Kris Kristofferson's Lyme Disease Misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's
By Teresa Conrick
On July 20th, this very interesting and optimistic article came out:
Kris Kristofferson's Lyme disease misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's
Actor and songwriter Kris Kristofferson and some of those closest to him are speaking out about his health problems and their surprising cause.
Kristoffferson struggled with memory problems in recent years and was told he had Alzheimer's disease, but it appears he was misdiagnosed and all along has actually been suffering from the tick-borne illness Lyme Disease.
Articles in Rolling Stone and the entertainment magazine Closer Weekly reveal that the 80-year-old -- whose songs have been covered by the likes of Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin and Elvis Presley -- has struggled through a years-long medical odyssey.
...He was taking all these medications for things he doesn't have, and they all have side effects," she told the magazine. After the Lyme diagnosis, he dropped those medications and went through three weeks of treatment for Lyme..."It's like Lazarus coming out of the grave and being born again,"
...While Lyme disease can sometimes mimic Alzheimer's with dementia-like symptoms, there are effective treatments available for Lyme, including antibiotics -- unlike Alzheimer's, for which there is currently no cure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are about 329,000 cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. each year. Only about 30,000 are officially confirmed and reported to the CDC.
Doctor's often look for a hallmark bulls-eye rash around a tick bite, but not everyone infected has an obvious mark.
That's GREAT news for Kris Kristofferson and his family. I'm so happy to hear he is being medically treated now and getting better. What was additionally interesting and ironic, was this article in the news the following day:
Thursday 21 July 2016 - Could antibiotics reduce levels of Alzheimer's-causing plaques?
Neuroscientists from The University of Chicago find that treating mice with broad-spectrum antibiotics long term decreases plaques that cause Alzheimer's disease and elevate the inflammatory state of microglial cells in the brain....It is suggested that amyloidosis - the accumulation and buildup of beta-amyloid peptides into plaques in the brain - is key to AD onset and progression...In addition to decreasing amyloid plaques and activating inflammatory microglial cells in the brain, the study, published in Scientific Reports, showed that administering antibiotics made significant changes in the gut microbiome of the mice.
The gut microbiome changes indicate that the composition and diversity of gut bacteria could be fundamental in regulating immune system activity that influences AD progression....Compared with the controls, the antibiotic-treated mice experienced more than a twofold decrease in beta-amyloid plaques. There was an elevation in both the inflammatory status of microglia in the brain and signaling chemicals that circulate in the blood...."we're clearly changing the gut microbial population and have new bugs that are more prevalent in mice with altered amyloid deposition after antibiotics,"
You may be wondering what this has to do with AUTISM. I have long suspected that microbes were connected to both AUTISM and ALZHEIMER'S (and other diseases) and wrote about in 2012. Beta Amyloid was the connection:
What Is Causing Beta Amyloid Production In Alzheimer's And Autism? - "Immune system abnormalities that mimic those seen with autism spectrum disorders have been linked to the amyloid precursor protein (APP)......The amyloid precursor protein is typically the focus of research related to Alzheimer's disease. However, recent scientific reports have identified elevated levels of the particular protein fragment, called, sAPP-α, in the blood of autistic children."
"Beta -amyloid is not only of relevance in dementia processes but is also reported to modulate the response to environmental stressors in the brain, and is supposed to have antimicrobrial properties against different classes of microorganism, including some strains of streptococci." Since we like to connect the accurate dots here at Age of Autism, it seemed relevant that those two factors, beta amyloid and antimicrobrial poperties, may be important.
Children with an Autism diagnosis, including my daughter, can have positive and remarkable responses on antibiotics.
I also described the connections studied about mercury, microbial infections, Syphilis (GPI), Alzheimer's and Autism:
"It is established that chronic spirochetal infection can cause slowly progressive dementia, brain atrophy and amyloid deposition in late neurosyphilis. Recently it has been suggested that various types of spirochetes, in an analogous way to Treponema pallidum, [the bacterium that causes syphilis] could cause dementia and may be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). ,,,
I must add in for those who may not know but Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete.
..Consider too that mercury has also been implicated in producing beta amyloid: "Concentrations of heavy metals, including mercury, have been shown to be altered in the brain and body fluids of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients....The release of beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta) 1-40 and 1-42 into cell culture supernatants after exposure to HgCl2 was shown .... These results indicate that mercury may play a role in pathophysiological mechanisms of AD."
Evidence of parallels between mercury intoxication and the brain pathology in autism.
"increased amyloid precursor protein;.....The evidence suggests that mercury may be either causal or contributory in the brain pathology in ASD, possibly working synergistically with other toxic compounds or pathogens to produce the brain pathology observed in those diagnosed with an ASD."
The biggest irony was at the bottom of that July 21st article:
Forget about a vaccine for Alzheimer's. With mercury in flu shots and the piling evidence of the damage being done to the MICROBIOME of MANKIND, the focus should be on STOPPING insults to the Microbiome and helping restore it to a healthy state. The brain and gut are connected. Here we see ANTIBIOTICS helping enormously by reducing Beta Amyloid. HOW? Because it appears they are killing microbes and in doing so, they are shutting down the body's over-production of Beta Amyloid.
From my 2012 article: 'However, the innate immune system can also be triggered by strokes and traumatic brain injury, which also increase beta amyloid levels. We call our hypothesis the toxic gain function hypothesis, as beta amyloid has a normal function, but if there is too much of that function, it becomes toxic.'
Brain injury has a huge impact on the gut and vice versa as we just learned last week - Stroke, Gut Microbiome, Inflammation and.... Autism.
I'll end here with my same conclusion from FOUR years ago but add that we are getting closer and closer:
It appears that Beta amyloid production could be a big clue in the recipe for regression and degeneration. There is research looking at STOPPING this process but not yet in Autism. WHY? Will 2013 be the year that Autism research becomes more honest and the "autism gene" will be put to rest?
Teresa Conrick is Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.
a study on ceftriaxone (iv antibiotic) and plaques in mice
Ceftriaxone partially restores glutamate dynamic deficits around Aβ deposits
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms
“Sudden-onset dementia should really be a red flag for Lyme [disease], especially in people with compromised immune systems,” she said.
“Everyone over 50 has a compromised immune system.”Dr Zubcevik
http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=29864
on ALS and Lyme
https://lookingatlyme.blogspot.com/2012/03/recovery-from-als-motor-neurone-lou.html
interviews with Dr Steven Phillips on Lyme
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-parish/where-cdc-guidelines-fail-leading-lyme-doctor-succeeds-part-1_b_9318660.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-parish/where-idsa-guidelines-fail-leading-lyme-doctor-succeeds-part-ii_b_9352982.html
a presentation by Dr Phillips
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_wkC5yjsdm0
Dr Zhang, Lyme and TB researcher John Hopkins, presentation at Ottowa conference
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLy9KoYAkcb1QDVfV1iH3q_Ei7xpr4QqMI¶ms=OAFIAVgN&v=5oULsr1CUyI&mode=NORMAL
Posted by: greyone | April 22, 2017 at 07:37 PM
Symptoms of Lyme disease are very similar to symptoms of Electro-Hype Sensitivity (EHS). I only found out while I worked with a naturopath/ homeopath to see if I could reduce my symptoms of EHS. They were very similar to Lyme disease symptoms. I know my symptoms go up directly when exposed to WiFi, smart phones, strong magnetic fields and radio frequencies.
To end up with ALS: my stepfather died of ALS in The Netherlands. Just recently a Dutch study came out about the link to magnetic fields, ALS and occupational risks. Working in the metal industry was one with a significant correlation. Man made electro- and magnetic fields are everywhere nowadays, and disrupting our own fields. Worthwhile taking into consideration too, no one single cause, no one solution
https://www.uu.nl/nieuws/occupational-exposure-to-electromagnetic-fields-link-to-als-confirmed-in-utrecht-study
http://emfrefugee.blogspot.ca/2012/02/emfs-and-lyme-disease-interview-with-dr.html
http://www.magdahavas.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Austrian-EMF-Guidelines-2012.pdf (symptoms EHS page 15 in pdf file)
Posted by: Margreet | April 22, 2017 at 03:00 PM
Meanwhile a quick commentary on the news today put out by the CDC is that ALS is way up.
ALS the disease that if I have to die -- please Lord - don't let it be from that!
Yeah, the one that Boyd Haley told us that is exactly what Gulf War Syndrome really was --
And you know what-- my Dad they say has Parkinson but he don't have the shakes in his hands. It started in his legs
Reading is Fundamental -- Do you just read? Or do you do any nursing -care giving to others that live with a lot of these health things that are going on - like autism, and gut trouble, and Parkinson - that I have to wonder if it is just maybe another form of ALS or so many other names given to some form of paralysis. Syndromes all were they no longer can move - walk - fine motor skills are diminished are all have the same root cause. Reading it is one thing - living it is another.
Posted by: Benedetta | August 05, 2016 at 09:51 PM
Love ya Teresa; Beyond measure!
Posted by: Benedetta | August 05, 2016 at 09:26 PM
And that study is here - "Mercury induces cell cytotoxicity and oxidative stress and increases beta-amyloid secretion and tau phosphorylation in SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10617124
and another:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3936175/
"Extracellular accumulation of amyloid beta protein (Aβ) plays a central role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Some metals, such as copper, lead, and aluminum can affect the Aβ accumulation in the brain. However, the effect of mercury on Aβ accumulation in the brain is not clear. Thus, this study was proposed to estimate whether mercury concentration affects Aβ accumulation in PC12 cells. We treated 10, 100, and 1000 nM HgCl2 (Hg) or CH3HgCl2 (MeHg) for 48 hr in PC12 cells. After treatment, Aβ40 in culture medium increased in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Hg and MeHg increased amyloid precursor protein (APP), which is related to Aβ production. Neprilysin (NEP) levels in PC12 cells were decreased by Hg and MeHg treatment. These results suggested that Hg induced Aβ accumulation through APP overproduction and reduction of NEP"
And let's add in this one:
Mercury-induced amyloid-beta (Aβ) accumulation in the brain is mediated by disruption of Aβ transport. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25056787
"These results imply that MeHg reduces the transportation of Aβ, thereby resulting in the accumulation of the protein in the HC. Plasma sLRP levels may be an early biomarker of Hg-induced Aβ accumulation in the brain."
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | August 05, 2016 at 09:08 PM
Reading is Fundamental,
It appears your title here is lacking.
"In fact, upon a third reading, I still do not understand what mercury has to do with the mice here;"
Really? Well, .... from that Nature study....http://www.nature.com/articles/srep30028
"It is suggested that amyloidosis - the accumulation and buildup of beta-amyloid peptides into plaques in the brain - is key to AD onset and progression"... YET and another study showed:
"Concentrations of heavy metals, including mercury, have been shown to be altered in the brain and body fluids of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients....The release of beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta) 1-40 and 1-42 into cell culture supernatants after exposure to HgCl2 was shown .... These results indicate that mercury may play a role in pathophysiological mechanisms of AD."
And this issue you seemed to have -- "Enlargement of the cecum, which is considered indicative of effective microbial suppression, in ABX-treated animals was also confirmed"...what IS the issue?
It appears you are grasping at straws to reverse a point that I have successfully made.
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | August 05, 2016 at 08:51 PM
To anyone interested. Natural Health 365 has recently completed their "Alzheimers and Dementia Summit" and if you go to the website, you can purchase rights to view all the speakers . I was able to watch 5-7 speakrs and it was great. I learned so much that was applicable to my own health and people whom I guide in health. At least sign up at the Natural Health 365 website so that in the future you will be able to view future summits. Its free. One of the speakers was Chris Shade of Quicksilver Scientifics, who described an interesting case of a man with early onset Alzheimrs with massive symptoms and one of the highest levels of mercury that Dr. Shade had ever seen. Guess what?- all the mercury was from fish ! Dr. shade says that he and Dr. Bredesen, one of the well known doctors for treating dementia, succeeded in removing all but a few small symptoms, which they are working on now. Alzheimers is much like autism - You need to shed your earlier concepts and absorb the knowledge. And another interesting speaker was Christopher Exley, an authority on aluminum, who had a lot to say about aluminium and Alzheimers and aluminum injected into infants.
Posted by: Cherry Misra | August 05, 2016 at 02:29 PM
I'm surprised that a link to the actual paper wasn't included, as Scientific Reports is an open-access arm of the Nature Publishing Group.
In any event, this appears to be two microbiome posts in a row that promote gut dysbiosis, in this case to cause inflammatory signaling in the brain. (It has nothing to do with Lyme.) I note one particular elision from the press release that was quoted:
"'We don't propose that a long-term course of antibiotics is going to be a treatment – that's just absurd for a whole number of reasons,' says lead author Myles Minter, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Neurobiology at The University of Chicago."
This is more clear in the actual paper (long quote, trimmed):
"[E]nhanced cytokine load combined with the deleterious effects of aging may worsen disease pathology. . . . [G]enetic deletion of TLR4, required for efficient microglial detection of Aβ, is sufficient in dampening early-stage neuro-inflammatory responses leading to enhanced amyloidosis and impaired cognitive function . . . . [G]enetic ablation of anti-inflammatory IL-10 leads to a re-balancing of microglial-based innate immunity and attenuates plaque pathology . . . ."
They pretty much obliterated the microbiome for a week and then continued with 1/50th of the forced ABX dose in drinking water for five to six months:
"Efficacy of ABX treatment was tracked by monitoring bacterial growth from fecal homogenates on LB agar plates and in LB media throughout the treatment course (Supp. Fig. 1A,B). Enlargement of the cecum, which is considered indicative of effective microbial suppression, in ABX-treated animals was also confirmed (Supp. Fig. 1C)."
So, I'm not getting this "healthy state" part:
In fact, upon a third reading, I still do not understand what mercury has to do with the mice here; if anything, the doubly transgenic strain makes this skein even more confusing.
Posted by: Reading Is Fundamental | August 04, 2016 at 10:08 PM
https://www.facebook.com/notes/will-wiegman/wiegman-pulsed-protocol-for-lyme-disease-including-congenital-lyme-and-vaccine-i/10154253003723139
Posted by: Will Wiegman | August 04, 2016 at 07:15 PM
Please read Dr. Alan MacDonald's latest findings, which include the discovery of nematode worms living in the brains of Alzheimers patients and also found in the cerebral spinal fluid of MS patients.
The multiple species of borrelia are deadly killers.
https://durayresearch.wordpress.com/about-2/7-provocative-findings-intro/
Thank you.
Posted by: NAR at COR | August 04, 2016 at 04:12 PM
Twyla; I have read a lot about this island and heard of some of their research, and the same goes for Russia's scary research on their own little island too. And how they classed the microbes they were working with as well as the methods they used to contain them.
How they contained them - when they were breeding and messing with common microbes -
Messing around and changing the most common E coli - I always thought was the most scariest thing they were doing, cause it filled so many different niches.
Something is not right about Lyme - I agree. .
Posted by: Benedetta | August 04, 2016 at 03:13 PM
Thanks for this very interesting article, Teresa!
Benedetta, there has been an increase in Lyme disease over the past 40 years or so. This book may explain why:
Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Germ Laboratory
https://www.amazon.com/Lab-257-Disturbing-Governments-Laboratory/dp/006078184X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470326498&sr=1-1&keywords=lyme+disease+plum+island
May sound like a government conspiracy theory, but the book is endorsed by former NY governor Mario Cuomo who said, "If we're lucky, someone in the media will read this carefully researched, chilling expose of a potential catastrophe and force government to do something about it. If not, Mike Carrol's brilliant work will have been wasted and we may be the victims, once again, of government inadvertence."
The government's biological warfare lab, researching tick-born diseases such as Lyme, was on Plum Island. Not the one in MA but the one off the coast of Long Island near Lyme, Connecticut. Lyme is where the outbreak began (hence the name Lyme disease), and it has now spread far and wide. Lyme existed before, but was not as common as now, and seemingly not as aggressive.
Perhaps because of its origins, Lyme treatment and even diagnosis are controversial, as shown in this movie;
http://underourskin.com/film/
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxWgS0XLVqw
and its sequel Emergence
http://underourskin.com/sequel/#sequel-home
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-TDUbcTxn0
Familiar ring to the stuffed shirts from the CDC and mainstream medicine discounting the epidemic and even prosecuting practitioners who treat Lyme. As one doctor said, "The lie is too big to confess at this point."
Another good book is this one:
Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic
https://www.amazon.com/Cure-Inside-Epidemic-Pamela-Weintraub/dp/1250044561/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
Posted by: Twyla | August 04, 2016 at 12:30 PM
This huffpost article describes his illness and treatment in more detail
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-slow-slipping-away-kris-kristoffersons-long_us_577c047be4b00a3ae4ce6609
New finding from Dr Alan MacDonald on Alzheimer's and Lyme/nematode findings in Alzheimer brains
https://spirodementia.wordpress.com/parasitic-nematode-worms-containing-borrelia-endosymbionts-in-alzheimers-disease/
Posted by: greyone | August 04, 2016 at 10:27 AM
And thanks Teresa this was a very informative and interesting article. I have been thinking for a while that the twisted spiral bacteria of Lyme so much like the twisted spiral bacteria of syphilis has been around a long time. Maybe Lyme has been causing problems for centuries and no one paid attention till this past century? or it really has started causing problems.
. There are tons of written information out there that when the Europeans arrived in America that the Natives all had syphilis, but had no adverse problems with it.
The theory was that they lived in such close contact - in their huts that they came into contact with it by their skin first and primed the immune system to control it. Once they stopped living so close in huts they came down with syphilis just like the whites did. So, it was not their immune systems alone. Since then they say that syphilis was always in the Europeans - and they dug up so old bones and looked at holes bored into the bones and said it was from spirochetes, syphilis.
Now I wonder about strep- little round clusters -
Since the Europeans arrived all wearing arsenic powdered wigs -(LOL) it was just a matter of time that some microbe was going to descend on them, and I am sure that all the vaccinations - causes kids to have MORE strep infections. Antibiotics for my kids - were needed and needed often.
Posted by: Benedetta | August 04, 2016 at 08:55 AM
Also; aluminum, and how it too interacts with other metals, pesticides and microbes.
Posted by: Benedetta | August 04, 2016 at 08:35 AM
Great article, Teresa. We saw Kris in a concert a few years ago, with Joan Baez, and the fans loved him, even though his memory problems were evident.
Posted by: Christina Waldman | August 04, 2016 at 08:27 AM