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MARCH 2023 TABLE HOPPING

New Memory Program On The Block

Pretty much everyone agrees that heart disease and cancer are the top two killers of Americans . There is some dispute about the third leading cause of death with either dementia or doctors as number three. Don’t believe that doctors could be a leading cause of death? The study was published by Johns Hopkins in 2018. But there are many other studies that point in the same direction. So many people getting so much care mistakes inevitably will happen. Many of them revolve around medications and most of you are on multiple meds and that puts you at risk. I’m not telling you to stop your pills. I am telling you to focus on the underlying problem, not the symptoms. When your blood pressure is up you can treat the number by taking medication or you can find out what you are doing wrong that is causing your blood pressure to go up. That’s what transformed my practice of medicine over the years. A shift in focus from the symptoms to what’s really wrong and that’s your lifestyle and diet most of the time.

Today I want to focus on the other leading cause of death…dementia. Just as cancer affects every family so too has dementia and from vast experience I know that living with someone with dementia is much much more difficult than living with someone with heart disease or cancer. Dementia is usually insidious and progressive and the few FDA medications approved usually have very limited benefit. Most doctors and patients think there is really nothing that can be done. But like the guy says in the commercial…”There is always something that can be done”.

Dr Dale Bredesen, author of the book “ The End of Alzhiemers”, is a world expert in dementia. He has established a program called ReCode which is by far and away the most comprehensive program I have encountered for ANY disease process.

ReCODE “is a comprehensive and personalized multi-therapeutic program for reversing symptoms of cognitive decline and optimizing brain health, using a targeted algorithm based on biochemical and genetic risk factors for cognitive decline”. This program does everything from evaluating for unsuspected sleep apnea, testing for toxins, checking for the genetic risk of dementia, measuring brain size, and routinely doing brain exercises. There is a big focus on changing the diet which is consistent with the metabolic dysfunction model of dementia. People refer to Alzhiemers as diabetes type 3 which alludes to insulin’s role in inflaming the brain and the need to lower insulin which leads to better health overall. The ReCode program is for people who have current dementia and there is a PreCode program for people who want to prevent dementia in the first place. It’s a combination of web based interactions as well as health care practitioner visits to evaluate progress.

This is not a theory. This has been put to the test. Dr Bredesen conducted a trial with 255 people with all stages of dementia..PMID: 34680464. It looks like every metabolic parameter measured was improved in the treatment group. People with really advanced dementia did not seem to be helped but the people with moderate and mild dementia had improved scores on a very common memory test. These results were statistically significant. The results weren’t off the chart so to speak but there were all in the right direction. Many drugs get FDA approval for less impressive results. The original study got positive results with a simpler and less comprehensive approach than they use now. The program evolves based on ongoing research which is another thing I like about it.

I visit a lot of websites. I have been involved in multiple interventions where some organizations try to interact with patients to achieve better health outcomes. The web site for the ReCode program blows all the others away. It’s incredibly user friendly and comprehensive in its offerings. I’ve never seen anything else like it. The web site is apollohealthco.com. When I first checked out the website, after reading his books and doing other research there were no local providers. There are now. I am one of them. I don’t need the extra work. . You would not become full patients in the practice , these visits are like going to a specialty clinic. My practice is full but I feel so strongly about this issue and this program that I felt compelled to get involved. My mother suffered from dementia and I saw first hand how her diet and lifestyle contributed to her decline. I’m not sure she would have done the program if it was available but at least now people have an option. If someone else becomes a local provider I am happy to give them the work. Check out the apollohealthco.com website for details.

Until next month…get well and stay well.

J T BARRY MD