Chandler’s New Book Tackles Prion Pandemic
Neurodegenerative disease is the fastest-growing cause of death in the world. Author and prion expert Gary Chandler hopes to reverse that trend by showcasing and connecting existing science.
Alzheimer’s disease alone is taking the lives of 50-100 million people around the world now. Millions will die of the disease this year, while millions more will be diagnosed and misdiagnosed. Millions of additional people will go undiagnosed.
Death rates from heart disease, cancer and other leading causes of death are dropping in most countries due to advances in nutrition, medicine and disease management. Neurodegenerative disease is the one glaring exception. It’s spreading exponentially. In the U.S., for example, deaths attributed to Alzheimer’s disease increased 71 percent from 2000 to 2013, while those attributed to heart disease decreased 14 percent.
The pandemic is more severe in some countries than others. Finland and Iceland had the highest prevalence rates just a few years ago. Now, countries in the Middle East and Persian Gulf states have soared to the top of the list. Most cases go unrecorded, so the true scope of the problem is unknown.
A variety of factors can trigger neurodegenerative disease, including genetics, head trauma and exposure to deadly prions (pree-on). The Mayo Clinic claims that Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of neurodegenerative disease are largely preventable.
A prion is a deadly form of protein that ultimately infects the entire body, while consuming the brain. Prion disease is clinically known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). As the name suggests, TSE is a transmissible disease.
Deadly prions spread through the bodily fluids and tissue those carrying prion disease (milk, blood, saliva, mucus, urine, feces, tissue and skin). Prions shed from infected humans are highly transmissible to others.
Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neuroscientist from the University of California at San Francisco, earned a Nobel Prize in 1997 for discovering and characterizing prions and prion disease. President Obama awarded Prusiner the National Medal of Science in 2010 to recognize the importance of his research. Unfortunately, important reforms to protect public health have been elusive.
Prusiner’s most recent study confirms that Alzheimer’s disease is a prion disease, which means that millions of people with Alzheimer’s disease (and millions who died ahead of them) are highly infectious. Prion contamination is impossible to stop in most scenarios. Prion diseases affect humans and other animals. The spectrum of human prion diseases includes Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Huntington diseases.
Thanks to misinformation and mismanagement, prion disease has killed millions of people around the world over the past 50 years. Prion contamination from those victims alone has spread far and wide. In addition to people, prion disease is killing livestock, wildlife and sea mammals.
The deadly prion spectrum now includes mad cow disease in livestock and chronic wasting disease in deer, elk and moose. Many species of mammals have contracted TSE, including camels, dolphins, mink, felines and elephants. Sick animals are canaries in a coalmine when it comes to prion contamination causing prion disease. Prions are a real-world version of Pandora’s box. Governments and industries that ignore these pathogens are reckless, irresponsible and criminal.
Prion contamination from humans is infecting wildlife and livestock. Prion contamination from livestock and wildlife is infecting humans. It’s a vicious circle with no end in sight. Misinformation and mismanagement are making the contamination worse, while keeping the prion pandemic alive. Governments and industry are working diligently to keep prion disease off the public radar. The CDC quietly took prions off the highly regulated list of select agents because the regulation criminalized entire industries and several reckless practices. It also opened the floodgates to prion mismanagement.
Regardless of the species impacted, prion disease causes memory loss, impaired coordination, abnormal movements and overall wasting of the mind and body. Victims become prion incubators and distributors. So do wastewater treatment plants.
“Contrary to popular belief, neurodegenerative disease is not a normal part of aging,” said Gary Chandler, a prion expert and author of Alzheimer’s Disease: A Survival Guide. “Prion contamination is fueling the majority of the prion pandemic. Neurodegenerative disease is now killing teenagers. The truth is your best defense.”
Experts suggest that the prevalence of brain disease will quadruple, if not more, by 2050. If we had accurate mortality statistics, we would likely find that brain disease is already the leading cause of death around the world today. Ignorance, negligence, fraud and corruption are fanning the flames.
To beat brain disease, we need to understand its dynamics. The brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease collect particles of protein that are not expelled from their bodies. These protein particles stick together and form plaques in the brain, which smother and kill healthy brain cells. The brain damage cascades once the proteins begin to accumulate.
Much like the plaque on our teeth, these proteins create cavities inside the brain as more cells are killed. Dead brain cells then contribute to the avalanche of plaque building up, which causes the damage to escalate and spread to other regions of the brain. The brain damage spreads until it stops vital bodily functions.
These protein deposits are called tau and beta-amyloid. With Alzheimer’s disease, this damage starts in the hippocampus—the region of the brain responsible for memory. Parkinson’s disease is almost identical, except that it starts in the region of the brain that is responsible for movement.
Chandler’s new book helps readers navigate the complex landscape of prion aversion and targeted nutrition. For example, experts claim that the risk for cognitive impairment is 42 percent lower in elderly individuals who consume healthy fats and fewer carbohydrates. Up to half of those who have Alzheimer’s disease could have prevented it with a smarter diet and exercise. Targeted nutrition is our best hope for both prevention and treatment.
“Our health is linked to our ability to get optimal nutrition for the fewest calories,” Chandler said. “The more that we decrease our calories, while staying optimally nourished, the better our chances of healthy aging and longevity.”
Some foods increase your risk of contracting brain disease. Some foods help prevent brain disease, while others can treat the symptoms. Targeted nutrition is extremely effective, but we need to know which foods to avoid and we need to know how to avoid prion pathways. It’s vital to avoid prions and other neurotoxins.
To avoid neurodegenerative disease, we need to keep our brains free of oxidation, toxins and plaque. To help us purge these neurotoxins from our brain and bodies, we need to promote healthy blood flow to and through the brain. Ideally, we need to:
- Exercise;
- Reduce overall calorie consumption;
- Reduce carbohydrate consumption;
- Maintain a healthy alkaline level;
- Reduce prion exposure; and
- Increase healthy fat consumption.
For those already battling neurodegenerative disease, nutrition offers the only real hope in treating the symptoms. Eat nutritious food. Eat organic food. Avoid processed foods, which contain ingredients harmful to your brain, including refined sugar, processed fructose, gluten, genetically engineered ingredients, and pesticides like glyphosate.
Chandler offers dozens of strategies and tips to help you beat and treat neurodegenerative disease and other diseases. This information will empower you with the knowledge to make smarter food choices, while empowering you to seek out more answers and find even more hope on your own. Most of the information will also help you avoid heart disease, diabetes, cancer and more. What’s good for the mind is good for the body.
As Chandler explains, this is a very serious book about corruption, collusion and calls for industry reform to protect public health. Misinformation and mismanagement are putting innocent people in harm’s way. However, it also is the most empowering information available for those who want to prevent neurodegenerative disease and for those who want to treat it effectively.
Unfortunately, drugs don’t work against Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease, yet. At best, they ease the symptoms slightly, if at all. However, new treatments aimed at purging the deadly proteins from the brain are showing promise.
