Park Ridge MultiMed

Upcoming conference on Mold, Mycotoxins, and Health
I will be attending and speaking at an exceptional conference in Dallas, March 3rd and 4th, entitled "Molds, Mycotoxins and Human Health" (http://www.aaemconference.com/spring/index.php).

Join me, and a panel of expert physicians, to learn the latest techniques for evaluating and treating mold patients.

Exposure to water damaged buildings, mold and mycotoxins can cause serious and complex illness. Unfortunately, this condition is often misdiagnosed, leading to ineffective and costly treatment.

Attendees can receive up to 14.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™​ for the general session in 13 lectures.

This course will include leaders in mold treatment, infectious disease, psychiatry, and occupational medicine.

During this two day course you will learn:

—An innovative, detailed evaluation and treatment plan for neurocognitive symptoms, chronic fatigue, fungal infections, pulmonary and sinus disease.

—How to assess genetic and metabolic factors contributing to illness.

—The role of glutathione in treatment, to include various treatment protocols.

Expert faculty include:
Mary Ackerley, M.D., MD(H)
Keith Berndtson, M.D.
Irene Grant, M.D.
Michael Gray, M.D.
Janette Hope, M.D.
Alan McDaniel, M.D.
Mark Menolascino, M.D.
Neil Nathan, M.D.
Sonia Rapaport, M.D.
Adrienne Sprouse, M.D.

I am excited and proud to be a part of this exciting conference, and hope that you will consider joining me.

Below are quick steps to get started:

1. Check out the agenda.
2. Register here by January 29th with my code "Extra50" to save $50.

I look forward to seeing you in Dallas.

Sincerely,

P.S. This is the first time we are bringing together a panel of expert physicians for an in-depth course on the treatment of mold illness. Register here by January 29th and use my code ‘Extra50’ for $50 off the standard price. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who may be interested in attending.

AAEM Conference

Word is getting out that Drs. Ackerley, Rapaport, Gupta, and Berndtson have founded a new professional society called ISEAI. We've created a page for ISEAI and will uese it to keep you posted as things develop, including the website under construction. Visit when you can and thanks for your support. https://www.facebook.com/ISEAInonprofit/

ISEAI ISEAI: International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness. A community of professionals colla

And here's a CIRS-literate article on problems likely to occur in the post-flood phase for Texas, Florida, and more big storms to come. Feels like progress when a media post shines the light on toxins, inflammagens, and VOCs as indoor health threats that can persist for years after the flood unless handled in a medically and environmentally sound way. It points out the injustice for those who don't have the resources to deal with CIRS.
kb

The Looming Consequences Of Breathing Mold Mold will mark the divide between people who can afford to escape it and people for whom the storm doesn’t end.

We've made an adjustment in the transition guidelines due to a high volume of registration requests. Inquiries on how to become a new patient of Haven Medical will be routed to the new patient coordinator. Compared to front desk staff, he will have more time to understand your needs and how to proceed.

Greetings everyone. Tomorrow marks the full transition from the Park Ridge MultiMed way of doing things to the Haven Medical way of doing things. My hope is that the new way will work better for all concerned. It will take some getting used to, and for some, it may underscore the need to transition to a new source of care. It's all explained in the announcement below. But as Elmer Fudd might say, this is also a time for all hard-working and sincerely caring people to west, wewax, and weeweece--and also a time to pray for our southern brothers and sisters who've been submerged under water and in a whole lotta suffering.

Transition Update for Patients of Dr. Berndtson
Beginning September 1st, 2017, Dr. B completes his transition to Haven Medical in Chapel Hill, NC. This means that, to continue care with Dr. B, you will need to register as a new patient with Haven Medical.

Registration and Medical Records

1. Registration
Registration will grant you access to Haven's system for scheduling, communication, recordkeeping, and patient care services. Before scheduling the next phone or in-person appointment, existing patients will need to become patients of the practice by filling out Haven's intake & policy forms. Call (919) 969-1414 or email [email protected] to obtain the paperwork. To schedule an appointment contact the new patient coordinator at the same phone number.

2. Medical Records
We are working on transitioning Park Ridge records into Haven’s electronic record system. Understandably, this is taking a lot of time and energy! Thankfully, most patients who worked with Dr. B through Park Ridge should have copies of their visit notes, lab results, and reports.

Communication and Eligibility for Continuing Care
For existing patients who want to continue as patients with Haven Medical, this means a couple of notable steps and changes:

1. Email
Dr. Berndtson’s “parkridgemd” email address will no longer be used for patient care. As of September 1 2017, Dr. B will only be reachable through phone or in person appointments. Patients will still be able to email requests to the practice through [email protected]. Requests able to be honored by email include prescription refills (recall the Dr. B no longer prescribes controlled substances), test results, record requests, and brief letters. If the request or related questions are more complex, we will advise a phone or an in person appointment depending on what State Medical Board rules require.

2. Appointments In-Person or by Phone
Effective September 1 2017, in person new patient appointments will be required on an annual basis for all patients who have not been seen in person within a year. If an in person appointment is required, it will need to take place in order to continue with phone appointments and other patient care services. So if you request a phone appointment and your last in-person appointment with Dr. B was over a year ago, then you will need to schedule an in person visit to continue care.

Should questions arise, contact the new patient coordinator at (919) 969-1414.

Love to all,

kb

Have a look at my makeshift office that past few days. The property manager commented that for a 10 year-old space, we turned it over in cleaner condition than any space he took back in years. Too bad clean does not equal safe. Next up: safely get to Chapel Hill! - kb

Lawyer Elizabeth Silver's "In My Humble Opinion" piece on PBS NewsHour tonight hits a home run on the relative inability of evidence-based medicine to take into account all of the health variables that matter in chronic forms of illness. In the process of trying to control variations between people, randomized controlled trials minimize the many differences that influence who does well and who does not with treatment for complex medical conditions. Ritchie Shoemaker uncovered a long-standing illness (CIRS) that, for insufferable reasons, remains invisible to physicians in mainstream settings, and he did it without resort to randomized controlled trials. Let us stop discounting the true complexity of chronic illness, and unite to cure CIRS blindness within the medical profession.

Recent Video

PLEASE NOTE: As of Friday June 30th, our office phone lines will be turned off. Faxes from patients, pharmacies, law firms, etc., should be directed to Haven Medical. Their fax number is (919) 969-1415. Dr. B will catch up with the faxes they receive beginning the week of July 10th.

Dr. Berndtson will be "off the grid" from July 1st through July 9th. He will resume taking emails to schedule phone consults as of July 10th. He will also answer emailed questions as of July 10th. Long emails with multiple questions are better addressed by phone consultation.

ALSO NOTE: Dr. Berndtson will retire his DEA license for controlled substance prescriptions as of July 1. Patients getting refills from Dr. B for opioids, stimulants, or benzodiazepines will need to find another prescriber. This also applies to controlled sleep medications, muscle relaxants, and all other controlled substances. Instead, he will emphasize inflammation control, healthy lifestyle changes, gut-brain health approaches, and various integrative and functional medicine options, referring to pain specialists only as needed.

Based on feedback from a patient, Dr. B no longer recommends the Coleman Institute as a place to obtain help managing controlled pain medications.

We're down to the last three days of patient care here at Park Ridge MultiMed. Thanks agains for the many happy memories, the well-wishes, and the encouragement you have given me over the past 10 years. Will soon set off for Chapel Hill after 35 years living in Park Ridge. That's over half of my life. I'll turn 62 in September. I sure will miss Park Ridge. But I'm excited join my North Carolina colleagues on a mission to help CIRS patients and to help cure CIRS blindness on the part of the medical profession. I hope it will be onward and upward for all of us! - kb

Chinese research finds new inflammatory health threat from secondary organic compounds that form when citrus-based surface cleaning agents and ammonia meet within indoor air. The new secondary organic molecules formed by these molecular collisions were associated with lung inflammation in mice. This means that organic cleaning products and man-made cleaning products should not be used indoors at the same time.

Well, pardon the long post, but so far, the main issue with communicating the upcoming changes in my practice has to do with patients who did not read my letter to patients, which is available at https://parkridgemultimed.com/.

To read about why I'll be able to continue caring for patients that live in Illinois and patients who've had an in-person visit with me, in which case you have up to a year since that visit before you'll need to see me in-person again regardless of where you live (based on confusing medical practice rules from state to state).

For those of you who want to transfer your care to another physician or practice, please click on the "On Transferring Care" document on the homepage.

I must express my deepest gratitude to Sherri Lee for her multidisciplinary skills and her incredibly patient-friendly way of interacting with callers and emailers. She's so capable that I'm still not sure she's a human person.

I must also acknowledge the work of Jesse Karpen, DC, who, from 2007 through 2016, was the backbone of Park Ridge MultiMed, and also Jennifer Klotz, RD, who held down the front desk while doing a great job of nutritional counseling for my patients during her stay. Feel free to post your friendly thanks to any or all of these wonderful people. Amy Whiteside, Diane Williamson, Susan Allen, and Christina Guthrie also played key roles in our success over the past 10 years.

Take solace by knowing that Sherri, Jesse, and Jennifer have landed jobs that put them in a better position to take advantage of their talents. My letters of recommendation for these fine people may have played a role ; )

I understand why many of you are saddened by the closing of Park Ridge MultiMed. The good news is that I will continue to be available to most patients by phone and email from Chapel Hill.

For those of you who are looking for help navigating the changes, consider joining the private new Facebook group for patients of the practice who want a sounding board and a source of support and guidance:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/260727481059629/

Thanks to you all,

kb

About Us Dr. Berndtson has accepted a position with Haven Medical in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Park Ridge [...]

To all Lyme patients and advocates, and those who wish the CDC would abide by the stipulations of the Administrative Services Act,
I encourage you to read this petitiion and become a signer. - kb

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: End Preferential Treatment of the IDSA Guidelines... Citizen Petition to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bacterial Diseases Branch Pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 USC § 552, the Patient Centered Care Advocacy Group, a patient advocacy organization with members and supporters throughout the United States, and the undersi…

PBMs STEAL FROM THE POOR, GIVE TO THEMSELVES

The business model of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) corporations is predicated on exploiting and profiting from an environment lacking transparency and regulatory oversight. Unfortunately, while PBMs gleefully tout their clout in negotiating drug discounts, they aren't required to disclose how the process plays out or whether they pass on those discounts to patients. As a result, PBM corporations can actually raise prices for the patients using the health plans they administer instead of lowering them.

AND NO ONE IS WILLING OR ABLE TO STOP THEM!

Click and read this brief tale of rampant exploitation of the needy.

Smoking Gun: Mail Order Pharmacy Pricing Scam? This blog is an extension of the National Community Pharmacists Association’s role as The Voice of the Community Pharmacist. Visitors can expect to find updates and information on the value of, challenges to, and opportunities for independent community pharmacy today and in the future. Common topics…

Time again for my Thanksgiving Day Prayer...

Let us pray. We are gathered here today to give thanks for the blessings - past and present - that grace our lives.

We know that long ago, a mysterious creative force set matter and energy on an evolutionary path. Our minds sense that this path has a purpose, and that we can help fulfill this purpose by virtue of the choices we make.

We feel called to a good life, to care for ourselves and for each other, and to protect the living systems upon whose integrity so much depends, We know our path is difficult but worth the sacrifice because of the blessings we experience along the way.

In search of wisdom we turn to God and nature - to something greater than ourselves. When we take wrong turns, we are fortunate to have our loved ones to hold our hearts and set us right.

When we focus on the people and the things that we are thankful for, and we count the blessings we've had in the course of our lives, we walk a path of wisdom and purpose with renewed grace, determined to become better stewards of each other, and of life on Earth.

And so may we remember what we have to be thankful for not just on this day, but every day, so long as we shall live.

Amen

PS. I am thankful to be a source of help to people in need. Thank you, my patients, for your ongoing patience with me.

Visit the link to register for the live stream version of this week's upcoming conference on State of the Art in Mold, Wet Buildings, and CIRS. The cost is $99.

There will be talks on genomics, NeuroQuant, testing and remediation, zonulin, autonomic dysfunction, multiple sclerosis, neuroinflammation (brain on fire), mold litigation, mold activism, patient stories, and much more.

I will be out of the office from Wednesday Nov. 11 through Sunday Nov. 15 to be at the meeting. I present on Nanoparticle Biotoxicity on Friday morning and on Mast Cells and CIRS on Saturday morning.

Can't attend the conference? Live Stream it here! | Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker Can't attend the conference? Live Stream it here!

Lymedisease.org is preparing to launch a major effort to collect data from persons with Lyme disease and those who've been through the Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment experience with good or bad things to say about it.

If you fit this description, I encourage you to visit the link, register, and be part of this important project. Once registered, you'll be notified when they are ready to launch.

This will be your chance to describe your ups and downs with your medical and health care Lyme-related encounters. This is also an opportunity to compare how people are doing on specific protocols such as those used by Horowitz, Buhner, Cowden, Berndtson, Jemsek, and so on, or on hybrids of multiple protocols. We need many thousands of participants to figure out if ongoing analyses of your pooled "Big Data" can point us in a direction that leads to more effective Lyme diagnosis and treatment for all.

If I have treated you for Lyme, I would appreciate your sharing what you can about the approach I take to preventing Lyme bacteria from playing hide an seek with the human immune system. I'm not the only doctor out there who thinks that a relatively simple regimen of pulsed tinidazole combined with daily use of cefuroxime, doxycycline, or clarithromycin can drive a treatment strategy that leads to remission for many.

Kudos to Lymedisease.org, Lorraine Johnson, and Dr. Raphael Stricker for getting this "Big Data is a Big Deal" project off the ground.

Lyme Disease: Introduction to Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment Lyme Disease; Comprehensive overview covers symptoms, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of this tick-borne illness.

Here's a music video by ZDoggMD sung to the tune of New York State of Mind. Shows why doctors and nurses are upset about the digitization of the patient-physician-nurse relationship. He really nails it. Let nurses be nurses. Let doctors be doctors.

EHR State of Mind (#LetDoctorsBeDoctors) Help us fight the ICD-10 Machine Apocalypse...with an epic rap smackdown!

First, thanks to our own Kimberly Frank, a Founder of Chicagoland's Lyme Support Network, for gathering herself on short notice to make the trip to a Congressional hearing on Lyme disease where we hope she got a chance to speak.

Second, Lyme advocate Bruce Alan Fries has written this stunning account about the cozy relationship between the Ad Hoc International Lyme Disease Group and the CDC, and their surreptitious plans to squash the Lyme disease awareness movement.

Lyme Disease Guidelines Panelists Engage in Coordinated Propaganda Campaign Advocates say current guidelines that dispute the existence of chronic Lyme disease harm large numbers of Lyme patients.

The Johns Hopkins research team that identified Ceftin as being effective against stationary persister phase of Lyme bacteria came out with second paper that identified nystatin, fluconazole, and rifamyciins (includes rifampin) as being effective against Borrelia burgdorferi's dormant forms (round body forms and persister cells).

Though these are basic research studies, and there are no data on how these alternatives actually work in Lyme patients, how different the treatment of Lyme is beginning to look compared to the decades-old CDC/IDSA guidelines.

Identification of Additional Anti-Persister Activity against Borrelia burgdorferi from an FDA... Lyme disease is a leading vector-borne disease in the United States. Although the majority of Lyme patients can be cured with standard 2–4 week antibiotic treatment, 10%–20% of patients continue to suffer from prolonged post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). While the cause for this is unclea…

A physician shares her skepticism about CDC and IDSA positions on Lyme carditis, the incidence of Lyme disease, and the adequacy of their positions on diagnosis and treatment.

Lyme Deaths From Heart Inflammation Likely Worse Than We Thought Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections are skyrocketing. In western Pennsylvania, where I work, Lyme increased 25% just between 2013 and 2014, with Butler County having 412 cases and Allegheny County chalking up a record 822 cases last year. And where I vacation, in Maine, the rate of Lyme in…

A Gary Wormser study in which mice infected with Lyme bacteria were treated and then, in a methodology that deserves a place in the Vivisection Hall of Shame, were skinned, deboned, and put into the equivalent of a NutriBullet blender. The liquified remains were put in culture dishes and guess what? They were not able to culture any Lyme bacteria. Hence, Lyme disease is cured with standard treatment. Um, what about Lyme round bodies and persister cells, which by definition are dormant and therefore unable to be cultured? No mention of that in the this study, which is why you can toss it.

Culture of the Entire Mouse To Determine whether Cultivable Borrelia burgdorferi Persists in... Although controversial, it has been suggested that antibiotic treatment of laboratory animals infected with Borrelia burgdorferi often leads to the persistence of residual spirochetes that are claimed to be viable but noncultivable. If viable cells of ...

Scientific American jumps into the Lyme ring with this post. They quote persister cell expert Kim Lewis on Lyme persister cells, "These are some of the most robust persisters we've seen." In most bacterial species that house the persister trait, it manifests in only 1 in every 100 to 1,000 of those bacteria. There is now a major focus on Lyme bacteria... will it prove to be the King of the persisters?

1 in 5 Lyme patients go on to develop Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) - Lyme symptoms that persist despite antibiotic challenge. Some of these patients are in remission for Lyme but have a separate condition that needs to be treated in it's own way. Mold toxicity syndrome is a leading example. But some of these PTLDS patients may have persistent Lyme disease.

The most we can say thus far is that there is more validity to support the concept of chronic Lyme disease. The IDSA Lyme propaganda machine can no longer insist that chronic Lyme disease does not exist. Their hard and fast conclusions against chronic Lyme disease over the decades are now demoted to speculation. The playing field is leveling. The drama is intensifying.

For the Lyme community, the Riders of Rohan have finally joined the battlefield - in the form of applied microbiologists in lab coats.

Lyme Disease May Linger for 1 in 5 Because of "Persisters" A new theory about long-lasting Lyme disease symptoms suggests treatment options

This article is a must read for the Lyme community. It chronicles the growing movement among microbiologists concerned about the ability of Lyme bacteria to persist despite antibiotic challenge. Monica Embers, Kim Lewis, and Nicole Baumgarth have each published landmark papers that challenge opinions held by Lyme experts affiliated with the Infectious Disease Society of America. Kim Lewis and his team now are working on pulsed antibiotic regimens as a way to contend with Lyme persister cells.

Strong science is lending support to patients and doctors in need of strategies for dealing with the "hide-and-seek" properties of Lyme bacteria. Big thanks to these scientists for advancing our understanding of the persistence, immune evasiveness, and antibiotic tolerance of Lyme bacteria.

The Search for Persisters | The Scientist Magazine® Lyme disease–causing bacteria can outmaneuver antibiotics in vitro and manipulate the mouse immune system.

A major scientific demonstration showing that pulsed dosing for spirochete forms alone is not enough to treat the wily forms of Lyme bacteria. Must also treat for dormant (round body and persister forms) or else you will not succeed in treating the antibiotic forms that remain viable by mooching nutrition yet cause no inflammation while waiting for certain signals to re-activate - signals that we do not yet fully enough understand but thus far involve signals created by feeding ticks (bus at the station) and immunosuppresion (not enough cops on the beat, let's go exploring).

It is amazing to me that IDSA-supported research groups thus far have yet to show an interest in pleomorphic forms of Lyme bacteria and their ability to survive antibiotic challenge. This makes the recent barrage of IDSA-affiliated research papers on Lyme disease look stupid and indefensible. They need to take into account the well-documented ability of Lyme bacteria to survive aggressive antibiotic challenge in primates (Embers Monica, et al., PLoS One, 2012).

Persister Development by B. burgdorferi Populations In Vitro Doxycycline is a commonly used antibiotic to treat Lyme disease and other bacterial infections. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) for Borrelia burgdorferi have been investigated by different groups, but are experimentally established here as a fu…

I am pro-vaccine for the most part. I'm against vaccination when there is a history of an adverse reaction to a vaccine or evidence for CVID (common, variable immune deficiency) or PID (primary immune deficiency). But last week Congressman Bill Posey of Florida brought to the House's attention that a CDC whistleblower came forth with evidence of fraud concerning the intentional withholding of incriminating data on vaccine safety concerning a particular adulterated study that appeared in the journal, Pediatrics. If this holds up, I am more than just disappointed with the CDC.

Congressman Bill Posey talks about the CDC Whistleblower on C-SPAN During last week's US House Morning Hour on C-SPAN, Congressman Bill Posey made a request for an investigation to be made on the CDC's coverup of the Vaccine-Autism link. Below is the transcript of his request:Request made by Florida Rep. Bill Posey: "I rise today on matters of scientific int…

This is a reliable study by researchers in Czechoslovakia who discovered a spirochete named BR91 that differs from its closest relative, Borrelia burgdorferi, in 35% of the characteristics studied. This is the first published description of this particular spirochete found in mosquitoes. It does not prove that Lyme disease can be caused by mosquitoes but it does focus attention on the need for reliable studies that can provide the public with a definitive answer to this question.

Selected phenotypic features of BR91, a unique spirochaetal strain isolated from the Culex... Growth temperature range, resistance to selective antibiotics, activities of 23 enzymes, protein fingerprints and fatty acids composition of the spirochaetal strain BR91, isolated from the Culex pipiens mosquito, were tested. The spirochaetes were grown in BSK-H Complete liquid medium. The optimal i…

Astute observer Malcolm Gladwell and astute interviewer Eric Topol, MD on fixing our health care mess. I want to draw your attention to a segment that runs from 15:22 to 17:20 to show that we're not alone - high profile people are drawing attention to how third party pressures are preventing physicians from doing what they are meant to do.

Malcolm Gladwell on Fixing the US Healthcare Mess Eric Topol talks with New Yorker columnist and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell on how best to tell the story of medicine.

Here's a study whose findings are interesting but whose conclusion looks like a silly attempt to undermine "alternative" methods of diagnosing Lyme disease - by which they mean the IgeneX method.

They found that among 13 patients found to have Lyme disease by IgeneX criteria, their clinical data and degree of disability overlapped with clinical and disability data for 25 chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) control cases. Therefore, IgeneX must be detecting CFS and not Lyme.

I just about belly-laughed myself out of my chair.

They failed logic 101. There is a great deal of overlap between CFS, Lyme, and CIRS when it comes to inflammation markers and disabling symptoms (far less overlap with lupus). Yet they imply that IgeneX must be mistaking CFS for Lyme - as if a positive IgeneX Lyme test can only mean CFS.

All diagnostic tests for Lyme have false negative and false positive issues - but this has more to do with the immune evasiveness of Lyme than with IgeneX, whose diagnostic criteria are designed to address the false negative rates when relying on CDC reference labs alone.

When a piddly study with an N of 13 seems warrants a press release it makes me think that it was designed for little purpose other than to undermine the credibility of IgeneX. This study, however, did a fine job of undermining the credibility of its authors.

Lyme Disease Diagnosed by Alternative Methods: A Common Phenotype with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Find out more