Alzheimer’s is a protective response by the brain to an attack. There have been 36 different contributors identified to date that attack the brain. These have been grouped into 6 categories.

1. Inflammation
2. Blood Sugar Regulation (often called Type 3 Diabetes)
3. Trophic Factors which include chemical and hormonal imbalances
4. Bio-Toxins and Heavy Metals – examples are mold and mercury poisoning
5. Vascular which includes strokes
6. Trauma

Most patients have between 10 and 25 contributors to their Alzheimer’s diagnosis. This means in order to come up with a solution, each contributor must be evaluated for the patient. To treat Alzheimer’s you must first identify each contributor and then resolve it.

When the brain is under attack it begins to shrink in an attempt to defend itself. It also begins to focus its resources on the activities required to maintain life. Such as digestion, breathing, etc., and it abandons non-essential activities like memory.

Alzheimer’s is not a single disease.

There are in fact over 36 different things which can trigger Alzheimer’s. They are categorized into 6 different subgroups and there is considerable overlap between them. They are:

1. Inflammation
2. Blood Sugar Regulation
3. Trophic Factors
4. Bio-Toxins and Heavy Metals
5. Vascular
6. Trauma

Most people have a wide-ranging combination of factors.

There are no drugs to treat Alzheimer’s Disease because it isn’t one disease. The idea that you treat disease with drugs is a 20th-century idea that came about with the discovery and use of antibiotics. The challenge was to match a pathogen or bacteria with an antibiotic that would kill it. This worked great when infectious disease was the leading cause of death in the world. It’s a concept we call mono-therapy or the Silver Bullet approach. Match the disease with the correct drug and the patient gets better.

We now know that there are over 36 different things that can trigger Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline and it’s impossible to create one drug that can “fix” all of them. To make it more challenging most patients have between 10-25 different contributors together. This means that for every person there would need to be a different and unique drug. This simply isn’t possible.

What most people don’t know is that, at the present time, most pharmaceutical companies have abandoned research and trials for Alzheimer’s drugs. The last drug approved by the FDA was in 2004 and it doesn’t work. The general consensus is there will not be a drug for Alzheimer’s in our lifetime if ever.

Inflammation is what happens when the brain is attacked.

To understand neuroinflammation, we first need to understand microglia. These are the most common cells in our brains and act in part as the immune system for our central nervous system. Microglia constantly patrol the brain, looking for signs of infection or inflammation caused by toxic proteins such as beta-amyloid and anything else that may damage our neurons.

As microglia clear sources of damage from the brain, they also release pro-inflammatory molecules called cytokines that activate other microglia. Normally, this cytokine release is short-lived. Groups of microglia activate to deal with the problem and then go back to their “resting” state for patrolling. But in Alzheimer’s, research suggests microglia become overactive, increasing their production of cytokines and simultaneously clearing less. In this case, microglia could begin to cause the neuroinflammation they are designed to alleviate and their ability to clear away damage wanes, creating a vicious cycle. The result is more and more damaged neurons, which can lead to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Just like your gastrointestinal (GI) tract has a protective barrier protecting it from its surroundings, your brain has its own casing that protects it from your body and bloodstream. It’s called the blood-brain barrier (BBB). And, just like you can get a leaky gut, you can also get a leaky brain.

Now, you may have heard of leaky gut in terms of “intestinal permeability”, which might make it seem like your gut shouldn’t be so permeable. But the truth is that your gut is naturally and selectively permeable, allowing helpful compounds like nutrients to pass into the body while keeping harmful toxins and pathogens out. When this process fails, and the membrane of your GI tract becomes more permeable than it should be, it’s called leaky gut.

The key to being able to reverse Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive decline is early detection. As a matter of fact, we are now able to pick up changes in the brain as much as 20+ years before symptoms would be diagnosed as Alzheimer’s.

The two easiest and most effective ways are:

1. Volumetric MRI’s – We are now able to run brain MRIs and then have the scan analyzed by software which can measure the size or volume of different parts of the brain. Once this is done, it is possible to not only compare your brain between left and right sides for symmetry, but also compare your brain to your demographic group to see where you stand relative those in your age group etc. This allows us to actually see brain shrinkage years before symptoms begin.
2. CNS VS – Central Nervous System Vital Signs is a computer-based software which can measure how different parts of your brain are communicating with each other. This test is run in our office and once it is performed, we are able to compare you to your age group etc. With this test, we can learn in 30 minutes what would typically take hours with neuropsychology testing.

Please see The Carroll Institute’s Signature Programs  page which discusses our proprietary application of the Bredesen Protocol to see how we have created a step-by-step method of mentoring people through Alzheimer’s reversal.