On Sept. 3, Dr. Allan “Chip” Teel presented some early results from his Reverse Alzheimer's program to the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club. Dr. Teel has been running a Reverse Cognitive Decline Research Program at the Boothbay Region Health Center since January 2020. The program is based on the 30+ years of research published by Dr. Dale Bredesen at UCLA. In describing the people participating in our local program, Dr. Teel said: “Two-thirds of the patients in the initial cohort of 20 patients had a hereditary predisposition to Alzheimer's. They carried at least one APOE4 gene. Some of them carried two such genes and had been experiencing cognitive decline since their 60s.”

Dr. Teel reported these anecdotal results: “Within six months of being on our program, nearly everyone in the group had stopped losing ground. And, six months later, many of them were making small gains. For example, a retired chemistry professor was at the point where all he could was add and subtract single digits on his fingers. And, after being on the program for six months, he plays bridge with his wife every night and he was able to do all the scoring in his head without using his fingers. He also was able to do the highest level Soduko every single day. And now he's playing cribbage with a bunch of other people and whipping them most of the time. These are small victories, but pretty important in the life of a family.

“Another person had struggled to find the right words,” Dr. Teel reported. “She is now able to come up with the words that she used to search for. A third person had lost some of the ability to speak in another language that she had worked really hard to master, and that language came back to her. A fourth person was struggling to even dress himself and then started dressing himself independently again. Those are little victories and for people who have only been in this program for a short period of time.”

The Reverse Cognitive Decline Research program at the Boothbay Region Health Center now has over 40 participants, all of whom are committed to making the lifestyle changes required — nutrition, exercise, sleep, brain games — to heal their brains. We're accepting more members. For anyone interested in learning more about the program, we recommend Dr. Dale Bredesen's latest book, “The First Survivors of Alzheimer's.” Read about our local program on our website: Boothbayhealthcare.org/reverse-cognitive-decline-research-program. Then call the program's Volunteer Patient Liaison, Patty Seybold at 633-4368 to get more information and to enroll. This groundbreaking program is currently entirely funded by donations.

Update on the “Save the Health Center” fundraising campaign

As of Sept. 10, a month into our campaign to raise the funds needed to stay open this autumn, we're happy to report that we are halfway there! In four weeks, we've raised over $55,000 from over 100 year-round and seasonal families and 18 local businesses. We are asking for more donations in the next month to reach our goal of $110,000. Please send donations to BRHC, 185 Townsend Ave. Suite R, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04537. Call (633-1075) during office hours to donate by credit card or go to boothbayhealthcare.org to donate online.