- The good, the bad, and the dangerous: Be wary of FDA’s memory loss advice
- The undisclosed medication linked to memory loss
- Why you should never listen to FDA’s diet recommendations
Dear Living Well Daily Reader,
The FDA almost did something right. Almost.
Instead, once again, they are caught spewing bad, outdated health advice that could put vulnerable people in danger.
I was cruising the FDA website for fun (yes, I do that) and on their homepage was a link to a bulletin called “Coping With Memory Loss.”
Knowing that memory loss is a huge concern for many of you, I eagerly clicked on the article.
At first glance, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. The FDA provided a list of some of the lesser-known yet common causes of memory loss, including:
- Stress
- Thyroid dysfunction
- Vitamin B1 or B12 deficiency
- Infections.
They also include a list of medications that can cause memory loss:
- Sleeping pills
- Over-the-counter antihistamines (e.g., Benadryl)
- Anti-anxiety medications
- Antidepressants
- Some medications used to treat schizophrenia
- Pain medicines given for use after surgery.
But there is one class of medications that is mysteriously absent from that list. One that the FDA has even warned about in the past for being linked with memory loss. One that now requires a black box warning for its potential to cause severe memory loss.
That class of drugs is none other than good ol’ statins, which are prescribed to lower cholesterol levels.
Despite the fact that in the past 10 years there have been over 36,000 reports to the FDA of brain dysfunction associated with statins, it still wasn’t listed in the FDA bulletin as a potential cause of memory loss. (And this number may only represent 1–10 percent of the true number of memory loss cases, because many people don’t report drug side effects.)
Statin drugs are prescribed over 200 million times each year, meaning that the number of people who could be affected by statin-induced memory loss is very large.
These prescriptions add up to over $29 BILLION in revenue yearly for Big Pharma (who pay the salaries of FDA officials, by the way).
FDA Bungles Brain Advice
Now, I won’t go as far as to say this missing information on statins and memory loss was intentional. I don’t buy into conspiracy theories, and I do believe that the article was written with the best intentions.
Perhaps it was just an oversight by the FDA employee who wrote the bulletin. (My colleague Nate Rifkin would likely vehemently disagree with me on this.)
I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but then I saw this outright dangerous piece of advice in the bulletin, in a section on recommended ways to help prevent memory loss:
And then this:
These crappy, outdated recommendations are coming from the FDA despite the fact that not only is 25% of the body’s cholesterol located in the brain and nervous system, but some studies have shown that higher cholesterol levels after age 70 are associated with decreased risk of dementia.
You see, cholesterol is absolutely crucial in the brain for the proper functioning of neurons, learning, and memory.
Despite the initial promise of this bulletin, once again, the FDA misses the mark. It’s frustrating and APPALLING that they would issue such terrible advice to people suffering from memory loss.
Especially considering that the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is skyrocketing, with an estimated 5 million sufferers nationwide. And that number is projected to explode to 75 million worldwide in just the next 15 years.
And (as even admitted in the FDA bulletin) there are NO effective prescription treatments for this horrible disease. At best, some drugs can potentially slow down the progression of dementia. At worst, they do nothing and come with side effects like nausea, constipation, dizziness, and confusion.
The reason drugs haven’t been shown to be effective for dementia is because the disease can have more than just one cause. It’s a multifaceted disease that requires a multifaceted treatment approach.
New Study Shows Hope
The good news is a brand-new study found that when patients were given a fully comprehensive, multifaceted protocol to treat their memory loss from all angles, a full nine out of 10 of them had a complete reversal of their memory decline.
Even though the study was small, a 90% success rate is nothing to laugh at.
One study participant reversed 11 years of memory loss within six months. Another was able to get rid of her symptoms in five months. And another completely transformed and restored her cognitive function in just 90 days.
THIS is the groundbreaking type of information the FDA should be putting on their website. Instead, no one is talking about this.
That’s why I was so excited to see that Dr. Micozzi, a former NIH researcher and renowned natural health expert, had come across this research as well.
It’s so groundbreaking that once he saw it, Dr. Micozzi even said, “If this isn’t an Alzheimer’s cure, I don’t know what is.”
Dr. Micozzi, along with our friends and affiliate company OmniVista Health Learning, have put together all of the details on this groundbreaking study, along with 30 years worth of Dr. Micozzi’s research on brain health, in a comprehensive protocol you can access here.
If you or a loved one is trying to prevent or reverse memory decline, I urge you to check this out.
Sincerely,
Jasmine LeMaster
Health Researcher, Spy Briefing’s Living Well
