Newsletter #16 The End of Alzheimer’s Revisited

Newsletter #16

The End of Alzheimer’s Revisited

In a previous newsletter (#10) we discussed Dr. Dale Bredesen’s breakthrough research and papers which was published in 2017 as a book: “The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Programme to Prevent and Reverse the Cognitive Decline of Dementia”. You might think that this exciting new information, which gave realistic hope to millions of patients and their families suffering with Alzheimer’s disease would be embraced by a medical profession that, to date, had provided very little substantial help to those individuals. But no, many neurologists criticized Dr. Bredesen’s findings because he had not treated enough patients (from their perspective) to justify this viewpoint.

So, I am happy to report on the release of his newest paper, “Reversal of Cognitive Decline: 100 Patients”, in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Parkinsonism. The full article, for those interested, is cited as Bredesen, DE, Sharlin, K, Jenkins, D, Okuno, M, Youngberg, W, et al (2018) Reveral of Cognitive Decline: 100 Patients. J. Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism, 8:450. doi: 10.4172/2161-0460.1000450

In this multicenter study, with multiple physicians participating,using the method Dr. Bredesen has elucidated for evaluating patients with dementia by testing for infections, toxic exposures, hormonal and nutritional deficiencies he details significant, statistically meaningful improvement in 100 patients with Alzheimer’s disease. One obvious take-away from this paper is that this means that this method of evaluation and treatment is one that can taught and mastered by other physicians and is not simply available from one site.

Having had the privilege of recently talking with Dr. Bredesen directly, I know that this number is now well over 300 well-documented improved patients. But here he offers a great deal of additional proof that this method works.

Dr. Bredesen points out that “the area of neurodegenerative diseases is arguably the area of greatest biomedical therapeutic failure….there has been no effective treatment with a sustainable, disease-modifying effect.” Until now. Of particular note, when he discusses the failure of medicine to address these illnesses in a successful manner: “attempting to treat without identifying the cause(s) and contributors for each patient” and then “targeting the mediators (e.g. A-beta peptides) instead of the root causes (e.g. pathogens, toxins and insulin resistance) may be yet another reason for the lack of success to date.”

As his findings document, “This has led to unprecedented improvements in cognition. Most importantly, the improvement is typically sustained unless the protocol is discontinued, and even the patients treated in 2012 have demonstrated sustained improvement. This effect implies that the root cause(s) of the degenerative process are being targeted” (my emphasis).

Interesting insights are beginning to emerge from this research. “One of these was that the significant others of the patients typically reported that the patients were “more engaged” and more responsive with treatment. Facial recognition, navigation, and memory were often improved, whereas calculation and aphasia were less often improved. For those in whom specific pathogens or toxins were identified, either improvement did not occur until those were targeted therapeutically.”

These observations agree with our perception that for many of our patients with chronic debilitating inflammatory illnesses (e.g. Lyme and/or mold toxicity) we do not see substantial improvement until we have correctly identified and treated these causes of inflammation.

While conventional medicine may resist these exciting findings (a phenomenon that baffles me) Dr. Bredesen is continuing to add scientific weight to his findings and research so that, hopefully, the field of medicine will have to eventually embrace this work so that it can bring much-needed relief to millions of suffering patients and their families.

For those of you with patients, family or friends who are wrestling with dementia, I urge you to read Dr. Bredesen’s book and begin to apply its message in the service of healing. You can find a list of practitioners trained by Dr. Bredesen by going to his website: Dr. Dale Bredesen/MPI Cognition.

SUPPORT THE EFFORT TO CREATE THE 28 th AMENDMENT!

My dear friend, Bob Naviaux, MD (whose work on the Cell Danger Response we have discussed quite a bit, and whose newest paper will be the subject of our next newsletter) has felt the need to make the public aware of how the increasingly toxic world we are living in is making us increasingly ill. The growing epidemics of autism, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, neurodegenerative diseases, Lyme disease, mold toxicity are early examples of what we fear will continue to increase until we make serious efforts to clean up our environment. To that end, Dr. Naviaux, the 28th Amendment Project which would give all Americans the right to be born into a healthy environment that does not cause chronic disease.

Here is this excerpt from his web site:

The 28^th Amendment Project—Giving all Americans the right to be born into a healthy environment that does not cause chronic disease.

What is more important for the long-term health of a nation than the health of its citizens? A nation grows weak as its people fall to disease. In 1985, 5-10% of children born in the US lived with a chronic disease. Today, just thirty years later, 30% of children live with chronic disease. Many diseases have increased 2-10 times from 1985 to 2015 (Figure 1). Children with chronic disease grow up to be adults with disabilities and disease. This increase in chronic disease is not due to a change in our genes, or a failure in our healthcare system. The increase in disease is the result of measureable chemical changes in our food chain, air, water, and soil. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was given the task of protecting human health by protecting the environment, but economic cuts have handicapped it since its last major contribution to public health, the banning of leaded gasoline in 1996¹.

Figure 1. 30% of Children Born Today Suffer with Chronic Disease. The prevalence of over 20 diseases has increased 2-to-10-times since 1980s.

The Naviaux Lab is seeking help to start a movement to create, refine, and ratify a 28^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This amendment will enunciate a new right for all American citizens. This is “right to be born into a healthy environment”, an environment that will not cause chronic childhood and adult disease. This right is an inalienable right of citizens of the 21^st century. The text of this amendment will serve as a template for similar amendment in all nations of the world.

We didn’t need to think about preserving a healthy environment much in past centuries because the number of humans on the planet was not enough to permanently intoxicate and degrade the natural resources of the biosphere. This situation reached a tipping point in 1988^2-5. In 1988, there were 5.1 billion people on Earth. In that year, the human population consumed resources and released waste products at a rate the Earth could renew and recycle sustainably. After that, we began to live on biological principle. In 2016, the human population is 7.4 billion. Ever since 1988, we have been consuming natural resources faster than they can be replaced, and releasing waste that is accumulating in both obvious in less obvious places. The Great Pacific Garbage patch is a slow moving swirl of plastics and non-biodegradable detritus that is now twice the size of Texas and continuously releasing pesticides and organic pollutants on a global scale⁶.

Nanoscale chemical waste is the natural cast-off of an unregulated industrial economy. Many of these chemicals can be shown to produce neurodevelopmental disease during fetal development and in the newborn period. Whole ecosystems have begun to sicken^7-9. The Naviaux Lab is developing new mass spectrometry methods that will enable the rapid and regular testing of our environment and food chain to give scientists and policy makers the data needed to crack down on companies and practices that endanger the health of our children, the health of our nation, and the health of the natural world.
Resources

THE RESPONSE TO “TOXIC” HAS BEEN GRATIFYING

I would like to thank all of you who have taken the time to read and write reviews (on Amazon) of my new book “Toxic: Heal Your Body from Mold Toxicity, Lyme Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, and Chronic Environmental Illness”. My publisher has set up an intimidating list of interviews and podcasts for me, and I am bravely trying to complete them all. For those of you who are interested, here are some of the most recent podcasts and interviews:

https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-sci-mold-toxicity/

https://drjaydavidson.com/podcast/lyme-mold-uncut/

https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/110285/toxic-with-neil-nathan
Your link is here.

http://www.betterhealthguy.com/episode85

https://lymeninjaradio.com/205-dr-neil-nathan/

https://www.judytsafrirmd.com/environmentally-acquired-illness-and-psychiatric-symptoms/