Dementia
Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are costly, debilitating and heartbreaking conditions affecting millions of people worldwide. The incidence of dementias is also expected to increase drastically in the next 10-20 years. Therefore, anything that can be done to limit dementias is worth doing.
Conventional medical doctors often do not know the cause for dementia. However, many cases of dementia can be stopped, prevented, and some can be reversed with nutritional methods. This may sound amazing, but it is simply applied biochemistry.
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Causes
1) Yeast in the brain. Chronic yeast infections are common today due to copper imbalance and a diet containing sugars. Foods that contain sugars, including all fruit and fruit juices, tend to feed yeast in the body. Yeasts, such as candida albicans and others, secrete alcohol and acetaldehyde, which are toxic for the brain.
2) So-called brain diabetes. This interesting condition consists of an inability of the brain to utilise glucose properly. As a result, the brain basically starves. This causes a progressive dementia that is very severe and will end in death if it is not reversed promptly.
The good news is that this type of dementia is quite easy to stop and actually reverse completely. The ‘secret’ is to take at least 2 heaping tablespoons of MCT oil or coconut oil every day, without fail. MCT stands for medium chain triglycerides. These special fats will nourish a brain that cannot utilise glucose properly. As a result, the cells in the brain will become properly nourished and the dementia will go away, especially if it is done before it progresses too far. If there is actual brain cell death, recovery will not be as complete, but there will be some improvement.
A vicious cycle is common with this type of dementia. As the brain starves for fuel or glucose, the person wants to eat more food. Usually, one eats the wrong food, and this causes weight gain and causes more stress on the sugar-handling systems of the body. As a result, the ‘brain diabetes’ becomes even worse, and this, in turn, increases the craving for food. The result is weight gain, metabolic syndrome, and worsening diabetes. Drugs such as insulin and oral diabetic medication do not heal this condition, which has to do with nutrition and deeper metabolic disturbances.
3) Pharmaceutical (or recreational) drug use. Toxicity from medications of all sorts, even over-the-counter remedies, can have powerful effects on the nervous system. For example, drugs can reduce vitamin levels. Some interfere with digestion and elimination. Others damage the liver or kidneys, impairing general health. Others slow the circulation of the blood and this can affect circulation to the brain.
Some high blood pressure drugs, for example, reduce the force of the heart. This successfully reduces blood pressure and may prevent a stroke. However, it can reduce blood flow to the brain as well. Some heart medications, glaucoma drugs and others may do the same as high blood pressure medication. Any drug that reduces blood flow or heart stress may reduce circulation to the brain. This affects memory and other cognitive functions in most cases, to some degree.
Anaesthesia drugs used in many operations often affect memory and cognition. For example, bypass surgery often causes some degree of memory and cognitive loss because this long surgery requires a lot of anaesthesia. Many other classes of drugs may have side effects that alter brain function. Contrary to what some people believe, most drugs remain in the body, to some degree, for years and perhaps forever, unless one makes a determined effort to remove them. Here are some steps to help reduce your drug usage:
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Stop any drug that you really don’t have to take. Surprisingly, many doctors prescribe drugs just for “comfort” or other reasons that are not too important. Yet they all have side effects, one of which may be dementia.
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Reduce your dosages as much as possible.
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Read the side effects of all drugs you use, even over-the-counter drugs. Note if dementia, memory loss or some other brain abnormality is one of the side effects. If so, talk with your doctor about changing drugs to one that does not have this side effect.
Note that if you are taking combinations of drugs, the side effects cannot even be predicted, as there are so many possible combinations. I think it would be rare that anyone really needs to be taking more than one or two drugs. Many times, natural products will work as well or even better, and are often less costly as well.
4) Malnutrition. This is another very common cause of dementia. Often it is a very subtle and insidious form of malnutrition in which one is eating regularly, but not digesting or absorbing food adequately. This is extremely common in older people today. Here is more information about this type of malnutrition of the older population:
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Slow and insidious (hidden).
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Causes no obvious visible signs and symptoms.
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Symptoms are usually confused with other diseases, since malnutrition can cause almost any symptom imaginable.
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Far more common than imagined. Indeed, it affects most people as they age.
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Often it does not matter much if one eats a “balanced” or wholesome diet because it has to do with absorption and digestion of food, and not just the kind of food one eats.
Deficiency of B-complex vitamins, for example, can lead to dementia. This is well-known in medical literature. However, most doctors do not insist on tests or B-vitamin shots, though they are very inexpensive and simple to give. These alone can cure an early case of dementia if this is the cause. Vitamin B-12, in particular, is required for proper mental function. Deficiency symptoms include confusion, memory loss and other brain-related symptoms. It is a crime that this is not recognised more in the medical field, now totally dominated by drug use.
Prevention with B12. If a person is following a Nutritional Balancing programme and taking GB-3 with every meal, I do not think a person needs supplementary vitamin B12. However, for those who are not on a Nutritional Balancing programme, I recommend a vitamin B12 shot for everyone over the age of about 65 or 70, at least one per year or preferably more. This can help prevent dementia from lack of vitamin B12, which is often irreversible.
All seniors should also take extra vitamin B12 in tablet form or better, in sublingual lozenges, to offset the normal decline in the ability to absorb this vital vitamin. This would actually prevent many cases of dementia completely.
Why are most seniors malnourished? There are several reasons why this is virtually an epidemic.
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Most eat less food due to reduced hunger, reduced ability to chew food, and weaker digestion. This, alone, leads to malnutrition.
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Most do not want to cook as much as previously. This means they eat out more frequently or eat more packaged, prepared meals. Both of these tend to be less nutritious than home-cooked meals.
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Many do not digest food as well. This is due to age, use of pharmaceuticals, low enzymes or other conditions that affect digestion or the energy level. Poorer digestion means one will be less well nourished by one’s food.
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Many do not even like eating any more. It is normal for appetite to decrease with age. One reason is a zinc deficiency. As explained above, many nutritional deficiencies become worse with age. This leads many seniors and even middle-aged people to reduce their eating quantity and quality.
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More stress. Seniors often experience more stress because they are not as strong and resilient as when they were young. Stress from any source reduces digestive ability, while at the same time increases the need for vital nutrients.
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Today’s food supply. Even if one eats enough of excellent food and can digest and absorb nutrients, today’s hybrid foods are not as healthful as that which was grown 50 or 100 years ago. Much more food is grown per acre today, but the mineral content of the food is also much lower. Thus one can slowly become malnourished even if one is eating well and the body can digest and absorb food correctly.
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Vegetarian and raw food diets. These are harmful in the extreme, in my view, although I know some health authorities recommend them.
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Failing to take nutritional supplements. Sadly, some doctors and media outlets falsely teach that nutritional supplements are not needed, or are harmful, when the truth is the exact opposite. Millions of pages of medical research, literally, performed over the past 70 years, support the use and amazing value of nutritional supplements.
5) Toxic metals and toxic chemicals. Everyone’s body accumulates more toxic substances as they age. This is due to:
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Much more sluggish metabolism, and with age most people’s kidneys, liver and bowel do not work as well.
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Impaired nutrition. When one eats fewer essential minerals, the body absorbs more toxic metals from the environment.
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Drug use. Many pharmaceutical items contain a little toxic metals such as mercury in flu shots and blood pressure drugs, aluminium in antacids, and so forth.
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Food and other environmental exposure. The worst offender here is aluminium, which is directly associated in some studies with memory loss and other dementia symptoms. For example, excess aluminium is associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Aluminium is added to drinking water and found in all prepared foods made with water, such as beverages, breads, and cooked items of all types. Aluminium is also added to table salt and is found in anti-perspirants, antacids (except Tums) and other common products we touch or ingest. For example, it is added to buffered Aspirin and other over-the-counter products.
6) Impaired circulation to the brain. A common reason for this cause of dementia is arteriosclerosis affecting circulation to the brain. Another reason is inactivity, which reduces general circulation to some degree. Dehydration and heart problems may also contribute to impaired circulation to the brain.
All of these health conditions can be corrected with a Nutritional Balancing programme. I do not recommend chelation therapy to improve circulation, although it can help. However, it is less effective and less safe than Nutritional Balancing.
7) Subtle infections in or near the brain. Some people have subtle infections in the ears, sinuses, teeth, or in the brain itself. Most of them give off toxins called endotoxins and/or exotoxins that can affect cognition, memory and other brain activities. Chronic infections can also be at locations distant from the brain, but their toxins circulate and will affect the brain. Most of them are not revealed on x-rays, blood tests or other medical scans.
These infections can be bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitic. As one ages, they can flare up because the body’s ability to fight them off declines.
8) Both mental and physical inactivity. This has been shown to increase dementia in numerous medical studies. Even simple mental activity, such as doing crossword puzzles or even watching television, improves brain circulation to some degree.
9) Other. Rarely, a brain tumour or other disease can cause dementia. This should be ruled out.
Correction
Follow a complete Nutritional Balancing programme. This type of programme can help for dozens of reasons, literally. These include remineralising the body, removing toxic metals, reducing toxic chemicals in the brain and nervous system, healing chronic infections, balancing key mineral ratios, restoring the sugar-handling system of the body, and restoring adaptive energy and vitality to the body.
To support a Nutritional Balancing programme, take as little prescription and over-the-counter drugs, as humanly possible. Use your mind, breathe deeply every day, and exercise a little each day.
For more advanced cases, following a Nutritional Balancing programme may be difficult or impossible unless you have excellent care. To do a Nutritional Balancing programme properly, a person with dementia will almost always require a lot of care, at least until cognitive function can be restored.
Emotional aspects
Some people, as they age, decide they just do not want to be on planet earth any more. This is understandable, as their bodies are not working well and life is just not much fun or as productive as it once was. Many are confined to the house or worse, in bed, and must be cared for by others, though the person wishes it were not so.
Dementia can be a way that a person “tunes out” the world. This is not ideal, but it occurs, at times, as one ages. It is even more common today, complicated by all the nutritional imbalances and toxic exposures discussed above.
As a result, in some cases, one must not only overcome the physical causes of dementia in order to restore normal functioning, but also the emotional reasons for the condition. This can make correction slow and less effective, and is a common problem in dealing with dementias.
Brain fog and mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
At least 40% of the clients I work with complain of brain fog. It is a lack of clarity, inability to think clearly and think through problems logically, and related problems. Brain fog may be considered an early form of dementia. It affects millions of people at all ages – even young children, today. Fortunately, it is usually completely reversible if the person will follow a complete Nutritional Balancing programme.
Mild cognitive impairment is a newer term that medical doctors are using to describe mild or early forms of dementia. The causes, in my view, are exactly the same as those for other dementias listed above.
© March 2014, The Center For Development
