Every three seconds around the world, someone is diagnosed with dementia. In Auckland alone, 10,000 people suffer with it and this number is expected to double over the next 20 years.
Dale E. Bredesen M.D. is a professor of neurology at the Easton Laboratories for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at UCLA Los Angeles. With Alzheimer’s often referred to as diabetes 3, it’s not surprising that in Dr Bredesen’s book ‘The End of Alzheimer’s’ he has a lot to say about why we need to change our way of eating in order to limit the potential for cognitive decline. Researchers at Brown University in the U.S. say that people who develop diabetes 2 before the age of 65 are more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s as those without the disease, and the higher a person’s carbohydrate intake, the greater the chance of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia.
A key plank of Dr Bredesen’s ‘Recode’ protocol is the ‘Ketoflex’ diet, which is based on the Ketogenic diet and is often used very effectively for treating epilepsy. New Zealand cardiologist Dr Gerald Lewis has written a superb book (The Ketogenic Lifestyle) for anyone interested in learning about this remarkable approach to regaining health. It’s available on his website www.drgeraldlewis.com
There is another significant risk factor for cognitive impairment and that is the accumulation of heavy metals in the brain, particularly mercury. It’s interesting to contemplate that many ‘baby boomers’ have had a mouth full of mercury amalgams since the early days of primary school. Dental amalgams are comprised of 50 percent elemental mercury. This form of mercury evaporates from the surface of the amalgam and is inhaled, absorbed into the blood, and then converted to inorganic mercury, the most toxic form of mercury to cells.
Inorganic mercury builds up far more in your organs of elimination. It's 100 times as high in your kidneys and liver than in your brain. But when it does make its way into your brain, it's far more damaging than any other form. Mercury is lipophilic, meaning that it concentrates in fatty tissues. Type ‘smoking teeth’ into Google to watch a shocking YouTube video. I had a total of 15 amalgams, which I had removed some years ago.
Testing for an individual’s mercury level is done with a six-hour urine sample, which is sent to 'Doctors Data' in the U.S. Your GP or naturopath can arrange this.
Dr Mark Hyman is an American doctor with a keen interest in heavy metal detoxification. He has a series of excellent YouTube talks about this. Some of us are very good at detoxifying mercury and other toxins, while some of us store toxins like a toxic waste dump. Genetic variations (called polymorphisms) make some people more prone to metal toxicity.
One of these, APOE4, is known as the ‘Alzheimer’s gene’. People with this APOE4 variant struggle to get rid of mercury from their brains, contributing to its toxic effects on this organ. As I see it, testing for APOE variants should be routine and funded by the health system.
While there are many other potential risk factors for Alzheimer’s, there is some interesting research that links Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (think cold sores). Ruth Itzhaki, a professor of Molecular Neurobiology at Manchester University, says, "in 1997 we showed that HSV1, confers a strong risk of Alzheimer’s disease when present in the brain of people who have a specific gene known as APOE4. The virus can become active in the brain, perhaps repeatedly, and this probably causes cumulative damage." Prof. Itzhaki says, "the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease is 12 times greater for APOE4 carriers who have HSV1 in the brain." Apparently, successful prevention of Alzheimer’s disease by use of specific anti-herpes agents has now been demonstrated in a large-scale population study in Taiwan.
Nutritional supplementation is also something that shouldn’t be overlooked. My A-list is coconut oil, curcumin, boswellia, high potency omega 3, B vitamins, glutathione,
R-Lipoic Acid and an exciting new form of magnesium known as magnesium L- Threonate.
John Appleton
john@johnappleton.co.nz www.johnappleton.co.nz
09 489 9362
