Under Our Skin Page #6

was general paresis,

and general paresis

is as close as you could come

to a carbon copy of Alzheimer's disease.

The diseases are exactly the same.

If a spirochete, syphilis,

could cause dementia,

why couldn't the Borrelia spirochete,

over a long, long, long period of time,

cause Alzheimer's disease?

I extracted DNA from ten

Alzheimer brains that came

from the Harvard University brain bank.

These are the Harvard brain

DNA extracts in this tube.

Using molecular methods,

I was able to find the DNA

of the spirochete

which causes Lyme disease

in seven out of ten

of the Alzheimer brain specimens

that we received from Harvard.

That's incredible.

The results of the experiment

could not have been predicted

in anybody's imagination.

When seven Alzheimer brains

gave me, essentially,

the same thing,

which is part spirochetal,

part human, linked up in one molecule,

I about fell off my chair.

If my dream comes true someday,

that will redefine

the practice of medicine,

and that will redefine the lives

of millions of people.

Since spirochetes are the cause

of neurodegenerative diseases

in syphilis,

could it be

that this spirochetal infection,

Lyme disease,

is partly or wholly responsible

for some of the neurologic

degenerative diseases we face

in this century?

Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's disease,

Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis,

those are named conditions

for which no cause is now known.

We never had a...

In the last five years,

a single MS patient,

a single ALS patient,

a single Parkinson's patient

who did not test positive

for Borrelia burgdorferi,

not a single one.

About three years ago,

I became ill with a disease

that was ultimately thought

to be ALS or Lou Gehrig disease

and had prepared to die

within about two years' time.

My neurologist tells me

that I was progressing so rapidly that,

without the diagnosis

of Lyme disease and antibiotics,

I would have continued

to decline, losing strength,

eventually becoming bed bound,

eventually unable

to talk or swallow or breathe,

and would have died

in a matter of a couple years

just like anybody else with ALS,

so I was started on high doses

of intravenous antibiotics

only to see what would happen

with no guarantees.

To our amazement, within a month,

my energy improved,

so instead of being exhausted in an hour,

I could be up and about

and active for four or five hours.

We're now two years out,

and I find that if I go off

of the antibiotics,

I lose stamina,

and I'm not yet back to my full self,

but the change is absolutely dramatic.

I said,

"I'm not getting tested."

I said, "There's no way."

"There's no way I have Lyme,

because I've been told

by the best doctors

that I have Parkinson's."

My name is Ben Petrick.

Baseball was kind of, like, my life.

I went from being

a gifted athlete to, you know,

there's times when I...

It's hard to put a shirt on.

I've been out of the game now

for almost two years.

When you're diagnosed

with a disease like Parkinson's,

it's like a slow death sentence.

That's kind of what you feel like.

There's no cure for it.

It's just kind of a slow deterioration

of your former self.

Recently, in the past month,

I have been tested for Lyme disease,

and the test came back positive,

and so I've gone and seen

Dr. Martz in Colorado Springs.

We're scared.

My wife and I are sitting there

going, "Do we want to do this?"

'cause they're talking about

sticking something in my vein

that's gonna go into my big artery

that's gonna go into my heart.

I'm going, "What?"

So, you know,

I said to Dr. Martz...

And Dr. Martz is phenomenal,

and his story is just miraculous...

And I said, "Should I do this?"

And he said, "Ben, if you were

a part of my family",

"I would chain you down

and not let you leave here

until you have this done."

Six months into the Lyme treatment,

it's, without a doubt, better.

There's been no question in my mind.

I feel like I'm getting back

to being myself.

Compared to what I had been

in the past, it's...

It's... I mean, I think it's night and day.

Okay.

What I'm doing right... r-right now

is sitting in my wheelchair.

Sean doesn't like to videotape it.

So we've gotten

in a couple tiffs about that,

'cause I think it's important

for other people to see this.

There are times when I feel

like I need to get away,

not that I'm trying

to run away from her, but that...

It's just too much.

Sometimes I need to go and do the things

that I used to do before this started

just to feel like,

"Okay, that life

is still there."

You know, I mean, just like her...

That feeling's there

for me too, and I just can't.

I know.

We were told it was gonna be a long road.

That doesn't mean that I don't

worry about it driving a wedge.

Doesn't mean that I don't think that,

maybe, at some point,

Sean might change his mind.

Now.

All you've got.

Just all you've got.

Come on.

There you go, and back in.

Come on. Come on. Come on.

Come on. Come on. Come on.

I'm extremely nervous

about having this child.

All of the tests that we have to do,

the fear that he'll come out

and he won't be able to breathe

or there'll be something that's

happened from the Lyme infection

that we don't know about.

It is very, very scary.

Elise, more, more, more, more,

more, more, more, more.

Nice.

Yeah, yeah, okay, okay.

Elise, push.

Here comes your baby.

- It's okay.

- There you go.

Is he breathing?

Look at his hands moving.

Placenta sample.

Here.

Look, I'm right here.

Hi.

My God. Hi.

I can't believe it.

We would like to welcome you

to John F. Kennedy

International Airport, New York.

The local time here

in New York is 9:30 a.m.

Well, here we are

in East Hampton, New York,

a place I probably never would have seen

if I hadn't gotten Lyme disease.

I've come here

all the way from California

to see one of the top

Lyme specialists in the world,

and I've been coming here

for the last four years.

Are you nervous riding with me?

You should be.

As a park ranger before Lyme,

I was a highly confident person.

What Lyme did to me is,

it sort of removed

my ability to multitask.

Now I can sort of do one thing at a time

if I really focus on it.

See, we're not where

we should be right now.

Do you notice this?

That's a really bad sign.

Frustrating, you know?

It's frustrating

to be this far down the road...

Now it's been almost eight years...

And to still be not back to normal.

When did you start

the combination therapy?

Last year, right?

Yeah, I've been on it for a year.

Are you still improving,

or have you hit a plateau?

You know, the truth is,

I've hit a plateau.

How much antibiotic is enough?

How many symptoms that are still present

reflect an active, ongoing infection

versus just damage

that's gonna be there forever?

Somehow, the spirochete can learn to live

within the body and not be killed.

It can hide from the immune system.

It can hide from the antibiotics,

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