I've been practicing a home brew version of the Bredesen protocol before it was "a thing." I'm guessing that I represent many of us old-timers. When we began our E4 journeys, Dr. Bredesen's seminal paper hadn't even been published. We began adopting a multifactorial approach because it made sense based upon the evidence available. Many of us, like me, are doing so without the luxury of Bredesen-trained practitioners. No such helpers existed when we began our health-optimization journeys. Many of the basic tests recommended by Dr. Bredesen in The End of Alzheimer's can easily be ordered by yourself and/or a helpful local physician. Some of the more advanced tests (if your journey takes you that direction) may require a practitioner that is more highly trained and open to Dr. Bredesen’s approach.
We created this non-profit, in part, to support and educate other E4 carriers to share what we've learned and to continue learning together. We've more recently launched a Practitioner Review Forum to share practitioners that we’ve found helpful on our journeys. You'll notice many are not Bredesen trained. We’ve also created a wiki list where ApoE4-Aware practitioners can add their own contact information. Our hope is that more and more members will take the time to write reviews creating an invaluable and robust resource for our fellow E4 carriers.
If your cognition is too severely affected (or your time is too limited) that you can’t take the deep dive necessary to educate yourself, using a Bredesen-trained practitioner might make sense... if you can afford it. If you're only experiencing mild symptoms and/or are more focused on prevention, and you like to learn about your health and cognition, and you relish the challenge of finding (and even educating
) a helpful practitioner; you might be a perfect candidate to put it all together yourself. I do, but knew I had to reach out to a specialist, still not Bredesen-trained, when I learned that a Lyme disease co-infection was contributing to my presentation. Drae, who continues to humble me with her progress, is a recent member, who beautifully exemplifies what this self-guided journey might look like. You may want to search her posts for more information while bearing in mind that each of us will have a unique journey. Many of us have spent thousands of dollars and countless hours to make this information freely available to you. We’ve even created an all-volunteer Support Team to guide you. We’ve recently taken that initiative a step further by partnering with the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy to provide (very inexpensive) health coach interns to help you on your journey. You can learn more here. Feel free to use the search function on our forum, newly highlighted with a magnifying glass on top right-side toolbar, and always feel free to ask questions. We’re a warm and supportive community, genetically family, and everyone will do their best to pitch in and help you.
Lastly, while all of our staff are volunteers, it still takes money and volunteers to keep our organization running and sustainable. Consider donating your time or talent to keep our free resource available to all. (Learn more here.)
and making use of whatever resources are available. I believe we have saved my life (again). But, that is another long list of stories!
