Using Precision Medicine to Prevent and Treat Alzheimer’s | Goop

It’s basically diet, exercise, sleep, dealing with stress, brain training, some targeted supplementation, detoxification if needed, and drugs that are appropriate. I’m not against drugs—I prescribed them for years and years as a neurologist—but what’s interesting is that the drugs work much better when they are used as part of an optimal protocol. Bioidentical hormone replacement is something that can be quite helpful.

We use a plant-rich mildly ketogenic diet. Ketosis has been one of the most powerful tools to use against cognitive decline, because ketone bodies provide the brain with an alternative fuel to glucose. Ten years before a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, PET scans show that people have low glucose utilization in the temporal and parietal lobes of the brain. That is the signature of Alzheimer’s disease.

Twelve to sixteen hours of fasting can be helpful. Regular exercise with both aerobic and strength training will help improve ketosis, insulin sensitivity, blood oxygenation, and blood flow to the brain.

There’s evidence that your blood oxygenation at night correlates with the size of parts of your brain. If you’re sleeping at night with an oxygenation of 88 or 90 percent instead of 98 percent, you may have a smaller brain. You want to get oxygen levels to optimal by dealing with sleep apnea and circulation. There are ways to check your oxygen level at night. One device we recommend is the Beddr SleepTuner, and there are also the Apple Watch and the Fitbit.

For brain training, we recommend Brain HQ because there are data published on it.

And then supplements. Supplements have gotten a terrible name because some companies make ridiculous claims. We’re saying supplements are among the things you can do to optimize your biochemistry. For example, if you’ve got low magnesium, which many people with Alzheimer’s do, then you can take magnesium threonate.