Although Alzheimer\u2019s disease has been intensely studied for some time, its causes are still poorly understood. At best, we know that the brains of Alzheimer\u2019s sufferers are cluttered with protein tangles and plaques3)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n A popular hypothesis4)<\/sup> is that these plaques cause the disease by slowly degrading the brain tissue<\/strong> around them as they grow. But several drugs that halt the growth of plaques have failed to show any effect on the symptoms5)<\/sup> of the disease in clinical trials6)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n These perplexing results have left the medical community scratching their heads. Are plaques a consequence rather than the root cause of the disease? And if so, what else is happening in the brains of Alzheimer\u2019s sufferers?<\/p>\n Ever since Alzheimer\u2019s was first described at the turn of the 20th century, researchers have noticed telltale signs7)<\/sup>of inflammation in the bodies and brains of Alzheimer\u2019s patients.<\/p>\n People with the disease have inflamed blood vessels8)<\/sup> and brain tissue and their brains are awash with immune system molecules. These patterns tell us that the inflamed brains of Alzheimer\u2019s patients are responding as though they\u2019re battling infection.<\/p>\n And according to a study9)<\/sup>, led by Dr. Luis Carrasco of the Autonomous University of Madrid and published last month in Scientific Reports, the brains of Alzheimer\u2019s sufferers are infected with fungi. <\/strong><\/p>\n The researchers studied the brain tissue of deceased Alzheimer\u2019s patients and of people who had shown no signs of Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s findings were stark: all of the Alzheimer\u2019s brains were riddled with at least one type of fungus, while none of the healthy brains showed any evidence of fungal infection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This new study is one of several linking fungal infection to Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Fungus has also been found in the spinal fluid10)<\/sup> of Alzheimer\u2019s patients.<\/p>\n Chitin, a substance that makes up fungal cells but not human cells, is found in the Alzheimer\u2019s brain<\/strong>11)<\/sup>. In a surprising turn, beta-amyloid, the plaque-forming peptide long thought to be the major culprit in Alzheimer\u2019s, was recently shown to have antimicrobial properties12)<\/sup>. Beta-amyloid is especially effective against the fungus Candida albicans, a common cause of \u201cyeast infections\u201d.<\/p>\n These results may force us to rethink Alzheimer\u2019s as a response to an infection instead of a disease caused by protein structures gone awry. In this new way of seeing the disease, the plaques found in the Alzheimer\u2019s brain, long believed to cause the disease, may actually be fighting infection there.<\/p>\n We would be amiss to say \u201cAha, now we know the cause of Alzheimer\u2019s!\u201d What this study tells us is that fungal infections are especially common in the Alzheimer\u2019s brain.<\/p>\n What it doesn\u2019t tell us is whether fungus causes Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/strong> The disease may still be caused by some other damaging source that opens a doorway to the brain and lets fungus and other pathogens, like viruses and bacteria13)<\/sup>, gain footing there.<\/p>\n As a functional medicine doctor, I help my patients understand that many diseases come about through a culmination of factors. So while it is tempting to search for a single, simple cause of a disease, that search is often misleading.<\/p>\n Just as you are a product of your genetics, diet, environment, and culture, so is your health. So I will go out on a limb and say it is unlikely that all Alzheimer\u2019s sufferers have the disease because of \u201cfungal infections in the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n However, two14)<\/sup>tantalizing studies show that this finding could be relevant to at least some Alzheimer\u2019s patients: when two patients15)<\/sup> who had previously been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s were treated with antifungal drugs, their cognitive symptoms disappeared.<\/p>\n There is still much to be studied. However, we may one day be able to slow or halt the disease in some Alzheimer\u2019s patients by using something as simple as treating them with antifungal drugs, dietary changes, and nutrients.<\/p>\n If you or a loved one have recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s, ask your doctor to run some tests to check for evidence of fungal infection.<\/p>\n These tests may be as simple as a blood workup, or they may require a check of the cerebrospinal fluid through the use of a spinal tap.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. \u2191 http:\/\/www.alzheimers.net\/resources\/alzheimers-statistics\/<\/a> Rethinking the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer\u2019s. Alzheimer\u2019s disease affects over 40 million1) people worldwide and is by far the most common neurodegenerative disorder. As the 6th leading cause2) of death in the U.S., the disease will touch most of our lives in some way. Although Alzheimer\u2019s disease has been intensely studied for some time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2473,1642,1643,1644,1637],"tags":[1670,1668,67,1669],"yst_prominent_words":[1661,137,1654,1658,1665,296,1659,1666,1656,1653,1243,1662,767,1663,1657,1655,1660,1664,745],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22673"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24396,"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22673\/revisions\/24396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22673"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Inflammation is a hallmark of the disease.<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/AD-BrainStrategies-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFungus and Alzheimer\u2019s may go hand in hand.<\/h2>\n
Where do we go from here?<\/h2>\n
How to add this discovery to your actionable toolkit.<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/annshippymd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/BANNER-Better-Brain-Bundle-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
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\n2. \u2191 https:\/\/www.alz.org\/facts\/downloads\/facts_figures_2015.pdf<\/a>
\n3. \u2191 http:\/\/www.alz.org\/norcal\/in_my_community_20545.asp<\/a>
\n4. \u2191 http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24217510<\/a>
\n5. \u2191 http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nrd\/journal\/v10\/n9\/full\/nrd3505.html<\/a>
\n6. \u2191 http:\/\/www.biomedcentral.com\/content\/pdf\/s12883-014-0169-0.pdf<\/a>
\n7. \u2191 http:\/\/www.alzforum.org\/news\/research-news\/dementia-la-mold-fungi-may-lurk-alzheimers-brains<\/a>
\n8. \u2191 http:\/\/www.biomedcentral.com\/content\/pdf\/1742-2094-8-26.pdf<\/a>
\n9. \u2191 http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/srep15015<\/a>
\n10. \u2191 http:\/\/content.iospress.com\/articles\/journal-of-alzheimers-disease\/jad150382<\/a>
\n11. \u2191 http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/16248847?dopt=Abstract&holding=npg<\/a>
\n12. \u2191 http:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0009505<\/a>
\n13. \u2191 http:\/\/www.alzforum.org\/webinars\/herpes-simplex-and-alzheimers-time-think-again<\/a>
\n14. \u2191 http:\/\/content.iospress.com\/articles\/journal-of-alzheimers-disease\/jad00985<\/a>
\n15. \u2191 http:\/\/content.iospress.com\/articles\/journal-of-alzheimers-disease\/jad00358<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"