Barbara was a 72-year old nurse who had retired after a long and successful career in pediatric nursing. Her family began to notice the early stages of dementia, including forgetfulness, difficulty focusing on things, problems finding words, and not being able to be as mentally sharp as she’d always been her whole life.
She was seen at the local university, and diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s. She was offered medications and was reluctant to begin them because she felt like there must be some natural approaches that could be beneficial for her. But she did in fact end up starting a drug. But she had such severe side effects that she had to stop in one week. That’s when she came to me.
By taking her history and doing an Ayurvedic assessment, I identified that Pitta was extremely high in her case, leading to major inflammation in her gut, body and brain. I put her on a Pitta balancing diet and lifestyle regimen, and incorporated some key herbs that could protect her brain and quiet the raging inflammation that was going on in her system under the surface. I had her incorporate key foods to balance Pitta, including bitter greens, cucumber, okra, certain fruits, aloe vera juice, cilantro, and herbal teas in addition to whole herbs that I recommended.
When I saw her three months later, her mood was noticeably better, and she reported feeling like she was getting back to her old self. Her brain function was still not quite normal, however, as she was still very forgetful. But gradually, over about six months, her cognitive function returned to normal and her family noticed that she became active again in her local community and volunteer work, which was her real passion after retirement.
Now this was over three years ago. Barbara has maintained her mental sharpness and not had any return of symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Her doctors at the university were puzzled, and attributed her case to a “spontaneous healing”, in which a cure just happens on its own. Although I believe that Ayurveda really held the key to her recovery.
My goal is to keep Barbara healthy until the end of her life without any other symptoms of Alzheimer’s or Dementia, and I think this is achievable using Ayurveda.
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