Lyme Disease Science Conversations:

Dementia and Lyme Disease

For several years, legendary singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson was believed to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease or dementia. However, the musician's memory problems were later identified as undiagnosed, untreated Lyme disease.

According to a story in the June 6, 2016, issue of Rolling Stone, doctors had believed the 79-year-old singer’s “increasingly debilitating memory loss was due to either Alzheimer’s, or due to dementia brought on by blows to the head from the boxing, football and rugby of his teens and early twenties.” He reportedly could not remember what he was doing from one moment to the next, the magazine reports.

For 10 years, Kristofferson was treated unsuccessfully for Alzheimer’s disease. After he was diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease, his life changed. Kristofferson’s wife, Lisa, explained that once her husband stopped taking medication for Alzheimer’s and depression; and underwent three weeks of treatment for Lyme disease; his memory and mood changes were shocking. “All of a sudden he was back,” she says. “There are still bad days, but some days he’s perfectly normal and it’s easy to forget that he is even battling anything,” she told Rolling Stone.
From Kris Kristofferson: An Outlaw at 80. by Neil Strauss in Rolling Stone at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/kris-kristofferson-an-outlaw-at-80-20160606. Last accessed 6/12/16.