Episode 116

Alzheimer’s or Lyme Disease? Key Symptoms & How to Avoid

In today’s episode, Lisa sheds light on how actor and singer, Kris Kristofferson, was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and treated for three years, when he was actually suffering from Lyme disease. She shares the details of the story behind it, including what symptoms he was displaying before, during, and after the Alzheimer’s diagnosis and what led to testing him for Lyme disease. According to Lisa Meyers, Kristofferson’s wife, his doctors didn’t even think to test for Lyme disease until he had already been treated with Alzheimer’s disease medication for three years. Additionally, Lisa discusses the true story of Shania Twain, who was also diagnosed with Lyme disease and how the disease almost ended her singing career! Finally, Lisa goes into details about many of the common symptoms displayed after contracting Lyme disease and why it’s not surprising how Alzheimer’s disease can easily be mistaken for Lyme disease.

You won’t want to miss this important episode! Nearly 500,000 people a year are diagnosed with Lyme disease in the U.S,…be aware and informed by listening to this podcast.

Mentioned Resources:

1) 7 Surprising Symptoms of Lyme Disease,  Time Magazine: https://time.com written by Angela Haupt, June 18, 2025

2) What We Know About Kris Kristofferson’s Health After Alzheimer’s Misdiagnosis, thelist.com: https://www.thelist.com written by Roger Froilan, February 10, 2024

3) Shania Twain Reveals ‘Scary” Lyme Disease Symptoms: ‘I Thought That Was It’, Prevention Magazine: https://www.prevention.com, written by Arieille Weg, July 22, 2027.


About the Host:

Author Lisa Skinner is a behavioral specialist with expertise in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. In her 30+year career working with family members and caregivers, Lisa has taught them how to successfully navigate the many challenges that accompany this heartbreaking disease. Lisa is both a Certified Dementia Practitioner and is also a certified dementia care trainer through the Alzheimer’s Association. She also holds a degree in Human Behavior.

Her latest book, “Truth, Lies & Alzheimer’s – Its Secret Faces” continues Lisa’s quest of working with dementia-related illnesses and teaching families and caregivers how to better understand the daunting challenges of brain disease. Her #1 Best-seller book “Not All Who Wander Need Be Lost,” was written at their urging. As someone who has had eight family members diagnosed with dementia, Lisa Skinner has found her calling in helping others through the struggle so they can have a better-quality relationship with their loved ones through education and through her workshops on counter-intuitive solutions and tools to help people effectively manage the symptoms of brain disease. Lisa Skinner has appeared on many national and regional media broadcasts. Lisa helps explain behaviors caused by dementia, encourages those who feel burdened, and gives practical advice for how to respond.

So many people today are heavily impacted by Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. The Alzheimer's Association and the World Health Organization have projected that the number of people who will develop Alzheimer's disease by the year 2050 worldwide will triple if a treatment or cure is not found. Society is not prepared to care for the projected increase of people who will develop this devastating disease. In her 30 years of working with family members and caregivers who suffer from dementia, Lisa has recognized how little people really understand the complexities of what living with this disease is really like. For Lisa, it starts with knowledge, education, and training.

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Transcript
Lisa Skinner:

Lisa, hello, everybody. Welcome, welcome.

Lisa Skinner:

Welcome to another new episode of the truth, lies and

Lisa Skinner:

Alzheimer's show. I'm Lisa Skinner, your host. How many of

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you listening out there today remember the movie actor and

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singer by the name of Kris Kristofferson. I'm sure many of

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you do. He was such a huge star, and I had the biggest crush on

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him when I was a teenager. I don't know if you all remember

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this, but if you don't, I'm telling you, he was a four time

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Grammy winner. He won the an Academy Award for Best Music, an

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original song score for the 1985 film songwriter, where he

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starred with Willie Nelson, and his most famous song was me and

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Bobby McGee. He recorded that in 1969 and then it became a huge

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hit when Janis Joplin sang it on her 1971 album, Pearl. Just all

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coming back to you. Well, the reason why, oh and he also

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starred in A Star is Born in 1976 with Barbra Streisand. So

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the reason why I am bringing Kris Kristofferson up is because

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years ago I learned that Kris Kristofferson had been

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misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and had been treated for

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it for three years before they determine what he was really

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suffering about and that's what I'm going to share with you

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during this episode. This is really important information for

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everybody to at least have filed in the back of your memory

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banks, because as it turns out, the symptoms of Lyme disease

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mimic a lot of the symptomology that we see in people living

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with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. So I'm going

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to tell you his story, and then I'm going to jump into more

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details about Lyme disease. So you'll have a little bit more

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information and detail. So you you know, in case you get bitten

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by a tick and it's infected with Lyme disease, you'll know what

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to look for. So Kris Kristofferson, who always put

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forth an incredibly tough guy exterior, he dealt with health

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issues in his personal life, including memory loss. Those

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were his first symptoms, so the doctors ended up diagnosing him

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with Alzheimer's disease, but he continued to have other

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mysterious ailments. Eventually, because his symptoms were so

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similar to Lyme disease, he took a test which came back positive

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for Lyme disease. His wife Lisa told the Lyme times, about 12

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years ago, he was diagnosed first with fibromyalgia, which,

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looking back, should have been the first indication that a test

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for Lyme disease would have been warranted. Says, said his wife,

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but his doctors didn't even think to test for Lyme disease

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when they were testing him for Alzheimer's disease. So she

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detailed his diagnosis to the Lyme times, which is a

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publication, and she said, we suspect he's been infected with

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Lyme disease anywhere from 14 to 30 years, because he used to

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have these chronic muscle spasms, which is a common

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symptom of Lyme disease, and they theorized that the doctors

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didn't even think to look for Lyme, but now we know it's

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everywhere, and more and more people are showing up with a

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Lyme disease from tick bites in a June 2016, Rock with Rolling

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Stone. Lisa explained her theory that when Kris was working on

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the film disappearances in 2006 they suspect he may have been

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bitten by a tick because he was in the Vermont Woods shooting it

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for nearly six weeks. According to the CDC, the Centers for

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Disease Control black legged ticks, also known as deer ticks,

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spread a bacteria called Borrelia to humans. If not

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treated immediately, it can affect the heart, the joints and

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the nervous system. So after Chris Christopherson started

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developing mysterious symptoms, including major memory loss, he

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was given medicine for Alzheimer's disease and treated

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for it for three years, but it wasn't working, and his wife

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stated he was taking all these medications for things he didn't

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even have, and every one of these medications he was being

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given all have side effects, or all had side effects. So when

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doctors finally realized that he actually had Lyme disease and

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not Alzheimer's disease, and then they gave him the proper

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medication for it, his wife, Lisa Myers, exclaimed, all of a

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sudden, he was back. I got my crisp back and of course, he's

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passed away now, but he recovered to some degree, but

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not completely, because he lived with ongoing memory loss and

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confusion throughout the rest of his life, and the other person

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that we all famously know about, but we don't necessarily know

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that she also lived with Lyme disease. Was the wonderful,

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talented Shania Twain, and she is, it turns out, she also

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fought a battle with Lyme disease. Many of you may not be

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aware of that. I know it was in the news periodically, but she

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had a very severe case of Lyme disease. That was the

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symptomology actually was different than what Kris

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Kristofferson experienced. So I want to tell you her story while

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touring in the year 2003

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to promote her new music. Shania Twain's life was turned upside

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down by a tick bite she got while she was out horseback

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riding. The Tick was infected with Lyme disease, and she did

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get Lyme disease. The Star says in a documentary she produced,

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she says her symptoms were quite scary, because before she was

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diagnosed, she'd be on a stage, and she would be just so dizzy.

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Her head was just spinning. The room was spinning. Everything

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was spinning. She was losing her balance, and she was genuinely

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afraid that she was going to fall off the stage at any

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moment. She was also having these very, very, very

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millisecond blackouts, she says, But regularly, every minute or

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every 30 seconds, the singer also feared that the illness

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would impact her voice, especially after she started to

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lose control over her vocals, my voice was never the same again,

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says Shania Twain, she thought she was going to lose her voice

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forever. I thought that was it, and I would never, ever be able

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to sing again. She even underwent a throat surgery and

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took a break from the spotlight. The surgeries that she underwent

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for the Lyme disease infection were very intense and very, very

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different from a traditional vocal cord operation, but she

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eventually recovered and returned to the stage in the

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year 2017 so she had this for a long time. She revealed in an

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interview she did with ITV Loose Women that doctors originally

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didn't know what were causing her symptoms and that it took

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years to get to the bottom of what was affecting her voice.

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She spent time healing her throat and recovering through

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therapy, but said that it didn't change or help her voice

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recover. So what her article tells us is that Lyme disease is

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the most common vector borne disease, which is a disease

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transmitted to humans anthropods in the United States, it is

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transmitted through a bite from an infected black legged tick,

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or also known as a deer tick, if left untreated, symptoms can

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spread to your joints, to your heart and to the nervous system,

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according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Now, the most common symptoms of Lyme disease that pop up within

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three to 30 days of a bite, typically include flu like

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symptoms, fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and

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joint aches, swollen lymph nodes and a rash. That looks like a

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bullseye. I remember once my son was bitten by a tick, but he

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didn't know it, but a bull's eye, a round bull's eye looking

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a rash showed up on his leg, and we knew that that was indicative

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of a tick bite, and he went to the doctor and was treated with

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an antibiotic, and he was fine. But people don't always notice

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these Bullseye looking rashes, and they don't always show up.

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You can experience these symptoms months after infection,

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according to the CDC, including severe headaches and neck

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stiffness, rashes on other areas of your body, facial palsy, and

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I'll explain that to you in a minute arthritis with severe

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joint pain and swelling, intermittent pain in your

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tendons, muscles, joints and bones and heart palpitations, or

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irregular heartbeat called Lyme carditis, also, as Shania

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explained, she experienced episodes of dizziness and also

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shortness of breath is another symptom. Lyme disease is most

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commonly diagnosed from symptoms or known exposure to ticks. It

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often treated, if often treated successfully with antibiotics,

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it can be cured, according to the CDC. Now this is surprising

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that nearly 500,000 people a year are diagnosed with Lyme

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disease in the US, for about 75% of them, the first sign will be

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a skin lesion that appears one to four weeks after being bitten

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by an infected deer tick. But it might not look how you'd

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imagine, only 20% of these lesions take on the classic

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bulls eye appearance commonly associated with Lyme disease.

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Other early symptoms of Lyme disease mimic what you might

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experience with the flu, and I listed those for you. I'll just

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repeat it real quickly, fever, chills, muscle aches and swollen

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lymph nodes within the first five to 10 days of Lyme disease

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infection, most people will only experience these relatively

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ordinary symptoms if they're promptly diagnosed with and

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treated for Lyme, which generally means Two to three

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weeks of the being given the antibiotic, doxycycline, your

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story ends there. But for up to 10% of people, most of whom are

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diagnosed or treated promptly, the disease triggers lingering

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serious, ongoing symptoms. Researchers aren't exactly sure

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what causes chronic Lyme disease, but speculate it could

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be the result of factors like persistent bacteria or genetic

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predispositions, when some. One has it, there's almost nothing

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we can do. Says Dr Amy Edwards, who is an Assistant Professor of

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Pediatrics at the Case Western Reserve University School of

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Medicine, who specializes in infectious diseases, the complex

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symptoms often stump doctors, but once it's caught you off

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guard a few times, you start looking for it everywhere. Every

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time someone comes in with weird symptoms in the summer, you're

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like, Okay, could this be Lyme disease? So here's a look at

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some of the surprising symptoms that Lyme disease can cause,

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especially as it's progressing heart problems. When Lyme

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disease isn't treated effectively early on, it can end

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up impacting the cardiac, neurologic and rheumatologic

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symptoms, says Doctor Amy duckro, an infectious disease

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specialist with Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. She

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says, in one out of every 100 patients, for example, Lyme

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bacteria enters the heart tissues, which is called Lyme

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carditis, this kind of heart inflammation can lead to

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lightheadedness, fainting, shortness of breath, heart

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palpitations and or chest pain. In some cases, people develop

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atrioventricular block, which is a blockage that prevents

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electrical signals from moving from the upper to the lower

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chambers of the heart. When the blockage gets particularly bad,

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patients often need a temporary pacemaker paired with IV

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antibiotics. Says Dr Sonia schweig, who's on the Scientific

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Advisory Board of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, which is a

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nonprofit that aims to accelerate medical accelerate

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medical breakthroughs for Lyme disease. He wants people to be

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aware that this can happen, and to take symptoms like new heart

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palpitations very seriously. He says it's treatable, it's

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curable, but it can also kill you if it's not caught. So it's

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a really big deal. Then, just like Kris Kristofferson, many

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people experience the brain fog. This is a story about another

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person who is featured in this particular article by the name

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of Kirsten Stein. She suffered from brain fog with her Lyme

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disease, and she says it took more than two years and 15

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doctor's appointments to be diagnosed with Lyme disease.

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During that time, she struggled with an array of mental and

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physical symptoms. The most alarming was the brain fog and

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short term memory loss that clouded her every single day.

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She recalls running into a close friend, for example, and not

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being able to summon the names of the women's of the woman's

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kids, despite seeing them multiple times a week. I

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remember thinking, this is not good. And during a conversation

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with her husband, she couldn't conjure up the word glass and

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started pointing at things while playing a game with friends. She

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excused herself to the restroom because she couldn't think

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clearly enough to participate. Another time, she dropped her

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son off at school, and five minutes later, asked her

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daughter where her son was. It was absolutely terrifying. She

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says many patients report similar experiences with brain

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fog. Dr schweiss says it's likely caused by Lyme induced

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inflammation into the central nervous system. We see a huge

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amount of brain effects, including difficulty focusing,

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difficulty thinking, difficulty reading and absorbing

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information, it can be extremely disruptive to people's lives

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because they simply can't function. They can't go about

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their normal learning and working and paying attention and

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doing projects and following through with their tasks. No

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wonder Kris Kristofferson was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's

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disease, right? Okay, then we have the palsy component of.

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Lyme disease, often referred to as Bell's Palsy, there are 12

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nerves called the cranial nerves, that originate in our

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brains and play an important role in sense and movement for

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different parts of our head, face, neck and torso. Lyme

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disease can affect those nerves, triggering Bell's Palsy, which

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causes sudden weakness or paralysis on one side of a

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person's face. It's especially common in adults, she says, and

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typically appears several weeks to months after you're infected

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with the bacteria from Lyme disease. Who would have thought

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that a tick bite could result in all of these symptoms that show

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up that are very similar to Alzheimer's disease, then you

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have can have eye problems in the early stages of Lyme

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disease, people sometimes experience eye irritation and

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conjunctivitis as the condition progresses, you can Get cranial

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nerve inflammation or infections, and this can cause

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double vision called diplopia, says Dr schweig research

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suggests Lyme can cause sudden vision loss, damage to the optic

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nerve and neurotropic keratitis, which is decreased corneal

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sensation. It's also possible to experience blurry eye vision,

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eye floaters, tearing, extreme sensitivity to light, and

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inflammation of the retina. And then Lyme disease can also

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create hearing problems in people. The explanation for that

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is that the inflammation that Lyme disease causes can affect

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the inner ear, leading to a variety of symptoms, including

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hearing loss and tinnitus, or what's also referred to as

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ringing in the ears. Dr Schrag says ear issues can also trigger

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dizziness and balance problems. So what scientists have come to

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learn is that they have identified that Lyme disease

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genes are responsible for these severe symptoms. In one study

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that included 216 people with a tick borne disease, 162 had

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hearing problems, making them a frequent manifestation.

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According to the study authors, the most common complaint was

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tinnitus or ringing in the ears, and that occurred in 77% of the

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participants, followed by vertigo and dizziness and 54% of

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them, headache in 39% and unilateral sensorineural hearing

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loss, or hearing loss in one ear, which occurred in 17% of

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the study participants. It also can cause arthritis. One of the

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most common symptoms of the Lyme that Edward sees in young people

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is arthritis. It often happens the same way kids show up in the

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emergency room in the late fall with a big, swollen knee and

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perhaps a low grade fever. Sometimes they also have a limp

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or are unable to put weight on their leg. It's actually not

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crazy painful, but it hurts, but it's not debilitating. She says,

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everybody's like, did you injure it? But it turns out, their

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experience arthritis caused by a tick bite that might not have if

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they might not have even been aware of during the summer. It's

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actually the most common way that Lyme disease presents in

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children. Edward says kids typically get better once they

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start a four week regimen of doxycycline. The problem she has

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is that not all clinicians make the connection, which can delay

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diagnosis and proper treatment.

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Research also suggests that Lyme disease can cause persistent

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fatigue, even when it's diagnosed and treated early. In

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one study, participants with a history of Lyme were eight to 15

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times more likely to report. Moderate or severe fatigue than

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those who had never had Lyme disease. So this is pretty

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startling to find out that Lyme disease can actually produce as

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much damage as it does. It's really a weird, tricky illness,

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and the thing to know is it presents itself so differently

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in everybody says this doctor finding a doctor who believes

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you and understands that what you're telling them is the

Lisa Skinner:

truth, and who wants to help you is huge and the key to your

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hopeful recovery. So just one more thing, like I always used

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to tell everybody in the buildings that I managed as a

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regional director, if somebody came in and was telling me that

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all of a sudden their mother developed Alzheimer's disease or

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dementia, and it came on really fast. The first thing I would

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say is, did you ever check for a urinary tract infection? Because

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Alzheimer's disease or related dementia doesn't happen that

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quickly. It takes years to do the damage to the brain before

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the symptoms really start showing up. And in so many of

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those cases, they come back to me and say, You were right. We

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went to the doctor. She had a urinary tract infection. The

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point being, is the symptoms that are presented with a

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urinary tract infection, especially when it gets into the

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blood stream, mirror those of dementia, and that's the reason

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why I am talking to you today about Lyme disease, especially

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because Kris Kristofferson is the perfect example of somebody

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who was misdiagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease, and it

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turns out he really had Lyme disease. So want to bring this

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to everybody's attention. If you're caring for somebody or

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you have a loved one who all of a sudden starts displaying any

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of these symptoms that I shared with you in today's episode, I

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would ask your doctor to rule out Lyme disease, just because

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there is no definitive test yet or conclusive test for

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Alzheimer's disease, they go through a process of

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elimination. So we want to make sure that we're not dealing with

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a urinary tract infection, we're not dealing with a thyroid

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condition, and we're not staring Lyme disease in the face due to

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a tick bite, can be treated. Okay? So that's what I have for

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you today. I hope this is valuable and alert people to it.

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This has become a serious, serious health condition,

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especially as this article said, in United States, more and more

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and more people are experiencing Lyme disease. So that's it for

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today, and I will post the resources where I got the

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information, or I shared three different articles with you all

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today. It'll be in the show note, and I hope you all are

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taking away some very valuable information from this episode

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today of the truth, lies and Alzheimer's show again, I'm Lisa

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Skinner, your host, and I promise I'll be back next week

Lisa Skinner:

with another new episode for you. Take care for now, and I

Lisa Skinner:

look forward to having you back in a week, see you then bye. Bye.

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Truth, Lies & Alzheimer's
Truth, Lies & Alzheimer's

About your host

Profile picture for Lisa Skinner, CDP, CDT

Lisa Skinner, CDP, CDT

Author Lisa Skinner is a behavioral specialist with expertise in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. In her 30+year career working with family members and caregivers, Lisa has taught them how to successfully navigate the many challenges that accompany this heartbreaking disease. Lisa is both a Certified Dementia Practitioner and is also a certified dementia care trainer through the Alzheimer’s Association. She also holds a degree in Human Behavior.
Her latest book, “Truth, Lies & Alzheimer’s – Its Secret Faces” continues Skinner’s quest of working with dementia-related illnesses and teaching families and caregivers how to better understand the daunting challenges of brain disease. Her #1 Best-seller book “Not All Who Wander Need Be Lost,” was written at their urging. As someone who has had eight family members diagnosed with dementia, Lisa Skinner has found her calling in helping others through the struggle they can have a better-quality relationship with their loved ones through education and offering workshops on counter-intuitive solutions and tools to help people effectively manage the symptoms of brain disease. Lisa Skinner has appeared on many national and regional media broadcasts. Lisa helps explain behaviors caused by dementia, encourages those who feel burdened, and gives practical advice for how to respond.