Slide 1

Dr Beryl Beynon OBE, MBChB and Dr Chris Newton PhD Well-One Clinic, Beverley, East Yorkshire and Centre for Immuno-Metabolism Microbiome and Bio-Energetic Research Slide 2 Tick bite depositing microbiological cargo through epidermis into dermis- the immuno-competent layer of the skin Slide 3 Lyme disease: the great imitator (confuse all concerned in making clinical diagnosis) From: From: Smith et al. (2014) Borrelia burgdorferi: cell biology and clinical manifestations in latent chronic Lyme. Open Journal of Medical Microbiology. 4: 210-223 Slide 4 Hierarchy of influence on general health IMMUNE SYSTEM ( genetics make-up e.g. HLA markers/ etc) Emotional stress acute/chronic Physical stress Ageing of immune system Exogenous infection/ environmental factors Endogenous infection gut microbiome Dietary components: minerals/vitamins carbohydrate fats proteins/fibre Local inflammation Metabolism mTORC1 Systemic inflammation Autophargy Endocrine System (Pit./Adrenal/Thyroid) (FUTILE inflammation) Newton CJ 2015 Slide 5 Typical scenario (1) for interaction with NHS physician Worst case scenario: present at GP with a range of symptoms, one may not know that one has been bitten, so how does one know how to point GP in right direction-long haul, much frustration and pain! Partial solution- EDUCATION- have to make people aware (without wishing to alarm) that Lyme disease could be responsible Throughout the 1990s, living in a small village just North of Munich always checked kids for ticks-it was what everyone did) If tick still embedded (but dont ignore other bites-but what does one do?), what about chance of infection (number of ticks infected) and time tick attached (time needed to transfer infection into skin)? Slide 6 Prevalence of tick infestations in continental Europe and in UK and transmission time Cook MJ. (2015) Lyme borreliosis: a review of data on transmission time after tick attachment. International Journal of General Medicine. 8: 1-8 We dont have a great deal of data yet for UK but Michael has referenced work from Switzerland, where the proportion of ticks carrying Borrelia ranges from 9 to 47% depending on region. For the UK, I would make a guess (but I have no solid data) that the incidence of infected ticks carrying Borrelia is considerably less than the 9% reported for some areas of Switzerland Transmission time for transfer of organisms after tick attachment from studies using animal models