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,...

Episode Transcript

Lisa Skinner (00:00):
Lisa, hello, everybody. Welcome, welcome.
Welcome to another new episodeof the truth, lies and
Alzheimer's show. I'm LisaSkinner, your host. How many of
you listening out there todayremember the movie actor and

(00:21):
singer by the name of KrisKristofferson. I'm sure many of
you do. He was such a huge star,and I had the biggest crush on
him when I was a teenager. Idon't know if you all remember
this, but if you don't, I'mtelling you, he was a four time

(00:45):
Grammy winner. He won the anAcademy Award for Best Music, an
original song score for the 1985film songwriter, where he
starred with Willie Nelson, andhis most famous song was me and
Bobby McGee. He recorded that in1969 and then it became a huge

(01:10):
hit when Janis Joplin sang it onher 1971 album, Pearl. Just all
coming back to you. Well, thereason why, oh and he also
starred in A Star is Born in1976 with Barbra Streisand. So
the reason why I am bringingKris Kristofferson up is because

(01:34):
years ago I learned that KrisKristofferson had been
misdiagnosed with Alzheimer'sdisease and had been treated for
it for three years before theydetermine what he was really
suffering about and that's whatI'm going to share with you

(01:57):
during this episode. This isreally important information for
everybody to at least have filedin the back of your memory
banks, because as it turns out,the symptoms of Lyme disease
mimic a lot of the symptomologythat we see in people living

(02:21):
with Alzheimer's disease andrelated dementia. So I'm going
to tell you his story, and thenI'm going to jump into more
details about Lyme disease. Soyou'll have a little bit more
information and detail. So youyou know, in case you get bitten

(02:45):
by a tick and it's infected withLyme disease, you'll know what
to look for. So KrisKristofferson, who always put
forth an incredibly tough guyexterior, he dealt with health
issues in his personal life,including memory loss. Those

(03:08):
were his first symptoms, so thedoctors ended up diagnosing him
with Alzheimer's disease, but hecontinued to have other
mysterious ailments. Eventually,because his symptoms were so
similar to Lyme disease, he tooka test which came back positive

(03:33):
for Lyme disease. His wife Lisatold the Lyme times, about 12
years ago, he was diagnosedfirst with fibromyalgia, which,
looking back, should have beenthe first indication that a test
for Lyme disease would have beenwarranted. Says, said his wife,

(03:57):
but his doctors didn't eventhink to test for Lyme disease
when they were testing him forAlzheimer's disease. So she
detailed his diagnosis to theLyme times, which is a
publication, and she said, wesuspect he's been infected with

(04:20):
Lyme disease anywhere from 14 to30 years, because he used to
have these chronic musclespasms, which is a common
symptom of Lyme disease, andthey theorized that the doctors
didn't even think to look forLyme, but now we know it's

(04:43):
everywhere, and more and morepeople are showing up with a
Lyme disease from tick bites ina June 2016, Rock with Rolling
Stone. Lisa explained her theorythat when Kris was working on
the film disappearances in 2006they suspect he may have been

(05:07):
bitten by a tick because he wasin the Vermont Woods shooting it
for nearly six weeks. Accordingto the CDC, the Centers for
Disease Control black leggedticks, also known as deer ticks,
spread a bacteria calledBorrelia to humans. If not

(05:31):
treated immediately, it canaffect the heart, the joints and
the nervous system. So afterChris Christopherson started
developing mysterious symptoms,including major memory loss, he
was given medicine forAlzheimer's disease and treated

(05:54):
for it for three years, but itwasn't working, and his wife
stated he was taking all thesemedications for things he didn't
even have, and every one ofthese medications he was being
given all have side effects, orall had side effects. So when

(06:18):
doctors finally realized that heactually had Lyme disease and
not Alzheimer's disease, andthen they gave him the proper
medication for it, his wife,Lisa Myers, exclaimed, all of a
sudden, he was back. I got mycrisp back and of course, he's

(06:42):
passed away now, but herecovered to some degree, but
not completely, because he livedwith ongoing memory loss and
confusion throughout the rest ofhis life, and the other person
that we all famously know about,but we don't necessarily know

(07:06):
that she also lived with Lymedisease. Was the wonderful,
talented Shania Twain, and sheis, it turns out, she also
fought a battle with Lymedisease. Many of you may not be
aware of that. I know it was inthe news periodically, but she

(07:30):
had a very severe case of Lymedisease. That was the
symptomology actually wasdifferent than what Kris
Kristofferson experienced. So Iwant to tell you her story while
touring in the year 2003

(07:50):
to promote her new music. ShaniaTwain's life was turned upside
down by a tick bite she gotwhile she was out horseback
riding. The Tick was infectedwith Lyme disease, and she did
get Lyme disease. The Star saysin a documentary she produced,

(08:14):
she says her symptoms were quitescary, because before she was
diagnosed, she'd be on a stage,and she would be just so dizzy.
Her head was just spinning. Theroom was spinning. Everything
was spinning. She was losing herbalance, and she was genuinely
afraid that she was going tofall off the stage at any

(08:37):
moment. She was also havingthese very, very, very
millisecond blackouts, she says,But regularly, every minute or
every 30 seconds, the singeralso feared that the illness
would impact her voice,especially after she started to
lose control over her vocals, myvoice was never the same again,

(09:03):
says Shania Twain, she thoughtshe was going to lose her voice
forever. I thought that was it,and I would never, ever be able
to sing again. She evenunderwent a throat surgery and
took a break from the spotlight.The surgeries that she underwent

(09:24):
for the Lyme disease infectionwere very intense and very, very
different from a traditionalvocal cord operation, but she
eventually recovered andreturned to the stage in the
year 2017 so she had this for along time. She revealed in an

(09:46):
interview she did with ITV LooseWomen that doctors originally
didn't know what were causingher symptoms and that it took
years to get to the bottom ofwhat was affecting her voice.
She spent time healing herthroat and recovering through
therapy, but said that it didn'tchange or help her voice

(10:13):
recover. So what her articletells us is that Lyme disease is
the most common vector bornedisease, which is a disease
transmitted to humans anthropodsin the United States, it is

(10:34):
transmitted through a bite froman infected black legged tick,
or also known as a deer tick, ifleft untreated, symptoms can
spread to your joints, to yourheart and to the nervous system,
according to the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention.

(10:57):
Now, the most common symptoms ofLyme disease that pop up within
three to 30 days of a bite,typically include flu like
symptoms, fever, chills,headache, fatigue, muscle and
joint aches, swollen lymph nodesand a rash. That looks like a

(11:25):
bullseye. I remember once my sonwas bitten by a tick, but he
didn't know it, but a bull'seye, a round bull's eye looking
a rash showed up on his leg, andwe knew that that was indicative
of a tick bite, and he went tothe doctor and was treated with

(11:48):
an antibiotic, and he was fine.But people don't always notice
these Bullseye looking rashes,and they don't always show up.
You can experience thesesymptoms months after infection,
according to the CDC, includingsevere headaches and neck

(12:11):
stiffness, rashes on other areasof your body, facial palsy, and
I'll explain that to you in aminute arthritis with severe
joint pain and swelling,intermittent pain in your
tendons, muscles, joints andbones and heart palpitations, or

(12:34):
irregular heartbeat called Lymecarditis, also, as Shania
explained, she experiencedepisodes of dizziness and also
shortness of breath is anothersymptom. Lyme disease is most
commonly diagnosed from symptomsor known exposure to ticks. It

(12:58):
often treated, if often treatedsuccessfully with antibiotics,
it can be cured, according tothe CDC. Now this is surprising
that nearly 500,000 people ayear are diagnosed with Lyme

(13:19):
disease in the US, for about 75%of them, the first sign will be
a skin lesion that appears oneto four weeks after being bitten
by an infected deer tick. But itmight not look how you'd
imagine, only 20% of theselesions take on the classic

(13:41):
bulls eye appearance commonlyassociated with Lyme disease.
Other early symptoms of Lymedisease mimic what you might
experience with the flu, and Ilisted those for you. I'll just
repeat it real quickly, fever,chills, muscle aches and swollen
lymph nodes within the firstfive to 10 days of Lyme disease

(14:03):
infection, most people will onlyexperience these relatively
ordinary symptoms if they'repromptly diagnosed with and
treated for Lyme, whichgenerally means Two to three
weeks of the being given theantibiotic, doxycycline, your

(14:26):
story ends there. But for up to10% of people, most of whom are
diagnosed or treated promptly,the disease triggers lingering
serious, ongoing symptoms.Researchers aren't exactly sure

(14:48):
what causes chronic Lymedisease, but speculate it could
be the result of factors likepersistent bacteria or genetic
predispositions, when some. Onehas it, there's almost nothing
we can do. Says Dr Amy Edwards,who is an Assistant Professor of

(15:10):
Pediatrics at the Case WesternReserve University School of
Medicine, who specializes ininfectious diseases, the complex
symptoms often stump doctors,but once it's caught you off
guard a few times, you startlooking for it everywhere. Every

(15:31):
time someone comes in with weirdsymptoms in the summer, you're
like, Okay, could this be Lymedisease? So here's a look at
some of the surprising symptomsthat Lyme disease can cause,
especially as it's progressingheart problems. When Lyme

(15:53):
disease isn't treatedeffectively early on, it can end
up impacting the cardiac,neurologic and rheumatologic
symptoms, says Doctor Amyduckro, an infectious disease
specialist with KaiserPermanente in Colorado. She
says, in one out of every 100patients, for example, Lyme

(16:17):
bacteria enters the hearttissues, which is called Lyme
carditis, this kind of heartinflammation can lead to
lightheadedness, fainting,shortness of breath, heart
palpitations and or chest pain.In some cases, people develop
atrioventricular block, which isa blockage that prevents

(16:42):
electrical signals from movingfrom the upper to the lower
chambers of the heart. When theblockage gets particularly bad,
patients often need a temporarypacemaker paired with IV
antibiotics. Says Dr Soniaschweig, who's on the Scientific

(17:03):
Advisory Board of the Bay AreaLyme Foundation, which is a
nonprofit that aims toaccelerate medical accelerate
medical breakthroughs for Lymedisease. He wants people to be
aware that this can happen, andto take symptoms like new heart

(17:24):
palpitations very seriously. Hesays it's treatable, it's
curable, but it can also killyou if it's not caught. So it's
a really big deal. Then, justlike Kris Kristofferson, many
people experience the brain fog.This is a story about another

(17:45):
person who is featured in thisparticular article by the name
of Kirsten Stein. She sufferedfrom brain fog with her Lyme
disease, and she says it tookmore than two years and 15
doctor's appointments to bediagnosed with Lyme disease.

(18:06):
During that time, she struggledwith an array of mental and
physical symptoms. The mostalarming was the brain fog and
short term memory loss thatclouded her every single day.
She recalls running into a closefriend, for example, and not

(18:27):
being able to summon the namesof the women's of the woman's
kids, despite seeing themmultiple times a week. I
remember thinking, this is notgood. And during a conversation
with her husband, she couldn'tconjure up the word glass and

(18:48):
started pointing at things whileplaying a game with friends. She
excused herself to the restroombecause she couldn't think
clearly enough to participate.Another time, she dropped her
son off at school, and fiveminutes later, asked her

(19:09):
daughter where her son was. Itwas absolutely terrifying. She
says many patients reportsimilar experiences with brain
fog. Dr schweiss says it'slikely caused by Lyme induced
inflammation into the centralnervous system. We see a huge

(19:30):
amount of brain effects,including difficulty focusing,
difficulty thinking, difficultyreading and absorbing
information, it can be extremelydisruptive to people's lives
because they simply can'tfunction. They can't go about

(19:50):
their normal learning andworking and paying attention and
doing projects and followingthrough with their tasks. No
wonder Kris Kristofferson wasmisdiagnosed with Alzheimer's
disease, right? Okay, then wehave the palsy component of.

(20:11):
Lyme disease, often referred toas Bell's Palsy, there are 12
nerves called the cranialnerves, that originate in our
brains and play an importantrole in sense and movement for
different parts of our head,face, neck and torso. Lyme

(20:32):
disease can affect those nerves,triggering Bell's Palsy, which
causes sudden weakness orparalysis on one side of a
person's face. It's especiallycommon in adults, she says, and
typically appears several weeksto months after you're infected

(20:53):
with the bacteria from Lymedisease. Who would have thought
that a tick bite could result inall of these symptoms that show
up that are very similar toAlzheimer's disease, then you
have can have eye problems inthe early stages of Lyme

(21:14):
disease, people sometimesexperience eye irritation and
conjunctivitis as the conditionprogresses, you can Get cranial
nerve inflammation orinfections, and this can cause
double vision called diplopia,says Dr schweig research

(21:34):
suggests Lyme can cause suddenvision loss, damage to the optic
nerve and neurotropic keratitis,which is decreased corneal
sensation. It's also possible toexperience blurry eye vision,
eye floaters, tearing, extremesensitivity to light, and

(21:56):
inflammation of the retina. Andthen Lyme disease can also
create hearing problems inpeople. The explanation for that
is that the inflammation thatLyme disease causes can affect
the inner ear, leading to avariety of symptoms, including

(22:17):
hearing loss and tinnitus, orwhat's also referred to as
ringing in the ears. Dr Schragsays ear issues can also trigger
dizziness and balance problems.So what scientists have come to
learn is that they haveidentified that Lyme disease

(22:38):
genes are responsible for thesesevere symptoms. In one study
that included 216 people with atick borne disease, 162 had
hearing problems, making them afrequent manifestation.
According to the study authors,the most common complaint was

(22:59):
tinnitus or ringing in the ears,and that occurred in 77% of the
participants, followed byvertigo and dizziness and 54% of
them, headache in 39% andunilateral sensorineural hearing
loss, or hearing loss in oneear, which occurred in 17% of

(23:20):
the study participants. It alsocan cause arthritis. One of the
most common symptoms of the Lymethat Edward sees in young people
is arthritis. It often happensthe same way kids show up in the
emergency room in the late fallwith a big, swollen knee and

(23:43):
perhaps a low grade fever.Sometimes they also have a limp
or are unable to put weight ontheir leg. It's actually not
crazy painful, but it hurts, butit's not debilitating. She says,
everybody's like, did you injureit? But it turns out, their

(24:05):
experience arthritis caused by atick bite that might not have if
they might not have even beenaware of during the summer. It's
actually the most common waythat Lyme disease presents in
children. Edward says kidstypically get better once they

(24:26):
start a four week regimen ofdoxycycline. The problem she has
is that not all clinicians makethe connection, which can delay
diagnosis and proper treatment.
Research also suggests that Lymedisease can cause persistent

(24:47):
fatigue, even when it'sdiagnosed and treated early. In
one study, participants with ahistory of Lyme were eight to 15
times more likely to report.Moderate or severe fatigue than
those who had never had Lymedisease. So this is pretty

(25:08):
startling to find out that Lymedisease can actually produce as
much damage as it does. It'sreally a weird, tricky illness,
and the thing to know is itpresents itself so differently
in everybody says this doctorfinding a doctor who believes

(25:30):
you and understands that whatyou're telling them is the
truth, and who wants to help youis huge and the key to your
hopeful recovery. So just onemore thing, like I always used
to tell everybody in thebuildings that I managed as a

(25:51):
regional director, if somebodycame in and was telling me that
all of a sudden their motherdeveloped Alzheimer's disease or
dementia, and it came on reallyfast. The first thing I would
say is, did you ever check for aurinary tract infection? Because

(26:14):
Alzheimer's disease or relateddementia doesn't happen that
quickly. It takes years to dothe damage to the brain before
the symptoms really startshowing up. And in so many of
those cases, they come back tome and say, You were right. We

(26:35):
went to the doctor. She had aurinary tract infection. The
point being, is the symptomsthat are presented with a
urinary tract infection,especially when it gets into the
blood stream, mirror those ofdementia, and that's the reason

(26:56):
why I am talking to you todayabout Lyme disease, especially
because Kris Kristofferson isthe perfect example of somebody
who was misdiagnosed as havingAlzheimer's disease, and it
turns out he really had Lymedisease. So want to bring this

(27:17):
to everybody's attention. Ifyou're caring for somebody or
you have a loved one who all ofa sudden starts displaying any
of these symptoms that I sharedwith you in today's episode, I
would ask your doctor to ruleout Lyme disease, just because

(27:39):
there is no definitive test yetor conclusive test for
Alzheimer's disease, they gothrough a process of
elimination. So we want to makesure that we're not dealing with
a urinary tract infection, we'renot dealing with a thyroid

(28:00):
condition, and we're not staringLyme disease in the face due to
a tick bite, can be treated.Okay? So that's what I have for
you today. I hope this isvaluable and alert people to it.
This has become a serious,serious health condition,

(28:21):
especially as this article said,in United States, more and more
and more people are experiencingLyme disease. So that's it for
today, and I will post theresources where I got the
information, or I shared threedifferent articles with you all

(28:43):
today. It'll be in the shownote, and I hope you all are
taking away some very valuableinformation from this episode
today of the truth, lies andAlzheimer's show again, I'm Lisa
Skinner, your host, and Ipromise I'll be back next week

(29:04):
with another new episode foryou. Take care for now, and I
look forward to having you backin a week, see you then bye. Bye.