The Bredesen prescription

Dr Dale Bredesen, who has nearly 40 years’ experience as a neuroscientist and neurologist, having graduated from the California Institute of Technology and earned his medical degree from Duke University in North Carolina, has developed an experimental therapeutic programme that he claims can halt and even reverse cognitive decline. Patients have a comprehensive interview, and blood tests to assess their genetic profile and levels of hormones, heavy metals and vitamins, which are markers of inflammation and insulin resistance.

Based on their personalised results, patients take supplements including vitamins B12, D3 and folate, fish oil, CoQ10, melatonin and probiotics for gut health. It’s a challenging lifestyle overhaul: a near elimination of processed foods, simple carbohydrates and gluten; increase in consumption of fruit and vegetables and non-farmed fish; night-time fasting; sleep for an optimal eight hours per night and at least 30 minutes of exercise a day; as well as de-stressing through yoga and meditation. Dental hygiene and sleep apnoea problems are addressed.

Bredesen wrote up his findings in the journal Aging in 2014 – tinyurl.com/NZLAging – and further studies are due to be released, though his approach remains outside the mainstream. Catherine Woulfe’s 2015 Listener story on Bredesen is here: tinyurl.com/NZLBredesen. In 2017, Bredesen published a book: tinyurl.com/NZLDBbook.