Biofilm and Lyme Disease
by Dave Cottrell
Biofilm in Lyme disease, first discovered by Dr. Alan B. MacDonald, has horrible implications for Lyme disease sufferers.
Dr. MacDonald, a hospital forensic pathologist, has studied Alzheimers and Dementia for most of his life. In his quest for answers, he decided to look for Lyme disease, specifically the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, in the brains of patients who had died with Alzheimers.
Dr, MacDonald’s reasoning was that Borrelia is an organism that is very similar to Syphilis, which has long been known to cause dementia when left untreated. What he discovered shocked him. In seven out of ten separate brain samples from the Harvard Brain bank, he discovered both Borrelia spirochetes and cysts in high numbers. What REALLY caused the Dementia and eventual death of these patients?
Since Dr. MacDonald’s discovery, others have made the same discovery, including Dr. Pat McGeer, of UBC, one of the top neuroscientists in the world, and Dr. Eva Sapi, of the University of New Haven, CT.
Furthermore, Dr. MacDonald, in spite of resistance from the IDSA and their associates, continued to study Borrelia, specifically looking for evidence that this organism forms a biofilm. The IDSA maintained (and still do) that Borrelia does not form a biofilm, because every known infectious organism that forms a biofilm causes chronic disease, and Lyme disease is not chronic! Such circle reasoning is not only unprofessional, it’s dangerous!
Dr. MacDonald continued to study the disease, and indeed, proved that Borrelia produces a biofilm. His discoveries have since been confirmed in independent studies, such as those done by Dr. Sapi.
In more recent times, Dr. MacDonald has been able to use cutting edge new technology to create a DNA specific stain for Borrelia, meaning that only Borrelia will show up brightly under the scanning microscope. In fact, his discovery with this new technology was astounding!
His studies have focused on Alzheimers, so the tissue he examines the most in his studies is brain tissue. What he found is that the “plaques” that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimers in a great many samples were Borrelia! Thus, he has proven that in many cases, Alzheimers is an infectious disease, namely, Borreliosis, or Lyme disease. Perhaps the majority of Alzheimers cases are caused by an infectious disease. This will require much more study.
For all of us who have long term, or chronic Lyme disease, biofilms are something that we seriously consider in our treatment protocols.
The problem with biofilms is that they are like a protective dome, under which healthy Borrelia bacteria and their friends, such as Bartonella and Anaplasma, etc., can live and thrive, safe from the antibiotics we are trying to destroy them with. Antibiotics are effective almost exclusively against the acute (blood borne) form of the disease, but when we clear them out of the blood, if there are biofilm colonies present, they simply reinfect us as soon as the antibiotics pass out of our bodies.
There is some evidence that juicing raw beets, kale, ginger and broccoli several times a day interferes with the organism’s ability to form biofilms, but to date, there is no known effective way to destroy them. The best we can do is to continue to get the word out, making more and more people aware of the challenges this disease presents, and thereby putting pressure on medical governing boards and even politicians, to do the necessary research.