Bookpleasures.com welcomesas our guest Dr. Timothy J. Smith author of ReversingAlzheimer’s: How to Prevent Dementia and Revitalize Your Brain.

Dr. Smith is afunctional and molecular medicine family physician, brain biochemist,and specialist in anti-aging medicine. He has studied and practicedalternative, nutritional, and conventional healing principles formore than thirty years. He is also the author of Renewal: TheAnti-Aging Revolution. 

Norm: Good day Dr.Smith and thanks for participating in our interview.

What do you consider tobe your greatest success (or successes) so far in your career?

Dr.Smith: I feel blessed to have had an exciting,challenging, truly incredible career in medicine. I think fifty yearsof working for and learning from my patients would have to be mygreatest success. My patients have truly been my best teachers.

Norm: What has beenyour greatest challenge (professionally) that you’ve overcome ingetting to where you’re at today?

Dr.Smith: In 1970, as an intern, I began to challenge muchof what I had been taught in medical school.

The treatments we had backthen were largely based on the “slash and burn” of drugs andsurgery and were often counterproductive or outright toxic.

This spurred my interestin holistic medicine, which morphed into alternative and integrativemedicine. It worked better and was patient friendly but at times drewnegative attention from the medical powers that be. Though thesealternative modalities are now widely accepted, back then there wasmuch more pressure to conform.

Norm: Why is itimportant to ask your doctor about brain health early on?

Dr. Smith: If youthink your brain health is declining and memory problems are alreadyhappening, your family doctor might do a cognitive exam and can referyou to a neurologist if necessary.

Unfortunately, mainstreamneurologists do not have much to offer other than sympathy andwatchful waiting and perhaps some drugs to manage symptoms—as inmonitoring a sinking ship. The sad part, and the part we are tryingto change, is that at that point you are in the range whereprevention of progression and reversal are worth attempting.

Norm: Should people bethinking about their brain the same way they do their heart, colon orbreasts?

Dr. Smith: If youmean should we get tested, the answer is yes.

In my book I give a listof the "biomarker" tests that should be done by everyoneover forty to protect brain health and optimize cognitivefunctioning. These include tests for blood pressure, gut health, andother health factors. Once you know your unique metabolic imbalances,you can work to correct them using the diet, exercise, andsupplements described in the book.

Norm: How long can aperson function normally after receiving an Alzheimer's diagnosis? 

Dr. Smith: Somepatients may rapidly decline and die in just a few years. In others,the progression is slow, and many patients have lived with thedisease for decades.

Norm: Does Alzheimer'srun in families?

Dr. Smith: Yes. Ifyou have a parent or sibling with Alzheimer's, you are morelikely to develop the disease.

A typical healthy personhas a risk of about one in three, or 33 percent. If a family memberdeveloped the illness, your risk goes up to about 50 percent. If yourbiomarkers are positive, the risk is substantially higher. Sincethere is significant risk for all, I believe it is important for allpeople over forty to get tested.

Norm: Why is there aperceived stigma when one suffers from Alzheimer's disease?

Dr. Smith: I do notreally know what “perceived stigma" means. I think there is abroad spectrum of possible reactions by patients to the disease. Someare based on fear, others on projection, and still others on amisunderstanding of what the disease really is.

Norm: What motivatedyou to write Reversing Alzheimer’s: How to Prevent Dementiaand Revitalize Your Brain?

Dr. Smith: In 2003,my mother died of Alzheimer’s. This was very stressful because as aphysician, I had no treatment to offer her that worked.

In 2014 I read a researchpaper by Dr. Dale Bredesen, a noted neurology professor andresearcher. He accomplished something that no one had done in over100 years of Alzheimer’s research: he reversed the symptoms ofAlzheimer’s in 9 of 10 patients by identifying the many causes ineach patient and then applying a treatment program designed toreverse these causes.

Having applied this methodin my private practice since the 1970s, I was very familiar with it,and I understood exactly why and how he had accomplished the firstreversals of this previously incurable disease. I wrote ReversingAlzheimer’s because I wanted to share that story with theworld.

Norm: Whatmakes your book stand out from the crowd dealing with the samesubject matter?

Dr. Smith: My bookexplains exactly why we have a treatment that works and how to useit. Reversing Alzheimer’s translates the complexbiochemistry of neurodegenerative disease into everyday language andshows you how it works.

Everyone has differentpotential causes of neurodegenerative disease, so the book explainshow to use biomarker testing find your own personal causes ofthe disease. These causative factors are then targeted with anindividualized program of interventions.

My book is unique in thatit provides an anti-Alzheimer’s diet and supplement program; Idescribe how the body uses foods and supplements and other naturaltherapies to rebuild, regenerate, and rejuvenate damaged nerves.

Finally, no other bookexplains how the newly emerging science of epigenetics enables us tomake lifestyle choices that optimize the expression of our genes toamplify cognition and brain health.

Norm: What purpose doyou believe your book serves and what matters to your book?

Dr. Smith: I wantpeople to know that Alzheimer’s is not inevitable. They need toknow that they can prevent the disease and they can reverse it in theearly stages. The tools we need are available, and we have extensivescientific proof that they work. The purpose of my book is to showpeople how to apply this information to reverse the disease process.

Norm: Did you learnanything from writing your book and what was it?  

Dr. Smith: One doesnot spend five years poring over the scientific literature withoutlearning a lot, but I think the most significant lesson for me beganafter I finished writing the book. I have been learning about themeaning of hope.

Shortly after completingthis book, I found myself fending off accusations from so-calledexperts that promoting the idea of reversing Alzheimer’s diseasecreates “false hope.”

They say we must dorandomized clinical trials (RCTs) to prove my method is safe andeffective.

But RCTs are not designedto look at complicated issues like the effectiveness of an entiresystem of diagnosis and treatment on multiple body systems. Thecomplexity of this is beyond RCTs and requires a new paradigm.Meanwhile, the functional medicine approach is available right now.It has been safely used for decades and has proven effectiveness. 

The treatment program Irecommend offers very real hope for the millions who can avoid thisotherwise devastating disease.

Norm: Where can ourreaders find out more about you and Reversing Alzheimer’s:How to Prevent Dementia and Revitalize Your Brain?

Dr. Smith: They cango to my website, www.timsmithmd.com. This is a rapidly changingfield with new discoveries almost every day. My site will keep you upto date on the most relevant new developments.

Norm: What is next forDr. Timothy J. Smith?

Dr. Smith: I havebecome very interested in the emerging science of epigenetics, whichplays a key role in gene expression and is the future of Alzheimer’sresearch.

 I am fascinated byhow epigenetics places us in control of our genes and how simplechoices we make powerfully influence genetic expression. We are nolonger victims of our genes! Every food choice, herb, vitamin,mineral, and natural medicine I recommend in the book exerts stronginfluences at the epigenetic level, and science is just beginning toscratch the surface in terms of understanding how this works.

Norm:Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

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