The 3 types of Alzheimer’s

My journey in turning my health around had already been a few years underway by the time I read “The End of Alzheimer’s” by Dr. Dale Bredesen, MD, in the fall of 2017. So as I read about his explanation for what causes the disease and how to prevent it, I was excited and relieved and even felt very blessed because I was already leaps and bounds ahead in his ReCODE protocol — the Alzheimer’s prevention and reversal program he had created.

Despite being ahead of the game, however, much in that book opened my eyes to aspects of my health that I never would have considered otherwise, such as possible toxins in the body — e.g. mold, arsenic and mercury — and having a leaky blood-brain barrier and what causes it (more on that interesting phenomenon in future posts). One of my favorite parts of the book is his analogy of the human brain being like a house and the 36 causes of Alzheimer’s being holes in the roof. He said a house with 36 holes would not be able to withstand the damage from the first significant rainfall. However, you don’t have to patch all of them to save the house from total destruction. Leaving a few holes behind would cause minor damage but would not be life threatening.

That was rather a comfort. Thirty-six Alzheimer’s causes is very overwhelming, but knowing you can take it one step at a time makes the whole process seem very doable — patch one hole and then another, and eventually you’ll patch enough to stave off cognitive decline.

ReCODE is very extensive, and if a person lives in a bubble and is able to follow it to the letter, perfect health could be achieved. But I live in the real world, and Bredesen realizes this in his book. He stresses that his plan covers every possible aspect of health and preventing Alzheimer’s, but people can follow as much as they choose, according to what they believe is best for their current situation in life and to what their doctor recommends. He then groups the 36 causes into three types of Alzheimer’s:

1. Inflammatory — This type is common for people with the ApoE4 Alzheimer’s gene (see my posts on ApoE4 here and here) and so tends to run in families. Symptoms can begin as early as late 40s or 50s for people with two ApoE4 copies or in late 50s or 60s for people with one copy.

2. Atrophic — In this type, no inflammation is found. Instead, critical nutrients and/or hormones the brain needs to function are in severely short supply. Additionally, insulin resistance is a factor with chronic high glucose (blood-sugar) levels. Bredesen says this type also is common for people with ApoE4, but symptoms tend to appear about a decade later than the inflammatory type.

3. Toxic — Those who develop this form of Alzheimer’s tend to have the ApoE3 gene, which studies have shown neither increases nor decreases one’s chances for Alzheimer’s, Bredesen says. This type also does not run in families. Instead, a person develops Alzheimer’s through exposure to toxins, with symptom onset ranging from the 40s to 60s.

When first reading this, I knew I had been heading down the inflammatory path prior to changing my health habits, and I believe I was experiencing some mild cognitive decline at that time as well. But happily that has all changed. I also was comparing everything Bredesen lists as causes along with the three main types to Mom’s lifestyle habits and progression through the disease. Pretty much everything Bredesen says not to do, Mama did (except smoking). I marveled how she was the perfect storm. It was no wonder, I thought, that she got early-onset Alzheimer’s.

She certainly had been no health nut. She ate a high carb/sugar, low fat/cholesterol diet, rarely exercised and was overweight through most of her adult life, regularly trying and failing at the latest fad diets. Her regular exercise mostly consisted of household cleaning (of which we kids did a large amount for our chores) and going up and down the stairs in our house.

She also had suffered the tragedy of losing her youngest born at the age of 3 months in 1983. My baby sister, Tricia, had been born in distress, having gone too long without oxygen to her brain, resulting in brain damage and cerebral palsy. Mom also had almost died during Tricia’s birth. She had been rushed in for an emergency C-section and had undergone a total hysterectomy while doctors worked to save Tricia.

Tricia couldn’t swallow and had a feeding tube through her navel to her stomach. She also had regular seizures and had to be heavily medicated for them. Mom was amazing. Despite the trauma she had suffered through her labor and resulting hysterectomy, bringing on early menopause, she had worked tirelessly with Tricia, eventually getting her to swallow on her own. One night, however, Tricia had gotten into a position in her crib where she couldn’t breath and suffocated.

Mama blamed herself for Tricia’s death, I believe, and suffered depression during the decade that followed. With this, she had endured the chaos of an early, sudden menopause. She had been given hormone replacement but hadn’t consistently taken her pills and struggled with mood swings and rage.

I believe all these contributed to her fall. I believe she had what Bredesen calls type 1.5 Alzheimer’s — glycotoxic, a combination of types 1 and 2. These people have insulin resistance and chronically high glucose levels, if not full-blown diabetes; vitamin and hormone deficiencies; and chronic inflammation brought on by poor diet and lack of exercise. She may also have had some toxic contributors, having had several amalgam tooth fillings that contained mercury.

I think I actually cried while reading this part of the book, lamenting that I couldn’t go back in time to warn her, wondering how things maybe could have been different if she had known then what I know now.

But nothing can be done about the past. Instead, I look to the future. I truly believe that Mom suffered and died so that her 10 children could live. Her journey with Alzheimer’s disease opened our eyes to how we should live our lives so we won’t have to suffer as she did. I think I would be doing her a disservice, dishonoring her memory by not fighting the battle she couldn’t. I know she’s up there rooting me on. So I will fight Alzheimer’s for her sake. I believe the best thing I can do to honor her memory is to live as full and healthful a life as possible, to live the life she wasn’t able to.

And through seeming divine intervention — Mama’s guiding hand, perhaps — I discovered “The End of Alzheimer’s” and was given the tools I so desperately needed for the fight. It’s time to tackle ReCODE.