Alzheimer's Risk Without A Plan

Knowing you're at risk isn't the same as having a strategy — especially when lifestyle changes alone aren't enough. This post is about that difference.

I was thirteen when my great-grandmother stopped knowing who I was. She was in her nineties, and I remember being upset by that — but she was old, that’s what happens when you’re old, or so I was told.

My grandmother started showing unmistakable signs not long after that. Then my aunt was diagnosed, not long after my grandmother died. By the time my mother was symptomatic, I didn’t need a genetic test to tell me what I already knew. I was at real risk.

Not some day risk. Now risk.

This was 2010. I went looking for something to do about it, and there was nothing. No formal program, no studies with good outcomes. Every doctor I asked told me the same thing — there’s nothing you can do, just wait and see. So, I waited and tried not to think about it.

That’s not where we are anymore.

Today, we know everything is connected, and it’s not a one-way street with the brain running the whole show alone. The brain and body depend on each other to function properly.

We have Dr. Dale Bredesen’s thirty years of research into what actually drives this disease — and the research of many others that continues to validate his work. It’s not just one scientist, and there’s not just one cause.

Alzheimer’s is a convergence of metabolic, inflammatory, toxic, vascular, hormonal, and mitochondrial dysfunction, all of it building over time before a single cognitive symptom shows up.

That means we have an actual open door for prevention, and it’s a lot wider than most people assume when you start early. But here’s what I’ve watched happen, over and over, during a decade of doing this work: knowing an open door for prevention exists doesn’t mean anyone walks through it.

I understand why. A diagnosis is concrete — a date, a doctor, an appointment on the calendar, a name for symptoms, a concrete reason to take action.

Prevention asks you to act against something that hasn't happened yet, something you can't see, something a standard lab panel won't even flag. It requires you to take action even though nothing is telling you that you need to — no symptom, no test result, no doctor raising a flag.

You feel and function completely fine. Or even if you notice “senior moments”, it’s easier to turn them into a joke rather than answer the question that briefly pops up in your mind. Either way, you don’t feel like you have a reason to act strategically or urgently. And… you may not know what to do.

The mind does what minds do with a hypothetical threat — it waits. It waits for the cough before it quits smoking, the chest pain before it changes the diet, the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment before it finally, finally moves toward action.

I will not tell you that’s fine. It isn’t. Alzheimer’s is rapidly becoming the third leading cause of death globally as the number of people diagnosed climbs year after year. Your life is what’s at stake, and so is what your diagnosis would mean for the people who’d carry it with you. Prevention is possible, but you have to refuse to let awareness be where this ends for you.

The problem with awareness and general advice is that they’re so general. Alzheimer’s is a multifactorial disease that’s not exactly the same in each person, although the results of it are eventually the same.

We hear a lot of general advice, all of it good: Mediterranean or Ketoflex 12/3 diet, exercise, sleep, socialize, reduce stress. And almost everyone I talk to about this is trying to follow that advice. They think they’re doing ok, doing all they can, and yet they aren’t very confident that it’s working.

Diet and lifestyle factors are definitely important for Alzheimer’s prevention. I’m diligent about mine because a strong foundation for brain-body wellness is critical. It’s also important that the standard blood tests your doctor orders are in optimal ranges and that you know what those are. A blood glucose of 96 is not optimal just because it’s less than 100.

But is that enough? Based on my experience, I have to say no. That’s because a lot can be happening in the brain and body that standard labs aren’t measuring and that don’t cause symptoms for a long time. And when they do, often those symptoms don’t seem brain-related.

By the time you’re asking the same question several times within an hour without realizing it, brain changes have been going in the wrong direction for a long time.

My own early detection tests revealed the very beginning of this, which caused me to take a much deeper dive into the reasons why. What I found makes a big difference in my Alzheimer’s prevention strategy.

It’s time to start asking better questions — even about advice that sounds definitive.

You probably remember the lithium study that got so much attention. My inbox was flooded with people forwarding it to me. It’s an important study, and it’s actionable, but it is not the cure for Alzheimer’s. Why not?

Clarifying questions matter. Questions that take your individual risk factors into account are crucial. Do you know what yours are? How would you find out? Questions lead you down a path toward discovery, and the answers can lead to actions you may not have known were necessary — or even known existed.

Instead of living with a looming threat you’re not quite sure about, trying not to think about it, wondering if every forgetful moment is “it” — you can open the gate to empowerment with knowledge. But knowledge isn’t the empowerment itself. The actions you take based on that knowledge are. And it isn’t a one-time event. It’s a process.

One of the most important life skills my dad taught me was to ask good questions. It’s served me well, and when it comes to preventing Alzheimer’s, it can serve you well too, if you’re willing to act on the answers.

I’ve been engaged in a proven protocol for prevention for over ten years, asking and answering questions that keep my data-driven, action-oriented plan alive. My cognition at 62 is better than ever.

But there was one question I hadn’t answered about my Alzheimer’s prevention strategy until about a year ago, and I had to answer it for myself before I could ask anyone else to answer it for themselves.

I was prompted to answer it after my 64-year-old first cousin died because of Alzheimer’s.

Am I really preventing this, or has it already started and I just don’t know it yet?

Are you asking the right questions? Do you know which questions to ask and how to get the answers? I just added a chat space for paid subscribers to help with that.