Lyme Disease, Tick Prevention & Patient Advocacy | Christina Murphy
Christina Murphy joins Jeremy Murphree to discuss her experience with Lyme disease, tick-bite prevention, and why being heard matters when seeking medical care.
Christina is a patient advocate, health coach, author of Embracing Healing, and host of Frederick Tick Talks. In this episode of Morgellons Discussion, she reflects on her past work with the LEAF Program and her continuing efforts to help children and families learn about tick prevention.
We discuss navigating chronic illness, evaluating recovery stories, the boundaries between supportive coaching and medical care, persistent skin symptoms, and practical ways to make time for yourself amid illness and everyday responsibilities.
🎙️ WATCH FREDERICK TICK TALKS
Christina’s show airs on Everything Frederick LIVE, Facebook and YouTube on Mondays at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
Show information:
https://everythingfrederick.live/shows?show=tick-talk#show-details (https://everythingfrederick.live/shows?show=tick-talk#show-details)
Everything Frederick LIVE on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbfcGLJPNm55oIPk_-rw2tA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbfcGLJPNm55oIPk_-rw2tA)
Frederick Tick Talks with Christina Murphy on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/CCWLLLC (https://www.facebook.com/CCWLLLC)
SUPPORT CHRISTINA
Learn about Christina’s goals for her podcast and prevention education through her 2026 Top Host contest profile:
https://tophost.org/2026/christina-murphy (https://tophost.org/2026/christina-murphy)
📚 EMBRACING HEALING
Embracing Healing: A Slow Down Thirty Day Practice is Christina’s collection of brief reflections and mandalas to color, inviting readers to slow down and make time for themselves.
Publisher’s book page:
https://www.balboapress.com/en-gb/bookstore/bookdetails/730693-embracing-healing (https://www.balboapress.com/en-gb/bookstore/bookdetails/730693-embracing-healing)
CONNECT WITH CHRISTINA
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/embracinghealing2/ (https://www.instagram.com/embracinghealing2/)
X:
https://x.com/EmbracingHeal1 (https://x.com/EmbracingHeal1)
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-murphy-certified-human-rights-counselor-61645793 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-murphy-certified-human-rights-counselor-61645793)
Public contact:
frederickticktalk@gmail.com (mailto:frederickticktalk@gmail.com)
⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 Introducing Christina Murphy
02:22 The LEAF Program and tick-prevention education
04:58 Understanding tick anatomy
08:09 Medical encounters that moved care forward
16:35 Challenging assumptions about illness
21:12 Recovery stories and the limits of health coaching
28:48 Embracing Healing and making time to slow down
33:21 Persistent skin symptoms and patient conversations
36:01 Bringing tick-prevention education into schools
39:02 Christina’s Top Host goals
42:04 How to support Christina and closing thoughts
MORE FROM MORGELLONS SURVEY
Explore research articles and patient resources:
https://www.morgellonssurvey.org/ (https://www.morgellonssurvey.org/)
Subscribe to Morgellons Discussion for thoughtful conversations about patient experiences, research, and navigating care.
#LymeDisease #TickPrevention #PatientAdvocacy
24 Apr 2026
New Morgellons Research? Say Whaaaaaaat! with Crystal Clear 🤯
In this powerful crossover episode of Morgellons Discussion, host Jeremy Murphree sits down with Crystal Clear from the More Morgellons Podcast (moremorgellons.com) to break down the brand-new preprint study that’s sending shockwaves through the Morgellons community: “Metagenomics reveals a phylogenetically informed microbial signature associated with Morgellons disease” by Lambert and Kindschuh (bioRxiv, April 15, 2026).
For years, patients have been told Morgellons is “all in their head.” This study says otherwise—loudly and with data. Using deep metagenomic sequencing on skin lesions from a family cohort, the researchers uncovered a distinct “shadow biome”: massive amounts of previously unclassified microbial DNA (61.4% unclassified non-human sequences in lesions vs. just 34% in healthy skin), a complete ecological takeover by Pseudomonadota and Bacteroidota, and a phylogenetically informed microbial signature tied directly to symptom severity. Even the infamous fibers? Confirmed as human keratin and collagen—not lint, not delusion.
Jeremy and Crystal Clear unpack the methods, the groundbreaking findings, what the “Symptomatic Subtree” means for patients with fatigue and cognitive issues, and why this research finally gives the scientific community hard evidence that Morgellons is a real, biologically driven condition—not “delusional parasitosis.”
If you’ve been fighting for answers, this episode is validation, hope, and the next chapter in the fight to be taken seriously.
Listen now and share with anyone who still thinks Morgellons is “just mental.”
Study breakdown: https://www.morgellons.io/new-research/new-metagenomic-evidence/ (https://www.morgellons.io/new-research/new-metagenomic-evidence/ )
Correction from last night’s episode with Crystal Clear! 🎙️🧬
I wanted to clarify a detail regarding the paper I discussed: "Reframing delusional infestation: perspectives on unresolved puzzles." During the show, I mentioned it was published in the journal General Psychiatry (which previously held a high Impact Factor of 11.9, presently at 7).
It was actually published in Psychology Research and Behavior Management.
The "11.9" was on my mind because the authors (Lai, Xu, and Hu) are world-class researchers whose work often appears in General Psychiatry. I associated their high-caliber output with that specific journal’s impact factor.
While the publication venue is different, the paper’s significance remains: it’s a major call for the medical community to stop dismissing patients and start looking at the "unresolved puzzles" of these symptoms through a more comprehensive, clinical lens.
Accuracy is key when we're talking about real research. Thanks for tuning in! 🎧
Reframing delusional infestation: perspectives on unresolved puzzles - PMC (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6171510/)#Morgellons #MedicalResearch #MorgellonsDisease #GeneralPsychiatry #ClinicalUpdate #FactCheck #CrystalClear
You can reach Crystal Clear at her website More Morgellons (https://www.moremorgellons.com/)Listen to Crystal Clear's podcast More Morgellons (https://anchor.fm/more-morgellons)
3 Apr 2026
Silenced by Similarity: How the Syphilis Comparison Shut Down Morgellons Research
In February 2020, a groundbreaking peer-reviewed paper titled “Classification and Staging of Morgellons Disease: Lessons from Syphilis” dropped a bombshell. Researchers showed that Morgellons lesions mirror secondary syphilis in their wildly variable appearance, spirochetal burden (Borrelia in skin cells), and histopathological patterns. They even proposed a new staging system modeled directly on syphilis.
Then… the information flow about Morgellons virtually stopped.
No major new studies. Minimal mainstream coverage. Dermatology guidelines still call it delusional infestation. Even within the patient community, the full spirochetal picture — especially the syphilis parallels and visible fibers/sores — gets sidelined or ignored.
In this episode, I break down the 2020 paper’s key findings, the suspicious silence that followed, and why almost nobody outside a small research circle wants to engage with this science. I also call out the gaps: the Charles E. Holman Foundation runs conferences and the Morgellons Lived Experience Project, but isn’t pushing the syphilis staging research hard enough through aggressive outreach.
Meanwhile, some Lyme doctors like Daniel Cameron acknowledge crawling and biting sensations as neurologic Lyme symptoms, yet downplay the dermopathy, fibers, and full Morgellons picture.
If Morgellons is another spirochetal infection like syphilis or chronic Lyme, patients deserve real testing, treatment discussions, and answers — not silence.
Listen as we examine how the moment the science got too real, the conversation went quiet. Read the 2020 paper yourself (link below), demand better outreach from patient organizations, and help force this discussion back into the light.
2020 Paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7012249/ (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7012249/)
Charles E. Holman Foundation: thecehf.org (support them… but push them for more outreach!)
Daniel Cameron article on crawling sensations: danielcameronmd.com (example of narrowed view)
Sources: Middelveen et al. 2020, CDC 2012 contrast, recent patient registry updates
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