Experts have voiced concerns about a California doctor’s astonishing claims that Alzheimer’s can be partially reversed with simple lifestyle changes.
Dr Heather Sandison, a naturopathic doctor (ND) who practices alternative medicine, has penned a controversial book telling of the remarkable improvements she’s seen in patients following a six-step diet and exercise protocol.
In the book, Reversing Alzheimer’s The New Toolkit to Improve Cognition and Protect Brain Health, she details one patient who saw such improvement in her dementia she went from being non-verbal to speaking full sentences.
Another 75-year-old supposedly went from moving into a senior living community because she was experiencing cognitive decline, to achieving a perfect score on a cognitive function test.
However, Dr Stuart Fischer, a New York-based physician told DailyMail.com, the protocol is ‘extremely unrealistic’ as studies have shown it ‘is impossible to reverse Alzheimer’s disease.’
Dr Sandison focuses on six holistic lifestyle factors – diet, exercise and stress, as well as avoiding infections by flossing your teeth and removing shoes indoors to reduce exposure to pesticides in your house.
But Dr Fischer said some of her advice, like removing shoes, ‘has nothing to do with the brain and Alzheimer’s disease.’
Dr Sandison, who founded Solcere Health Clinic for cognitive health and the residential care facility for the elderly Marama, practices naturopathic medicine, which has long faced criticism from conventional medical doctors.
NDs don’t go through as rigorous of training as MDs and many naturopathic treatments are ineffective, not backed by science and potentially dangerous, experts say.
These practitioners are only regulated in 24 states, while three states prohibit the practice altogether, according to the American Medical Association.
NDs receive degrees from a four-year program at a naturopathic medical school but are not required to undergo any additional training and have only 1,200 hours of patient contact.
However, MDs undergo nearly a decade of training and are required to have 12,000 to 16,000 hours of clinical training.
In her book, Reversing Alzheimer’s The New Toolkit to Improve Cognition and Protect Brain Health, Dr Sandison reveals components of her six-step plan: Toxins, nutrients, stress, structure, infections and signaling.
Toxins, such as chemicals in our foods, water and even the heavy metals in dental fillings, can build up in the body, cause inflammation and create waste products.
Eliminating them requires nutrients and energy that divert resources away from the brain and strengthening cognitive processes.
To reduce toxins, Dr Sandison writes people should take their shoes off in their home to prevent pesticides and germs from entering the house and opening doors and windows to get fresh air.
The brain only makes up two percent of a person’s body weight, but is responsible for consuming 20 percent of the calories the body requires for daily functions, so it is important to adequately fuel the brain with amino acids, vitamins and minerals – especially vitamins B and C, as well as zinc and magnesium.
Diet and nutrition have been studied extensively for links to Alzheimer’s, but like most studies related to dementia, researchers only looked at prevention, and there is limited literature about the reversal or treatment of the condition.
Experts have also previously told DailyMail.com cutting back on sugar and processed foods can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.
And Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr Georgia Ede recommended cutting carbohydrates.
She told this website last month: ‘Alzheimer’s is sometimes called “type 3 diabetes” because 80 percent of cases show insulin resistance, which makes it difficult for the brain to use carbohydrate for energy.
The third component in Dr Sandison’s protocol: Stress. It can raise the risk of Alzheimer’s because it throws the body of out whack, preventing it from digesting and absorbing essential nutrients, which can be detrimental to neurotransmitters.
It also raises the level of cortisol in the body, which Dr Sandison writes is connected to poor memory and poor cognition.
It’s important to reduce stress by being social with friends and family and engaging in physical activity.
Structure refers to the physical makeup of the body, such as the alignment of bones and health of organs and tissues, as well as genetics.
Chronic conditions, like sleep apnea, can have a harmful affect on structure, so people should visit doctors to get an encompassing picture of their health.
Infections, such as herpes, Lyme disease and P. gingivalis, an oral bacteria, can impact brain health in a similar way to toxins in that bacteria and viruses can lead to inflammation and the death of neurons.
To avoid these, it is important to brush and floss teeth twice a day, Dr Sandison said.
And lastly, signaling is an integral component of a healthy brain, which refers to the interactions between different bodily systems, which are continuously sending messages to each other.
These include hormones, proteins and peptides.
To make sure your body’s signaling network is running smoothly, it is important to exercise, more specifically, pushing yourself to do more than what you’ve been doing in the past.
By following this protocol, Dr Sandison claims several of her patients reversed cognitive decline, a main symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects 6.7million Americans.
She said: ‘I was skeptical at first that Alzheimer’s could actually be reversed… Then I saw my first dementia patient after my training.’
Dr Sandison said her mind was changed after attending a training with Alzheimer’s expert neurologist Dr Dale Bredesen.
She wrote: ‘For the first time, the complexity of the intervention seemed like it could possibly match the complexity of the disease process.
‘I hoped it would work, but it felt like the kind of hope you get when you have nothing else to lose.’
That is when Dr Sandison met Darlene, who had Alzheimer’s so severe she could only speak in one-word sentences.
Her score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) — a tool used to evaluate cognitive function that gives people a score from zero, the worst, to a perfect score of 30 — was a two.
Dr Sandison wrote: ‘Her husband was desperate, ready to try anything that might help, but he needed some guidance and a little hand-holding. That’s where I came in.
‘Even though she couldn’t add much to our conversation, Darlene’s personality shone through her brightly patterned floral dress, her studded black leather backpack, and her vibrant pink lipstick. She had a huge smile and bright eyes that met yours and let you know that she was with you.’
The doctor worked with Darlene and her husband, who ‘dove into the program head-first.’
They had Darlene’s mercury dental fillings replaced and moved her out of a bedroom with mold in it to reduce her exposure to toxins and she increased her physical activity by going on long walks every day and getting back into ballroom dancing the couple used to do.
She also began following a ketogenic diet, which severely restricts carbs and emphasizes consuming healthy fats.
Dr Sandison writes this diet gives your brain optimal fuel and reduces harmful by-products. The eating style shifts the body from using glucose as energy to ketones, the brain’s ‘preferred fuel source.’
Ketones are more beneficial to the brain because, unlike glucose, which the body burns quickly, the body burns ketones slowly, stabilizing energy and giving your brain cells more energy to pay attention, balance mood and make memories.
A study published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy tested the ketogenic diet on participants diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. After two periods of following a modified ketogenic diet for 12 weeks, with a 10-week break in between, results showed patients improved in daily function and quality of life, as compared to the other group of Alzheimer’s patients who followed a low-fat diet.
While Dr Fischer acknowledged a ketogenic diet could play a role in improving some neurological conditions like epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease ‘is not the same kind of condition.’
After seven weeks on the protocol, the former-schoolteacher’s MoCA score improved to a seven and she was able to speak in full sentences.
Dr Sandison wrote: ‘It wasn’t a cure, but it was significant progress in a short time – and a far cry from the tortuous decline we’ve been told is the only Alzheimer’s can take.
‘And it was enough for me to rethink everything I had been told about what was possible for those suffering with dementia. If these improvements were possible for Dalene, what was possible for everyone else?’
Another one of Dr Sandison’s patients, Nancy, had a MoCA score of 23, indicating mild cognitive impairment.
Nancy noticed subtle signs of cognitive decline after her husband died, having a hard time running her business and becoming easily overwhelmed with tasks she had always found easy – such as doing her taxes.
Just as she was preparing to move into a senior-living community, she contacted Dr Sandison.
The two began working together, with the doctor prescribing Nancy supplements to support her thyroid because hyperthyroidism – when the gland makes too much thyroid hormone – could be a risk factor for the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to an NIH study.
Nancy also began following a ketogenic diet, started taking long walks every day and participating in a tai chi class twice a week.
Exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of developing dementia.
A July 2022 study published in the journal Neurology analyzed the health information of 501,400 people from a British health database over 11 years. Researchers found people who engaged in consistent vigorous activity — sports or working out — had a 35 percent reduced risk of developing dementia.
Even people who reported completing routine household chores saw a benefit and had a 21 percent lower risk of dementia.
She switched to comedies instead of 24/7 news shows to reduce stress and began getting better sleep by turning the TV off at night.
Within three months, Nancy’s MoCA score improved to 27 and she decided she wasn’t going to move into the senior living community.
After six months, her score reached a perfect 30, Dr Sandison claims.
Dr Sandison wrote: ‘Her life blossomed. She started dating. Her new favorite pastime became thrifting with friends, and when she’d come into our office for her follow-up visits, she’d be wearing colorful outfits such as a bright purple dress with a big red belt.
‘She was clearly having fun and loving life.’
While the main cause of Alzheimer’s disease is still debated, scientists believe the damage is likely to be the result of abnormal build-up of proteins – amyloid and tau – in and around brain cells.
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s and newly approved drugs like donanemab only marginally slow the rate of progression and come with dangerous side effects like brain bleeding.
Dr Sandison wrote: ‘The remarkable improvements in cognition that I have witnessed are thanks in large part to a complex systems medicine approach to Alzheimer’s treatment that supports all aspects of brain health using a comprehensive and robust set of tools, including diet, exercise, sleep, the remediation of toxic exposures and infections, and stress reduction.
‘It’s a far cry from the typical treatment for Alzheimer’s, which relies on pharmaceutical treatments that, despite having FDA approval as treatments for Alzheimer’s, don’t have a measurable beneficial impact on cognitive function and have concerning side effects… And what I have seen time and time again is that this new Alzheimer’s toolkit works.’
