The brain has its own microbiome. Here's what it means for your health
Neuroscientists have been surprised to discover that the human brain is teeming with microbes, and we are beginning to suspect they could play a role in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's
In 2015, Nikki Schultek was in her prime: a young mother of two little boys, she had just run a half marathon. Then, a mysterious illness hit. Her asthma, previously well-managed, became increasingly severe. Over the following months, she experienced chronic pain, digestive problems and a cardiac arrhythmia. Then came the “last insult”: signs of neurodegeneration, including brain fog and lapses of memory. “It was the lowest point,” she recalls. “I began making plans for my kids, writing down notes of things that I would want to tell them if I continued to get worse.”
Schultek received various diagnoses for individual problems, but none fully matched her constellation of symptoms. Eventually, one doctor suggested that an undetected infection could lie behind her chronic pain and breathing difficulties. She tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi and Chlamydia pneumoniae infections and was prescribed a cocktail of antibiotics. On taking them, she found that all her symptoms – including the brain fog and memory deficits – went into remission.
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