Living a Healthy Brain Lifestyle to Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease

253 Pages·2012·0.92 MB·English

headaches
menopause
indigestion
dementia
stress
vision
inconLtineinvce ing a Healthy Barllearginies
Lifestyle to Prevmeigraninets
shingles
Dementia and
influenza
Alzheimer’s Disease
back pain
heart health
respiratory disease
asthma
diabetes
arthritis
skin conditions
migraines
stds
obesity
depression
childhood diseases
indigestion chronic pain
incontinence
periodontal disease
stomach disorders
prostate health skin conditions
urinary tract infection
Lauren Russel, ND
Living a Healthy Brain
Lifestyle to Prevent Dementia
and Alzheimer’s Disease

Living a Healthy
Brain Lifestyle to
Prevent Dementia
and Alzheimer’s
Disease
Lauren Russel, ND
i
DISCLAIMER
Ideas and information in this book are based upon the experience and
training of the author and the scientific information currently avail-
able. The suggestions in this book are definitely not meant to be a
substitute for careful medical evaluation and treatment by a qualified,
licensed health professional. The author and publisher do not recom-
mend changing or adding medication or supplements without con-
sulting your personal physician. They specifically disclaim any liability
arising directly or indirectly from the use of this book.
Praktikos Books
PO Box 457
Edinburg, VA 22824
888.542.9467 [email protected]
Living a Healthy Brain Lifestyle to Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
by Lauren Russel, ND is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecom-
mons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro
Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.
Praktikos Books are produced in alliance with Axios Press.
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Emerging Picture of
Alzheimer’s Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A Global Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Why Conventional Medicine Cannot Fix the
Problem of Dementia and Alzheimer’s
Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
New Ways of Thinking about Brain Aging and
Dementia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1: What is Normal Brain Aging? . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Looking into Your Medical History
for Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2: Where Do We Begin? Causes of
Abnormal Brain Aging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
What is Really Happening to the Brain? . . . . 25
Other Types of Dementia
Affecting the Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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vi • Dementia anD alzheimer’s Disease
3: What You Don’t Know Can Lead to a Big
Problem Later On: Understanding the
Symptoms of Dementia and Alzheimer’s
Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Assessment and Diagnostic Recommendations
for Alzheimer’s and Dementia . . . . . . . . 48
4: What Increases Your Risk of
Abnormal Brain Aging? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chronic Inflammation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Hypertension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Insulin Resistance and Diabetes . . . . . . . . . . 61
Oxidative Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Chronic Stress and Risk for Cognitive
Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease . . 65
Glycation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Methylation Deficit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Homocysteine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Vitamin B Deficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
12
Mitochondrial Dysfunction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Increased Risk with Lower Hormone Levels
that Naturally Occur with Aging . . . . . . . 74
Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies . . . . . . . . . 77
Toxic Exposures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Sleep Deficit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Immune Response and Infectious Agents as
Triggers for Alzheimer’s Pathology . . . . 85
Thyroid/Iodine Deficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Calcification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Fatty Acid Imbalances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
DNA Gene Mutations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Excitotoxicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Cholesterol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Contents • vii
Periodontal Disease and
Alzheimer’s Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Anesthetics, Isoflurane and Halothane May
Trigger Onset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5: What is Conventional Medicine Doing to Treat
Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease? What Do
Drug Companies Actually Say? . . . . . . . . . . .97
Drug Treatment Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Drug Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Secondary Prevention—Drugs that Are
Intended to be Disease Modifying . . . . 104
Why Conventional Therapies May Make It
Worse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6: There Is a Better Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Here’s What You Can Do to Begin a
Therapeutic Lifestyle Strategy Now . . . 114
Your Strategy for Natural Prevention . . . . . 115
7: In Your Brain Healthy Lifestyle, Add In
Specific Supplements with Exceptional
Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Lithium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Niacinamide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Increase Antioxidants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Curry, Turmeric, and Curcumin . . . . . . . . . . 134
The Case for Supplementing
with Vitamins B, C, D, and E . . . . . . . . . 135
High Dose B Vitamins and
Mild Cognitive Impairment . . . . . . . . . . 136
Dietary Folate and
Supplemental Folate, B12 . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Antioxidant Benefits of Vitamins C and E . 139
Powerful Botanicals to Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
viii • Dementia anD alzheimer’s Disease
8: What We Know Reduces Risk:
Recent Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Cancer History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
NSAIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
9: Natural Therapies—What to Do if Cognitive
Decline is a Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Improvement and Enhancement
versus Therapy and Cure . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Cognitive Training—Use Your Brain
to Protect Your Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) . 147
Controlling Hypertension
and Diabetes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Benfotiamine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Dietary Intake of Flavonoids . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Anodyne Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Ayurvedic Herbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Minerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Botanicals and Plant Constituents . . . . . . . 153
Sea and Other Naturally Derived Sources . 167
Supplements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
10: Effective Pharmacologic Therapies . . . . . 175
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Preface
A diagnosis of alzheimer’s disease or any
other cause of dementia that would shorten
your cognitive lifespan is very frightening .
While we hear so much about this disease, many
of us may not understand what it is and what
some of its early warning signs are . What is even
more alarming, many of us do not know some of
the simple things that can be done to prevent or
reduce risk factors years before it occurs, mostly
because there are very few actually talking about
what can be done .
This book will tell you what dementia is, some
of the things that contribute to it, and what you
can do now to prevent or stall its progression . If
you have a friend or loved one with Alzheimer’s,
they may benefit from some of the information to
be covered .
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