[xyzcf]

Here are the addresses to several threads starting back in 2011 entitled Links/blogs/articles for us all to share.

http://mlcforum.theherosspouse.com/index.php?topic=1231.0
http://mlcforum.theherosspouse.com/index.php?topic=1769.0
http://mlcforum.theherosspouse.com/index.php?topic=2790.0
http://mlcforum.theherosspouse.com/index.php?topic=7143.0
http://mlcforum.theherosspouse.com/index.php?topic=7723.0
http://mlcforum.theherosspouse.com/index.php?topic=9309.0


Many people have studied MLC from all angles and you will find a wealth of information relating to MLC...unfortunately no one clear answer.

[Velika]

R2T, yes, I thought it was interesting that this study differentiated between depression (hormonal) and other psychiatric illness (genetic).

This actually makes a LOT of sense to me, and also may help explain why people can come to this site with similar symptoms that result in different outcomes.

For example:

• Someone with severe depression may in fact "wallow" for years, or have more periods of clarity, and eventually recover, due to midlife hormonal fluctuations.
• Someone with midlife-onset bipolar/schizophrenia or other psychiatric condition might initially present similar but more extreme behavior as a depressive but deteriorate and never recover.

My ex also began taking an SSRI shortly before bomb drop. It was not the first SSRI he had taken, but it was a more controversial one (Paxil). Since studies have found that a lot of depression is inflammation-based, not serotonin-based, it also makes sense why this could be counter-productive or even catastrophic.

In the wake of recent mass shootings, I read a touching post about someone calling for more oversight and caution about psychiatric drugs. She wrote she had also "lost" someone to SSRIs, and that this needed to be openly discussed. It was encouraging for me to read a more high-profile person address issue this in a public forum.

[bvFTD]

Exactly! Just as we suspected, so many frontal lobe dysfunctions (autism, bipolar, schizophrenia, ftd etc.) are related! I think sociopathy should also be included.

As we keep saying, once WE ALL start working together we will find cures. I still think we are looking at an autoimmune disorder in some cases that combined with stress and/or a genetic predisposition and possibly another trigger, a sickness will take hold. We are getting closer every day.

[Velika]

Blowing my mind! bvFTD, thought of you:

Could a pathogen be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease?
http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/could-a-pathogen-be-the-cause-of-alzheimers-disease

In 2011, Judith Miklossy and fellow researchers at the International Alzheimer’s Research Center, found evidence of spirochetes—a bacteria which can cross the blood-brain barrier, in the brains of former Alzheimer’s patients. This is a type of bacteria responsible for syphilis and Lyme’s disease, and is also known to cause all kinds of neurological issues if such diseases are left untreated, long-term.

In Miklossy’s work, Borrelia burgdorferi—the species of spirochete that causes Lyme, was identified in 451 out of the 495 Alzheimer’s-riddled brains they examined. Yet, her work at the time was derived by other researchers and until recently, she had difficulty securing funding.

Now however, with many promising new drugs proven ineffective, the field is looking for a new direction to explore, and this may be it. Dermatology professor Herbert Allen of Drexel University, suggested that if Alzheimer’s is indeed an infection, then a biofilm—a bacterial colony that huddles together in order to repel the immune system, could be considered evidence for the presence of an Alzheimer’s-causing bacteria.

These have been found in brains affected by Alzheimer’s. Amyloid plaque buildup therefore could be evidence of an immune response. The person might be infected with a certain kind of spirochete years or even decades earlier, which lies dormant, until the time it deems necessary to become active. This happens with syphilis and sometimes with Lyme.

One interesting finding has been that neurosurgeons performing procedures on those with the neurodegenerative condition, are actually more likely to fall victim to the Alzheimer’s themselves. A 2010 society of neurosurgeons report, found that their members were six times more likely to die from Alzheimer’s than any other condition. Yet currently, the medical establishment considers Alzheimer’s to be non-communicable.

These days, two Harvard researchers have been looking into whether Alzheimer’s might originate with a colony of bacteria in the brain. To find out, they’ve had to launch a larger initiative. Assistant Professor of Neurology Robert Moir, teamed up with Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation Rudolph Tanzi, both of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

They’re leading The Brain Microbiome Project, to find out what bacteria can be found in the brain and which are friendly and which aren’t. In a 2010 study, the duo proved that amyloid beta plaque is in fact an antimicrobial peptide.

Tanzi told The Daily Beast,

"Turns out, our most ancient immune system, before we had adaptive immunity, had little baby proteins, antimicrobial peptides, and when they saw bacteria or a virus or a fungus, they would stick to it and clump it up into a ball and the peptide would grow into a spiral like spaghetti and trap it like a fly trapping a seed, and that is one of the most classic ways that our primitive innate immune system protects us."

The theory still has critics. There may be another reason for their outspokenness, besides the usual concerns. “The things creeping around in the brain will scare the heebie-jeebies out of you,” Moir told The Harvard Gazette. If an infection does prove to be the source of Alzheimer’s, we should be able to recognize it easily and wipe it out, before any neurological damage takes place, which means the end of Alzheimer’s as we know it.

Could a virus be causing Alzheimer’s? To hear more about that theory, click

[bvFTD]

I've always wondered why they didn't focus on plaques in Alzheimers and protein clumping in ftd. It is understood the diseases begin long before memory slips or behavioral irregularities emerge so I have thought the brain must have been engaged in a ferocious war for quite some time. I think the plaque formed and protein clumped around an invader! But the combatants didn't stop and lost control.

I think AlZ and FTD are autoimmune disorders. A bacterium, virus or fungi infiltrated the brain and combined with a trigger, such as stress and a gene primed for the disease, the sickness took hold.

Interestingly, symptoms of mold syndrome include: depression, anxiety, mood swings and numbness. One man said he couldn't plan anything and he lost his imagination, his "inner vision."

Intense carb and sugar cravings are a telltale sign of ftd. Forgot the name, but a type of fungi is partial to the sugars in the brain and the spinal cord (ALS?). Your son's parasite theory from day 1.

Researching in silos, becoming fixated on pet theories and fighting for funds for individual labs have lost us over 100 years. They should've consulted an 8-year-old boy.

[bvFTD]

And just to expand on our theory a bit: Maybe it isn't just one bacterium, virus or fungus that started the cascade of catastrophic neuronal death. Perhaps once a pathogen penetrated the brain in someone whose immune system overreacted, others followed gradually overwhelming the brain's defenses.

[Velika]

And just to expand on our theory a bit: Maybe it isn't just one bacterium, virus or fungus that started the cascade of catastrophic neuronal death. Perhaps once a pathogen penetrated the brain in someone whose immune system overreacted, others followed gradually overwhelming the brain's defenses.

Fascinating! I came across this other article about PANDAS:

Yes, You Can Catch Insanity
A controversial disease revives the debate about the immune system and mental illness.
http://nautil.us/issue/23/dominoes/yes-you-can-catch-insanity

Three things come to mind, which I have mentioned elsewhere:

1. When my ex first developed symptoms, my friend's daughter was diagnosed with PANDAS. She was taking her to Stanford and had luckily caught it early on. She was one of the first people to tell me she had closely observed my ex at a school event. She told me, "He looks weird." She was the first person to tell me that she thought he might have bvFTD. (Which I have mentioned I immediately discounted because he wasn't eating food out of other people's grocery carts etc.)

2. My aunt had one of the most insane MLCs I have ever seen apart from my ex. She contracted sarcoidosis, she believes from a pet bird. She basically went crazy. She was always "eccentric" but she went completely nuts — around this time she became involved with an unstable absolutely crazy person. I don't know if it was the bird or her partner that caused it sometimes. They got married but soon divorced.

My aunt found a doctor who prescribed the Marshal Protocol who put her on a very low dose course of antibiotics and urged her to avoid overexposure to vitamin D as well as other measures. My aunt took this to radical extremes. BUT — incredibly — she did recover from her "MLC" and became absolutely convinced that the source of her troubles had to do with bacteria.

3. Prior to showing obvious symptoms, my ex developed a series of strange clammy fevers and headaches. Sometimes they were so bad he couldn't drive. After he bomb dropped me, he seemed to have some clarity and change of heart. Then he suddenly developed this same clammy fever and ran right back to the OW.

Another point to note is that "MLC" happened to tons and tons of colleagues of his, including in one case very young woman. She and her new husband had just bought a house. She suddenly left him, out partying all the time, quit her job, filed for divorce. At the time my ex thought she was crazy.

* * * * *

Reading this article, I have to wonder — if antibiotics can help a patient with PANDAS, might people who recover from MLC have had some similar antibiotic experience? Or if not antibiotics per se, then some illness that perhaps led to a proper immune response or other change of scenery that might have changed the bacterial biome they existed in?

[FamilyIsMyGoal]

Hey, I am new to this information and I am finding it fascinating.  I have a couple of questions that some of you can probably answer:

1) My H has always had the inappropriate social behavior that is described in FTD.  But since he's always had it, that's probably not any type of FTD? Or is there something like that that can be life long?  Could he just have had that one symptom and now full on FTD is kicking in?  I notice when he comes to my house he eats all the sweets.  He didn't do that before.

2) Does there face change? Does there bone structure change? MY H's eyes have really sunken in in the past six months.  And the proportion of his forehead to face looks different.

Thanks for any information.

[bvFTD]

Hi, Family:

A profound personality change characterizes ftd; however, some people have reported the behaviors can also become grossly exaggerated. You said your spouse has always exhibited inappropriate behaviors, but are the behaviors now crossing the line into alarming and unacceptable?

Researchers have devised a test that can detect ftd due to changes in the retina. My H's eyes are dead. No light shines from them which is such a disturbing change from when love and warmth radiated from them whenever he looked at me. It makes sense to me that with enough damage to the orbitofrontal cortex, the eyes may appear to or actually sink in. After all, the eyes truly are the windows to the soul, and their souls are black space.

Velika: Absolutely riveting observations!

I recall some pALS who said they reported to their doctors that they came down with fever and flu-like symptoms before ALS diagnosis. The doctors dismissed their belief that they may be related somehow.

A woman on another board noticed her mother exhibited full-blown Parkinson's symptoms as soon as she stopped smoking. Could the nicotine have been keeping the illness at bay? Anyone's spouses start smoking during MLC or increase their cigarette habit?

I know my husband was compelled to leave the house. I had originally thought the noise and activity of children and pets overstimulated him since he was losing his filter, but just maybe it was something inside the house. MLCers on this forum with no kids also bolt. When we asked him to come home he said, "I can't come back to THAT house" as if it was haunted or contaminated. A year before he left he also moved our store to another location. The move was very disruptive and lengthy, but he insisted on it. Moving to change another habitat? To rid himself of another possible source of his restlessness and deep unease?

I also follow idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis news. You mentioned that neurosurgeons who have operated on people with Alzheimers have also gotten the disease. The article I came across said to watch out for mold developing in lungs transplanted into IPF patients.

So many of our spouses start coming down with other ailments. It's as if their entire bodies are under assault. My H has bad arthritis in his neck, but what really got my attention were his toes. They are all black with fungus. He was never suspectible to nail infections.

I am simply saying that since they haven't cured so many of these diseases even after over 100 years of trying, they may wish to start developing other theories no matter how "out there" they seem.

[Velika]

Hey, I am new to this information and I am finding it fascinating.  I have a couple of questions that some of you can probably answer:

1) My H has always had the inappropriate social behavior that is described in FTD.  But since he's always had it, that's probably not any type of FTD? Or is there something like that that can be life long?  Could he just have had that one symptom and now full on FTD is kicking in?  I notice when he comes to my house he eats all the sweets.  He didn't do that before.

2) Does there face change? Does there bone structure change? MY H's eyes have really sunken in in the past six months.  And the proportion of his forehead to face looks different.

Thanks for any information.

FiMG, very interesting!

1. Inappropriate Social Behavior

One of my theories early on was that one lobe had become dominant over another. Studies have shown that we have more than one "brain" — our right and left hemispheres will show disagreement when there is an injury, damage, or in instance of lobotomy. For example, the right and left hand may not agree on what to wear. There is a theory that everyone's brain is like this, but has managed to co-exist.

I wondered, if our spouse or former spouse brain has this illness, perhaps one side has hijacked the other — which is why people will report an expression of their spouse at times where they look like they are watching in horror at what they themselves are doing, like a frightened child.

However, I also feel that many of those afflicted prior to MLC had a not fully developed sense of self and also a "shadow self." I think this is why RCR's articles are an important component of understanding MLC even if it also has neurological/medical component. In other words, your H behavior contains some authentic aspects of his personality.

My former SIL also had a MLC. Prior to this she was grateful for her husband and their lives. She often expressed that she wanted to be a different mom than her mom. When MLC hit she had affairs, slept all day, drank heavily, abused prescription meds. Her now ex husband told me he felt on some level she was now being her true, uninhibited self, a feeling I have at times with my own ex. It is like his executive function is not working so he is acting like a disinhibited 15-year-old.

2. Face Change

Yes. I noticed early on my ex's eyes appeared strange, not aligning, and eventually sinking. Often they will have a "startled" look, watery, or robotic, empty and cold ("reptilian"), but other times cold, dark, angry. My former BIL also told me that he could tell how his ex wife was going to act given her eyes.

Then his head shape changed. My son, age nine, told me earlier this year that this was a change his dad noticed as well. He actually asked our son if his head was changing shape! I agree it is almost like the forehead ratio changes. I don't know if some of this is due to fat distribution.

One of my more radical and out-there theories is inspired by apes. You know how a Gorilla becomes a silverback when there is a change to status, including significant growth to sagittal crest? This is a physical change believed to be connected to sex selection. They morph into another creature. Sometimes I think MLC is like this.

* * * * *

bvFTD, yes, I agree with you, there is no reason not to explore other "out there" theories — particularly because some of these theories are perfectly accepted when it comes to other species! It is well documented that parasites can affect the behavior and minds of all other types of animals, driving them to do crazy and self destructive things. Why would we think that we as humans are the exception to this?