vector borne illnesses from animals.) According to Dr. Breitschwerdt, Bartonella is transferred via fleas more often than ticks BUT that most all the ticks he is testing show positive for one or more strains of Bartonella. He stated that if an animal comes into a vet clinic with a flea infestation, that he HIGHLY recommends that the vet wear a mask because you can get it from the feces of a flea or an animal.

 

Dr. Breitschwerdt could not emphasize enough the dangers and the importance of detecting, preventing, and treating Bartonella. He views it as one of the more serious illnesses to worry about. He stated that vets should test for it more often and that there is more around than the average vet would like to believe. He even went as far as stating that vet’s, themselves, should be tested and that they should consider NOT donating their blood to the Red Cross.

 

Bartonella is not a new disease. Doctors have known about it for almost a century but they referred to it as “cat scratch fever”. Cats can carry Bartonella in their bloodstream for months to years. It was thought to be just a short-lived infection in humans and no big deal.

 

Bartonella is considered a co-infection of Lyme. There are at least 30 different species that researchers know of presently and 13 of those have been found in humans. With researchers ability to now find and diagnose animals and humans with Bartonella, it has led to its identification in patients with so-called “chronic illnesses” that the medical professionals hadn’t ever been able to link to any cause before. In an interview with Dr. Mercola, Dr. Klinghardt even states, “The issue with Lyme Disease… that many of us have realized that pretty much all chronic illnesses are in one way or another way… the outcome of chronic infections or at least contributed to by chronic infections.”

 

When a person is infected by Bartonella, it makes it’s home in red blood cells and in the cells that line blood vessels. Just like the borrelia burgdorferi… the bacteria that causes Lyme… can hide, so can Bartonella. Just like Lyme, it can affect multiple organs and organ systems. It’s ability to hide makes diagnosing it very difficult. That’s why it is so important that you see a Lyme literate doctor. Please contact us to find a LLMD.

 

Some common symptoms of Bartonella are severe insomnia, migraines, anxiety, constant worry, agitated-depression, panic attacks, bipolar disorder, depression, agitation, autistic-like symptoms, hallucinations, memory loss, brain fog, and aggression sometimes referred to as “Bartonella rage”. A person may only have just one symptom or many of them. Bart can, also, cause endocarditis, chronic fatigue, tenderness in muscles, chronic pain, pain in the bottom of your feet much like plantar fasciitis, abdominal pain, vomiting, fever/chills, electric shocks in your organs that can come out of the blue, pins and needles sensation or numbness, neuropathy in any part of your body, ringing in the ears, joint pain, skin rash, stretch marks anywhere in the body, thermal dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, frequency, urgency, cystitis and/or excessive day sweats. Bart can be misdiagnosed, just like Lyme, as Rheumatoid arthritis. If you’re RA factor is normal, but you are told you have RA, it’s possible you could have Bartonella (or Lyme) according to Suzy Cohen, “America’s Pharmacist”.

 

According to Dr. Breitschwerdt, not only should vets be careful of exposure but also people who are around farm animals, pets and arthropods such as fleas, ticks, and lice. That is correct… if you have a pet, you are at risk. These people have the highest risk of being infected by Bartonella. He warns that people should take precautions to avoid arthropod bites, arthropod feces, animal bites or scratches, and any direct contact with bodily fluids from a sick animal. Dr. Breitschwerdt has also published research showing that Bartonella can be transmitted from a mother to her infant at birth.

 

Dr. Breitschwerdt states, “We need to understand more about the way this bacteria functions in the human body – how and why it is so successful at hiding and causing persistent infections. We also need to get the word out to the medical community about this pathogen. Just knowing what to look for may end up giving patients with unexplained chronic illnesses better treatment options.”