In 2015, Nikki Schultek was in her prime: a younger mom of two little boys, she had simply run a half marathon. Then, a mysterious sickness hit. Her bronchial asthma, beforehand well-managed, turned more and more extreme. Over the next months, she skilled persistent ache, digestive issues and a cardiac arrhythmia. Then got here the “last insult”: indicators of neurodegeneration, together with mind fog and lapses of reminiscence. “It was the lowest point,” she recollects. “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 obtained numerous diagnoses for particular person issues, however none absolutely matched her constellation of signs. Finally, one physician instructed that an undetected an infection may lie behind her persistent ache and respiratory difficulties. She examined constructive for Borrelia burgdorferi and Chlamydia pneumoniae infections and was prescribed a cocktail of antibiotics. On taking them, she discovered that each one her signs – together with the mind fog and reminiscence deficits – went into remission.
Schultek has since based a analysis group to discover the position of an infection extra usually in cognitive decline. This concept would as soon as have been thought of outlandish, however curiosity within the mind’s microbial group is rising quickly. It seems our gray matter is teeming with micro organism, viruses and fungi, and a greater understanding of this sudden microbiome has huge potential to stop neurodegenerative ailments. It may even reverse signs of decline when issues go awry, as Schultek discovered. And, most excitingly of all, some potential therapies have a confirmed monitor…
