Editor’s Observe: This text is a reprint. It was initially printed July 2, 2023.
On this video, I interview repeat visitor Dr. Dale Bredesen, a neurologist specializing within the remedy of Alzheimer’s. In 2014, he printed a paper1 demonstrating the ability of life-style decisions for the prevention and remedy of this tragic situation. By leveraging 36 wholesome life-style parameters, he was capable of reverse Alzheimer’s in 9 out of 10 sufferers.
Randomized Trial Launch Goals to Observe and Reverse Cognitive Decline
For starters, his workforce has printed one other proof-of-concept paper and is launching a randomized, managed trial at six websites — Hollywood, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; and Sacramento, Oakland and San Francisco in California.
• The trial will assess organic growing old, mind growing old and epigenetics — The researchers will use newer blood checks that weren’t out there even a couple of years in the past, together with phospho-tau 181, phospho-tau 217, A-beta 42 to 40 ratio, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neurofilament gentle polypeptide (NF-L). “A few these aren’t commercially out there but, so we’re doing these as analysis, however they may all change into commercially out there,” Bredesen says.
• Early detection and monitoring with no PET scan — At the moment, phospho-tau 181 and A-beta 42 to 40 ratio are commercially out there, permitting people to get an concept of the place they stand with out essentially needing a PET scan.
• Monitoring enhancements and reversing cognitive decline — In accordance with Bredesen, “Extra importantly, you may comply with it as you enhance. Prevention is vital, but additionally reversing cognitive decline, which we have been the primary to do … We have seen it repeatedly, while you’re doing the proper issues, while you’re attacking the necessary drivers of the method, you see [reversal].”
This trial represents a significant development within the capacity to watch and deal with cognitive decline, providing new hope for prevention and reversal of neurodegenerative processes.
Useful Checks to Detect Early Indicators of Cognitive Decline
A number of key checks can present early insights into mind well being, serving to to detect neurological adjustments lengthy earlier than signs seem:
• GFAP (Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein) check — Whereas nonspecific, this check is a priceless software for detecting mind adjustments related to astrocytosis. Astrocytes reply when there’s an issue within the mind, so it can provide you a heads-up that one thing is afoot as much as 10 years earlier than signs change into obvious. “The excellent news is that if it is regular, you are in fairly good condition. So that you need to know that going ahead,” Bredesen explains.
• Phospho-tau 181 and phospho-tau 217 — These are particular checks for Alzheimer’s adjustments associated to the dying of neurons.
• Genetic testing for APOE standing — Genetic testing is necessary to determine what number of copies of the APOE ε4 gene you may need. “That is an [important] piece,” Bredesen says. “Everyone ought to know their APOE standing.”
• Hormone and toxin testing — Assessing hormone ranges and screening for toxins, together with mycotoxins and heavy metals, present extra insights into components which will contribute to cognitive decline.
The place There’s Smoke There’s Fireplace
In accordance with typical thought, elevated tau and beta-amyloid are causative components in Alzheimer’s, however Bredesen’s analysis suggests in any other case, arguing that these proteins are responses and mediators somewhat than root causes.
• The flawed logic of focusing on tau and beta-amyloid — Bredesen explains:
“It is a little bit like saying, ‘There’s some smoke there. If we simply blow away the smoke, then the home just isn’t going to burn down.’ It is mindless. The important thing factor to know is that [tau and beta-amyloid] are responses and mediators.”
• Alzheimer’s is attributable to a number of upstream contributors — Whereas mitochondrial dysfunction is a well known issue, many different contributors play a task, together with:
◦Irritation
◦Infections (notably within the mouth)
◦Insulin resistance
◦Leaky intestine
◦Lowered blood movement and oxygenation
◦Diminished mitochondrial operate
• Alzheimer’s is basically a community insufficiency — The mind comprises about 500 trillion synapses, and when environmental and metabolic stressors weaken this community, cognitive operate begins to say no. Because of this, tau and beta-amyloid emerge, not as main drivers however as mediators that amplify the harm.
• Amyloid is a superb biomarker however a horrible therapeutic goal — Dr. Lee Hood and Dr. Nathan Value, authors of “The Age of Scientific Wellness,” emphasize that whereas amyloid can point out illness presence, focusing on it therapeutically is ineffective, a conclusion supported by scientific knowledge.
• The failure of Lecanemab and what works higher — Bredesen criticizes the FDA’s advice to approve Lecanemab. “Lecanemab doesn’t make you higher, it doesn’t hold you a similar, it slows the decline by 27%. That’s it,” he identified.
• Different interventions carried out higher in scientific trials — These embrace ketones alone, additional virgin olive oil, mixed metabolic activators (similar to carnitine and nicotinamide riboside) and protocols focusing on energetics and irritation.
• Bredesen’s protocol reveals the most effective long-term outcomes — He states, “We’ve bought folks now who’ve sustained their enchancment for greater than 10 years. So, it’s unhappy that this drug has been beneficial for approval.”
Bredesen’s Method to Stopping and Treating Alzheimer’s
In accordance with Bredesen, supporting power and decreasing irritation within the mind are the 2 most necessary components to forestall and deal with Alzheimer’s. Fundamentals that each one of Bredesen’s sufferers implement embrace:
• Dietary intervention — Bredesen recommends a plant-rich, mildly ketogenic food plan, with a superb omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, no dairy, no grains and no easy carbs. “That is the strategy that has labored the most effective,” he says. “We name that KetoFLEX 12/3.”
• My issues about polyunsaturated fat (PUFs) — Within the interview, I counter a few of Bredesen’s dietary suggestions, as he nonetheless recommends PUFs. I’m satisfied all omega-6 PUFs should be saved low, beneath 2% and even 1% of each day energy, for optimum well being.
I strongly suspect folks with dementia should be much more cautious, as linoleic acid (LA) seems to be the most important dietary supply of all of the drivers of Alzheimer’s, together with irritation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and dysfunction in electron transport chain such that you just can not effectively produce ATP.
I’ve written extensively on the ins and outs of this, so for extra data, take heed to the interview and/or overview “Linoleic Acid — The Most Harmful Ingredient in Your Weight-reduction plan.”
• Reevaluating omega fats consumption and prolonged keto — I’m additionally not satisfied that the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is as useful as generally advised since you can not counter the harm attributable to omega-6 fat just by taking extra omega-3. On prime of that, most omega-3 dietary supplements, primarily fish oil, are nugatory as a result of they’re artificial and rancid besides, so ensuring you’re getting high-quality omega-3 is a necessary issue.
Lastly, since this interview, I’ve come to understand the significance of carbs for mind well being, together with easy carbs from complete fruits, and the drawbacks of long-term keto. So, please perceive, Bredesen’s dietary suggestions are his personal, based mostly on his analysis, and don’t essentially mirror my very own views.
• Train — Bredesen is seeing notably good outcomes with KAATSU (blood movement restriction coaching) and train with oxygen remedy (EWOT).
• Sleep optimization — Sleep apnea is a typical downside that unquestionably contributes to cognitive decline, because it reduces oxygen to your mind and raises adrenaline whilst you’re sleeping.
“Sleep is a big space in and of itself,” Bredesen says. “Affected person zero, the primary particular person we handled again in 2012 who reversed her cognitive decline fantastically, she’s now over a decade in on this, doing nice frequently. She’s now in her late 70s.
Considered one of her points was poor sleep and, after all, one of many issues that was addressed. Getting not less than an hour of deep sleep and not less than an hour and a half of REM sleep could be very useful … Poor sleep provides you extra amyloid. It is only a marker, however it’s a marker of issues that are not so good, and sadly, amyloid then provides you poorer sleep.”
• Further methods — Different necessary approaches embrace stress discount, mind coaching, detox and focused supplementation.
The opposite a part of Bredesen’s program is personalized to every affected person, as many have undiagnosed power infections, for instance, that should be addressed.
• Oral pathogens can invade the mind — Frequent infections embrace P. gingivalis and T. denticola, which work their manner into your mind out of your oral microbiome, herpes simplex and human betaherpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A).
• Herpes viruses are linked to Alzheimer’s — The complete household of herpes viruses is related to adjustments within the mind and neurons. HHV-6A particularly is related to the mind degeneration seen in Alzheimer’s.
• Chlamydia pneumoniae and tick-borne infections pose a threat — Chlamydia pneumoniae can be extremely troublesome, as are all tick-borne infections, together with Borrelia, Bartonella, Babesia and Anaplasma.
• Infections overstimulate the innate immune system — All these infections put your innate immune system into overdrive and should be quenched. As famous by Bredesen, COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s are “each innate immune system mismatches with the adaptive system.”
You are not clearing the pathogen, so you’ve got bought this continued onslaught of cytokines. Within the case of COVID, you die from the acute cytokine storm, whereas in Alzheimer’s, you die from cytokine drizzle. “It is a long-term cytokine downside,” Bredesen says.
Excessive-Fructose Corn Syrup Down-Regulates ATP Manufacturing
Bredesen additionally highlights the significance of avoiding fructose. In March 2023, Dr. Richard Johnson, Bredesen, Dr. David Perlmutter and several other different co-authors printed a paper2 on Alzheimer’s illness as “a maladaptation of an evolutionary survival pathway mediated by intracerebral fructose and uric acid metabolism.”
• Fructose alerts the physique to retailer fats and scale back ATP manufacturing — When the physique metabolizes fructose, it interprets the sign as an power disaster, prompting fats storage and a lower in ATP manufacturing. In accordance with Bredesen:
“It’s actually the long-term analysis of Rick Johnson. You speak about mitochondrial operate, about harm to mitochondria. He is speaking a few change in sign. They’re each necessary. As he factors out, while you get that fructose, your physique is actually responding to it saying, ‘Winter is coming. We’re going to retailer fats and we will flip down your ATP by about 15%.’”
• Decrease ATP ranges contribute to cognitive decline — Because the mind is already energy-intensive, decreasing ATP manufacturing by 15% can push it right into a state of dysfunction, contributing to neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s illness.
• Fructose metabolism mirrors adjustments seen in Alzheimer’s illness — Analysis reveals that mind adjustments attributable to extreme fructose consumption parallel these seen in Alzheimer’s sufferers, making dietary decisions a necessary think about neurodegenerative illness prevention.
“Rick put collectively a complete desk taking a look at all of the relationships, adjustments in PET scans, adjustments in blood biomarkers. In every of those instances, what occurs with fructose is identical factor that occurs in Alzheimer’s illness.”
• Avoiding extreme fructose is vital to preserving mind energetics — Whereas pure fruit consumption sparsely just isn’t problematic, extreme consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and processed sources of fructose disrupts mind metabolism and accelerates cognitive decline.
“So once more, it comes again to the essential nature of the energetics, whether or not you are turning them down by taking an excessive amount of fructose and high-fructose corn syrup, which isn’t to say you may’t eat some fruit, it simply means you do not need to have large quantities of fructose.”
Fruit vs. Excessive-Fructose Corn Syrup
Right here too, my present views veer a bit. It’s necessary to grasp there’s a world of distinction between fructose from fruit and high-fructose corn syrup. I used to suggest limiting each sources, however I’ve modified my considering on this, as fructose from fruit prompts pyruvate dehydrogenase, which you’ll want to metabolize glucose from pyruvate to acetyl-CoA in your mitochondria. If that enzyme just isn’t activated, the glucose can’t be used for gasoline.
• The important thing to this riddle is the Randle cycle — This cycle mainly acts as a metabolic change. Your main fuels are fat and carbs, and the Randle cycle determines how your cells resolve which one to burn. When your food plan is greater than 30% to 35% fats, this change shifts to fats metabolism, so that you just’re burning fats in your mitochondria somewhat than glucose. The glucose as a substitute will get shuttled into glycolysis and any extra goes out into your blood.
• Consuming a number of fruit and a number of fats on the identical time just isn’t a good suggestion — In essence, fructose by itself just isn’t what’s inflicting the issue. Somewhat it’s consuming an excessive amount of fructose together with an excessive amount of fats. When you enhance your recent fruit consumption, you additionally have to decrease your fats consumption, or else the sugar can’t be used for gasoline.
• Particular person components affect carbohydrate tolerance — There are particular person variations in metabolic flexibility, toxicity and microbiome that seemingly contribute to an individual’s capacity to tolerate elevated carbohydrates.
• PUFs may additionally contribute to metabolic dysfunction — The opposite level of competition I’ve is that PUFs additionally seem to induce torpor (decreased physiological exercise marked by a lowered metabolic price), very like high-fructose corn syrup does. So, I believe ripe fruit just isn’t going to be a significant contributor to dementia.
• Fructose from fruit doesn’t behave like high-fructose corn syrup — In a earlier interview with Johnson, he additionally admitted being shocked that fructose from fruit didn’t have the identical results as high-fructose corn syrup. Bredesen replies:
“Sure. And it makes good sense. The fascinating factor to me is we’re frugivore (animals that thrive on uncooked fruits), we’re descended from frugivores. The issue now we have at present, after all, is that our fruit has been bred to have a a lot larger sugar content material. That is the difficulty.
However the excellent news is, it retains the fantastic fiber and, as you identified, it would not provide you with that impact that high-fructose corn syrup and processed meals provide you with.”
For a deeper take a look at the hazards of high-fructose corn syrup and why it ought to be eradicated from our meals provide, learn “Why Excessive-Fructose Corn Syrup Should Be Faraway from Our Meals.”
Methylene Blue, Niacinamide, NAC and Glycine
One remedy adjunct Bredesen favors is methylene blue, which is one thing I like to recommend for nearly anybody who needs to enhance their well being and reverse degenerative illness, primarily as a result of it’s so efficient at decreasing reductive stress.
• Methylene blue helps mitochondrial operate — It facilitates electron switch ahead within the mitochondria, thereby permitting ATP manufacturing to happen, even when the complexes are broken.
• Elevating NAD+ is necessary for power manufacturing — NAD+ is oxidized, not lowered, so it facilitates the switch of electrons ahead within the electron transport chain. Whereas there are costly precursors on the market, my favourite is apparent previous niacinamide, which is extremely cheap but raises NAD+ successfully.
• Analysis confirmed that niacinamide helps gradual mind growing old — For normal well being, I like to recommend taking 50 milligrams of niacinamide 3 times a day. Niacinamide additionally works synergistically with methylene blue.
• Dementia sufferers have low glutathione ranges — Publicity to mycotoxins or different toxins. Glutathione in its lowered kind is much less efficient, because the oxidized kind is required for optimum operate.
• The right way to make the precise glutathione molecule — You want each cysteine and glycine, so one method to enhance your glutathione degree could be to take glycine and N-acetylcysteine (NAC).
• Two different methods to get extra glycine into your food plan — Consuming “nostril to tail,” not together with muscle meat, or taking a collagen complement or gelatin powder will increase your glycine consumption. “Nostril to tail” refers to organ meats and connective tissues, that are wealthy in collagen. Collagen, in flip, makes up about one-third of the protein in your physique, so it’s extremely necessary. About 30% of the collagen and gelatin is glycine, so it’s a superb supply.
Precision Medication Program to Launch
Bredesen can be a part of a workforce launching a Precision Medication Program on the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, California. This system will work to forestall and deal with power circumstances in any respect levels, however will give attention to getting folks in for prevention and early remedy.
• Alzheimer’s progresses by 4 levels — Bredesen explains that Alzheimer’s illness develops regularly, transferring by distinct phases:
“Once you get Alzheimer’s, you undergo 4 levels. You undergo a presymptomatic part, and also you undergo subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) that lasts on common 10 years. For these areas, prevention and remedy are just about 100% efficient. We are able to stop, and we are able to reverse just about each time persons are in SCI.”
• Delicate cognitive impairment (MCI) is a late stage of Alzheimer’s — Regardless of its identify, MCI just isn’t delicate; it alerts vital illness development.
“MCI is the subsequent. It is too dangerous it is known as delicate cognitive impairment. It is like telling somebody they’ve mildly metastatic most cancers. It is a comparatively late stage of Alzheimer’s illness. Nonetheless, in our trial, we had 84% of these folks enhance,” mentioned Bredesen.
• Reversal is feasible, however more durable in later levels — Whereas some dementia sufferers enhance with remedy, success charges lower because the illness progresses.
“The ultimate stage is dementia. And we nonetheless see some folks with proof of dementia enhance. However the farther you go, the more durable it’s to get all of them the best way again. So, we encourage everybody, please are available in early.
We have had folks go from MoCA [Montreal cognitive assessment] scores of 18 to 30, which is incredible, from demented to regular. We have had folks go from zero to 9. However we have by no means seen anybody but be capable of go from zero MoCA, which is end-stage Alzheimer’s, to good 30 …”
• Even small enhancements are life-changing — Bredesen recollects a case the place a lady with end-stage Alzheimer’s regained independence, although full restoration was not potential:
“A man wrote me a nasty be aware a pair years in the past, saying ‘How dare you inform people who in the event that they’re too far alongside, they should not get on this protocol? My spouse had a MoCA rating of zero. She’s in a nursing house.
We used the protocol that you just developed, she solely went up a bit of bit, however her signs have been so a lot better.’ She may gown herself, she may converse once more, she may interact.”
• The perfect outcomes happen with early intervention — Whereas later-stage sufferers nonetheless see advantages, beginning remedy early presents the best probability of full reversal. Bredesen famous:
“So I do not say there is a restrict, however it’s a lot more durable beneath 16. You will get some dramatic subjective enhancements. And once more, we have seen folks go from 15 to 27. So, it does occur, it is simply that it’s more durable the longer you wait, which is why we encourage everybody to come back early. If all people would are available in in these first two phases — prevention or SCI — dementia could be a uncommon downside.”
On a associated be aware, revelations have known as into query long-standing Alzheimer’s analysis. To study extra about how flawed research might have misled the scientific group, learn “Landmark Alzheimer’s Examine Retracted After Proof of Knowledge Manipulation.”
Regularly Requested Questions (FAQs) About Alzheimer’s Prevention and Remedy
Q: Can Alzheimer’s be reversed?
A: Sure, Dr. Bredesen’s analysis reveals that addressing life-style components reverses cognitive decline in early levels, notably within the subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) part.
Q: Is beta-amyloid the primary reason behind Alzheimer’s?
A: No, beta-amyloid is a response to mind stress, not the basis trigger. The true drivers embrace irritation, infections, insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction.
Q: Why is fructose dangerous to mind well being?
A: Extra fructose, particularly from high-fructose corn syrup, reduces ATP manufacturing and triggers fats storage, which contributes to cognitive decline.
Q: Can infections contribute to Alzheimer’s?
A: Sure. Oral pathogens like P. gingivalis, herpes viruses and tick-borne infections gasoline power irritation and contribute to neurodegeneration.
Q: What dietary supplements assist help mind well being?
A: Methylene blue, niacinamide, NAC, glycine and high-quality omega-3s help mitochondrial operate and mind energetics.
