Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – Infections as Contributing Factors

this article was published by me Oct. 2018 – I just translated it to English in Aug 2026

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was found to be associated with a fungal infection of the brain in every case examined! Mixed fungal infections have been detected in almost all neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases investigated by this research group. Here are the studies and some possible explanations.

Neurological diseases and their increasing prevalence

Neurological diseases are becoming increasingly common

Because of my concern for affected patients, several years ago I spent an entire week of my vacation screening approximately 1,000 studies on ALS –> Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis with annual updates.

Since then, I have continued to follow research into this frightening disease. In recent years, several interesting clues have emerged:

Dr. Friedrich Douwes told me how, in Uppsala, a pathologist at the university hospital took him into the pathology department. They examined the spinal cord and brain of a patient who had recently died from ALS and found them full of Borrelia. According to the pathologist, he had been able to find this in all amyotrophic lateral sclerosis specimens he had examined.
There is also the work of the now-retired US pathologist Dr. Alan MacDonald, who reported detecting Borrelia in Alzheimer’s brains. I have extensively cited Alan MacDonald and his YouTube material on my website.
There is the work of the Swiss scientist Judith Miklossy, who has conducted extensive research on Borrelia and has proposed it as a contributing factor in Alzheimer’s disease.
And there is the pioneering work of Dr. Friedrich Douwes in the hyperthermia treatment of Lyme disease. Friedrich discovered this “by accident” about 15 years ago, when US cancer patients receiving hyperthermia simultaneously experienced improvement or disappearance of their coexisting Lyme symptoms. I have reported several times on this hyperthermia treatment and have also presented the underlying studies concerning the heat sensitivity of Borrelia.
The St. Georg Clinic has meanwhile treated approximately 1,700 Lyme patients and reports a 67% long-term recovery rate regarding Lyme disease.

Could amyotrophic lateral sclerosis also involve neuroborreliosis?

Now the shift from Lyme disease to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Recently, Friedrich told me that he had treated 4 ALS patients with hyperthermia combined with plasmapheresis, and that all of them showed substantial improvement.

However, one of these patients had such a severe Herxheimer reaction that he required several days of intensive care.

This patient subsequently regained function in his hands and is now able to write letters of thanks.

The response to this therapy – together with the observations of the pathologist in Uppsala and other indications – could be considered a significant clue that at least some ALS cases might, among other factors, involve neuroborreliosis.

But: a study found no association between ALS and Borrelia

A recent Dutch study from 2017 tested more than 700 ALS patients for antibodies against Borrelia and found no association. The authors therefore concluded that testing ALS patients for Borrelia was unnecessary.

How can this contradiction be explained?

Borrelia – like parasites – possess multiple mechanisms that allow them to evade and modulate the human immune system.

It may therefore be precisely those patients who become chronically infected who are unable to mount an adequate immune response against Borrelia and may produce insufficient antibodies or, in some cases, little measurable cellular immune response.

Patients who mount an effective immune response against Borrelia are less likely to develop chronic infection.

We have seen patients with even a negative LTT (Lyme-Spot) despite a clinical diagnosis of neuroborreliosis with paralysis, in whom antibody conversion occurred only after the start of ultimately successful treatment.

At the Morgellons Meeting in Augsburg in 2018, it was suggested that Morgellons may represent a combined infection involving Bartonella and Borrelia, possibly together with another, as yet unidentified, factor.

What surprised me most at this meeting was the statement that Bartonella infection can be detected by antibody testing in only about 5% of cases, while even PCR was said to correctly identify only around 50% of cases:

At that point, you might almost as well roll the dice, right?

All these so-called co-infections are classic intracellular infections. They can potentially affect the brain and may produce neurological symptoms and diseases.

And in many affected patients we may not be able to detect them reliably, potentially leaving an underlying causal factor untreated.

Key point regarding neuroinfections

In chronic neurological cases, immune-system-based diagnostics can be highly error-prone – careful evaluation of the clinical presentation, meaning the patient’s symptoms, may therefore be particularly important.

(Dr. Retzek, 2018)

Now to the study that prompted this article:

Fungal infection in the brains of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

This 2017 study from Spain is clinically highly relevant!

“… Here, we provide compelling evidence for the existence of fungal infection in ALS….”

The brains of 11 deceased patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were examined using immunohistochemical methods. Fungal antigens were detected in all investigated brain regions.

The fungal material was detectable not only between brain cells, but also inside the cells and even within the cell nuclei!!!

No fungal antigens were detected in the corresponding control brains.

How can such striking immunohistochemical findings be further substantiated? The state-of-the-art approach is to detect fungal genetic material in the affected tissue using PCR.

And this is exactly what the Spanish researchers subsequently did:

…. DNA extracted from frozen neural tissue identified a variety of fungal genera including Candida, Malassezia, Fusarium, Botrytis, Trichoderma and Cryptococcus. Overall, our present observations provide strong evidence for mixed fungal infections in ALS patients. The exact mixed infection varies from patient to patient consistent with the different evolution and severity of symptoms in each ALS patient. ….

Botrytis: the fungus responsible for noble rot in wine grapes
Trichoderma: a common, ubiquitous plant-associated fungus, which has also been described as a fungal parasite
Candida: commonly present in humans in the gastrointestinal tract, mouth, skin, etc.
Fusarium: found in many cereal crops and a typical plant pathogen
Malassezia: a typical fungus of human skin
Cryptococcus: a yeast that can cause severe infections – could clinically silent infections also occur?

But it goes even further – following this lead, I immediately looked at all the studies in which members of this research group had participated. Incredible!!

Fungal infections in neurological diseases?

This Spanish research group is extremely interesting. What they have published over the past several years goes far beyond what I would have imagined possible: why are we not more aware of all this?

Prof. Carrasco and colleagues published evidence of fungal antigens in:

several studies on multiple sclerosis
several studies on Alzheimer’s disease
several studies on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

A possible explanation for so-called PROGRESSIVE MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS?

Could this help explain the transition from “relapsing MS” to progressive MS –> could progressive MS in some cases be related to the immunosuppressive treatment of what is considered an “autoimmune disease”? It is an intriguing hypothesis, although this does not by itself establish causation.

What could cause the fungal infection?

Some form of immunosuppression would be an obvious consideration, since we have traditionally learned that invasive fungal infections predominantly affect immunocompromised individuals.

In multiple sclerosis, immunosuppression may occur as a consequence of pharmacological treatment.

But what about “ordinary” patients – how would fungi reach the brain in these patients, and where would the immunosuppression come from?

A hypothesis that may not be entirely implausible

Ubiquitous glyphosate – widely used in the production of major crops such as corn, soy and cereals – also possesses antimicrobial properties.

At residual concentrations relevant to food exposure, it has been investigated for its potential to alter the composition of intestinal bacteria, for example in the 2018 Ramazzini study. There are also several studies investigating this subject, including research examining changes in intestinal bacteria and behavioral effects following glyphosate exposure in 2018.

Could chronic alterations of the body’s bacterial communities create ecological conditions in which fungi gain greater influence?

Could the body’s continuous interaction with its bacterial microbiome constitute an important form of immune-system training, and could disturbance of these bacterial communities potentially facilitate fungal overgrowth?

Is there any evidence for such a mechanism?

Clostridia can be relatively resistant to glyphosate

Glyphosate exposure has been investigated for its potential to alter the intestinal microbiome, including changes involving Clostridia.

One thing worth remembering is that a substance produced by a Clostridium species is used worldwide as an anti-wrinkle treatment: BOTOX. Clostridium botulinum produces botulinum toxin, a highly potent neurotoxin that interferes with neuromuscular transmission.

And ALS, of course, is a motor neuron disease.

In German livestock facilities, deer, cattle, and other animals have reportedly died in association with intestinal Clostridium infections.

When watching the following reports, one encounters animals as well as farmers and children suffering from neurological symptoms that, at least superficially, may resemble some manifestations seen in ALS patients.

The following report is also interesting: it provides a detailed account of the controversial concept of chronic botulism in German livestock facilities, although without identifying a definitive trigger:

This was the first report that I linked years ago on my page “Organic Food“. The report explicitly discusses a possible association with glyphosate.

https://youtu.be/sCx9gMQpjFE

Pre-harvest desiccation with glyphosate is now prohibited in the EU in relevant uses, but this practice has been widely used in Canada, the USA and South America, regions from which animal feed may be imported. Glyphosate itself continues to be used in conventional agriculture.

The subject of “chronic botulism” in livestock and humans has therefore been debated for many years. As these reports illustrate, its existence and clinical significance remain controversial among experts – somewhat reminiscent of the long-running controversies surrounding chronic neurological manifestations attributed to Lyme disease.

Summary

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis could therefore, at least hypothetically and in subsets of patients, involve a combination of:

Neuroborreliosis
Fungal infection of the brain
Chronic botulism
Heavy-metal burden

Addressing only one of these potential components has not taken us – or our patients – very far. Since adapting our therapeutic approach accordingly, however, we have begun to see some light on the horizon!

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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – Infections as Contributing Factors

Neurological diseases are becoming increasingly common

Now the shift from Lyme disease to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis