The Blaylock Report: December Excerpt

[Harrison]

The Herpes Viruses and Brain Disorders

The are a number of live viruses that live in specific parts of the brain. One of the more common is the herpes simplex virus. There are twobasic types of these viruses — herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) and herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV2).

HSV1 usually infects the oral cavity and lips, and the HSV2 virus is usually, but not always, found in the genital and anal regions.Recent studies have shown a close correlation between latent HSV1 virus becoming active and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The HSV viruses tend to grow in certain parts of nervous tissues called ganglion and remain dormant (called a latent virus). Periodically, the virus will awaken from its slumber and cause such things as mouth ulcers (oral stomatitis) and fever blisters. In rare cases it causes a highly lethal form of encephalitis.

During periods when the virus is reactivated, the result is fever, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, and feeling achy and listless. Mouth ulcers flare up and usually last a week to two weeks and then subside. This cycle of activation and latency can occur several times a year to as often as once or twice a month.

The herpes simplex virus tends to move along nerve tracts (axons) and can enter brain areas commonly affected by Alzheimer’s disease. People who experience frequent reactivated virus attacks and have the genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s (the APOE4 gene), are significantly more likely to develop Alzheimer’s dementia than those who are not infected.

A number of conditions, such as fever, stress, immune deficiency, nutritional deficiency, and acidic conditions in the body can activate this virus.

About two-thirds of people infected with either form of HSV will have no symptoms, yet they frequently secrete the virus in bodily fluids, which can infect others.

Being a carrier of HSV can complicate surgery and seemingly unrelated conditions. For instance, one of the common complications associated with cutting the trigeminal nerve when treating trigeminal neuralgia (bouts of extreme pain in the face and areas supplied by the trigeminal nerve) is the post-operative appearance of blistering skin lesions along the nerve tract in the face. I saw this frequently as a neurosurgeon. These people had no idea they were carrying the virus until the nerve was damaged.

I have also seen people with severe pain radiating down their leg (sciatica) who were diagnosed with a ruptured disc, but the actual problem was an activated herpes simplex virus in the nerve ganglion. The skin rash may not appear until weeks after the onset of pain. Surgery only makes their pain worse.

Sometimes a ruptured disc in the back or neck can activate the virus. This results in continued pain after surgery and explains in many cases why surgery fails to help.

[Justin]

I'll add some more to the above... Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) is transmitted via saliva. The virus invades mucous membranes and results in a local primary infection. Typically, this is usually asymptomatic but can cause vesicular lesions that ulcerate in the mouth and eye.

This primary infection resolves after 2-3 weeks. Then, the virus enters local sensory nerve endings and finds its "place" proximal to the sensory ganglion cell bodies.

Stress (fever, menstruation, sunlight) results in "viral reactivation" in which transport of the virus occurs from the ganglion to the nerve endings. This causes a recurrent local infection of HSV-1 -- usually cold sores around the mouth -- once you get them, you will have reactivation at some point in your life.

This is also true of HSV-2 (genital herpes). We can only treat the symptoms of HSV-2, as there is no cure because the virus is constantly "rearranging" itself in which reactivation is common (however, very few reinfections are symptomatic).

Rarely, HSV-1 may spread via cranial nerves to the brain. There is a predilection of HSV-1 for the temporal lobe of the brain. This leads to what is called sporadic encephalitis after the reactivation of the latent virus "living" in the trigeminal ganglion spreads along this nerve. HSV-1 mostly affects teenagers and young adults. The symptoms seen in HSV-1 encephalitis include aphasia (damage of speech areas), olfactory hallucinations, and personality changes (amygdala involvement). Hemorrhagic necrosis of the temporal lobes of the brain is often seen.

What's really interesting is that most people are infected with HSV-1 by the time they reach about 30 years old. Thus, most of us have HSV-1 "hanging out" in our trigeminal nerve! In regard to the discussion above about a ruptured disc reactivating the virus: this makes sense, as the virus can remain latent in the lumbosacral ganglia as well (same pathogenesis).

Good article about one of the most common viruses (and its sequelae) that uses only humans as a reservoir.

[Terry]

So all of the fun I had in my youth is truly catching up to me now?

I knew there was a price to pay for all of those girls.

It sure was fun at the time. Now I am an




Terry Newton

[Justin]

Originally Posted by Terry

So all of the fun I had in my youth is truly catching up to me now?

I knew there was a price to pay for all of those girls.

It sure was fun at the time. Now I am an




Terry Newton

Terry, so you were "that guy," eh? You're not fooling anyone with this angel talk.

[Justin]

Rich,

I've never heard of the "Blaylock Wellness Report" before, so I decided to look into it. It's a good thing you only took an excerpt that only explained well-known facts about herpes simplex virus because the majority of his website is pure "pseudoscience and quackery."

I'm not sure if you checked your sources, but Dr. Blaylock is a quack--as in quackery.

He's the associate editor of The Journal of American Physicians ans Surgeons--- see this link:The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons: Medical "science" as dubious as it gets

Dr. Blaylock has also been "recognized," which is a bad thing, by Quackwatch.

I found this blog entry from a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine's (a physician's) blog--it is a funny read. (May sure to click on the underlined links below.)

How much woo can one doc do?

Apparently quite a bit. I never got around to the follow-up piece I promised on Dr. Russell Blaylock, and I’m not sure I can do him justice, given how densely he packs in the bull****, but here it goes…

The opening page of his website reads like a roster of denialism, quackery, and crankism. In the first few inches, titles of articles read, “Vaccines can kill”, “Cholesterol drugs are dangerous”, “Why fluoride is toxic”, and some other great ones like “Stop aging”.

We can examine some of those claims, but let’s examine the messenger a bit first.

Who is this guy, and who likes him?

As stated in my first post on the man, he believably claims to have graduated from medical school and done a residency in neurosurgery. He seems to be trying to piggyback an awful lot of general credibility on his early, very specific work, creating a penumbra of “expert-ness” that is unjustified. That being said, who, besides Blaylock himself, takes him seriously?

The Weston Price Foundation

These folks reportedly have given Blaylock their 2004 Integrity in Science Award. Coming from a foundation that bases it’s mission on the odd nutritional ideas of a single individual, this is a dubious honor. They must be on the cutting edge because they’re into raw milk! They support an incoherent range of fringe nutritional issues, including the assertion that high serum cholesterol is not associated with increased mortality. Hey, I love meat, but reading their site makes me wonder if Weston Price was invented by a bunch of ranchers.

Life Extension Foundation

Blaylock sits on the “advisory board” (damn, I love those “scare quotes”!) of this organization. Their website appears to be an ad factory for nutritional supplements. They do say they are not-for-profit, however. But, hey, I just have to quote this, in honor of Walt Disney and Ted Williams:

I love science fiction as much as the next nerd, but as a real doctor, I’d rather focus on the real and marvelous treatments that we already have, rather than offering my sick patients the “corpsicle” option.

JPANDS???

Yes, he admits to being an associate editor of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, the official publication of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. ‘Nuf said.

Nutraceuticals

Blaylock is reportedly an editor of the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association, "recognized" by Quackwatch. Since “nutraceutical” is not really a scientifically accepted concept in the first place, I’m not sure why he would want his name anywhere near them. Volume 10(2)2007 of JANA (the free sample available online) does not contain a single piece of original research as far as I can tell. It is more of a newsletter than a journal.

Newsmax and the Wellness Report

Newsmax, a conservative news organization with at least some legitimacy, publishes “The Blaylock Wellness Report”. I am not a journalist, so please forgive me for wondering what possible advantages a conservative news outlet could gain from publishing the rantings of a crank denialist. Perhaps someone with more experience might know. Either way, the Report is a denialist’s nocturnal emission. As stated above, it basically repeats every denialist canard imaginable from the “dangers” of fluoridated water, to “killer” vaccines. Lets get move in a little closer and, um, flesh this out a bit.

I don’t know if the dewooificator can stand too much of this. The engines, Captain, they can’t take it!

He first repeats the usual canards, including the horrible fact that the number of childhood vaccinations has grown since the 50s! He fails to mention that the death rates of vaccine-preventable childhood illnesses has tanked.

He fills is rant with calm, useful statements like:

And the examples and evidence to support this bold claim is…well, absent (of course, you can buy the "report" through Newsmax. What’s 54 bucks a year compared to …(hey, that’s a lot of lattes. Forget it.) Wait…maybe I am beginning to understand Newsmax’s role here. Every news organization needs a few stable advertisers to keep afloat.

That’s it. I’m spent. The bottom of the vaccine page is full of sales pitches. Has this man no shame?

Nope.

[Harrison]

Justin, thanks for sharing your observations. It’s always interesting to read your posts that relate to folks that think outside the box when it comes to looking at causes of spinal disease. Here are my questions for you:

If his facts are correct, as you assert, why discredit the man – regardless of where he went to school? You admit the accuracy of the article, so why the hunt to discredit?

Just to set the record straight, vaccines do kill. As someone who was in the military for eight years (and got my arm perforated) I am very sensitive to these issues. And I’ve watched people from my own unit get sick with Gulf War problems; some of whom have gotten better after the proper diagnosis & treatment. Any way, look up the poor souls who have been killed or hurt by the Lymerix vaccine; or as recently with the HPV vaccine. One link here; many others that may be better in terms of traceability.

It’s obvious that many different pathogens cause problems in the spine (see updated reference I posted today in the Big File). There’s a long list of pathogens that can cause spine diseases, right? So the important question to you as a future doctor is how do institutions determine the right methodology to diagnose the root cause of the disease that is causing the patient’s spine problem?

I’ve read countless complaints against Dr. Barret from many different kinds of patients. He of all people is the biggest Quack in the universe! Needless to say, his stuff is not peer-reviewed. He is absolutely HATED by many patients that found a path to wellness from the very doctors he has publicly humiliated.

Let’s focus on what we know; the facts and a new methodology to help spine patients get diagnosed. And let’s reward those who are lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness. I hope this sounds hopeful and constructive – we need more doctors that think outside the box.

[Justin]

Hey Rich,

In response to my post in the "Blaylock Report: December Excerpt" thread, you posed some very good questions to me.

However, the thread is now locked. Thus, I can't answer the questions you asked -- unless you would like me to answer them in this thread.

I would like to respond to your questions, but you have not given me the opportunity.

[Terry]

I just finished reading all of the thread and I am very disappointed to say the least that the thread was locked.

This is a fine forum and I have been proud to be a part of it. I have supported it, bragged about it on other forums, made many referrals to it, supported many other patients along the way.

Please do not run off your best supporters.

Terry Newton

[trkdoc714]

I have to agree. The gravity of the decisions we all have to make with the treatment of our problems requires open discussion and considerations from all possible sources.

A lot of us have been led astray in our treatments by isolated opinioned doctors that won't look at all possibilities or solutions. It's important to be made aware of those using our desperation for pain relief for marketing purposes.

Bob

[Harrison]

Y'all, I had no intention of locking it forever! I just it wanted it to cool off for a day or two. I also need to think about a number of issues that surfaced too; e.g., the old community guidelines, maybe creating a new forum for these kinds of topics (disease). Thanks for caring.

PS: I'll merge this (now separate) topic into the other, so it will read as one continuous topic after today.