The Integrative Personalized Functional Medicine Approach to Reverse Cognitive Decline: Academic Experience of the First 51 Patients Case Series.

Background

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias remain major public health challenges with limited treatment options. Personalized, multimodal integrative approaches have emerged as potential strategies for patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early-stage AD. Purpose: To describe outcomes from the first 51 participants enrolled in an academic integrative functional medicine program for cognitive decline. Research

Design

Retrospective case series, chart analysis. Study Sample: Participants with MCI or AD enrolled at the GW Center for Integrative Medicine (n=51, 2017-2025); 22 remained in the program for ≥2.5 years for long-term cognitive analyses. Data Collection and/or Analysis: Participants underwent serial cognitive assessments [Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and/or Boston Cognitive Assessment (BOCA), subset also completing CNS-Vitals and SLAMs at variable intervals]. MoCA was the prespecified primary outcome. Interventions included dietary modification, time-restricted eating, exercise, cognitive training, sleep optimization, individualized supplementation, hormonal management, and 40 Hz gamma-frequency sensory stimulation. Exploratory measures included volumetric brain MRI and Alzheimer's blood biomarkers (Aβ42/Aβ40, p-tau217, NfL) in a subset. Outcomes were summarized descriptively without formal statistical analyses.

Results

Among participants with ≥2.5 years of follow-up, mean MoCA increased from 21.7 to 22.5, and 73% (16/22) demonstrated improvement (≥2-point increase) or stabilization (-1 to +1 points). Attrition was high; 29/51 discontinued within the first year, most commonly due to cost, program complexity, and lack of caregiver support.

Conclusions

This program demonstrated encouraging preliminary findings of cognitive stabilization or improvement in participants with MCI or AD who remained enrolled. Controlled prospective trials are needed to determine efficacy and mechanisms.