Memory Issues And Help For Another Friend
About 6.5 months ago, a friend of mine, who is 73 years old, told me he was having memory issues and had been having this problem for over two years. He said the symptoms that he could remember were, walking in another room to get something and not being able to remember what he wanted to get, memory issues such as forgetting the word he wanted to use when speaking to others, forgetting what he was talking about right in the middle of a conversation, inability to focus or stay focused on a topic or the task at hand, having episodes of temporary confusion, a general avoidance of being around other people for fear of exposing his memory issues to them, anger and bad mood issues with his wife. He stated that all of these issues seem to be worsening with some seeming to be worsening quicker than others.
Where he and his wife used to lead their individual lives without problem, his wife told me that he was becoming very moody and possessive where he didn't want her to go anywhere if he wasn't going with her, which she said had never been an issue in their many years of being married, until recent years.
He has many other health issues, but for he and his wife, the cognitive issues seemed to be the most problematic for the both of them at that point.
From my point of view and from other friends input, we could all see that he was regularly having these senior moments where he was forgetting the word he wanted use or the topic he was discussing. As an example, we had gone out to dinner together and in conversations everyone at the table noticed he glitched at least three times which were obvious. In one instance that everyone noticed, he signaled for the waitress to come to the table and by the time she got there, he had forgotten what he was going to ask her.
Surprisingly, to me, he told me he had never discussed any of his cognitive issues with his doctor. I thought it was odd that he had never told his doctor considering that he and his wife were both aware of the problem and he felt the problem was worsening. I think the reason he hadn't told his doctor is because in order to do that, you have to admit that there is a memory problem and I think that, in itself is difficult for many people to do. With some soul searching on my part, I realized that if I were having memory issues such as my friend was having, I might also not really want to discuss it with my doctor.
My friend asked me if I could offer him any suggestions that might help improve his memory. I suggested a supplement regimen that was somewhat different than the regimen I had made for another friend with memory issues which I wrote about here :
Art Solbrig's Memory Loss Protocol
The reason for the difference in regimens is because he has other health issues that I felt this supplement regimen would also be useful for. This is the regimen I asked him to consider and talk to his doctor about before starting it :
1. Vitamin D - 5000 - 10000 IU/Day to get to about 65 to 70 ng/ml on the 25 OH d test.
2. Melatonin - Using both oral and topical melatonin lotion. The oral melatonin to help improve his gut microbiome and help protect his brain neurons, reduce excess oxidative stress, help stabilize mitochondria, reduce alpha synuclein aggregation and toxicity and lower neuroinflammation levels. The melatonin lotion used to help maintain a more steady state of melatonin in his system and reduce pain he was having. I suggested starting low and working his way up to tolerance. I describe how to make melatonin lotion here :
https://www.earthclinic.com/supplements/melatonin-lotion.html
3. Berberine - 1500 mg/day in three divided doses of 500 mg at breakfast, 500 mg at lunch and 500 mg at dinner.
4. Lithium orotate - 10 mg at breakfast and 10 mg at dinner. I suggested 5 mg capsules so he could gradually work his dose upward to 20 mg starting with 5 mg at breakfast for two weeks and then adding 5 mg at dinner for two weeks and then adding another 5 mg at breakfast for two weeks and the another 5 mg at dinner for a total of 10 mg at breakfast and 10 mg at dinner for the total 20 mg/day.
5. Magnesium Glycinate (MG) - Take at least enough MG to get the RDA of elemental magnesium. Most MG supplements have approximately 100 mg of elemental magnesium and about 1000+mg of MG so for a man, generally about 4 capsules or tablets to get to the RDA.
6. Astaxanthin - At least 24 mg/day in three divided doses of 8 mg at breakfast, 8mg at lunch and 8 mg at dinner.
So my friend told me he would discuss this regimen with his doctor to make sure it would be compatible with all of the medications he is already taking and he would start on them once he got his doctor's approval. He is the type of person who once he decides he is going to do something, he does it. So I know he must have put pressure on his doctor right away to review his regimen.
At about 4.5 months into the regimen, our other friends noticed that he was no longer glitching in conversations with him. I mentioned this fact to him and asked him what he thought? He said he had not really thought about it lately and he had not realized what his friends were saying was actually happening. I spoke to him again at about 5.5 months and he said he was starting to notice an improvement, but he was now paying closer attention and comparing the areas he knew he had been having problems in and was starting to notice improvement. His wife told me his moods were much better as of late and it was easier for them to get along and they didn't seem to be arguing as much as they had been. He said that he noticed that the problem with walking into another room only to forget why he went there was happening less than half the time compared to just two or three months earlier.
We had him and his wife over for lunch around 6 months into the regimen and he said all of his cognitive issues had greatly improved, but he said it happened so gradually to him, that he didn't realize it was improving until one day he noticed that he was no longer having memory problems to the extent that he was. They visited for about three hours and he had no glitches that anyone noticed. What we all noticed at this lunch is that he was extremely talkative, more like he had been years ago. He didn't say he felt 100% improved, but for the rest of us we could not see any cognitive deficits any more.
My friend said he is going to continue the regimen indefinitely and I told him that was a good idea because the regimen is good for his health in general and he does have many other health issues.
I thought this story was worth sharing with the EC community!
Art
