The Finish of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Forestall and Reverse Cognitive Decline

Good to know
You can never have enough knowledge if you or a loved one might face dementia or Alzheimer’s. I watched the documentary then followed up with this book. It can get technical at times but mostly easy for the regular joe to read and take notes from. Good, practical and tested advice from this researcher.

A lot of good information, but not an end-all cure for Alzheimer’s
This book has just been published, and I received the Kindle version tonight. Since my 97 year old mother with Alzheimer’s and aphasia moved in with us 5 years ago, I have spent many hours almost every night researching the disease and trying to find a way to help her. During the 5 years my mother has been with us, we had a lot of ups and downs. The downs were caused by problems, like Shingles in her eye, that were not in our control. When she came to live with us, she was very much overweight (4′ 10″ at 185 lbs.), was totally incontinent, was on 10 drugs for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc, couldn’t read or write, and couldn’t walk on her own. Within 9 months, she was taking a natural supplement for thyroid and all other prescription drugs had been eliminated. She became totally continent and was walking to go to the bathroom on her own. She started reading flash cards that we got for her and started writing. Her weight loss was gradual, but, now, 5 years later, she weighs about 115 lbs. and has gone from a size 2X to size 6. When we had her last blood work done, the doctor told us that she had the blood work of a 20 year old, and she was perfectly healthy. Unfortunately, her mental capacity has been reduced in the last 5 years. So, I had hopes that this book would offer something I hadn’t already found in my extensive research that would help me to help her.First of all, this book suggests extensive testing that most doctors won’t do on a regular basis in order to find out levels of components in the blood that help to determine possible supplements or dietary changes that may help. Most of this I already know, but it would be helpful for someone that has not had time to do the research. Basic physical exams generally don’t include the necessary tests, and you often have to request that specific test should be done. For example, the test for thyroid is usually only the test for TSH which is produced by the pituitary gland, but this is a result of the T3 and T4 that stimulates the thyroid hormone (TSH). TSH is produced by the pituitary gland in response to the T3 and T4. So measurement of the TSH does not give an accurate measure of the function of the thyroid.Other than extensive blood testing, this book suggests dietary changes. Many of the dietary suggestions I completely agree with, but some I do not. The author does mention the importance of eating meat, chicken, and eggs only from grass fed and grass finished animals, and consuming only wild-caught fish that are not harvested as large fish because of the risk of contaminants. He also mentions avoiding GMO foods and processed foods. For my family, all of this is a way of life. Although this has helped my mother to improve in the past, it definitely has not reversed her Alzheimer’s.One area that I do not at all agree with Dr. Bredesen on is the avoidance of gluten. I think this subject needs some expansion and an explanation of modern day store bread. Whole grains have been consumed for centuries with no adverse affects of gluten. The problem come in with the modern day processing of the grains. Gluten is a part of grains that must be developed in order for it to be digestible. This requires a long fermentation process to release the nutrients of the grain. The long fermentation releases the phytase in the grain that destroys the phytates. This is true for any seed type food such as rice, beans, etc. For breads, long fermentation greatly reduces the requirement for yeast and the addition of vital wheat gluten. Modern store bread making requires a large quantity of bread to be made in a short time. Instead of developing the gluten with a fermentation of 18-24 hours, bread can be made much faster by adding 4 times the yeast and vital wheat gluten. This makes a nice fluffy loaf that you can roll into a ball of paste that would stick to a wall, but it’s not anything your body can digest or use. So, I don’t believe that gluten is the problem, but more so the processing of the grains that make the flour. In addition, most store breads are made from flours that have been stripped of every nutrient in the grains. I, personally, make all of our bread and mill the flour from whole grains.This book does give some guidelines for supplements that might be helpful, but you need to know what deficiencies you are dealing with, and this gets back to blood work that your doctor will do. If you don’t know about deficiencies, using supplements is guesswork and can do more harm than good. This book does supply some good ground work for someone that hasn’t had time to do the research, but it definitely does no supply an end-all cure for Alzheimer’s.UPDATE 09/13/18:I wrote my initial review of this book a little over a year ago, and have come to the conclusion, that dementia, a form of Alzheimer’s can definitely be slowed down, but I don’t think it can be cured at this point. Diet is definitely a key point and some supplements are helpful. In the last year, my mother has lost more of her mobility, but we still try to make her walk as much as we can. So often, difficulty in walking causes caretakers to resort to a wheelchair, but doing this results in taking away a capability that should be encouraged. Without some exercise, the possibility of blood clots increases and muscles atrophy. Caretaking is definitely not easy for anyone doing it, but the easiest route of care is not often the best for the patient. My Mom is now 98 and had lost some physical capabilities, but we still encourage her to try. We know that taking the easier methods for us will be detrimental for her. Diet is very important in slowing dementia, but physical and mental support is just as important.UPDATE 05/25/20:It is now 3 years since I bought this book, and Mom has been with us over 8 years. She was diagnosed to have Alzheimer’s over 16 years ago. Knowing what I know now, I truly believe we could have reversed her dementia if she had come to live with us sooner. In the first couple of year’s, her doctors were amazed by the improvements in her physical and mental abilities. The only times she regressed was times she was admitted to the hospital for replacement of her pacemaker and at other times for “observation”. After each hospital stay, which was only a half dozen time in the 8 years, she regressed almost to the point we had to start over. Each time, we got her almost back to where she was before the hospital, but each time we lost a little ground.Mom is now 100 years old, still physically healthy, and taking no medications. She can no longer feed herself, but is cooperative when we feed her. She still recognizes us and other people, and smiles when she sees us. She also understands when we ask her to do something, and often answers with one word responses. She is still mostly continent for urine with most accidents happening during the night, and totally continent for bowel movements. Although walking is difficult, she still does walk with our assistance.At this point, it’s evident that Alzheimer’s is slowing taking her from us, but I firmly believe we could have reversed her dementia if it hadn’t been for the hospital stays that took so much from her. Caretaking is a huge responsibility, and one that many people would not be prepared for. As mentioned before, diet and exercise are important, but there is so very much more to it. Mental stimulation, patience, and, most of all, love are every bit as crucial to reversing and/or slowing down the progression of Alzheimer’s.

This is a must have book for every family not just Alzheimer’s patients. Recommended, although Indians may find all these things already incorporated in lifestyles since long times..quite likely the reason Alzheimer’s as a disease is very rare in India and research into it has just begun with few lucky patients. Please buy right now. Thanks Amazon India.

Dr Bredesen has researched Alzheimer’s for 30 years and has succeeded in unraveling this disease. He can prevent it and in most cases reverse its associated decline. (He has already helped about 200 people.) His discoveries represent a paradigm shift regarding this disease.First, here is the current view of Alzheimer’s:-it is a single disease caused by the accumulation of plaques made of amyloid-beta-to treat it find a way of stopping the plaques from forming or remove them once they have formed-most drugs developed with this view have succeeded in stopping or removing plaques but the patients either got no better or got worse.Here is what Alzheimer’s really is:-it results when the brain responds to various events by downsizing-there are 3 types of Alzheimer’s and each is a protective response to different triggers (or a combination of triggers): a) inflammation caused by too much sugar, infections or other causes b) low levels of synapse supporting nutrients, hormones and other molecules c) toxic exposure such as metals or bio-toxins-usually when the brain responds to these triggers it goes on functioning normally-the problem comes when these triggers are chronic, multiple, unrelenting and intense-then the process goes haywire and too many of these triggers start the process of brain cells dyingThe solution then is to:a) identify which triggers are presentb) remove the contributorsc) remove the amyloid-betad) rebuild the lost synapses.These triggers (or factors) are about 36 in number so identifying which are present involves doing tests for each. These tests measure a specific condition in the body. Each test must be in a certain range otherwise it adds to the triggers. i.e. for each item that is out of range it contributes to Alzheimer’s. Once the out of range values are identified, changes are made to bring them all to the optimal value. (The optimal value is not just what is considered ‘normal’ but what is best for reversing the Alzheimer’s.) As more and more of these items are corrected, a certain threshold is reached and the person starts to improve. It is like having 36 holes in your roof that are causing a flood and realizing it is not enough to fix one hole, most of the holes need to be fixed to stop the flood. It’s similar with the brain: once the ‘holes’ are found, each is fixed until enough of them are stopped to get to a point where the death of brain cells has been reduced and compensated by the growth of new ones.With this background in place the major part of the book explains each trigger/factor, how to test for them and how to correct those that are out of range.Throughout the book there are stories of some of those who were helped.Many other books are available about Alzheimer’s but they focus on only a few of the 36 factors. For people who have only a few factors out of range, fixing those will help. However, this will not help those who have different factors which are causing their Alzheimer’s. Dr Bredesen’s program is the only one that is comprehensive enough to deal with all possible triggers.Dr. Bredesen has trained over 450 others in this program so if you or a loved one has Alzheimer’s or is showing signs of cognitive decline, you should be able to find someone who can help. (I emailed him and am waiting to find out if there is anyone in Canada.)