Lyme Disease Educational Program at Annie's Book Stop Thursday at 5:30

LACONIA — On Thursday, August 9 at 5:30 p.m., Laura Piazza of Sunapee, co-author of Recipes for Repair will share the story behind the creation of this popular health cookbook at Annie’s Bookshop in Laconia.

In this interactive event, she will discuss which foods to eat and which to avoid when suffering from an inflammatory condition. She will wrap up by discussing the importance of prevention and early treatment of Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses and will open up the discussions to a question and answer period at the end. She will provide samples from the book and provide informative Lyme disease handouts. There will also be signed copies of her book available for purchase.

Piazza has chronic Lyme disease, a condition that changed her life, and has her speaking out about it. “In light of my experience, including a misdiagnosis, I now strive to arm people with the knowledge they need to keep themselves healthy.” She set out to learn all she could about the illness after finally learning, yes, she had Lyme disease. This came after many years of symptoms, confusion and doctor visits.

In late 2010 she published Recipes for Repair: A Lyme Disease Cookbook that she co-authored with her mother Gail Piazza. The whole foods cookbook follows a doctor-written anti-inflammation diet that benefits Lyme patients and those with any inflammatory or auto-immune condition.

Laura says Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses are preventable and now travels the state speaking about her history of misdiagnosis and educating the public with prevention techniques and informing them how the wait-and see approach can have dire consequences. Lyme disease is the number one infectious disease in the USA, she says.