Re: Borrelia/post mortem Alzheimer

[Guest guest]

> And here we are 10 years after the suspician that spirochetes might

> play a role in Alzheimer disease.

>

> I just don't understand why compelling evidence such as this is

> mostly ignored.

Because...

Res Microbiol. 1998 Jan;149(1):31-7.

Arguments against the involvement of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato

in Alzheimer's disease.

J Infect Dis. 2000 Sep;182(3):1006-7.

Lack of evidence of Borrelia involvement in Alzheimer's disease.

That's not to say that infections can be totally ruled out:

Exp Neurol. 2003 Dec;184(2):553-5.

The emerging role of infectious pathogens in neurodegenerative

diseases.

There are clues that different pathogens could be involved in such

diseases. However, it's still unclear whether they are the cause or a

consequence of the neurodegeneration.

[Guest guest]

I'll respectfully disagree, Mark, about the reasoning.

There was an 1989 study where they actually looked for Bb in a set

of Alzheimers patients and didn't find it. There are several studies

where they did find it, both before and after the 89 effort.

Something has been wrong, fundamentally lacking, in spirochetal

disease research since way before 'Lyme' made the scene, going back

to neurosyphilis.

Today the test with the highest sensitivity for neurosyphilis misses

50% of cases.

There is also an apallingly leisurely approach to indentifying other

disease-causing spirochetes, despite the experience with syphilis

and b. burgdorferi. Much of the literature now points to non-Lyme

spirochetes from the mouth playing a role in AD and other

neurological diseases. Any decently alert medical establishment

would be all over this.

Assumptions as well as articulate theories compete in

the 'marketplace of ideas'. Since that marketplace is not neutral,

but comprised of powerful financial and institutional interests,

assumptions that are transparently wrong can be kept alive a very

long time.

There is an assumption like that about spirochetal disease, that it

plays a very minor, obscure role in public health. Barb is quite

right, evidence of a crisis of epidemic proportions could jump in

their laps and squirm them to orgasm and most these guys would

forget all about it half an hour later.

Whatever one attributes it to, this case of selective institutional

blindness is extracting a very high price in human suffering.

> > And here we are 10 years after the suspician that spirochetes

might

> > play a role in Alzheimer disease.

> >

> > I just don't understand why compelling evidence such as this is

> > mostly ignored.

>

> Because...

>

> Res Microbiol. 1998 Jan;149(1):31-7.

> Arguments against the involvement of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu

lato

> in Alzheimer's disease.

>

> J Infect Dis. 2000 Sep;182(3):1006-7.

> Lack of evidence of Borrelia involvement in Alzheimer's disease.

>

> That's not to say that infections can be totally ruled out:

>

> Exp Neurol. 2003 Dec;184(2):553-5.

> The emerging role of infectious pathogens in neurodegenerative

> diseases.

>

> There are clues that different pathogens could be involved in such

> diseases. However, it's still unclear whether they are the cause

or a

> consequence of the neurodegeneration.