Beat Alzheimers

By Dr. Mercola

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),¹ an estimated 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, the incidence of which increases as you age and doubles every five years beyond age 65. The National Institute on Aging^2,3 suggests Alzheimer’s is the third leading cause of death for older people, falling behind heart disease and cancer. Currently, there is no cure for this irreversible, progressive brain condition.

Due to the seriousness of Alzheimer’s, you’d be wise to proactively address any areas that may be putting you at risk for developing the disease. I’d like to discuss several lifestyle factors that have been linked to this condition, as well as share some healthy prevention tips, in hopes you will take action now to ensure you or someone you love will not become an Alzheimer’s statistic. First, let’s take a look at some genetic links to the disease and recent news on gene research.

Studies linking poor sleep and beta-amyloid buildup as risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease continue to emerge. Earlier studies, involving lab mice, such as a 2013 body of research published in the journal Science,¹⁴ discovered your brain’s cells are reduced by up to 60 percent while you sleep, making it easier to flush away this cellular waste.

New research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH),^15,16,17 used positron emission tomography (PET) to show that acute sleep deprivation impacts beta-amyloid buildup in human brain regions that have been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. The study, involving 20 human participants, suggests your brain accumulates beta-amyloid deposits after just a single night of sleep deprivation. Said the study authors:

“We show that one night of sleep deprivation, relative to baseline, resulted in a significant increase in beta-amyloid burden in the right hippocampus and thalamus. These increases were associated with mood worsening following sleep deprivation but were not related to the genetic risk (ApoE genotype) for Alzheimer’s disease.”

By pumping cerebral spinal fluid through your brain’s tissues, your body’s glymphatic system flushes waste from your brain back into your circulatory system and to your liver for elimination. Unfortunately, as highlighted in the NIH study, if you do not get enough sleep, the damaging plaques will build up.

Over time, they attack and degrade certain regions of your brain. As such, a brain affected by Alzheimer’s has lost most of its ability to remove the beta-amyloid waste products, mainly because it is caught in a vicious cycle: more amyloid, less deep sleep; less deep sleep, more amyloid.

Persistent patterns of poor sleep may actually be an early indicator of amyloid buildup, which could be causing very subtle brain changes well before disease develops. The latest sleep guidelines suggest most adults need about seven to nine hours of sleep a night, and children and teens need even more.

Prolonged Sitting Linked to Memory Problems in Middle-Age and Older Adults

A 2018 study published in PLOS One¹⁸ links too much sitting with memory problems in middle-age and older adults. Using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on a group of 35 middle-age and older adults, researchers from UCLA noticed brain thinning in the medial temporal lobe, a brain region involved in the formation of new memories. The group was also evaluated for their levels of physical activity and daily time spent sitting.

Brain thinning can be a sign of cognitive decline and dementia in adults of middle-age and older. In addition to undergoing MRIs, participants were assessed according to their physical activity level and average number of hours per day they spent sitting during the previous week. Most participants said they sat an average of three to seven hours a day. Given this data, researchers concluded “that sitting for extended periods of time was closely associated with thinning in the medial temporal lobe.”¹⁹

I wonder if the study participants may have somewhat underreported their hours of sitting. After all, it is well-known that American adults spend an average of nine to 10 hours sitting each day. This level of inactivity cannot possibly be offset by even a daily 30- or 60-minute workout. To learn more about the negative effects of too much sitting, check out my article Sitting Too Much Ages You by 8 Years.

More Alzheimer’s Protection: Lutein, Zeaxanthin and Vitamin D

While there are many others I could mention, you may want to add the following nutrients and herbs to your diet to protect your brain against Alzheimer’s disease:

• Lutein and Zeaxanthin: In two separate yearlong, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials,^20,21 researchers administering 10 milligrams (mg) of lutein plus 2 mg of zeaxanthin daily, or a placebo, noted significant improvements in macular pigment optical density (MPOD) and cognitive function in those receiving the supplements.

• Rosemary and Spearmint: A 2013 study²² conducted at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine with lab mice suggests the antioxidant extracts from these herbs improve learning and memory and reduce oxidative stress. “We found that these proprietary compounds reduce deficits caused by mild cognitive impairment, which can be a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease,” said Susan Farr, Ph.D., research professor geriatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

• Vitamin D: Not only does sufficient vitamin D help your immune system combat inflammation associated with Alzheimer’s, research shows seniors with a severe vitamin D deficiency may raise their risk for dementia by 125 percent.²³ Furthermore, a vitamin D deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The optimal vitamin D level for general health and disease prevention ranges between 60 to 80 nanograms per milliliter. If you are not able to receive regular sun exposure, you will want to take an oral vitamin D3 supplement along with vitamin K2 and magnesium.

Additional Lifestyle Strategies to Build a Healthier Brain

While you may think your brain is “programmed” to shrink and fail as a result of aging, the truth is you can build a disease-resilient brain through your daily choices, starting today. Lifestyle strategies that promote neurogenesis and regrowth of your brain cells include the following:

• Consider intermittent fasting, especially if you are insulin resistant, and adopt a ketogenic diet, the benefits of which I will discuss further below
• Get regular exercise, because physical activity produces biochemical changes that strengthen and renew your body and your brain — particularly the areas associated with learning and memory
• Increase your intake of brain-boosting foods, including healthy fat because fat is a great energy source for your brain (and so much better than sugar)
• Optimize your omega-3 fat intake and balance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio; krill oil is an excellent choice because it also contains astaxanthin, which appears to be particularly beneficial for brain health
• Reduce your overall calorie consumption and particularly your carbohydrate consumption, including dramatically reducing (or eliminating) grains and sugar

ReCODE: A Powerful Strategy to Reverse Cognitive Decline

While the prevalence of Alzheimer’s is rapidly increasing, the good news is you have some measure of control over this devastating disease. Overall, it’s estimated that genetics account for less than 5 percent of Alzheimer’s cases,²⁴ and even if you have the aforementioned gene, it does not mean your fate is set in stone.

The statistics presented earlier by Bredesen may feel overwhelming, but he has identified more than four dozen variables that can have a significant influence on Alzheimer’s. It’s no surprise to me that mitochondrial dysfunction is at the heart of it all.

This makes logical sense when you recognize your mitochondria are instrumental in producing the energy currency in your body, and without energy, nothing works properly. Your mitochondria are also where a majority of free radicals are generated, so when your lifestyle choices produce higher amounts of free radicals, dysfunction in your mitochondria follows. The accumulation of mutations in mitochondrial DNA is also a primary driver of age-related decline.

While ReCODE looks at all of the contributing factors, restoring mitochondrial function is a cornerstone of successful Alzheimer’s treatment. One of the most powerful ways to optimize mitochondrial function is pulsed or cyclical ketosis, which is the main focus of my book, “Fat for Fuel.” Not surprisingly, Bredesen’s ReCODE protocol makes use of nutritional ketosis, and he’s becoming more familiar with cyclical ketosis as well.

In addition to ketosis, Bredesen recommends a mostly plant-based diet. The specific diet recommended is called KetoFlex 12/3, which involves a daily fasting period of 12 hours. For ApoE4-positive patients, 14 to 16 hours of fasting is advised. For more information on how ReCODE works, I recommend you read Bredesen’s book.

Sources and References

• ¹ U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention September 12, 2017
• ² National Institute on Aging August 17, 2018
• ³ Neurology March 5, 2014
• ^4, 6, 8 Medical News Today April 11, 2018
• ⁵ Nature Medicine April 9, 2018 [e-Pub ahead of print]
• ⁷ Gladstone Institutes April 9, 2018
• ⁹ Panminerva Medica September 2012; 54(3): 171-178
• ¹⁰ Diabetes Care February 2016; 39(2): 300-307
• ¹¹ The New England Journal of Medicine August 8, 2013; 369: 540-548
• ¹² Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease January 1, 2012; 32(2): 329-339
• ¹³ Diabetologia April 2018; 61(4): 839-848
• ¹⁴ Science October 18, 2013; 342(6156): 373-377
• ¹⁵ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America April 9, 2018 [e-Pub ahead of print]
• ¹⁶ Sleep Review April 15, 2018
• ¹⁷ MedicineNet.com April 9, 2018
• ¹⁸ PLOS One April 12, 2018 [e-Pub ahead of print]
• ¹⁹ LIVESCIENCE April 13, 2018
• ²⁰ Nutrients November 14, 2017; 9(11): 1246
• ²¹ Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience August 3, 2017; 9: 254
• ²² ScienceDaily November 15, 2013
• ²³ Neurology August 6, 2014 [e-Pub ahead of print]
• ²⁴ Alzheimer’s Association, The Search for Alzheimer’s Causes and Risk Factors

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