Want better brain health?
Healing Neurodegenerative Disorders
Sadly conventional medicine is coming up short with neurodegenerative disorders by not prioritizing prevention, looking into all the underlying cause(s) of your condition, and offering limited treatment options. The end result is you feel disempowered and helpless to your symptoms as the worsen over time.
At Aspen Integrative Medical Center, we offer a refreshing, comprehensive approach that’ll provide you hope by:
- Prescribing an individualized treatment plan based your particular needs and symptoms VS. standardized treatment plan.
- Identifying and treating the root cause(s) VS. just suppressing your symptoms.
- Recommending natural and cutting-edge healing therapies VS. just pharmaceuticals.
- Being open-minded, collaborative, and supportive VS. narrow-minded and restricted.
- Making you feel empowered and educated VS. feeling disabled and uniformed.
Our physician Dr. Paul Despres is one of the few doctors in northern Arizona that specializes in neurodegenerative conditions offering integrative therapies and brain healing protocols to help slow down the progression of your disease with goals of symptom reversal. From deep tissue laser therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, brain enhancing nutrient therapy, IV therapy, and oral peptides, Dr. Despres will offer you a thorough and individualized treatment plan that addresses the root cause(s) of your condition and helps you get your life back. Call our office at 928-213-5828 to schedule an appointment today.
What is the most important thing to know about neurodegenerative disorders?
EVERYONE should be focused on preventing and treating neurodegeneration aka “cognitive decline.” You don’t need a diagnosis of more severe disease such as Parkinson’s Disease to take this seriously. Through naturopathic medicine we can effectively prevent cognitive decline and drastically improve quality of life as you age.
Why is this so important?
- Cognitive decline WILL affect the whole family.
- It’s more than dementia. It’s about improving mood, concentration, motivation, performance, and relationships.
- Time does matter. How soon you prevent and treat early symptoms will change the trajectory of your condition and life.
- There can be cognitive decline before testing and imaging shows anything abnormal.
Some early signs YOUR BRAIN IS IN TROUBLE:
- Focus and concentration issues
- Forgetting events, dates, names, etc.
- Difficulty solving problems, managing finances, following recipes
- Misjudging distance, difficulty reading
- Difficulty finding words for speech
- Misplacing phone, keys, items
- Impaired judgement such as giving money to telemarketers, scammers
- Isolating behavior and not wanting to be social
- Changes in mood and personality such as changes in likes, dislikes, and being a different person
What are neurodegenerative disorders?
Neurodegenerative disorders are a group of conditions characterized by the progressive degeneration of structure and function of the nervous system, particularly the neurons (nerve cells). These disorders result in the gradual decline of cognitive, motor, and/or sensory functions.
Some common neurodegenerative disorders include:
- Alzheimer’s Disease: A progressive brain disorder that affects memory, thinking, and behavior.
- Parkinson’s Disease: A disorder that primarily affects movement, causing tremors, stiffness, and difficulty with coordination.
- Huntington’s Disease: A genetic disorder that leads to the progressive breakdown of nerve cells, affecting movement, cognition, and behavior.
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a progressive disorder that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, leading to loss of muscle control.
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS): An autoimmune disorder that affects the central nervous system, leading to problems with vision, balance, and muscle control.
- Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD): A group of disorders characterized by the progressive degeneration of the frontal and/or temporal lobes of the brain, leading to changes in personality, behavior, and language.
What causes neurodegenerative disorders?
Neurodegenerative disorders often have complex and multifactorial causes. While genetics can “load the gun,” epigenetic causes like lifestyle, environmental toxins, and stress “pulls the trigger.” In a nutshell it comes down to inflammation and decreased blood flow to the brain which causes:
- Loss in neuroplasticity which is the ability for neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. This allows the neurons to compensate for injury and disease.
- Decrease in neurogenesis aka “growth of new neurons”
Here is a comprehensive list of what can contribute to neurodegeneration:
- Dietary = standard American diet causing inflammation, oxidative stress, and nutrient deficiencies
- Lifestyle = alcohol intake, smoking, sedentary behavior, lack of exercise, etc.
- Genetic = genetic mutations and SNPs contributing to nervous system breakdown and inability to detox the body.
- Toxin burden = heavy metals, pesticides/insecticides (glyphosate), air pollution, solvents, commercial chemicals, antimicrobials/cosmetics, health and body products, air pollution, etc.
- Gastrointestinal distress = constipation, diarrhea, and IBS disrupting the gut microbiome, inhibiting digestion/absorption of nutrients, and impairing detox pathways.
- Pharmaceutical side effects = prolonged use acid blockers leading to nutrient deficiencies
- Infection burden = bacteria, Lyme disease, viruses, parasites, mold, etc.
- Social factors = isolation, lack of engagement
- Metabolic stress = diabetes, hypertension, obesity, stroke, heart disease, etc.
- Vascular health = circulation issues, hypertension
- Aging = as we age cells degenerate and produce less energy (ATP)
How do you treat neurodegenerative disorders?
The treatment of a neurodegenerative disorders depends on the root cause(s), severity, and specific characteristics of your condition. Our goal is to not only help you manage your symptoms and improve your the quality of life, but also answer and address the “why” to your condition, so we can prevent your condition from worsening and hopefully reverse your symptoms.
Treatment is frequently focused on reducing neuroinflammation, stimulating neurogenesis, and strengthening neuroplasticity. This is done by balancing blood sugar, protecting the blood brain barrier, stimulating nerve stem cell growth, and preventing development of secondary complications. An integrative treatment plans is individualized to each patient and may include:
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- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy – increases oxygen perfusion in the brain to stimulate healing and reduce inflammation
- Deep tissue laser therapy – stimulates tissue repair on the cellular level, reduces neuroinflammation, and forms new neurons
- Anti-inflammatory diet – food suggestions to reduce inflammation levels, increase nutrient levels, heal the gastrointestinal tract, and create a healthy gut microbiome
- Lifestyle recommendations – recommendations about sleep, exercise, screen use, social engagement, etc.
- Nutrient supplementation – anti-inflammatories and brain healing vitamins and nutrients like fish oil, choline, resveratrol, CoQ10, etc.
- IV therapy – high doses of critical nutrients delivered directly in the blood and reach the brain and nervous system faster to promote healing
- Neurofeedback – restores normal brain waves and functioning to improve mood, energy, and sleep
- Botanical medicine – plants that increase circulation to the brain and formation of new neurons
- Peptide therapy – peptides like BPC-157, SS-31, cerebrolysin, etc. are signaling molecules to promote nerve and tissue repair.
- Craniosacral therapy – gentle manual therapy that releases cranial bone restrictions and calms down neuroinflammation
Our physicians may refer you to other specialists as needed for imaging (CT scan, MRI), neuropsychological assessment, rehabilitation therapy, and/or assistive devices.
Dr. Despres uses a variety of therapies to support brain health such as deep tissue laser therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and IV therapy to promote faster healing from neurodegeneration. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has greater benefit if followed by a series of IVs that contain the nutrients vitamin C, taurine, carnitine, magnesium, b vitamins, potassium, calcium, glutathione, and molybdenum.
