by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext
What the leading media are hiding
An 85-year-old patient with dementia partially regained her memory after radically changing her diet. The British Alzheimer’s Society now recommends them as role models for those affected.
In 2015, Mark Hatzer, a lawyer from Prestwich near Manchester, noticed more and more frequently that his mother Sylvia’s memory was rapidly failing. The then 79-year-old had difficulty remembering birthdays or appointments with friends. She struggled for words. She no longer found familiar objects.
After such dropouts increased, the former operator was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in December 2016.
Her condition deteriorated fairly quickly. Epilepsy set in, a common symptom of Alzheimer’s. The older woman was admitted to North Manchester General Hospital in March 2017 after a violent seizure in which she fell seriously.
For Mark, then 48, a world collapsed. The bachelor lost his brother in 1977 and his father in 1987. Since then, he and his mom have “always been a very close, small family unit,” he admits. And so he came to “the lowest point of my life” when he visited her in the hospital: his beloved mother no longer recognized him. The nurses who took care of her accused her of kidnapping. So she even called the police. In between, she said that she had ended up in a hotel – but “a pretty shabby one.”
Doctors pressed Mark to have the apparently confused woman forcibly admitted to a nursing home.
But the lawyer refused. Instead, he brought his mother back home after two months in the clinic. There he convinced her to “try an alternative treatment instead of the prescribed medication.”
A year later, in 2018, Sylvia Hatzer was unrecognizable. She blossomed, and appeared much more alert, clearer, and more committed than before. “She became her old self again,” Mark experienced, “more active and more open-minded.” Gradually she remembered birthdays again. She went to the tea dance with joy. She took care of most of her care herself. “She is doing very well, she looks ten years younger, and if you meet her, you wouldn’t know that she’s been through it all.”
Reporters who found out about Sylvia Hatzer’s story made her a national celebrity. (1) In the summer of 2018, Queen Elizabeth even invited her to the traditional Garden Party – in recognition of Sylvia’s efforts to give new hope to thousands of people with dementia.
What was her secret?
“It wasn’t an overnight miracle,” explains Sylvia’s son. The focus was on a radical change in diet. Mark knew that dementia is relatively rare in the Mediterranean. “It’s because of their diet,” he guessed. That is why he tried to adopt special features of Mediterranean cuisine – including fish such as salmon or mackerel and other foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids. In addition, the following were particularly often on Sylvia’s menu: Whole grains, especially oats; Whole grain bread, beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, and turnips; leafy green vegetables such as broccoli, kale, and spinach; Mushrooms, especially brown varieties; Nuts, especially para and walnuts; fresh berries, especially blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries; Flax seeds, sunflower seeds; Herbs and spices; Tea, in particular, herbal and green tea, unsweetened; Coffee; Good quality dark chocolate with a cocoa content of at least 70 percent.
There were also “regular gentle exercise and cognitive exercises”.
“It’s fantastic that Sylvia and her son Mark have taken steps to create a personal plan that will work well for her dementia diagnosis,” said Sue Clarke, district director for the UK Alzheimer’s Society Blog about Sylvia’s miraculous story integrated. (2) She shares the nutrition and exercise program of the Hatzers and publishes her recipes on flyers.
“People think: If you get a diagnosis of dementia, life is over,” says Mark Hatzer, “You will have good and bad days. But it doesn’t have to be the end.”
And this is good news for an estimated 36 million people suffering from the disease worldwide; Most often, in 62% of all cases, Alzheimer’s is present. In the UK alone, 850,000 are affected; Experts anticipate an increase to over a million by 2025. Almost 1.6 million people had dementia in Germany at the end of 2018 (3); 2.7 million are expected by 2050. (4) Every sixth person over 80 is already demented. Sylvia Hatzer’s story gives those affected and their relatives hope: In some cases, the progression of dementia can at least be slowed, in some cases even stopped and reversed, at least temporarily – without medication. “Let food be your medicine and medicine your food,” recommended the Greek doctor Paracelsus two and a half thousand years ago.
Harald Wiesendanger
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Remarks
(1) https://www.bbc.com/news/health-43863186; https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dementia-sufferer-82-who-couldnt-12406506; https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mums-dementia-bad-kept-hospital-14557468; https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6115953/sylvia-hatzer-mark-diet-dementia-blueberries-chocolate-diet
(2) https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/marks-story-we-were-living-nightmare-we-couldnt-wake-up-from; https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/marks-story-if-it-wasnt-alzheimers-i-would-never-have-known-i-have-long-lost-cousin
(3) Informationsblatt 1: Die Häufigkeit von Demenzerkrankungen (PDF), Deutsche Alzheimer Gesellschaft, Juni 2020, https://www.deutsche-alzheimer.de/fileadmin/alz/pdf/factsheets/infoblatt1_haeufigkeit_demenzerkrankungen_dalzg.pdf (3) Information sheet 1: The frequency of dementias (PDF), German Alzheimer’s Society, June 2020,)
(4) Bericht des Dachverbands nationaler Alzheimer-Gesellschaften, 2020. Zit. nach rp-online.de. 18.2.2020: „2,7 Millionen Demenzkranke im Jahr 2050 erwartet“, https://rp-online.de/kultur/2-7-millionen-demenzkranke-im-jahr-2050-erwartet_aid-49044369 (Report of the umbrella association of national Alzheimer’s societies, 2020. Quoted from rp-online.de. February 18, 2020: “2.7 million dementia patients expected in 2050”)