A treatment for Alzheimer's 05 March 2025
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I have told this story to Doctors and Nurses and Dementia Nurses and to University Professors but no-one seems that interested. Maybe it is because I am naive and non of this makes sense, but I think I have followed a logical explanation. I would blame the lack of interest on the fact the everybody is currently focussed on Coronavirus, but I was telling this story before that virus came along.
I don't want your money, you don't have to buy a book and I don't have any arrangements with the producers of any products mentioned.
A treatment for Alzheimer's - My Mum's Story
My Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2009.
She had a typical long slow Alzheimer’s decline, interspersed
with sudden drops down and a subsequent recovery, but never to
where she was before the drop down. If you have cared for someone
with Alzheimer's this will be a familiar story. I really started
being a carer for Mum after my Dad died in 2013. By July 2019
Mum would try to speak but the words seldom came out as she intended,
we could understand her, but only by trying to hear the emotion
behind the words that came out.
The story of Mum’s Alzheimer’s improvement
The improvement started with a serious decline.
Mum had diarrhoea in the night of 20 August 2019 and we didn't
know until the next morning, I feel guilty because even though
her pants were clean at bed time she didn't smell right. If I
had got her to the toilet maybe she would have been OK, but then
maybe we wouldn't have seen the improvement.
Lying in diarrhoea had two effects, it caused a skin infection
followed by a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). The skin infection
was treated with a 7 day course of Flucloxacillin 500mg. Then
towards the end of that treatment, a UTI started to show on the
urine dip sticks, and so Mum was treated with Ciprofloxacin for
a 7 day course. Mum has had Ciprofloxacin for a Pseudomonas infection
before, there was no corresponding improvement in dementia symptoms.
Having two antibiotics so closely together made Mum very ill,
she stopped eating and was barely drinking.
On the 10th September 2019 we phoned the Doctor as we were concerned
that she was dehydrated. Two nurses came to visit and agreed that
Mum was dehydrated and they arranged for her to get fluids on
the Ambulatory Ward at the Stepping Hill hospital. She was given
1 litre of sodium chloride IV infusion over 5 hours, it was a
very very very long afternoon/evening. The next day Mum was due
to have another litre IV but was sufficiently recovered to stop
them fitting a cannula. We took her home and managed that day
to get her to drink 400mls of fluid.
In all of this Mum had decided she would no longer tolerate her
false teeth, so eating became a problem. Her old diet went out
of the window and we started Mum on a new and different diet.
As a team, her carers got together and starting with breakfast
found new ways to get Mum to eat. We started with the commercial
Ensure drinks, but they are expensive and lack fibre. Then a different
carer arrived and brought her Nutribullet, the milk shake for
Mum was born, and it worked.
Breakfast became a milk shake:
Whole milk.
Various frozen fruits (we were using fresh but they are expensive and don't last so well).
Oats for porridge (Scots Porridge Oats)
Honey (the supermarket own brand cheap stuff)
Lactulose if any ongoing constipation, though because of the oats seldom required.
Complan
Mum would drink back 500mls of this for breakfast within about
10 mins and without any suggestions or help. After a few days
were were getting over a litre of fluids in to Mum each day. If
I was doing it again I might add some oil in to the mix, I wonder
if Mum was getting enough fats in her diet.
First indication of the improvement.
Mum used to like going out in the car, and,
as it made her happy I was pleased to take her out. A few weeks
after the antibiotics and new diet, we were driving out in the
countryside in Mobberley. It had been raining and there were large
puddles on the road, Mum pointed at a puddle and said “Water”,
I repeated it back to her. A little later we came to a railway
bridge and she said “go under”, again I told her she
was right. These three words don't seem like much, but let me
repeat Mum had moderate/severe Alzheimer's and hadn't used proper
words for quite a while. I kept it to myself because I was used
to the ups and downs of Alzheimer's, and know there can be moments
of clarity. Then Mum's other carers started to ask if I had noticed
that Mum was beginning to use words again. Again I didn't get
my hope up, the ups after Alzheimer's drop down can give false
and painful hope.
By February 2020, and though Mum had had health ups and downs
and UTIs to contend with, she was still better than she was a
year before. I would have expected at least two of the 'Alzheimer's
drop downs' in that time, but there had been none.
Mum continued a slow but steady improvement in her language until
July 2020 when her age caught up with her, and her kidneys failed.
For some reason the Doctor put 'frailty of old age' and 'advanced
dementia' as the cause of death. A few weeks before she died she
was walking 500 metres and could go up and down stairs unaided,
so not that frail, and the dementia only looked bad when her kidneys
had stopped working, and she had an infection in a saliva gland.
Mum died at the end of July 2020 aged 90.
I kept a record of some words that Mum relearned and the sentences
she used, this isn't a full list, just some of the highlights.
25 March 2020 – Mum had a big smile on her face and I asked
her why, she said,
“I know I am not going to die soon”.
07 May 2020 – She touched her stomach and said,
“my stomach”.
16 May 2020 – She saw that her carer had different food than
her,
“what do you have there” she said, carer replied 'would you like to try it', Mum said
“yes I will try it”
17/06/20 – looking at her carer she said,
“your hair is the worst”.
The language was best when she was referencing something that
was happening now, if she was telling something from a memory
the language was still confused.
But one that really surprised me. One day she looked at me and
asked 'where is the man' and at the same time she rubbed her top
lip with her finger. I realised she meant Dad, they had been married
for over 60 years. He had a moustache, but she didn’t know
the word for moustache, hence the rubbing her to lip. Dad died
in 2013, so that is a memory from over seven years earlier that
she had accessed.
As Mum improved she liked to go out for a walk. She pushed a
wheel chair until she was tired, then the carer pushed her for
the rest of the way. On one of the walks we complimented her
steering around puddles, to which she replied “well, I was
a Mum you know”.
It wasn't just Mum's language that improved. In the Mini Mental
State Exam one of the things they check is if a person can follow
direction. For years Mum couldn't, but on her last visit to A&E
after a fall, she followed the direction of the Radiologist, placing
her arm and keeping it still.
Recovery theories
There have been a few theories put forward
as to why Mum got worse and then better after the antibiotics.
She was getting more stimulation than people in a care home.
If this was the case then Mum would have stopped
getting worse years ago. I had my office at her house, so she
always had stimulation and conversation.
It was the improved diet that fixed things.
Mum has generally eaten pretty well. My Sister
used to batch cook various meals with 'good stuff' hidden inside.
She was on multivitamins and Vitamin D3 for years. We do know
that her iron levels were a bit low but they were always within
normal range. I had tried iron supplements but they upset her
digestive system. I was always there to prepare meals and to
make sure that she ate well.
There are other medical problems that can mimic Alzheimer’s
She had an underlying infection that was cured by one of the antibiotics.
Mum had been tested many times looking for
the markers of just such a thing, no blood test showed an undiagnosed
infection. She reasonably often had Urine infections, these were
detected and treated quickly.
Thyroid problem can mimic Alzheimer’s
In the past Mum did have an overactive or underactive
thyroid, we asked the Doctor to check this, her levels were normal.
B12 deficiency
Mum did have Pernicious Anaemia, she had regular
B12 injections. A full blood count was done quite a few times
and her levels were again normal.
Dehydration
I was caring for Mum and made sure she had regular food and drink intake. The only time she showed signs of dehydration was after the antibiotic combination.
My Research and Theory
Let me make it clear I am NOT saying that the antibiotics cured the Alzheimer's, just that they were part of the process.
I am also NOT saying that antibiotics are a
bad thing, they have saved many lives through the years.
Lets start at the beginning:
The first question would have to be why would the antibiotics
make Mum so ill and stop her wanting to eat. No big surprise
here. Antibiotics treat bacterial infection, they kill bacteria,
your gut is full of ‘good’’and ‘bad’
bacteria. Antibiotics affect the digestive system, particularly
the gut bacteria which are part of the gut microbiome:
Web search: antibiotics affect on gut bacteria
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230825-do-antibiotics-really-wipe-out-your-gut-bacteria
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322374
Would disrupting the gut have cause Mum to stop eating or drinking?
Apart from the obvious that if you feel lousy
you don’t want to eat, there is evidence that the gut microbiome
affect appetite.
Web search: gut bacteria affect on appetite
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-022-01117-5
Is there any evidence of a link between the
gut microbiome and Alzheimer’s?
Web search: link between the gut microbiome and Alzheimer's
- so many many hits, this list starts back in 2019 when I first
started researching
https://www.alzheimers.net/dementia-and-gut-bacteria-new-research-shows-link/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250188-boosting-gut-microbes-helps-protect-mice-against-alzheimers-disease/#
https://neurosciencenews.com/alzheimers-microbiome-diet-23227/
https://www.sciencealert.com/in-a-huge-first-scientists-transfer-alzheimers-to-healthy-young-animals
https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awad303/7308687?login=false
If there is a relationship between gut bacteria and Alzheimer's then would just changing the diet stop the disease.
People have studied and tried this and it hasn't
worked. My view is that it is like attacking an army that are
well dug in to their defensive positions, if you just send an
army of similar strength they are going to fail in their attack.
You need to weaken or kill the existing 'bad' gut microbiome before
you can establish a new 'good' microbiome.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190903120514.htm
So that is the story of how Mum partially recovered from Alzheimer's.
I don't understand why nobody really has an interest in this story,
the world is crying out for a treatment for Alzheimer’s.
I did find a couple of other people on the Alzheimer’s forum
with a similar story of being very ill after antibiotics followed
by a partial recovery from Alzheimer's. Unfortunately I was kicked
off the forum for telling this story before I could get more detail.
This 'treatment' doesn't recover lost memories and to be honest
if I knew that this would be a treatment, I wouldn't have expected
it to. The brain of someone with moderate/severe Alzheimer's has
been seriously damaged. This 'treatment' does seem to stop further
deterioration and to allow the brain to start to recover. I can't
even promise it would work with everyone and I don't know how
you can weaken or kill the existing good bad bacteria without
Doctor prescribed antibiotics. There are even ethical questions
of whether you should treat someone with moderate/severe damage
to their brain. We may be putting longevity above quality of life,
though for Mum, I can say she was much happier once she started
to recover.
Is there a chance that my theory is completely wrong, I am a scientist,
so of course I accept that possibility.
If you would like to contact me:
alzheimer@davron.co.uk. I can't promise to answer all emails,
I have no idea how many I might get, so please don't take it personally
if I don't answer.
In memory of my Mum and in hope that her experience may help others.
Some other thoughts that could just be further signs of madness.
I mentioned that I wasn't saying Antibiotics were a bad thing, but then I didn't mention why they might be bad at all. The flip side to antibiotics weakening or killing the gut microbiome and allowing a 'good' one to form is that if you don't eat the right stuff during and after taking antibiotics you risk 'bad' bacteria colonising your guts. And if 'bad' bacteria can be part of Alzheimer's then it follows that antibiotics could indirectly cause Alzheimer's.
Another question that gets asked is why do
women get Alzheimer's more often than men. About twice as many
women get Alzheimer's compared to men.
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/why-dementia-different-women
About twice as many adult women than adult
men take antibiotics.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/2/e020203
A treatment for Alzheimer's
A treatment for Alzheimers