Since its first description over 100 years ago, Alzheimers disease has been without effective treatments. That may finally be about to change. In the first, small study of a program to reverse memory loss, nine of ten participants displayed subjective or objective improvement in their memories, beginning within three to six months after the program started. One patient, diagnosed with late stage Alzheimers, did not improve. The findings were published in the current online edition of the journal Aging. The study, which comes jointly from the UCLA Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimers Disease Research and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, is the first to suggest that memory loss in patients may be reversed and improvement sustained. The study used a complex, 36-point therapeutic program that involves comprehensive changes in diet, brain stimulation, exercise, optimization of sleep, specific pharmaceuticals, vitamins and multiple additional steps that affect brain chemistry. The approach was personalized to the patient, based on extensive testing. This is some of the program: 1. Eliminating all simple carbohydrates, leading to a weight loss of 20 pounds 2. Eliminating gluten and processed food from her diet, with increased vegetables, fruits and non-farmed fish 3. Yoga to reduce stress 4. Meditation twice a day for 20 minutes, to further reduce stress 5. Melatonin each night 6. Sleeingp between 7-8 hours per night 7. Daily doses of methylcobalamin 8. Daily doses of vitamin D3 9. Daily doses of vitamin fish oil 10. Daily doses of coenzyme Q10 11. Optimized oral hygiene using an electric flosser and an electric toothbrush 12. Hormone replacement therapy. It did not state if this was bio-identical hormone replacement therapy 13. Intermittent fasting for a minimum of 12 hours between dinner and breakfast as well as for a minimum of three hours between dinner and bedtime 14. A minimum of 30 minutes of exercise, 4-6 days per week The downside to this program is its complexity. It is not easy to follow, with the burden falling on the patients and caregivers. None of the patients were able to stick to the entire protocol. Cognitive decline is a major concern of the aging population. Alzheimers disease affects approximately 5.4 million Americans and 30 million people globally. By 2050, its estimated that 160 million people globally will have the disease, including 13 million Americans. This could lead to the potential bankruptcy of the Medicare system. Unlike several other chronic illnesses, Alzheimers disease is on the rise. Recent estimates suggest that Alzheimers disease has become the third leading cause of death in the United States, right behind cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:39:40 +0000