I finally had the courage to tell my story.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who contributes to this website. It's amazing! The quality of the content is huge. It already helped me a lot. I am so grateful.
Both my parents had dementia (different kinds), so I always felt the need to reduce my risk and have a healthy lifestyle. My brain is so important for my life. I really need it to work and to socialize with my family and friends. I need to be on the top of my capacities, and I was... until the beginning of this year.
I am 50 years old and suddenly, I began forgetting words. I had to change the sentences to use other words because I didn't remember simple words. I also mixed words when I was talking. For instanse, I wanted to say, "I am feeling well" and I could say "I am feelell". Of course, I was conscient of my mistakes and started to worry a lot, even though it happend only in some days.
I went to a neurologist, and he said it probably was Alzheimer's. He said I could do a pet scan to be sure, but he couldn't do anything for me. I just had to wait and watch my brain die every day. It was a huge shock! I didn't do the pet scan. For what? My brain couldn't be fixed anyway.
After crying and feeling sorry about myself, I started googling... hoping for a miracle... a clue on what I could do to -at least- slow this disease. I don't even believe in miracles, but I really needed one. And the miracle was there, waiting for me: I discovered Dale Bredessen. He gave me the best thing you could receive when you are desperate: hope. I started reading everything about him, trying to understand the biomarkers, the protocol and it all made sense to me. I love holistic approaches and it looked like something I could easily implement and follow for the rest of my life.
I discovered a nutritionist in my country that was trained to help in the protocol implementation, and I went to see him. He recommended I had my dna tested. I said I would only do it if the result was actionable. He said it was, so I did it.
And the result came: APOE4/4. I was devastated. For 2 weeks I wasn't even able to cry. I couldn’t sleep. I wished I had never done this test. I thought about the impact of my disease in my husband and children's life. How I suffered with my parents, seeing these two wonderful human beings getting worst every day. I thought I had to kill myself before my disease had a bad impact in my loved one's life.
Then I started to focus on the process of getting better. I couldn't do anything about my genes. What I could do is to take every single tiny step that could reduce my symptoms. By then, I already had read a lot (really a lot) about the theme (this website was a very good source a information), so I started to:
- take several supplements to improve my biomarkers (the nutritionist helped me on that)
- take HRT to improve my hormones levels and my sleep (although I had to see 5 doctors until I found one who accepted to give me the HRT… they all talk about the results of the WHI, ignoring the more recent research with much more positive results)
- exercise 4 times per week 45 minutes (a lot of aerobic exercise, but also some resistance training)
- sauna bathing 4 times per week 20 minutes + cold/heat therapy
- keto diet
- brain stimulation (peak app or elevate app)
- took care of my gut health and my teeth health.
And the symptoms stopped. Last month it only happened to me once when I was in a very stressful situation.
I think the hormonal support was important, as my oestrogen levels were so low. After all this I also learned how menopause affects the brain and read several testimonies of women with the same symptoms that I was having.
I also discovered that my Lp(a) is very very low, which indicates that my cardio-vascular risk is low. Nature helped me in this chapter. I don't have diabetes, I am not overweighted, all my biomarkers are fine, and my lifestyle is healthy, so I must remain positive and believe that the future will be bright.
I continue to focus on the process, and I continue to learn every day about the theme. As there are no doctors in my country who support the Bredessen protocol and the nutritionist lacks in knowledge, I took my health in my own hands and google is my best friend. There are so many reliable sources that provide useful information! It's amazing. Of course it's not the ideal situation, but as I can't move to the US (although I would love to
) it's the only solution I have.I also saw on the Apollo Health website https://www.apollohealthco.com/recode-2 ... ches-faqs/ that there is a RECODE course for health coaches that everyone can take. I am not a health coach, but I was thinking in taking the course to be able to take care of my health in a better way. Has anyone done this course? Do you recommend it?
Once again, thank you so much for your generosity in building content for this fabulous website.
Maria
4/4
