Though countless research has attempted to cure, or at least delay, dementia in its earliest forms, a new study has shown promising results in reversing the symptoms for this incurable disease.
Using a small sample of older adults living with dementia, researchers from UCLA suggest that addressing the many contributing factors of Alzheimer’s disease as a group, rather than targeting certain symptoms individually, could potentially reverse the disease’s early progression, according to the UCLA Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, whose findings were recently covered by CNN.
Nine out of 10 patients involved in the study, each with varying stages of dementia, claimed their symptoms were reversed after they participated in a rigorous program that involved things like “optimizing Vitamin D levels in the blood, using DHA supplements to bride broken connections in the brain, optimizing gut health, and strategic fasting to normalize insulin levels.”
Additionally, a few months after beginning the program, patients aged 55 to 75 noticed their cognition had either improved or returned to normal. Only one patient, however, who was a 60-year-old woman in the late stages of dementia continued to decline.
“Each of these things contributes a small piece of the puzzle,” study author Dr. Dale Bredesen, director of the Easton Center, told CNN in an interview. “It’s like a roof with 36 holes in it. Some people have a big hole in, say, exercise, and maybe a smaller hole in another area.”
The study also indicated that making certain lifestyle changes could produce significant results in reversing dementia, such as eliminating processed foods from one’s diet, rigorously exercising; taking probiotics and sleeping as close to eight hours a night as possible.
One individual who implemented such changes claimed that between four and six months later, his acuity with numbers and faces returned.
But while this single case is far from generalizable, the UCLA research should be interpreted with caution, mostly due to its small study size and the range of its participants diagnoses, the researchers note.
Read more at CNN.
Written by Jason Oliva
