Ending Lyme
How Revolutionary Biomolecular Research
is the Key to Unraveling Lyme Disease
Video
Welcome
Welcome Viewers,
I am thrilled to introduce you to a brand new research paradigm for Lyme disease that promises to be a refreshing look at the molecular characteristics of a mysterious intracellular microbe, and the resulting variable chronic disease manifestations of human infection.
In 2019, we are in the middle of a global vector borne Lyme disease epidemic that has rapidly escalated over the past 40 to 50 years. The causative bacterial agent, Borrelia burgdorferi, is spreading rapidly with an estimated 600,000 new cases per year in the Northern Hemisphere. Speculation about precisely why this infection blankets most of the United States, Europe, Asia and possibly other continents ranges from climate change to industrial pollution to encroachment on wildlife habitat to migratory bird infection dispersal to biological warfare strategies gone awry to a growing overpopulation of deer.
Upon closer examination, the proliferation of Borrelia burgdorferi causing Lyme disease is likely the result of many environmental factors converging in such a way to give rise to a “perfect storm,” the epidemic of Lyme disease and coinfections including: Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Tick Borne Relapsing Fever, Louse Borne Relapsing Fever, Mycoplasma fermentans, Colorado Tick Fever, Tularemia, Q Fever, Powassan Virus, and many more.
Unfortunately, if a tick bite or bullseye rash is not treated immediately with an appropriate dose and length of antibiotics, the infection can seed in tissues causing chronic inflammation and infection, which often results in difficult-to-treat disease conditions such as: Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Bells Palsy, Encephalitis, ALS, Parkinson Disease, Dementia, IBS, and even certain forms of cancer.
To date, there has been an alarming and unacceptable paucity of research documenting the presence of Borrelia and the various physiological trajectories that a Borrelia infection can take. We simply haven’t had an adequate research paradigm that allowed us to ask appropriate questions to unravel the complexities of Lyme disease.
Now we do.
It is my sincere hope that you will find this video informative, offering hope for a new method of research design for Lyme disease through the lens of systems biology. Systems biology is the marriage of biology and computer science, and utilizes genomics, proteomics, immunology, dense data clouds, and microbiome science to discover the unique and highly complex molecular environment that fosters disease progression. This advanced biomedical approach will be used to further identify disease transitions that until now have rendered patients with a plethora of chronic diseases with few treatment options.
Lastly, a systems biology approach to discovering Lyme disease will help solidify new and improved diagnostics for the infection, and hopefully provide insights into future novel and effective treatments and perhaps even a cure.
For more information about the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, please visit their website at www.isbscience.org. Please help us make a SIGNIFICANT difference in the future of Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment.
Thank you for your support. Enjoy the video with a renewed sense of faith for the discovery of diagnostics and eventually a cure for Lyme disease. It will happen! We just needed a new way to examine the problem so that new solutions could be unveiled.
About
Dr. Susan L. Marra is a Lyme literate Naturopathic physician with over 20 years of experience as a clinician, and over 35 years in the health care industry. She has trained with world leading Lyme disease specialists on the east coast, and has practiced both on the east (Connecticut) and west coasts (Seattle). She has a BS and MS in Psychology with an emphasis in Psychobiology, and received her ND degree from Bastyr University. Prior to attending Bastyr, she worked at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland and at the University of Pennsylvania in brain and behavior research. Dr. Marra has been an ILADS member since 2001.
She has extensive experience in treating tick borne illness in both children and adults and uses an integrated medicine approach to help her patients heal. Dr. Marra believes that the new era of genomics will help identify risk factors in people who have a more difficult time healing from tick borne illness. She shows compassion to a community of people who have been misdiagnosed and misunderstood for several decades. Dr. Marra has been successful in overcoming her own battle with Lyme disease when she contracted it in 2001 while living and practicing in Westport Connecticut. Of note, she never found a tick bite and did not have a bullseye rash.
Dr. Marra is also Board Certified and a Fellow in Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine through the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, and is a Fellow in Metabolic Medicine through the Metabolic Medical Institute. She is also recently certified in nutritional genomic consulting through the Nutrigenetic Research Institute. Dr. Marra uses a variety of skills to help her patients heal from tick borne illness, and believes that nutrigenomics is paving the way for a better understanding of the epigenetic environmental factors that contribute to people becoming ill with tick borne illness. She regularly attends seminars, workshops, and conferences to advance her knowledge and remain at the forefront of this new era of medicine.
Dr. Marra uses a combination of herbs, vitamins, antibiotics and German biologic medicine to address the complicated symptom picture that Lyme patients usually present. Generally, her patients do quite well and return to a productive life.
She is licensed to practice Naturopathic Medicine in California and Washington states and is a longstanding member in the following professional communities:
ILADS – International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society
WANP – Washington Association of Naturopathic Physicians
CALND – California Naturopathic Doctors Association
She lives in Seattle and enjoys all the abundant beauty that the Northwest has to offer. She also enjoys art, music, traveling and meeting people from other cultures.
For more information on Dr. Marra’s practice, please visit her websites at www.drsusanmarra.com and www.lymegenomics.com.