July NEWSLETTER

yonca79
Jul 21
7 min read

July Newsletter

🧠The Brain Longevity Series | Part 1

Know Your Numbers Before You Need Your Memory

Posted by Yonca, Loop Stories Ltd

🐙Dear Loopers,

If you've been reading my newsletters for a while, you'll know that brain health has become much more than a professional interest for me—it's become a mission.

Over the coming months, I'd like to dedicate part of each newsletter to Brain Longevity.

Together we'll explore the science of how our brains age, the choices that influence cognitive resilience, and, most importantly, what we can do today to protect the brain we'll rely on tomorrow.

Many people think Alzheimer's disease begins when someone starts forgetting names or gets diagnosed in their seventies.

The reality is very different.

The biology often begins quietly, 20 to 30 years before the first symptoms appear.

That means the best time to start protecting your brain isn't retirement.

It's now.

Whether you're in your thirties, forties, fifties or beyond, every decision you make sends information to your brain.

The encouraging news?

Many of those signals are modifiable.

And that means we have an opportunity.

🧠 A New Paper Reinforced Why Prevention Matters

One of the biggest stories in Alzheimer's research over the past year has been the development of drugs designed to remove amyloid plaques from the brain.

These medications generated enormous excitement, with many hoping they would finally change the course of Alzheimer's disease.

Then, a new Cochrane Review—the gold standard for evaluating medical evidence—looked at the results from more than 20,000 participants across 17 clinical trials.

The findings were thought-provoking.

Although these drugs successfully removed amyloid from the brain, they produced little or no clinically meaningful improvement in memory, thinking, or day-to-day functioning for people with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer's disease. They also increased the risk of side effects, including brain swelling and small brain bleeds.

As someone working in prevention, I wasn't disappointed by these findings.

If anything, they strengthened what I've believed for years.

Brain health doesn't begin when symptoms appear.

It begins decades earlier.

Waiting for treatment after damage has occurred is rather like waiting for your car engine to fail before checking the oil.

Perhaps the greatest opportunity isn't finding another drug.

Perhaps it's recognising that the biggest opportunities lie much earlier in the story.

That's where I believe nutrition, lifestyle medicine, precision testing, and functional medicine have so much to offer.

🔬 Every Great Cognoscopy Begins with Bloodwork

People often ask me,

"When should I start worrying about Alzheimer's?"

My answer is always the same.

Long before you're worried.

I don't believe we should wait until memory changes appear before becoming curious about brain health.

The same way we monitor cholesterol before a heart attack or blood sugar before diabetes develops, we can begin assessing the systems that support the brain years—even decades—before cognitive decline.

One of the reasons I find Functional Medicine so compelling is that it asks a different question.

Instead of asking,

"What disease does this person have?"

it asks,

"Why is this happening?"

One of the pioneers of this approach is Dr Dale Bredesen, whose ReCODE® programme recognises that Alzheimer's disease is not one single condition with one single cause. Instead, it can arise through different biological pathways, each requiring a personalised approach.

To simplify this, Dr Bredesen describes several common patterns of cognitive decline:

🔥 Type 1 – Inflammatory ("Hot") Driven by chronic inflammation.

❄️ Type 2 – Atrophic ("Cold") Associated with deficiencies in hormones, nutrients and growth factors that nourish the brain.

🍭 Type 1.5 – Glycotoxic ("Sweet") Closely linked to insulin resistance and poor blood sugar regulation.

☠️ Type 3 – Toxic ("Vile") Associated with environmental toxins such as moulds, heavy metals and other toxic exposures.

In reality, many people have features of more than one type.

There are also rare inherited forms of Alzheimer's disease, caused by mutations in genes such as APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2, which can lead to early-onset Alzheimer's disease. In addition, a history of head trauma—whether through contact sports, accidents, or falls—can increase the risk of cognitive decline later in life.

All of these patterns deserve conversations of their own, so I'll be dedicating future newsletters to these fascinating topics.

Brain health is rarely determined by a single factor. It's the combination of our biology, our environment, our life experiences, and our daily choices that shapes our cognitive resilience.

But before we can personalise a plan, we first need to understand what the body is telling us.

And one of the simplest places to begin is with blood tests.

Blood isn't just a collection of numbers.

It tells a story.

A story about inflammation.

Blood sugar regulation.

Nutrient status.

Hormonal balance.

Cardiovascular health.

Immune function.

All of which influence how well the brain ages.

🧪 The Brain Blood Tests I Like to Review*

These aren't "Alzheimer's blood tests."

They're biomarkers that help us understand the health of the systems that support lifelong brain function.

Some of the markers I review for Brain Longevity include:

• BMI target range 20-25 kg/m², for 65 years and above 23-27 kg/m².

• Insulin resistance fasting insulin, HbA1c and fasting glucose, goal: fasting insulin ≤ 4.5 microlU/ml; HbA1c < 5.6 percent; fasting glucose = 70-90 mg/dL.

• Homocysteine goal: < 7 micromolar.

• Vitamin B12, B6 and folate, goal: Vit B12 = 500-1500 pg/ml; Vit B6 = 60-100 mcg/L folate = 10-25 ng/ml

• Vitamin D3 (measured as 25-hydroxycholecalciferol) goal = 50-8- ng/ml.

• Thyroid function optimal: TSH < 2.0 microlU/ml; free T3 = 3.2-4.2 pg/ml; reverse T3 < 20 ng/dL; free T3 x 100:reverse T3 > 20; free T4 = 1.3-1.8 ng/dL.

• Sex hormones goals: oestradiol level = 50-250 pg/ml; progesterone = 1-20 ng/ml; oestradiol:progesterone ratio = 10:100 (optimize symptoms); testosterone in males goal: 500-1000 ng/dL; free testosterone = 6.5-15 ng/dL.

•Cortisol, pregnenolone, and DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) goal: cortisol (morning) = 10-18 mcg/dL; pregnenolone = 50-100 ng/dL; DHEA Sulfate = 350-430 mcg/dL in women, and 400-500 mcg/dL in men.

• hs-CRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) goal: < 0.9 mg/dL

• Albumin to globulin ratio (A/G ratio), goal: albumin ≥ 4.5 g/dL: A/G ration ≥ 1.8.

•IL-6 < 3 pg/ml; TNFα < 6.0 pg/ml. (optional targets)

• Lipid profile goals: LDL-p (LDL particle number) = 700-1000; OR sdLDL (small dense LDL) < 20 mg/dL or < 20% of LDL; OR oxidized LDL < 60 U/I; total cholesterol >150 (yes, more!)

• Vitamin E (measured as alpha-tocopherol) goal = 12-20 mcg/ml.

• Vitamin B1 ( Thiamine) goal; serum thiamine = 20-30 nmol/l OR RBC thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) = 100-150 ng/ml of packed cells.

• Omega-3 status, optional target omega-6: omega-3 ration = 0.5-3.0.

•RBC Magnesium = 5.2-6.5 mg/dL.

• Copper: zinc ratio goal: 0.8-1.2; Zinc = 90-110 mcg/dL (or red blood cell zinc = 12-14 mg/L)

• Serum selenium goal 110-150 ng/ml; glutathione (GSH) = 5.0-5.5 micromolar.

• Heavy Metals labs: mercury < 5 mcg/L; lead < 2 mcg/dL; arsenic < 7 mcg/L; cadmium < 2.5 mcg/L.

• Sleep Apnea, AHI (apnea-hypopnea index), < 5 events per hour (preferably 0)

In addition:

• Gut Barrier & Blood- Brain Barrier Permeability markers, Gluten and related sensitivities, autoimmunity, genetics, toxins and mycotoxins.

• Iron studies, ferritin levels, minerals and other cardio markers.

• Microbiome status

• Of course, cognitive assessments and brain imaging which will be explained in later newsletters.

You may be thinking, "That's quite a long list!"

You're right—it is.

I've deliberately made it comprehensive to illustrate just how many systems influence the health of our brain. The good news is that this isn't a checklist that everyone needs to complete tomorrow. It's simply an overview of the areas we can explore together to build a personalised picture of brain health.

No single marker predicts dementia.

But together they help us identify opportunities to improve metabolic health, reduce inflammation, optimise nutrition, and support healthy ageing.

Think of them as a roadmap rather than a diagnosis.

*Bredesen, D. (2017) The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline.

🧠 Why These Numbers Matter

The brain consumes around 20–25% of the body's energy.

Every memory.

Every conversation.

Every decision.

Every creative thought.

Depends on a healthy supply of energy, nutrients, oxygen and blood flow.

That's why I rarely separate brain health from the rest of the body.

When we improve metabolic health…

support healthy blood vessels…

reduce chronic inflammation…

optimise sleep…

move regularly…

and nourish ourselves well…

we're supporting the brain too.

Brain longevity isn't one intervention.

It's the sum of thousands of daily decisions.

🌱 This Month's Brain Habit

If you're in your 30s, 40s or 50s…

don't wait for symptoms before becoming curious.

Take out your last blood test results.

Look beyond whether they fall inside the laboratory reference ranges.

Ask what they reveal about your metabolic health, inflammation, cardiovascular system and nutritional status.

Know your numbers.

Understand your risks.

Because biomarkers are not your destiny.

They're information.

And information gives us choices.

💬 Let's Build a Brain Longevity Community

Health is easier—and much more enjoyable—when we don't do it alone.

That's why I'm creating two Brain Longevity WhatsApp Communities, one in English and one in Turkish.

These will be welcoming spaces where I'll share:

🧠 Practical brain-health tips

🥗 Nutrition inspiration and recipes

📚 New research explained simply

🎙️ Podcasts, webinars and events

💡 Everyday habits that support cognitive resilience

Most importantly, they'll be communities where we learn from one another and stay motivated to make small, consistent changes that protect our brains for years to come.

If you'd like to join us, simply choose your preferred language below.

🇬🇧 English Brain Longevity Nutritionist 👉 JOIN

🇹🇷 Türkçe Beyin-Longevity-Yonca 👉 KATIL

I'd love to welcome you.

Looking Ahead...

Next month we'll begin exploring the first of Dr Bredesen's patterns of cognitive decline: the "Hot Brain"—how chronic inflammation affects memory and what we can do to cool it down.

Because Alzheimer's doesn't begin with memory.

It begins with biology.

And the more we understand that biology…

the more power we have to change the story.

Until then,

Keep listening to your body.

Keep asking questions.

And keep investing in the incredible organ that allows you to experience every moment of your life.

👉 Book a discovery call or enquire about speaking opportunities here:

Book a Complementary call

Thank You

and don’t forget… dance your song today.