When visiting with patients at the pharmacy I often times ask them how old they would like to live to. Most are open to living a long time as long as they can have a sharp mind and agile body. That gets to be a lot to ask for and not a simple task to achieve. I have touched a little on the body component and I have written on things that can affect your memory but over the next few articles I want to dig deeper on how you boost your memory and take better care of your brain.

The global burden of dementia is staggering, and unfortunately on the rise. Of the 318 million Americans currently living, 45 million will develop Alzheimer’s disease. It is expected that by 2050, there will be over 160,000,000 patients with Alzheimer’s disease globally. For women, Alzheimer’s is more common than breast cancer, as women make up over 65% of the patients. These are staggering statistics

Alzheimer’s disease has and continues to be a disease state that is similar to a runaway train, it is out of control and nothing seems to be able to slow it down. Alzheimer’s is the only one of the nations 10 most common causes of death for which there is no “effective” treatment. We have medications like Aricept and Namenda that provide a small benefit in backing up the disease but it still keeps marching on.

Dr. Dale Bredesen has spent over 30 years researching the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, and has recently published the first paper on the Reversal Of Cognitive Decline in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease and its precursors, mild cognitive impairment and severe cognitive impairment.

The research he has done is quite astounding and is focused on 3 areas; reducing inflammation, optimizing hormones, trophic factors and nutrients and eliminating toxins.

So lets begin with inflammation. Inflammation is one of the most important drivers of cognitive decline and resolving it is critical to reversing it. How do you know you are inflamed, where does it come from and what can I do to decrease it? Several conventional tests can be done to see if you are inflamed; c-reactive protein (CRP), homocysteine, fasting blood glucose, A1c and fasting insulin. These are routine tests that your practitioner can order.

If you find out you are inflamed, which most of us are, then you begin to treat the inflammation which is done by resolving it, inhibiting new inflammation and removing the source of inflammation.

Resolving inflammation can be done with supplements called specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPM’s). SPM’s help tissue return to baseline healthy, non-inflamed state. Currently the only product available to get this job done is Omega Genics SPM Active found at https://goo.gl/Ha1VjZ

Inhibiting new inflammation can be done with Omega 3 and Curcumin. Fish oil is one of the few supplements that is cheaper to purchase as a supplement then to get it in your diet. It is also one that you want to purchase a quality product as fish can harbor toxins and heavy metals. That is why I recommend OmegaGenics EPA/DHA 720 https://goo.gl/A2w8pv it has 720mg of combined EPA and DHA which are the important Omega 3 components and 2000-3000mg/day is a good amount to take, that would be 3 to 4 capsules of Omegenics EPA/DHA 720.

Curcumin product selection is also important,being that most curcumin is poorly absorbed systemically. That may not be important if you are looking to decrease inflammation in the gut but if you are looking for a systemic effect you will need to purchase something that is bound to a phospholipid to ensure optimal absorption.

Lastly, removing the sources of inflammation by cleaning up the diet, checking for leaky gut and looking for chronic infections.

In my next article I will go over optimizing hormones, trophic factors and nutrients. Stop by the pharmacy if you would like more information or need help with choosing quality supplements to get you headed in the right direction for improved memory and cognition.

Until next time, be vigilant about your health!!