Mental and neurological symptoms

• anxiety and stress
• brain lesions
• cognitive dysfunction
• headaches and migraine headaches
• paresthesia
• peripheral neuropathy
• see photosensitivityAbnormal sensitivity to sunlight and bright lights. Also referred to as "sun flare" or "light flare."
• seizures

What is neurological immunopathologyA temporary exacerbation of neurological symptoms due to bacterial death. Requires careful management by physicians.?

Inflammation from intracellular bacteria can affect many areas of the brain. Dr. Brian Fallon's borreliosis study (yet to be published) found from SPECT data that the main metabolic changes in the brain were in the region of the parahippocampal gyrus. This area is responsible for receiving sensory input from the outside world, integrating it, and projecting it onto the hippocampus (memory) and Amygdala (fear, aggression, mood).

“Another thing doctors should understand is that in the case of nearly every patient, immunopathologyA temporary increase in disease symptoms experienced by Marshall Protocol patients that results from the release of cytokines and endotoxins as disease-causing bacteria are killed. occurs in the brain. This means that during much of the treatment, patients are not thinking properly and have psychological issues. These mental reactions should not cause doctors to question the stability of the patient, but instead it should be understood that every patient will experience a certain level of confusion, anxiety and neurological symptoms while on the MP.” ~Greg Blaney, MD

Stimulation of the brain by the increased inflammationThe complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli such as pathogens or damaged cells. It is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli as well as initiate the healing process for the tissue. of immunopathology can cause many of the neurological symptoms that are so bothersome to folks with Th1 inflammationThe complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli such as pathogens or damaged cells. It is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli as well as initiate the healing process for the tissue..

Neurological symptoms may include:

• seizures
• depression
• irritability
• aggressiveness
• vivid dreams
• compulsions
• disturbing thoughts
• obsessing
• lack of concentration
• ‘brain fog’
• loss of memory
• poor judgement
• confusion
• anger (Lyme rage)
• mood swings
• inattentiveness
• poor problem-solving
• fear
• anxiety
• depressive disorders
• psychosis
• insomnia

Seizures

In my opinion, seizure disorders are very common in Th1 diseases. However, frank grand mal seizures are the least common. Variants of petit mal, 'spacing out', loss of train of thought, muscle twitches, restless leg syndrome etc are all seizure disorders. The 'blacking out' that I have described and which are not uncommon as immune system reactions, are seizures, IMO. Also, emotional outbursts, again common in Th1 diseases, may be temporal lobe seizures. ~Greg Blaney, MD

-Because seizures are caused by the Th1 immune pathogens, EVERY epilepsy drug will affect the immune system in a way which will retard or halt progress to cure. It is clear that epilepsy is only controlled by either 1. getting rid of the pathogens, or 2. a lifetime of immune suppression

Dr. Trevor Marshall, Ph.D

Assessing symptoms

When assessing neuro symptoms, fog, clarity, tiredness, moods etc are quite different to assessing physical immunopathology which we may be more aware of, and are just as important as part of the assessment as the physical.

Adequate eye protection is essential

Dr Marshall wrote: “The short-term consequences of not wearing adequate eye protection will be an increase in neurological symptoms caused by stimulation of the Amygdala in the brain. These neurological symptoms include fatigue, irritability, aggressiveness, lack of concentration, brain fog, photosensitivity, transient loss of memory, mood swings, confusion, anxiety, anger, neurosis and even psychosis.” See Testimonials to the need to wear adequate eye protection

Managing symptoms

Controlling the severity of the immune system reactions will help to keep neuro symptoms at a tolerable level. My immune system reaction is too strong. What should I do?

Non-medication and medication measures to provide palliative relief of some neurological symptoms are discussed in: I have insomnia and fatigue. What should I do? When and why should I use Valium? How can I control my anxiety and depression?

Prescription medications required to control severe neurological symptoms are fine to take while on the MP. Please see: Should I stop taking any of my medications?

Safety

If you have a history of seizures, be sure to take all seizure precautions.

“Clumsiness” is related to neurological symptoms and these may come and go. Try to be aware of any loss of sensation (or abnormal function) in your hands, feet or ankles. Take precautions. If you are prone to dropping things, avoid cooking that day. If your brain can't tell if you are picking up your feet when you walk, steer clear of rugs and obstacles and stay away from stairs.

Members's experiences

-Previously, I reported odd sensations in the right cheek when lying on my left side. This time I tried to have an afternoon sleep on the sofa and had to lie on my right side which is unusual for me. The neurological tremors happened in the left cheek. The flashes were very fast, painless but made a noise like rustling silk. It happened 5 x in the space of 15 minutes. It has only ever happened during afternoon rests.:? ~Willemina

- Valium seems to be effective to prevent seizures when taken at the start of a seizure headache. ~Caitlin's mother

See also: Will the MP treat paresthesia and neuropathy?

'Lyme Rage'

Personal, Family, Relationship Tips

MENTAL ILLNESS and Th1 inflammation

Self help to improve mood

Depression

Psychological symptoms of Th1 inflammation

It is my opinion that early and prominent symptoms of Th1 disease are psychological which have been interpreted as anxiety, depression, insomnia, learning disabilities etc.

These symptoms like physical ones are exacerbated during effective treatment of Th1. By understanding this, one can lessen some of the impact of those symptoms, just as one can with the physical symptoms. Not knowing why one is 'suffering' increases the stress of the situation which then, actually intensifies the problem.

By understanding, one can remain more relaxed which lessens the intensity and supports recovery. Also, by accepting the temporary limitations imposed, it is again less stressful and more beneficial for recovery.

In my opinion, seizure disorders are very common in Th1 diseases including borrelia. However, frank grand mal seizures are the least common. Variants of petit mal, 'spacing out', loss of train of thought, muscle twitches, restless leg syndrome etc are all seizure disorders. The 'blacking out' that I have described and which are not uncommon as immune system reactions, are seizures, IMO. Also, emotional outbursts, again common in Th1 diseases, may be temporal lobe seizures.

One physiological causation for panic attacks is the depletion of intracellular magnesium by the infection. I believe this is primarily due to Vit D dysregulation but could also be caused by the direct depleting effect of the physical stress of the illness. Therefore, taking extra magnesium but without calcium or Vit D, can lessen some of these reactions.

Greg Blaney, MD

Cognitive dysfunction

”………, Nobody has dropped out of our study because of kidney failure, or because their heart muscle has weakened, or their lung capacity has diminished.

By all means, ask Doc to measure these for you, but the real reason that you are having trouble, and that others drop out of the study, is that their brain starts playing tricks on them.

Earlier this year Meg, Amy and I gave presentations at a conference “Cognitive Dysfunction in Disease” at the home of the Nobel Prize organization, Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The difficulties you are experiencing are as a result of the disease process.

You need to cut back your IP, but primarily to allow your brain the ability to reason again. To get a grip on reality again. To plan about walking your daughter down the aisle at some time in the future. To plan what you want to do with your life when these bacteria have been defeated and you get your life back again.” ..Trevor..

Dr Marshall: Magnesium is fine. Milk of Magnesia is used by quite a lot of MP folks (the ones with GI tract problems). I used it myself for years. Only remember that you should not take the Minocycline within 2 hours of Magnesium to prevent mal-absorption.

Is it okay to take magnesium?

Vertigo

Inflammation in the inner ear can make you have vertigo - a feeling you are moving, even spinning, or that your environment is moving when in fact they are not. Or you may feel like you are floating or falling. OR these may be due to neurological inflammation. The sensation may occur during sleep (waking a person from sleep) or while awake.

While these symptoms can seem disturbing, at least they are not painful and are relatively trivial as long as you are not falling or constantly nauseated. Mentally reassuring yourself may help. Keep in mind that *feeling anxious* can be a neurological symptom. If you don't have a family member around to help you identify anxiety as neurological immunopathology, you are left with having to try to remind yourself. Take heart that these do get better in later portion of treatment. ~Belinda Fenter

-This teacher explained how the amygdala part of the brain is like the “guard shack” that everything has to get past before it is processed by the rest of the brain. And if the amygdala is on heightened alert, then we “forget to act like ourselves.”

So, if we are in “threat mode” we will act uncharacteristically immature emotionally. We will be responding to others in a self-preservation orientation, when usually we are more than happy to be considerate of others (along with other more mature behaviors). ~Joyful

Infectious Triggers of Mental Illness

Jill Neimark wrote an article in the 25th Anniversary Issue of Discover Magazine (Frontiers of Science) on infectious triggers of mental illness. It is out on the news stands now and will soon be on the Discover website at http://www.discover.com/

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3540627/

Diseases of the Mind

Bacteria, viruses and parasites may cause mental illnesses like depression and perhaps even autism and anorexia

By Janet Ginsburg Newsweek International

Dec. 1 issue - Olga Skipko has had the good fortune to live most of her adult life in the Polish village of Gruszki, in the heart of the Puszcza Bialowieska, one of Europe's most beautiful forests and home to wolves, lynxes and the endangered European bison. Unfortunately, the forest is also a breeding ground for disease-carrying ticks. Skipko, 49, thinks she was bitten about 10 years ago, when she began having the classic symptoms of Lyme borreliosis, a tickborne nervous-system disease: headaches and aching joints. She didn't get treatment until 1998. “I was treated with antibiotics and felt a bit better,” she says.

That was only the beginning of her troubles. A few years later, she began to forget things and her speaking grew labored. It got so bad that she had to quit her job in a nursery forest and check herself in to a psychiatric clinic. “I hope they will help me,” she says. “I promised my children that when I come back home, I will be able to do my favorite crosswords again.” Doctors ran a battery of tests and concluded that her mental problems were the advanced stage of the Lyme disease she had contracted years ago.

Scientists have long known that some diseases can cause behavioral problems. When penicillin was first used to treat syphilis, thousands of cured schizophrenics were released from mental asylums. Now, however, scientists have evidence that infections may play a far bigger role in mental illness than previously thought. They've linked cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia to a variety of infectious agents, and they're investigating autism, Tourette's and anorexia as well. They're beginning to suspect that bad bugs may cause a great many other mental disorders, too. “The irony is that people talked about syphilis as the 'great imitator',” says University of Louisville biologist Paul Ewald, “but it may be the 'great illustrator'-a model for understanding the causes of chronic diseases.”

Mental illnesses constitute a large and growing portion of the world's health problems. According to the World Health Organization, depression is one of the most debilitating of diseases, on a par with paraplegia. Psychiatric illnesses make up more than 10 percent of the world's “disease burden” (a measure of how debilitating a disease is), and are expected to increase to 15 percent by 2020. Much of this may be the work of viruses, bacteria and parasites. Psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, of the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Maryland, has found from studying historical asylum records that hot spots-higher-than-normal incidences-of mental illness can shift, much like infectious-disease outbreaks, which lends credence to the notion that infectious agents play a big role. “Mental disorders are the major chronic recurrent disorders of youth in all developed countries,” says Harvard policy expert Ronald Kessler, who directs the WHO's mental-health surveys.

Perhaps the most well known disease that's been linked to mental disorders is Lyme disease, which is caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi germ. First identified in the mid-1970s among children near Lyme, Connecticut, the disease has long been known to cause nervous-system problems and achy joints if left untreated. Now scientists are finding that Lyme disease can also trigger a whole smorgasbord of psychiatric symptoms, including depression. One New York man (we'll call him Joe) found out firsthand how debilitating the disease can be. When he began having bouts of major depression back in 1992, he had forgotten all about the tick bite he had gotten four years earlier. He spent two years in a blur of antipsychotic drugs, mental institutions, jails and suicide attempts. On a hunch, a doctor at a psychiatric hospital in New Jersey had Joe tested for Lyme disease. After an intensive course of antibiotics, Joe's improvement was dramatic and immediate. “I started to have this fog lift,” he recalls. Still, he will probably have to be on psychotropic drugs for the rest of his life.

Some psychiatrists fret that there may be thousands of people suffering from Lyme-induced depression without knowing why. Not only is Lyme disease tricky to diagnose-not everybody gets the circular rash, and lab tests still aren't wholly reliable-it can take a decade or more for mental disorders to set in. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says that nine out of 10 cases of Lyme diseases remain unreported. There are 15 species of borellias-making them the most common tickborne disease-producing bacteria in the world.

For its part, the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which can be found in undercooked meat and cat feces, can lead to full-blown psychotic episodes. Some studies suggest that the parasite stimulates the production of a chemical similar to LSD, producing hallucinations and psychosis. Even when the parasite lies dormant in muscle and brain tissue, it can affect attention span and reaction time in otherwise healthy people. Researchers at Charles University in Prague have discovered that people who test positive have slightly slower-than-average reaction times and-possibly as a result-are almost three times as likely to have car accidents. That's a disturbing prospect, considering that the disease is so widespread: billions of people are thought to be infected.

Even a simple sore throat can lead to psychiatric problems. Few children avoid coming down with a streptococcus infection, also known as strep. Scientists now think that one in 1,000 strep sufferers also develops abrupt-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a matter of weeks. Strep bacteria trigger OCD by igniting an overzealous response from the immune system, which attacks certain types of brain cells, causing inflammation. Symptoms generally die down after a few months but can flare up again, especially if there's another bout of strep, says Susan Swedo, a childhood-disease expert at the National Institutes of Health. The most effective treatment, still experimental, is to filter out the misbehaving antibodies from the blood. Best is to treat strep early on.

The specter of a depression germ or contagious obsessive-compulsive disorder is unnerving, but it also opens up many more treatment options-antibiotics, vaccines, checking for ticks. Geneticists believe that diseases may trigger the onset of inherited mental illnesses by activating key genes. Avoiding and treating infection may be just as important as the genes you inherit, and a whole lot easier to do something about.

With Joanna Kowalska In Warsaw

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc. © 2005 MSNBC.com

-Much of the rise in “mental illness” can be attributed to the psychiatric profession medicalizing nearly every aspect of human behavior. This is currently being exposed in the US News and World Report regarding psychiatrists deciding the names and characteristics of “new” disorders having ties to the pharmaceutical industry. The DSM used to be a thin book–now you could hold down your coffee table with it. ~Cass A

Treating mental illness with the MP

During MP, the symptoms experienced are due to Immunopathology. and ….

The aim or the key is for you to achieve and maintain tolerable symptoms (physically, mentally, and emotionally) by adjustment of your meds dosing and schedule as suited individually to you within the guidelines. The Staff here are here for you 24/7 to assist you in that process..

Acknowledging and posting openly re symptoms makes it easier for Staff to assist… Some tend to be less conscious of the mental emotional aspects of their immunopathology compared to the physical aspects.

It is helpful to you to know to follow the essential aspects and guidelines of MP as written for safety and efficacy of treatment.. to use the precautions re protecting from light and to adjust your meds as needed and to post for assistance as needed and to discuss with your Dr.. see the Information below also…

Rest is a very important part of managing and healing.. By being pushed to the limit of tolerable herxing our body is working to capacity. see Tools to check:

How can I control my anxiety and depression? to discuss with your Dr..

What is neurological immunopathology?

The effect of light on the brain (Amygdala)

Natural light > protect skin and eyes.. Artificial light > protect eyes / not skin..

If your Dr agrees: to minimise symptoms - you can take extra half tablet (20mg) Benicar any time during cycle, or adjust dosage to 40mg Q4H. see also in BenicarQuiklink many Members report chewing or sublingual gives faster absorption/relief..

Dr Marshall says, “I used to make sure that I was never more than 4 hours from my last Benicar whenever I had to go outdoors. Then, after the exposure, I needed to keep the 4 hour going for 12 hours after the final exposure. Beyond that I could slip back to normal dosing, as the 1,25-DPrimary biologically active vitamin D hormone. Activates the vitamin D nuclear receptor. Produced by hydroxylation of 25-D. Also known as 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol, 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D and calcitirol. had dissipated …. « to help keep symptoms minimal..

“To come back from the neurological phase of Th1 disease is tough, especially for folks like you who have been allowed to slip so far, over such a period of time.

Let's hope the neuro-drugs help you manage the symptoms until the bacterial load drops to a point where it is not so much of a struggle. I particularly hope they help in that struggle between your own mind and what conventional terminology would call “common sense.” The MP is non-sensical, and I know it is tough to deal with a mindset of a curative therapy, rather than a palliative therapy. But at your age, you have so much left of life you could live. I regard the curative approach as the only sensible one.”

..Trevor..

If you feel that you are in an emergency situation, do not hesitate to seek emergency assistance. Do not hesitate to contact your Dr.

Members report improvement in psychological symptoms

Members have found their mental health symptoms resolving as they progress on MP.. re OCD eg.. see Julia

Coughs and sneezes spread mind diseases

06 November 2004, Janet Ginsburg, Newscientist.com, Magazine issue 2472

IT WAS hell on earth. “I was in a concentration camp. I could smell the burning bodies,” recalls Stephanie Diers. But it was 1975, the second world war was long over, and Diers was in Martinez, California, thousands of miles from Auschwitz. The 19-year-old was locked up, but in a mental ward.

Diers's psychotic break was just the latest in a string of illnesses that had plagued her and puzzled her parents for the better part of a decade. No one could figure out what had happened to the bright little girl who loved riding horses and playing in the woods. Her list of ailments was as baffling as it was extensive: headaches, dizziness, fatigue, pain in her teeth, tingling in her toes, sore throats, flu-like illnesses, chest pains, pains in her spleen and liver, poor balance, sensitivity to light and sound, memory lapses. And now psychosis.

After six months in hospital, Diers was released and struggled on with her life, eventually earning a college degree and working as a teacher. But it would take another 14 years of serial illness before any of her doctors thought to test for Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness identified in the late 1970s.

Like its distant cousin syphilis, Lyme is caused by corkscrew-shaped bacteria called spirochaetes that are able to burrow into tissue, including the brain. There they can lie dormant and harmless for months, even years. But once active, they can stir up a devil's brew of symptoms, including conditions that match the clinical diagnoses for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Diers, of course, tested positive, and was put on a long course of antibiotics. “I had so many psychiatrists and psychologists tell me it was all in my head,” she says. They just didn't know how right they were.

Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme bacterium, is now widely accepted as a cause of psychiatric disease. And in recent years several other bugs have come to light that are able to trigger symptoms of mental illness, ranging from behavioural problems to depression and full-blown psychosis. In fact, so many potential “mind germs” have now been unearthed that some researchers are ready to challenge the conventional wisdom about the principal causes of mental illness.

When it comes to causes, genes have always been the prime suspects, with environmental triggers poorly understood and infectious disease an afterthought. Infectious disease is “maybe 5 per cent as important as genes”, claims Richard Straub of the Genes, Cognition, and Psychosis Program at the US National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Straub, who has identified several genes tentatively associated with schizophrenia, thinks that among environmental causes, peer groups, drug experiences and other social factors are far more significant targets for research.

But according to evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, that ignores some obvious facts. “The biggest breakthrough in the history of psychiatry was recognising that syphilis causes insanity and that it can be prevented with antibiotics,” he says. The same mistake is being repeated today with Lyme disease and other infectious agents, Ewald believes.

If diagnosed quickly, before the bacterium gets a foothold, Lyme disease can be cured with a round of antibiotics. But spotting it can be tricky. Not everyone gets the telltale “bull's eye” rash and antibody tests can be unreliable, especially early on. That presents a dilemma for doctors concerned about overprescribing antibiotics. If they wait too long - as little as a few months after infection - the spirochaetes begin to attack the central nervous system with devastating consequences. This “late stage” Lyme is very hard to cure, often requiring months or years of antibiotics.

At Columbia University in New York, neuropsychiatrist Brian Fallon is in the middle of a series of studies designed to see what actually goes on inside the brains of chronic Lyme patients. One finding so far is that patients show significant reduction in blood flow in brain regions associated with memory and visuospatial organisation. Fallon has also looked at children, who are especially at risk because they tend to play outside, where the ticks are. He found significant cognitive and psychiatric problems in children who had been diagnosed late, on average a year after infection. They scored low on memory and perception tests and were also depressed, with some having suicidal thoughts.

In 2003, more than 21,000 cases of Lyme disease were reported to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, making it the most common vector-borne disease in the US. Yet as few as 1 in 10 cases are documented, so the true tally might be more than 200,000. And in 1996, another bacterium, Borrelia lonestari, which is carried by the lone star tick common throughout the American south, was linked to Lyme-like symptoms. So far there are no tests for it, so no case statistics.

Lyme isn't just a problem in the US. “You really have a pandemic,” says Raphael Stricker, a San Francisco physician specialising in chronic Lyme. “It's all over the US. It's all over Europe. It's in parts of Asia. It's everywhere.”

Beyond Lyme disease, the evidence linking infections to psychiatric disorders becomes a little more hazy. Ironically, though, some of the most tantalising clues are found in the very same data used to prove the case for genetic links: twin studies.

Identical twins, who have 100 per cent of their genes in common, are much more likely to both develop schizophrenia than are fraternal twins or full siblings, who share just 50 per cent of their genes. Clearly, then, genes are important. But the data is more complicated, explains Ewald. “People saw these associations without thinking about alternative explanations,” he says. For example, when one identical twin develops schizophrenia, half the time the other does not. If schizophrenia were strictly genetic, concordance (meaning both twins get sick) should be 100 per cent. This holds true even if many genes are involved in the disorder, as geneticists now believe.

But when the environment inside the womb is taken into account, the story begins to shift. Fetuses develop inside two porous sacs, the inner chorion and the outer amnion. Nearly 70 per cent of identical twins share a chorion, a feature that can be determined after birth by the presence of subtle physical traits such as mirror-image fingerprints. Those twin pairs are nearly six times as likely to be concordant for schizophrenia as identical twins with separate chorions.

Meanwhile, the concordance rate for non-identical twins is nearly twice that of full siblings, even though the genetic relationship is the same: 50 per cent. Fraternal twins rarely share sacs, but they do share a womb. That, says Ewald, points to an environmental factor - though not necessarily an infection.

Influenza's legacy

To look for evidence that a prenatal infection could be linked to the development of schizophrenia years later, a team of Columbia University epidemiologists led by Ezra Susser and Alan Brown sifted through the medical records of 20,000 women who were pregnant in Alameda county, California, between 1959 and 1966. The women, all patients at Kaiser-Permanente, the largest healthcare provider in the region, were part of a massive child health and development study. But the real stroke of luck was that most of their children have remained in the Kaiser-Permanente system. “We could follow them right up to age 40,” says Susser.

The researchers first determined which children had been diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Then they tested their mothers' blood samples for antibodies to the strains of influenza virus that had been circulating during their pregnancies, and compared the results with blood tests from a set of matched controls - the mothers of mentally healthy children from the same Kaiser-Permanente group.

The results, which are published in the Archives of General Psychiatry (vol 61, p 774), are dramatic. Maternal exposure to flu during the first half of pregnancy tripled the child's risk of developing a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. “It's far higher than any single gene in terms of what we call relative risk,” says Brown.

Brown points out, however, that some of the healthy children's mothers were exposed to flu during the first half of pregnancy, too, so exposure doesn't guarantee schizophrenia. What's more, schizophrenia is rare, affecting just 1 per cent of the population. Still, if the results of the Columbia study can be duplicated, a significant number of cases - perhaps as many as 14 per cent, according to Brown - may turn out to be preventable.

So how might a virus cause schizophrenia? According to Paul Patterson at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the virus may not be doing the damage directly. He injected pregnant mice with a molecular mimic of the flu virus, which generates an immune response without causing infection. Nevertheless, offspring mice developed behavioural abnormalities reminiscent of schizophrenia, suggesting that the stress of a maternal immune response alone may be enough to affect neurodevelopment.

More information on how viruses attack the brain is coming from work on Borna virus, which was first seen in horses in the late 1800s. Borna affects a number of bird and mammal species, including non-human primates, causing a broad range of movement and behaviour disorders. There are also tentative links to human psychiatric illnesses, most notably schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, based largely on the presence of Borna virus antibodies in some patients' blood.

In rats infected with Borna in the lab, symptoms resemble autism, with delayed growth, learning disabilities and repetitive behaviours. And there are now some clues as to what the infection is doing to the brain. When rats are infected shortly after birth (the neurodevelopmental equivalent of a human prenatal infection), neurons critical for cognitive, emotional and motor development either die off or miss key developmental cues. If rats are infected during adolescence, when their brains are more developed, Borna appears to kill neurons both directly and through an overzealous immune response.

Yet another pathogen that has been linked to psychiatric conditions is the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. It infects everything from cats and cattle to sea otters and people. Human infection rates range from 15 per cent in the US to more than 80 per cent in some countries. Hundreds of millions of people have it, usually having caught it from undercooked meat or contact with cat faeces. Most of the time, toxo causes no more than a mild flu-like illness, but, like Lyme spirochaetes, the parasites can burrow into tissue and lie dormant for long periods of time.

LSD link

Some studies have found that people with schizophrenia are three times as likely as the general population to be infected with toxo (New Scientist, 26 October 2002, p 41). Meanwhile, using the same Kaiser-Permanente data as in the influenza study, Susser and Brown have found a correlation between high maternal levels of anti-toxo antibodies and schizophrenia in the corresponding children. According to their calculations, toxo more than doubles the risk.

In the pantheon of mind-altering microbes, toxo is unique in its mission: it must alter the behaviour of its intermediate host, usually a rodent, to get itself back inside its reproductive host, a cat. In a series of experiments, Joanne Webster at the University of Oxford discovered that toxo-addled wild rats not only lost their natural fear of wandering into open spaces, but were actually attracted to cat smells. They practically delivered themselves for dinner.

Infected humans don't end up as cat food, but acute toxo can cause hallucinations and other psychotic behaviours. In fact, both rats and people may be tripping: studies from the 1950s and 60s suggest that toxo can trigger the production of LSD-like substances in the brain.

The most insidious mind germ of all could be an inside operator: a germ that behaves like a gene. Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) infect egg and sperm cells. Like genes, they are then copied into all the cells of the body, although they only become active under specific circumstances.

Virologist Robert Yolken at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has discovered one called HERV-W reproducing in the cerebrospinal fluid of some people with schizophrenia, but not in healthy controls. He suspects that a second, conventional pathogen, possibly a herpesvirus or Toxoplasma, may trigger HERV-W to switch on, and the combination somehow triggers symptoms. In a study published last year in The American Journal of Psychiatry (vol 160, p 2234), Yolken's team reported improvement in the symptoms of people with schizophrenia who were treated for cytomegalovirus, a common herpesvirus.

The idea that you can catch a mental illness from something as innocuous as a bug bite or a sneeze may seem the stuff of nightmares, but it also holds hope for new ways to fight back. For one thing, it suggests that treating mental illness can sometimes be as simple as tackling an underlying infection.

That's exactly what Borna researchers Liv Bode of the Robert KochAuthor of Koch's postulates, a set of rules for establishing a relationship between a causative microbe and a disease. Koch's belief that only one pathogens causes one disease has now been called into question as multiple postulates are increasingly considered out of date. Institute and Hans Ludwig at the Free University, both in Berlin, Germany, found in clinical trials of the antiviral drug amantadine. A majority of Borna-positive patients diagnosed with major depression or bipolar disorder showed significant improvement in as little as seven weeks on the drug.

There are also hints that some existing psychiatric drugs work because they eradicate infections. For example, Yolken reports that the antipsychotic haloperidol and the mood stabiliser valproic acid appear to inhibit the growth of Toxoplasma, at least in cell culture.

And for those of us lucky enough to be free from mental illness, there's a lesson to be learned, too. Good mental health may be as basic - and as cheap - as avoiding cat litter and undercooked meat, and checking for ticks.

Obsessive-compulsive sore throat?

It's not always infectious agents themselves that do the damage. More than a century ago doctors made the link between “strep throat” - a sore throat caused by the common bacterium Streptococcus - and the development of the heart condition rheumatic fever a few weeks later. The immune system gets confused, mistakes heart cells for bacteria, and attacks.

A similar autoimmuneA condition or disease thought to arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body response seems to be causing behavioural problems ranging from Tourette-like tics and obsessive-compulsive disorder to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and anorexia. The syndrome, called PANDAS (Paediatric Autoimmune Neuropyschiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus), strikes about once in 1000 cases of strep infection.

PANDAS is a strep-induced autoimmune attack on an area of the brain called the basal ganglia, which helps control numerous behaviours. High levels of anti-strep antibodies have been linked to enlargement of the basal ganglia in PANDAS patients. As the levels go down, the brain recovers and symptoms fade away.

In an experiment at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, researcher Susan Swedo removed antibodies from the blood plasma of 30 children with PANDAS. More than a year later, 80 per cent remained symptom-free.

Though PANDAS is technically a childhood condition, there are reports of adults with similar abrupt-onset behavioural problems. And a team from the UK's Institute of Child Health in London found that a PANDAS-like condition may be behind the mystery of von Economo's disease, the “sleepy sickness” that devastated thousands around the time of the 1918 flu pandemic (New Scientist, 18 October 2003, p 34). Of 20 contemporary patients with a similar illness, more than half had had a sore throat before developing the sickness, and 95 per cent tested positive for antibodies reactive against the basal ganglia.

Will the MP treat paresthesia and neuropathy?

Abnormal sensations such as prickling, tingling, itching, burning or cold, skin crawling or impaired sensations–are all called parasthesia. These symptoms usually arise from nerve damage (neuropathy). Continued nerve damage can lead to numbness (lost of sensation) or paralysis (loss of movement and sensation).

Paresthesia is one of the symptoms of Hypervitaminosis-D.

Most people have experienced temporary paresthesia – a feeling of “pins and needles” – at some time in their lives when they have sat with legs crossed for too long or fallen asleep with an arm crooked under their head. It happens when sustained pressure is placed on a nerve. The feeling quickly goes away once the pressure is relieved.

Paresthesia is often felt in the hands, arms, legs, or feet, but can also occur in other parts of the body such as mouth or chest. It may be constant or intermittent.

Paresthesia can be caused by disorders affecting the central nervous system (encephalitis, MS, stroke) or any of the peripheral nerves (carpel tunnel syndrome, atherosclerosis). Peripheral neuropathy is a general term indicating disturbances in the peripheral nerves. It can affect one side of the body (unilateral) or both (bilateral). The peripheral nervous system includes nerves in your face, arms, legs, torso, and some cranial nerves. All of your nerves not located in your central nervous system — which includes the brain and the spinal cord — are peripheral nerves.

Neuropathies may affect just one nerve (mononeuropathy) or several nerves (polyneuropathy). Your nerves provide communication between your brain and your muscles, skin, internal organs and blood vessels. When damaged, your nerves can't communicate properly, and that miscommunication causes symptoms such as pain or numbness.

Neuropathy can result in muscle weakness if it causes reduced nervous stimulation to the muscles. This can occur in any muscle including chest muscles (making breathing difficult) or in the lower extremities (resulting in atrophy and difficulty walking).

There are many causes of peripheral neuropathy. It is a fairly common symptom of Th1 diseases (autoimmune diseases such as lupus and sarcoidosis) and indicates inflammation of the nervous system. Irritation to the nerve can also come from inflammation to the surrounding tissue (such as Rheumatoid Arthritis).

Impaired function and symptoms depend on the type of nerves – motor, sensory, or autonomic – that are damaged. Some people may experience temporary numbness, tingling, and pricking sensations, sensitivity to touch, or muscle weakness. Others may suffer more extreme symptoms, including burning pain (especially at night), muscle wasting, paralysis, or organ or gland dysfunction.

Resolving neuropathy and paresthesia involves identifying and eliminating the underlying cause. The Marshall Protcol is designed to treat the underlying cause of Th1 inflammation and thus relieve many of its symptoms. Many MPers report resolution of their paresthesia. Some neuropathy that has persisted for a long time may have caused permanent damage to the nerve cells (neurons) but peripheral nerves have a remarkable ability to regenerate themselves. Only time will tell if the MP will resolve all neuropathy but the evidence so far indicates that it will resolve many paresthesia symptoms and has the potential to effect significant improvement in neuropathies.

Numbness or pin/needles sensation in extremities during sleep

Pins/needles or numbness in extremities suffered during sleep is thought to be due to lymphatic system inflammation and reduced lymph circulation when in a prone position leading to interference with nerve function. Moving the extremity resolves the sensation quickly.

Safety

'Clumsiness' is related to neurological symptoms and these may come and go. Try to be aware of any loss of sensation (or abnormal function) in your hands, feet or ankles. Take precautions. If you are prone to dropping things, avoid cooking or any activities that may be unsafe that day. If your brain can't tell if you are picking up your feet when you walk, steer clear of rugs and obstacles and stay away from stairs.

Restless legs

Restless legs may be due to nerve inflammation which can be slow to resolve.

You could try magnesium which occasionally helps relieve muscle tension. See Is it okay to take magnesium? or Valium. See When and why should I use Valium?

-Some of us have gained great relief from RLS by reducing our intake of salicylates. ~Julia

-if I wake up enough to recognise that it's happening I've found a method that usually fixes it. I get up and walk on the spot with exaggerated arm and leg motions until my muscles are almost burning with fatigue. then I lie down, my limbs feel nice and heavy and no longer restless, and usually I can get to sleep. I even used to do this as a pre-emptive measure.

as the MP has progressed I'm finding I get restless limbs less often :) It even went away for a couple of months and now comes back sometimes, but less frequently. ~RichardM

Some doctors prescribe Mirapex (pramipexole) for restless leg syndrome.

Brain lesions

-It seems you are still trying to understand if the lesions indicated on your brain MRI could have been from sarcoidosis. This article cited a couple of sources in stating, “MRI findings of CNS [central nervous system] sarcoidosis including white matter, periventricular, periacuaductal or leptomengial lesions, have often been reported.”

Keep in mind that while inflammation is central to numerous diseases, it is also an important part of the body's repair processes. This report says inflammation is pivitol for repair of peripheral nerve damage, for instance. So signs of inflammation can be related to disease as well as to healing and repair.

Sarcoidosis can result in brain involvement even in pediatric patients, so you are not too young. This abstract says, “Among inflammatory conditions, granulomatous diseases such as sarcoidosis have predilection for involvement of the suprasellar regions and can spread along perivascular spaces deep within the parenchyma.”

As for your concerns about use of olmesartanMedication taken regularly by patients on the Marshall Protocol for its ability to activate the Vitamin D Receptor. Also known by the trade name Benicar. resulting in negative effects on the brain, please see this about the effect of olmesartan on neurons and this on the effect of olmesartan in experimental acute ischemia. There is also this on emerging evidence related to atherosclerosis. ~Belinda

Members' experiences

-Paresthesia of my left foot and leg has slowly diminished. It's been a painful process but I am hopeful for 100% resolution of Th1 inflammatory nerve damage. ~Meg

-I was placed on Neurontin long before my Sarcoidosis diagnosis, because of pain from a back injury. I developed the neuropathy while on the Neurontin. It went from annoying to terrible to unbearable at times. My doctor and I tried increasing the dosage of Neurontin at one point, and it didn't seem to change anything

I am now off of Neurontin and am no worse for not having it. My doctor mentioned that I seemed more alert after I got off of it.

The neuropathy symptoms have been varied since I started the MP. Presently, my fingers are less numb, and the feeling seems to be returning to my feet. An area on my right thigh that was numb for years now has some feeling in it. I sometimes use anti-anxiety medication when it has been “overwhelming”, and that has helped me. ~Lottie

See also: What is a neuro immunopathology?

Neuropathy and the MP

When and why should I use Valium?

MCS success

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

Neurological manifestations of Lyme disease