Red Pen Reviews on Bredesen's The End of Alzheimer's

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Plumster
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Red Pen Reviews on Bredesen's The End of Alzheimer's

Post by Plumster »

I am a big fan of Bredesen's book The End of Alzheimer's. It has helped me in so many ways. The review by Red Pen Reviews makes sense to me, as their main problem is the lack of scientific evidence, as one might expect for such a new approach to AD. Here is the review:
https://www.redpenreviews.org/reviews/t ... e-decline/
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Re: Red Pen Reviews on Bredesen's The End of Alzheimer's

Post by Fc1345linville »

Plumster, isn't the "lack of scientific evidence" a problem with the book rather than the Red Pen review?
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TheresaB
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Re: Red Pen Reviews on Bredesen's The End of Alzheimer's

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Fc1345linville wrote:Plumster, isn't the "lack of scientific evidence" a problem with the book rather than the Red Pen review?
So the huge volume of footnotes citing papers and studies that were so voluminous that it made more sense to make them accessible on the internet than to print then in the book is lack of science?

Let's count them
chapter 1 - 5 footnotes
chapter 2 - 6 footnotes
chapter 3 - 2 footnotes
chapter 4 - 24 footnotes
chapter 5 - 27 footnotes
chapter 6 - 11 footnotes
chapter 7 - 10 footnotes
chapter 8 - 91 footnotes
chapter 9 - 26 footnotes
chapter 10 - 36 footnotes
chapter 11 - 34 footnotes
chapter 12 - 24 footnotes
chapter 13 - 38 footnotes
chapter 14 - 34 footnotes
chapter 15 - 28 footnotes
chapter 16 - 44 footnotes
chapter 17 - 5 footnotes
chapter 19 - 14 footnotes
chapter 20 - 18 footnotes
chapter 21 - 4 footnotes

https://www.apollohealthco.com/the-end- ... eferences/
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Re: Red Pen Reviews on Bredesen's The End of Alzheimer's

Post by Plumster »

Hi Theresa,

I think my writing was less than clear, sorry! The review is for Bredesen's first book The End of Alzheimer's and the review is positive. One of the drawbacks, however, is in the area scientific accuracy. What I meant was that, in some ways, this critique of scientific accuracy is to be expected since it's such a new approach to treating AD without a long history of evidence.
We evaluated three key claims of TEOA:

The intake of various nutrients can influence cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
Certain dietary factors promote Alzheimer’s disease by causing inflammation.
Insulin resistance contributes to Alzheimer’s disease.
The book received an overall scientific accuracy score of 1.7, indicating that the scientific claims are not well supported. The first claim received a score of 2, indicating that it’s weakly supported by evidence. None of the nutrients claimed to be important in cognitive decline appeared to have strong evidence of benefit and many had almost none. Vitamin D, vitamin E, and certain B vitamins had some evidence of benefit, but there were serious limitations in this research.

The second claim received a score of 1, as there was almost no evidence in support. The available evidence did not show an inflammatory effect of most of the dietary factors claimed as such in the book. Furthermore, although there is some evidence inflammation in the brain may be involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, this does not mean inflammatory markers circulating in the blood are useful indicators of inflammation in the brain.

Finally, the third claim received a score of 2, indicating it’s weakly supported by evidence. There is some evidence to suggest insulin resistance could play a role in Alzheimer’s disease, but the exact nature of this relationship (and furthermore, how to treat it) has not been well established.
On the other hand, the review gives Bredesen's book high scores for reference accuracy and healthfulness--these are higher than for most of the health books they have reviewed. But, overall, I think the review isn't telling most of us anything we didn't already know before starting and believing in the Bredesen protocol or own variation of it. I hope this clarifies, Theresa.
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Re: Red Pen Reviews on Bredesen's The End of Alzheimer's

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So the huge volume of footnotes citing papers and studies that were so voluminous that it made more sense to make them accessible on the internet than to print then in the book is lack of science?
Thanks for sharing, Theresa. In all fairness to Red Pen and FC, it's important to point out that the references you're citing come from the most recent book, The End of Alzheimer's Program (2020). The review is of the earlier book The End of Alzheimer's (2017). I generally get frustrated as well with the lack of references by many of our best-selling health leaders which is WHY I included as many references as I did in the latest book. My guess is that when you're at the apex of your speciality and a trailblazer, you are the reference or think that the information is generally understood... when that isn't always the case. I warmly invite both Red Pen and FC to read the latest book, which has been well received by mainstream peers as evidenced by this recent book review published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
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Re: Red Pen Reviews on Bredesen's The End of Alzheimer's

Post by Fc1345linville »

Thanks, Julie, for providing the review, and I plan to read the book soon.

FC
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