Alzheimer's Disease and Cognitive Decline Helped by a Personalized, Integrative Approach

Cognitive decline in early Alzheimer’s disease patients can be slowed, and in some cases reversed, by a novel, personalized, integrative program designed by neurologist Dale E. Bredesen, MD from the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Department of Neurology, at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, California.

Dr. Bredesen’s study “Reversal of Cognitive Decline: A Novel Approach,” (AGING, September, 2014, Vol 6, No 9 , pp 707-717) shares 10 cases of early Alzheimer’s disease with cognitive impairment utilizing his MEND (metabolic enhancement for neurodegeneration) approach resulting in 9 of 10 having improvement in cognitive function, and 6 of 10 returning to work after having to stop work because of difficulties performing their work tasks. These positive results began to occur between 3-6 months after starting the program which initially evaluated 37 factors, or “network pieces” that all contribute to cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. (see Table 1. Therapeutic System 1.0 in this article for a partial list assessment and treatment approaches).

Reversal of Cognitive Decline: 100 Patients. Bredesen DE. et al., The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinsonism, 2018, 8:5 (full article)

Inhalational Alzheimer’s disease: an unrecognized—and treatable—epidemic.Aging (Albany NY). 2016 Feb; 8(2): 304–313 (biotoxin related, mold).

Reversal of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, Aging (Albany NY). 2016 Jun; 8(6): 1250–1258.

Dr. Bredesens new book, “The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline“

Subjects in one of these four stages of Alzheimer’s disease have shown improvement with the Bredesen approach:

1. At risk but cognitive function is normal.

2. SCI – the individual has “Subjective Cognitive Impairment”. The subject knows that they are having problems with cognition but it doesn’t show up on any testing.

3. MCI – the individual has “Mild Cognitive Impairment”. The subject knows they are having problems with cognition and the tests show it. But their activities of daily living are not effected.

4. Alzheimer’s Disease – where the individual has SCI, MCI and they have problems with the activities of daily living (feeding, bathing, clothing themselves, etc.).

***Late Alzheimer’s disease has not shown benefit with the MEND approach in formal studies but there have been some isolated anecdotal reports of improvement.

There are three types of Alzheimer’s disease that this multifaceted approach addresses. All these three types of Alzheimer’s disease result in the body creating more amyloid deposits in the brain (hallmark of AD). There can also be individuals who have a mixture of these types caused by the following: