It depends on whom you ask. According to the medical literature, which is intensively searching for a solution to amyloid deposits and Tau protein, which constitute the prevailing theory regarding the source of Alzheimer’s disease, there is no effective medication. However, there are many treatments that can delay or somewhat alter this severe disease, in which the patients’ cognition and personality gradually disappear. Many studies have found that lifestyle is highly important: a balanced diet (there are many interpretations of this), aerobic physical activity, “brain training,” as well as good sleep and stress reduction. In addition, a spouse or supportive family plays an essential role, and the difference in the patient’s quality of life depends greatly on the quality of care and support they receive from their immediate environment.
It is worth knowing that there are also several medications on the market that slightly improve difficulties with concentration, memory, and alertness. Unfortunately, however, these medications are symptomatic and have no effect on the progression of the disease, and therefore their effectiveness is limited.
In contrast, if you ask Dr. Dale Bredesen (Dale Bredesen, MD), you will receive a different answer regarding the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and its preceding stage (mild cognitive impairment). Dr. Bredesen is a neurologist and researcher from UCSF University, and until several years ago he served as head of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and as director of the laboratory for Alzheimer’s disease research. He found that Alzheimer’s disease is probably not one disease, as is commonly thought, but rather a disease composed of several factors, and therefore it should be treated on several levels simultaneously.
In his 2014 paper, he described 10 patients with memory decline who met the criteria for one of the following: mild cognitive impairment (MCI), subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. These patients underwent an extremely comprehensive series of tests (some of which are performed in Israel only privately), and according to the tests and their lifestyles, each was given a personalized treatment plan that included, among other things, specific dietary recommendations, nutritional supplements as needed, physical activity, and mental activity according to their needs and abilities. He evaluated the patients after 3, 6, and 12 months, and almost all of them showed significant improvement in memory, thinking, concentration, calculation, language, and orientation. One patient who suffered from very advanced Alzheimer’s disease improved only slightly, but the others showed significant improvement in their functioning and memory, including according to advanced medical tests. He later tested the “method” on more than 100 patients and achieved similar results, and once again the patients improved significantly: some returned to their jobs, returned to driving, were able to calculate and manage their accounts, and more. In another paper from 2016, he even characterized three different clinical types of Alzheimer’s disease and showed that the treatment for each type is completely different from the treatment for the other types.
Dr. Bredesen’s papers raised hope among many patients and families, especially in Europe and the United States.
His treatment method showed greater improvement than any other treatment offered to date.
However, because this does not involve thousands of patients and because the program is personalized for each individual (and the study was not conducted in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled manner), his work is not (yet) recognized or supported by the international medical community. Nevertheless, it should be noted that many physicians, especially in the United States and Europe, work according to his method with many successes. At the Personalized Neurology Clinic, we place emphasis on patients’ nutrition and lifestyle, as well as on in-depth testing and nutritional supplements according to several protocols that have been found effective, including that of Dr. Bredesen. I believe that in the future this method will become much more common both for treatment and for prevention.
References**:**
- One Hundred Years of Alzheimer’s Disease: The Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis. Nature Education 8(4):6 (2015)
- A 2 year multidomain intervention of diet, exercise, cognitive training, and vascular risk monitoring versus control to prevent cognitive decline in at-risk elderly people (FINGER): a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. Volume 385, 9984: 2255-2263,6. 2015 Mar
- Solomon A, Turunen H, Ngandu T, et al. Effect of the apolipoprotein E genotype on cognitive change during a multidomain lifestyle intervention: a subgroup analysis of a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Neurol. 2018 Jan 22
- Dale E Bredesen, Reversal of cognitive decline: A novel therapeutic program Aging (Albany NY). 20146. Sep;6(9):707-17
- Dale E Bredesen, “Metabolic profiling distinguishes three subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease” Aging (Albany NY) 7:8 595-600. 2015
- Dale E. Bredesen, Edwin C. Amos, Jonathan Canick, Mary Ackerley, Cyrus Raji, Milan Fiala and Jamila Ahdidan. Reversal of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. Aging (Albany NY) 8(6): 1250–1258. 2016 Jun