Sadly, the “Rhinestone Cowboy” has ridden off into the sunset.
Last week, we said goodbye to one of the greatest and most beloved recording artists of our time, Glen Campbell, who passed away at the age of 81.
In a long career that spanned six decades, you might not be able to even remember a time when a Glen Campbell tune wasn’t on the airwaves. And despite his disclosure of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis six years ago, he kept on singing almost until the very end.
One of the things Campbell’s public battle with this devastating disease did was shine a bright light on the fact that Big Pharma has gotten nowhere in finding a treatment for Alzheimer’s.
And if we’ve learned anything about this terrible disease, it’s that drugs aren’t going to be the answer.
In fact, some of the best ways to keep our brains healthy and our minds sharp as a tack may have been right in front of us all along.
How meds can mimic symptoms
Two years ago, a CNN documentary about Campbell and his struggle with Alzheimer’s aired to great fanfare. That film had one single sponsor — Eli Lilly.
The drugmaker said at the time that it wanted the show to be “our gift to patients and people suffering from this disease.”
“We are not asking something of them,” a Lilly spokesman said. “We are trying to give something to them.”
Well, thanks for nothing, Eli Lilly.
That “something” Lilly gave, no doubt out of the goodness of its corporate heart, was three ads, all masquerading as public service announcements.
But at that time, the drugmaker had in its pipeline what it thought was going to be its biggest seller yet — a med to treat Alzheimer’s that ended up being a bust.
There are several meds already approved for the disease, but they’re doing nothing to curb or cure Alzheimer’s. Still, docs are giving them out like candy to plenty of their patients, many of whom don’t even have the disease in the first place!
For years, we’ve been warning eAlert readers about the dozens and dozens of different drugs that can so closely mimic Alzheimer’s, the only way to officially rule it out is with an autopsy.
On top of that, certain infections such as Lyme can also masquerade as dementia.
But while Alzheimer’s numbers in the U.S. are skyrocketing despite all this pill-popping, the rates are actually falling in other countries.
So, what’s going on in Sweden, Norway, and the UK that isn’t happening here?
Well, those countries offer programs to help citizens improve their diets, exercise more, and play more “brain games.”
The rates of this memory-robbing disease are also much lower in places such as India, where turmeric is used all the time in cooking — and that’s not just a coincidence.
Research has shown that a compound found in the spice turmeric, called curcumin, can both improve memory in Alzheimer’s patients and significantly reduce brain inflammation and plaque formation.
Here in the U.S., where cutting through the noise of Big Pharma giants like Eli Lilly is an uphill climb, our scientists have still made some amazing discoveries in reversing the symptoms of dementia.
And those discoveries don’t have a thing to do with prescription meds.
For example, UCLA researchers have had remarkable success with a common-sense approach for volunteers showing early Alzheimer’s symptoms.
They eliminated processed foods from their diets, added more fresh fruits and vegetables, upped vitamin D levels, and tossed in some probiotics and DHA supplements.
All of us should be doing those things, Alzheimer’s or not!
And although that was a small study involving just 10 patients, this treatment plan completely reversed dementia symptoms for all but one of them!
But that’s not the only non-drug approach to this devastating problem that’s shown remarkable success lately. Results of others from around the world have also been nothing short of miraculous.
The ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture has been found to protect against memory loss and help you think better. A Canadian study found the powerhouse combo of vitamins C and E to reduce the risk of dementia by 40 percent and Alzheimer’s by 42 percent!
And researchers in Denmark have discovered that the medium-chain fatty acids found in coconut oil both “postpone the aging process” and boost the brains of those already suffering from Alzheimer’s.
So, while Big Pharma chugs along spending billions on researching its drugs, it very well may be that the Alzheimer’s “cure” we’ve all been hoping for is already available to all of us.
“Glen Campbell, hit singer and guitarist, dead at 81” Todd Leopold, August 8 2017, CNN, cnn.com
