Contact Anita for a free 30 minute phone introduction to the program
Alzheimer’s dementia can be treated.
Symptoms can be reversed.
The sooner you take action the better the outcome.
That’s the good news. The bad news is there is no cure – treatment needs to continue to maintain the benefits. Once symptom improvements are sustained you may be able to streamline the treatments and still maintain the improvements. Ongoing research findings will also continue to refine the treatment process.
It’s exciting times - progress is being made into effective treatments for Alzheimer’s dementia. For the first time since Alzheimer’s dementia was described back in 1906 there is hard core evidence that early stage dementia can be reversed! In 2014 this exciting research was published by University of California researcher Dr Dale Bredesen and in the FINGER Study. Further studies by Dr Bredesen’s team were published is 2016 and 2018.
Results from the first clinical trial based on Dr Bredesen’s research were released in May 2021. 84% of trial participants with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage dementia showed improvement.
There have now been hundreds of people who have successfully halted disease progression and reversed many or all of their symptoms. The changes in the brain that lead to Alzheimer’s dementia begin 20 years or more before symptoms are noticeable. That means that there is a big window of time to identify your risks and implement changes to prevent dementia symptoms from developing. The earlier the interventions are undertaken the better the odds of success are.
Preventing or treating dementia is not about finding the right drug. A couple of drugs have been able to slow progression for a short period of time in some people, but the disease process has inevitably continued in those cases. This is because it’s not just one factor that causes dementia, and drugs typically only target one factor. Over 50 factors have been identified as contributing to the disease processes that lead to dementia.
There will usually be 10 to 25 factors that could be contributing to an individual’s cognitive decline. Our job is to find out what factors are relevant for you.
Lifestyle strategies involving nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, brain stimulation, and a healthy environment are key components in tackling many of the factors contributing to cognitive decline.
Dr Bredesen and his team at Apollo Health have created two brain optimisation programs to address many of the 50+ factors. PreCODE is the dementia prevention program and ReCODE is the dementia reversal program. Read all about the research, treatments and patient stories at Apollo Health or in Dr Bredesen’s books The End of Alzheimer’s and The End of Alzheimer’s Program, which are readily available online and in bookstores. A third book, The First Survivors of Alzheimer’s will be available in Aug 2021.
Waiting for the first signs of dementia to appear before seeking treatment is not advisable. The sooner in the disease process you identify and treat the drivers of dementia the better the outcome will be.
The initial treatment approach is to do as many things as possible to influence signalling within the brain (see ‘What causes Alzheimer’s dementia’ below) to stop the destruction of neurons and switch to rebuilding of neuron connections.
It usually takes 3 to 6 months of following the program to start seeing symptom improvements.
The first step is to determine what your current state of cognitive health is. Take the free Cq (cognitive quotient) assessment here. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete, just make sure you won’t be disrupted by anything during the assessment so that you get accurate results. The assessment will recommend either the PreCODE program, for those without current dementia symptoms, or the ReCODE program if your result indicates you have a decline in memory for someone your age.
The Cq assessment is just the first step. Further assessments and investigations will be necessary to identify your current health issues/risks and how they impact your dementia risk. The PreCODE and ReCODE programs take you through that process and provide a treatment program designed just for you.
These programs require a high level of commitment and participation to achieve the desired outcomes. If you are already experiencing dementia symptoms you will most likely need a family member to support you in implementing the program. It won’t be a case of simply taking some pills. To get a taste of what’s required, a summary of the strategies used, I highly recommend you watch the 45 minute video Watch Now: How to Prevent & Reverse Symptoms of Dementia in the News section on the Apollo Health website. Another video to view is Impact Theory with Tim Bilyeu.
Please note that Apollo Health is based in the USA and the enrolment process for non-US residents is different to that described on the website. You should first find a practitioner, they will order the lab work and then generate the PreCODE or ReCODE reports (rather than having the lab work done first, generating the reports and then finding a practitioner). When using the Find a Practitioner tool on apollohealthco.com be sure to enter a distance and address (not postcode) to generate the results.
As is often the case, you develop an interest in something that directly impacts your life. My mother had dementia and sadly passed away in October 2017 at the age of 81. Prior to her having dementia, like most people, I knew little about dementia aside from the fact that it affected the memory. As it has been considered an incurable disease and no treatments have shown significant benefit (until now!) it was a condition that received little attention in my training.
As I work in health I wanted to understand as much as I could about dementia, and whether my children and I were at increased risk of developing it too. I discovered the amazing new research findings that you CAN reverse dementia if you implement the program outlined in the research in the early stages of dementia, or at least prevent its progression in mid-stage dementia. Unfortunately, it was too late to put that research into practice for my mother who by then was already in late mid-stage dementia and living in a nursing home.
Watching a loved one decline with dementia is incredibly difficult. It’s heart breaking to think of them living for years without the knowledge of who they are or who you are. My family was spared that distress as mum passed away unexpectedly from a stroke at a time when she still recognised us as family, although she often thought I was her sister and her son was her husband. I certainly intend to spare my husband and children from having to go through that with me.
Since then I’ve done some genetic testing and found I do carry a gene variation that increases my risk of developing dementia. In the past that would have been considered a death sentence, but now I see it as an important motivator to improve as many aspects of my health as possible to reduce or eliminate that increased risk. It also ensures that I will take notice of any symptoms that could be associated with dementia and investigate and treat them properly. It means I can be proactive and not a victim. It also means I can educate my children on how to reduce their dementia risk.
I am so grateful that this new research is revealing the causes of dementia and the practical treatments to prevent and reverse it. We no longer have to fear a diagnosis of dementia because if you act early enough you can prevent it or recover from it!
