aricept and ReCode

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Stefan
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aricept and ReCode

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Aricept and other cholinesterase inhibitors are currently prescribed against Alzheimers. From the Info I gathered it is clear, that there are no positive long term effects, e.g. a 2017 Canadian review study, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ ... ine-091713
As a brain coach I work for a conventional GP with a 61 y old female patient with MCI, taking Aricept. The patient wants to take it, as it is prescribed by the neurologist, the GP doesn't know.
Does somebody know if Appolo Health and Dr. Bredesen recommend doing the ReCode with or without Aricept. Thanks
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TheresaB
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Re: aricept and ReCode

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Do you have Dr Bredesen’s first book, The End of Alzheimer’s? He discusses Aricept (donepezil) in numerous places, mostly its temporary efficacy and drawbacks, including this:
First, blocking the breakdown of acetylcholine does not affect the cause or progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The disease therefore still progresses. Second, the brain often responds to inhibition of cholinesterase as you might expect: by making more cholinesterase. That obviously limits the drugs’ efficacy (and can become a real problem if the drug is stopped suddenly). Third, like all drugs, cholinesterase inhibitors have side-effects; they include diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, headache, joint pain, drowsiness, loss of appetite, and bradycardia (slowed heart rate).
Further in the book he cautions that sudden cessation could result in increased cognitive decline.

Dr Bredesen also cites that that most primary care providers default to writing a prescription for Aricept because they don’t know how to fully evaluate the patient and they’ve been taught there is no truly effective therapy.

I’m not a medical professional nor a Bredesen certified health coach, but prescribing Aricept to a patient who only presents with MCI seems irresponsible to me, especially given the temporary nature of its effects.

According to this BeingPatient article, How Does Aricept Work for Alzheimer’s?
While there is currently no treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, a drug called Aricept can temporarily ease the symptoms for a short period of time. Aricept, also known as Donezepil, does not slow down the progression of the disease in the brain, but it can slow down further decline in cognition, usually for around six months.
I added the bold font for emphasis. I’ve also read it may work up to 12 months, still not very long.

However, in this thread aricept the initiating poster cited a paper which said that for those with very mild Alzheimers (MMSE about 28), Aricept kept MMSE scores stable for almost 6 years. But one of my counters to these findings was:
MMSE is a helpful tool, but has limitations. It is a 30-point questionnaire that only takes between 5 and 10 minutes. From Mini-Mental State Examination the most frequently noted disadvantage of the MMSE relates to its lack of sensitivity to mild cognitive impairment and its failure to adequately discriminate patients with mild Alzheimer's disease from normal patients.
In his books, Dr Bredesen doesn’t say to absolutely never prescribe Aricept. I’m guessing that’s to leave open the latitude for a doctor to fully consider caretaker needs and patient circumstance after fully evaluating the patient’s deficiencies through testing and other evaluation.
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Re: aricept and ReCode

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Oops, forgot to quote you to assure you saw my response. So to amend:
Stefan wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:18 am Aricept and other cholinesterase inhibitors are currently prescribed against Alzheimers. From the Info I gathered it is clear, that there are no positive long term effects, e.g. a 2017 Canadian review study, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ ... ine-091713
As a brain coach I work for a conventional GP with a 61 y old female patient with MCI, taking Aricept. The patient wants to take it, as it is prescribed by the neurologist, the GP doesn't know.
Does somebody know if Appolo Health and Dr. Bredesen recommend doing the ReCode with or without Aricept. Thanks
-Theresa
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Stefan
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Re: aricept and ReCode

Post by Stefan »

Thanks Theresa for your infos.
Still there are no clear advices if Aricept and Recode bite each other. In an 2021 Interview with Chris Kresser Dr. Bredesen mentions the drawbacks of Aricept, but he doesnt say, it does not fit with his protocol https://chriskresser.com/using-function ... -bredesen/
..I just want to enable the best possible therapeutic outcome for my patient. I havent seen anybody share experience on that matter…
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