Alzheimer's DIsease Misdiagnosis More Common Than We Think!

Many thought Kris Kritofferson has Alzheimer's disease, which was what he was diagnosed with. In reality, he has Lyme Disease. The misdiagnosis just showed how easy it is to confuse the two.

Kristofferson, 79, was long deemed as suffering from Alzheimer's disease, as manifested in his persistent memory problems. However, his wife now revealed that the legendary singer and songwriter, actually had untreated Lyme disease. The award-winning actor's memory problems quickly vanished after a few weeks of treatment for Lyme disease.

All of a sudden he was back," Lisa Kristofferson tells Rolling Stone. "There are still bad days. [But] some days he's perfectly normal and it's easy to forget that he is even battling anything."

The story caught the attention of the public, who started to wonder how this could happen. 

According to a top expert on Lyme Disease, Dr. Gary Small, misdiagnosis of Alzheimer's is much more common than what is desired. Often, those with treatable diseases and yet suffering from memory problems are misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's. This is problematic because proper treatment cannot immediately be administered due to the wrong diagnosis. 

"I think that it's possible for Lyme disease to be misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's and Kris Kristofferson's story speaks to the importance of an accurate diagnosis," Dr. Gary Small, director of the University of California-Los Angeles Longevity Center, tells Newsmax Health. "Severe anemia, thyroid disorders, and depression are all treatable conditions that can produce symptoms that look like Alzheimer's," he added. 

Kristofferson in particular, had to suffer years of being misconstrued as someone with Alzheimer's. His declining memory loss was said to be the effect of the blows he received to his head when he was engaging in his favorite contact activities in the 20s, such as boxing, football, and rugby. 

Small said that the only way to avoid this is for health experts to be more rigorous in their examination of the patient.

"The take home message for all of this is that Alzheimer's disease has to be diagnosed only after a thorough investigation, which includes the patient's history, as well as blood tests, and often brain imaging as well," Small said.