Jeanette, sitting across from me, was genuinely frightened about her future. Yes, she did have several elderly relatives with what she was calling “Alzheimer’s”, but I quickly pointed out that not all causes of dementia are due to Alzheimer’s Disease and much of dementia is both preventable and reversible.
I asked what steps she had taken to address her fears. She had purchased a rider to her Long Term Care insurance that would cover admission to a nursing home’s “memory unit”.
“Okay", I said. “Let’s see if we can come up with something a bit more optimistic. We can take a few proactive steps to reduce your risks and reverse any damage your brain may have experienced so far”.
Although we don’t know the exact cause of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), we know AD is a combination of a low level, smoldering chronic brain inflammation with autoimmune components. The well known “amyloid plaques” seen on brain biopsies seem to appear in response to an insult: an infection, a toxin, a genetic predisposition, a nutritional deficiency, we don’t know what, or a combination of several of these trigger a dementia tipping point.
Neurologist Dr. Dale Bredesen in his excellent, “The End of Alzheimer’s”, book suggests that if you or a family member is concerned about the possibility of developing a long term dementia, you should have several tests performed. Example: Singer Kris Kristofferson’s battle with Alzheimer’s turned out to be chronic Lyme Disease. When this was treated he was back on the stage.
Long term exposure to toxic metals...
