Thursday, October 31, 2013

Alzheimer’s Disease: What Causes It And How Do We Treat It?

There is some new work by the Rush University Medical Center (October 2013) that begins to inform us about Alzheimer’s disease. They say that experiencing traumatic events in mid life can lead to later Alzheimer’s. They recruited 800 middle aged women and followed them for 40 years, checking in to see if they had a trauma and when and what kind. This would include the death of spouse, caring for a sick relative or unemployment. For each of these events there was an increased risk of later Alzheimer’s disease By 20%. This was despite how well they seemed to cope with it. (see

The researches claim that this is the best evidence by far to date linking psychological stressors with dementia. They go on to state that previous studies showed that stress hormones could help increase the build-up of proteins that are found in the brains of people with dementia. This means that serious disease such as dementia is related to stress. Not surprising. But wait! They have not touched the critical source of stress; the traumas during gestation and birth. In our clinical work we have found that as patients start to relive these early events the vital signs skyrocket, brain waves are increased in amplitude and frequency and other signs of severe stress.

We need to imagine what happens to a fetus fighting for her life because of lack of oxygen or of the carrying mother ingesting alcohol or serious pain medication.
There is terror and panic; her life is at stake, not the same as losing a job later on. The fetus cannot scream or talk or explain her agony but we see it in her biologic signs. And unlike the current research, the scientists, when discussing what to do about all this, believe the person needs stress reduction techniques to help eliminate the problem. I am not sure. I am very not sure.

The point is that these very early traumas are imprinted and are locked into the system for a lifetime. They form the basis for how later stress will be reacted to. That should be the next study; to see how the imprint plays into all this. I think it does in a big way; that primal stress is important in the later advent of Alzheimer’s disease. So if middle age stress can lead to disease think about how traumas on a naïve and vulnerable being can affect later illness. Just because the fetus cannot scream does not mean that she is not suffering. And that suffering continues on and on.

What we are planning to do soon is study the imprint and how to reverse it; that is the ultimate reduction of stress. We want to see if we can reverse history through reliving traumas. For if we can do that we may well help patients to avoid serious disease later on. We will measure the methylation process by which traumas are stamped into the brain. If we reverse methylation we may stop historical traumas from going on to do damage later on. We will reverse history. Think of that; stopping an imprint from going on to cause damage. That is mind-blowing.


  1. I can see how early birth trauma can damage one's life. Sure a lot of things work out, but a lot of things one has to constantly "struggle" with; feelings of "barely making it"; the frustration seems , at times, almost constant. Would be great if someone could relieve this feeling of "barely making it" Gotta be strong, if one cannot get primal therapy right away, or if the methylation process cannot be reversed any time too soon. It would be great if what Dr. Janov says can happen, does happen. It's important.

  2. When love is... needs explain the missing!

    We need something that is not seen to become visible . Although it is visible for does who can se... it will not help the " blind " to catch sight of it. To do that... own eyes are needed... own eyes to experiencing what they can see.

    We have a problem... although it has been visible long since... it has received other sentences for what it is! The problem is not the sentences... they are seen for what they are... the problem is they who formulate the sentences!

    We are now facing the door to break through for what hitherto been an established order... and that is... they can no longer hide behind an sheltered workshop... an academic order that reigns supreme gets to decide for what it is or not! Aida has been behind these doors so she knows how crazy it is!

    We need to get all these professionals at a round table and show them what they need to see... where sentences for own business no longer is enough... or do it without them!

    Aida is at where no one can convince her of anything other than what she is experiencing of her disease... there's no sentences that go past her as explain her anxiety and depression to be something she is not familiar with.

    Aida is aware and and can not in any way be hoodwinked for what others have an opinion about. She knows today... and knowing something that caused so much suffering to her is something they don't moving aourand without explaining themselves.

    Knowing and experience it... it's like being the wind that drives the boat who knows where to sail!


    1. Frank: None are so blind as to not see what is there; none is so blind as to refuse to see what is there. art

    2. I know... but the consequence of our suffering confuses the state to the point that the fog is so dense that it can be likened to being blind... if we do not get help to see it through!


  3. We can loosely see that some people are more intellectual and some are more feeling. Few are both. Its not fair to suggest that feeling people are more human. Feeling people who lack intellectual understanding tend to feel their own private twisted world... they cry but they dont really understand you... they dont know you. Perhaps they understand you better than an intellectual can... but it's not enough. They leave me feeling alone. Intellectuals are in tune with many of the subtle details in my thoughts.... they follow my ideas and contribute to them. There is a sort of partnership; two people working together to form a useful intellectual understanding.... I think that is a very important part of what makes us human. Humanness is very much a combination of the complex subtleties of intellectual understanding, and powerful emotions and sensations of reality. We need both halves. When one half is missing, we lose contact with reality and each other. When we are drunk we become more compassionate and more determined and aggressive as we feel more reality but we also lose that complex contact with our friends. Drunk people can't keep up with their friends' thoughts. Perhaps this is why people feel so sad when they watch a close relative developing alzheimers. They see the intellectual part of the person disappearing... like watching a friend getting drunk... disappearing into a private world of emotions that are only partially realistic. The intellect is part of the person. We dont want to lose it... we just want it to be connected to feelings. We need to understand our own feelings and we need to feel what our thoughts represent.

  4. My granny had alzheimers, it took her 8 years to die. Must have been 1st line trauma as she smoked through her life to push it down. Smoked through 5 pregnancies. 2 died shortly after being born, my mother and my aunt fight with pyschosis and very bad leaky gates. So I have very bad birth trauma, which totally floors me if I go near it. Who knows, maybe I will be able to resolve it and I can dance and cackle my way through my old age. I wanted to do it before I had my kids and break the generational shit but we will see. It seems more of a task than I bargained for.

    1. Emma: You will be watched over as best we can. But you made it through the first time so you will make it the second time. Same pain, a different time. art

    2. Hi Emma,

      My Mum is deteriorating in a home for dementia sufferers. They've put her down the end of a long corridor far away from all the other crazies because her behaviour is just too provocative.
      I don't know if it's fortunate or unfortunate that the woman I go to visit there isn't the mother I grieve the loss of (45 years ago).

      Paul G.

  5. Art!

    As the physiological process of ”only” beeing aware of feeling love is possible… need becomes the effect when it’s missing!

    A childs who not confronts the physiological impact of the feeling for missing love must be different to what a child who confronts the feeling of missing love? I mean... if the electrochemical device is "flourishing" then will the need of negative effect become conscious... a feeling... because it can be transferred emotionally from the limbic system to the neocortex and the need is no more... no more pain... it is then a feeling for what need was the cause of... a human being consciously aware!?

    And you will say "we feel need"... yes... but to feel is on to what... and need is not... why we go through primal therapy! Our vocabulary confuses us... we may have to come closer to the physiological process!?

    Feelings that are satisfied through the process as the evolutionary scheme caused is yet for the sorry of it... a cause to form need… but that is a question we have to solve in the future... it will show what emotions were meant!?


  6. not off topic:
    Art, is it too expensive to send a carefully or randomly selected number of patients to some sleep disorder clinic for periodical recommended monitoring of whatever they can measure there?

    1. Vuko: I will try to make an announcement about our coming research soon and will answer your question. Exciting art


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Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D.
Bailey Endowed Chair of Animal Well Being Science
Washington State University

Lou Cozolino, PsyD, Professor of Psychology, Pepperdine University




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