October 28, 2025 • 50 mins
In this powerful episode, Wendy Valentine sits down with Nicole Bell, author of What Lurks in the Woods and CEO of Galaxy Diagnostics, to uncover the truth about Lyme disease and tick-borne infections that are too often misdiagnosed or misunderstood.
Nicole shares her deeply personal story of her husband’s tragic battle with a misdiagnosed tick-borne illness that was mistaken for early-onset Alzheimer’s, and how that journey fueled her mission to transform Lyme testing and awareness. Together, Wendy and Nicole discuss why so many people struggle to get answers, the importance of early detection, the connection between Lyme, chronic illness, and hormone shifts, and how to become your own best health advocate.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why Lyme disease is often misdiagnosed and misunderstood
- The difference between Lyme and other tick-borne infections like Babesia and Bartonella
- How traditional Lyme testing fails—and what new diagnostic methods work better
- Common symptoms that can mimic menopause, anxiety, or chronic fatigue
- How tick-borne illness can trigger neurodegenerative and mental health conditions
- Practical steps to protect yourself, detect infection early, and find real healing
🎧 Tune in now at https://TheMidlifeMakeoverShow.com or wherever you listen to podcasts!
👉 Connect with Nicole and Galaxy!
Galaxy Diagnostics: https://www.galaxydx.com/ https://www.instagram.com/galaxydiagnostics/ https://www.facebook.com/galaxydx
Nicole: https://www.nicoledaniellebell.com/ https://www.instagram.com/nicoledaniellebell/
🌟 Explore All Things Midlife & More
📖 Order Your Copy of Women Waking Up
.css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Nicole Bell (00:00):
Well, even when I finished up the book, he was
(00:02):
still alive. But he passed, in 2022, and it was
horrid. I mean, honestly, dementia is one of the
worst ways that you can go. And watching it was
horrid. And of course, it was during COVID where
we couldn't get access to him and see him. So it
was just a total mess. And so on the other side, I
(00:23):
wanted to do something to change it. And so
therefore, I kind of entered the advocacy
community and now Galaxy and, and it's become a
mission. So, you know, and it's really just to
make sure other people don't have to go through
the same hot mess that we lived through.
>> Wendy Valentine (00:38):
Hey there, beautiful. I'm Wendy Valentine, your
host of the Midlife Makeover show, where it's
never too late to wake up to your best life.
Whether you're navigating a career change, empty
nesting, menopause, or wondering what's next,
you're in the right place. Every week I'll bring
you real talk, laughs and inspiring conversations
(00:58):
with experts and extraordinary women who have
transformed their lives from self care and
relationships to starting over and finding
freedom. This is your time to reinvent, rediscover
and reignite the woman you were always meant to
be. So hit that subscribe button and let's rewrite
the rules of midlife. Your new adventure starts
(01:19):
now. Foreign hey, friend. I have some big news for
you. My signature program, Freedom at Midlife is
(01:39):
no longer just a once a year thing. Nope. Now you
can jump in anytime and start changing your life
the moment you feel ready. Because let's be real,
when that wave hits, you know the one when you're
like, okay, I can't keep living like this.
Something's gotta give. You don't want to wait six
(02:00):
months for some start date. You want to start now.
And now you can. Freedom at Midlife is my seven
step self paced course designed to help you figure
out who you want to become, what life you want to
create, and exactly how to get there. It's set up
as a seven week journey, but you can binge it
(02:22):
Netflix style if you're ready to rock your life
super fast or take it slow and let it sink in. By
the time you're done, you'll have clarity on where
to start your transformation. Your own midlife
mantra filled with superpowers and action steps.
Tools to lighten your emotional load and boost
(02:44):
your energy and confidence. A ah, step by step
path to go from where you are to where you really
want to be. In your life, healthy boundaries to
protect your new unstoppable self, and so much
more. You'll get seven easy to follow modules,
your Freedom at Midlife playbook, a full suite of
(03:06):
tools, and access to my freedom meditation series.
All for just wait for it 299. Seriously, it is a
killer deal for everything that you get in this
program. So if you're ready to stop waiting and
start creating, head to freedomidlife.com that's
(03:32):
freedomidlife.com and let's make this happen. Your
next chapter. Yeah, it starts whenever you decide.
Welcome back to the Midlife Makeover Show. I'm
your host, Wendy Valentine. And today we're diving
into a topic that hits close to home for so many
(03:52):
our health and more importantly, how to advocate
for it. Our guest, Nicole Bell is an author,
entrepreneur and passionate advocate for those
battling tick borne and neurodegenerative
diseases. Her powerful memoir, what lurks in the
Woods. What a good title, shares her husband's
heartbreaking journey with a misdiagnosed tick
(04:13):
borne illness and how it reshaped her mission to
help others navigate chronic conditions. With
degrees from MIT and Duke, you go girl. In
materials science and biomedical engineering,
Nicole now leads Galikee Galachy. Good night
Galaxy everyone. We can say Galaxy Diagnostics as
(04:34):
CEO where she's on a mission to write
revolutionize the way we detect and treat tick
borne diseases. Today we'll talk about how to be
your own health advocate. How to care for yourself
while caring for others and while exploring root
causes including tick borne illness is essential
for lasting health and healing. Please welcome
(04:55):
Nicole to the show.
>> Nicole Bell (04:57):
Hey, hey, Wendy. It's a pleasure to be here.
>> Wendy Valentine (05:00):
See, I was telling you how much I like I couldn't
pronounce certain words and then I couldn't even
pronounce like the word the. I just get so
excited. My brain gets ahead of me. I'm like,
well, we had such a good chat before I even hit
record and I told you that I even have my own
personal story with lime which I don't even mind
(05:20):
sharing on the show, amongst other things.
But I want to start with your story first because
again, like I said before, we've all been our own
guinea pigs on this show. We basically have lived
and learned whatever we're teaching now. So. So
tell us your story, in dealing with Lyme disease.
>> Nicole Bell (05:41):
Yeah, well, I mean, as you said, it's my husband's
story really, but it impacted our whole family.
And you know, I think the way that it started is
he just, he Started to change, right? He was
having mood disorders, he was irritable, he was
depressed. He was just not really himself. he, he
(06:01):
was older than I was, but he. And so he was kind
of gonna do the Mr. Mom thing. He's like, I'll
retire. He had had a successful career. I'll take
care of the young kids. You go do your thing and,
you know, and have your career. And I was like,
great, right? I've got it. I've got it all. I've
got a loving husband, I've got a career, I've got
great kids. But then he just started being, like I
(06:21):
said, his mood changed. And, I was like, please go
back to work. Like, this is not working for you.
And, but then I started realizing that he was also
having cognitive issues. Like, he was a brilliant
eng, but he couldn't remember the time to pick up
the kids from daycare. He couldn't remember the
security code to our house alarm system. And I was
like, okay, something's seriously wrong.
>> Wendy Valentine (06:42):
Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (06:43):
And honestly, Lyme was one of the first things I
thought about. And that's unusual because I've
talked to so many people that have had kind of
tick borne illness, and a lot of times they don't
even think of it. But, you know, Russ had lived in
a lot of different endemic areas. He was an avid
outdoorsman. He was constantly outside. He'd had
lots of tick experience exposures, and it just
seemed to fit, right? Yeah. So I had him tested
(07:05):
and he tested negative, in our first doctor's
visit for Lyme disease. Didn't really know enough
to test for other tick borne illnesses at the
time. And she ran a whole battery of tests. It was
an integrative medicine physician, and she's like,
you should go to a neurologist. We're like, okay.
And so to make a long story short, we kind of went
(07:25):
down that route. And he was diagnosed with, with
early onset Alzheimer's disease, which was like a
huge fat baseball bat, like, straight to the head,
because he had. And it didn't make sense. Right.
I'm an engineer and I like root causes. And I'm
like, he has no genetic predisposition. He has no
comorbidities. He's super healthy otherwise. Like,
(07:46):
why is this happening? And I kept raging against
the machine. We went from neurologist to
neurologist, and they kept just basically being
like, nope, he has Alzheimer's. Come back in a few
months and we'll track his decline. And I'm like,
this is terrible. And, you Know, eventually I
figured out that it was tick borne. So the reason
it happened was my brother, my sister in law
(08:06):
actually was sick and she finally got diagnosed
through her own tragic journey. And my brother's a
doctor. He started researching. He's like, you
need to get him retested. At that point I did. And
I not only figured out that he had Lyme disease,
but he also had Babesia and Bartonella, which are
two common co infections, both of which are now
(08:27):
known to infiltrate the brain and cause issues.
And so, but at that point it was really, it was
too late. Like, even at his initial diagnosis with
Alzheimer's disease, his PET scan showed that he
was in the late stages of decline. And so, yeah,
like, they're like, he has late stage Alzheimer's.
again, baseball bat. I'm like, I can't even
believe I'm still figuring out that something's
(08:49):
wrong. And they're saying he's in the late stages
of decline. And it was, I think a testament how
smart he was. He was covering it up so well. And
and so we treated, but he, he didn't respond well
to treatment. And so he ended up going into
resident care in 2019 and he passed away in 2022,
so.
>> Wendy Valentine (09:06):
Oh, he did? I didn't want to ask you that. And I
wondered because I was like looking through your
bio and I was like, did he pass?
>> Nicole Bell (09:16):
I was like, well, even when I finished up the
book, he was still alive. But he passed, in 2022.
And it was, it was horrid. I mean, honestly,
dementia is one of the worst ways that you can go.
And watching it was horrid. And, and of course it
was during COVID where we couldn't get access to
him and see him. So it was just a total mess. And
(09:39):
so, you know, on the other side, I wanted to do
something to change it. And so therefore I kind of
entered the advocacy community and now Galaxy and,
and it's become a mission. So, you know, and it's
really just to make sure other people don't have
to go through the same hot mess that we live
through.
>> Wendy Valentine (09:56):
So, and I'm trying to remember from, because I was
reading your website earlier, was it 2017 was when
he first started getting sick. So then. Wow.
>> Nicole Bell (10:06):
So he really declined quickly. 2016 was when I
first realized something was wrong. And now in
hindsight, I realized there were signs even
sooner. Like I think he had these pathogens on
board for probably a decade. and you know, I think
of the immune system as like a Tipping point,
right? Like at some point you get to the point
where disease takes over. And, Yeah, and then I
(10:29):
think he was formally diagnosed. and then like I
said, it was about a year and a half worth of
treatment before I finally placed him into the
resident care facility because it was just, it was
too much. He was a full, full blown dementia
patient. I had two young kids.
It was.
>> Wendy Valentine (10:42):
Wow, girl.
>> Nicole Bell (10:43):
It was, Sorry.
>> Wendy Valentine (10:44):
Oh. So what other symptoms did he have besides the
dementia?
>> Nicole Bell (10:50):
So in the early stages, it was really all
neurocognitive. Like it was mood based. It was, it
was recollection. like I remember him sitting on
the floor with my young son trying to teach him
how to count change. Like, literally nickels,
dimes, quarters. And he couldn't do it. Like, he
was confused and he kept, you know, asking
(11:10):
questions so that my son could figure it out. And
I was like, oh my gosh, he can't even count
change. and then as his disease progressed, he
started getting more of what people would
consider, quote unquote, the typical disease. Like
for Lyme associated diseases like arthritis and
like joint pain and other things. I also saw, like
bartonella is often associated with skin, skin
(11:32):
striae, which they actually look like stretch
marks.
>> Wendy Valentine (11:36):
Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (11:36):
and I saw those on his back after a hot shower,
but I didn't know what they were at the time.
Like, I just thought he was scratching himself in
the heat. And, now I know that was a sign of the
bartonellosis. And so I think a lot of what I try
and do now is like, educate people. Like, people
think of Lyme disease as a fever and a rash. And
(11:56):
if you don't have those symptoms, you don't have
Lyme disease and nothing could be further from the
truth. And then you also don't realize that
there's all these other tick borne infections that
you can get with or without Lyme disease. Right.
Like, people call them co infections, but it's a
terrible word because it implies that you have to
have Lyme in order to have that infection, which
is not true. We're finding tons of babesiosis.
>> Wendy Valentine (12:18):
So there's different, different diseases that you
can get from a tick.
>> Nicole Bell (12:23):
Yeah, I mean, literally, ticks are nature's dirty
needle. Right. You can get all sorts of bacterial
infections, parasitic infections, viral
infections, and, it's not just Lyme disease. And I
think if you go to the doctor one, some of them
will say, well, you don't have Lyme because we
don't live in a Lyme endemic region which first of
all, is not true because Lyme is pretty much
(12:45):
everywhere. And then also there's all sorts of
other infections that you should be screening for.
And you know, like you could have ehrlichiosis or
anaplasmosis or babesiosis. And all of those can
be with or without Lyme disease. And so that's one
of the things that I think people need to be more
aware of so that they can manage their health.
Because if you don't get accurately diagnosed and
(13:05):
treated, it can progress to really complex chronic
illness.
>> Wendy Valentine (13:09):
So what are the common symptoms of Lyme disease or
of Lyme?
>> Nicole Bell (13:13):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that, some people,
like, you'll get some sort of like summer flu,
right? Or you can just feel fatigued. And so a lot
of times, especially in this day and age, it's
like, well, maybe people think that they had a
case of COVID right? Or they had a, they have some
other ailment and then they feel better, right?
Other people may get, some people get that
(13:34):
bullseye rash, right? But I think that has become
overanalyzed because the reality is only 14% of
people get the classic bullseye rash. Other people
get different rashes, which are often
misdiagnosed. And then some people get no rash at
all, right? So you don't actually know what you've
been exposed to. And so I think anytime that you
(13:57):
have fatigue, you just feel out of sorts. You can
have joint pain, you can have brain fog. Like, the
problem is a lot of them, a lot of times they're
non specific symptoms that can be classified as
other things. Right. And so I, just like to
encourage people for awareness. Look, if you, if
you're feeling out of sorts, especially if you
live in an endemic region, but like I said, really
(14:19):
everybody nationwide and even internationally,
should be concerned about these pathogens. And if
you've got something going on and it's not making
any sense, or if you're getting treated for
something and you're not responsive to treatment,
then you should start thinking about, well, maybe
I've contracted some sort of, you know, tick or
vector borne illness. And so it's just something
people need to be aware of.
>> Wendy Valentine (14:40):
The symptoms can be so much like other, you know,
diseases that you can get or illnesses. Because
for me I was dealing with Lyme disease, black mold
toxicity and perimenopause at the same time. And I
actually, I actually think that the Lyme disease
and the black mold toxicity combined kind of like
(15:01):
pushed my body in, into menopause very early. I
mean I was done with all of that, like probably
48, 48 years old after three kids. And let me tell
you, it was brutal. The whole that whole stage of
my life was awful, dealing with all that and
trying to get answers. And I was actually married
(15:23):
to an integrative medicine doctor, owned several
functional medicine practices. And even still
being a healthy woman, you getting all of that and
dealing with all of that, it was still a struggle
to get answers and to get the right solutions and
to heal from it. And it took a long, long time.
(15:44):
But I feel so bad for people that are not able to
get those answers or know that there are answers.
And thankfully, like you and I were talking about
before, like with menopause, at least now they're
talking more about things like Lyme disease. And I
remember there was that documentary that came out.
Was it under the Skin or something like that? Yes,
there was that one. And then, like Dr. Rawls,
(16:07):
there's so many, so many options now, which I love
because.
And let's talk about testing, because that is
probably one of the biggest things. And just like
me, what happened? I went to the doctor. No,
negative, negative, negative, negative. I ended up
going to a physician of a friend of a friend of a
friend that had some super duper powered,
(16:30):
magnifier, Literally could see inside my blood, I
could see the line and the mold in my body was a
trip.
>> Nicole Bell (16:40):
Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, I don't think
your story is not unusual, unfortunately. I think
a lot of hormone shifts can be either one, trigger
tick borne infections that are kind of latent to
flourish or vice versa. Right. Like the tick borne
illness can cause hormone shifts. And we see this
a lot with, you know, perimenopause. We also see
(17:00):
it in like young teenage boys, particularly for
Bartonella, where they may have an infection. And
then as they hit that kind of pre pubescent years,
a lot of the symptoms start coming out. Yeah. And
on the perimenopause front, I was, as I was
telling you before, we've had a lot of people that
go into an integrative medicine physician and they
are like, I'm in perimenopause, I'm tired all the
(17:21):
time. And then the doctor does a good history,
figures out that there's either a tick risk or a
past history of Lyme disease. Sure enough, we do
testing with our galaxy, Lyme test, which is
better than the test. And we'll get back to the
testing that you would get from your traditional
allopathic doctor. And sure enough, they have
Lyme. And it's like, well, yeah, like your
(17:42):
hormones are shifting, but it could be triggered
by infection. And it's going to be difficult to
address the root of your hormone shifts if you've
got a pathogen on board that's driving all sorts
of dysfunction. And so they're all interrelated,
and people really need to put it on their radar as
like, hey, you, know, if I'm not responding to
traditional perimenopause treatments and therapies
(18:02):
or even like, like, even neuropsychiatric symptoms
and other things, like, these are things you
should have on your radar.
>> Wendy Valentine (18:10):
So it's tough too, because you would have good
days and then sometimes a good week or a good
couple, and you're like. And then, then you'd have
like, sometimes a bad afternoon. It would
literally just be like it was such a roller
coaster dealing with all that.
>> Nicole Bell (18:25):
Absolutely.
>> Wendy Valentine (18:26):
And yeah, yeah, testing, that's the biggest thing
because, I mean, and I'm trying to remember
because it's been a long time, but from the
research I did way back when, it was. Isn't it
like, it. If you can catch it in the first 14 days
or something like that? Right. then I mean,
typically you'd go the medical doctor and you're
(18:48):
like, oh, if they can catch it within the first
week or two, then you take some type of antibiotic
or something like that, and then da, da, da. But
then if it's after that, then it's even more
challenging.
>> Nicole Bell (19:00):
Yeah. So the treatments are the most effective in
the early stages of the disease. And the problem
is, and that's because once it starts
disseminating into your body and your tissues, it
likes to hide in. In your tissues and in immune
privilege sites, which makes it harder one, to get
an accurate diagnosis and two, for your immune
(19:21):
system to do it like. Right. So Lyme, for example,
is known to go into immune privileged sites like
your brain and your joints and your eyes and other
places that your immune system doesn't have a full
access pass to. And so that makes it difficult for
treatment and for testing. And so the testing is
probably the biggest problem because it's like,
(19:41):
okay, the most effective time for treatment is the
early stages. But if you look at the early stages
of disease, that's when the testing is the least
accurate. Right. So it's a huge disconnect. And
the reason for that is a lot. If you go to, like,
your traditional doctor and you say, I want to get
tested for Lyme disease, the standard of Care test
(20:01):
is an antibody based test, right? So it's looking
for your immune system's response to the pathogen.
The problem is, is that the immune system takes a
while to respond to a pathogen, right? Like it can
take four to six weeks for your antibodies to
peak. And you're missing that therapeutic window,
right? The first few weeks is when you're the most
(20:23):
likely to respond, you know, favorably to
treatment. And so that's the disconnect. And
actually there was a study that was just published
by Barry Align that showed that it missed early,
detection or testing misses, 77% of early case
tests. 77. So the number that I usually use is 40
to 60% because that's what the published
(20:46):
literature says. But this new study says up to 77%
in early stage cases. And so you're literally,
it's worse than a coin flip whether or not you're
going to get an accurate diagnosis with the
traditional tests. And that's because these
pathogens are like, they're low abundance, they
hide in tissues. They're just not amenable to the
testing methodologies that are used. And and there
(21:09):
are answers out there. That's why I'm at Galaxy,
right? Is when we use a totally different
methodology, which actually is a urine based test.
So interesting. So these pathogens, one thing they
don't realize is that they're stealthy and they
like to evade the immune system, right? They're
actually quite good at manipulating the immune
system. These pathogens have been around for a
(21:29):
long time and they figured out how to survive. And
one of the things that Borrelia, the pathogen
causing Lyme does is it actually sheds surface
proteins. And it does that for a couple of
reasons. One, to confuse the immune system. It's
like, it's almost like I'm going to put on this
disguise. Like I was dressed, you know, like a
teenage boy and now I'm dressed like an old man.
(21:49):
So you don't recognize me. I've got my cloak on,
right? I'm going to put my cloak in a different
coat on. So you don't know, kind of like Jason
Bourne style, right. And and so it sheds surface
proteins. And then the other reason that helps is
because it's got these free surface proteins. If
there are antibod in your blood, they're going to
attach to the free surface proteins rather than
the pathogen, right. So it's actually kind of
(22:11):
ingenious. But what happens that these proteins
actually get filtered through the kidneys, they
aggregate in the bladder. Also the pat the
bacteria like to be in the bladder as well. And
then, and then you get, they get excreted in the
urine. And so researchers at, George Mason
University actually in Virginia showed that you
can use this technique of basically capturing and
(22:32):
concentrating these proteins within urine. And
it's fantastic for early stage detection, like
first onset of symptoms way before you're getting
antibody based, you know, results interesting. And
then even later in the infection, it can help tell
you, you know, one of the challenges you have with
Lyme disease is you get treatment and then you
still feel terrible, right? And so there's lots of
(22:55):
reasons that you can still feel terrible. You can,
one, still have Lyme disease because that's been
shown in the literature. Two, you can have another
CO infection that was not diagnosed, remember,
like Babesia, ehrlichia, Anaplasma, bartonella,
other things. So maybe you just didn't get
properly diagnosed with all the things you have on
board.
>> Wendy Valentine (23:12):
Right.
>> Nicole Bell (23:13):
Or you can have immune dysregulation, other shifts
that were caused by the infection. And so the
question is, well, which one is it? And so the
test and the antigen test that we're using in
urine can help discern. Okay, well, is it still an
active Borrelia infection or is it something else?
And so, this is one of the reasons why I joined
(23:35):
Galaxy as on the other end. I'm kind of skipping
over a lot of the history, but on the other end of
the journey with my husband, I'm like, this is,
this is crap, frankly. Like there, ah, there has
to be a better way out there and to detect Lyme
and also to detect a lot of these other co
infections.
And I found Galaxy in my search and really just
said, this is the technology I believe is going to
(23:57):
solve the problem. And so I introduced myself to
the founders and really kind of joined the company
to help scale the technology. So our, urine
antigen test is way better at diagnosing Lyme.
>> Wendy Valentine (24:08):
Shouldn't all doctors be using this test then?
>> Nicole Bell (24:12):
I think so. that's what we're working on. That's
what we're working on.
>> Wendy Valentine (24:16):
I mean, I ain't no scientist, but let me tell you,
pretty sure that's what they should do.
>> Nicole Bell (24:23):
Yeah. And that's what we're trying to make. That's
our mission, Right? Our mission is to change the
standard of care. Right. But that's, that's,
there's a lot of inertia in the healthcare system.
Right? You have to go through insurance agencies,
you have insurance companies, like we're going
through The FDA like all sorts of things to make
sure that we can hit that mainstream market and
we're working towards that. But in the meantime,
(24:46):
testing is available. And you know, we've got, we
have a lab here in north, Carolina, right outside
of Raleigh, Durham, where we run patient samples
all day long. And so testing is, how would
someone.
>> Wendy Valentine (24:57):
Actually get that test through Galaxy?
>> Nicole Bell (25:00):
They would just have to convince their doctor to
sign up and to submit the test. It's pretty
straightforward. I, think we generally have a lot
of, penetration in the functional medicine and
lyme literate doctors, some.
>> Wendy Valentine (25:13):
I'll have to tell my ex about you guys.
>> Nicole Bell (25:16):
Yeah, I mean it's, I think that's where our
traction is the biggest and where a lot of our
testing, comes from. We do have patients that are
successful convincing their allopathic traditional
provider to order the test for them. It just
depends on how open your test is your doctor is.
And I usually tell people, if you have a doctor
that won't order the test for you, find a
(25:36):
different doctor because, you know, you want to
find the right, you would be literally.
>> Wendy Valentine (25:40):
Saving your life or whoever it is that you're
wanting the test for.
>> Nicole Bell (25:44):
Right.
>> Wendy Valentine (25:44):
You could be saving their life.
>> Nicole Bell (25:45):
Yep. And you, know we have a, we have a member of
our clinical advisory board and he says, you know,
some doctors are know it alls and some are learn
it alls and it's like fine to learn it all because
nobody knows it all, like not even us, right?
>> Wendy Valentine (25:58):
Well, no, I mean, and everything is evolving so
fast as we know. And it's like there's always
solutions popping up all the time. So it's like,
why not, you know, use those solutions?
If you haven't heard the news yet, my book, Women
Waking up the Midlife Manifesto for Passion,
(26:19):
Purpose and Play is finally here, ready for you to
read, soak up the wisdom and change your life.
This isn't just another self help book. It's a
step by step guide to help you break free from
what's holding you back, rediscover your strengths
and design a life that feels free, full of
purpose, joy and freedom. Whether you're
(26:41):
navigating divorce, career changes, health
struggles, or just that restless midlife feeling,
these seven steps will help you reinvent yourself
and step into the next chapter with confidence.
You can grab the book wherever books are sold in
digital, paperback and even audio read by yours
(27:02):
truly. Plus you'll get over $500 in bonuses that
go along with the book, including the Women Waking
Up Playbook Guided Meditations and a digital
vision board. Just head to womenwakingup.com and
one quick favor, if you've already grabbed your
copy, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
(27:24):
Please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon.
With over 40 million books on Amazon, your review
makes this one more visible so other women can
find it too. And together we can change lives. So
grab your copy, leave a review, and let's wake up
to our best positive together.
>> Nicole Bell (27:47):
Yeah, that can be tricky. I mean, I think if the
earlier you catch it, the better off you are.
Right. The studies have shown that even a 30 day
delay to diagnosis over doubles your chance of
developing persistent symptoms after treatment for
Lyme disease. Right. So it's a big deal, because
again, once it starts hiding in tissue, it's
harder to get access to. That being said, even if
(28:10):
you've had it for a while, depending on the doctor
you go to, there are treatments that are
effective. Right. You can go the traditional
antibiotic route, you can go in herbal therapies.
I think as part of my journey and also continued
engagement, with providers, I've become a huge fan
of herbal remedies, particular, ah, disease. I
think one of the things that seems to be emerging
(28:32):
is if you're just going, it's kind of like if
you're looking at a garden, right. Do you pull the
weeds or do you foster the soil? Right. And the
soil is the immune system. And if you don't, if
you just pull the weeds with a bunch of
antibiotics, it's unlikely to be effective. Yeah,
just even if you kill the bug, other bugs are
going to take, you know, to group because you
(28:52):
don't have a healthy environment. So really
fostering a healthy immune system and making sure
the entire body is in balance is key. And that's
why a lot of herbal therapies, and integrative
approaches are really in my opinion the most
effective. But it can be challenging. And if you
don't have an accurate diagnosis, it's even harder
(29:14):
because the top three vector borne infections,
Borrelia, Lyme disease, Bartonella, which is often
associated with cat scratch disease, although
that's a gross underestimation of that pathogen.
And Babesia, which I think we're just on the cusp
of really understanding how widespread Babesia is.
(29:34):
And so those are three different pathogens, two
bacteria, one parasite, completely different
treatment protocols. Right. So if you don't know
what you have, you can treat Lyme all day long.
It's not going to touch Babesia, you know, and
then same with Bartonella, like you can drown
Bartonella in deoxycycline and it's not going to
help you. So, so you really need to know what
(29:56):
pathogens are on board. And a lot of these
pathogens are more prevalent than people realize.
And that's reported, like I always say, you know,
like for Babesia for example. Well, something is
always rare if you never test for it. Right?
>> Wendy Valentine (30:10):
Yeah. like it's true. Yes, it's true. Yeah, it's
gonna be rare.
>> Nicole Bell (30:14):
And I think as we're finding, ah, testing more
people for Babesia, we're finding it's actually
super prevalent, particularly in people with
chronic symptoms. And so there's just so much we
don't understand about these pathogens. And as our
population gets sicker, you know, with all sorts
of different exposures, I think that it's causing
these pathogens to emerge and become a bigger part
(30:36):
of our, you know, preventing our wellness.
>> Wendy Valentine (30:39):
Is it possible to heal from any of these tick
borne illnesses? I would have to say yes because
I'm living proof that. But you can, absolutely.
>> Nicole Bell (30:50):
I mean we have so many patients that with the
accurate diagnosis and treatment they're doing
well. Right. But there's also stories like my
husband's where if you catch it too late, a lot of
damage has been done and the treatments are just
not there. And, and you know, I didn't even
realize at the time like I didn't understand the
role of Babesia in his illness. And I think that
(31:12):
maybe not accurately that's the parasite.
>> Wendy Valentine (31:14):
Is that the parasite one? Okay.
>> Nicole Bell (31:16):
Yep. And we just found out like through our. So
our founder is actually at NC State University and
they've really pioneered our knowledge in, you
know, the world really through their literature
and their research in Bartonella and now in
Babesia. And one of the things they've found is
Babesia infections in the brain. And so they
published a case of a young boy that had actually
(31:39):
the parasite in his brain. He's actually found in
my husband's brain the parasite and so which will
be the first published case with you know, in
connection with Alzheimer's disease. And so I
think there's a lot we're not understanding and
yeah, makes you wonder then, right?
>> Wendy Valentine (31:56):
Like people that have been diagnosed with
Alzheimer's, with dementia, like could it have
just been a tick borne illness?
>> Nicole Bell (32:03):
Yeah. And there's a fantastic organization that
I'm a huge fan of. It's called the Alzheimer's
Pathobiome Initiative. And they're really looking
at what's the role of infections with Alzheimer's
disease? Because it's not just there's tick borne
infections, but there's also other viral
infections, respiratory infections. Like, it's not
a very simple, like, hey, it's this one thing. I
(32:25):
think of it as akin to cancer. Right. Like there's
a bajillion different kinds of cancers and there's
a lot of different treatments. And it's the same
with Alzheimer's. You can have a lot of pathogens
which cause neurodegeneration and the accumulation
of plaques. And the question is you need a
personalized approach that says, well, which
pathogens do you have? And for my husband, I don't
(32:46):
think I fully appreciated the role of Babesia, and
I don't think he had a, treatment protocol for
that pathogen as, maybe as aggressively as we
needed. Would that have saved him if we had known?
I don't know. I'll never know. But at the same
time, now I know we discounted it because he, he
didn't have the traditional symptoms. And I think
(33:08):
now we're finding there's other strains or other
species of Babesia that don't come with the
traditional symptoms. Which traditional Babesia
symptoms would be night sweats, air hunger, and so
forth. But that's associated with one particular
air hunger. Air hunger, yeah. Like you have
trouble breathing. Like, see.
>> Wendy Valentine (33:27):
I know. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I had everything son
because of the. I also had the black mold, but I
did have that. I was always out of breath. and
that's what was hard with treating it because I
was like treating two different things at the same
time. It was tough. I mean, it was like detox O
rama.
>> Nicole Bell (33:49):
Yeah. Well, and I think that one of the things
I've found is with these complex chronic
illnesses, it's generally not just one thing.
Right. Because your immune system can handle a
certain load. But then when you start putting more
and more thing again, that tipping point, like at
some point you just kind of progress where your
immune system can't keep things at bay. And then
you descend into chronic illness and you can't
(34:09):
pull yourself out without some support.
>> Wendy Valentine (34:12):
Yeah, I had the, nausea, vomiting, the joint pain,
night sweats, hot. And that a lot of that is like,
oh, it's just menopause, you know, or some of
those. Right. itchy skin as I'm scratching myself
right now. Oh my God, it's back. No, but like all
sorts of weird. Even the dogs. Well, then some of
(34:35):
it was like, okay, is that the black mold? Do they
Get Lyme. You know, silly question. Do all ticks
carry a disease?
>> Nicole Bell (34:43):
no. And different. Different types of ticks can
carry different types of pathogens. And so, you
know, there's deer ticks, there's dog ticks.
there's all sorts. There's, the longhorn tick,
there's. And there's all sorts of different
infections that you can get. So one of the things
I like to encourage people to do, if you get bit
by a tick, you know, save the tick, send it out
(35:03):
for testing to figure out what is on board. That
doesn't necessarily mean that you have it, but at
least you know what you've been exposed to. Right.
And that can help you and your provider say, okay,
you know, this tick had Ehrlichia, so I should get
tested for Ehrlichia. It doesn't mean you have
Ehrlichia, but you should at least have it on your
radar screen because, you know, again, it's not
(35:25):
just Lyme disease. Now, there's, like, I don't
know if you've heard of Alpha gal, but that's
actually an allergy that is caused by the Lone
Star tick, where you can get really severe
allergen or allergic reactions to any mammalian
products. So you eat any sort of meat, you know,
cow, pork, whatever, you can get a really serious
(35:47):
reaction. And. And it's not just food. It can be
personal care products, it can be gelatins, it can
be all sorts of things. And these people suffer,
and it's all triggered by a tick bite. So, it
really is. It's like, you know, you're not
paranoid if they're really out to get you. Right.
The threats are everywhere. And I just.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:07):
They're so gross.
>> Nicole Bell (36:09):
They are gross.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:10):
And eliminate these things.
>> Nicole Bell (36:13):
I mean, wear bug spray, check for ticks, and if
you're having weird symptoms, be aware that this
could be something that you need to get tested
for. For.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:20):
Yeah, Yeah. I think before we hit record, I was
telling you I grew up in St. Louis. And I think. I
mean, definitely, I was. I was in the woods all
the time. All the time. Total, total tomboy. and I
definitely had tick bites back then, but it's
like, that was so long ago. Like, back then, it
was like, you just, like, pick it off.
>> Nicole Bell (36:40):
Yep.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:41):
Big deal, you know?
>> Nicole Bell (36:42):
Yeah.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:43):
and then I do think I got more tick bites when I
moved to Virginia. And like we were saying
earlier, it's not limited to certain places in the
world. I mean, they're everywhere. Like, you
really have to be careful and just like. I mean,
you just get in the habit of. You just check
yourself every time you walk in the door. You're
like, okay, everyone line up for the tic check.
(37:05):
You know?
>> Nicole Bell (37:06):
Yep. It's true. And it's. It's something that you
hate to have to do because it does detract from
the joys of being outside and the serenity of
being outside. But, I mean, trust me, the
alternative is no fun. Right. So just something to
be aware of. It took me a while to really get
comfortable being out in the woods again. Right.
And it's like. But prevention is key. Lots of bug
(37:28):
spray, tick checks. When you come inside, take off
your clothes, throw them in the dryer, get in the
shower, you know, check the dogs. because I have
dogs, I, you know, I treat my yard to make sure
that the dogs aren't bringing stuff.
>> Wendy Valentine (37:42):
Yeah. I was going to tell you, that's what I used
to do, too. Like, once. Once a month, this company
would come and they would just be. It was like a
big shield pretty much that they would put around
the house, you know? and that did help
tremendously.
>> Nicole Bell (37:54):
Yeah, same here. I mean, I have a whole chapter in
my book, I think it was called War. War on the
Woods. And it was like. I mean, my. My dog. My
daughter came down. She was, you know, I don't
know, probably what, four at the time. She came
downstairs and she, you know, she. She was in a
phase where she wasn't wearing a shirt, and she
came down to have breakfast and she hugged my dog,
(38:14):
and then she sat down to eat pancakes. She felt
something crawling across her stomach, and she
screamed. And then I looked, and it was a big deer
tick. Just. Well, not a big, small deer tick
crawling across her stomach. And I'm like, she
wasn't hiking. She wasn't out playing in the. In
the leaves or the grass or anything. She was
literally just came downstairs from bed, and my
(38:35):
dog had brought it into the house. And so that,
was hard because it's like, you can't even feel
safe in your own home. And so I. That was what
caused me to have the War on the woods, where I
trimmed all the low graph, all the low, you know,
brush. I started spraying property. I'm done. And
it helped a ton. It really did. it helped me
reclaim the space a little bit. Because it's hard
(38:58):
when you don't have a safe space. Right. And you
just let that paranoia go.
>> Wendy Valentine (39:01):
Crazy, especially after what you went through.
That's hard to yeah, like always. I know I'm
always a little paranoid with mold and with ticks,
you know, like I probably always will be.
>> Nicole Bell (39:13):
You should be. And oftentimes they're related. I
can't even tell you how many people have stories
like yours where they have a tick borne infection,
but it was triggered by a mold exposure. Or maybe
they were treated for tick borne infections but
then they're relapsing and it's because they
entered into a moldy environment. And a lot of
those things really come together because your
immune system can only handle so much before it
(39:35):
says, you know what, I've had enough and I'm going
to start letting you know that there's something
going on here and those are symptoms you need to
pay attention to.
>> Wendy Valentine (39:41):
Yeah. And I think that was for me, like my immune
system just got so low that it couldn't even
handle anything. It was like it's a little
sensitive.
>> Nicole Bell (39:50):
Yep.
>> Wendy Valentine (39:50):
so where can we find you? How do we get the book
and tell us about Galaxy as far as testing and
things like that.
>> Nicole Bell (39:58):
So for Galaxy, the website is galaxydx.com and we
do testing for the top tick borne pathogens. So we
have our Lyme urine antigen test. We also do blood
based testing for Bartonella babesia and we do,
it's also includes Borrelia. But generally blood
based testing is better for relapsing fever
Borrelia rather than Lyme Borrelia. So again like
(40:21):
species matter and where it is in the body. So but
those two tests, kind of like our multiplex blood
based panel and then our urine antigen test is the
best way to find direct evidence of the pathogen.
Right. Like we make sure is the pathogen on board
and is it something you need to get treated for?
So we have that. We're developing all sorts of
(40:42):
educational tools that doctors can use to kind of
learn how to diagnose tick borne, you know, treat
tick borne illnesses and then treating is kind of
next level that we have a lot of clinical advisory
board members that can help with treatment
questions and so forth. Obviously we stick to the
diagnostics. I think in terms of me personally the
(41:02):
you can find my book what Lurks in the woods on
Amazon. I, you know, I really entered into the
advocacy space and I'm a super private person by
the way. It may not seem like it because I've been
spinning my story like all over the place. And so,
and it was literally when I wrote the book it was
like I need people to understand the complexities
(41:22):
of this Illness. Right. Like I, I worked in the
diagnostic field before I entered this whole
journey with my husband and I had no idea how bad
tick borne diagnostics were. And it's taken me a
long time to really appreciate the complexities of
it. And so, and then sharing that journey of like,
what do you mean? I mean I would go to a
(41:42):
neurologist and basically, you know, towards the
end stages and be like, yeah, my husband, he has
Alzheimer's disease triggered by tick borne
illness. And they're like, what? I'm like, this
is, this is just not okay. This needs to be more
mainstream and people need to understand the story
because the research and the science is there. But
it generally takes the mainstream medical
community a, decade or more to catch up with
(42:03):
what's going on in science. And so I wanted to
share my journey. It's raw, it's all the nastiness
of it. I tell people, if you're suffering with
tick borne disease, you know, you may not want to
read it yourself because it's my story doesn't end
well. Right. So it's not the uplifting, everybody
got well at the end of its story, but it's a good
thing to share with your family so that they
(42:24):
understand the journey and how hard it is and how
serious it is and what.
>> Wendy Valentine (42:29):
To end, to watch for it, to do as much as you can
to avoid it.
>> Nicole Bell (42:33):
Right. And it's written like just, you know, just
as a memoir. So it's not super sciency. and it is
something that, you know, people can really
hopefully connect with. And I know it's super
isolating when you're going through it. And so it
was a way to help people understand that you're
not alone. Because the more I do this, the more I
realize how common it actually is.
>> Wendy Valentine (42:53):
I know, like, yeah, I mean it really is. And some
people, you know, have not been diagnosed. They
have no idea with what they've been dealing with.
>> Nicole Bell (43:04):
Yep. And the, the, the other thing I would refer
people to is, is part of my advocacy work. Before
I joined Galaxy, I probably partnered with the
center for Lyme Action. So the center for Lyme
Action actually lobbies, the government and
Congress for more research funding for Lyme and
other tick borne illnesses. And so they asked me
to work on a project called the State of Lyme
(43:24):
Disease Research in the United States. So the
mission was to write a summary of all of the
advancements within the research environment that
was accessible to kind of congressional staffers
or non scientific people. And so we did it. We
Wrote a paper and showing all of the great science
because there's been so much misinformation within
the labor world. You know, I mean back from when I
(43:46):
was dealing with Russ's journey, where I'm looking
at the CDC website and it says chronic Lyme
doesn't exist. And I'm like, what? Like
fortunately, CDC has come a long way and they're
now acknowledging the linkage between Lyme disease
and chronic illnesses. But the misinformation has
been rampant. And so part of the effort with the
state of Lyme disease research was to, to say this
is what the science says. Right. We don't have all
(44:08):
the answers, but we need more funding to figure it
out because there's linkages between neurological
disorders like you know, dementia, which we talked
about, but also mental illness. There's all sorts
of linkages between Lyme and also Bartonella is a
huge link to serious, neuropsychiatric disorders.
So schizophrenia like our founders have found that
(44:30):
65% of schizophrenia patients in a published study
tested positive for Barnard.
>> Wendy Valentine (44:36):
Wow, that's huge.
>> Nicole Bell (44:37):
It's huge. And we have case stories like there's
this one story of a young boy. It was actually
online, you can search for swamp boy. Chris Newby
wrote this story and it's about a kid, 14 year old
boy, sudden onset psychosis, homicidal, suicidal,
wanted to basically kill himself. And his sibling,
they figured out he had Bartonella through the
testing at NC State with our founder, got
(44:59):
treatment, completely reversed his symptoms. He
went from institutionalized where his parents
spent $400,000 on psychiatric care, got the
appropriate treatment and antibiotics. He went
back to high school, he graduated valedictorian
class. I mean this is the thing is these,
remember. Oh my gosh.
>> Wendy Valentine (45:19):
do you remember there was. God, I'm trying to
think of who it was. I think I was living in
Virginia at the time, was a governor or a mayor or
something that he just suddenly like literally, I
don't know if he like drove into a wall or what
the heck happened, but just killed himself. And
then he ended up with a like a brain, like a
parasite in his brain. And I wonder, I made me
(45:41):
think of that.
>> Nicole Bell (45:42):
Well, in North Carolina, so Kay Hagan was a
senator and she went from healthy to dead within a
couple years. She had Powassan virus, which is a
tick borne viral viral infection. And so, and
literally if you watch her journey, that led to
the Kay Hagan Tick act which provided some funding
and hopefully that will get renewed because it's
(46:03):
actually up for renewal right now. And so again,
it's one of those things people need to be aware
of in the linkages. It's like again, if I told
you, hey, you have a family member that's
schizophrenic, you should probably get them tested
for Bartonella. Most people would look at me like
I'm crazy. But the reality is the science is
there. And you know, if that's what's causing your
(46:24):
loved one's illness, wouldn't you want to know
like why and why not?
>> Wendy Valentine (46:28):
Right? Why not just go ahead and get tested? I
mean the worst thing would be like, okay, it's
negative. Okay then you know, but why not just get
tested? Especially if you're. That at that point,
no matter what the disease or illness is, is to go
ahead and just get tested and then you'll know.
>> Nicole Bell (46:44):
Yep.
So circling back to the cla because I kind of got
sidetracked there because I'm so passionate about
the neuropsychiatric piece because I lived it
right. My hallucinating.
>> Wendy Valentine (46:51):
Ah.
>> Nicole Bell (46:52):
And all sorts of crazy things. And so, but the
center for Lyme Action State of Lyme disease
research, it's a paper on the website. There's
also webinars if you want to kind of just watch
it. And I like to encourage people to take it to
their doctor. If you have a doctor who's a learn
it all and wants to learn more. It's a great
thing. Summary of, of where the science truly is.
(47:15):
And it also can help raise awareness. It's one of
those things that I wish that I had had when I was
a caregiver to help me. Just like, you know,
searching PubMed and reading through a thousand
research papers is not most people's favorite
task. Right.
>> Wendy Valentine (47:29):
Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (47:30):
And so we're trying to make it accessible, we're
trying to make it clear and then just basically
show that there's a lot of great science here that
says that these pathogens are linked to complex
chronic illnesses. And so, so that's a resource
that I would encourage people to look. It really
focuses on Lyme. maybe someday we'll do it for
some of the other tick borne infections because
(47:50):
like I said, Bartonella, the more I learned about
that pathogen, the more I realize. And now also
Babesia is just as challenging and leads to really
like chronic fatigue syndrome and other things
that we're studying now, through some of our
partnerships to really understand the linkage
between a lot of these, these, these conditions
that are unknown, like you know, idiopathic is My
(48:12):
first. My favorite word in medicine, meaning we
have absolutely no idea what's causing your
symptoms.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:16):
Exactly. Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (48:18):
It's like, I know.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:18):
Been there, done that. Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (48:20):
Right.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:20):
A while. Yeah. This is the best Tick Tick Tock
tech talk. You should start a podcast and you can
call it Tick Tock. Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (48:33):
TikTok Tick Tock. Yep. I think there might
actually be one.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:37):
Is there one out there?
>> Nicole Bell (48:38):
there might be, yes.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:39):
Snag it. Get the domain right now. Thank you so
much. I'm so grateful that you're here and that
you're doing so, so much good stuff for the world.
I know your. Your hubby's proud.
>> Nicole Bell (48:52):
Thank you. That means a lot. And. And if anybody
we can help, you know, feel free to reach out and,
like I said, just keep it on. Keep it on the top
of the mind because there's a lot of implications
and. And things if you. If you miss the early
stages.
>> Wendy Valentine (49:06):
Yeah. Yeah.
All right, thank you so much, everyone. Have a
great day. Did this podcast inspire you? Challenge
you? Trigger you to make a change or spit out your
coffee laughing? Good. Then there are three ways
you can thank me. Number one, you can leave a
written review of this podcast on Apple iTunes.
(49:26):
Number two, you can take a screenshot of the
episode and share it onto social media and tag me
Wendy Valentine. Number three, share it with
another midlifer that needs a makeover. You know
who I'm talking about. Thank you so much for
listening to the show. Get out there and be bold.
Be free. Be you, Sam.
Well, even when I finished up the book, he was
(00:02):
still alive. But he passed, in 2022, and it was
horrid. I mean, honestly, dementia is one of the
worst ways that you can go. And watching it was
horrid. And of course, it was during COVID where
we couldn't get access to him and see him. So it
was just a total mess. And so on the other side, I
(00:23):
wanted to do something to change it. And so
therefore, I kind of entered the advocacy
community and now Galaxy and, and it's become a
mission. So, you know, and it's really just to
make sure other people don't have to go through
the same hot mess that we lived through.
>> Wendy Valentine (00:38):
Hey there, beautiful. I'm Wendy Valentine, your
host of the Midlife Makeover show, where it's
never too late to wake up to your best life.
Whether you're navigating a career change, empty
nesting, menopause, or wondering what's next,
you're in the right place. Every week I'll bring
you real talk, laughs and inspiring conversations
(00:58):
with experts and extraordinary women who have
transformed their lives from self care and
relationships to starting over and finding
freedom. This is your time to reinvent, rediscover
and reignite the woman you were always meant to
be. So hit that subscribe button and let's rewrite
the rules of midlife. Your new adventure starts
(01:19):
now. Foreign hey, friend. I have some big news for
you. My signature program, Freedom at Midlife is
(01:39):
no longer just a once a year thing. Nope. Now you
can jump in anytime and start changing your life
the moment you feel ready. Because let's be real,
when that wave hits, you know the one when you're
like, okay, I can't keep living like this.
Something's gotta give. You don't want to wait six
(02:00):
months for some start date. You want to start now.
And now you can. Freedom at Midlife is my seven
step self paced course designed to help you figure
out who you want to become, what life you want to
create, and exactly how to get there. It's set up
as a seven week journey, but you can binge it
(02:22):
Netflix style if you're ready to rock your life
super fast or take it slow and let it sink in. By
the time you're done, you'll have clarity on where
to start your transformation. Your own midlife
mantra filled with superpowers and action steps.
Tools to lighten your emotional load and boost
(02:44):
your energy and confidence. A ah, step by step
path to go from where you are to where you really
want to be. In your life, healthy boundaries to
protect your new unstoppable self, and so much
more. You'll get seven easy to follow modules,
your Freedom at Midlife playbook, a full suite of
(03:06):
tools, and access to my freedom meditation series.
All for just wait for it 299. Seriously, it is a
killer deal for everything that you get in this
program. So if you're ready to stop waiting and
start creating, head to freedomidlife.com that's
(03:32):
freedomidlife.com and let's make this happen. Your
next chapter. Yeah, it starts whenever you decide.
Welcome back to the Midlife Makeover Show. I'm
your host, Wendy Valentine. And today we're diving
into a topic that hits close to home for so many
(03:52):
our health and more importantly, how to advocate
for it. Our guest, Nicole Bell is an author,
entrepreneur and passionate advocate for those
battling tick borne and neurodegenerative
diseases. Her powerful memoir, what lurks in the
Woods. What a good title, shares her husband's
heartbreaking journey with a misdiagnosed tick
(04:13):
borne illness and how it reshaped her mission to
help others navigate chronic conditions. With
degrees from MIT and Duke, you go girl. In
materials science and biomedical engineering,
Nicole now leads Galikee Galachy. Good night
Galaxy everyone. We can say Galaxy Diagnostics as
(04:34):
CEO where she's on a mission to write
revolutionize the way we detect and treat tick
borne diseases. Today we'll talk about how to be
your own health advocate. How to care for yourself
while caring for others and while exploring root
causes including tick borne illness is essential
for lasting health and healing. Please welcome
(04:55):
Nicole to the show.
>> Nicole Bell (04:57):
Hey, hey, Wendy. It's a pleasure to be here.
>> Wendy Valentine (05:00):
See, I was telling you how much I like I couldn't
pronounce certain words and then I couldn't even
pronounce like the word the. I just get so
excited. My brain gets ahead of me. I'm like,
well, we had such a good chat before I even hit
record and I told you that I even have my own
personal story with lime which I don't even mind
(05:20):
sharing on the show, amongst other things.
But I want to start with your story first because
again, like I said before, we've all been our own
guinea pigs on this show. We basically have lived
and learned whatever we're teaching now. So. So
tell us your story, in dealing with Lyme disease.
>> Nicole Bell (05:41):
Yeah, well, I mean, as you said, it's my husband's
story really, but it impacted our whole family.
And you know, I think the way that it started is
he just, he Started to change, right? He was
having mood disorders, he was irritable, he was
depressed. He was just not really himself. he, he
(06:01):
was older than I was, but he. And so he was kind
of gonna do the Mr. Mom thing. He's like, I'll
retire. He had had a successful career. I'll take
care of the young kids. You go do your thing and,
you know, and have your career. And I was like,
great, right? I've got it. I've got it all. I've
got a loving husband, I've got a career, I've got
great kids. But then he just started being, like I
(06:21):
said, his mood changed. And, I was like, please go
back to work. Like, this is not working for you.
And, but then I started realizing that he was also
having cognitive issues. Like, he was a brilliant
eng, but he couldn't remember the time to pick up
the kids from daycare. He couldn't remember the
security code to our house alarm system. And I was
like, okay, something's seriously wrong.
>> Wendy Valentine (06:42):
Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (06:43):
And honestly, Lyme was one of the first things I
thought about. And that's unusual because I've
talked to so many people that have had kind of
tick borne illness, and a lot of times they don't
even think of it. But, you know, Russ had lived in
a lot of different endemic areas. He was an avid
outdoorsman. He was constantly outside. He'd had
lots of tick experience exposures, and it just
seemed to fit, right? Yeah. So I had him tested
(07:05):
and he tested negative, in our first doctor's
visit for Lyme disease. Didn't really know enough
to test for other tick borne illnesses at the
time. And she ran a whole battery of tests. It was
an integrative medicine physician, and she's like,
you should go to a neurologist. We're like, okay.
And so to make a long story short, we kind of went
(07:25):
down that route. And he was diagnosed with, with
early onset Alzheimer's disease, which was like a
huge fat baseball bat, like, straight to the head,
because he had. And it didn't make sense. Right.
I'm an engineer and I like root causes. And I'm
like, he has no genetic predisposition. He has no
comorbidities. He's super healthy otherwise. Like,
(07:46):
why is this happening? And I kept raging against
the machine. We went from neurologist to
neurologist, and they kept just basically being
like, nope, he has Alzheimer's. Come back in a few
months and we'll track his decline. And I'm like,
this is terrible. And, you Know, eventually I
figured out that it was tick borne. So the reason
it happened was my brother, my sister in law
(08:06):
actually was sick and she finally got diagnosed
through her own tragic journey. And my brother's a
doctor. He started researching. He's like, you
need to get him retested. At that point I did. And
I not only figured out that he had Lyme disease,
but he also had Babesia and Bartonella, which are
two common co infections, both of which are now
(08:27):
known to infiltrate the brain and cause issues.
And so, but at that point it was really, it was
too late. Like, even at his initial diagnosis with
Alzheimer's disease, his PET scan showed that he
was in the late stages of decline. And so, yeah,
like, they're like, he has late stage Alzheimer's.
again, baseball bat. I'm like, I can't even
believe I'm still figuring out that something's
(08:49):
wrong. And they're saying he's in the late stages
of decline. And it was, I think a testament how
smart he was. He was covering it up so well. And
and so we treated, but he, he didn't respond well
to treatment. And so he ended up going into
resident care in 2019 and he passed away in 2022,
so.
>> Wendy Valentine (09:06):
Oh, he did? I didn't want to ask you that. And I
wondered because I was like looking through your
bio and I was like, did he pass?
>> Nicole Bell (09:16):
I was like, well, even when I finished up the
book, he was still alive. But he passed, in 2022.
And it was, it was horrid. I mean, honestly,
dementia is one of the worst ways that you can go.
And watching it was horrid. And, and of course it
was during COVID where we couldn't get access to
him and see him. So it was just a total mess. And
(09:39):
so, you know, on the other side, I wanted to do
something to change it. And so therefore I kind of
entered the advocacy community and now Galaxy and,
and it's become a mission. So, you know, and it's
really just to make sure other people don't have
to go through the same hot mess that we live
through.
>> Wendy Valentine (09:56):
So, and I'm trying to remember from, because I was
reading your website earlier, was it 2017 was when
he first started getting sick. So then. Wow.
>> Nicole Bell (10:06):
So he really declined quickly. 2016 was when I
first realized something was wrong. And now in
hindsight, I realized there were signs even
sooner. Like I think he had these pathogens on
board for probably a decade. and you know, I think
of the immune system as like a Tipping point,
right? Like at some point you get to the point
where disease takes over. And, Yeah, and then I
(10:29):
think he was formally diagnosed. and then like I
said, it was about a year and a half worth of
treatment before I finally placed him into the
resident care facility because it was just, it was
too much. He was a full, full blown dementia
patient. I had two young kids.
It was.
>> Wendy Valentine (10:42):
Wow, girl.
>> Nicole Bell (10:43):
It was, Sorry.
>> Wendy Valentine (10:44):
Oh. So what other symptoms did he have besides the
dementia?
>> Nicole Bell (10:50):
So in the early stages, it was really all
neurocognitive. Like it was mood based. It was, it
was recollection. like I remember him sitting on
the floor with my young son trying to teach him
how to count change. Like, literally nickels,
dimes, quarters. And he couldn't do it. Like, he
was confused and he kept, you know, asking
(11:10):
questions so that my son could figure it out. And
I was like, oh my gosh, he can't even count
change. and then as his disease progressed, he
started getting more of what people would
consider, quote unquote, the typical disease. Like
for Lyme associated diseases like arthritis and
like joint pain and other things. I also saw, like
bartonella is often associated with skin, skin
(11:32):
striae, which they actually look like stretch
marks.
>> Wendy Valentine (11:36):
Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (11:36):
and I saw those on his back after a hot shower,
but I didn't know what they were at the time.
Like, I just thought he was scratching himself in
the heat. And, now I know that was a sign of the
bartonellosis. And so I think a lot of what I try
and do now is like, educate people. Like, people
think of Lyme disease as a fever and a rash. And
(11:56):
if you don't have those symptoms, you don't have
Lyme disease and nothing could be further from the
truth. And then you also don't realize that
there's all these other tick borne infections that
you can get with or without Lyme disease. Right.
Like, people call them co infections, but it's a
terrible word because it implies that you have to
have Lyme in order to have that infection, which
is not true. We're finding tons of babesiosis.
>> Wendy Valentine (12:18):
So there's different, different diseases that you
can get from a tick.
>> Nicole Bell (12:23):
Yeah, I mean, literally, ticks are nature's dirty
needle. Right. You can get all sorts of bacterial
infections, parasitic infections, viral
infections, and, it's not just Lyme disease. And I
think if you go to the doctor one, some of them
will say, well, you don't have Lyme because we
don't live in a Lyme endemic region which first of
all, is not true because Lyme is pretty much
(12:45):
everywhere. And then also there's all sorts of
other infections that you should be screening for.
And you know, like you could have ehrlichiosis or
anaplasmosis or babesiosis. And all of those can
be with or without Lyme disease. And so that's one
of the things that I think people need to be more
aware of so that they can manage their health.
Because if you don't get accurately diagnosed and
(13:05):
treated, it can progress to really complex chronic
illness.
>> Wendy Valentine (13:09):
So what are the common symptoms of Lyme disease or
of Lyme?
>> Nicole Bell (13:13):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that, some people,
like, you'll get some sort of like summer flu,
right? Or you can just feel fatigued. And so a lot
of times, especially in this day and age, it's
like, well, maybe people think that they had a
case of COVID right? Or they had a, they have some
other ailment and then they feel better, right?
Other people may get, some people get that
(13:34):
bullseye rash, right? But I think that has become
overanalyzed because the reality is only 14% of
people get the classic bullseye rash. Other people
get different rashes, which are often
misdiagnosed. And then some people get no rash at
all, right? So you don't actually know what you've
been exposed to. And so I think anytime that you
(13:57):
have fatigue, you just feel out of sorts. You can
have joint pain, you can have brain fog. Like, the
problem is a lot of them, a lot of times they're
non specific symptoms that can be classified as
other things. Right. And so I, just like to
encourage people for awareness. Look, if you, if
you're feeling out of sorts, especially if you
live in an endemic region, but like I said, really
(14:19):
everybody nationwide and even internationally,
should be concerned about these pathogens. And if
you've got something going on and it's not making
any sense, or if you're getting treated for
something and you're not responsive to treatment,
then you should start thinking about, well, maybe
I've contracted some sort of, you know, tick or
vector borne illness. And so it's just something
people need to be aware of.
>> Wendy Valentine (14:40):
The symptoms can be so much like other, you know,
diseases that you can get or illnesses. Because
for me I was dealing with Lyme disease, black mold
toxicity and perimenopause at the same time. And I
actually, I actually think that the Lyme disease
and the black mold toxicity combined kind of like
(15:01):
pushed my body in, into menopause very early. I
mean I was done with all of that, like probably
48, 48 years old after three kids. And let me tell
you, it was brutal. The whole that whole stage of
my life was awful, dealing with all that and
trying to get answers. And I was actually married
(15:23):
to an integrative medicine doctor, owned several
functional medicine practices. And even still
being a healthy woman, you getting all of that and
dealing with all of that, it was still a struggle
to get answers and to get the right solutions and
to heal from it. And it took a long, long time.
(15:44):
But I feel so bad for people that are not able to
get those answers or know that there are answers.
And thankfully, like you and I were talking about
before, like with menopause, at least now they're
talking more about things like Lyme disease. And I
remember there was that documentary that came out.
Was it under the Skin or something like that? Yes,
there was that one. And then, like Dr. Rawls,
(16:07):
there's so many, so many options now, which I love
because.
And let's talk about testing, because that is
probably one of the biggest things. And just like
me, what happened? I went to the doctor. No,
negative, negative, negative, negative. I ended up
going to a physician of a friend of a friend of a
friend that had some super duper powered,
(16:30):
magnifier, Literally could see inside my blood, I
could see the line and the mold in my body was a
trip.
>> Nicole Bell (16:40):
Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, I don't think
your story is not unusual, unfortunately. I think
a lot of hormone shifts can be either one, trigger
tick borne infections that are kind of latent to
flourish or vice versa. Right. Like the tick borne
illness can cause hormone shifts. And we see this
a lot with, you know, perimenopause. We also see
(17:00):
it in like young teenage boys, particularly for
Bartonella, where they may have an infection. And
then as they hit that kind of pre pubescent years,
a lot of the symptoms start coming out. Yeah. And
on the perimenopause front, I was, as I was
telling you before, we've had a lot of people that
go into an integrative medicine physician and they
are like, I'm in perimenopause, I'm tired all the
(17:21):
time. And then the doctor does a good history,
figures out that there's either a tick risk or a
past history of Lyme disease. Sure enough, we do
testing with our galaxy, Lyme test, which is
better than the test. And we'll get back to the
testing that you would get from your traditional
allopathic doctor. And sure enough, they have
Lyme. And it's like, well, yeah, like your
(17:42):
hormones are shifting, but it could be triggered
by infection. And it's going to be difficult to
address the root of your hormone shifts if you've
got a pathogen on board that's driving all sorts
of dysfunction. And so they're all interrelated,
and people really need to put it on their radar as
like, hey, you, know, if I'm not responding to
traditional perimenopause treatments and therapies
(18:02):
or even like, like, even neuropsychiatric symptoms
and other things, like, these are things you
should have on your radar.
>> Wendy Valentine (18:10):
So it's tough too, because you would have good
days and then sometimes a good week or a good
couple, and you're like. And then, then you'd have
like, sometimes a bad afternoon. It would
literally just be like it was such a roller
coaster dealing with all that.
>> Nicole Bell (18:25):
Absolutely.
>> Wendy Valentine (18:26):
And yeah, yeah, testing, that's the biggest thing
because, I mean, and I'm trying to remember
because it's been a long time, but from the
research I did way back when, it was. Isn't it
like, it. If you can catch it in the first 14 days
or something like that? Right. then I mean,
typically you'd go the medical doctor and you're
(18:48):
like, oh, if they can catch it within the first
week or two, then you take some type of antibiotic
or something like that, and then da, da, da. But
then if it's after that, then it's even more
challenging.
>> Nicole Bell (19:00):
Yeah. So the treatments are the most effective in
the early stages of the disease. And the problem
is, and that's because once it starts
disseminating into your body and your tissues, it
likes to hide in. In your tissues and in immune
privilege sites, which makes it harder one, to get
an accurate diagnosis and two, for your immune
(19:21):
system to do it like. Right. So Lyme, for example,
is known to go into immune privileged sites like
your brain and your joints and your eyes and other
places that your immune system doesn't have a full
access pass to. And so that makes it difficult for
treatment and for testing. And so the testing is
probably the biggest problem because it's like,
(19:41):
okay, the most effective time for treatment is the
early stages. But if you look at the early stages
of disease, that's when the testing is the least
accurate. Right. So it's a huge disconnect. And
the reason for that is a lot. If you go to, like,
your traditional doctor and you say, I want to get
tested for Lyme disease, the standard of Care test
(20:01):
is an antibody based test, right? So it's looking
for your immune system's response to the pathogen.
The problem is, is that the immune system takes a
while to respond to a pathogen, right? Like it can
take four to six weeks for your antibodies to
peak. And you're missing that therapeutic window,
right? The first few weeks is when you're the most
(20:23):
likely to respond, you know, favorably to
treatment. And so that's the disconnect. And
actually there was a study that was just published
by Barry Align that showed that it missed early,
detection or testing misses, 77% of early case
tests. 77. So the number that I usually use is 40
to 60% because that's what the published
(20:46):
literature says. But this new study says up to 77%
in early stage cases. And so you're literally,
it's worse than a coin flip whether or not you're
going to get an accurate diagnosis with the
traditional tests. And that's because these
pathogens are like, they're low abundance, they
hide in tissues. They're just not amenable to the
testing methodologies that are used. And and there
(21:09):
are answers out there. That's why I'm at Galaxy,
right? Is when we use a totally different
methodology, which actually is a urine based test.
So interesting. So these pathogens, one thing they
don't realize is that they're stealthy and they
like to evade the immune system, right? They're
actually quite good at manipulating the immune
system. These pathogens have been around for a
(21:29):
long time and they figured out how to survive. And
one of the things that Borrelia, the pathogen
causing Lyme does is it actually sheds surface
proteins. And it does that for a couple of
reasons. One, to confuse the immune system. It's
like, it's almost like I'm going to put on this
disguise. Like I was dressed, you know, like a
teenage boy and now I'm dressed like an old man.
(21:49):
So you don't recognize me. I've got my cloak on,
right? I'm going to put my cloak in a different
coat on. So you don't know, kind of like Jason
Bourne style, right. And and so it sheds surface
proteins. And then the other reason that helps is
because it's got these free surface proteins. If
there are antibod in your blood, they're going to
attach to the free surface proteins rather than
the pathogen, right. So it's actually kind of
(22:11):
ingenious. But what happens that these proteins
actually get filtered through the kidneys, they
aggregate in the bladder. Also the pat the
bacteria like to be in the bladder as well. And
then, and then you get, they get excreted in the
urine. And so researchers at, George Mason
University actually in Virginia showed that you
can use this technique of basically capturing and
(22:32):
concentrating these proteins within urine. And
it's fantastic for early stage detection, like
first onset of symptoms way before you're getting
antibody based, you know, results interesting. And
then even later in the infection, it can help tell
you, you know, one of the challenges you have with
Lyme disease is you get treatment and then you
still feel terrible, right? And so there's lots of
(22:55):
reasons that you can still feel terrible. You can,
one, still have Lyme disease because that's been
shown in the literature. Two, you can have another
CO infection that was not diagnosed, remember,
like Babesia, ehrlichia, Anaplasma, bartonella,
other things. So maybe you just didn't get
properly diagnosed with all the things you have on
board.
>> Wendy Valentine (23:12):
Right.
>> Nicole Bell (23:13):
Or you can have immune dysregulation, other shifts
that were caused by the infection. And so the
question is, well, which one is it? And so the
test and the antigen test that we're using in
urine can help discern. Okay, well, is it still an
active Borrelia infection or is it something else?
And so, this is one of the reasons why I joined
(23:35):
Galaxy as on the other end. I'm kind of skipping
over a lot of the history, but on the other end of
the journey with my husband, I'm like, this is,
this is crap, frankly. Like there, ah, there has
to be a better way out there and to detect Lyme
and also to detect a lot of these other co
infections.
And I found Galaxy in my search and really just
said, this is the technology I believe is going to
(23:57):
solve the problem. And so I introduced myself to
the founders and really kind of joined the company
to help scale the technology. So our, urine
antigen test is way better at diagnosing Lyme.
>> Wendy Valentine (24:08):
Shouldn't all doctors be using this test then?
>> Nicole Bell (24:12):
I think so. that's what we're working on. That's
what we're working on.
>> Wendy Valentine (24:16):
I mean, I ain't no scientist, but let me tell you,
pretty sure that's what they should do.
>> Nicole Bell (24:23):
Yeah. And that's what we're trying to make. That's
our mission, Right? Our mission is to change the
standard of care. Right. But that's, that's,
there's a lot of inertia in the healthcare system.
Right? You have to go through insurance agencies,
you have insurance companies, like we're going
through The FDA like all sorts of things to make
sure that we can hit that mainstream market and
we're working towards that. But in the meantime,
(24:46):
testing is available. And you know, we've got, we
have a lab here in north, Carolina, right outside
of Raleigh, Durham, where we run patient samples
all day long. And so testing is, how would
someone.
>> Wendy Valentine (24:57):
Actually get that test through Galaxy?
>> Nicole Bell (25:00):
They would just have to convince their doctor to
sign up and to submit the test. It's pretty
straightforward. I, think we generally have a lot
of, penetration in the functional medicine and
lyme literate doctors, some.
>> Wendy Valentine (25:13):
I'll have to tell my ex about you guys.
>> Nicole Bell (25:16):
Yeah, I mean it's, I think that's where our
traction is the biggest and where a lot of our
testing, comes from. We do have patients that are
successful convincing their allopathic traditional
provider to order the test for them. It just
depends on how open your test is your doctor is.
And I usually tell people, if you have a doctor
that won't order the test for you, find a
(25:36):
different doctor because, you know, you want to
find the right, you would be literally.
>> Wendy Valentine (25:40):
Saving your life or whoever it is that you're
wanting the test for.
>> Nicole Bell (25:44):
Right.
>> Wendy Valentine (25:44):
You could be saving their life.
>> Nicole Bell (25:45):
Yep. And you, know we have a, we have a member of
our clinical advisory board and he says, you know,
some doctors are know it alls and some are learn
it alls and it's like fine to learn it all because
nobody knows it all, like not even us, right?
>> Wendy Valentine (25:58):
Well, no, I mean, and everything is evolving so
fast as we know. And it's like there's always
solutions popping up all the time. So it's like,
why not, you know, use those solutions?
If you haven't heard the news yet, my book, Women
Waking up the Midlife Manifesto for Passion,
(26:19):
Purpose and Play is finally here, ready for you to
read, soak up the wisdom and change your life.
This isn't just another self help book. It's a
step by step guide to help you break free from
what's holding you back, rediscover your strengths
and design a life that feels free, full of
purpose, joy and freedom. Whether you're
(26:41):
navigating divorce, career changes, health
struggles, or just that restless midlife feeling,
these seven steps will help you reinvent yourself
and step into the next chapter with confidence.
You can grab the book wherever books are sold in
digital, paperback and even audio read by yours
(27:02):
truly. Plus you'll get over $500 in bonuses that
go along with the book, including the Women Waking
Up Playbook Guided Meditations and a digital
vision board. Just head to womenwakingup.com and
one quick favor, if you've already grabbed your
copy, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
(27:24):
Please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon.
With over 40 million books on Amazon, your review
makes this one more visible so other women can
find it too. And together we can change lives. So
grab your copy, leave a review, and let's wake up
to our best positive together.
>> Nicole Bell (27:47):
Yeah, that can be tricky. I mean, I think if the
earlier you catch it, the better off you are.
Right. The studies have shown that even a 30 day
delay to diagnosis over doubles your chance of
developing persistent symptoms after treatment for
Lyme disease. Right. So it's a big deal, because
again, once it starts hiding in tissue, it's
harder to get access to. That being said, even if
(28:10):
you've had it for a while, depending on the doctor
you go to, there are treatments that are
effective. Right. You can go the traditional
antibiotic route, you can go in herbal therapies.
I think as part of my journey and also continued
engagement, with providers, I've become a huge fan
of herbal remedies, particular, ah, disease. I
think one of the things that seems to be emerging
(28:32):
is if you're just going, it's kind of like if
you're looking at a garden, right. Do you pull the
weeds or do you foster the soil? Right. And the
soil is the immune system. And if you don't, if
you just pull the weeds with a bunch of
antibiotics, it's unlikely to be effective. Yeah,
just even if you kill the bug, other bugs are
going to take, you know, to group because you
(28:52):
don't have a healthy environment. So really
fostering a healthy immune system and making sure
the entire body is in balance is key. And that's
why a lot of herbal therapies, and integrative
approaches are really in my opinion the most
effective. But it can be challenging. And if you
don't have an accurate diagnosis, it's even harder
(29:14):
because the top three vector borne infections,
Borrelia, Lyme disease, Bartonella, which is often
associated with cat scratch disease, although
that's a gross underestimation of that pathogen.
And Babesia, which I think we're just on the cusp
of really understanding how widespread Babesia is.
(29:34):
And so those are three different pathogens, two
bacteria, one parasite, completely different
treatment protocols. Right. So if you don't know
what you have, you can treat Lyme all day long.
It's not going to touch Babesia, you know, and
then same with Bartonella, like you can drown
Bartonella in deoxycycline and it's not going to
help you. So, so you really need to know what
(29:56):
pathogens are on board. And a lot of these
pathogens are more prevalent than people realize.
And that's reported, like I always say, you know,
like for Babesia for example. Well, something is
always rare if you never test for it. Right?
>> Wendy Valentine (30:10):
Yeah. like it's true. Yes, it's true. Yeah, it's
gonna be rare.
>> Nicole Bell (30:14):
And I think as we're finding, ah, testing more
people for Babesia, we're finding it's actually
super prevalent, particularly in people with
chronic symptoms. And so there's just so much we
don't understand about these pathogens. And as our
population gets sicker, you know, with all sorts
of different exposures, I think that it's causing
these pathogens to emerge and become a bigger part
(30:36):
of our, you know, preventing our wellness.
>> Wendy Valentine (30:39):
Is it possible to heal from any of these tick
borne illnesses? I would have to say yes because
I'm living proof that. But you can, absolutely.
>> Nicole Bell (30:50):
I mean we have so many patients that with the
accurate diagnosis and treatment they're doing
well. Right. But there's also stories like my
husband's where if you catch it too late, a lot of
damage has been done and the treatments are just
not there. And, and you know, I didn't even
realize at the time like I didn't understand the
role of Babesia in his illness. And I think that
(31:12):
maybe not accurately that's the parasite.
>> Wendy Valentine (31:14):
Is that the parasite one? Okay.
>> Nicole Bell (31:16):
Yep. And we just found out like through our. So
our founder is actually at NC State University and
they've really pioneered our knowledge in, you
know, the world really through their literature
and their research in Bartonella and now in
Babesia. And one of the things they've found is
Babesia infections in the brain. And so they
published a case of a young boy that had actually
(31:39):
the parasite in his brain. He's actually found in
my husband's brain the parasite and so which will
be the first published case with you know, in
connection with Alzheimer's disease. And so I
think there's a lot we're not understanding and
yeah, makes you wonder then, right?
>> Wendy Valentine (31:56):
Like people that have been diagnosed with
Alzheimer's, with dementia, like could it have
just been a tick borne illness?
>> Nicole Bell (32:03):
Yeah. And there's a fantastic organization that
I'm a huge fan of. It's called the Alzheimer's
Pathobiome Initiative. And they're really looking
at what's the role of infections with Alzheimer's
disease? Because it's not just there's tick borne
infections, but there's also other viral
infections, respiratory infections. Like, it's not
a very simple, like, hey, it's this one thing. I
(32:25):
think of it as akin to cancer. Right. Like there's
a bajillion different kinds of cancers and there's
a lot of different treatments. And it's the same
with Alzheimer's. You can have a lot of pathogens
which cause neurodegeneration and the accumulation
of plaques. And the question is you need a
personalized approach that says, well, which
pathogens do you have? And for my husband, I don't
(32:46):
think I fully appreciated the role of Babesia, and
I don't think he had a, treatment protocol for
that pathogen as, maybe as aggressively as we
needed. Would that have saved him if we had known?
I don't know. I'll never know. But at the same
time, now I know we discounted it because he, he
didn't have the traditional symptoms. And I think
(33:08):
now we're finding there's other strains or other
species of Babesia that don't come with the
traditional symptoms. Which traditional Babesia
symptoms would be night sweats, air hunger, and so
forth. But that's associated with one particular
air hunger. Air hunger, yeah. Like you have
trouble breathing. Like, see.
>> Wendy Valentine (33:27):
I know. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I had everything son
because of the. I also had the black mold, but I
did have that. I was always out of breath. and
that's what was hard with treating it because I
was like treating two different things at the same
time. It was tough. I mean, it was like detox O
rama.
>> Nicole Bell (33:49):
Yeah. Well, and I think that one of the things
I've found is with these complex chronic
illnesses, it's generally not just one thing.
Right. Because your immune system can handle a
certain load. But then when you start putting more
and more thing again, that tipping point, like at
some point you just kind of progress where your
immune system can't keep things at bay. And then
you descend into chronic illness and you can't
(34:09):
pull yourself out without some support.
>> Wendy Valentine (34:12):
Yeah, I had the, nausea, vomiting, the joint pain,
night sweats, hot. And that a lot of that is like,
oh, it's just menopause, you know, or some of
those. Right. itchy skin as I'm scratching myself
right now. Oh my God, it's back. No, but like all
sorts of weird. Even the dogs. Well, then some of
(34:35):
it was like, okay, is that the black mold? Do they
Get Lyme. You know, silly question. Do all ticks
carry a disease?
>> Nicole Bell (34:43):
no. And different. Different types of ticks can
carry different types of pathogens. And so, you
know, there's deer ticks, there's dog ticks.
there's all sorts. There's, the longhorn tick,
there's. And there's all sorts of different
infections that you can get. So one of the things
I like to encourage people to do, if you get bit
by a tick, you know, save the tick, send it out
(35:03):
for testing to figure out what is on board. That
doesn't necessarily mean that you have it, but at
least you know what you've been exposed to. Right.
And that can help you and your provider say, okay,
you know, this tick had Ehrlichia, so I should get
tested for Ehrlichia. It doesn't mean you have
Ehrlichia, but you should at least have it on your
radar screen because, you know, again, it's not
(35:25):
just Lyme disease. Now, there's, like, I don't
know if you've heard of Alpha gal, but that's
actually an allergy that is caused by the Lone
Star tick, where you can get really severe
allergen or allergic reactions to any mammalian
products. So you eat any sort of meat, you know,
cow, pork, whatever, you can get a really serious
(35:47):
reaction. And. And it's not just food. It can be
personal care products, it can be gelatins, it can
be all sorts of things. And these people suffer,
and it's all triggered by a tick bite. So, it
really is. It's like, you know, you're not
paranoid if they're really out to get you. Right.
The threats are everywhere. And I just.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:07):
They're so gross.
>> Nicole Bell (36:09):
They are gross.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:10):
And eliminate these things.
>> Nicole Bell (36:13):
I mean, wear bug spray, check for ticks, and if
you're having weird symptoms, be aware that this
could be something that you need to get tested
for. For.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:20):
Yeah, Yeah. I think before we hit record, I was
telling you I grew up in St. Louis. And I think. I
mean, definitely, I was. I was in the woods all
the time. All the time. Total, total tomboy. and I
definitely had tick bites back then, but it's
like, that was so long ago. Like, back then, it
was like, you just, like, pick it off.
>> Nicole Bell (36:40):
Yep.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:41):
Big deal, you know?
>> Nicole Bell (36:42):
Yeah.
>> Wendy Valentine (36:43):
and then I do think I got more tick bites when I
moved to Virginia. And like we were saying
earlier, it's not limited to certain places in the
world. I mean, they're everywhere. Like, you
really have to be careful and just like. I mean,
you just get in the habit of. You just check
yourself every time you walk in the door. You're
like, okay, everyone line up for the tic check.
(37:05):
You know?
>> Nicole Bell (37:06):
Yep. It's true. And it's. It's something that you
hate to have to do because it does detract from
the joys of being outside and the serenity of
being outside. But, I mean, trust me, the
alternative is no fun. Right. So just something to
be aware of. It took me a while to really get
comfortable being out in the woods again. Right.
And it's like. But prevention is key. Lots of bug
(37:28):
spray, tick checks. When you come inside, take off
your clothes, throw them in the dryer, get in the
shower, you know, check the dogs. because I have
dogs, I, you know, I treat my yard to make sure
that the dogs aren't bringing stuff.
>> Wendy Valentine (37:42):
Yeah. I was going to tell you, that's what I used
to do, too. Like, once. Once a month, this company
would come and they would just be. It was like a
big shield pretty much that they would put around
the house, you know? and that did help
tremendously.
>> Nicole Bell (37:54):
Yeah, same here. I mean, I have a whole chapter in
my book, I think it was called War. War on the
Woods. And it was like. I mean, my. My dog. My
daughter came down. She was, you know, I don't
know, probably what, four at the time. She came
downstairs and she, you know, she. She was in a
phase where she wasn't wearing a shirt, and she
came down to have breakfast and she hugged my dog,
(38:14):
and then she sat down to eat pancakes. She felt
something crawling across her stomach, and she
screamed. And then I looked, and it was a big deer
tick. Just. Well, not a big, small deer tick
crawling across her stomach. And I'm like, she
wasn't hiking. She wasn't out playing in the. In
the leaves or the grass or anything. She was
literally just came downstairs from bed, and my
(38:35):
dog had brought it into the house. And so that,
was hard because it's like, you can't even feel
safe in your own home. And so I. That was what
caused me to have the War on the woods, where I
trimmed all the low graph, all the low, you know,
brush. I started spraying property. I'm done. And
it helped a ton. It really did. it helped me
reclaim the space a little bit. Because it's hard
(38:58):
when you don't have a safe space. Right. And you
just let that paranoia go.
>> Wendy Valentine (39:01):
Crazy, especially after what you went through.
That's hard to yeah, like always. I know I'm
always a little paranoid with mold and with ticks,
you know, like I probably always will be.
>> Nicole Bell (39:13):
You should be. And oftentimes they're related. I
can't even tell you how many people have stories
like yours where they have a tick borne infection,
but it was triggered by a mold exposure. Or maybe
they were treated for tick borne infections but
then they're relapsing and it's because they
entered into a moldy environment. And a lot of
those things really come together because your
immune system can only handle so much before it
(39:35):
says, you know what, I've had enough and I'm going
to start letting you know that there's something
going on here and those are symptoms you need to
pay attention to.
>> Wendy Valentine (39:41):
Yeah. And I think that was for me, like my immune
system just got so low that it couldn't even
handle anything. It was like it's a little
sensitive.
>> Nicole Bell (39:50):
Yep.
>> Wendy Valentine (39:50):
so where can we find you? How do we get the book
and tell us about Galaxy as far as testing and
things like that.
>> Nicole Bell (39:58):
So for Galaxy, the website is galaxydx.com and we
do testing for the top tick borne pathogens. So we
have our Lyme urine antigen test. We also do blood
based testing for Bartonella babesia and we do,
it's also includes Borrelia. But generally blood
based testing is better for relapsing fever
Borrelia rather than Lyme Borrelia. So again like
(40:21):
species matter and where it is in the body. So but
those two tests, kind of like our multiplex blood
based panel and then our urine antigen test is the
best way to find direct evidence of the pathogen.
Right. Like we make sure is the pathogen on board
and is it something you need to get treated for?
So we have that. We're developing all sorts of
(40:42):
educational tools that doctors can use to kind of
learn how to diagnose tick borne, you know, treat
tick borne illnesses and then treating is kind of
next level that we have a lot of clinical advisory
board members that can help with treatment
questions and so forth. Obviously we stick to the
diagnostics. I think in terms of me personally the
(41:02):
you can find my book what Lurks in the woods on
Amazon. I, you know, I really entered into the
advocacy space and I'm a super private person by
the way. It may not seem like it because I've been
spinning my story like all over the place. And so,
and it was literally when I wrote the book it was
like I need people to understand the complexities
(41:22):
of this Illness. Right. Like I, I worked in the
diagnostic field before I entered this whole
journey with my husband and I had no idea how bad
tick borne diagnostics were. And it's taken me a
long time to really appreciate the complexities of
it. And so, and then sharing that journey of like,
what do you mean? I mean I would go to a
(41:42):
neurologist and basically, you know, towards the
end stages and be like, yeah, my husband, he has
Alzheimer's disease triggered by tick borne
illness. And they're like, what? I'm like, this
is, this is just not okay. This needs to be more
mainstream and people need to understand the story
because the research and the science is there. But
it generally takes the mainstream medical
community a, decade or more to catch up with
(42:03):
what's going on in science. And so I wanted to
share my journey. It's raw, it's all the nastiness
of it. I tell people, if you're suffering with
tick borne disease, you know, you may not want to
read it yourself because it's my story doesn't end
well. Right. So it's not the uplifting, everybody
got well at the end of its story, but it's a good
thing to share with your family so that they
(42:24):
understand the journey and how hard it is and how
serious it is and what.
>> Wendy Valentine (42:29):
To end, to watch for it, to do as much as you can
to avoid it.
>> Nicole Bell (42:33):
Right. And it's written like just, you know, just
as a memoir. So it's not super sciency. and it is
something that, you know, people can really
hopefully connect with. And I know it's super
isolating when you're going through it. And so it
was a way to help people understand that you're
not alone. Because the more I do this, the more I
realize how common it actually is.
>> Wendy Valentine (42:53):
I know, like, yeah, I mean it really is. And some
people, you know, have not been diagnosed. They
have no idea with what they've been dealing with.
>> Nicole Bell (43:04):
Yep. And the, the, the other thing I would refer
people to is, is part of my advocacy work. Before
I joined Galaxy, I probably partnered with the
center for Lyme Action. So the center for Lyme
Action actually lobbies, the government and
Congress for more research funding for Lyme and
other tick borne illnesses. And so they asked me
to work on a project called the State of Lyme
(43:24):
Disease Research in the United States. So the
mission was to write a summary of all of the
advancements within the research environment that
was accessible to kind of congressional staffers
or non scientific people. And so we did it. We
Wrote a paper and showing all of the great science
because there's been so much misinformation within
the labor world. You know, I mean back from when I
(43:46):
was dealing with Russ's journey, where I'm looking
at the CDC website and it says chronic Lyme
doesn't exist. And I'm like, what? Like
fortunately, CDC has come a long way and they're
now acknowledging the linkage between Lyme disease
and chronic illnesses. But the misinformation has
been rampant. And so part of the effort with the
state of Lyme disease research was to, to say this
is what the science says. Right. We don't have all
(44:08):
the answers, but we need more funding to figure it
out because there's linkages between neurological
disorders like you know, dementia, which we talked
about, but also mental illness. There's all sorts
of linkages between Lyme and also Bartonella is a
huge link to serious, neuropsychiatric disorders.
So schizophrenia like our founders have found that
(44:30):
65% of schizophrenia patients in a published study
tested positive for Barnard.
>> Wendy Valentine (44:36):
Wow, that's huge.
>> Nicole Bell (44:37):
It's huge. And we have case stories like there's
this one story of a young boy. It was actually
online, you can search for swamp boy. Chris Newby
wrote this story and it's about a kid, 14 year old
boy, sudden onset psychosis, homicidal, suicidal,
wanted to basically kill himself. And his sibling,
they figured out he had Bartonella through the
testing at NC State with our founder, got
(44:59):
treatment, completely reversed his symptoms. He
went from institutionalized where his parents
spent $400,000 on psychiatric care, got the
appropriate treatment and antibiotics. He went
back to high school, he graduated valedictorian
class. I mean this is the thing is these,
remember. Oh my gosh.
>> Wendy Valentine (45:19):
do you remember there was. God, I'm trying to
think of who it was. I think I was living in
Virginia at the time, was a governor or a mayor or
something that he just suddenly like literally, I
don't know if he like drove into a wall or what
the heck happened, but just killed himself. And
then he ended up with a like a brain, like a
parasite in his brain. And I wonder, I made me
(45:41):
think of that.
>> Nicole Bell (45:42):
Well, in North Carolina, so Kay Hagan was a
senator and she went from healthy to dead within a
couple years. She had Powassan virus, which is a
tick borne viral viral infection. And so, and
literally if you watch her journey, that led to
the Kay Hagan Tick act which provided some funding
and hopefully that will get renewed because it's
(46:03):
actually up for renewal right now. And so again,
it's one of those things people need to be aware
of in the linkages. It's like again, if I told
you, hey, you have a family member that's
schizophrenic, you should probably get them tested
for Bartonella. Most people would look at me like
I'm crazy. But the reality is the science is
there. And you know, if that's what's causing your
(46:24):
loved one's illness, wouldn't you want to know
like why and why not?
>> Wendy Valentine (46:28):
Right? Why not just go ahead and get tested? I
mean the worst thing would be like, okay, it's
negative. Okay then you know, but why not just get
tested? Especially if you're. That at that point,
no matter what the disease or illness is, is to go
ahead and just get tested and then you'll know.
>> Nicole Bell (46:44):
Yep.
So circling back to the cla because I kind of got
sidetracked there because I'm so passionate about
the neuropsychiatric piece because I lived it
right. My hallucinating.
>> Wendy Valentine (46:51):
Ah.
>> Nicole Bell (46:52):
And all sorts of crazy things. And so, but the
center for Lyme Action State of Lyme disease
research, it's a paper on the website. There's
also webinars if you want to kind of just watch
it. And I like to encourage people to take it to
their doctor. If you have a doctor who's a learn
it all and wants to learn more. It's a great
thing. Summary of, of where the science truly is.
(47:15):
And it also can help raise awareness. It's one of
those things that I wish that I had had when I was
a caregiver to help me. Just like, you know,
searching PubMed and reading through a thousand
research papers is not most people's favorite
task. Right.
>> Wendy Valentine (47:29):
Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (47:30):
And so we're trying to make it accessible, we're
trying to make it clear and then just basically
show that there's a lot of great science here that
says that these pathogens are linked to complex
chronic illnesses. And so, so that's a resource
that I would encourage people to look. It really
focuses on Lyme. maybe someday we'll do it for
some of the other tick borne infections because
(47:50):
like I said, Bartonella, the more I learned about
that pathogen, the more I realize. And now also
Babesia is just as challenging and leads to really
like chronic fatigue syndrome and other things
that we're studying now, through some of our
partnerships to really understand the linkage
between a lot of these, these, these conditions
that are unknown, like you know, idiopathic is My
(48:12):
first. My favorite word in medicine, meaning we
have absolutely no idea what's causing your
symptoms.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:16):
Exactly. Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (48:18):
It's like, I know.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:18):
Been there, done that. Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (48:20):
Right.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:20):
A while. Yeah. This is the best Tick Tick Tock
tech talk. You should start a podcast and you can
call it Tick Tock. Yeah.
>> Nicole Bell (48:33):
TikTok Tick Tock. Yep. I think there might
actually be one.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:37):
Is there one out there?
>> Nicole Bell (48:38):
there might be, yes.
>> Wendy Valentine (48:39):
Snag it. Get the domain right now. Thank you so
much. I'm so grateful that you're here and that
you're doing so, so much good stuff for the world.
I know your. Your hubby's proud.
>> Nicole Bell (48:52):
Thank you. That means a lot. And. And if anybody
we can help, you know, feel free to reach out and,
like I said, just keep it on. Keep it on the top
of the mind because there's a lot of implications
and. And things if you. If you miss the early
stages.
>> Wendy Valentine (49:06):
Yeah. Yeah.
All right, thank you so much, everyone. Have a
great day. Did this podcast inspire you? Challenge
you? Trigger you to make a change or spit out your
coffee laughing? Good. Then there are three ways
you can thank me. Number one, you can leave a
written review of this podcast on Apple iTunes.
(49:26):
Number two, you can take a screenshot of the
episode and share it onto social media and tag me
Wendy Valentine. Number three, share it with
another midlifer that needs a makeover. You know
who I'm talking about. Thank you so much for
listening to the show. Get out there and be bold.
Be free. Be you, Sam.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com