Professor Dale Bredesen
A Visiting Professor of Neurology & Director of Neurodegenerative Disease Research at UCLA
The Bredesen Protocol™ is a diet and lifestyle programme, developed by Professor of Neurology, Dale Bredesen, that has been shown in research to reverse symptoms of cognitive decline. Professor Dale Bredesen has spent his life studying Alzheimer’s disease and is recognised internationally as an expert in the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Professor Bredesen likens Alzheimer’s pathology to a ‘roof with many holes’. There are dozens of biological mechanisms that need to be optimised in order to return a person to health. Monotherapy (single agent drug therapy) plugs just one of these holes, however, one needs to plug a good number of the holes to have any chance of improving the condition. This latter approach utilised in the Bredesen Protocol™ equates to a multiple therapeutic approach, identifying and addressing the areas of imbalance.
The Bredesen Protocol™ is a programme that is used by Doctors in a clinical setting. The programme diagnostics rely on results from numerous blood and other tests (including scans) for input into a software algorithm from which patient programmes are produced. The protocol uses a functional medicine approach that aims to identify the root causes of the disease. Functional medicine recognises that whilst two individuals may have the same disease and pathology, the underlying causes may be different. Functional medicine asks “why has this person got this disease?” and looks for clues in their current and past environment, diet, lifestyle, medical history and family history. Thus it seeks to uncover the root causes of the disease.
The Bredesen Protocol™ targets the multiple underlying causes of Alzheimer’s disease, with a goal to improving cognitive function.
Of the 140 people treated so far, more than 90% have shown improvements. In each case the programme has been tailored to optimise all the necessary parameters in the individual. Nutrition and lifestyle components are at the heart of Professor Bredesen’s protocol.The most important thing to come out of Professor Bredesen’s research is that Alzheimer’s disease is not an omnipotent neurological disorder over which we have no control, but a metabolic disease which may be largely within our control. This is true right up to the late stages of the disease.
The Action Against Alzheimer’s programme is based on the diet and lifestyle elements of the Bredesen Protocol™; it is a programme for people wanting to optimise brain function and overall health, it is for individuals who want to engage in diet and lifestyle changes NOW and not wait for a possible future diagnosis of dementia.On the other hand, private GP-led clinics are available for patients with diagnosed ‘mild cognitive impairment’ or Alzheimer’s disease.