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There’s a reason why Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most feared illnesses of our time.
For one thing, estimates predict that within the next ten years, 150 million people will suffer from AD worldwide. (A scary statistic that speaks to just how little progress we’ve made in the fight against this debilitating illness.)
Not to mention, annual deaths from the disease have skyrocketed by 89 percent—and sadly, that trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Plus, despite years of intensive research, we still don’t fully understand how this disease really works in the body. Consequently, we haven’t figured out how to stop it—or even how to prevent or delay symptoms.
In fact, even Big Pharma hasn’t managed to churn out any reliable moneymakers—not even with their latest and greatest contribution: Aducanumab (AduhelmTM). And before you start chalking it up as a “miraculous” new memory drug, let me fill you in on the controversial details…
High cost, questionable benefit
This new Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug is a monoclonal antibody that supposedly reduces the buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain.
Scientists have pegged these plaques (along with other brain changes, including neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein) as the main drivers of memory loss and cognitive decline in AD.
But as I’ve mentioned here before, the association between the two really isn’t so clear cut.
We’re still not sure whether these plaques cause Alzheimer’s—or if they’re just a symptom. (Similar to how cholesterol plaques in the arteries are a response to cellular damage—not the cause of the damage itself.) And there’s really no good evidence that reducing plaque in the brain independently stalls memory loss and other cognitive symptoms of AD.
Yet, the FDA approved aducanumab on the basis of this benefit anyway.
Of course, given how few options we currently have available, you might think that any potential treatment is worth trying, even if the proof is a little iffy. But get this: Two major U.S. hospital systems have decided taking that chance just isn’t worth it. So they won’t be administering aducanumab to their patients.1
Not only that, but for healthcare systems that do administer the new drug, treatment costs a whopping $56,000 per year.
Plus, recipients are likely going to be patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild AD. And, well… you and I both know there are plenty of drug-free solutions that can deliver a clinically proven benefit to those patients without spending all of that money… every year!
At the end of the day, the FDA’s approval of aducanumab is just another example of mainstream medicine’s inability to move beyond their misguided belief system—one that prizes “magic bullet” pharmaceutical cures at the expense of whole-body lifestyle medicine.
But the truth is, there’s nothing that Big Pharma can do to slow cognitive decline that proper nutrition, exercise, and supplementation can’t do even better.
So, let’s take a closer look at a few of these natural, brain-preserving basics. And then, I’ll tell you all about a real breakthrough on the horizon…
Three simple rules
There’s a ton of recent research showing that many of my favorite lifestyle interventions can prevent and actually reverse dementia.
Here are three of the most basic and powerful strategies:
- Control your blood sugar. Poor blood sugar control increases dementia risk by a whopping 50 percent, according to one study.2 And it’s really no wonder why.
High blood sugar levels can create inflammation and abnormal blood clotting that increases your risk of thrombosis, embolism, and stroke. All of these are risk factors for brain aging and dementia. Plus, there’s evidence that high blood sugar can also lead to brain shrinkage.3
So, get to know your HbA1c levels. (That’s a blood test of long-term blood sugar control, which your doctor should be analyzing once a year, at the very least.) In general, you want to aim for an HbA1c level below 5. But if you already have diabetes, aim to keep yours as close to 7 as possible.
- Watch what you eat. A recent study found that the typical Western diet (high-fat, high-sugar) leads directly to impaired brain function and changes in brain chemistry. It can even impair your brain’s cognitive abilities (like memory, problem solving, and attention).4
That’s why I always recommend eating a balanced diet full of healthy, whole foods. In fact, my very own A-List Diet is chock full of vital nutrients and healthy fats from lean protein, nuts and seeds, fresh produce, and more that—according to this research at least—will not only help you lose weight, but may help save your brain, too.
- Exercise consistently. Two recent studies found that regular exercise not only reduced Alzheimer’s symptoms, but also improved overall cognition, lowered anxiety, and helped subjects perform better on tests that measured things like memory, language, and mental speed.5
Plus, yet another study showed that subjects who performed vigorous aerobic activity had 14 percent less tau—another Alzheimer’s-linked protein, which I mentioned above. (As if you needed another reason to get up and move!)
So no matter what type of exercise you choose, just make sure you do it—and keep doing it, every day. As always, aim for just 2.5 hours total per week… which breaks down to about 20 minutes of physical activity each day.
These three simple rules will help drop your odds of Alzheimer’s and dementia dramatically. And the best part? None of them come with a hefty price tag.
Now, let’s talk about how you can amplify the benefits of these three lifestyle changes… through proper and smart supplementation.
A real memory breakthrough
In a study published in March, 2020, French scientists detailed a promising discovery: They identified a specific metabolic pathway that plays a key role in determining the symptoms of AD. And they found that a simple amino acid, L-serine, might be able to help restore memory.
Of course, it’s no surprise that one of the first red flags of early stage AD is a notable drop in brain energy metabolism. After all, the brain uses up a lot of energy. And it needs functioning neurons—including a group of brain cells called astrocytes, in particular—in order to work properly.
Not to mention, your brain cells are the main generators of L-serine. And compromised astrocytes reduce the production of L-serine in the body (as observed in mouse studies).
Here’s why that matters: L-serine is the precursor to D-serine—another amino acid tasked with stimulating the brain’s NMDA receptors, which play a key role in brain function and memory formation. So when you don’t have enough L-serine, your NMDA receptors are underactive.
This, in turn, changes brain plasticity and memory power. But in mice, at least, these changes could be reversed, simply through L-serine supplmentation.6
Of course, you know I’m not a big fan of mouse studies. That’s why I’m thrilled to report there’s quite a bit of evidence that L-serine is just as powerful for humans with brain disease, too.
Connecting the dots
Just as how we learned from the Kuna Indians in Panama about the importance of chocolate in protecting our heart, we are learning about Alzheimer’s disease from the Chamorro people of Guam.
In fact, the Chamorro develop an odd hybrid of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Alzheimer’s symptoms because they poison themselves every time they eat one of their favorite dishes: A bat boiled in milk—eyeballs, wings, and all.7
This is toxic simply because of the bats’ diet: They eat the seeds of local cycad trees, which are packed with a toxin called beta-Methylamino-L-alanine, or BMAA. (The Chamorro people also use these seeds to make tortillas.)
Cycad trees nourish themselves with aerial roots, which happen to contain cyanobacteria—one of the oldest organisms on Earth, which you might know better as blue-green algae.
These cyanobacteria are all around us—in oceans, lakes, puddles, and ponds. You can even find cyanobacteria in the desert. And they’re loaded with toxins, including BMAA.
But due to their diet, the Chamorro were getting ultra-high doses of this toxin. And the consequences to the brain were devastating…
A simple way to stop the damage
BMAA is particularly toxic to the brain because it can insert itself into protein chains in place of the amino acid L-serine. This triggers the death of brain cells.
But according to some of the latest research, simply supplementing with L-serine might be able to stop the damage. Basically, L-serine turns on a system in our brains that hunts down and seeks to fix unfolded proteins.And the result is pretty astonishing…
Lab research on monkeys showed that when they received BMAA, their brains showed both plaques and tangles that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. But taking L-serine cut these tangles in brain tissue by as much as 90 percent!
One small human study delivered similar results: Four ALS patients taking high doses of L-serine saw their symptoms slow by a whopping 85 percent, according to a standardized scale known as ALSFRS-R.
In fact, scientists think that high dietary L-serine concentrations might be the reason that Okinawa’s Ogimi village boasts so many centenarians.8 (The Ogimi diet contains more than eight grams of L-serine daily, from commonly consumed foods like tofu and seaweed. The typical American diet, on the other hand, only delivers around 2.5 grams of the amino acid.)
Of course, this is just preliminary research. But if results hold on a broader scale, L-serine would slow cognitive symptom progression far more than any existing drug out there—and potentially buy patients years of life as a result.
Start supplementing today
Of course, L-serine is far from the only nutritional supplement that’s offering hope in the fight against Alzheimer’s. And I’ll be sure to tell you all about any new, exciting research.
In the meantime, I advise taking advantage of L-serine’s potential. It certainly won’t hurt you. And it won’t set you back $56,000 a year, either.
That’s why I recommend supplementing with 500 mg of L-serine per day. (You can also get L-serine from eggs, beef, pork, lentils, flaxseed, and many types of nuts.)
And for additional ways to naturally protect and restore memory, strengthen focus, and fight dementia, I encourage you to check out my Alzheimer’s Prevention and Treatment Plan.
To learn more about this innovative, online learning tool, or to enroll today, click here or call 1-866-747-9421 and ask for order code EOV3X801.
References:
- “Cleveland Clinic and Mount Sinai Won’t AdministerAduhelmto Patients.” The New York Times, 07/14/2021.
- http://www.easdvirtualmeeting.org/resources/glycaemic-control-and-incidence-of-dementia-in-363-573-patients-with-type-2-diabetes-an-observational-study
- “Higher normal fasting plasma glucose is associated with hippocampal atrophy: The PATH Study.”2012 Sep 4;79(10):1019-26.
- “The longer-term impacts of Western diet on human cognition and the brain.”Appetite. 2013 Apr 1;63C:119-128.
- https://www.alz.org/aaic/releases_2015/Thurs1130amET.asp
- LeDouceJ, et al. “Impairment of Glycolysis-Derived l-Serine Production in Astrocytes Contributes to Cognitive Deficits in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Cell Metab. 2020 Mar 3;31(3):503-517.e8.
- Tetzeli, Rick. “Could This Radical New Approach to Alzheimer’s Lead to a Breakthrough?” Fortune, 01/18/2019. (com/longform/alzheimers-disease-cure-breakthrough/)
- Cox PA, et al. “Traditional Food Items inOgimi, Okinawa: l-Serine Content and the Potential for Neuroprotection.”Curr Nutr 2017;6(1):24-31.