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Thursday, August 7, 2008

Parkinsons revisited

I have a group of patients who have developed Parkinsons disease after infection with Lyme. They have not improved with intensive anti-Lyme therapy. They have had only moderate responses to typical drugs used for Parkinsons disease. I recently saw one such patient and I remembered that Amantadine, an antiviral drug used for influenza was considered a mildly effective adjunct in the treatment of Parkinsons. I considered the fact that HHV6, the most neurotropic virus known, which infects virtually everyone, has been treated with Amantadine which inhibits viral replication, with some success.. I started this patient on Amantadine. The other drugs prescribed by both his neurlogist and me prior to Amantadine had been disappointing in their effectiveness. I was surprised to see this patient smiling in my office the other day, after a month of Amantadine. (Parkinsons causes a mask like loss of facial expression as one of its typical features.) He reported that his tremors and gait had improved. It was the first time his Parkinsons had improved after more than a year of Lyme and Parkinsons therapy. Literature also indicates that HHV6 has a causal role in MS. This may be an exciting development. So far its only one patient.

3 comments:

Avalon said...

I went to see "Under Our Skin" last night and was surprised to see the references to Parkinson's and MS, amongst other things. Since I work in a program with the elderly, and part of our program is an Alzheimer's/Parkinson's/Dementia center, the correlation was verrrrry interesting to me.

Lyme report: Montgomery County, MD said...

I see several patients who have had the MS diagnosis confirmed by several neurologists. These patients test positive for Lyme and have improved with treatment. See my other blogs related to this. I tested one Alzheimers patient for Lyme: positive. Treatment made her worse. Brain Herx I suspect. I discussed this with Ray Stricker. With advanced dementia it is probably too late to treat. Most Lyme patients I see have significant cognitive problems. At the earlier stages this improves with treatment. Young patients have developed Parkinsons. This is my best outcome to date. Of greatest concern are the ALS patients given a death sentence who have improved with Lyme therapy. Check out the story of Dr. Martz. Unfortunately he stopped practice because of heart disease after his "ALS" was cured. I have one his former patients. She is stable and improving! Its not just Lyme. Weldon in England is helping MS patients by targeting CPN. These autoimmune diseases are triggered by a host of chronic infections: bacterial, viral and ?. Mainstream medicine won't even look at this new paradigm. I feel like I am using modern medicine while other doctors are treating with leaches to let out the evil "body humors." It makes me insane. All new advances in science and medicine have been considered absurd quackery up until the day they light bulb goes off and they are accepted. Years down the road they say: "well of course its thay way, everyone knows that." Good luck getting medical professions you work with to look at any of this. The patients will get Sinemet and Aricept as they dwindle away and disapear into the ether. We hope and pray something better awaits them. Some day.....

Avalon said...

I am just reading some of Dr. Martz's story in "Cure Unknown". The book itself is riveting.