Ya Know What Ya Know

By Valerie Driscoll, Lead Coach and Coaching Program Developer for Apollo Health

It has been a busy month here at Apollo, as the team (of which I am the teeniest part) let out yet another disheartened collective sigh and dug into defending our important work being done in the field of cognitive health. The genius-level members of the team have addressed the misinformation and obvious attempts to discredit and slander Dr. Bredesen and Apollo with the brilliance and skill for which they are known. I, being less brilliant but more scrappy, have taken the following approach when confronted with the skepticism coming my way from the article in the New York Times. My standard opening begins with, “I have been doing this for a while now, out here in the real world, with real people, and here’s what I know …”.

Because sometimes ya just know what ya know.

Here’s what I know after 5+ years, in no particular order:

• The colleagues with whom I work, from Apollo’s tiny C-Suite, the tech and marketing teams, Customer Service through to the coaches and practitioners, are driven by a passion and integrity that I have never before experienced. Most have dealt with or are currently dealing with the ravages of this terrible disease and work tirelessly and tiredly toward a future where Alzheimer’s will only exist in stories. It is rare to collaborate with people this determined who are also unfailingly optimistic, gracious, and humble.
• Our ReCODE members, who adopt the rigors of the protocol, get better. Sometimes it only seems like a little better to the outside world, but being able to hear your name once again being spoken by your loved one can mean everything. I feel so fortunate when I get to celebrate small wins with a member and a care partner. I know what it would have been like to have seen such an improvement in my own father 20 years ago.
• Our PreCODE members not only save themselves from the ravages of cognitive decline, but also diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and auto-immune conditions, just to name a few. A previously skeptical physician exclaimed to a current member, after seeing his new belt size and his new blood tests, “That protocol did this?”. Yup, it sure did! I am thrilled to see more and more members coming here for an ounce of prevention, rather than waiting for a mega-ton of course, “cure,” what a misnomer.
• Apollo Health members are a community of curious, proactive, and information-hungry people who do not take no for an answer for themselves or others in the community. Collectively, we refer to ourselves as brain-health pioneers because we are.
• I regularly experience members transition from “this is going to be so hard” to “this is amazing”. There is no doubt that the Bredesen Protocol is a bit of an effort to get started, but it is also like a flywheel: once you get a little momentum going, it is hard to stop! It is also very much worth the effort.
• If you define quality of life as “eating whatever you want” until you die, you need to look for another quality of life. Note: this is coming from someone who believes that heaven, if it exists, is filled with pizza, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, and kittens.

The most important and validating piece I have observed during my time at Apollo is watching the rest of the world come toward us. We are the future. It can be exhausting to constantly defend oneself and the work that one does, but it gets steadily easier: weekly, I get a message from a family member or friend who knows that I work with Alzheimer’s. The message will invariably include an article from “real medicine” with “new” information about the link between brain and gut health, oral health, sleep … whatever. My standard reply: Dr. Bredesen has been saying that for years. I have recently upgraded this reply to reference one of his books and a page number, because why not have defending the future of cognitive health include an uptick in book sales? Ya know?