MORE STEPS TO PRESERVE YOUR BRAIN AND PREVENT DEMENTIA

High on the wish list (probably highest, actually) of a new patient coming into WholeHealth Chicago for “wellness” is not just “longevity” but “longevity plus ‘brains/wit/wisdom’” a la Betty White, Norman Lear, George Burns, late Chicago actor Mike Nussbaum. 

So let’s talk “brain” and say you’re in one of these four situations:

1. There’s dementia in your family and you’re definitely worried about this.

2. There’s no dementia in your family but you have been experiencing some symptoms that are either so mild no one notices a/k/a Subjective Cognitive Impairment (“Why are my keys in the refrigerator?”) or symptoms that might be interfering with your life a/k/a Mild Cognitive Impairment;

3. You have neither of the above but simply want your brain to function at its maximum potential for your entire (and hopefully, long, long) life.

For everyone listed above, 1 through 3, for your brain to function at its best, let’s review first a simple test to differentiate “simple forgetfulness” from “possible early mild dementia”. By the way, most patients are just forgetful. Being “mindful” cures a lot of what seems like early dementia.

But it’s really worth knowing that you might be worrying about nothing at all. Here’s the Self Administered Gerocognitive Examination, SAGE for short. It will take you about 15 minutes and you take it by yourself, without any help from another. Once you’ve completed the test, print it out and take it to your primary care physician for scoring. If everything is fine, she’ll just place it in your chart and suggest repeating it in a year or two. If not, she’ll likely refer you to a neurologist for additional testing. 

Lifestyle Brain Protectors:

1. Regular physical exercise. Yes, I know, you hear this all the time, but the data showing that exercise prevents dementia is getting more and more compelling. The very important Swedish study got a lot of people moving. It showed that highly fit middle aged women were 90% less likely to get dementia in their later decades than deconditioned or even moderately fit women. 90%?! That should be sufficient for you to at least buy an elliptical and guiltily look at it. Also very useful for memory enhancement and prevention of dementia were t’ai chi and Taekwondo.

2. Chronic stress from any source definitely increases your dementia risks. Make your life decisions based on how you answer, “Will the result of this choice increase or decrease my stress level?” Planning to get engaged to a heroin addict you’re sure you can change? (Sounds like that might increase your stress).

3. If you’ve read the words “Going keto”, that’s how you’ll be eating. Your liver starts making specific chemicals called ‘ketones’ from stored fats when it’s running low on carbs. Blood levels of ketones increase, a condition called “ketosis”, your brain function improves. There are two steps to produce more ketones. First, switch to a low carbohydrate, high fiber diet. Second, go ‘NPO’ (that’s ‘nothing by mouth except water) 12 hours every day. Finish your dinner by 7 PM and hold off breakfast until 7 AM or later. In addition, because gluten and dairy add unnecessary inflammation, try at least to reduce them. Keep your saturated fats low by using meat as a condiment rather than as a main course. Familiarize yourself with the Glycemic Index and try to keep your food selections below 35; increase “good” fats, by eating more fish, using olive oil and other healthy fats.This is low inflammation eating. Consider a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke after a late night movie as the worst possible things to eat, your “Berfooda Triangle,” and take it from there.

4. Practice good sleep hygiene: dark room (or sleep mask), quiet environment, go to bed before midnight. Oh, since just about everyone after age 45 wakes up sometime between 1 AM and 3 AM, don’t agonize over it. Go empty your bladder, get back into bed and meditate. Morning will come. 

5. Make a conscious effort to reduce inflammation in your body. Interestingly, some people can sense when they’re inflamed with symptoms like fatigue, general achiness, skin eruptions, brain fog, and digestive problems. Your doctor can measure your inflammation with an hsCRP test. If your hsCRP is elevated you (and your doctor) will need to play detective to find the sources. The big villains of inflammation are dietary, leaky gut syndrome, chronic infections (like Lyme, mold, chronic viruses <herpes, Epstein-Barr>, poor oral hygiene, chronic sinusitis), auto-immune disease (like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Hashimoto’s). 

6. Get your hearing checked (untreated hearing loss=diminished brain function=increased dementia risks) and your teeth regularly cleaned. Floss every day. 

7. Keep your hormones (thyroid, adrenal, sex hormones) at healthy levels. You may have to apply pressure to your doctor for cooperation on this but “borderline hypothyroid” is not “normal”. For women, long term sex hormone replacement (starting at the onset of menopause) definitely reduced dementia risks. 

8. Keep your exposure to chemicals very low. If you’re not buying organic, wash fruit and veggies thoroughly. Read labels: if you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it. Challenge the necessity of any drugs you’re prescribed. Over 3/4th of Americans over age 50 are taking one or more prescription drugs, most of the drugs are being used to treat the consequences of unhealthful lifestyle choices. 

9. Challenge your brain endlessly. Read more books (and check your smartphone less); take some evening courses; create art or write a journal; garden; learn something new, like a foreign language; prepare exotic new dishes you’ve never tried before even if you live alone; watch less TV.

10. Travel more! I wrote about this recently with a study showing how travel actually slows down aging.

11. “Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain”, by Partha Nandi, M.D., a Board Certified Gastroenterologist, has just been published by Mayo Clinic Press and reviews the fascinating new research being uncovered between your gut microbiome and your susceptibility to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and strokes. Testing your microbiome, healing your leaky gut, reducing your inflammation can dramatically reduce your susceptibility to these devastating illnesses. 

Suggestions: 

Schedule an appointment with any WholeHealth Chicago Practitioner to discuss these concerns. Likely your first Functional Medicine Test will be a Comprehensive Stool Digestive Analysis with Microbiome (bacteria/candida/parasites), and your first “project” will be our Gut Restoration Protocol.

You’ll learn nutritional tricks to eat for a healthy microbiome.

Nutritional supplements for a healthy brain (called ‘nootropics’) a list that will change periodically as new research comes out.

Currently, I am using: 

• Pure Encapsulations ONE (daily multiple, one a day 
• Curalieve (Integrative Therapeutics), twice a day (turmeric that penetrates blood-brain barrier) may be explanation why Alzheimer rate is lower in India that in the rest of the world
• Memorall (Xymogen), twice a day 
• Brain and Memory Power Boost (BrainMD), twice a day 
• CognitexElite (Life Extension), twice a day 
• BodyBioPC (BodyBio), twice a day 
• ProBioMaxDF (Xymogen) (high potency probiotic), one pack daily 

These can be ordered from our website by clicking the Apothecary tab. They’ll arrive in a few days. 

Be well,
David Edelberg, MD