Exponential Progress

By Dale Bredesen, M.D., Chief Science Officer for Apollo Health

I remember as a little boy, when my father first told me about exponents. Well, 2023 has been a year of exponential progress, and that bodes well for further advances in 2024. Here are just some of the highlights of 2023:

● For the first time, we documented sustained cognitive improvement — in some patients for over a decade — and learned that those who undergo secondary decline after several years often have new contributors (such as new toxin exposure or an undiagnosed chronic infection), which can be identified and addressed successfully.

● Following on our successful proof-of-concept clinical trial published last year, Dr. Heather Sandison published a trial with similar results (https://content.iospress.com/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad230004?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad230004 ), providing further confirmation of our protocol’s efficacy.

● We began a randomized, controlled clinical trial at 6 sites, with 6 superb physicians: Drs. Kat Toups, Ann Hathaway, Kristine Burke, Craig Tanio, Nate Bergman, and David Haase (https://www.dementiareversaltrial.com/). This trial is still recruiting, so if you know someone with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early dementia, please let them know about this trial.

● A full-length documentary film, Memories for Life — Reversing Cognitive Decline, narrated by Michael Bublé, appeared, and after playing in several film festivals, it is now streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and Google Play.

● We collaborated with Nutrition for Longevity to produce KetoFLEX 12/3 meals for delivery. Special thanks to Julie G. and Dr. Aida Lasheen for their outstanding work on this collaboration.

● The initial data from the Ark Project — in which we study small numbers of patients with each neurodegenerative disease in order to determine whether we may able to treat successfully by adapting the protocol to the unique biochemistry of each disease — came back with the first data on dry macular degeneration. These showed improvement in dark adaptation for patient #1, and improvement in OCT (optical coherence tomography) in patient #2. These are promising initial results in a disease for which there is currently no truly effective treatment.

● We established the first precision medicine program for neurodegenerative disease, which is located at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Los Angeles. I hope that this will lead to improved treatments for all neurodegenerative diseases, offering hope to so many in need.

● We had initial talks with Neurocode to make key tests for brain status — p-tau 217, NfL, and GFAP — available at much reduced costs. These should provide an excellent way to follow treatment success or need for modification, without having to consider follow-up MRIs, PET scans, or spinal taps.

Here’s to a New Year filled with optimism and progress. What was once impossible is happening every day now, and our work together should continue to improve outcomes.