There is growing evidence that Alzheimer’s is a metabolic disease. Some are even calling it type three diabetes. In fact, having type two diabetes drastically increases your odds of Alzheimer’s. We know how to reverse metabolic disease with diet and lifestyle. However, there is no money in this so I doubt there will be much funding for research.
The trouble is, everyone has a suggestion that “shows promise” or “may work” or “might lead to significant breakthroughs in five or ten years”.
The bottom line is, clinicians don’t really know. When there’s a demonstrably effective, clinically proven cure, we’ll know.
Good point, however the dietary and lifestyle changes are free. No harm in trying, unless you’re one of those people who fell for the food pyramid propaganda and think processed carbs are an essential nutrient and dietary fat will kill you.
Also, lifestyle and dietary changes don’t take five or ten years to work. They take weeks and months.
j watson
14 days ago
On this theme, I’d recommend Venki Ramikrishnan’s book ‘Why We Die?’. It’s dense in places on molecular and cellular biology and the latest science but hugely interesting.
Much as Authors here highlight there are some proper ‘snake oil merchants’ out there. Cellular science and marketing claims about the latest genetic discovery are way out ahead of proper longitudinal, peer reviewed research. One example was the establishment by a certain MIT Researcher of Elixir Pharmaceuticals (yep the name is giveaway you’d have thought) bought by Glaxo-Welcome for c£750m and then the science debunked and the ideas quietly dropped.
The other fascinating insight is the apparent evolutionary cellular development in humans that seems to ‘trade off’ potential cancer vs aging. V simply – development on anti-aging might have some unintended consequences.
The ‘basics’ of what you can do to ‘age well’ remain. Having lucky genes clearly helps too.
Worth having a look at ‘The Dropout’ mini-series. Based on and sticking pretty close to the true story of a multi-billion medical diagnostic startup, Theranos. The company was essentially based on wishful thinking.
Absolutely correct. Given reasonable genes, the rest is mainly down to lifelong habits, not trying to recover from decades of taking too little care of diet and exercise (both physical and mental) without becoming obsessive over either.
Indeed LL. Nonetheless were it poss to do something about the complex protein cellular issue that seems to drive Alzheimers the consequences for people and health and social care systems would be immense. The science is less clear whether the classic healthy living choices make much difference in this instance, but you can at least load the dice as much as poss in your favour without making the latest snake oil seller rich at the same time.
jane baker
14 days ago
In the 1960s nobody had Alzheimers. The old people in my neighbourhood were sharp as knives. Now the words “old age,” and “dementia” are linked together as securely as the words “old” and “poor” are in 18th century tax documents. I think this is yet another example of “create a problem,tell everyone they have it,then sell them the solution”. It’s basically a pile of horse shit.
It’s natural to lose physical strength as you get older,it’s natural to be a little more forgetful,it’s natural to rest more,human life is about Being not Doing.
Life expectancy was markedly lower in the 1960s. Few very old people meant fewer cases of dementia. Now, we routinely see people living into their late eighties, nineties, and even beyond. (My neighbour is 104.)
I was the sole carer for my two dementia-afflicted parents, so please don’t write that this is a “created problem”. It certainly wasn’t one when my father was unable to remember events from five minutes earlier, when my mother was utterly convinced I was her husband (that was fun), or when she saw snakes, dolls and other creatures “walking across the floor”.
Dementia is a plague, for family members as well as patients. The brain physically shrinks and atrophies. It isn’t going to be fixed by a piece of lettuce and a brisk walk.
“Life expectancy” is not a universal number. My grandmothers reached their mid-90s, one grandfather was close to 90, and the other was past 70 when he died. I’ve been where you were with my mother, who did not live as long as her mother, and no, it was not pleasant.
Is it created, is it the result of how food has dramatically changed in the past 100 years, or is it something else? I don’t know and the alleged experts don’t know, either. I do know mom’s sister lived to 97 with barely a cognitive slip, so something happened. But it’s not a function of longer lifespans.
This condition–since sometimes the affected individual does not feel “afflicted”, though family and friends probably will–has certainly become more, both in frequency and (of course) sheer numbers. As you suggest, no one truly knows why, at least yet, and there are probably multiple factors at work. I believe one of those factors is the rising prevalence of living past the age of 80.
You’re anecdotal sample size of one (your aunt) has a measure of evidential validity. My grandmother, who died at 94 in 2020 (pre global outbreak), was quite lucid until about age 90, then declined a great deal, though not totally. My grandfather on the other side was a vigorous farmer until about 80, but once he could no longer work in the same way, then had his truck keys taken away by his own children (with good cause), his decline was swift and he had essentially unraveled in the head by the time he died at 88.
It wasn’t rare for people in times past to go senile, whether that would have earned the modern label of Alzheimer’s or not. Circa 1600, when Shakespeare described “last scene of all” of The Seven Ages of Man as being one of “second childishness and mere oblivion”, he was not taking of a new, or rare phenomenon. Perhaps he was, in a grim sense, fortunate to die at 52.
Well,both my parents kept their wits to the very end and I’m not waving the White Flag to Compassion Blackmail. That was your problem and trial or blessing if being of service and caring for your parents is a noble blessing. Instead of an irritating unwanted imposition.
Yes,back in the 1960s before electric lights and them horseless carriages you was lucky to make 45.
I used to visit my elderly relatives in nursing homes in the early 70’s. There were plenty of dementia patients there. One sad lady took off all her clothes and ran down the hall. My own grandpa passed in 1978 with dementia. It existed.
Saul D
14 days ago
Did I just read that people are paying thousands of pounds for a therapy that is just do a bit of exercise and eat healthier food?
I’ve found the keto diet, with plenty of green vegetables, that includes meat, oily fish, dairy, but no processed food in cardboard packets :), has cleared my mind, for the better, so I can think clearly and enjoy life, rather than just being grateful for surviving. But that’s just me. People are different, so blanket treatments aren’t always possible.
If the Establishment dismisses investigations made outside their bubble, with the NHS continuing to promote a 30% Carbohydrate diet, for all, while still entranced by the ‘pill for every ill’ mantra so loved by the Socialist MIC, the Medical Industrial Complex, no wonder that alternate treatment, outside the state system, can be priced so highly.
But this irrationality is happening in other areas, like the global medical interventions, the multitude of NET Zero policies, and so many more. Sometimes, the current practice needs to be tested: that what having a Science based approach means.
True, one size does not fit all but eliminating processed carbs, sugars and seed oils benefits everybody.
David Dansky
14 days ago
Please avoid using the term ‘suffer/suffering’ in relation to people with dementia. That may be your construing, not every person living with dementia see themselves as suffering
But he does have a point. It’s often the view of close relations and the ‘care’ industry rather than the person with Alzheimers – and yes, it does matter.
My point is a general point about how we talk about people with a disability, be it physical cognitive (like dementia), or sensory. It’s not on us to judge how someone feels about themselves. Dementia has many forms and people are affected in different ways. (It’s sometimes the family and carers who ‘suffer’ more than the people with dementia)
I work with people with dementia offering various dementia inclusive activities. I see a lot of joy experienced by people with dementia
Johann Strauss
14 days ago
The two so-called “wonder drugs”, lecanemab and donanemab, don’t work and have nasty side effects. i.e. no evidence from randomized controlled trials that these are effective, but they sure cost a fortune, enough to bankrupt the only bankrupt NHS!!. As for the Bredensen protocol who knows. It could easily be tested in a randomized controlled trial. That being said, there is nothing in there that is either harmful or expensive, other than the visits to the clinic which are not needed.
Maybe if mainstream medicine would provide the basic help for people to help themselves (give the agency rather than telling them what to do) rather than prescribing tablets, there will be less need for these clinics.
When it comes to evidence, this is still a lure many walk into: there is very little good evidence for the efficacy of modern pills…
Susie Bell
14 days ago
For ‘high quality research’ read big Pharma new meds. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2021, given drugs, but became worse and is in a residential facility. She is mostly happy and secure there and the staff try hard to keep residents brains engaged with activities but they will not give my mother the vitamins I want her to have because ‘the doctor didn’t prescribe them’. She must remember to take them herself! I also think the nutrition regime is less than ideal as residents are on a constant diet of sugar. Biscuits, cakes, puddings etc. I know the dopamine hit of sugar gives some contentment but long term it is destructive. My Mother and my Father in law (now dead) are/were anxious stressed types and I believe that has been a large contributory factor for their decline. But no one is researching such matters. I am also interested that both of my family members and all of their fellows in the institutions they lived in were war time children. The wartime rations for children were very good and should have sustained them but often a lot of their ration was consumed by adults in the family with the children filling up on bread and jam. Given the current state of children’s diets in Britain I think it is essential that this possible connection is explored.
Lillian Fry
14 days ago
The amyloid plaque theory as cause of Alzheimer’s has led us nowhere. There are other theories – herpes virus and gut bacteria for example, but it’s hard to get funding for further study. I believe we will find that Alzheimer’s has multiple causes and there may not be a single cure. Interesting study: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01824-1
Agree LF.
Hopefully we’ve passed the ‘magic gene we can correct’ stage of sales pitch.
Alex Lekas
14 days ago
Having watched a relative take this journey and hearing anecdotal evidence from others, no, the treatments do not work. Not because of malfeasance or incompetence, but because science is not yet and some things remain beyond its reach.
The sudden explosion of Alzheimer’s and dementia is curious, just like the sudden explosion of weird allergies among young people and the increased prevalence of people found to be somewhere on the spectrum, a number big enough that a word was created for this cohort – neurodivergent.
Years ago, they were socially awkward people who were a bit off but otherwise functioned normally. Of course, this was also when kids when bona fide cognitive and learning issues were in special classes, not the mainstream. Today, we’re drugging kids who are perhaps a bit fidgety, because someone apparently decided that never happened before, with no idea of what the prolonged medication will do.
His comments are reasonable (though a bit garbled), irrespective of whether one agrees with them (which I don’t). They aren’t offensive. Trying to shut down debate by the use of the ‘offence’ word is not constructive.
Robin Whittle
14 days ago
According to: https://fastlifehacks.com/bredesen-protocol/ the Bredesen Protocol aims to a attain at a level of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D which is perfectly healthy: 50 to 80 ng/mL. 25-hydroxyvitamin D is made, primarily in the liver, by hydroxylating vitamin D3 cholecalciferol. This is what is measured in “vitamin D” blood tests. Multiply by 2.5 to get the units used in the UK: 125 to 200 nmol/L. This is much higher than the 20 ng mL (50 nmol/L) which the kidneys need to regulate calcium-bone metabolism, which is the level governments and many doctors think is adequate for health. However, at least 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L is needed for proper immune system function.
The daily supplemental quantities of vitamin D suggested in the above page are inadequate to attain 50 to 80 ng/mL.
It would be difficult or impossible to reverse neurodgeneration. The most important step everyone needs to take, to greatly reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of neurodegeneration is to supplement vitamin D3 in sufficient quantities to attain at least 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L circulating 25-hydroxyviamin D. With proper vitamin D3 supplementation, many people have half to 1/10th of this.
Ayers et al. 2022 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2113489119 showed that Parkinson’s disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy (MSA) all involve misfolded (prion) alpha-synuclein tangles and that the structure of the misfolding was different in each of these three diseases.
Ogura et al. 2021, in Japan https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405650221000617 showed that MSA sufferers averaged 10.5 ng/mL (26 nmol/L) circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D and that PD sufferers averaged 13.4 ng/mL (34 nmol/L), while healthy controls averaged 27 ng/mL (67 nmol/L). PD does not lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D, so the causality is from low 25-hydroxyvitamin D to neurodegeneration. (p = 0.0001).
The immune system needs at least 50 ng/mL (125 nmol/L) to function properly. This cannot be attained with the UK government’s lousy 0.015 mg (600 IU) a day recommendation for supplemental vitamin D3.
Inadequate circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D is the greatest single preventable cause of human disease and other forms of ill-health, in all or almost all countries. Only a fraction of the Earth’s population have the 25-hydroxyvitamin D they need for full immune system function. They get it from UV-B exposure to ideally white skin (only possible year round near the equator, and it always raises the risk of cancer, since it damages DNA) and/or from proper amounts of supplemental vitamin D3 cholecalciferol. There is nowhere near enough vitamin D3 in food to raise 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to more than a fraction of what the immune system needs.
Most medical professionals are not at all interested in this. Important research which challenges their drug, vaccine and surgery centric view of improving health is like water off a duck’s back. Likewise immunologists.
70 to 90 IU / kg body weight for those not suffering from obesity (BMI < 30).
100 to 130 IU / kg body weight for obesity I & II (BMI 30 to 39).
140 to 180 IU / kg body weight for obesity III (BMI > 39).
For 70 kg (154 lb) without obesity, this is about 0.125 milligrams (5000 IU) a day. This takes several months to attain the desired > 50 ng/mL circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D. This is 8 or more times what most governments recommend. “5000 IU” sounds like a lot, but it is a gram every 22 years – and pharma grade vitamin D costs about USD$2.50 a gram ex-factory.
Neither vitamin D3 nor 25-hydroxyvitamin D are hormones – they are not signaling compounds. Calcitriol functions as a hormone when it is produced by the kidneys. In immune cells, when calcitriol is produced, in response to the detection of a cell-type-specific condition, in intracrine (within a single cell) signaling, it acts as an intracrine agent, by altering the transcription of genes (and so the protein production and overall behaviour) of that individual cell. This is unrelated to hormonal signaling. The common statement that “vitamin D is a hormone” is completely incorrect – Vieth 2004 https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.jsbmb.2004.03.037.
Robin Greenhalgh
14 days ago
Regrettably medicine is all about treating symptoms and making money. Big pharma has infiltrated everywhere and sells the idea that only they have the answers, only they are science and everything else is rubbish, quackery or dangerous and doctors follow them like sheep because that is what they’ve been taught to do. Some wake up and realise that big pharma just lie and falsify tests to sell their latest inventions : vioxx is an example. Pr Even and Pr Debre in France published a directory of the 4000+ medicines on sale in France and about 50% are either useless or dangerous but their sales are about 15 billion a year. The placebo effect is almost as strong as the drug itself. What pharma should be forced to do is put a success rate on their packaging so if it’s only got a 30% chance of success and the side effects aren’t too bad you might decide to take the risk, but if death/suicide is one of the side effects you might decide not to.
anna m
13 days ago
We signed up to a Bredesen practitioner here in NZ to help my father with his rapid onset dementia.
It cost us tens of thousands, but we were desperate to help dad.
We ended up firing the practitioner because we felt fleeced. His knowledge of the research did not appear to exceed what we had already learned from reading widely in the literature.
We implemented a bunch of things ourselves: a clean keto (largely carnivore) diet, hyperbaric oxygen, light therapy, supplements.
A year ago my dad couldn’t hold a conversation and was suffering delusions. Now he still forgets some words, but can converse with clarify. It’s like he is back in the room. It’s wonderful, and hopefully he has some great years ahead of him.
The knowledge required to achieve this should not be so prohibitively expensive. I would feel sick charging desperate people so much. I just don’t understand how they can charge so much. All the information is publicly available in the literature (especially if you use SciHub).
To anyone out there with a loved one suffering from dementia – please consider that there may be a lot you can do with diet and lifestyle. It takes work, but doesn’t need to cost a fortune.
Lindsey Thornton
12 days ago
What a very strange headline photo but it does reflect the rather dystopian fears surrounding dementia; and why I think more people want to see assisted dying legalised as they’ve given up on Big Pharma finding the magic pill.
When my mother was diagnosed with dementia in 2015 I became her main carer and immediately registered for a series of workshops at the ‘Contented Dementia Trust’ in Burford to learn the SPECAL Method (Specialised Early Care for Alzheimer’s); it was a revelation, no need for drugs, the treatment is designed around the person with dementia having a disability which can be managed successfully with highly personalised care with the family in charge, led by the person with dementia, so no need for medical ‘professionals’ or drugs. And this is why The Alzheimer’s Society hates this small charity and has proscribed the SPECAL Method, even though they initially funded the research. You can find out more on the website: http://www.contenteddementiatrust.org or read about it in Contented Dementia by Oliver James. My Mum lived very well at home with dementia for 5 years after diagnosis before going into a care home where she soon settled in because she had none of the usual anxiety associated with dementia. Here is something that truly works and doesn’t cost a lot, just time and effort for me to get on her wavelength and understand that I needed to change my behaviour towards her because of her disability, rather than carrying on as before waiting for ‘the cure’.
Andrew Daws
12 days ago
‘Bresenden’s claims are largely based on poor science…’
is the author also a sufferer?
Lindsey Thornton
11 days ago
What a very strange headline photo but it does reflect the rather dystopian fears surrounding dementia; and why I think more people want to see assisted dying legalised as they’ve given up on Big Pharma finding the magic pill.
When my mother was diagnosed with dementia in 2015 I became her main carer and immediately registered for a series of workshops at the ‘Contented Dementia Trust’ in Burford to learn the SPECAL Method (Specialised Early Care for Alzheimer’s); it was a revelation, no need for drugs, the treatment is designed around the person with dementia having a disability which can be managed successfully with highly personalised care with the family in charge, led by the person with dementia, so no need for medical ‘professionals’ or drugs. And this is why The Alzheimer’s Society hates this charity and has proscribed the SPECAL Method, even though they initially funded the research. You can find out more on the website: http://www.contenteddementiatrust.org or read about it in Contented Dementia by Oliver James. My Mum lived very well at home with dementia for 5 years after diagnosis before going into a care home where she soon settled in because she had none of the usual anxiety associated with dementia. Here is something that truly works and doesn’t cost a lot, just time and effort for me to get on her wavelength and understand that I needed to change my behaviour towards her because of her disability, rather than carrying on as before waiting for ‘the cure’.
As long as there is someone (with backup) who can give very focused, person-centric care, then I would tend to endorse what you say.
V Solar
10 days ago
This is a reply to Jane Baker (the site would not allow me to reply directly for some reason)
‘it’s natural to be a little more forgetful’
How fortunate you are to have had no experience of Alzheimer’s disease.
My mother had it for five years before she died. Clearly you have no idea how serious and how awful it is. Our brains do more than remember people’s names or where we left our keys. Our whole sense of self is made up of long term memories, you need access to them to know who you are, where you are in time and who other people are in relation to you. You need short term memory to orientate yourself real-time in the world around you, i.e to know where you are, what’s happening to you, to keep hold of what someone has just said to you or what you yourself have just said to them. A short term memory that lasts 1 minute gets you nowhere. Brain damage affects all a person’s relationships as ability to recall words to make complete sentences becomes impossible. All parts of the brain can be affected including the brain stem that affects metabolism, leading weird eating patterns or inability to swallow, signals relating to bodily awareness such as bowel movemments and urination are lost which undermines dignity and there can be severe sleep disturbance, people wander around and get lost. In the later stages the symptoms of Alzheimer’s make it impossible for people to express psychological, emotional or physical pain which sometimes causes them to lash out violently.
This kind of mental decline is absolutely nothing like age related forgtfulness. It is more like a slow motion decay of a person’s consciousness. It is devastating for the sufferer and for their family and friends. It’s as if the body of love you share is rotting like a corpse right there in front of you and you’re desperate to stop it happening but you can’t. It is a cruel, horrible illness and the experience of caring for someone undergoing it is hearbreaking. The ignorance of your comment made me want to scream and cry. All I can say is visit a demential ward and see for yourself why people will do anything to stave off this terrible disease.
UnHerd Reader
6 days ago
Incisive journalism which provides a model example of critical thinking. Thank you.
There is growing evidence that Alzheimer’s is a metabolic disease. Some are even calling it type three diabetes. In fact, having type two diabetes drastically increases your odds of Alzheimer’s. We know how to reverse metabolic disease with diet and lifestyle. However, there is no money in this so I doubt there will be much funding for research.
The trouble is, everyone has a suggestion that “shows promise” or “may work” or “might lead to significant breakthroughs in five or ten years”.
The bottom line is, clinicians don’t really know. When there’s a demonstrably effective, clinically proven cure, we’ll know.
Good point, however the dietary and lifestyle changes are free. No harm in trying, unless you’re one of those people who fell for the food pyramid propaganda and think processed carbs are an essential nutrient and dietary fat will kill you.
Also, lifestyle and dietary changes don’t take five or ten years to work. They take weeks and months.
On this theme, I’d recommend Venki Ramikrishnan’s book ‘Why We Die?’. It’s dense in places on molecular and cellular biology and the latest science but hugely interesting.
Much as Authors here highlight there are some proper ‘snake oil merchants’ out there. Cellular science and marketing claims about the latest genetic discovery are way out ahead of proper longitudinal, peer reviewed research. One example was the establishment by a certain MIT Researcher of Elixir Pharmaceuticals (yep the name is giveaway you’d have thought) bought by Glaxo-Welcome for c£750m and then the science debunked and the ideas quietly dropped.
The other fascinating insight is the apparent evolutionary cellular development in humans that seems to ‘trade off’ potential cancer vs aging. V simply – development on anti-aging might have some unintended consequences.
The ‘basics’ of what you can do to ‘age well’ remain. Having lucky genes clearly helps too.
Worth having a look at ‘The Dropout’ mini-series. Based on and sticking pretty close to the true story of a multi-billion medical diagnostic startup, Theranos. The company was essentially based on wishful thinking.
Absolutely correct. Given reasonable genes, the rest is mainly down to lifelong habits, not trying to recover from decades of taking too little care of diet and exercise (both physical and mental) without becoming obsessive over either.
Indeed LL. Nonetheless were it poss to do something about the complex protein cellular issue that seems to drive Alzheimers the consequences for people and health and social care systems would be immense. The science is less clear whether the classic healthy living choices make much difference in this instance, but you can at least load the dice as much as poss in your favour without making the latest snake oil seller rich at the same time.
In the 1960s nobody had Alzheimers. The old people in my neighbourhood were sharp as knives. Now the words “old age,” and “dementia” are linked together as securely as the words “old” and “poor” are in 18th century tax documents. I think this is yet another example of “create a problem,tell everyone they have it,then sell them the solution”. It’s basically a pile of horse shit.
It’s natural to lose physical strength as you get older,it’s natural to be a little more forgetful,it’s natural to rest more,human life is about Being not Doing.
Life expectancy was markedly lower in the 1960s. Few very old people meant fewer cases of dementia. Now, we routinely see people living into their late eighties, nineties, and even beyond. (My neighbour is 104.)
I was the sole carer for my two dementia-afflicted parents, so please don’t write that this is a “created problem”. It certainly wasn’t one when my father was unable to remember events from five minutes earlier, when my mother was utterly convinced I was her husband (that was fun), or when she saw snakes, dolls and other creatures “walking across the floor”.
Dementia is a plague, for family members as well as patients. The brain physically shrinks and atrophies. It isn’t going to be fixed by a piece of lettuce and a brisk walk.
“Life expectancy” is not a universal number. My grandmothers reached their mid-90s, one grandfather was close to 90, and the other was past 70 when he died. I’ve been where you were with my mother, who did not live as long as her mother, and no, it was not pleasant.
Is it created, is it the result of how food has dramatically changed in the past 100 years, or is it something else? I don’t know and the alleged experts don’t know, either. I do know mom’s sister lived to 97 with barely a cognitive slip, so something happened. But it’s not a function of longer lifespans.
This condition–since sometimes the affected individual does not feel “afflicted”, though family and friends probably will–has certainly become more, both in frequency and (of course) sheer numbers. As you suggest, no one truly knows why, at least yet, and there are probably multiple factors at work. I believe one of those factors is the rising prevalence of living past the age of 80.
You’re anecdotal sample size of one (your aunt) has a measure of evidential validity. My grandmother, who died at 94 in 2020 (pre global outbreak), was quite lucid until about age 90, then declined a great deal, though not totally. My grandfather on the other side was a vigorous farmer until about 80, but once he could no longer work in the same way, then had his truck keys taken away by his own children (with good cause), his decline was swift and he had essentially unraveled in the head by the time he died at 88.
It wasn’t rare for people in times past to go senile, whether that would have earned the modern label of Alzheimer’s or not. Circa 1600, when Shakespeare described “last scene of all” of The Seven Ages of Man as being one of “second childishness and mere oblivion”, he was not taking of a new, or rare phenomenon. Perhaps he was, in a grim sense, fortunate to die at 52.
Well,both my parents kept their wits to the very end and I’m not waving the White Flag to Compassion Blackmail. That was your problem and trial or blessing if being of service and caring for your parents is a noble blessing. Instead of an irritating unwanted imposition.
Yes,back in the 1960s before electric lights and them horseless carriages you was lucky to make 45.
I used to visit my elderly relatives in nursing homes in the early 70’s. There were plenty of dementia patients there. One sad lady took off all her clothes and ran down the hall. My own grandpa passed in 1978 with dementia. It existed.
Did I just read that people are paying thousands of pounds for a therapy that is just do a bit of exercise and eat healthier food?
The help with all this is available for free on YouTube, via interested doctor’s sites.
Might just work. When you pay thousands of pounds, you’re probably more likely to stick to the plan. Free advice is considered worthless.
Bingo.
I’ve found the keto diet, with plenty of green vegetables, that includes meat, oily fish, dairy, but no processed food in cardboard packets :), has cleared my mind, for the better, so I can think clearly and enjoy life, rather than just being grateful for surviving. But that’s just me. People are different, so blanket treatments aren’t always possible.
If the Establishment dismisses investigations made outside their bubble, with the NHS continuing to promote a 30% Carbohydrate diet, for all, while still entranced by the ‘pill for every ill’ mantra so loved by the Socialist MIC, the Medical Industrial Complex, no wonder that alternate treatment, outside the state system, can be priced so highly.
But this irrationality is happening in other areas, like the global medical interventions, the multitude of NET Zero policies, and so many more. Sometimes, the current practice needs to be tested: that what having a Science based approach means.
I’m a health coach specializing in ancestral lifestyles and I approve of this message. 🙂
I’m hypoglycemic and if I go no carb I can’t get off the floor the next day. Not everyone is the same.
True, one size does not fit all but eliminating processed carbs, sugars and seed oils benefits everybody.
Please avoid using the term ‘suffer/suffering’ in relation to people with dementia. That may be your construing, not every person living with dementia see themselves as suffering
I’m fairly sure none see themselves as thriving. Seriously, THAT is your point?
But he does have a point. It’s often the view of close relations and the ‘care’ industry rather than the person with Alzheimers – and yes, it does matter.
My point is a general point about how we talk about people with a disability, be it physical cognitive (like dementia), or sensory. It’s not on us to judge how someone feels about themselves. Dementia has many forms and people are affected in different ways. (It’s sometimes the family and carers who ‘suffer’ more than the people with dementia)
I work with people with dementia offering various dementia inclusive activities. I see a lot of joy experienced by people with dementia
The two so-called “wonder drugs”, lecanemab and donanemab, don’t work and have nasty side effects. i.e. no evidence from randomized controlled trials that these are effective, but they sure cost a fortune, enough to bankrupt the only bankrupt NHS!!. As for the Bredensen protocol who knows. It could easily be tested in a randomized controlled trial. That being said, there is nothing in there that is either harmful or expensive, other than the visits to the clinic which are not needed.
Maybe if mainstream medicine would provide the basic help for people to help themselves (give the agency rather than telling them what to do) rather than prescribing tablets, there will be less need for these clinics.
When it comes to evidence, this is still a lure many walk into: there is very little good evidence for the efficacy of modern pills…
For ‘high quality research’ read big Pharma new meds. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2021, given drugs, but became worse and is in a residential facility. She is mostly happy and secure there and the staff try hard to keep residents brains engaged with activities but they will not give my mother the vitamins I want her to have because ‘the doctor didn’t prescribe them’. She must remember to take them herself! I also think the nutrition regime is less than ideal as residents are on a constant diet of sugar. Biscuits, cakes, puddings etc. I know the dopamine hit of sugar gives some contentment but long term it is destructive. My Mother and my Father in law (now dead) are/were anxious stressed types and I believe that has been a large contributory factor for their decline. But no one is researching such matters. I am also interested that both of my family members and all of their fellows in the institutions they lived in were war time children. The wartime rations for children were very good and should have sustained them but often a lot of their ration was consumed by adults in the family with the children filling up on bread and jam. Given the current state of children’s diets in Britain I think it is essential that this possible connection is explored.
The amyloid plaque theory as cause of Alzheimer’s has led us nowhere. There are other theories – herpes virus and gut bacteria for example, but it’s hard to get funding for further study. I believe we will find that Alzheimer’s has multiple causes and there may not be a single cure. Interesting study:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01824-1
Agree LF.
Hopefully we’ve passed the ‘magic gene we can correct’ stage of sales pitch.
Having watched a relative take this journey and hearing anecdotal evidence from others, no, the treatments do not work. Not because of malfeasance or incompetence, but because science is not yet and some things remain beyond its reach.
The sudden explosion of Alzheimer’s and dementia is curious, just like the sudden explosion of weird allergies among young people and the increased prevalence of people found to be somewhere on the spectrum, a number big enough that a word was created for this cohort – neurodivergent.
Years ago, they were socially awkward people who were a bit off but otherwise functioned normally. Of course, this was also when kids when bona fide cognitive and learning issues were in special classes, not the mainstream. Today, we’re drugging kids who are perhaps a bit fidgety, because someone apparently decided that never happened before, with no idea of what the prolonged medication will do.
Obviously neither you nor anyone close to you is neurodivergent otherwise you wouldn’t make such offensive comments
His comments are reasonable (though a bit garbled), irrespective of whether one agrees with them (which I don’t). They aren’t offensive. Trying to shut down debate by the use of the ‘offence’ word is not constructive.
According to: https://fastlifehacks.com/bredesen-protocol/ the Bredesen Protocol aims to a attain at a level of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D which is perfectly healthy: 50 to 80 ng/mL. 25-hydroxyvitamin D is made, primarily in the liver, by hydroxylating vitamin D3 cholecalciferol. This is what is measured in “vitamin D” blood tests. Multiply by 2.5 to get the units used in the UK: 125 to 200 nmol/L. This is much higher than the 20 ng mL (50 nmol/L) which the kidneys need to regulate calcium-bone metabolism, which is the level governments and many doctors think is adequate for health. However, at least 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L is needed for proper immune system function.
The daily supplemental quantities of vitamin D suggested in the above page are inadequate to attain 50 to 80 ng/mL.
It would be difficult or impossible to reverse neurodgeneration. The most important step everyone needs to take, to greatly reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of neurodegeneration is to supplement vitamin D3 in sufficient quantities to attain at least 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L circulating 25-hydroxyviamin D. With proper vitamin D3 supplementation, many people have half to 1/10th of this.
As I wrote for https://unherd.com/2024/01/the-false-hope-of-the-new-alzheimers-drugs/ :
Please read the research articles cited and discussed at: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ . Regarding dementia: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/#3.3
Ayers et al. 2022 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2113489119 showed that Parkinson’s disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy (MSA) all involve misfolded (prion) alpha-synuclein tangles and that the structure of the misfolding was different in each of these three diseases.
Ogura et al. 2021, in Japan https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405650221000617 showed that MSA sufferers averaged 10.5 ng/mL (26 nmol/L) circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D and that PD sufferers averaged 13.4 ng/mL (34 nmol/L), while healthy controls averaged 27 ng/mL (67 nmol/L). PD does not lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D, so the causality is from low 25-hydroxyvitamin D to neurodegeneration. (p = 0.0001).
The immune system needs at least 50 ng/mL (125 nmol/L) to function properly. This cannot be attained with the UK government’s lousy 0.015 mg (600 IU) a day recommendation for supplemental vitamin D3.
Inadequate circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D is the greatest single preventable cause of human disease and other forms of ill-health, in all or almost all countries. Only a fraction of the Earth’s population have the 25-hydroxyvitamin D they need for full immune system function. They get it from UV-B exposure to ideally white skin (only possible year round near the equator, and it always raises the risk of cancer, since it damages DNA) and/or from proper amounts of supplemental vitamin D3 cholecalciferol. There is nowhere near enough vitamin D3 in food to raise 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to more than a fraction of what the immune system needs.
Most medical professionals are not at all interested in this. Important research which challenges their drug, vaccine and surgery centric view of improving health is like water off a duck’s back. Likewise immunologists.
https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/#00-how-much includes New Jersey based Professor of Medicine Prof. Sunil Wimalawansa’s recommendations https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/14/2997 for vitamin D3 supplemental intake to attain at least the 50 ng/mL (125 nmol/L) circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which the immune system needs to function properly. As he noted in a recent FLCCC webinar, these are ratios of body weight, with higher ratios for those suffering from obesity: https://odysee.com/@FrontlineCovid19CriticalCareAlliance:c/Weeekly_Webinar_Aug16_2023:d?t=3386 This is because people suffering from obesity convert less vitamin D3 into circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D than normal-weight people.
The average daily vitamin D3 intake should be:
70 to 90 IU / kg body weight for those not suffering from obesity (BMI < 30).
100 to 130 IU / kg body weight for obesity I & II (BMI 30 to 39).
140 to 180 IU / kg body weight for obesity III (BMI > 39).
For 70 kg (154 lb) without obesity, this is about 0.125 milligrams (5000 IU) a day. This takes several months to attain the desired > 50 ng/mL circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D. This is 8 or more times what most governments recommend. “5000 IU” sounds like a lot, but it is a gram every 22 years – and pharma grade vitamin D costs about USD$2.50 a gram ex-factory.
Neither vitamin D3 nor 25-hydroxyvitamin D are hormones – they are not signaling compounds. Calcitriol functions as a hormone when it is produced by the kidneys. In immune cells, when calcitriol is produced, in response to the detection of a cell-type-specific condition, in intracrine (within a single cell) signaling, it acts as an intracrine agent, by altering the transcription of genes (and so the protein production and overall behaviour) of that individual cell. This is unrelated to hormonal signaling. The common statement that “vitamin D is a hormone” is completely incorrect – Vieth 2004 https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.jsbmb.2004.03.037.
Regrettably medicine is all about treating symptoms and making money. Big pharma has infiltrated everywhere and sells the idea that only they have the answers, only they are science and everything else is rubbish, quackery or dangerous and doctors follow them like sheep because that is what they’ve been taught to do. Some wake up and realise that big pharma just lie and falsify tests to sell their latest inventions : vioxx is an example. Pr Even and Pr Debre in France published a directory of the 4000+ medicines on sale in France and about 50% are either useless or dangerous but their sales are about 15 billion a year. The placebo effect is almost as strong as the drug itself. What pharma should be forced to do is put a success rate on their packaging so if it’s only got a 30% chance of success and the side effects aren’t too bad you might decide to take the risk, but if death/suicide is one of the side effects you might decide not to.
We signed up to a Bredesen practitioner here in NZ to help my father with his rapid onset dementia.
It cost us tens of thousands, but we were desperate to help dad.
We ended up firing the practitioner because we felt fleeced. His knowledge of the research did not appear to exceed what we had already learned from reading widely in the literature.
We implemented a bunch of things ourselves: a clean keto (largely carnivore) diet, hyperbaric oxygen, light therapy, supplements.
A year ago my dad couldn’t hold a conversation and was suffering delusions. Now he still forgets some words, but can converse with clarify. It’s like he is back in the room. It’s wonderful, and hopefully he has some great years ahead of him.
The knowledge required to achieve this should not be so prohibitively expensive. I would feel sick charging desperate people so much. I just don’t understand how they can charge so much. All the information is publicly available in the literature (especially if you use SciHub).
To anyone out there with a loved one suffering from dementia – please consider that there may be a lot you can do with diet and lifestyle. It takes work, but doesn’t need to cost a fortune.
What a very strange headline photo but it does reflect the rather dystopian fears surrounding dementia; and why I think more people want to see assisted dying legalised as they’ve given up on Big Pharma finding the magic pill.
When my mother was diagnosed with dementia in 2015 I became her main carer and immediately registered for a series of workshops at the ‘Contented Dementia Trust’ in Burford to learn the SPECAL Method (Specialised Early Care for Alzheimer’s); it was a revelation, no need for drugs, the treatment is designed around the person with dementia having a disability which can be managed successfully with highly personalised care with the family in charge, led by the person with dementia, so no need for medical ‘professionals’ or drugs. And this is why The Alzheimer’s Society hates this small charity and has proscribed the SPECAL Method, even though they initially funded the research. You can find out more on the website: http://www.contenteddementiatrust.org or read about it in Contented Dementia by Oliver James. My Mum lived very well at home with dementia for 5 years after diagnosis before going into a care home where she soon settled in because she had none of the usual anxiety associated with dementia. Here is something that truly works and doesn’t cost a lot, just time and effort for me to get on her wavelength and understand that I needed to change my behaviour towards her because of her disability, rather than carrying on as before waiting for ‘the cure’.
‘Bresenden’s claims are largely based on poor science…’
is the author also a sufferer?
What a very strange headline photo but it does reflect the rather dystopian fears surrounding dementia; and why I think more people want to see assisted dying legalised as they’ve given up on Big Pharma finding the magic pill.
When my mother was diagnosed with dementia in 2015 I became her main carer and immediately registered for a series of workshops at the ‘Contented Dementia Trust’ in Burford to learn the SPECAL Method (Specialised Early Care for Alzheimer’s); it was a revelation, no need for drugs, the treatment is designed around the person with dementia having a disability which can be managed successfully with highly personalised care with the family in charge, led by the person with dementia, so no need for medical ‘professionals’ or drugs. And this is why The Alzheimer’s Society hates this charity and has proscribed the SPECAL Method, even though they initially funded the research. You can find out more on the website: http://www.contenteddementiatrust.org or read about it in Contented Dementia by Oliver James. My Mum lived very well at home with dementia for 5 years after diagnosis before going into a care home where she soon settled in because she had none of the usual anxiety associated with dementia. Here is something that truly works and doesn’t cost a lot, just time and effort for me to get on her wavelength and understand that I needed to change my behaviour towards her because of her disability, rather than carrying on as before waiting for ‘the cure’.
As long as there is someone (with backup) who can give very focused, person-centric care, then I would tend to endorse what you say.
This is a reply to Jane Baker (the site would not allow me to reply directly for some reason)
‘it’s natural to be a little more forgetful’
How fortunate you are to have had no experience of Alzheimer’s disease.
My mother had it for five years before she died. Clearly you have no idea how serious and how awful it is. Our brains do more than remember people’s names or where we left our keys. Our whole sense of self is made up of long term memories, you need access to them to know who you are, where you are in time and who other people are in relation to you. You need short term memory to orientate yourself real-time in the world around you, i.e to know where you are, what’s happening to you, to keep hold of what someone has just said to you or what you yourself have just said to them. A short term memory that lasts 1 minute gets you nowhere. Brain damage affects all a person’s relationships as ability to recall words to make complete sentences becomes impossible. All parts of the brain can be affected including the brain stem that affects metabolism, leading weird eating patterns or inability to swallow, signals relating to bodily awareness such as bowel movemments and urination are lost which undermines dignity and there can be severe sleep disturbance, people wander around and get lost. In the later stages the symptoms of Alzheimer’s make it impossible for people to express psychological, emotional or physical pain which sometimes causes them to lash out violently.
This kind of mental decline is absolutely nothing like age related forgtfulness. It is more like a slow motion decay of a person’s consciousness. It is devastating for the sufferer and for their family and friends. It’s as if the body of love you share is rotting like a corpse right there in front of you and you’re desperate to stop it happening but you can’t. It is a cruel, horrible illness and the experience of caring for someone undergoing it is hearbreaking. The ignorance of your comment made me want to scream and cry. All I can say is visit a demential ward and see for yourself why people will do anything to stave off this terrible disease.
Incisive journalism which provides a model example of critical thinking. Thank you.