Dr. Dale Bredesen’s thirty years of clinical research into the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases has led him to conclude that:

• Alzheimer’s results from an imbalance in the brain’s neuroplasticity signaling. As we age and are exposed to multiple toxic assaults, over time, the damaging forces (synaptoclastic) overtake the repair forces (synaptoblastic), and our brains begin to downsize and function poorly.
• At its core, Alzheimer’s is what happens when the brain tries to protect itself from metabolic and toxic threats like inflammation, shortage of supportive nutrients, or exposure to toxins substances. So it is actually a defensive system to protect the brain. Eliminating these threats can stop AD in its tracks and will do far more for someone suffering than just alleviate symptoms.

The goal of our laboratory research was to understand the fundamental nature of the neurodegenerative process, in the hope that we may be able to translate this understanding to fashion the first effective treatments. We discovered that, contrary to the standard claim that “there is no known cause of Alzheimer’s,” there are actually dozens of potential contributors to this disease, and thus what drives Alzheimer’s differs from person to person.

As we started to evaluate these various potential contributors for each patient, we initially noted three different groups, but we now know about 6:

• Type 1 or inflammatory Alzheimer’s may be associated with a chronic infection or other causes of inflammation;
• type 2 of atrophic Alzheimer’s is associated with deficiency in growth factors, hormones, or nutrients;
• type 1.5 or glycotoxic has both inflammatory features and atrophic features since it is associated with high sugar intake, which leads to both insulin resistance (insulin is an important growth factor for brain cells) and glucose damage to proteins (called glycation, which is what is measured by hemoglobin A1c);
• type 3 is toxic, and may be associated with toxicity from metals, air pollution, organic solvents, or biotoxins (which are often produced by specific mold species);
• type 4 is vascular and associated with blood vessel damage that limits blood flow to the brain; and
• type 5 is traumatic, associated with previous head trauma.

Prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s and pre-Alzheimer’s conditions works best when these specific types are identified and addressed for each person, using a precision medicine protocol, which we dubbed ReCODE (for reversal of cognitive decline).