You Get The Spirochete Infection From Your Pets And Your Partners.
Spirochetes are found in infected gum areas around your teeth. How do they get there? The most likely source is bacterial transmission from an infected carrier. Transmission can occur by contact with saliva and blood from bleeding gums. It could be as innocent as sharing food with an infected carrier. Or by kissing during sexual intimacy.
Another infrequently considered source of spirochetes is your household pets. Both dogs and cats carry the same spirochetes found in human gum disease. Playing kissy-face with your pet could be a source of infection, risking gum disease and years later Alzheimer’s disease. Wash your hands and forearms after playing with your pets and avoid contact with their saliva.
According to recent studies, spirochete bacteria are likely responsible for causing Alzheimer’s disease, today’s leading cause of dementia. Judith Miklossy, a Swiss researcher performing autopsies on deceased Alzheimer’s disease victims, discovered spirochetes in 90 percent of their brains.
According to Garth Ehrlich, PhD, at Drexel University, this new evidence will likely shift the major focus of Alzheimer’s disease research. Current efforts are primarily directed at preventing the accumulation of brain cell debris. The debris is an accumulation of protein and dead nerve cell pieces called amyloid plaque and neurofibrillary tangles. The debris prevention effort is meeting with little success to date.
New efforts include launching a fight against bacterial infection and against spirochetes in particular.
How Do Spirochetes Get To Your Brain?
Two possible modes have been proposed for gum spirochetes reaching your brain. One, gum spirochetes first invade your gum tissue and then look for nerve cells. They twist and spin following your nerve cells right up to your brain like a trail of breadcrumbs. The second mode is similar but spirochetes find capillaries instead, breach the blood vessel wall and hitch a ride with blood cells in the current to your brain.
Your Body’s First Responders To The Rescue
Your body reacts to most bacterial infections by rallying immune cells. But spirochetes are not most bacteria. Spirochetes are cagy and appear to cover themselves with a protective armor like biofilm during parts of their lives. This cloaking mechanism, reminiscent of Star Trek, hides them from your body’s immune cells, as well as antibiotics. Hidden in this spore form for long periods of time, they re-emerge as conditions become more favorable for their survival.
Antibiotics Are Not A Complete Solution
This biofilm armor is why spirochete infections are such a serious problem. Both Lyme’s disease and syphilis are spirochete brain infections resistant to antibiotic therapy.
Repeated interval antibiotics usage is an effort to get around the antibiotic resistant spore life stage of spirochetes. Only as spirochetes emerge from their cocoons are they vulnerable to antibiotics. Those shielded in the spore form are safe.
When your immune cells cannot penetrate the spirochete’s protective biofilm to destroy the bacteria directly, the inflammatory response rages, destroying surrounding brain tissue.
As the spirochete caused damage accumulates symptoms arise. Unfortunately these symptoms are slow to be recognized, delaying diagnosis of the disease process. Continued damage eventually creates the massive holes visible on brain scans.
How Common Is Alzheimer’s Disease?
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, at alz.org, Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Currently described as an epidemic, it kills more individuals than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
Alzheimer’s disease hits our healthcare budget very hard. It is estimated Alzheimer’s and other dementias, cost our nation in excess of $236 billion in 2016. Costs can often exceed $5000 a year per person, with caregivers bearing the brunt.
It’s so widespread that one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another type of dementia. In 2015, it’s estimated that there were 18.1 billion hours of care provided with no compensation by 15 million Alzheimer’s disease caregivers.
Alzheimer’s Disease-There Is No Cure
A medicine cabinet full of new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease is available today. And more are in the pipeline of research and testing. But, as mentioned earlier by Dr. Garth Ehrlich, some researchers may be headed in the wrong direction.
It’s true that drugs will assist with many symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, such as anger, aggression, hallucinations and sleep disturbances, but none so far reverse brain destruction or stop the disease.
Gum Disease Is No Laughing Matter Either
It leads to infections causing tooth loss. So not only do you lose your ability to chew food, it comes with major psychological baggage too. When you add in the major systemic complications of stroke, heart attack and cancer, the physical impact is enormous.
Now we have to throw Alzheimer’s disease causation into the mix of gum disease complications. This makes it an enormous series of tragedies caused by gum disease.
Check out the common signs of gum disease below.
Common Signs Of Gum Disease
Gums that bleed when you brush or floss
Gums that appear red and swollen
Gums that are tender
Gums that have receded or pull back from your teeth
Infected gums lead to a bad taste and bad breath
Teeth that appear to be moving or separating
Changes in how your teeth fit together
Changes in the fit of a partial denture
In the early stages your dentist may not suspect you have spirochetes as part of your gum infection. But, a visit to your dentist is the first step in determining your current gum health status and potential Alzheimer’s disease risk.
It may not be too late to protect your brain.
Stay Ahead of the Alzheimer’s Disease Epidemic
Gum disease is as prevalent in the United States today as Alzheimer’s disease. Now that a connection has been established between gum disease spirochete bacteria in Alzheimer’s disease brain tissue at autopsy, more research is essential.
How dentists care for patients with gum disease will change. And perhaps even more importantly is how seriously you will take the threat of gum disease.
Microscopic Examination For Spirochetes
A microscopic examination of plaque may reveal spirochetes if they are moving and active. But, if they go into the quiet spore stage of existence, they are much harder to identify as they are not moving. Part of their normal life-cycle includes a quiescent, spherically shaped, cystic form, walled off and safe from outside attack.
A microscopic examination of gum crevice plaque requires a sample be obtained. The sample is carefully packed for shipment and sent to a microbiology laboratory. There, the bacteria are fed and allowed to multiply, forming colonies allowing identification. But, not all bacteria survive the packaging and shipping. Errors are possible since spirochetes die if exposed to the oxygen in air, and may not be identified even if present in the original sample. Once the bacteria present are identified, a course of treatment for you can be determined. Not the most reliable test.
DNA Testing For Spirochetes-CSI For Your Gums
Another means of determining whether your gum symptoms are being caused by spirochetes or other bacteria types is the use of DNA testing. Plaque samples from the suspicious areas of your gums are obtained and shipped to a laboratory.
One advantage of the DNA testing approach is that it is not as sensitive to the shipping and handling delays to the laboratory. Another advantage is the sensitivity of the DNA test itself. Once the bacteria present are determined, using a DNA amplification technique, a specialized course of treatment can be formulated for you.
DNA testing is reliable, but expensive. You will bear the brunt of the associated costs.
Can’t Antibiotics Kill Spirochetes?-Not Always
Antibiotics have long been a standard in the treatment of periodontal or gum disease. However, the increasing concerns regarding antibiotic resistance of bacteria is making the decision more difficult for doctors.
Short term exposure to highly concentrated antibiotics placed within the suspicious gum tissue sites can be effective. But, some types of bacteria, spirochetes in particular, are only susceptible to antibiotics when they are not in the spore form.
Lyme’s disease, cause by a spirochete bacteria too, is also particularly difficult to treat. It may be the location of the bacteria within the brain, or it may be the spirochete in the spore form, or cystic life stage, protected by a biofilm coat that blocks antibiotic effectiveness.
What Else Kills Spirochetes?
Spirochetes can be destroyed by light. A flashlight doesn’t produce light that will kill bacteria in gum crevices. But, laser light can kill bacteria. The specialty lasers designed for dental use are effective in three ways.
- A laser can be used to remove gum tissue infected with bacteria from gum crevices. This infected gum tissue blocks healing of gums and creates inflammation leading to strokes, heart attacks and cancer. Spirochetes, now implicated in creating Alzheimer’s disease, can be killed using lasers too.
- Infected tissue is removed using local anesthesia for comfort. The numbing agents are rubbed into the gum space or injected if required.
- The laser can also disinfect the roots of teeth by destroying bacterial toxins. This is also done with local anesthetic for comfort as well.
Lasers Reduce Bacteria Counts
Lasers also reduce the total number of bacteria living in the gum crevices. This is done without the need for any anesthetic. Bacteria that number in the millions are killed. This is called Laser Bacterial Reduction or LBR.
The number of destructive bacteria (including spirochetes) are reduced to a small fraction of the initial level with the use specialty dental lasers. It takes months for the bacteria to return to the numbers that were present prior to the LBR treatment.
And as the harmful bacteria types are reduced in number the non-harmful one fill in the ranks, creating a positive change and a net reduction in the percentage of harmful bacteria.
To think that lasers can be used to destroy Alzheimer’s disease causing bacteria without the need of any anesthetic is exciting. To think that a five minute procedure at the end of your dental cleaning appointment could potentially reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s disease is amazing.
It’s A Good Idea To Have Laser Bacterial Reduction
Have it done at the end of each cleaning appointment for three reasons:
- Gum disease is caused by bacterial infection leading to countless lost teeth. Laser Bacterial Reduction-LBR kills these bad bacteria. Regular LBR treatments can help you keep your own teeth.
- Gum disease creates massive inflammation in your body increasing your risk for cancer. It also increases blood clot potential causing strokes, and heart attacks. Laser Bacterial Reduction-LBR kills these bad bacteria reducing your risk for major medical complications.
- Spirochetes, often found in gum disease ridden crevices around your teeth, are implicated in causing Alzheimer’s disease. Spirochetes travel from diseased gums to your brain. Laser Bacterial Reduction-LBR kills these bad bacteria as well, reducing your risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Contact your dentist today to see if he or she offers Laser Bacterial Reduction-LBR to help you to avoid spirochete infection leading to Alzheimer’s disease.
See your holistic or biological dentist today. Find out about the use of lasers in dentistry for treating gum disease and reducing your risk for Alzheimer’s disease.