Lymes

[Guest guest]

You've only heard of one child? There is an entire Lymes/Autism listserve. The

article below was e-mailed to me some time ago.

-

AUTISM-A TYPE OF LYME DISEASE

Medical Hypothosis

December 15, 2004

Copywrite 2004

Autism is growing at epidemic rates. (1) It is reported to be prevelant in

1-150 children, some states 1-80 children. Autism is a complex neurological

disorder with seemingly provable and many etiologies such as maternal viruses

and bacteria (2), immediate cord clamping and birth drugs (3), metabolic

insufficiency during development in utero or infancy (ie, thyroid t3 and t4)

(4), purine disorders, adenosine deaminse deficiency (5), mitochondrial

disorders (6), iron fragile metabolism (7), metallothionein deficiency (8),

oxidative stress, childhood vaccinations which act as triggers to events above

through viral persistance in gut and brain (9), and heavy metal poisoning from

additives in vaccines (10), and lastly chronic disseminated lyme

neuroborreliosis disease. Lyme disease is transmitted through a tick bite. But

it can also be transmitted through semen, breast milk and gestational fluids.

This means that a fetus can be infected by its mother. B. burgdorferi has been

proven by PCR analysis to establish a persistent infection in the mammalian host

(Straubinger, R. Persistence of B. burgdorferi in experimentally infected dogs

after antibiotic treatment. J.Clin.Microbiol.1997 Jan; 35(l): 111-116).

Lyme disease is the fastest growing vector-borne disease in the nation. In 2001,

the Center for Disease Control recorded 18,000 new cases, but some experts

estimate that the actual number is closer to 200,000. This is four times the

number of HIV cases per year. Autism grows as exponetially as that, and an NIH

bulliten explained of late it is seen in 1/166 children. Amongst those

statistics, is the further frightening 1-6 children now have a developmental,

psychiatric problems in the US.

Lyme disease results in underconnectivity of brain areas, defects of the

fusiform gyrus and loss of purkinje cells in the cerebellum. Recently reports

of white matter disease are prevelant in children and adults with autism

paralleling patterns in lyme disease. (11) Late in the progression of this

disease neurological, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms predominate,

overlapping symptoms of autism, such as food avoidance, facial recognition

problems, sleep disorders, ocular symtpoms such as light sensitivity, speech and

language loss or word retrieval problems, noise sensitivity, bed wetting,

aggression, panic attacks, headaches, movement disorders, sore throats and poor

swallowing, hypofusion-poor blood flow particularly to temporal lobes, swollen

tongues and lymphs, chronic fatigue symptoms, hyperactivity, gut problems (ie,

diahrreah, constiptation, IBD symtpoms, Celiac symptoms), liver dysfunction,

thyroid problems (t3 and t4 conversions), iron disorders, heavy metal toxicity,

tics, food sensitivities, depression, serotonin uptake problems, autoimmune

brain antibodies, problems with sequencing, problems with sensory perceptions,

seizures, cardiac conduction abnormalities, illiod hyperplasia, heavy metal

toxicity, co infections of HHV6 and Mycoplasma (12), various aches and pains

masked as lyme arthritis particularly in the neck area, and zinc copper iron

imbalances.

The basic hierarchy is pre-frontal cortex, para limbic association areas, limbic

structures, and brain stems - hypothalamus. Lyme encephalopathy can result in

dysfunction of the modulation centers, inhibitory pathways, and stimulatory

pathways. (13) Autopsies, animal studies, and brain imaging tests have

contributed to this understanding. The presenting symptoms of NPLD are sometimes

emotional in nature, and include obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and

aggression, panic disorder, and other phobic disorders. These self same

observations are also seen in autism as reports from parents of these symptoms

are typical.

All involved with late state Lyme disease agree there is a large amount of

inaccurate information on this subject. This disagreement exists at every level

- journals, scientific meetings, clinical practice, and media outlets. The same

can be said of autism, in which denials of it's etiologies are profusely

displayed as only genetic, and never any environmental iaotragenic factors

involved. Profusely are denials of the existance that autism is based on the

bodies response to a foreign material either of neurotoxicity, bacteria or

virus, such as lyme, such as vaccinal viruses, such as autoimmune processes

that become overabundant. Reports are clear, that parents of autistic children

seem to have higher incidences of autoimmune conditions. This is telling us

something. It is my belief, this is a sign that the parents themselves have

lyme disease-and are giving this infection to their children. Lyme disease is

prevelant in all fifty states of the union, and know no geographical areas.

However, it is interesting to note, that in states that have the less lyme,

there is more availability of selenium in the soils, which is a immune neuro

protectant against viruses and bacteria. Parents of autistic children

routinely show low levels of selenium in blood work, as well as metallothionein

deficiency, a glutathione dependent oxidant. Parents also have higher

sedimentation rates (ESR) and thrombaphilia and fibrin deposits showing

inflammation as well as thyroid TRH dysfunction. (14) They also often have

skewed hormonal balances. Lyme is capable of changing these aspects on blood

work.

Interestingly, susceptibility genes for autism parallel the susceptibility genes

for arthritis and other autoimmune disorders, such as HLA-B27, and HLA-DR4.

Complement immune deficiencies are common in both diseases, including C4B and

C3A. The frequency of autoimmune disorders was significantly higher in

families of the PDD probands compared with families of both the autoimmune and

healthy control probands. Autoimmunity was highest among the parents of PDD

probands compared with parents of the healthy control subjects.

Hypothyroidism/Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and rheumatic fever were significantly

more common in families with PDD probands than in the healthy control families.

Interestingly, reports of Hashimotos and hypothyroidism are prevalent in lyme

disease. (15) Interestingly, reports of mycoplasma are consistent with parents

having a mycoplasmal infection, and giving that to their children. (16)

Mycoplasma medications are alleviated by the self same medications for lyme

disease. Many parents report that lyme and mycoplasma are prevelant in their

children with autism. Familial association studies have also reported an

increased risk of several systemic autoimmune diseases among relatives of

patients with a systemic autoimmune disease. This association may reflect a

common etiologic pathway with shared genetic or environmental influences among

these diseases. Environmentally, there is increases in levels of heavy metals,

toxicity, neurotoxicants, mold, and most of all but not least, the prevelance of

the lyme bacterium. Prolactin may also have important immune-modulating

influences affecting the risk of autoimmune disease . The prolactin gene is

located close to the MHC region of chromosome 6, hotspots for lyme AND autism.

(17) Another protein eaten by lyme is melatonin, which may account for levels

of serotonin, prolactin and the ability to detox heavy metals. In autism,

melatonin levels are dysregulated, causing sleep disorders, and antibodies are

found against serotonin.

Recently there have been reports of short term antibiotic use to kill

clostridium and or AGBN's. Vancomycin was recently used, and reports are that

when on the antibiotic for thirty days, symptoms of autism decreased. The

Jarish Herxheimer reaction is seen when antibiotics are having a therapeutic

effect as well, as evidenced when the child is on the antibiotics. This often

scares off the weary parent of an autistic child, stopping the antibiotic for

fear it is contributing to their autism symptoms when in reality it was killing

lyme with mild to moderate reactions. Unfortunately, in these studies, the

children regressed back to autism symptoms as soon as they were removed after

thirty days. If the bacteria is not completely eliminated, the symptoms will

return. This tells us, I believe, that lyme is involved in their autism. This

reasoning has made others think of why these children respond so favorably while

on the antibiotic. It could be that it is going after the lyme bacterium

(however not it's stages due to it's short length), but also calming down the

cytokine and chemokine activity in the immune system, and having some kind of

effect on viruses which depend on cytokines and chemokines. Typically those

viruses are of the herpes CMV class. Reports of HHV6 and autism are abundant.

Many children have high herpes titres, sometimes to that of 4-6 times of normal,

often corrolating with autism symptoms or seizures. Although the American

Academy of Pediatrics recommends a three week course of antibiotics, Dr. -a

pediatric lyme speclialist, has found that the bacteria that causes Lyme has

become increasingly hardy and even when the disease is caught early, it often

needs to be treated with an eight to twelve week course of antibiotics or

beyond.

Lyme has many names. Among its " symptoms " are ALL of the " ideopathic "

(unknown-cause) diseases that plague americans, too many to list here - it

affects the body by making sugar turn to lactic acid, which in turn can scar the

kidneys over time, irritate the bladder, damage the liver, and upset the

pancreas. Lactic acid causes muscle soreness and sensitive intestines/cramping

problems (nervous stomach). Interestingly, it is reported that many autistic

children have skewed lactic and pyruvate ratios. This creates a mitochondrial

disorder, oxidative stress in these children. Lyme also eats proteins, many

types. It eats myelin protein, which is known to be going missing in MS

patients. The

localities for MS hot spots exactly match the pattern of lyme disease, and I

believe it is the same disease with a different name. Myelin is what nerves are

made of - and damage to myelin, without a meat and potatos diet to replace

protein constantly, causes brain troubles (alzheimers, parkinsons, alateral

myotrophic scleroses, myocarditis), numbness of the bladder and/or muscle spasms

in the elderly mistaken as " incontinence " , nerve troubles, stuttering, etc.

This corrolates nicely with what we are seeing in autism. Typically there are

myelination antibodies in children with autism, even Neural Axon Filament

Protein antibodies, and various other antibodies against brain tissue. Many

children with autism lose their ability to sleep through the night without

bedwetting. Stuttering is often seen in children with autism.

It is also reported that when these children harbor heavy metals, that viruses

and bacteria seem to live in areas of that damage. Since these children lack

the oxidant metallothionein, they cannot detox the EPA over standard of safe of

thimerosol that were in childhood vaccine series, or other environmental factors

including their mothers in utero exposure of amalgams. Unfortunately, they

still are according to HAPI, a NPO who just tested mercury free vaccines (ARI

newsletter 2004). As they work in consortium, there is a theory that the

heavy metals bind to these bacteria and viruses, and when they are eliminated,

heavy metals start to chelate out of the body. This is evidenced by EDTA

chelation which has the ability to kill nanobacteria. Observations and

biomarkers of damage are seen soon after vaccinations, but what is equally

intriguing, is that lyme may be awoken after an immune lowering event such as

vaccinations.

Recent reports show that children with autism are harboring lyme disease. The

cry for chromosomal faults are numerous, and often paid and backed to be equally

the only way you get autism. What researchers know, is that no money is funded

or researched or goes into the immune lowering/autoimmunity events that create

autism, and is simply put down. The cogent finding of lyme bacterium being a

major risk factor for autism needs to be explored. This is superimposed on the

already sustained belief, that autism is an autoimmune disorder. Many of the

imbalances of autism could be explained as the body's inability to detox and to

work on this bacteria. Lyme could also be a trigger or a circumstance that

initiate or worsening of the autistic condition. This includes milk allergies,

strep infections, mercury, dietary intolerances of wheat and milks, and

inability to deal with toxic inhibitors. Interestingly, many of the imbalances

and deficiencies can be caused by lyme bacteria.

Many of the meds used for autism seem to also slow down the lyme bacterium, such

as digestive enzymes, anti fungals, of course, antibiotics, anti parasticals,

addressing food allergies, increasing zinc, antiinflammatories and even secretin

(secretin is tied to insulin, which lyme attacks). Lately, the use of

Methylcolbalamine B-12 with folinic acid would also reduce lyme symptoms. Since

there is already evidence of abnormal gut bacteria and exaggerated production of

cytokines which result in irreversable cellular damage, it behooves parents and

clinicians and researchers to look into this paralell and seek state of the art

laboratory connections to lyme and autism. Three labs are recommended,

STONYBROOK, BOWEN and IGENEX. This may result in the first of it's kind

treatment for autism via lyme therapy.

References

(1) Changes in the Population of Persons with Autism and PDD, Dept Develop

Services, California, Health and Human Services March 1 1999

(2) The Journal of Neuroscience, January 1, 2003, 23(1):297-302

Maternal Influenza Infection Causes Marked Behavioral and Pharmacological

Changes in the Offspring

(3) IMFAR-IMMEDIATE CORD CLAMPING and AUTISM, Dr Morley www.cordclamping.com

(4) Abramson J, Stagnaro-Green A. Thyroid antibodies and fetal loss: an

evolving story. Thyroid 2001;11(1):57-63.

(5) Adenosine Deaminase - Neurogenetics. 2001 Mar;3(2):111-3. Related

Articles, Links

Autism: evidence of association with adenosine deaminase genetic polymorphism.

Bottini N, De Luca D, Saccucci P, Fiumara A, Elia M, Porfirio MC, Lucarelli P,

Curatolo P. Department of Internal Medicine, Tor Vergata University of Rome,

Rome, Italy

(6) J Child Neurol. 2000 Jun;15(6):357-61. Related Articles, Links Autism

associated with the mitochondrial DNA G8363A transfer RNA(Lys) mutation. Graf

WD, Marin- J, Gao HG, Pizzo S, Naviaux RK, Markusic D, Barshop BA,

Courchesne E, Haas RH. Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington,

Seattle, USA.

(7) Arch Dis Child 1997;76:264-267 ( March ) Fragile X, iron, and

neurodevelopmental screening in 8 year old children with mild to moderate

learning difficulties N Corrigan,a M ,a M ,b F Feec a North and West

Belfast Community Paediatric Unit, Belfast, Northern Ireland, b Queens

University Belfast Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Belfast,

Northern Ireland, c Belfast Education and Library Board, Belfast, Northern

Ireland

- And

Life Sci. 2004 Oct 8;75(21):2539-49. Related Articles, Links

Oxidative stress in autism: increased lipid peroxidation and reduced serum

levels of ceruloplasmin and transferrin--the antioxidant proteins. Chauhan A,

Chauhan V, Brown WT, Cohen I. NYS Institute for Basic Research in Developmental

Disabilities, 1050 Forest Hill Road, Staten Island, New York 10314, USA.

(8) - Metallothionein Deficiency - see www.hriptc.org Walsh, W, Monograph:

Metallothionein and Autism " . {Pfeiffer Treatment Center, Illinois, Oct 2001,

Over 100 articles referenced.

(9) - Wakefield AJ, A Anthoney et al " Enterocolitis in Children with

Developmental Disorders " Am.J Gastroenterology 95 No 9 (2000) p 2285-2295

(10) A case control study of mercury burden in Autistic children in autistic

spectrum disorders (Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Vol 8, No 3, 3

Fall 2003) J Bradstreed, MD, D Geier, J Kartzinel, Md, J PhD, M Geier, MD,

PhD.

(11) Cure Autism Now Foundation, White Matter Disease and Autism, see website

(12) HHV-6 and Autism - Clin Immunol Immunopathol. 1998 Oct;89(1):105-8

Related Articles, Links Serological association of measles virus and human

herpesvirus-6 with brain autoantibodies in autism.

Singh VK, Lin SX, Yang VC. College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan, Ann

Arbor, Michigan, 48109-1065, USA.

(13) Activation of the fusiform gyrus when individuals with autism spectrum

disorder view faces, N Hadjikahmi, RM ph, J Synder, CF Chabris, J , S

Steel, L McGrath, M Vangel, I Aharon, E Feczko, GJ , and H Tager-Flusberg,

Neuroimage, Vol 22, No 3 July 2004,

(14) J Neuroimmunol. 2004 Jul;152(1-2):176-82. Related Articles, Links

Autoantibody repertoires to brain tissue in autism nuclear families. Silva SC,

Correia C, Fesel C, Barreto M, Coutinho AM, Marques C, TS, Ataide A,

Bento C, Borges L, Oliveira G, Vicente AM.

Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia, Rua da Quinta Grande 6, 2781-196 Oeiras,

Portugal.

(15) Pediatrics. 2003 Nov;112(5):e420. Related Articles, Links

Increased prevalence of familial autoimmunity in probands with pervasive

developmental disorders.

Sweeten TL, Bowyer SL, Posey DJ, Halberstadt GM, McDougle CJ. Department of

Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, and Whitcomb Riley

Hospital for Children Indianapolis 46202-4800, USA.

(16) Chronic Mycoplasmal Infections in Autism Patients

Garth L. Nicolson,1 PhD, Marwan Y. Nasralla,2 PhD, Berns,1 MD and Jeorg

Haier,3 MD, PhD

1 The Institute for Molecular Medicine, Huntington Beach, California, USA,,

2 International Molecular Diagnostics, Inc., Huntington Beach, California, USA,

3 Department of Internal Medicine, and 3Department of Surgery,

Wilhelm-University, Munster, Germany. Correspondence: Prof. Garth L. Nicolson,

Office of the President, The Institute for Molecular Medicine, 15162 Triton

Lane, Huntington Beach, California 92649. Tel: 714-903-2900; Fax: 714-379-2082;

Website: www.immed.org

(17) Am J Med Genet. 1999 Nov 5;87(1):17-22. Related Articles, Links

Subtle overlapping deletions in the terminal region of chromosome 6q24.2-q26:

three cases studied using FISH. Sukumar S, Wang S, Hoang K, Vanchiere CM,

England K, Fick R, Pagon B, Reddy KS.

Cytogenetics Department, Quest Diagnostics Inc., San Capistrano, California

Doris and Steve <sjsmith@...> wrote: my son has been tested

for Lymes over the years - always

negative. I've only heard of one child testing positive.

Must've been a really small sample ...

doris

maryland

>Message 24

> From: " Rob or Sunseri " RobRose@...

> Date: Sun May 21, 2006 9:01pm(PDT)

>Subject: Re: Reposts of research - infections and brain function

>

>At a recent ASD presentation I attended, it was stated that 100% of the ASD

kids tested positive for Lymes (in a small sampling) and that regardless of

stools samples all of the children showed improvements when they were treated

for parasites.

>

> -

>

Responsibility for the content of this message lies strictly with

the original author(s), and is not necessarily endorsed by or the

opinion of the Research Institute and/or the Parent Coalition.