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Dr Chan’s and Dr Ward’s Tips on Prevention and the Treatment Plan of Alzheimer’s Disease
When we see Alzheimer’s and other related neurodegenerative diseases, it can often be a difficult situation as frequently the patient does not believe there is anything wrong. Family members, on the other hand, worry about the patient’s ability to care for themselves on their own, and are often wanting to do everything available to prevent further decline of function.
A combination of treatments, detailed below, can stabilize the disease to prevent further decline. More importantly, an improvement in cognition and function can occur, allowing for better quality of life along with the improved function. This puts both the patient and the patient’s family at ease.
From a naturopathic standpoint, most diseases (and health for that matter!) are requisite upon three things:
1. Abundant cellular nutrition2. Efficient cellular detoxification 3. Cellular vitality
The first two are likely easy to understand. If a single cell can have good nutrition in that it has the proper prerequisites for proper function, then it should be able to function healthily just as it has in the past. It is similar to a skilled carpenter who is already trained and has the experience and knowledge for his or her trade. If for some reason some tools get damaged, the carpenter is unable to function properly; but once the tools have been replaced, good function resumes. Of course, the cell has to be able to detoxify its waste products, as nutrition placed into a toxic swamp has little benefit.
Cellular vitality is slightly more vague, and a concept unique to naturopathic medicine. The premise of cellular vitality is that healing itself is a natural innate process as a cell’s normal function is one of health and good function. Therefore anything that can be done to stimulate healing (even if independent of nutrition and detoxification, or pharmacological intervention for that matter) should be done. In the case of Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative diseases, treatment with cerebrolysin fits this bill nicely. Cerebrolysin is believed to mimic a naturally occuring growth factor, thus generating or supporting the growth of brain cells.
The patient who has early to moderate Alzheimer’s benefits greatly from treatments that are aimed at the above 3 points, along with a variety of nutritional and supportive supplements. In neurodegenerative diseases, doing detoxification aggressively, and in combination with cerebrolysin, can give remarkably good improvements in function.
Oral supplements are based on the high metabolic demand of nerve cells. Therefore, supportive treatment includes the use of high doses of the nutrients used by the nerve cells. This includes the use of the whole spectrum of the B vitamins, DMAE, EPA fish oil, lithium orotate, and pregnenolone. Usually, the use of these supplements is done after the testing of blood levels, as it is important not to create any significant imbalances. B-vitamins are heavily used by nerve cells. While it is true that to prevent a deficiency, only small amounts of the B-vitamins are necessary, this does not account for tissue deficiencies and cellular deficiencies that can be present in local specific tissues. Thus, achieving a high blood level and excess is important to account for inefficiencies in cellular absorption. DMAE (a relative to the chemical messenger in many nerve to nerve communications) and EPA oil help the nerve cells to communicate with each other. Lithium orotate in nutritional doses helps with the stability of the fatty nerve cell membrane. Pregnenolone is often found to be deficient upon testing, and it has known effects on mood and memory.
Aggressive detoxification is a mainstay in Alzheimer’s disease. There is a definite association between aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease. Although the association is not causal (since aluminum in excess amounts does not always cause Alzheimer’s disease), aluminum can contribute to speeding up a degenerative process that has already been started in susceptible individuals. The body burden of aluminum is assessed by provoked challenge testing in which a chelation treatment is given, and then excretion of aluminum is measured in the urine. Healthy individuals will have a rise above normal levels due to accumulations in pollution, but significantly elevated amounts warrant detoxification. Depending on the results of the urine test, detoxification is done by oral glycine and DMSA, intravenous CaEDTA, or a combination of both.
Cerebrolysin therapy is given intravenously over the course of 4 weeks, and then maintenance therapy is given. Cerebrolysin has been well-researched in countries outside of North America, although research is also beginning in Canada and the US. The results speak for themselves: Cerebrolysin therapy led to a significant (p < 0.001) improvement in memory for 62% of the patients. 65% showed improvement in concentration, 50% in mood and fatigue, and 47% improved in vertigo. Sustained improvements were also reported in patients treated with Cerebrolysin, eluding to its role as a growth factor that promotes nerve cell regeneration. Another study showed even better results: “Among Cerebrolysin-treated patients, 82%, 62%, and 44% were rated improved on ADAS-Cog, CGIS/C, and MMSE, respectively, compared with 31.6%, 22%, and 17% of placebo-treated patients, respectively.”
Overall, most patients with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disease can expect to see improvement (and not just stabilization in disease) after a course of detoxification, cerebrolysin, and supplementation. To the family members, stabilization is perhaps the most important thing, as the worry is usually in further decline of function. For the patient, the ability to think more clearly and function more independently is reward enough.
