Outlook on Alzheimer's No Longer Bleak

An article in the Wall Street Journal by Jeremy Abbate disturbed me greatly. Title, "With Every Alzheimer’s Diagnosis the Same Bleak Conversation" (Aug. 25, 2017) He writes,"...At the time, I never would have believed we’d be stuck in the same place today. Researchers have made so many breakthroughs in fighting disease over the past century that progress can seem inevitable. Ailments that once were death sentences—diabetes, HIV/AIDS, many forms of cancer—have been transformed into chronic but manageable conditions."

My Rebuttal

Mr. Abbate’s article reflects a bleak situation, but not for the reasons Mr. Abbate states. First, there is now a treatment, outlined in Dale Bredesen’s recent book (The End of Alzheimer’s) whose methods I and other Functional Medicine clinicians have been using to reverse mild cognitive impairment, early Alzheimer’s, and partially reverse mid-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

It is a systems-based approach based on the basic science that has shown that inflammation, loss of trophic support, and toxins activate metabolic and genetic vulnerabilities which cause the syndrome we call Alzheimer’s disease.

That even Mr. Abbate, the publisher of such as well-respected journal as Scientific American, is not aware of this approach, means that he and millions of other people are suffering needlessly. Unfortunately, the major academic ‘Centers of Excellence’, with the exception of the Cleveland Clinic, have yet to acknowledge this peer-reviewed, published data.

Fortunately, for those at risk or suffering from Alzheimer’s the state of affairs is anything but bleak.