"Reversing Alzheimer’s Disease" is a presentation by Dr. Dale Bredesen, MD that took place at Silicon Valley Health Institute on November 17, 2016.
Alzheimer’s disease affects 5 million people in the U.S. and about 30 million worldwide. Until now, the prognosis seemed poor for this population Dale Bredesen MD, the founding president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, has developed a program which has had success in reversing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. His research model addresses several possible disease components at once (diet, exercise, etc.) rather than testing one drug at a time to rule out the effects from other drugs or interventions. Bredesen says that studying one drug at a time is like patching one hole in a roof that has dozens of holes.
Dr. Bredesen sees Alzheimer’s disease,- as an imbalance rather than a toxicity resulting in amyloid beta plaques which block nerve cell signaling and lead to memory loss. Amyloid beta, he and others say, also has a normal function in the brain, performing important roles, such as helping the brain’s plasticity – how nerve cells signal to make and store memories and delete unneeded ones.
After intense testing of a patient, Dr. Bredesen determines which factors have gone awry, and personalizes a program to correct the issues.
Among the measures he recommends:
A diet that eliminates processed foods and other unhealthy ingredients, and boosts fruits, vegetables and healthy fish
Stress reduction with meditation, yoga, music or other means
Eight hours of sleep a night
At least 30 minutes of exercise four to six times a week
Very good oral hygiene
Improvement of gut health with probiotics and prebiotics
Fasting for 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, and three hours or more between dinner and bedtime, to keep insulin levels low
Published in the September Journal Aging, he did a study on ten patients. Nine of the 10 patients improved. Six who had been on leave from work or were struggling with work due to memory loss and other Alzheimer’s-related issues returned or improved their work performance. The one patient who did not improve was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. One 67 year old patient is still doing well after three years. She had a demanding job when her memory issues surfaced. She couldn’t finish work reports properly and would even forget her longtime pets’ names. Within months of beginning the program, she was doing well at work. “Four times she went off the program and each time she got worse. When she went back on, she went back to normal.”
Dr. Bredesen hopes to start a clinical trial this year. He also hopes to launch a program where interested patients could learn how to follow it during a one-week intensive stay, returning periodically for progress checks and program tweaks. The Alzheimer’s Association cautions against Alzheimer’s patients trying to self-start Bredesen’s program. That’s despite the fact that the Association recommends some of the program features for better brain health.