Lyme Ninja Radio - Fight Lyme Disease Like A Ninja

Donna Kelley lives in the Sierra foothills, home of the big pines and cedars of Volcano, California. She loves and enjoys hiking and bicycling especially in Yosemite. Donna has been a student of health and nutrition since 2004, and earned a Master’s Degree in Holistic Nutrition with highest honors in 2010 from Clayton College of Natural Health. She has been a proud member of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals since 2008. Donna has a strong passion for educating the world about eating FRESH, ORGANIC WHOLE FOODS to keep the body and mind free of toxins (poisons). To keep the body strong and in balance to prevent illness. To keep the mind/memory alert and focused.

Glenn the Geek as he is known, started podcasting in 2008 with the launch of the Horse Radio Network. Since then, Horse Radio Network has now grown to eight shows with tens of thousands of listeners from around the world. Glenn hosts several of the shows on the network including the Stable Scoop Radio Show, the 2010 Radio Show, Tack and Habit and Horse Tip Daily.

Flourish Partners CEO, Helen McCormack, has more than 17 years’ experience in the healthcare industry and currently owns three successful businesses. Her career in sales and business management allowed her to develop medical and commercial knowledge in many therapeutic areas, one of them being infectious disease and immunology.  Helen is a third level graduate in business and marketing (UCL) and is also a mentor for Enterprise Ireland, working with startup companies in the healthcare arena. 

Holly Ahern, Ph.D. is an associate professor of microbiology at SUNY Adirondack who runs an undergraduate research lab. She first encountered Lyme disease when her daughter, a highly ranked competitive swimmer, became ill with “a weird set of symptoms” in her senior year of high school. When Holly Ahern found out that her daughter’s mysterious illness was Lyme disease, she quickly immersed herself in the subject. She soon learned about the controversies swirling around the disease and came to realize that many others were suffering like her daughter. Ahern has become an advocate for developing a broader understanding of Lyme disease – one aimed at treating the chronic symptoms commonly reported by patients who were misdiagnosed or received inadequate treatment in the disease’s early stages. Her goal is to change the official CDC case definition of Lyme disease, which could attract more attention and funding to Lyme disease.

Paula Jackson Jones is the President and Co-founder of Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education, a non-profit 501c3 organization that serves the needs of Midcoast Maine's Lyme community since 2014.

Lori Dennis, MA, RP is a psychotherapist in the Toronto area and the author of Lyme Madness scheduled to be published in the fall of 2016 - it’s a memoir and cautionary tale about chronic Lyme disease. The story is driven by her son's illness and their harrowing journey - from a cascade of acute symptoms to the many missteps toward diagnosis to the various stages and shades of hard-won healing. Lori hopes her book will bring further validation to the many sufferers, greater action within the medical community, and will wave a red flag to other mental health professionals who may not be aware that chronic Lyme disease is a critical differential diagnosis.

The Best of Lyme Ninja Radio Scott’s journey to becoming the 'better health guy’ began in 1997 when he became violently ill. He says on his website "Overnight, my body was ravaged by an unknown illness.” After many months of baffling doctors, he was diagnosed with parasitic infections, Candida, leaky gut syndrome and severe food allergies. Recovering took two years of working constantly with his doctor and by 2000 his symptoms were gone Everything seemed to be going well for him until 2004 when he regained his original symptoms as well as severe burning sensations in his limbs and muscle twitches throughout his body. Going to yet another doctor, who put him on the same course of treatment that had helped him previously. It had cyclical effects, after the treatment ended, his symptoms reappeared. In 2005, he found a treatment to help with his severe food allergies, and the practitioner recommended he get tested for Lyme disease. His Western Blot tested positive for Lyme Disease and shortly thereafter he wen

Amy Tiehel was working in Los Angeles in tv/film production and transitioning into acting when in 2008 she started falling ill monthly. These monthly illnesses became progressively worse until she was practically bed-ridden once a month. She became suddenly and dramatically sick the day after her 40th birthday party. Her health continued to worsen until she couldn’t take care of herself anymore, and had to move back to Philadelphia with her parents. Five years later she finally started to regain her health. She has become a passionate advocate for lyme patients, started a support group and is now a writer. She has a blog where you can find her at www.lymeadvokit.blogspot.com. She is also a board member of PA Lyme Resource Network, www.palyme.org.

Stacey Starkell Is a mother in Iowa who went to the internet for information after her son developed a blinking motor tick. Her son’s pediatrician, while willing, was not lyme literate, and after weeks of worsening physical and neurological symptoms, Stacey drove her son three hours to a Lyme Literate Doctor, where he was finally diagnosed. Today he is on an herbal protocol, is almost symptom free, and with the help of his mother is on his way to being a healthy four-year old. 

Jake Hollander is the son of Katina Makris, (who has also been on this show) A senior in highschool, Jake was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and has had to take time off school to heal from several relapses. Currently he is out on the west coast perfecting his golf game.

Kay Ehlers is a stay at home mom whose oldest son’s behavior changed dramatically when he was four. OCD behavior, speech impairments, and aggressive behavior sent her online in an effort to figure out what was wrong with her son. Much research and a trip to a specialist in Chicago later, she suspected her son had PANDAS which is a pediatric strep infection that includes severe neurological symptoms. He was put on a trial period of antibiotics, on which he improved rapidly. At the same time her son was visiting the doctor, she tested positive for Lyme disease. She believes Lyme disease is also a factor in her son’s illness. As of now both she and her son are on antibiotics to combat their infections.

Dorothy's new book, When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent's Survival Guide, grew out of her experience with Lyme disease activism. Written with psychotherapist Sandra Berenbaum, LCSW, it is geared towards helping families navigate the difficult waters of dealing with Lyme disease and all that it entails. Dorothy Kupcha Leland was a published author when in 2005 her daughter became so disabled she was forced to use a wheelchair. At that time, Leland didn't even know what Lyme disease was, or what a huge controversy it was.

Dr. Kate, as her patients know her, graduated from McMaster University with an honors BSc in Biology and completed her professional training at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto, class of 2002. Dr. Kate is a Canadian expert in natural medicine and a contributing editor to several health-related publications. Born and raised on Montreal’s West Island, Kate now makes her home in Ancaster, Ontario (just west of Hamilton) with her husband, sons and Chloe, the Great Dane.

Earthing is the science of healing by literally grounding to the Earth. Martin Zucker has been writing about health, nutrition, and fitness for more than thirty years. During that time he has written a dozen book and hundreds of magazine articles. He is a former Associated Press foreign correspondent. Alix Mayer spent 18 years with undiagnosed Lyme Disease. She was forced to leave her job as a global research manager for Apple, Inc in 1996 to focus on her health. From there she started researching for her personal health. Today she is a health coach and writer, an editor for Med Nauseaum and SpiroChicks, and a non-profit development consultant.

Lyme disease attacks the mind and spirit as well as the body. In his book, A Beautiful Medicine, David Mercier walks us through a process to bring healing to the entire body, mind and spirit. His writing reminded my of my early training as an acupuncturist and how truly revolutionary this holistic outlook still is today. Especially for people with Lyme Disease. David Mercier is a seminar leader, speaker, life coach, and acupuncturist. In the 1970s he went to Sri Lanka where he practiced mindfulness meditation as a Buddhist monk for two years. But instead of finding peace of mind, he became ill and depressed. After returning to the U.S., he sought healing from acupuncture and holistic medicine, which developed a passion to help people lead a life of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. In his book, A Beautiful Medicine, David explores the humanistic and spiritual essence of health, healing, and medicine by combining science and spirituality.

Eva Sapi is an Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at New Haven University. She joined the University of New Haven faculty in 2001. Professor Sapi grew up in Hungary and earned her Ph.D. in genetics before coming to the United States for postdoctoral training in molecular biology at the Yale University’s School of Medicine. Dr. Sapi researches Lyme Disease, Pathogenic Biofilm, Antibiotics Resistance, and Different Morphology of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Stephanie Seneff is a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She received the B.S. degrees from M.I.T. in Biophysics in 1968, the M.S. and E.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1980, and the Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1985. Her research has concentrated on the intersection of biology and computation. In recent years, Dr. Seneff has focused her research on the relationship between nutrition and health. She has written over a dozen papers on topics such as modern day diseases (e.g., Alzheimer, autism, cardiovascular diseases), analysis and searching databases of drug side effects using NLP techniques, and the impact of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxins on human health.

Leslie Hodge was hiking in North Carolina in 2005 when she found a tick embedded in her. After several weeks of flu-like symptoms she found a rash on her arm. Her doctor identified it as a bullseye rash and immediately put her on antibiotics. Her symptoms were primarily a deep exhaustion, a ‘perpetual cold,’ high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. Her recovery has taken ten years of hard work, but now she is symptom free.

Erin Murphy became symptomatic in highschool with fatigue, depression, and anxiety. When she attended college she studied psychology and then neuroscience in an attempt to understand what was happening to her. She eventually turned to nutrition to try and control her symptoms and attended Maryland University of Integrative Health to recieve her Masters in Nutrition. Her journey to health has been over the course of 16 years, and she found the key to her healing has been allowing herself to feel and process all the emotions that Lyme Disease had created. She now works as a Computer Tech and lives in Philidelphia.

Sometimes it seems like you need Ninja skills to defeat Lyme disease. Join acupuncturist Mackay Rippey as he brings you interviews with interesting and informative people who are using their unique skills to deal with Lyme and other tick born diseases.