Did you know that about 90% of what we know about dementia has been discovered in just the last 20 years or less? Another sobering fact is that neurodegenerative diseases begin an estimated 20 years, possibly more, before the first symptoms become apparent, meaning that, sadly, a lot of damage has already been done to the brain by the time people realise that something is wrong. Therefore our best line of defense against this disease seems to be raising awareness and prevention.
The good news is that researchers have discovered tests which can detect changes in the brain linked to Alzheimer's years, possibly even decades before the first symptoms present. Whether these tests will become widely available remains to be seen. Even the current scans available to properly diagnose dementia once cognitive decline has begun aren't always covered as part of medical treatments.
Image courtesy of @ervin-lemark
Risk genes and lifestyle risks
Could other potential preventative measures be testing for genes and gene mutations which could indicate that you are more predisposed to developing Alzheimer's? This can be costly, so is probably used more for research purposes than clinical purposes. There are thought to be genetic mutations in three genes that are almost guaranteed to trigger Alzheimer's if you have one; APP, presenilin 1 and presenilin 2. These are seen in familial Alzheimer's when generations of a family end up with the disease. They are actually not discussed very often, perhaps because only 1% of Alzheimer's cases have one of the mutations, although that increases to 5% in early onset cases. A more commonly discussed gene is APOE 4 which is seen in nearer to 50% of Alzheimer's cases. One copy of this gene slightly increases your risk of developing Alzheimer's, while two copies increases it fairly significantly. Yet it's also concluded that having this gene doesn't mean you will necessarily get the disease. In fact in some cultures where it is a fairly common variant of the APOE genes they don't even get Alzheimer's at all. I came across a mention where having the APOE4 gene seems to have good outcomes for those living in impoverished and dirty conditions. Could this mean that our comfortable lifestyles are a factor here? When I think about what's being uncovered in other research this could actually make a lot of sense.
Researcher and medical doctor Dale Bredesen specialises in neurology, in particular Alzheimer's. He's done extensive research into the potential causes of the disease finding the commonalities and differences between patients. His conclusion is that for the majority of people the factors causing their neurodegenerative diseases are completely preventable and even reversible to some extent. Because for most people it's not genetics that are causing it but metabolic/mitochondrial disfunction. In simple terms, this means that the cells aren't functioning properly due to damage and this damage comes from lifestyle factors. While genetic factors aren't within our control, most lifestyle factors are.
What particularly stands out for me in Dr Bredesen's treatment approaches with dementia patients is that he tailors them to the individual because there is such a large spectrum of causes for the disease and often more than one cause in most people. So a single approach might remove the root cause of one of the pathways leading to dementia, but not address another pathway which will continue to impact the patient. He runs an array of tests on his patients in order to find out which pathways are causing their decline.
While diet seems to be the most common factor of cognitive decline, stress, environmental toxins and pathogens often play a role as a trigger as well. Dr Bredesen mentioned that those patients who could relocate away from environments containing a triggering toxin, for example a mouldy room or house, showed improvement while those who couldn't continued to decline. It reminded me of two of my clients with Alzheimer's, one who declined very rapidly was in a house with automatic pesticide sprays (pesticides are a known trigger for neurodegenerative disease) continually adding this toxins to the home; while the other, who has had a much slower decline, seems to have a more toxin free home and windows in the house are nearly always open giving good air circulation. Both clients presented with Alzheimer's symptoms at a similar age, but the first one, who is 5 years younger, is now in a nursing home and can no longer even walk, while the older one retains much more of his faculties and until recently even still helped his wife around the house.
Hope or false hope?
When I was looking for more information on Dr Bredesen I came across an article from the Canadian Alzheimer Society saying that his protocol offers false hope for curing Alzheimer's. Always eager to learn other points of view or evidence I read what they had to say. Sadly it wasn't very enlightening because their arguments mostly touched on what Dr Bredesen has already mentioned which is that more larger studies need to be done for better scientific evidence. This is something his team is working on, but the larger the study the bigger the expense and seeing as most medical research is funded by pharmaceutical companies and there is no profit for them without a potential drug outcome it's hard to get enough funding to complete these studies. In fact pharmaceutical giant Pfizer pulled out of doing any further research on neurological diseases because they couldn't foresee any profit in it, so counted it as a wasted investment.
The other main argument against his protocol was that the tests weren't covered by health care or insurances, so it could get expensive. Again, this isn't really much of an argument and there seems to be no accusation that he doing it just to try and make money, either, so it's merely a statement that few tests are actually covered by health insurance providers and healthcare systems.
It's ironic because by their own admission there are no effective drugs to treat dementia, yet people still come forward to participate in research trials and why would they if not for that little bit of hope? That also seems like false hope to me no matter how much they might explain the risks and the slim chances of the drug working. Yet what are the risks or downsides of eating a healthier diet or finding out if you are coming into contact with toxins? On balance I would personally rather take the risk of a lifestyle change over a drugs trial, especially given the track record that most of the trials concluded that their drugs actually sped up decline in their test subjects.
Everything is connected
The more I learn the more I realise how interconnected everything is. It's often cited that obesity causes higher risk for diabetes, cancer, heart failure etc. Obesity and diabetes are indicated as high risk factors for dementia too. Yet the reality is that all of these conditions connect back to the same root causes, which is mitochondrial/metabolic disfunction. Therefore the triggers for them are the same. So we're cycling back to lifestyle factors: diet, sleep, stress, activity levels and toxins.
Dr Casey Means explained how the cause of all chronic diseases is cell energy disfunction, but because we have over 200 different cell types in our bodies then different diseases will manifest depending which cells are being affected the most. So neurodegenerative diseases will develop when the mitochondria in brain cells become dysfunctional and it depends which ones are affected as to which neurological disease manifests. Often more than one will manifest. For example around 75-80% of people with Parkinson's disease will also develop dementia.
This doesn't just happen with similar cell types. People often have more than one chronic health issue. I work with clients with disabilities and when I get to know them they'll often tell me about their health problems. One has macular degeneration caused by type 2 diabetes. Another has tremours and hearing loss due to neurodegeneration and, you guessed it, type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is the biggest symptom telling us that something is going wrong in our cells. Once it has manifested as type 2 diabetes we should have alarm bells ringing, but because the clinical world compartmentalises conditions they aren't making these connections and are instead just trying to treat symptoms as they arise.
Further resources
If you're interested in learning more about dementia then here are a couple people you might be interested in looking into. There are some enlightening interviews with them on YouTube:
Dr David Perlmutter is a neurologist who has written books on how foods can affect our brains.
Professor Stephen Cunnane is a researcher who has spent years studying the links between nutrition and the brain.
Casey Means is fantastic, I think. Very insightful (been listening to podcasts with both the Means brothers actually!). Personally, I'm skeptical about any 'authority' dismissing out of hand a potential cure/treatment for something we're so in the dark about still as is the case with dementia. To be honest, while I'm not expressly focusing on preventing dementia in my life right now, I am trying hard to eat well (since it seems to have serious links with neurodegenerative disease, as some studies are beginning to show) and reducing exposure to chemicals, toxins, microplastics, etc. Will it prevent it or lower my chances of getting it? I dunno, but I figure it can't hurt.
Nothing is certain in life, it's it, but I think eating well and limiting toxin exposure is only a good thing. These factors are linked to cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease, mental health and basically all chronic health issues. It's also going to improve your quality of life while you're alive anyway, so what's to lose.
Since dropping all the processed foods and decreasing sugar overall I'm losing symptoms that I now realise we're insulin resistance. I've never been overweight, either, so I'm not someone you'd traditionally expect to be developing insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes. My mental health has also improved dramatically.
It seems the stories I heard years ago about the leader having cure for almost all the medical illness is true and some of the cures come directly from flowers even the deadlies ones " . But I wonder why there keep it hidden from the public
I think it's a little more complex than a simple cure for each ailment, but we are sold that idea because it earns money. You can be sold a drug that helps with symptoms and seems like it's curing you, after all. It is therefore more profitable to not educate the public on how they can stay healthy or return to health.
The closest thing we have to a panacea is our immune system. When it's functioning optimally it can fight off most pathogens, but when it is overworked by a toxic environment then it begins to fail us and the damage to our cells brings us to chronic illness.
Plants are like medicines in that they can help with symptoms while we try to find the underlying cause and get back on the path to health. Sometimes the damage can be too much if our DNA has been damaged, so then we can only do our best to slow and mitigate the damage to feel a little better.
Can't do much else ourselves than life and eat healthy, and keep our brain active doing puzzles or other kinds of brain training, I like to learn another language and play @splinterlands to keep my brain active.
With all medical break-troughs it's also a fact that dementia is is on the rise, could it be linked with the use of pesticides and other chemicals in our food?
It is for sure. I forgot to link my previous post on this. The link to pesticides is what actually started me researching dementia.
Keep the body active too. They are inseparably connected.
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Very much so. It reached a point where there wasn't much more to say as it kept coming back around to this.
Thank you for the tipu and the photo. ❤️
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Somehow i feel there should be a definition or some explanation of what denentia is in this post. Maybe I missed it. This post is a lot of work though.
A definition of dementia would be a whole post in itself. It's information that can be readily found on the internet from much more qualified people than myself, so I'd just be repeating from them rather than using my own words.
Many in the western world have already experienced seeing it in people due to how common it has become, sadly. May I ask if it's something you've come across where you are? Am I right in guessing you are in Nigeria?
Yes in Nigeria. I was suggesting a little definition or direction would guide readers better incase they are coming across the word dementia for the first time just by digesting this post.
A quick look and I see that it's not very common there at all. You have very different causes of mortality to western countries. Something we would have seen more maybe a hundred years ago or more. Hopefully as you get more western processed foods you don't also get the western chronic diseases.
Here's a link for a description of dementia. It's a complex disease that doesn't really have a quick explanation and has an array of symptoms.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/alzheimers-and-dementia/what-dementia-symptoms-types-and-diagnosis
I don't think we would get more western processed foods as it's more expensive than our native delicacies.
Thanks for the link.
You're better off without them and sticking with what nature provides. 😉
Thanks for the tip then
Hope there will soon be a treatment to prevent dementia early on.
Well there certainly seems to be something, but it's not as simple as a pill.