How to Improve Brain Function and Lessen the Impact of Dementia
The following information was collected from several physicians whose work I study (references below). If you or someone in your family is struggling with cognitive issues, consider trying some of these ideas. Most of these things are easy to implement and low cost. No single one of these will “cure” cognitive decline, but taken together, they might make an impact.
None of these ideas require you go to a doctor or use pharmaceuticals. This is just information from me to you and should not be considered as medical advice. I can’t cure, diagnose, heal, or fix your problems, but I can share the information that I have collected.
While dementia is not a new disease, it has become far more common in modern industrialized societies. We live further away from Mother Nature, we eat processed foods, we exist in a soup of environmental pollution. Toxic exposures, inflammation, and lack of nutrients are the big things to consider. As you look down this list, you may notice that some of these things help us to “get back to mother nature”—in the form of going out into sunlight, eating better food, and distancing yourself from non-native electromagnetic fields. Check out all the links!
Sleep Must Be Deep
It is well known that there is an impact of sleep on the risk of cognitive decline (Johns Hopkins research). Poor sleep is linked to increased dementia. How to define poor sleep? I define it by how many times I get up in the night, and, “do I feel rested” in the morning, and, did I dream? When your body is in deep sleep it overrides the need to “go pee” and “get a snack” at midnight. You should be able to go long periods without the need get up. Deep sleep is when your body does the repair work.
There is lots of information out there on how to get better sleep (turn off TV, no blue screens in bedroom, no meals before bed, etc.) However, sleeping on a grounded mat every night may be one of the easiest things to try. The sleep improvements from grounding the human body were discovered back in the early 2000s. Grounding your body means touching the earth. But you don’t need to sleep outside on the grass to accomplish this. Sleeping on a grounded mat on your bed can lower inflammation and deepen sleep. Go here and here and here for the research. Grounding mats are easy to use and low cost. I know several physicians that use grounding mats!
Also, there are biometric devices out there that can be worn that measure the quality of your sleep. The Oura Ring is one of the best and most accurate (I have one). It measures the amount of deep sleep and REM sleep that you get every night.
However, it is not required to have a biometric device (like the Oura ring) to measure your sleep efficiency—instead you can rely on your own intuition and judgement. Some folks don’t notice much improvement, but hopefully the improvement is still there, but not immediately noticeable.
Caution: for those living in big cities or huge apartment buildings, with the possibility of high ground currents, you might consider testing your bedroom and environment with the appropriate EMF devises or get a professional to help. Sometimes the “ground” is not really zero voltage. In that case a grounding mat might not work as well.
Spend Time Outdoors Getting Sun
Get sunshine on the body and into the eyes throughout the day. No sunglasses. The body needs UV light entering the eyes to alert the body to build up melatonin for bedtime. If you block the UV light with glasses (regular or sun glasses) your body does not get the signal that it is day time and hormones such as melatonin will not be ready for night time. Go here and here for more info. Also, limit your use of sun block. Gently ease into summer with bare skin, until you can tolerate more and more sun. Go here for more info.
Diet
The two big things here are the elimination of wheat and elimination of vegetable oils. These are non-negotiable in my mind. Make these changes if you are serious about brain health.
Stop All Wheat products (white, whole wheat and anything in between) has been connected to dementia, ataxia, and neurodegeneration. It has been shown to damage nervous system structures in the brain. Go here and here to learn more (link to my PDF). In addition to wheat, you can consider going completely grain free (no corn, millet, sorghum, etc).
Dr. William Davis (Wheat Belly) contends that modern wheat promotes insulin resistance and chronic inflammation, creating conditions that may contribute to cognitive decline and increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Go here and here for more info from Dr Davis.
Stop all Vegetable oils (canola, soybean, corn, cheap olive oil) are connected to inflammation. These fats are not good for us. They are highly processed and actually rancid, causing our bodies to be inflamed. Go here & here & here to learn more. It should be noted that ALL processed foods have vegetable oils! Any food in a box, package, or container, with an ingredient list, should be avoided, or greatly reduced. Restaurants aren’t much better.
Olive oil is OK, but make sure it is sourced from the USA. Olive oils from any other country have a 70% chance of being adulterated with cheap seed oils.
Add Real butter, tallow, and animal fats as these are much better to eat and cook with as they are stable and not rancid. The Westin Price Foundation is a great source of information on this.
Coconut oil is also good. Consider taking MCT oil (from coconuts) in the form of one tablespoon a couple times a day. One theory as to why some folks have dementia is that their brain is not getting enough energy. Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) are energy to the brain. Go here for more information.
Reduce Sugar. Reduce the amount of sugar you eat. This should be obvious.
Add Fermented foods Eat fermented foods daily to improve gut health (kefir, sourcrout, kombucha, etc.) Go here and here for info. Your gut is the key to better brain performance.
Add Pastured Eggs! Dr Natasha Campbell McBride suggests eating 3-5 eggs a day (even if it’s just the yokes). The choline in eggs is used to make a key neurotransmitter for memory and focus. Try to eat eggs from chickens on pasture (avoid most conventional supermarket eggs). Vital Farms eggs are excellent and is a national brand.
Medications, pharmaceuticals
The following “over the counter” medications disrupt deep sleep. They should be avoided (remember, you are trying to increase deep sleep). Of course, occasional use is ok.
No antihistamines as they disrupt deep sleep.
No sleeping pills as they disrupt deep sleep.
As for prescription drugs, there are some that are being prescribed for Alzheimer’s—to reduce the amyloid plaque in the brain. Some are actually effective at doing this! However, other studies show that even though the plaque is lowered, that is not enough to stop or reverse Alzheimer’s disease. There have been decades of research on this, but Alzheimer’s treatments targeting amyloid plaque removal have been largely unsuccessful. Let’s hope that new drugs are being developed to stop the progression of Alzheimer’s.
Vaccines
There may be some connection between cognitive decline and vaccines. The elder population is offered a long list of vaccines for everything from the flu, to pneumonia, shingles, RSV, and now Covid. These are not without risk. The evidence for benefit in older adults is weaker than commonly presented.
It might be best to politely decline that next vaccine offered by your doctor or your local pharmacy.
It is probably better to avoid illnesses by a good lifestyle, nutrition, vitamin D, metabolic health, and other non-vaccine approaches to disease prevention. Read more on this topic here, here and here.
Fungal Infections
Studies have found fungal material in the brains of many people with Alzheimer’s disease at autopsy, whereas it is rarely found in the brains of younger, healthy individuals. Of course, correlation does not mean causation. Some researchers have proposed that amyloid plaques may represent the body’s attempt to trap or isolate microbes, including fungi, as part of the immune response. If this hypothesis is correct, amyloid plaques may serve a protective purpose rather than being solely harmful.
This raises an important question: if amyloid is acting as a defense, should our primary goal be to eliminate it? Perhaps the plaque is merely an innocent bystander, while the underlying fungal infection—or another trigger of inflammation—is the more significant problem.
Fungal overgrowth anywhere in the body is generally considered undesirable, so what can you do if you suspect it may be contributing to poor health? For readers looking for a freely accessible overview of natural approaches to reducing fungal overgrowth, Dr. Jennifer Weinberg provides an excellent introduction here.
Supplements
Lithium- Lithium is a naturally occurring trace element found in groundwater, with varying concentrations across different regions. Some studies have suggested a link between higher lithium levels in drinking water and lower rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Low-dose lithium (1000 mcg) in the form of lithium orotate, has been shown to preserve memory, improve attention, and stabilize mood. Read more here. Here is a good brand- Amazon.
Omega 3 fish oils- Omega-3 fish oils reduce inflammation in the body. EPA/DHA fish oil at 3000 mg a day is a good level to work up to. Read more here. You can find supplements at stores and this brand (Nordic Naturals) is considered the best.
Vitamin D– The normal range for vitamin D is 40-60 ng/mL in blood, but higher is OK (just stay below 100 ng/ml). Ask your doctor for a blood test that looks for 25-hydroxyvitamin D (abbreviated 25(OH)D). Vitamin D is actually a hormone and is very important in biochemical pathways. Dr Joseph Mercola’s info is here. You can also buy a finger-stick test here.
Physical and Mental Activity
People that use their brains to create and partake in 3-dimensional activities (dance, art, building things, crafts) as they age, may be better poised to age more healthily. The idea is that 3-d thinking and problem-solving builds resilience into neural circuits and improves cognition.
This is more than just sitting at the kitchen table and doing Sudoku and crossword puzzles. This is moving your body in space (in your environment) and continually challenging yourself in different ways.
For example: Do different dance steps in your living room, use different weights in the gym, build a garden bench from scrap wood, sew a garment, learn a musical instrument. Consider taking music, dance, art, yoga, or exercise classes, and even try gaming. For a great article on this, go here.
EMF Exposure
This may be a new topic for some of you. Few people think of exposure to electric and magnetic fields (EMF) as a possible contributor to health problems. Yet, for over 100 years people have reported symptoms that they believe were associated with the rapid spread of new electrical technologies. These symptoms included headaches, dizziness, nausea, mental confusion, fatigue, depression, and insomnia.
Today, people experiencing similar symptoms might instead receive diagnoses such as anxiety, insomnia, chronic fatigue, stress-related disorders, or heart palpitations, depending on their specific symptoms and their physician’s evaluation.
It is difficult to prove cause and effect in this field, but a lot of research has been done that has raised important questions. Researchers have shown that the body often responds to EMF exposure as if it were under stress, activating the immune system in ways similar to fighting off an infection making the body more vulnerable to chronic illness. Go here for more info: (ref, ref, ref).
As we continue to fill our homes, cars, schools, and workplaces with wireless technologies, more people report symptoms that they believe are associated with EMF exposure. They are the ones that have to move out of their homes when a cell tower goes up in the neighborhood. Or feel pain or discomfort when holding a cell phone, or have to turn off the electricity to the bedroom in order to get a good night sleep. Are they the canaries in the coal mine? Maybe.
You may be unwittingly exposing yourself to high electric fields by simply sitting at your desk, or sleeping next to a wall with a fuse box nearby. While these experiences remain controversial and not everyone agrees on their cause, they raise questions that deserve thoughtful investigation rather than dismissal.
An excellent book on this topic is “EMF’d” by Dr Joseph Mercola. I have implemented many of the writers’ strategies in my own house.
DMSO and Dementia
I left this topic for last, as it is the most difficult to implement. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a naturally occurring compound found throughout nature, which was initially used as a chemical solvent. It then entered medical use in the 1960s after doctor Stanley Jacob noticed that it had remarkable therapeutic properties.
As people became aware of what DMSO could do, its popularity spread like wildfire, and within a few years it had become a popular experimental treatment in America. Faced with rapidly growing public interest, widespread self-medication, and only limited safety data, the FDA halted most clinical trials while additional research was conducted.
Today, DMSO is currently used in many topical creams and can be purchased over-the-counter. Go here for an article suggesting its use for dementia.
REFERENCES
Dr William Davis (Wheat Belly, Super Gut)
Dr. Joseph Mercola (Dr Mercola)
Dr Natasha Campbell McBride (website plus book Vegetarianism Explained)
A Midwestern Doctor (Substack website)
Weston A Price Foundation (website)
ADDITIONAL READING
What Causes Alzheimbers disease?
Why Isn’t There a Cure for Alzheimer’s Disease
The Great Alzheimer’s Scam and The Proven Cures They’ve Buried for Billions
PUFAs and Endotoxins Drive Alzheimer’s While Tau and Amyloid Beta Protect Brain
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Always talk to your health professional before starting anything new. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any condition and is intended only for entertainment. I welcome your comments.