BioTherapeutics, Education, & Research (BTER) Foundation

BioTherapy Live! - Addressing Additional Questions about Leech Therapy - 10/19/21

The next BioTherapy Live! broadcast will be tomorrow, October 19 at 2:00 pm EDT (11:00 am Pacific Time). The program will focus on your leech therapy questions and answers. Tune in live with your questions, or submit your questions in advance and watch the recording for our answers. Better yet, if you listen live, you can even help answer the questions! The Zoom link, for watching live, can be found here: https://conta.cc/3mVvU1c. If you cannot participate in the live program, watch the recording on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bterfoundation/) or our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/BTERFoundation) afterwards. Looking forward to a lively discussion about hirudotherapy.

The National University of Natural Medicine is partnering with the BTER Foundation to host the Biotherapy Conference, coming soon this November 9-10, 2019! Learn more about biotherapy treatments such as maggot therapy, leech therapy, bee venom therapy, and bacteriophage. Participate in hands-on demonstrations in certain lectures while also earning CE credits. Link to the conference page: https://career-alumni.nunm.edu/conti/biotherapy-conference/

URGENT Phage Directory has an urgent need for Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages for a patient with osteomyelitis in Australia. Some ways to help: - Send in your phages for testing on the patient's strain - Receive the strain and test your phages... - Help spread the word about this request - Provide Phage Directory with any names/email addresses of labs you think they should contact Email [email protected] and [email protected] if you can help in any way or need further details/clarification. See more

When shopping for back to school, consider using smile.amazon.com. This is a great way to support the Bter Foundation since AmazonSmiles donates 0.5% of every eligible purchase made on their site, without any additional costs to you! To date, the Bter Foundation has raised over $300 with this service thanks to our members!

URGENT Phage Directory has an urgent need for Burkholderia cenocepacia phages for a cystic fibrosis patient in the USA. Some ways to help: - Send in your phages for testing on the patient's strain... - Receive the strain and test your phages - Help spread the word about this request - Provide Phage Directory with any names/email addresses of labs you think they should contact Email [email protected] and [email protected] if you can help in any way or need further details/clarification.

Upcoming Biotherapy Conference,hosted by NUNM, is fast approaching! Register now to take advantage of the pre-sale prices. Learn more about biotherapy treatments such as maggot therapy, leech therapy, bee venom therapy, and bacteriophage, while also earning CE credits. Link to the conference page: https://career-alumni.nunm.edu/conti/biotherapy-conference/

Doctor Fish Under Attack! A few weeks ago, JAMA Dermatology published an article by Dr. Shari Lipner about a woman whose toe nails fell off due to onychomadesis after visiting a fish spa. Dr. Lipner suggested that the fish were Gurra Rufa, since this is the fish commonly used in fish therapy (ichthyotherapy), but did not actually provide evidence that the fish at the spa were actually identified. In fact fish spas commonly use less expensive fish, such as tilapia. Tilapia a...re more aggressive than Garra rufa, have teeth, and on occasion have drawn blood. It is much more likely that the fish that caused this woman's nails to fall off was not Garra rufa. We are grateful that Dr. Lipner identified what might be a fish spa-associated risk; but we are concerned that an unsubstantiated claim that the culprit was Garra rufa will now enter the literature as fact, and potentially even jeopardize support for legitimate Garra rufa research. The Journal editor was informed of this issue but chose not to correct or acknowledge the problem. Therefore, we invite you to submit a letter to the Editor of JAMA-Dermatology, asking them to be more careful in condemning Garra rufa or any other animal without hard evidence. A draft letter and a one-button submission form can be found here: http://www.bterfoundation.org/letter-to-jama/ You can also write to some of the news websites that have repeated this misinformation. A link to those websites can be found here along with a draft comment: http://www.bterfoundation.org/letter-to-websites-quoting-j/ You may modify the draft letter and comment to your liking. Do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your assistance in correcting the biomedical record.

Have you seen our beautiful new website? Check it out at http://www.bterfoundation.org/ and let us know what you think!

Apitherapists! Whether you're aspiring or advanced, there is much to be learned at the Charles Mraz Apitherapy Course & Conference! Register before September 15 for the early bird discount. http://www.apitherapy.org/about-a/coursesconferences/cmacc/

It's Amazon Prime Day, and your shopping could be supporting the BTER Foundation! Simply start at smile.amazon.com and select BTER Foundation as your charity of choice, or click the link below to be taken automatically to our AmazonSmile page. http://ow.ly/u8No30kLUID

If you're planning on shopping on Amazon during Prime Day (or any day), don't forget to start at smile.amazon.com and select The BTER Foundation as your charity of choice to help support our work! http://ow.ly/TYjB30kYXcp

Frederik Juul and associates in Norway recently published their study results treating patients with serious intestinal infections (Clostridium difficile), comparing standard antibiotic therapy vs fecal microbiota transplants (FMT). Their preliminary findings indicate that FMT was at least as effective as antibiotic therapy (each eradicating the infection in about 50% of patients), and they are now organizing a larger trial. What is so good about FMT if it appears no better t...han standard antibiotic therapy? First, a larger trial may reveal a more significant difference between the two treatment arms, where it was not apparent in their 20-subject study. A larger study may also demonstrate that there could be fewer complications (adverse events) with FMT. More importantly, though, is the fact that, if standard treatment is effective in only about 50% of patients, then many patients still require treatment; FMT may work well in many of them. In short, this study is consistent with earlier studies of FMT, and solidly supports the value in conducting further clinical trials. Read the full article here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1803103

Don't miss our most recent newsletter - always packed with biotherapy news, conference listings, and of course, BTER Foundation projects! https://conta.cc/2ILUgEC

Do you shop at Amazon? Start at http://smile.amazon.com/ch/83-0351746 and you'll help support BTER Foundation, at no cost or inconvenience to you. We've raised nearly $100 so far to help support the programs we bring to you!