Dr. Dale Bredesen discusses Reversing Alzheimer’s Disease at the Functional Medicine Discussion Group meeting on July 27, 2023 with moderator Dr. Ben Weitz.

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Podcast Highlights

5:35  Alzheimer’s disease is now optional, because Dr. Bredesen’s precision medicine approach can help to prevent and reverse Alzheimer’s and it is hoped that this approach can be extended to all of the major neurodegenerative diseases.  Dr. Bredesen and his group have published over 220 peer-reviewed papers on the underlying mechanisms of neurodegeneration.  On the conventional treatment front, so many amyloid antibody drugs have failed including bapineuzumab, solanezumab, gantenerumab, and crenezumab.  The newest drugs include aducanumab, which has a minimal effect, and lecanemab (aka, Leqembi), which does have a measurable effect.  But these new drugs do not make anyone better, but instead they lead to a slowing of the progression and they often have some negative side effects like brain bleeding and brain swelling and several patients have died. 

7:40  Homotaurine. This is currently a nutritional supplement that is currently in clinical trials. It prevents the oligomerization of A-beta, so it looks like it may be a very interesting adjunct to other parts of the Bredesen protocol.  The dosage used was either 100 mg three times per day or 150 mg twice per day. [Manzano S, Agüera L, Aguilar M, Olazarán J. A Review on Tramiprosate (Homotaurine) in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Neurocognitive Disorders. Front Neurol. 2020 Jul 7;11:614.]   Combined metabolic activators (CMA) shows benefit in improving cognition in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. CMA dosage includes:  12.35 g L-serine (61.75%), 1 g nicotinamide riboside (5%), 2.55 g N-acetyl-L-cysteine (12.75%), and 3.73 g L-carnitine tartrate (18.65%). AD patients received one dose of CMA or placebo daily during the first 28 days and twice daily between day 28 and day 84. [Yulug B, Altay O, Li X, et al. Combined metabolic activators improve cognitive functions in Alzheimer’s disease patients: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase-II trial. Transl Neurodegener. 2023 Jan 26;12(1):4. ]

8:39  Dr. Bredesen is starting a randomized controlled trial of his ReCode system with six absolutely fantastic clinicians: Craig Tanio down in Hollywood, Florida, Nate Bergman in Cleveland, David Haase in Nashville, Kristine Burke in Sacramento, Kat Toups in the East Bay, and Ann Hathaway in Marin County. 

9:25  KetoFlex.  Dr. Bredesen’s recommended dietary approach for Alzheimer’s disease, the KetoFlex and he worked with Nutrition for Longevity, a group founded by Dr. Valter Longo, to develop KetoFlex meals for home delivery, which is now available.

11:30  New lab tests for help with analyzing Alzheimer’s disease:  1. p-tau 181, 2. p-tau 217 is coming soon, 3. Abeta 42:40, 4. Neurofilament light, and 5. GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein), which will be available soon. P-tau 181 lets you know that you have the specific signaling characteristic of Alzheimer’s. The Abeta 42:40 test lets you know whether you are making Amyloid beta protein, which is typically associated with inflammation and with Alzheimer’s. Neurofilament light is not specific for Alzheimer’s, but it tells you that you do have neuronal damage.  This also goes up in frontotemporal dementia and ALS and certain other neurodegenerative conditions.

Dr. Heather Sandison discusses How to Reverse Alzheimer’s Disease with Dr. Ben Weitz.

[If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.] 

 

Podcast Highlights

3:05   The most recent drugs for Alzheimer’s disease that have recently been approved, including Aducanumab, that remove beta amyloid from the brain, do not actually make patients better and may make them worse.  I did a podcast with Dr. Bredesen in episode 271 where we discussed that the landmark study that supposedly showed that the amyloid plaque that was seen in the brains of  Alzheimer’s patients in the landmark paper in Nature in 2006 that was so influential in influencing this whole amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease, that these images were falsified. Dr. Sandison said that she wishes for all the patients and the families of those out there who are suffering with a loved one who has dementia that there was a pill or an IV that would just make the nightmare go away.  Unfortunately, despite the billions of dollars that have been spent on this problem and despite the uncountable hours of really smart researchers who have been working on the concept, they have been barking up the wrong tree.  The two most recent drugs approved are Aducanumab and Lecanemab they both cause brain swelling and brain bleeding and at most they make you get worse at a slower rate. They might keep your mom in memory care longer. But your goal should be to have your mom improve and get out of memory care.

7:02  The great news is that we have an alternative, which is the precision medicine/Functional Medicine approach pioneered by Dr. Dale Bredesen.  Dr. Sandison is working on a book called Reversing Alzheimer’s that will be published in June 2024 by Harper and she has just published a paper using this Functional Medicine model in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease:  Sandison H, Callan NGL, Rao RV, Phipps J, Bradley R. Observed Improvement in Cognition During a Personalized Lifestyle Intervention in People with Cognitive Decline. J Alzheimers Dis. 2023 Jun 19.   This paper is similar to the one that Dr. Bredesen and Dr. Kat Toups published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s in July 2022, but Sandison’s trial used patients who had more severe cognitive decline and she got similar results. Toups K, Hathaway A, Gordon D, Chung H, Raji C, Boyd A, Hill BD, Hausman-Cohen S, Attarha M, Chwa WJ, Jarrett M, Bredesen DE. Precision Medicine Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease: Successful Pilot Project. J Alzheimers Dis. 2022;88(4):1411-1421.  Bredesen used patients who had a MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) score of 19 or better, while Sandison took participants with a MoCA scores between 12 and 23. This showed that this Functional Medicine approach can work with patients with more severe cognitive decline.  While the Bredesen study lasted nine months, the Sandison study only lasted six months. They were both pilot studies with 23-25 patients.  The Sandison study saw 73.9% of our participants improve their cognitive function, while the Bredesen study saw 84% improvement of cognitive function.  The key thing to focus on is that this Functional Medicine approach did not just slow the decline of cognitive function as these super expensive drugs did, but patients actually got better and had improved cognitive function! 

11:33  While we might not yet be seeing a significant change in attitudes among conventional doctors or among insurance companies, who essentially control the healthcare system in the US, the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease is highlighting Dr.