Judith Miklossy, Kamel Khalili, Lise Gern, Rebecca L. Ericson, Pushpa Darekar, Lorie Bolle, Jean Hurlimann, Bruce J. Paster

Borrelia burgdorferi persists in the brain in chronic Lyme neuroborreliosis and may be associated with Alzheimer's disease

Abstract: The cause, or causes, of the vast majority of Alzheimer's disease cases are unknown. A number of contributing factors have been postulated, including infection. It has long been known that the spirochete Treponema pallidum, which is the infective agent for syphilis, can in its late stages cause dementia, chronic inflammation, cortical atrophy and amyloid deposition. Spirochetes of unidentified types and strains have previously been observed in the blood, CSF and brain of 14 AD patients tested and absent in 13 controls. In three of these AD cases spirochetes were grown in a medium selective for Borrelia burgdorferi. In the present study, the phylogenetic analysis of these spirochetes was made. Positive identification of the agent as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto was based on genetic and molecular analyses. Borrelia antigens and genes were co-localized with beta-amyloid deposits in these AD cases.

Around 1980, my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
In 1992, a LLMD in New Jersey diagnosed Lyme disease (neuroborreliosis).
Because of so many complications (mainly the dr so far away), treatment was stopped & several years later, he died of complications of Lyme disease.

The NJ doctor said that he believed a significant number of Alzheimer's patients were suffering from undiagnosed Lyme disease.

Many are not able to enjoy the years when life should be carefree & wonderful.

During the hour or so we discussed prices, the person's affectionate description of their parents, their life, daily life, behavior, including daily walks in a park across the street from their home---all spoke of lyme. I was stunned.

Early on in my infection, the moderator of a lyme support group meeting told me that the above alluded-to park was infested with ticks, and endemic for lyme. I didn't elicit this information. The moderator just happened to mention it in one of our phone discussions.

Both parents were forced into early retirement in the early to mid 1980s due to alzheimer's dis., and who had been retired for ten years, yet from what I inferred, both were semi-independent, and pretty functional for that time period, but with an increasing need for home healthcare aides, eventually culminating in the need for complete care in an exended care facility.

Both parents were child psychiatrists.

This also reminds me of a magazine article that gave a blurb on vacation spots by profession. The article stated that, as a group(statistically), psychiatrists tended to favor vacations in the New Engl. States.

To this day, I still occasionally think about the persons parents, and wonder...

[This message has been edited by DiffyQue (edited 20 January 2005).]

[This message has been edited by DiffyQue (edited 20 January 2005).]

[This message has been edited by DiffyQue (edited 20 January 2005).]

99% of patients with a chronic disease suffer from heavy metal toxicity as an underlying cause, no matter what the diagnosis.

He finds Lyme in 99% of all chronic disease, no matter what it is called.

Heavy metals, especially aluminum, has long been suspected as one of the causes for Alzheimers. So has mercury and other toxic metals.

I did not know I was metal toxic until I got Lyme. I believe it now, because it took for me to eliminate the metals out of my body before I could get well from Lyme. Same for my husband.

Take care.

I'm believe that metals can be problematic.

One probable reason being tetracyclines as an inevitable, secondary effect to fighting infection; multiple negative and positive charges protruding in free space about a given Tet., bind metals which are positively charged(electropositive or electron deficient). The relative strengths of charges of tets. and metals in part determine binding.

Lymies will start off with, and necessarily may remain on tetracyclines, sometimes for years.

The tetracycline class of abx, being chelators of di-valent cations( positively charged minerals,good + bad),and perhaps mono-,and higher,positively-valenced cations, when taken for extended periods of time would eventually result in the body mobilizing metals from bodily storage depots, and into the blood stream for further processing out of the body; thusly and hence Sx of metal overdose.

Scenario of events:

At first, the tetracyclines cleaned metals out of the blood. Then, the body sensed metals in the blood were gone, and so decided to mobilize stored metals. When these stored metals were mobilized from their storage depots, and into other tissues, inter-tissue spaces, and blood, they induced symptoms of metal poisoning, esp. if a large quantity of metals get mobilized into the blood stream, and elsewhere.

Another reason: Heavy metal ions, having a similar/same 'anatomy' of electrons as a good metal(mineral), will then substitute for the good mineral within the structures of enzymes in lock-and-key fashion, thereby compromising enzymatic function.

Admittedly, I haven't read your posts on metals and promise to. Did do cursory scan, and read much of Klinghardt's material long time ago.

Thanks

[This message has been edited by DiffyQue (edited 20 January 2005).]