Jean-Pierre Willem - Alzheimers, Aromatherapy, and the Sense of Smell: Essential Oils to Prevent Cognitive Loss and Restore Memory

Alzheimers,
Aromatherapy,
and the
Sense of Smell

Alzheimers, Aromatherapy, and the Sense of Smell thoroughly decodes and describes Alzheimers disease, its complexities, potential causes, consequences, and considerations. Relating to current research and personal and professional experience, Jean-Pierre Willem presents a clear, easy-to-assimilate holistic overview of this debilitating condition in a way that is honest, enlightening, and especially hopeful, revealing both supportive and preventive strategies to proactively engage. As well as exploring the associated cognitive and emotional virtues of familiar essential oils, such as rosemary, lavender, and frankincense, Jean-Pierre also introduces less commonly known exotic oils that are native to Madagascarsuch as butterfly ginger, grains of paradise, and herbe des rois (herb of kings)to provide an invaluable repertoire of useful essential oils and synergistic blends. This timely book is a valuable resource, not only for those affected by Alzheimers disease but also for anyone interested in maintaining their cognitive alertness, function, and well-being.

HEATHER DAWN GODFREY P.G.C.E., B.SC. AUTHOR OF HEALING WITH ESSENTIAL OILS

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Understanding Alzheimers

ALZHEIMERS DISEASE is one of the major public health problems of the United States and Europe, as it is in all the countries of the developed world. The Alzheimers Association estimated that six million Americans were living with Alzheimers in 2021, and at the current pace, if there are no improvements in treatment or prevention, that number is projected to climb to almost thirteen million by 2050.

These impressive figures give an idea of the effect Alzheimers and similar disorders are having on the American population, especially given that human beings are living longer and longer. It comes as no surprise that under these conditions, most of us fear growing old because we associate aging with the loss of memory, the loss of reason, and all too often the loss of our dignity.

The disease is quite insidious in the beginning. After about the age of fifty, many people begin to experience memory lapses: they forget peoples names, they cant remember where they set down their eyeglasses, they forget to make a call they had promised to make. For most of us, these events remain trivial and are of no consequence. For a small number of individuals, these anomalies are accompanied by more disturbing changes: their notion of time grows fuzzy, spaces seem foreign to them, they no longer recognize their everyday surroundings, and after a while the actions of daily life become more challenging. After a long and sometimes pitfall-strewn path, the verdict comes in: they are suffering from Alzheimers disease. Gradually the ravages of the cognitive functions alter their behavior. Their ability to relate to other people changes, which becomes a source of misunderstanding and pain both for the patients and their families.

We do, of course, have tremendous need for information about how to understand and act in a way that can help Alzheimers patients. But the figures dont speak to the suffering and hardship incurred by living with this disease for many yearsor the suffering and hardship experienced by those who are close to a patient.

Alzheimers disease is caused by cerebral alterations. It is therefore a brain disease. But it is more than that.

It is a personality disorder because it alters the mental function of a loved one by changing their intellectual functions as well as their emotional life.

It is a family disorder, because your loved one becomes a different person and his or her relationship with you changes. More or less quickly, the entire family is immersed, despite all, in the many problems caused by keeping the affected person at home. The demands on morale and peoples physical abilities become a source of stress, anxiety, and depression.

It is also a social disease, because, as a disease connected with aging, its frequency will only increase with the lengthening life expectancy of an aging population. This phenomenon creates social problems that go far beyond the purely medical aspect of the disease.

THE CURRENT STATE OF RESEARCH

At the current time, Alzheimers is the most common form of dementia in the industrialized world and, according to the World Health Organization, one of the top ten leading causes of death. So it should come as no surprise that research in this field is particularly intense.

What might come as a surprise, on the other hand, is that the majority of theories are based on the idea of a single causative factor, one maintained by experts who have made it the cornerstone of their careers. These opinion leaders will not tolerate any explanation capable of challenging their theories.

The most common theory is oriented toward the aggregation of betaamyloid, a kind of protein primarily found in the brain, which becomes toxic when it accumulates and combines. But beta-amyloids only accumulate in the brain over the course of many years in an inflamed terrain. So, some authors mention a very promising theory of inflammation as an avenue for brain degeneration. Others believe that eliminating all risk factors will solve the problem. Olivier Saint-Jean, head of the geriatric department of the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, created a horde of enemies by labeling Alzheimers disease as a social constructa pathologizing of the common occurrence of cognitive decline in the elderly.

There are stacks of books on this subject in bookstores. In them we find the same ingredients for overcoming this infernal disease: eliminate environmental pollutants and plug up the nutritional deficiencies that come about, especially in the final stages of decline. But theres nothing original here, as this same approach is recommended for every pathological condition.

In June 2014, the largest congress in the world on Alzheimers brought some 4,500 experts together in Copenhagen, and they came to this conclusion: The major problem for the development of promising new methods of treatment is that research has yet to identify with certainty the molecular mechanisms that trigger this disease.

Essentially, as the members of that congress implied, what we are looking for are the molecular mechanisms that would make it possible to develop an effective treatment. However, Alzheimers is like a jigsaw puzzle made up of jagged pieces. Instead of putting these pieces together, researchers spend their time isolating and analyzing the puzzle piece that looks the most promising to them. The puzzle as a whole, then, remains a brainteaser. If we continue to pursue this path, we will never put the puzzle together, and the problem will remain insoluble.

Other paths are open to us. For example, neurologist Dale Bredesen has oriented his research around the idea that Alzeheimers is a multifactorial disease and declining cognitive function can be restored thanks to an intensive multifactorial program. In