Tips to Naturally Fight Memory Loss
Approaching middle age can feel like walking around in a brain fog, especially among women. According to Pauline Maki, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychology and director of women’s health research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, memory loss is a common occurrence among women as they approach menopause.
Meki also says that women approaching menopause tend to easily forget even recently learned verbal information. Studies show that up to 60% of women who are experiencing perimenopause/menopause report that their memory is not as sharp as it used to be when they were younger.
Scientists have already established that memory loss among women is linked to a decline in the levels of estrogens. The levels drastically plunge during menopause. Just like most studies that involve the brain, the answers are not always simple or straightforward.
“Mice are curious,” says Karyn Frick, a UWM professor of psychology. “By watching them in their lab environment, we could see that female “middle-aged” mice were mentally old compared to males of the same age.”
According to Frick, women are three times more likely to develop memory loss and Alzheimer as they grow old. The problem can’t simply be solved by replacing the estrogen or through hormonal replacement therapy. Such remedies could have harmful effects like increased risk of getting cancer and cardiovascular complications.
Alzheimer’s Disease is a degenerative neurological condition that accounts for about 60-80% of dementia cases. As the disease progresses, it gradually impairs cognitive function to the point where it can make daily life all but impossible. It impacts behavior, cognition, and memory. While it typically affects persons over the age of 65, hundreds of thousands of much younger patients are currently suffering from Early-Onset Alzheimer’s. A person with Alzheimer’s will live an average of four-to-eight years after the diagnosis, but this can be extended significantly depending on other factors, including health history, gender, brain and spinal cord abnormalities, and the severity of the symptoms experienced.
The disease currently is thought to have no cure. Ongoing research suggests that a combination of many potential causes, acting in concert, are responsible. Various treatment options can dramatically ease the symptoms, and possibly even help an Alzheimer’s patient to resume many of their daily habits and routines. The Bredesen Protocol is a compelling approach to treatment that shows a great deal of promise in clinical trials, and has already helped hundreds of patients.
Signs and Symptoms of Memory Loss
Since memory loss is associated with menopause, here is a list of common perimenopause symptoms:
Night Sweats
Hot flashes
Depression
Mood Swings
Sleep Disturbance
And, of course, irregular menstrual cycles.
Studies have shown that women who experience hot flashes could also be susceptible to loss of verbal memory. In a 2008 study, Dr. Maki and her team observed 29 women who were suffering from moderate hot flashes. Participants were given standardized verbal tests and those who experienced hot flashes exhibited the worst results.
Other common symptoms of memory loss include:
Asking the same question repeatedly
Mixing up words
Taking long to complete simple and familiar tasks
Misplacing items
There is also a notable mild cognitive impairment which often affects the memory part of the brain. The condition doesn’t generally progress much unless it is an extreme case.
Why Memory Declines
There isn’t an exact answer on the effects of estrogen on the brain and the problem is yet to be fully understood by neurologists. One way to look at it is that estrogen aids the neurotransmitter system in sending signals to the brain areas that are involved in handling information and memory processing. There are also some researchers who are of the opinion that estrogen helps in survival and growth of neurons. Neurons are the cells responsible for sending electrical impulses to the brain.
What’s the Bredesen Protocol?
The Bredesen Protocol, developed by Dr. Dale Bredesen M.D., addresses up to thirty-six potential causes of Alzheimer’s, and takes steps to correct them as much as possible. Sometimes this is done with medication, like Lion’s Mane or ALCAR, but often the changes have more to do with diet and lifestyle.
In early trials, nine out of ten patients who abided by the protocol showed enough cognitive improvement that they were able to take up their daily lives again.
Dr. Bredesen describes Alzheimer’s as a “leaky roof.” With up to thirty-six potential leaky spots, no two patients will necessarily share the exact same set of causes, but their symptoms might be the same.
How Does The Bredesen Protocol Help Treat Alzheimer’s?
By considering all those potential causes, and either eliminating or treating each of them, it’s possible to dramatically reduce the severity of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. In some cases, it’s even possible to increase the rate of neurogenesis (a.k.a., growing new, healthy brain tissue) to improve mental clarity, keeping the disease at bay for years before degeneration recurs.
The Bredesen protocol divides the various treatment methods and strategies into three broad subgroups: diet, lifestyle, and cognition.
Treatment
Diet
Everything starts with a healthy plant-based diet rich in green vegetables, small legumes, and ancient whole grains are advised. These items are not exposed to high levels of pesticides and industrial toxicants which often cause brain and peripheral nervous system damage. For people suffering from memory issues it is also critical to stick with an organic, low-toxin loaded anti-inflammatory diet.
As your body digests simple carbohydrates, it breaks them down into glucose, or sugar, which is used for energy. Too many simple sugars in the blood derived from bread, pasta, starches, sugary items, processed food, dairy products. This reaction can also occur from eating any types of animal protein at night, and from overeating. These food items cause high levels of oxidative stress. The demand for insulin to remove the excess sugar out of the bloodstream continues to rise until the point the body can no longer keep up with demand. This insulin resistance is an early warning for Type-2 Diabetes, doubling one’s risk for Alzheimer’s.
Regular consumption of food and beverages packaged in plastic increases direct exposure to gasoline additives, cigarette smoking, food preservatives, exposes one to environmental industrial toxicants which directly damage the brain and peripheral nervous system.
The anti-inflammatory diet helps promote good digestion, a strong immune system, and the ability to detoxify effectively from frequent exposure to mutagens and carcinogens. This includes being on a plant-based organic diet rich in foods grown mostly above ground with root vegetables and fruit consumed as a medicine (sparingly).
Practicing long fasting periods at night (minimum of 12 to 16 hours) helps promote fat metabolism and decreased production of inflammation. Breaking down fat stores for fuel breaks down the plaque amyloid beta which is formed in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients, a potential cause of the disease.
Good plant-based fats such as from flax seed, coconut oil, and avocado oil are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. They help build cell walls especially for brain tissue. By making these dietary shifts, it is possible to increase the rate of neurogenesis and prevent the dementia from worsening. It can also rebuild damaged brain tissues and possible reverse some symptoms.
Cook more food on the stovetop versus roasting, grilling, or frying since these foods turn into carcinogens and damage brain function when cooked at high temperatures. You will coincidentally be decreasing your simple sugar, carbohydrates, and saturated fat consumption which helps makes your brain function well.
Lifestyle
Your brain is constantly working, fretting, rationalizing, planning, regulating, and dreaming. All of this intense mental activity is strenuous. A dementia patient already affected by reduced cognitive capacity will easily feel anxious due to loss of focus, memory, and an inability to track spatial or temporal relationships. Developing good habits can help take some of that stress off the brain, and allow the brain to think more clearly.
It’s important to get adequate rest and physical exercise appropriate for one’s ability and with appropriate guidance. Sleep is a critical time for the brain to clear out clutter and organize thoughts. Chronic sleep deprivation over many years— even sleeping just an hour less than you should per night — can lead to cognitive impairment in even the healthiest of individuals, and amplifies their risk for Alzheimer’s. It is also important brain cells are properly oxygenated. Taking shallow inhalations and/or expirations (i.e., being a mouth breather; often seen in those suffering from digestive problems, allergies, asthma) cannot effectively release carbon dioxide from their cells, and deliver oxygen to their cells. While sleeping if one is not getting enough oxygen to their brain cells (aka., sleep apnea), dementia risk is exponentially accelerated. Meditation, yoga, or other coping strategies can dramatically lessen damage to the brain over time. A healthy diet as noted above, regular exercise, prudent sleep hygiene and stress management will dramatically help improve blood oxygenation.
Exercise Your Brain
Alzheimer’s patients show considerable improvement when they’re encouraged to stimulate their brains with problem-solving tasks or memory recall games. Think of the brain like any other muscle. Use it or see it atrophy. Regular practice with brain teasers, strategy games, or other problem-solving challenges, especially with multiple stages, are wonderful ways to strengthen neural connections. Learn a new skill or take up a new hobby which keeps the brain alert and curious, such as learning a foreign language or taking art classes.
Read widely and wildly. Take notes in the process. Continue interacting with lots of different people outside your social circle. Social stimulation is a big support for brain function as it reduces loneliness, prevents depression, and keeps us happy.
People degenerate most quickly when they fall into predictable day-to-day routines with little variation. Loneliness, habituation, and monotony are all just as serious risk factors. To keep their brains the healthiest they can be, Alzheimer’s patients should take time to socialize, take up new hobbies, and indulge in new experiences, all to forge and strengthen new neural pathways. Even just regular conversation can help stave off dementia, sometimes for years.
When to Seek Help
It is common and normal to be forgetful as you age. You may lose your keys or forget to water the plants especially when your mind is distracted with too many other thoughts. There are situations where the symptoms are severe including:
Neglecting hygiene
Getting lost often
Inability to comprehend directions
Difficulty carrying out daily tasks or activities
Forgetting common phrases and words
Proper medical attention is now required. Your symptoms may be tied to developing Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. Other common reasons may be:
Medication side effects
Heavy metal, industrial toxicants, and pesticide exposure
Nutrient deficiencies
Liver damage
Chronic sleep deprivation
Alcoholism
Overactive thyroid
Your doctor may recommend menopause hormonal therapy (HRT) to lessen symptoms. In a two-year study, Dr. Karyn Frick found out that long-term treatment of memory loss with the sex hormone estrogen did not show any improvement like it was anticipated.
"It was surprising because we thought for sure we'd see a benefit of at least some of our treatments," said Frick, now a Professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Which begs the question, what are some ways to improve symptoms of memory loss? Most of them are common sense solutions that improve most health issues to a degree.
Your Attitude Makes All the Difference.
Happy people can stave off memory loss five to ten-folds greater than a pessimistic, half-glass-empty person. To learn more contact Dr. Bhandari. 20 years of experience in cognitive decline has helped countless number of patients define cause of memory loss and define a personalized treatment plan.
AUTHOR
Dr. Payal Bhandari M.D. is one of U.S.'s top leading integrative functional medical physicians and the founder of SF Advanced Health. She combines the best in Eastern and Western Medicine to understand the root causes of diseases and provide patients with personalized treatment plans that quickly deliver effective results. Dr. Bhandari specializes in cell function to understand how the whole body works. Dr. Bhandari received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology in 1997 and Doctor of Medicine degree in 2001 from West Virginia University. She the completed her Family Medicine residency in 2004 from the University of Massachusetts and joined a family medicine practice in 2005 which was eventually nationally recognized as San Francisco’s 1st patient-centered medical home. To learn more, go to www.sfadvancedhealth.com.