Functional medicine, including Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, promotes lifestyle medicine as the foundations of health. And what’s the bottom line? We can improve our life by making better choices.
For example after eating, rather than crashing out on the sofa or going to sleep, we should go for a walk. Walking after food significantly lowers the blood glucose level (glycaemic index). Our grandparents used to do this and doing the simplest of things, such as walking, makes such a difference.
The number one cause of death in the USA and UK is Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Functional medicine has now labelled Alzheimer’s disease and dementia as Diabetes type 3. The cognitive decline is horrendous both for the patient and the carers around. The surprising thing is that with many conventional medicine treatments that simply don’t work. The prescribers seem to be hitting the repeat button, and nothing seems to be changing with the patient. In fact, 50 billion pounds are spent every year on the research of Alzheimer’s with little avail. Many medications make the symptoms worse. This would be multifactorial, including higher levels of metal toxicity in the brain, metabolic health and gut brain barrier.
Dr Bredesen protocol is a treatment different to many others by addressing diet and lifestyle factors that attribute to amyloid plaque. The method is known to reclaim many brain functions and myelin pathways. How do amyloid plaques cause Alzheimer’s?
It is formed from the breakdown of a larger protein, called amyloid precursor protein. One form, beta-amyloid 42, is thought to be especially toxic. In the Alzheimer’s brain, abnormal levels of this naturally occurring protein clump together to form plaques that collect between neurons and disrupt cell function.
The Bredesen protocol determines your risk factors based on your genetics, lifestyle, and current health, then addresses the unique underlying causes in each case. Used together, functional and lifestyle medicine strategies can roll back the effects of mild dementia within 6 months. If we have digestive issues, we will have brain issues too. Hippocrates always stated: “Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food”. The food we eat impacts the rest of our body. The modernised production means there is more gluten, more processed carbohydrates, more sugar and more garbage.
Our immune system constantly ends up hyperactive. Our diet also effects our blood sugar levels giving multiple issues such as migraines, energy gaps, blood sugar regulation and pre diabetic conditions.
What is metabolic health??
Consuming the wrong garbage takes our blood sugar out of control. Our blood sugar is connected to our insulin levels, and when they are out of balance, we have poor metabolic health. The body is always looking for a way to survive. Eating healthy fats and proteins definitely helps alleviate problems. Eastern medicine always walks the path with the patient.
We should always look at the allostatic load of any person with injury, illness and disease. This includes COVID-19 variants. The stress chart below shows the things that effect the body. A recent study in the lancet quoted: “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the underlying poor metabolic health in our society, with metabolic diseases associated with COVID-19 severity and worse outcomes.” 1
- Our safety and security threats.
- Our financial
- Food is a stress in itself with too much, too little or poor quality.
- Our relationships with ourselves and others.
- The environment including air, water, electromagnetic stress, medical drugs, toxins and sleep.
- Even exercise can be too much or too little.
- Stinking thinking which are our words, thoughts and deeds.
- Our repair hormones which are affected: melatonin, growth hormones, DHEA, testerone, oestrogen. Theses hormones in turn effect the immune system.
- When the immune system become repressed this effects blood sugar regulation.
Bibliography
- https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(21)00058-9/fulltext
