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Is there any description of the actual interventions? Could this be useful even for healthy people as a way to boost cognitive performance and prevent dementia

by devit 8y ago

Is there any description of the actual interventions? Could this be useful even for healthy people as a way to boost cognitive performance and prevent dementia later in life?

stupidcar 8y ago
Bredesen has written a book describing it. But the core of it seems to be adopting habits that most HN readers would familiar with as being considered healthy, according to current medical fashion: E.g. eating a low-sugar, calorie-restricted diet, exercising regularly, maintaining gut health using probiotics, avoiding chronic inflammation, getting regular, sufficient and good quality sleep, staying mentally active. Stuff everyone should be doing, regardless of their current age or health.
manmal 8y ago
The list of interventions in that article is really long. "Increase telomere length" - is that even doable at the moment? "Increase GABA" - I thought oral GABA supplements do not cross the blood-brain barrier? Others sure are doable: "Enhance leptin sensitivity" and "Increase autophagy" can be done AFAIK by intermittent fasting (even better, water fasting several days). "Enhance mitochondnal function and biogenesis" - any kind of sports, CoQ10 and photobiomodulation come to mind (BTW I've heard of a pilot study where they greatly improved Alzheimer's for ~2 weeks after a treatment with a near-infrared radiation helmet). "Reduce homocysteine" - supplement B12 (ideally, methylcobalamin). Most of the mentioned hormones (upper half of right column) can be optimized with medication. "Reduce inflammation" is likely very beneficial, but tricky; eliminate all foods that cause autoimmune reactions?
- mrfusion 8y ago
  Do they give a dosage for CoQ10?
  - manmal 8y ago
    I haven't seen what the authors recommend..
- simen 8y ago
  > "Increase GABA" - I thought oral GABA supplements do not cross the blood-brain barrier? Oral GABA doesn't cross the BBB in appreciable concentrations, but I assume they mean increase GABA neurotransmission, which can be done with any number of ligands that do cross into the brain. Probably not benzos, since long-term usage increases the risk of Alzheimer's (and cognitive impairment is an effect even in healthy individuals). But perhaps something like baclofen (chloro-phenyl-GABA) which was tested in a rat model here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29133125 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29133125
pmiller2 8y ago
I believe this is the 2014 paper referred to in the article: https://www.aging-us.com/article/100690/text https://www.aging-us.com/article/100690/text

by devit 8y ago

Is there any description of the actual interventions? Could this be useful even for healthy people as a way to boost cognitive performance and prevent dementia later in life?

stupidcar 8y ago

Bredesen has written a book describing it. But the core of it seems to be adopting habits that most HN readers would familiar with as being considered healthy, according to current medical fashion: E.g. eating a low-sugar, calorie-restricted diet, exercising regularly, maintaining gut health using probiotics, avoiding chronic inflammation, getting regular, sufficient and good quality sleep, staying mentally active. Stuff everyone should be doing, regardless of their current age or health.

manmal 8y ago

The list of interventions in that article is really long. "Increase telomere length" - is that even doable at the moment? "Increase GABA" - I thought oral GABA supplements do not cross the blood-brain barrier? Others sure are doable: "Enhance leptin sensitivity" and "Increase autophagy" can be done AFAIK by intermittent fasting (even better, water fasting several days). "Enhance mitochondnal function and biogenesis" - any kind of sports, CoQ10 and photobiomodulation come to mind (BTW I've heard of a pilot study where they greatly improved Alzheimer's for ~2 weeks after a treatment with a near-infrared radiation helmet). "Reduce homocysteine" - supplement B12 (ideally, methylcobalamin). Most of the mentioned hormones (upper half of right column) can be optimized with medication. "Reduce inflammation" is likely very beneficial, but tricky; eliminate all foods that cause autoimmune reactions?

mrfusion 8y ago
Do they give a dosage for CoQ10?
- manmal 8y ago
  I haven't seen what the authors recommend..
simen 8y ago
> "Increase GABA" - I thought oral GABA supplements do not cross the blood-brain barrier? Oral GABA doesn't cross the BBB in appreciable concentrations, but I assume they mean increase GABA neurotransmission, which can be done with any number of ligands that do cross into the brain. Probably not benzos, since long-term usage increases the risk of Alzheimer's (and cognitive impairment is an effect even in healthy individuals). But perhaps something like baclofen (chloro-phenyl-GABA) which was tested in a rat model here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29133125 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29133125

pmiller2 8y ago

I believe this is the 2014 paper referred to in the article: https://www.aging-us.com/article/100690/text https://www.aging-us.com/article/100690/text