Celebrities with Lyme
• BADA UK have an excellent list of celebrities who have been affected by Lyme Disease – some have been caught early (George W Bush), others have suffered long term (Neneh Cherry) & others nearly died (Richard Gere). I Have added a few snippets below – the full articles can be found at http://www.bada-uk.org/wordpress/?p=284
Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates) 2005 Globe Newspaper
Singer Daryl Hall has endured a potentially life-threatening summer. He was diagnosed with Lyme disease after stumbling offstage with a 102-degree fever in June. He and touring partner John Oates — one of the most popular soul-pop duos of the past 20 years — canceled their July shows as Hall sought medical help and retreated to his upstate New York home. Hall & Oates are now launching a national tour (with Todd Rundgren opening) at the Bank of America Pavilion tonight. Hall recently spoke about his ordeal for the first time.
“I had this raging fever, and my bones were aching and my muscles were twitching. And I had an extreme headache. I just felt like I had the worst flu in the world . . . I was tested and what came up was a disease called ehrlichiosis.”
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Mel Clarke – former archery champion http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/4456018.stm
Mel said she was feeling physically well before falling unconscious. For archery champion Mel Clarke it appeared to be a case of just holding her nerve to achieve her goal. When she arrived at the World Archery Championships in America in 2003, she was ranked second in the world at the sport and was one of the competition favourites.
Yet soon after the tournament began, the 23-year-old from Taverham, Norfolk, was no longer involved in a battle to win a medal – she was fighting for her life. She explains: “One moment I was firing arrows really well… then within about 20 minutes I was unconscious.” Doctors feared she only had 24 hours to live as she lay connected to a life support machine, unable to breathe by herself.
Mel, who had prided herself on her physical and mental fitness, was now close to death. And the trigger for this catastrophic turn of events? A bite from a tick. Doctors said Mel would not survive the night. Doctors believe the tiny insect had infected Mel with Lyme Disease, a potentially fatal bug which can also lead to arthritis, heart and nerve problems. The disease has left Mel paralysed from the waist down and blind in one eye.
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Ricahrd Gere Actor – Express Newspapers 2000
ACTOR Richard Gere feared he would die after contracting a potentially fatal disease that confined him to bed a for a week.
He was left too weak to move as he was stricken by Lyme disease, an infection caused by the bite of deer ticks, which causes a rash, chills, fever and pains in the joints. It can also lead to facial paralysis.
Gere, 50, who became a father in February when girlfriend Carey Lowell gave birth to their son Homer, was lucky to be diagnosed quickly and treated with powerful antibiotics, said friends. Gere told friends: “This is one scary disease. I felt as though every ounce of strength had gone from my body. Within hours I could barely lift my head from the pillow. Just turning my head to see the time on the clock was a major operation. I felt as if my life was going in slow motion. When I realised I was coming out of it, a wave of relief just swept over me.”
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Neneh Cherry – singer
Neneh who was well known in the 80′s released singles from 1988 to 1990, including ‘Manchild’, ‘Kisses On The Wind’, and ‘Inna City Mama’, which reached the top 20 in the British charts.
Cherry was then infected with Lyme disease which prevented her from much activity until 1992. Lyme disease is an affliction that is spread by ticks and leaves victims suffering extreme exhaustion, nausea, joint pains and neurological problems. Convalescence was a very slow process for Cherry. She set up home with her long-time partner and musical collaborator Cameron McVey (Booga Bear), who co-wrote most of her debut album “Raw Like Sushi”. They set up a mini home recording studio, and began recording “Homebrew”.
In 1994 “Seven Seconds” was a massive international hit. It was a collaboration with Youssou N’Dour and remained in the charts for almost six months. She then went on to release ‘Man’ in 1996 and ‘Neneh Cherry Remixes’ (a remix album of ‘Man’ songs) which was released in 1997. In the 2005 release of Gorillaz’s ‘Demon Days’, she contributed vocals to the track ‘Kids With Guns’.
[Tick talk note - you can also catch her on BBC's Nenah & Andi Dish it Up Cooking Show]
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George W Bush – ex-president of the U.S NBC 3 WSTM.TV Aug 8, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush was successfully treated for Lyme disease nearly a year ago, the White House announced Wednesday. The condition had never been revealed until the White House on Wednesday made public the results of his annual physical exam. They said that he was treated for what they called “early, localized Lyme disease” last August after developing the characteristic bullseye rash, and that it did not recur. Lyme disease is a common tick-borne infection that if left untreated can cause arthritis and other problems. The president’s main form of exercise and recreational activity is mountain biking, which could bring him in contact with ticks.
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Supermodel Christy Turlington (2007) http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/turlington%20diagnosed%20with%20lyme%20disease_1044941
The 38-year-old model-turned-actress is now said to be “fine” – having been successfully treated for the illness with antibiotics. A friend of the star tells the New York Daily News, “They caught it early; she’s going to be fine.” Lyme Arthritis, which derives from a tick bite, usually starts with some kind of rash, which starts small but can spread up to ten inches. It can cause a flu-like illness with tiredness, muscle and joint aches and a flu. Left untreated it can cause major league arthritis with joint swelling and damage your heart, and nervous system. Turlington’s spokesperson assures she is fully recovered: “While we don’t answer any questions about Christy’s private life, so there is no misunderstanding … Christy is very healthy and fine.”
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Bill Chinnock – award winning singer/songwriter/musician
http://lymeblog.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=877
Legendary Maine musician Bill Chinnock has died. His manager, Paul Pappas, told WLBZ NEWS CENTER in Bangor that Chinnock committed suicide.
Chinnock, who lived in Yarmouth, ME, was suffering from Lyme disease and police said they were called to his East Main Street home by his live-in caregiver.
Over a course of years he had seen countless doctors and was told that he had Lupus, MS, stress and many other things. With the delay in diagnosis, the Lyme bacteria had entrenched itself deep into his body and nervous system.
He was disabled with crushing fatigue, burning, body pain, brain fog, and many more symptoms. He was finally referred to a leading Lyme specialist who realised what was wrong.
Chinnock was treated for three years on intravenous antibiotics and then with herbal remedies. He spoke often about his battle with Lyme disease. “There needs to be an educational campaign for the general population.”, he said in an interviewed with MainToday.com in 2005.
Chinnock began his musical career more than 30 years ago. He was a leader of the Asbury Park, New Jersey music movement and was the founding member of what later became Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
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Harry Crosbie Entreprenuer (made rich list in 2005)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/1213/1229035645192.html
Irish Times Saturday, December 13, 2008
Twenty years ago, when Crosbie bought the old Point Depot from CIÉ for £750,000, refurbished it and turned it into Dublin’s biggest indoor music venue, he was taking a chance that Celtic Tiger cubs would be ready and willing to spend a few bob to go out and see a gig by an international band. Now, with the O2, Crosbie is banking on the economy picking up again in 2009, and it must be heartening to hear that most of the major acts booked over the next few months have completely sold out. One of Crosbie’s favourite sayings is, “not for the faint-hearted”, and seeing this new venture through will certainly require nerves of steel.
CROSBIE’S DREAM was to have U2 perform the first-ever gig at the new O2, but that privilege will go to Boyzone, when they appear at the Childline concert on Tuesday, along with Anastacia, Enrique Iglesias, Shayne Ward, Scouting For Girls and The Script.
In the past couple of years, Crosbie has had to fight a difficult personal battle, after being struck by Lyme disease. “It’s a debilitating condition,” observes his close friend. “I’ve watched him having to deal with that, but there has never been a moment when his head has dropped or he has looked like giving up. He’s come out the other side of it now, but there’s elements of it that will be with him forever. It would have slain a lesser man.”
When Crosbie stands at the entrance to his new gaff on Tuesday, greeting the great and good of the music business, he’ll be using a walking stick for support. But he will still be holding his head high.
CV: Harry Crosbie
Who is he? Harry Crosbie, property developer and venue owner
Why is he in the news? Crosbie’s transformed Point Depot, rechristened the O2, opens its doors for its first gig on Tuesday
Most appealing characteristic: He’ll have you in stitches
Least appealing characteristic: He’s a bit of a U2-head
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David Letterman contracts anaplasmosis – Jul 2009
America breathes a sigh of relief as David Letterman beats another health crisis. All this week, the CBS late night legend has been giving viewers nightly updates on how sick he feels. “The Late Show with David Letterman” host took his temperature on-air, with the pinnacle reaching 103.2 on Wednesday. During that telecast, he quipped, “When it gets to 104, sell.” He then went on to announce that one of his staff writers had 103.2 in the office pool, winning $100.
During his second segment on Thursday’s episode, Dave explained that he was diagnosed with the tick-borne illness known as anaplasmosis. Dave recently built a tree house for his five-year-old son, Harry. The two were camping in it on Friday when apparently an infected tick bit Letterman, resulting in the disease that devours white blood cells. The treatment is antibiotics and the Emmy-nominee is officially on-the-mend.
Letterman’s first Thursday guest was Adam Sandler. The comedian filled in as guest-host for “The Late Show” when Dave was out on medical leave with shingles. In early 2000, Letterman had quintuple bypass surgery. The host went on to state,” This was the worst of three… I was praying for the swine flu.”
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Ray Mears – Survival Expert (BBC)
“When I started teaching [these skills] there was no bushcraft in Britain,” says Mears. “Now there is. Of course there are a few people trying to turn it back in to ‘survival’ but bushcraft is much bigger than that. It’s about learning how to live and respect the world around you. I go to great lengths to make sure I tell it as it is. It just shows how important it is to put the truth on television and not the myth. Unfortunately that’s not always what television producers want…”
What they want is ultimate jeopardy stories like Wardle’s or the derring-do of another TV wild-man, Bear Grylls. Mears, 45, is nothing like either. He looks more like a slightly tubby insurance salesman than an Action Man. (In Mears’s defence he has been suffering from Lyme disease for a decade – it was only recently diagnosed and treated – which left him unable to exercise.) But he says that he has made a conscious choice to promote bushcraft as something more than Wardle-style extreme survival.
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Parker Posey – Independent Film Actress
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/struck-by-lyme-disease-pa_n_269912.html
NEW YORK — Parker Posey has withdrawn from a lead role in the upcoming Playwrights Horizons’ production of “This” after developing Lyme disease.
Artistic director Tim Sanford says the play by Melissa James Gibson will open Dec. 13 as scheduled at the off-Broadway theater. Previews begin Nov. 6. A replacement for Posey will be announced shortly.
“This” concerns the tribulations of a poet who happens to be a single mother, struggling with her love life and the well-meaning attention of good friends.
The 40-year-old Posey is an indie film favorite. She has appeared in such movies as “Waiting for Guffman” and “Best in Show.”
ANOTHER VIEW: Indie film queen Parker Posey has kept a low profile regarding her battle with Lyme disease since the announcement of her diagnosis in February. However, that’s going to change soon. Posey lets us know she has turned to a holistic approach to get her health back with great success. Now she wants to use her experience to help others. First up, she’s going to go out in support of a new documentary called “Rethinking Cancer” that tracks the experiences of five patients, four with cancer and one with Lyme disease, who took to alternative means of treatment including nutrition and detoxification and claim to have been disease-free for years, even decades.
“As someone who dealt with Lyme disease recently, I had the opportunity to approach it both with conventional medicine (antibiotics) and homeopathic remedies and supplements,” states Posey. “The first round of antibiotics did not destroy all the bacteria and I made a decision not to take them anymore and instead approach it purely holistically — through the help of my homeopathic doctor, who guided me with my diet and gave me the natural supplements to bring my body back to its vitality.”
The documentary will no doubt stir controversy, as Posey points out: “It raises the questions: How can a natural approach to healing oneself be considered so unconventional? Why do we think we can’t play an active role in getting healthy? Why do we give ourselves away so easily to pharmaceuticals that deplete our system and confuse the natural healing process?”
http://www.jaxobserver.com/2009/11/26/turk-misses-carla-on-revived-scrubs/
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NEWS: Actress Jane Alexander tells LA Times she’s had Lyme herself, and she’s pushing hard for “Under Our Skin” to get an Oscar nomination
http://www.lymedisease.org/news/lyme_disease_views/312.html
Not only has Jane Alexander had Lyme disease twice, she’s had friends “suffer severely from it.”
From the Los Angeles Times’ blog “The Envelope” by Tom O’Neil, Jan. 11, 2010:
http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2010/01/under-our-skin-oscars.html
Four-time Oscar nominee Jane Alexander is rallying behind a controversial film on the academy’s list of semi-finalists for best documentary feature — “Under Our Skin.”
Among its critics, for example, is Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman, who believes the film “embraces, with bits and pieces of skimpy evidence and a whole lot more paranoid leftist fervor, the notion that ‘chronic Lyme disease’ is a condition that the medical establishment is locked in a conspiracy to deny the existence of.”
But “Under Our Skin” filmmakers assert that they’re exposing “one of the most controversial and fastest growing epidemics of our time,” adding, “Each year thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, often told that their symptoms are ‘all in their head.’ ” The docu scrutinizes the medical struggles of several people who believe they suffer from an extreme form of the disease and “Under Our Skin” shows how they had to battle the medical establishment to get treatment.
So why is Alexander giving a rare interview to crusade for the film?
“This movie is controversial because there’s still been a lack of diagnosis of Lyme Disease, the tests are often faulty and the medical community still refuses to treat it in the aggressive manner it needs,” she tells Gold Derby in our podcast chat. “I think it’s shocking. I’ve been involved with Lyme Disease — I’ve have it twice — since the early 1970s when it wasn’t even called Lyme Disease. Since then I’ve known so many people — at least 50% of my own family members have had Lyme Disease, if not once, twice. And I’ve had friends suffer severely with it.”
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Wine pioneer Gabe Magnotta dead at 60
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/702774
Jan 11 2010
Gabe Magnotta was a trailblazer in Ontario’s wine industry.
In his business life, he battled what he considered an unfair marketing system. And in his private life, he fought Lyme disease, which he had contracted in 2006.
His wife Rossana Magnotta said her husband’s adversaries sometimes referred to him as the black sheep of the wine business.
“Gabe liked to correct them and say, with a chuckle, that he was the white knight leading the way,” she said.
Magnotta died Dec. 30, at home, with his family at his side.
Rossana Magnotta said her husband’s death makes her more determined then ever to establish a research centre to combat Lyme disease.
“There has been far too much suffering for far too long,” she said.
She has asked for donations in Gabe Magnotta’s memory to be made to the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation.
A link to the foundation is on the memorial page on the company’s website, www.magnotta.com.
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Daryl Hall interviewed about his Lyme (poor sound quality!!)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8261711641413446425#
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Daryl Hall advocates for Chronic Lyme suffers:
By Rachel Forrest
June 12, 2008 9:52 AM
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20080612%2FNEWS%2F80612006
With every spring season comes warnings about Lyme disease. The bacterial infection is most often contracted through the bite of the black-legged or deer tick and, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the highest incident rate for the disease can be found in states in the Northeast.
Rash and flu-like symptoms can accompany the infection, but in some cases the disease includes arthritic, musculoskeletal, cardiac and neurologic manifestations, which can become debilitating and devastating.
In 2005, the CDC reported more than 23,000 cases of Lyme disease, with a national average of 7.9 cases per 100,000 people. In the top 10 states, the average was 31.6 cases per 100,000. In New Hampshire, there were 265 reported cases in 2005, and while the incidence rate may seem small, the consequences of the disease can be monumental.
Musician Daryl Hall has lived with Lyme disease for more than three years and is a vocal advocate for education about the disease and its treatment.
Hall says that for him, the symptoms of the disease can come and go. When he was first diagnosed, he was forced to cancel show dates in the summer of 2005 in order to recuperate from his symptoms.
“I have good days and bad days. I was fine for four months then I might have tremors, headaches, fatigue. It’s like a roving street gang of germs. There’s no cure, but you can control it,” he says.
And it’s the cure that has created controversy, with one mainstream camp arguing that Lyme disease is rare, easy to diagnose and treatable with just a few weeks of antibiotics.
Others, like Hall, feel the medical community is under-diagnosing the disease, that the treatment is not as simple or quick as it seems and that chronic Lyme disease needs to be acknowledged as a serious health issue.
“There are two very, very strong-feeling camps. One camp is really sure that if you’re bitten by a tick you get tests, medicine. But with the chronic disease, that won’t put a dent in it. It manifests in so many ways. It can lead to heart disease, depression. It can be so serious that people have died. It’s a battle,” says Hall.
Hall recounts his own experiences with the disease and its treatment in order to raise awareness about the chronic illness.
“I find that when I talk about this, I’m going to get some doctor who says that I’m full of crap, that it’s not really as prevalent as we say. But they’re wrong and I’m right. I’m one of the people on the front lines, one of the people who suffer. It’s very controversial,” he says.
What is not in dispute is that treatment must be started as early as possible in order to avoid long-term health issues and prevention is key, especially in the late spring and early summer months. Avoid woody and bushy areas, use insect repellent and check your skin and clothes for ticks each day. Watch for early signs of infection in a circular rash for as much as three to 30 days after being bitten by a tick.
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Christine Brinkley Supermodel
Life In The Age Of Lyme
By John Skow;Janice M. Horowitz and Andrew Purvis/New York Monday, Jun. 24, 1991
Guinea hens are bald, wattled and graceless. They resemble feathered footballs. Worse, they are surly, loud and unmusical, often at 3 in the morning. But they are voracious gobblers of bugs and are especially fond of the tiny deer ticks that carry the spirochetes of Lyme disease. Which is why model Christie Brinkley, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s swimsuit sweetie some years ago, learned to love them. She has installed a flock on her estate in East Hampton, N.Y., and hands out chicks (called keets) to her neighbors.
Before she got the hens, Brinkley had taken to wearing high fishing boots when she walked to the beach. “We were really infested,” she says. “It seemed as if every blade of grass had a tick hanging off it.” Her hen patrol has reduced the local tick population, although that has not prevented her from contracting the tormenting ailment that she and millions of other householders routinely take elaborate pains to avoid. The tick that infected her with what was diagnosed last week as Lyme disease probably, she thinks, bit her while she was horseback riding.
Fear of Lyme disease is justified, and harboring guinea hens is reasonable, if not terribly practical for most people. The nagging affliction often shows itself first as a rash and flulike nausea, fever and aches. Lyme mimics many other illnesses, and in later stages it can escalate to arthritis, meningitis, neurological damage and sometimes physical debility and racking pain. Some 30,000 cases had been reported in the U.S. by the end of last year. From 1986 through 1989, reported cases doubled each year, and a slight drop last year (7,995 cases, from 8,551 the year before) may reflect only a change in reporting criteria.
Extract above – for more go to:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973245-1,00.html
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Guineafowl eat ticks (Christine Brinkley)
http://www.lyme-disease-research-database.com/lyme_disease_blog_files/Guineafowl-eat-ticks.html
In 1992 in New York, Christie Brinkley was concerned about her daughter playing outside in what was known to be an area where tick numbers were high. So she enlisted the aid of her congressman, who initiated a commissioned study to investigate the effectiveness of Guineafowl as tick controllers. Guineafowl, originally from Africa, are feathery foragers with an unusual cry that sounds like “buckwheat, buckwheat!” These critters’ diet includes about 90% arthopods, which means they eat ticks. The Duffy study illustrated that Guineafowl could indeed play a significant part in keeping tick numbers down.
Raising Guineafowl takes an effort, but it may be an option if your environment permits. The birds prefer to range throughout an open area, not woodsy, of about three to five acres. They make a loud noise when they’re threatened by predators such as hawks overhead or the neighbors’ dogs, and your local zoning codes must allow for them.
Guineafowl, like watchdogs, are good at raising an alarm when strangers approach, yet unlike dogs they will not attack. They will eat snakes and other noxious insects besides ticks, such as spiders and mites. If your circumstances allow and if you like the idea of controlling ticks through enlisting the aid of a flock of friendly little birds, Guineafowl can be an important weapon in the battle against Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.
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A whole host of famous people have suffered from Lyme disease, some briefly, and some, like author Amy Tan suffering chronic symptoms
