I had personal experience with Lyme induced dementia. I am a late neuro Lyme survivor. Tertiary Lyme survivor. I had progressive weakness and progressive neuro symptoms inculding progressive encephalopathy which began to be really bad and turned into the beginnings of dementia.

I had agnosia (SPOON? what is it FOR?) and I could no longer drive, cook or remember my childs name at the age of 28 years old. My husband? I didn't know he WAS my husband much of the time near the end, I would stare at him going, "Who the heck IS that guy? he acts like he KNOWS me!" but I always knew my daughter was my daughter and I was PROUD I remembered that, it was my big thing to be proud of!!! So what if I forgot her NAME I KNEW she was my duaghter!!! And I thought that was something to be proud of- well, it was*)!

I have been bascially normal again for 7 years now.

I am the Lyme support group leader for Santa Cruz California - the #1 hotspot in Calfiornia for Lyme- and we have had one member of our group who was diagnsoed Alzheimers because she was in her 80s. She went on IV Rocepihn and her brain got better.

I am going to post a whole bunch of Alzheimers Lyme stuff but I will just do it in ONE thread here because I don't want to take over your forum or get people mad at me. So I will post a bunch in reply if this goes up, because there are many papers on Lyme & Alzheimers including a series of autopsies.

I knew Shirley Forsmans daughetr Katie, and her Mom was Alzheimers/Lyme. She came out of dementia after years but then her insurance would not cover IV Rocephin and she went back under. Now Rocephin is off patent and you can get it much cheaper.

NO NOT EVERYTHING IS LYME_ but many things can be and it is often overlooked- Lyme is in 48 states!!! It can be 100% blood negative so it is important to tests for all TBDs because if a person is blood positive with one they may have others. Thus I was blood positive for Lyme, also I was blood positive for HME which is Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis but I was blood negative for Babesiosis- luckily, my Doc treated me for it anyway and got me symptom free. So be sure your loved one has been tested for Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis - both kinds of Ehrlichiosis as well as having gotten a Lyme disease Western Blot with BANDS- some bands are lyme specific!!! So even if you don't fit the CDC positive for their surveillance program, it can show you have Lyme with only one band (39 kda is lyme specific can't get it any other way!)(41 kda means nothing, not Lyme specific!_).

Not everyone gets a rash or remembers tick bites- they can bite you on your head beneath your hair and go unnoticed-

I needed 1 year orals and 9 months IV before I stopped going into dementia- and I have not forgotten my childs name since*)!*)*!!
Take care peoples,
Best wishes,
Sarah

1: Neurobiol Aging. 2006 Feb;27(2):228-36. Links

Beta-amyloid deposition and Alzheimer's type changes
induced by Borrelia spirochetes.

Miklossy J, Kis A, Radenovic A, Miller L, Forro L, Martins R, Reiss K, Darbinian N, Darekar P, Mihaly L, Khalili K.
Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, 2255 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3. judmik@telus.net

The pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) consist of beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in affected brain areas. The processes, which drive this host reaction are unknown. To determine whether an analogous host reaction to that occurring in AD could be induced by infectious agents, we exposed mammalian glial and neuronal cells in vitro to Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes and to the inflammatory bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

Morphological changes analogous to the amyloid deposits of AD brain were observed following 2-8 weeks of exposure to the spirochetes. Increased levels of beta-amyloid precursor protein (AbetaPP) and hyperphosphorylated tau were also detected by Western blots of extracts of cultured cells that had been treated with spirochetes or LPS.

These observations indicate that, by exposure to bacteria or to their toxic products, host responses similar in nature to those observed in AD may be induced.

PMID: 15894409
http://www.google.com/search?q=%3A+N...ient=firefox-a

So here are the links to articles about Alzheimers & spirochetosis, as follows- Borrelia Burgdorferi is the lyme disease spirochete. Other borrelia are spirochetes of the larger borrelia family and not just Lyme.
I am too tired to go and refind the persistent brain infection articles but there are many of them.



Beta-amyloid deposition and Alzheimer's type changes induced by Borrelia spirochetes.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum

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Borrelia burgdorferi persists in the brain in chronic lyme neuroborreliosis and may be associated with Alzheimer disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum

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Plaques of Alzheimer's disease originate from cysts of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease spirochete.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...RVAbstractPlus

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Alzheimer's neuroborreliosis with trans-synaptic spread of infection and neurofibrillary tangles derived from intraneuronal spirochetes

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...RVAbstractPlus

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Alzheimer's disease Braak Stage progressions: reexamined and redefined as Borrelia infection transmission through neural circuits.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...RVAbstractPlus

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Alzheimer's disease--a spirochetosis?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8...ubmed_RVDocSum


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Further ultrastructural evidence that spirochaetes may play a role in the aetiology of Alzheimer's disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7...ubmed_RVDocSum


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