Lyme Blog Posts
NEWS: Thanksgiving in the Lyme world
Our Gratitude List: 2009 has been a remarkable year for the Lyme community. Here are some things we're grateful for this Thanksgiving season.
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Mammograms, pap smears and Lyme? Statistical lives vs personal lives. You choose.
Have you been following the news lately? So much about health care reform and guidelines revisions that appear to be blatant cost containment issues…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: IDSA Lyme Guidelines—Do they violate the IDSA’s own rules on guidelines?
Patients think that the IDSA guidelines are harmful to their health because physicians, hospitals, and insurers rely on them to deny patients access to the…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: IDSA Lyme Hearing Panel–What to do when opinion is strong, but evidence is weak?
Now that two studies have shown that IDSA guidelines are generally long on opinion and short on evidence, what should the IDSA guideline panel do?…
LYMEPOLICYWONK.ORG: When it’s a matter of opinion, whose opinion counts?
Doing a guideline review process correctly and vigilantly is important. It is also a difficult goal to pull off. The 2006 IDSA guideline…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Researcher finds IDSA treatment guidelines long on opinion and short on science
IDSA guidelines are long on opinion and short on science. This is the stunning conclusion made by an infectious disease specialist at Drexel University,…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Anatomy of IDSA annual meeting: Vaccine Financial Ties
50% of the 272 speakers at the October 2009 IDSA annual meeting who disclosed conflicts, had ties to one or more of the five leading…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Weinstein Offers IDSA Panel a Dead End Road to Nowhere
I have been reviewing the IDSA transcripts and reread Dr. Arthur Weinstein’s testimony. Yesterday, I discussed Weinstein’s argument that chronic Lyme should be considered…
TOUCHED BY LYME: BPA in canned food can disrupt endocrine system
BPA–a toxic chemical in plastics–is often used in canning food. According to the Environmental Working Group, the substance leaches into the food from the can,…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: IDSA Hearings—Weinstein’s Pet Theory Shouldn’t Trump Patient Care
I have been reviewing the IDSA transcripts and reread Dr. Arthur Weinstein’s testimony. Weinstein testified in support of the IDSA Lyme guidelines at…
TOUCHED BY LYME: October Lyme conferences a whirl of education & activity
Lyme practitioners, advocates and patients descended on the Washington DC area last month, for a series of Lyme conferences and related activities. I was…
Lyme disease: Losing your innocence in science
Having Lyme means losing your innocence, utterly, in science. It's true. I am remembering the night I explained evidence-based medicine to a friend whose…