The Link Between Lyme Disease and Alzheimer’s
Excerpted from Pro hEALTH: (11/13/2015)
The Link Between Lyme Disease and Alzheimer’s
One of the unfortunate realities of Lyme disease is that it can create susceptibility to other illnesses and conditions, such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, and Alzheimer’s, just to name a few. This is because Lyme disease interferes with a multitude of biochemical processes in the body; it damages cells, causes inflammation and toxicity and other unfavorable issues that can become a setup for other problems.
Since Lyme disease is first and foremost a neurological disease that affects the brain and nervous system (although it affects every system of the body), perhaps one of the most important diseases that people with Lyme disease are at an increased risk for is Alzheimer’s dementia. Indeed, research shows that some chronic infections are linked to Alzheimer’s, including spirochetal infections such as Borrelia, one of the primary infections of Lyme disease.
Authors Thomas J. Lewis, PhD and Clement L. Trempe, MD, describe the correlation between Alzheimer’s and Lyme disease in their 2014 book, The End of Alzheimer’s: A Differential Diagnosis Toward a Cure. They cite Dr. Judith Miklossy, a pioneering doctor who has extensively researched the connection between infection and Alzheimer’s. In a 2011 research paper entitled, “Alzheimer Disease—A neurospirochetosis?” Dr. Miklossy states, (as cited in The End of Alzheimer’s), “It is established that chronic spirochetal infection can cause slowly progressive dementia, brain atropy and amyloid deposition in neurosyphiis. Recently it has been suggested that various types of spirochetes, in an analogous way to Treponema palladium could cause dementia and may be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Borrelia burgdorferi has been shown to be similar to the syphilis spirochete, but Dr. Miklossy also goes on to say, “Borrelia burgdorferi was detected in the brain in 25.3% of AD [Alzheimer’s dementia] cases analyzed and was 13 times more frequent in AD compared to controls.” Even more interesting, she notes that the common dental spirochete Treponema has been observed in over 90% of people with Alzheimer’s. Thus, spirochetal infections have been shown in multiple studies to be linked to Alzheimer’s.
For more: http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=21715
Lyme Handbook 
Got it all, borderline diabetes, memory loss, neuropathy etc. The ironic thing is Doctors are now blaming my symptoms on the diabetes despite the fact that they came before the high A1c results. As I was told by one M.D., live with it.
Bud,
Other than the diabetes, it certainly sounds like Lyme. Do you have a Lyme literate Dr.?
I believe that if too much time goes by without treating it with antibiotics, then it might become irreversible. I wish you the best of luck.
Rob
My Dad, who passed just a week ago after reaching age 94, suffered from health issues of aging, many of which I believe could have been directly connected to Lyme disease; he had lifelong exposure to ticks, from birth or age 3 right up into his 80s. I was his caregiver since 2010 to a week ago when he passed, and since 2003 I lived with my folks, so was able to see the issues first hand. Since the bacteria can occupy all parts of the body, I think it could have played a part in his hearing loss, macular degeneration, and many other things. He had Bell’s Palsy, relapsing fevers, heart murmur as well as Atrial Fibrillation. He had slow as well as sudden hearing loss, sudden vision loss in one eye, urinary issues that affected him all his life.. Audio and Visual issues and hallucinations started earlier than his onset of dementia, which is hard to recognize, the first signs can be so subtle. I asked him if he’d consider brain tissue sampling upon his death, he said no.( I read a post from Alan B MacDonald which outlined the steps to take, at no cost to the donating family for such testing)
I think post mortem testing is the best way and only way to advance science, honestly, in regard to the bacterial infectious agents being causative factors in Dementia. I believe my Dad may have had Lewy Body Dementia, which according to what I’ve read is Dementia having the distinct symptom of hallucinations. He was never seen by any Neuro specialist, but when cognizant agreed with what I have learned and shared with him about ticks. He had to live the last year of his life with a catheter, but was doing mostly well aside from Dementia “moments” which included delusions, and delirium,…he refused antibiotics over the course of a year, and finally suffered resistant bacteria UTI, and heightened symptoms of Dementia, likely heightened by the UTI as well. As soon as medication began he went into immediate decline.Skilled Nursing let him slip into severe dehydration, 16 days from hospital to death, 13 of those days in skilled nursing. …he was a lifelong water drinker, staff in these settings do not take time to help patients drink, who cannot help themselves, shocking and true, inhumane. Antibiotics are so hard on the body, many reject it, are sensitive to it, he was one of those, and why he refused taking them in the last year.
I also think my Dad fared as well as he did, because his family came from Germany and they all farmed….perhaps generations of exposure, causes some immunity for descendants, just a theory. He had Great and GG grandfathers living to 93 and 100 respectively, who immigrated from Germany, who then occupied the upper states of the US before moving west to Oregon in the early 1900s. All farmers, all exposed to ticks! He related that as a boy of only 3-4 his family lived a short time in Eastern Oregon high desert where his Dad was doing surveys for the state, as a civil engineer on water projects. His Dad would be out in the sage brush all day, when he came in from work his Mom would inspect his Dad’s clothing for ticks, picking lots of them off his outerwear. . Would have been about 1924-5.
Gone are the Lyme clues and secrets with my beloved Dad. People might be willing to volunteer testing, if they knew it was available. I hope to prearrange for such studies to be done for myself, because I as well have had lifelong exposure to ticks, I suspect I could have late stage disseminated Lyme. I fare mostly well, never take drugs, antibiotics and no vaccines. I stay away from Doctors. I often say California should look like New York on the CDC Lyme map, but Lyme caused by ticks is often never suspected by doctors, thus not tested for, never found out, therefore under reported here in this very tick laden part of the US.
I don’t think Lyme Disease has been around that long, Laurie. According to this link: http://www.ct.gov/dph/cwp/view.asp?a=3136&q=388506, it was first diagnosed in the area of Old Lyme, CT in 1975. Up until that time, to the best of my knowledge the only thing we had to fear from ticks was Rocky Mountan Spotted Fever. At the risk of being labeled a nut case, it is my contention that our Federal Government lab on Plum Island, more or less across the Long Island Sound from Old Lyme, CT, was the source of the 1st cases. Go here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006078184X/counterpunchmaga
As you may have read in my prior post I believe I am a victim of Chronic Lyme Disease. I am 79 years old and hope to live as long as your father did w/o the debilitating mental problems. My Neurologist has prescribed Aricept, an anti-Alzheimer drug which has shown promise in clinical trials. If the problem has not been reconciled by the time I go, they can have my brain with my compliments!
I did want to mention that I have been undergoing periodic infusions of immunoglobulin for over a year in addition to physical and aqua therapy. I know the therapy is helping but am unsure as to the IVIg. I would appreciate any comments. Thanks.