Over the past decades, any attempt at identifying a single, curative treatment for neurodegenerative conditions has failed. For example, over 200 drugs for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have all but come and gone without any significant contribution to better management of this devastating condition. Clearly this is not for the lack of effort or funding, but more likely it’s because we are looking at neurodegenerative diseases through wrong scientific prism. All of these conditions are driven by the complex interplay of factors where addressing only one is similar to fixing one leak on a 50-year-old roof that is riddled with holes; it’s a futile, short-sighted approach that will not effectively change how much water gets into the house. Moreover, it appears that while there are some pathological pathways where addressing the key elements may appear to fix the problem, often eventually “the fix” becomes ineffective over time. A good example of this is the use of acetylcholine breakdown inhibitors such as donepezil for AD – while they work for a period of time, eventually they stop working. Without targeting the root causes of these neurological diseases, the approach to disease management is limited to a Band-Aid approach to managing symptoms rather than a bottom-up approach that has the ability to change the course of the disease.
With this in mind, nutritional approaches to neurodegenerative diseases are likely to have multifaceted effects on these diseases; some diseases positively impacted more than others. CLICK TO REVIEW