Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders are currently thought to be incurable. And this is a big problem, because Alzheimer’s is expected to triple in the US in the next 50 years. Cognitive decline affects 50% of people over the age of 85.
All these statistics, however, don’t even touch the level of heartbreak and grief that affects the families of a loved one with Alzheimer’s, let alone the frustrating and terrifying descent into forgetfulness and loss of self that the person with the disease experiences. This is personal for me, as one of my grandmothers died of Alzheimer’s when I was around 12. I remember hoping then that a cure would be found, but 30 years later, conventional medicine still has very little to offer.
Here’ the rub:
Alzheimer’s begins 30 years before there are symptoms, and is associated with our epidemic chronic diseases: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, and sleep apnea.
What this means is that prevention, as always, is the best medicine. Taking care of your brain should begin in the prime of your life, before you are walking in a room and forgetting why you went in there.
How do you care for your brain and prevent the descent into darkness? The same way we prevent other chronic diseases: consume a healthy, low sugar, junk-food-free diet; exercise regularly; get about 8 hours of sleep per night; maintain healthy relationships with people we love; connect with our inner purpose; and manage our thinking patterns to maintain positive thoughts.
The even better news is that even if you have begun the downward slide toward forgetting your loved ones names or worse, recent research from Dr. Daniel Amen of the Amen Clinics shows that brain damage from our bad habits is reversible, if we are willing to make changes. Dr. Amen has scanned over 60,000 brains, and has shown that targeted interventions can reverse the holes that appear in the brain as a result of injury or lifestyle habits.
In different research, Dr. Dale Breseden has been able to reverse cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients by using an integrative therapeutic approach. Resolving insulin resistance, optimizing hormone and metabolic balance, losing weight, resolving any previously unknown GI infections, using targeted nutrients to support brain function and immune function, exercise and stress reduction, and more are all part of this wholistic, functional approach.
It is my fervent prayer that more people can be made aware of the power they have to support their brain health through their lifestyle habits and choices, and that we can prevent and unravel the Alzheimer’s epidemic.
