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Summary
On episode 274 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Dr. Dale Bredesen, an internationally recognized expert on neurodegenerative disease who has served on the faculty at UCLA, UCSF, and UC San Diego, directed the program on aging at the Burnham Institute, and is founding president and CEO of the Buck Institute. His book is The End of Alzheimer's.
Dr. Bredesen argues that Alzheimer's is not one disease with one cause. It is a protective response your brain mounts against one of several underlying threats, and that response can be reversed once you identify and remove what triggered it.
The conversation covers the three (really three and a half) types of Alzheimer's, why the amyloid plaques doctors have spent decades trying to clear are actually your brain's defense mechanism, and how his RECODE protocol builds a personalized plan out of roughly 150 data points instead of a single drug.
Links
- https://www.apoe4.info
- https://www.mycometrics.com
Key Takeaways
- Amyloid plaques are your brain's defense system, not the root cause. Dr. Bredesen explains that amyloid is an antimicrobial your brain deploys against inflammation, toxins, or a lack of trophic support. Clearing amyloid without removing the underlying trigger is like sending the police home while the burglars keep coming.
- Alzheimer's breaks down into distinct subtypes. Type 1 is inflammatory, caused by chronic infections like Lyme disease, herpes simplex, or gum bacteria. Type 2 is atrophic, driven by a loss of hormonal and nutritional support your neurons need. Type 1.5, or “sweet” Alzheimer's, combines both through chronic high blood sugar and insulin resistance. Type 3 is toxic, triggered by heavy metals or mold exposure.
- Chronic inflammation and leaky gut set the stage for type 1 disease. A standard American diet of trans fats and sugar breaks down the gut lining, letting food fragments and pathogens leak into the bloodstream, which keeps the immune system chronically activated.
- Genetics set your risk, not your fate. Someone with no copies of the ApoE4 gene has roughly a 9 percent lifetime risk of Alzheimer's, one copy raises that to about 30 percent, and two copies push it past 50 percent. Even at the highest risk levels, lifestyle changes can prevent the disease from developing.
- Toxins, especially mercury and mold, can trigger the toxic (type 3) form. Dr. Bredesen recommends checking a copper to zinc ratio (both should read close to 100, for a roughly 1 to 1 ratio) and testing a home's ERMI score, the EPA's relative mold index, aiming for average or below.
- The RECODE protocol uses silver buckshot, not a silver bullet. A computer algorithm reviews about 150 variables to calculate how much of a person's decline comes from each subtype, then builds a plan addressing the 10 to 25 contributors typically found in a single patient.
- Mild ketosis can restore energy to a brain that's stopped responding to insulin. Because amyloid blocks the insulin receptor, glucose stops reaching affected brain regions. Dr. Bredesen has patients target a mild ketosis of 0.5 to 4 millimolar beta-hydroxybutyrate to give the brain an alternate fuel source.
- Non-familial Alzheimer's is now showing up decades earlier than doctors used to see it. Dr. Bredesen and his colleagues from neurology training say they never saw patients in their late 40s and early 50s present with Alzheimer's when they trained, but they routinely do now.
- Optimizing cognition is not just for people with a diagnosis. Dr. Bredesen notes that even cognitively normal people improve by following the same protocol, with benefits that extend to everyday decision making and safety.
“Monotherapies have not worked for chronic complex illnesses.”
Dr. Dale Bredesen
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 280 – The alzheimer's solution with Dr. Dean Sherzai