MS is a demyelinating disease, just as Lyme is - but there may be other causes, as you said.
There's a doctor that was diagnosed with ALS, but then healed himself by treating for Lyme.
"His story is riveting. He had a lifetime of good health and a successful career as a physician practicing internal medicine-hematology-oncology for 30 years. Then, in 2003, Martz suddenly started experiencing strange symptoms. First deep fatigue, then profound muscle aches and body-wide pain. Soon he was too weak to get out of bed. As his condition rapidly deteriorated, his physicians gave him a devastating diagnosis: ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease). They said nothing could stem his physical decline and he would likely be dead within two years.
But events went in a different direction. As his health spiraled downward, Martz connected with a Lyme disease specialist who prescribed hard-hitting, long-term antibiotics. The gamble paid off. By the end of 2004, Martz was a new man. In fact, the doctor who had diagnosed him so definitively with ALS, now pronounced that condition completely gone."
There are many stories just like this one, which can be found here:
/www.lymedisease.org/372/ As well as information such as this: "Martz devoted the next two and a half years to a project that gave extended antibiotics to about
90 ALS patients, and demonstrated objective improvements in 15% of them. He has also treated more than 800 chronic Lyme patients, with good response and minimal side effects. That work is currently being written up for publication."
So, while not all ALS is caused by Lyme, it is certainly worth a patients time and efforts to try infectious disease treatments (including Lyme, Myco and others) instead of living with a diagnosis of ALS and certain death quickly.
Take my history for example - and I'm only one of many with a history like this - where I was sick for over 40 years and no matter how many doctors I went to, or what specialty they were in, no one could figure it out or they gave me diagnoses that were only a collection of symptoms (Fibro, ME) or bad misdiagnosis (MS, Psych. issues), when in reality, I had Lyme, Bartonella, Babesia, RMSF, Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichia and others - but because of the very poor understanding of these infections and the very poor testing - I couldn't produce a positive test until someone was brave enough to start me on Lyme treatments. It took a full 12 months of treatments (even though they failed), for me to be able to test fully CDC positive for Lyme and RMSF. But, even with that test in hand, I was turned away from every doctor in my area.
Had I been diagnosed properly, I would not have had a life of misery. It all lies in poor testing that's available for these infections, and a lot of political posturing. Many patients suffer a great deal of loss due to these things.
I am NOT saying that Lyme is to blame for everything, but from what I have learned over the last nearly 18 years of learning and studying these infections is that if a person has a 'sudden' debilitating issue, or if they have been sick most of their lives, it's best to do all they can to make sure that they aren't dealing with Lyme and company, as they are the hardest infectious cause to test positive for at this point in time - especially if the person has been infected for a long time.