Alzheimer’s medications are completely impudent as a means of reversing, stopping, or even slowing down the disease. To me, it’s the cruelest and most merciless of all diseases. Those with the condition lost the ability to have thoughts, no longer possess memories of family and life’s experiences, the chance to live independently goes away, and the opportunity to live with purpose all disappear into a grim, joyless abyss where they no longer even know themselves.
Alzheimer’s is caused by amyloid-beta and neurofibrillary tangles. The accumulation of a sticky plaque made up of a protein called amyloid-beta, destroys the brain’s synapses. Additionally, neurofibrillary tangles are the accumulation tau proteins that collect inside of the neurons. You may have heard of tau proteins in relationship to former NFL players that suffer from depression and mental decline following their careers.
You really need to know if you fall into a specific group that causes you to be radically more susceptible to this condition than others. First, due to “modern” living and lifestyles, 50% of people are eventually succumbing to this incredibly unhappy condition. If you carry the gene variant (allele) called ApoE4, you must take specific and aggressive action.
ApoE stands for apolipoprotein E. Apolipoproteins are the proteins that carries lipids (fats). ApoE4 is the strongest genetic risk factor we know for Alzheimer’s. If you are heterozygous, carrying the gene from one parent, your risk of Alzheimer’s goes up another 30%. If you are homozygous, carrying the gene from both parents, then the risk is as high as 90%.
While medicine has made no progress, there are natural providers that are literally finding they can reverse the disease. As with all common health problems, epigenetics supersedes genetic tendencies and quality epigenetic care is our best chance to express health.
Perhaps the most major word of warning in this growing, apocalyptic-like illness is understanding it’s causes and etiology. The genes, inflammation, subluxation-causing neurological deficits and poor neuroplasticity, diet, stress, and sedentary lifestyle that lead to Alzheimer’s are directly implicated in similar scourges such as heart disease and cancer as well.
EPIGENETIC CARE AND ALZHEIMER’S
When you look at the escalation of the disease, it only makes sense. On a given day, the average person has made 5-12 epigenetic lifestyle choices that send them galloping towards Alzheimer’s and the other chronic, degenerative illnesses:
1. Insulin skyrocketing from breads, grains, cereals, fruits, sugary drinks, and frapuccinos at the beginning of the day, eat something fast, cooked, and preserved in the middle of the day with more caffeine, and ending with more carbs at night that keep insulin high while you sleep poorly.
2. Stress of being out of time trying to get to work, traffic, dropping kids off at school and practice, while keeping up with social media, managing technology, and get ahead financially keeps your cortisol high and damages hippocampal neurons.
3. Subluxation degeneration: the spine and posture impact key anatomical portions of the brain that will malfunction and degenerate without proper spinal care.
4. Inflammatory foods : Gluten, commercial dairy, processed, fried, and artificial meals, bad fats, sugar, as well as foods to which your individual body is allergic.
5. Live all day indoors , getting no exposure to the sun, and minimizing critical Vitamin D levels.
6. Medications. Drugs reduce or block the absorption of key nutrients such as zinc, B12, and magnesium that can lead to neurodegenerative illness along with many other chronic conditions.
7. Statins . Reducing cholesterol will literally cause brain shrinkage.
8. Healthy sleep . To clean amyloid debris, allow your neurons to recover, and synapses reproduce.
9. Artificial sweeteners that destroy the microbiome
10. Bad fats – trans, nut, seed, and vegetable oils and high Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio
11. Compound problems like French fries : A great source of Alzheimer’s creating AGES (Advanced Glycation End Products) due to the combination of trans fats, starch, oxidation, and neurotoxic acrylamide. Each fry might as well be a terrorist holding a flame thrower and charging right in after your hippocampus.
12. Sedentary lifestyle – exercise may be the best way to protect and build up brain tissue.
4 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
1. Reduce Chronic Inflammation
2. Optimize the nutrients the brain requires
3. Minimize exposure to toxins and detoxify
4. Overall health of the body: A degenerating spine, CVD, diabetes, obesity, Vitamin D deficiency, auto-immune disease, depression, and leaky gut all increase Alzheimer’s risks.
Here’s a common scenario – millions of individuals, making common lifestyle errors like those listed above suffer from metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a common underlying mediator of chronic disease with so many unhealthy factors related to it like inflammation, atherosclerosis, and an imbalance in brain and body chemistry. Additionally, metabolic syndrome sufferers are generally given metformin which blocks B12 absorption and raises homocysteine; another antecedent of Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease.
Find a Well Aligned Doctor – we have you covered.
Dr. Ben Lerner