pinpoint its numerous drivers—from nutritional and hormonal deficiencies and exposure to infection to environ- mental toxins and harmful drugs—and attack them simultaneously. It’s a stark departure from the classic, often unsuc- cessful, one-pill treatment approach. Of the 244 clinical trials for Alzheimer’s drugs between 2002 and 2012, all but one failed.
STAY SHARPPowerful Ways to Avoid Mental Decline
by Lisa Marshall A
slow descent into dementia seemed inevitable for a 66-year- old man that had been misplac- ing his keys, missing appointments and struggling at work. He failed doctor- administered cognitive quizzes and tested positive for a gene variant linked to an exponentially higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease. A brain scan revealed scattered clusters of sticky, amyloid plaque—a hall- mark of the disease. His hippocampus, or memory center, had shrunk to rank in the lowest 17 percent of men his age. Told there wasn’t much that could be done, he sought the help of University of California, Los Angeles Alzheimer’s researcher Dale Bredesen, a neurologist and founding president of the independent Buck Institute for Research on Aging. He recommended a personalized, 36-point plan, including a high-fat/low-carb diet, intermittent fasting, strict sleep schedule, select
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dietary supplements and other lifestyle changes. Within three months, family members reported marked improve- ments in his memory. At 10 months, brain scans revealed his hippocampus had grown 12 percent. “Such improvements are unprec-
edented,” says Bredesen, who described this and nine other hopeful cases in a provocative paper published in June in the journal Aging. “These are the first ex- amples of a reversal of cognitive decline in pre- and early Alzheimer’s patients.”
Addressing the Sources Bredesen is among a small but grow- ing group of researchers, physicians, caregivers and patients challenging the conventional wisdom that the road to dementia goes one way, with no cure or repair of damage done. They argue that the key to both prevention and reversal, at least in early stages, is to
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“Imagine having a roof with 36 holes in it, and your drug patched one hole. You still have 35 leaks,” says Bredesen, who believes his synergistic approach—the Bredesen Protocol—can likely make Alzheimer’s drugs work bet- ter or render them unnecessary. Skepti- cal colleagues point out that Bredesen’s paper described only 10 case studies, not a clinical trial. “It is intriguing, but not enough to make recommenda- tions to physicians or patients,” says Keith Fargo, Ph.D., director of scientific programs and outreach for the Chicago- based Alzheimer’s Association. “The current consensus in the scientific com- munity is that we do not have a way to reverse dementia.”
While agreeing that a larger study is needed, Neurologist David Perlmutter, of Naples, Florida, whose bestsellers Brain Maker and Grain Brain promote nutritional changes for supporting brain health, considers Bredesen’s study revo- lutionary. “To reverse Alzheimer’s in one patient is monumental, much less 10,” says Perlmutter. They recently presented together at a conference organized by Sharp Again Naturally, a New York nonprofit that educates patients and caregivers about natural means of slowing and reversing cognitive decline.
After losing her mother to Al-
zheimer’s, the nonprofit’s co-founder, Jacqui Bishop, 74, stopped her own frightening decline by changing her diet and getting her thyroid hormone levels under control via supplements. Now she’s helping others do the same. She says, “We are trying to change the conversation from one of despair to one of hope.”
Mending Body and Brain Key to Bredesen’s approach is the no- tion that instead of being one disease, Alzheimer’s consists of three sub-types with distinct drivers: inflammation or
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