Brain Health
Do you feel like your mind isn’t as sharp as it should be, or your memory isn’t as good as it once was?
Brain disease is extremely frightening, even terrifying. Most people know someone who has recovered from heart disease, but how many of us know someone who has recovered from brain disease? Watching a loved one disappear into Alzheimer’s is heartbreaking. Research has found that if you are over 70 and lose your sense of smell, you have an increased risk of developing dementia within the next 5 years! Until quite recently there was nothing to do but watch and hope for the best.
Emerging research by Dr Dale Bredesen and others says there might be things we can do. In his view, whether a person is at risk of developing the disease versus actively manifesting symptoms is often reflective of the number of their suboptimal biomarkers: as few as three to five suboptimal lab values may be observed in an at-risk pre-symptomatic person versus up to 25 in a symptomatic person.
A healthy brain begins in the gut. Our digestive tract is lined by cells which are connected by tight junctions to prevent undigested foods, and toxins from being absorbed into the blood stream. The brain has a similar layer known as the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). The gut barrier can become more ‘leaky’ when it is inflamed for reasons like abnormal bacteria, fungi or yeasts in the gut, or by immune reactions. The BBB can also become ‘leaky’ for many reasons, like inflammation from antibodies produced by the immune system (especially to gluten), from trauma to the head, or even from proteins that become glycated (Advanced Glycation End products). If this happens the glial cells, which are the usually calm immune cells of the brain, become active in an attempt to protect the brain. This can damage the brain by setting off the inflammatory cascade.
Our approach is to examine every aspect of health, using the Dr. Bredesen ReCODE protocol as a holistic framework, and address each issue as much as possible. For example, if blood sugar or sleep are abnormal, they need to be addressed. The treatment is tweaked over time to aim for optimal lab and clinical results. Not every patient will have the same issues, and the protocol is customized based on the patient’s genetics, current health, and lifestyle.
ReCODE is designed to be the optimal starting point and creates a dynamic road map for you and your doctor to optimise what can be optimised and improve quality of life, where possible.
We begin with the basic lifestyle factors to provide the necessary foundation to build upon. These include diet, exercise, sleep and stress and then look to modify other important factors such as inflammation, insulin resistance, blood pressure, toxin exposure and balancing neurotrophic factors.
At Evergreen Doctors we take a Functional Medicine approach to see how each cause may be affecting each person. We take a comprehensive look at genetic risk factors, family history, and the health of every system in the body, then optimise the body as much as possible.
Dr Anne Chappel and Dr Chris Chappel have been trained by Dr. Bredesen. They now offer this holistic approach to cognitive decline to our patients. We also utilise the latest evidence such as that from the LipiDiDiet study, and the emerging work by Dr Goodenowe and the Baker Institute into Plasmalogens.
There is a vast amount of research into brain health, please discuss with your doctor before starting or stopping any treatment or changing lifestyle, diet or supplements.
