THINKWELL
AGEWELL
Aging with Intention: A Couple’s Journey Toward Cognitive Longevity
AGEWELL
Aging with Intention: A Couple’s Journey Toward Cognitive Longevity
Tom Freitag is a retired aerospace engineer who applied his problem-solving mindset to protecting his cognitive health after noticing early changes and facing a family history of Alzheimer’s disease. Alongside his wife, Betty—a nurse, mother, and longtime child advocate—the couple built a comprehensive, team-based approach to brain health that includes lifestyle interventions, cognitive training, medical testing, and ongoing accountability. Together, they model what proactive, intentional aging can look like when curiosity, partnership, and persistence guide the process.
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Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (00:01.038)
Welcome back to this episode of the Think Well, Age Well podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Heather Sandison, and I’m delighted to introduce you today to Tom and Betty Freytag. They’re a couple who embody curiosity, the commitment and the intentional aging that is so inspiring and that gets results as we apply this functional medicine, Bredesen approach. Tom is a retired aerospace engineer with a master’s degree in material science and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering.
from UCLA. After a 30 year career at the Aerospace Corporation, where he helped assess readiness for Air Force rocket and satellite launches, Tom turned his engineer’s mind toward a new mission, protecting his brain. Alongside him is his wife, Betty, a nurse by training, a homeschooling mom to three, and a longtime child advocate for her children, for children in the LA County foster care system.
Together, they are grandparents and parents, affectionately known as Baba and Nana to eight grandchildren, and deeply engaged members of their church and wider community. What makes today’s conversation especially powerful is the honesty and their trajectory. Tom started to notice subtle cognitive changes before retirement, and he sought out early testing. And then motivated by his family history, he decided not to take the watch and wait approach.
Instead, he’s built a proactive team-based plan to support his brain health. And he’s drawn from conventional neurology, functional medicine, physical and cognitive therapies, and of course, the lifestyle interventions that we spend so much time talking about here. So Tom and Betty, I’m just absolutely delighted and excited to jump in with you. Welcome to the show.
Tom And Betty Freitag (01:45.341)
Thank you.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (01:47.054)
Tom, if you don’t mind, I want you to take us back to that first moment where you were noticing changes in your cognition, changes in your brain and what that felt like for you, both like the reality, but also the emotional journey that you went through.
Tom And Betty Freitag (02:02.424)
Well, it started out at work and I would go to say something and I’d have workers finish my sentence for me because I was not processing quickly enough to do it myself. And so I was feeling a little chagrined by the fact that people were having to finish the sentence for me. And so I got to the feeling that I wasn’t really providing the kind of consulting that the aerospace corporation wanted me to provide for them.
being able to assess the reliability of rocket and satellite launches. And so I was feeling that I couldn’t do the job anymore. And that was a step down. I was sad, but I didn’t want to be in a position where a rocket blew up or a satellite failed because of something I missed. So with that in mind then, I decided to retire. Now, what was interesting with my retirement, I was concerned about
the cognitive problems because of my father. My father had Alzheimer’s as best I understand and he had a sharp mind, he was an engineer, excuse me, he was an accountant and at about 80, about 85 he started declining. And so what I did is I got a book from the live, actually a book from my company that
had a recommendation as to how to live with an Alzheimer’s patient. And so we started that journey. And I remember buying the book and reading it and feeling pretty depressed about the whole thing. And I figured, well, I have siblings. I might as well buy them a book too. And we’ll all work this together. Well, my siblings all looked at the book and said they were depressed and didn’t want to read it. So I figured, well,
I have to understand what’s around the next corner and there are just all kinds of surprises with Alzheimer’s and things that go on and how you try and deal with the Alzheimer’s patient. One of the things that, in dealing with my dad, we’d say, well, it’s going to be a while before you’re able to come back into your home. And the issue was, if you told him that it was going to be a month,
Tom And Betty Freitag (04:27.478)
he would question it and get really upset. But if you said a couple of weeks, then that’s not a problem. And what we realized that he doesn’t remember from a couple of weeks to another couple of weeks. And so what you did is you just played the game. And that’s what I was hoping to avoid for myself. And that’s why I got involved in trying to work with PNI and figure out a way to try and save Betty from that kind of an…
situation so I’m very interested in trying to maintain my cognitive health as long as I can and Bredesen has been a big help in trying to understand it. Reading his book, you know, the idea that it isn’t hopeless is a marvelous thing that you and you have an opportunity to do something about it and you can cut ahead and what I’ve been doing is trying to just pick the low-hanging fruit and do that which is easy so that’s what we’ve been doing.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (05:22.781)
Yeah. Tell us, what is the low-hanging fruit for you? What have you found easiest to implement? A lot of people find this approach pretty overwhelming, right? And it’s a very different paradigm if you’re used to more engaging with conventional medicine where it’s like, here’s a pill, go pick it up from the pharmacy and be on your way. That’s all you need to do. This is a very intensive experience, right? And there’s a lot of pieces to it and you’re changing your lifestyle.
What pieces did you find simplest and then how did you implement them? What was your process like?
Tom And Betty Freitag (05:57.92)
Well, a diet we’d start with. How about Keto-Mojo? And so we have this little thing that we do to run whether or not we’re in ketosis or not. So we try to stay, we have a diet that tries to keep us in ketosis, which gives our brain another energy source rather than sugar. So that would be one of the first things that we did. And we continue to do that.
And you’re right, it’s kind of overwhelming because when you read Bredesen you think, this is crazy. I mean, you’re starting to talk about mold and all this other stuff and so you figure, well, we ran some tests and we did some as far as heavy metals and things like that. And you you worry about the fact that I have fillings and those fillings, is there a problem? And the indication is that they’re not. So we don’t have to worry about that right now.
So then we go into the diet that we’ve done and then we started exercise. And I’ve always been active as so has Betty. And so what we do is we try and make sure that we exercise and we exercise in various, what is it, regime. Yeah. We have a trainer that we go to that it’s a high intensity. We’ve been doing that for almost five years. High intensity, short duration.
trainer and he but he helps us we’re very accountable to him three times a week we go and he checks up on our weight our eating He’s our health coach. Yeah
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (07:37.134)
We find that people who have a health coach are often the most successful. You’ve got a few things here going for you, Tom. You’ve got a wife who’s extremely supportive and that when you have a partner, a spouse, even an adult child for some people who’s very supportive and helping you to implement and doing it with you, right? Getting onto the diet with you, getting into the trainer with you, doing all of these things so that it doesn’t feel like you’re alone or you’re the only one that has to do it in your household.
You know, you don’t feel as deprived or as tortured. And then also you’ve got this engineering mind. Can you talk a little bit about how we see this over and over again? If somebody on that team is an engineer, they seem to do better. Do you have a sense of how that engineering background has impacted how you’ve implemented this protocol?
Tom And Betty Freitag (08:29.758)
I solve problems and so what I look at is I looked at this Alzheimer’s potential as being something that I could do something about. And so the solution then is what can you do about Alzheimer’s? So you read a guy like Dr. Bredesen and he proposed things that you can go do.
And so what you do is you select the things that he proposes that are more doable for me. And that seemed like kind of an engineering approach is that you look at what the cost and what the benefit is. And if the cost is minimal and the benefit is high, well then you do that. And so that’s kind of what Bredesen’s did is that you look at the kinds of things that he proposed like Keto-Mojo. I mean, you buy this thing and you just use it and…
And what’s interesting is you can know where you are in the process as far as ketosis and you know that you want to be there. But you’re learning your way along on that. mean, don’t, you know, there’s all kinds of questions and what you do though is you just run little tests and figure out how it works. And so you’ve got the thing to do. So that gives you kind of an insight into the way my mind works. And I guess…
You can say, I guess it is engineering because that’s what I’ve done as a profession for many years. I enjoyed it. And so it was a problem solving way that is just a matter of course. You just do it that way.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (10:16.632)
Yeah, it sounds like it’s just the way you live, right? The way your brain works day to day with no matter what problem you face.
Tom And Betty Freitag (10:22.04)
You know, Dr. Sandison, when Tom took the MOCA test during one of our physicals and didn’t score as high as he had in the past, our family doctor is also on our team and he recommended that Tom start a program that’s near us. It’s Atlantis Brain Health Program. And so they combined the physical with the mental.
the dual tasking and that’s been a really big help. He’s been going twice a week for many months and now once a week.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (11:01.582)
That’s fantastic. So describe Atlantis. You said there’s dual task exercise there where you’re engaging cognitively and physically at the same time. Are there other brain games? What is Atlantis? there providers there, coaches there? How does that work?
Tom And Betty Freitag (11:17.144)
They, what they do is they try and do something by your body and also something for your mind. For example, when Betty and I go out for a walk, we try and count backwards by sevens. So, you know, I’ll make one subtraction and then she’ll make the other and then we’ll decide who’s right. so you just go ahead and…
Try and figure out you count backwards by twos count backwards by threes There’s there’s things that Atlantis would ask me to do and They would ask you know I’ll be exercising and they’ll ask me to Remember things in other words. They’ll give me three or four things to remember and then and then I’ll exercise for a while and we’ll ask me do I remember those three or four things and so you
are trying to do this mind-body thing to try and help you help your cognition. And so when I worked with Atlantis and I’m working with him now, I said what’s important to me is my cognition. I want to be able to reduce the rate at which I’m losing my capability to process information. And so that’s kind of the…
signposts for them and helping me. That’s what I want them to do. They work closely with Ryan, I think it’s Ryan Glatt at PNI Pacific Neurology.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (12:54.248)
Yeah, we’ve interviewed Ryan on the podcast here. So yeah, they’re taking direction from him and doing a lot of that, yeah, the dual task exercise and the brain gym kind of stuff. Excellent.
Tom And Betty Freitag (13:01.346)
Yeah.
Tom And Betty Freitag (13:04.885)
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Sometimes you’ll be in a plank position and you’ll be touching lights that are lighting up. Yeah, that’s right. Things like that.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (13:11.534)
Some games. That’s really fun. So, you you mentioned the MOCA score that you got from your primary care provider, and it sounds like you made this very proactive decision to get baseline cognitive testing done years before I think a lot of other people would, right? Because you noticed a change. And I’m curious what you might say to someone, so to a listener here who might be hesitant to get the testing
Tom And Betty Freitag (13:15.797)
Yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (13:40.332)
before they feel like there’s a problem. Did you feel like this was helpful? This was beneficial for you?
Tom And Betty Freitag (13:42.808)
Mm-hmm.
Tom And Betty Freitag (13:47.052)
Yes it was and it’s a step because you’re looking at less than what you want to be. It’s kind of like when you do any kind of therapy. The reason you’re in therapy is because you need it. I mean if you didn’t need it you wouldn’t be there. So the situation is you’re in a position where you’re trying to address problems that you have and
There’s some internal thing that Bredesen talks about is you want to deny it. You don’t want to do that. You say, you know, it really isn’t that bad. I can go ahead and brush it aside now. And at some point, it’s harder to brush it aside. It’s still there. And so what you do is you decide that you’re going to try and do something about it. And that’s the cognitive.
The cognitive battle is a fight. I mean, because it used to be easy to do this. I mean, my mind was such that I could count backwards by sevens without any trouble at all. I would do those kinds of things. it’s like using when I was doing calculations at engineering, I had a slide rule. And you used your head in making out where the decimal plate was going to go and all this sort of stuff.
And I lost that capability when I stopped using the slide rule. But I’m seeing instances where you can still lose capability, but what you have to do is fight for it back. And that’s all. It’s a fight. And so there’s times when you get kind of depressed on the fight because you wish it was easier than it was. The kinds of things that I have to do now.
I have to, it’s a struggle that I never had to encounter. In the past, it just came to me. But now you have to try and do things to make an allowance for what you’ve been able to do in the past.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (15:50.552)
Yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (16:02.988)
Yeah, absolutely. takes effort. know, Betty, I’m curious from your perspective as both a nurse and a spouse, what it was like to watch and be there for Thomas. navigated this. And then also, you know, how you made the decision together about what to do.
Tom And Betty Freitag (16:22.264)
So we have a daughter that’s a speech therapist. And so she understands cognitive health. And back in 2015, we were seeing a few things. This is a few years after Tom retired, actually, seeing a few things. that’s our daughter, Sarah recommended that we go and do this full cognitive, full on cognitive exam, if you will, all day kind of a thing. And that was kind of, she said, we need a baseline, you know, so.
We kind of knew there was something going on. And as Dr. Bredesen says now, you’re better off to test for these things early rather than late, you know, because then you can jump in on the solution a lot sooner. So it’s hard to see Tom not performing at the level that he once did because his
He’s smart.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (17:24.556)
Yeah, this has been a big part of your identity, Tom, and I’m sure a big part of your relationship is that Tom’s sharp. He’s got this. He can do the math on his head. I mean, you’ve got that engineering mind. And so there’s a big shift in the relationship.
Tom And Betty Freitag (17:33.08)
Yeah, right. That’s right. That’s right.
Right. A few years before, let’s see, in 2020, we found out that he had esophagitis, eosinophil esophagitis. And so he needed to go gluten-free, dairy-free. And so we just did that together. And I think that’s part of the key is, as you said, doing it together. so whatever the diet that he follows is what I follow. And we do it together. We do the walks together. Yeah.
We do the trainer. mean, the train all this is good for my health as well.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (18:11.362)
right? Of course, I love that you’ve, you’ve stumbled on that realization, right? I think some care care partners, some spouses, they resist as well, right? And it’s like, No, no, you go do that, you go to that, and I’ll drive you there, or I’ll support in the ways that I can, but they’re not fully invested. And as a care partner, you have higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s over time as well.
Tom And Betty Freitag (18:15.52)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (18:36.238)
And as a female, actually, but not that I’m suggesting that will happen, but I’m just delighted to hear that you are in it. You are doing everything you can to age well and do all these things. You guys, go ahead. I’m curious about the timeline.
Tom And Betty Freitag (18:46.508)
Yes, yes, yes. And I’m thinking our children are also very supportive. We have one daughter that’s forever sending us articles about this, that, and the other. And part of Tom’s issues, he has Hashimoto’s, thyroiditis. So it’s been a matter of getting the right, the other team member that we have is a naturopath.
in Orange County and she’s been pivotal in helping with the thyroid management. We addressed gut health. We’ve addressed CPAP. Well, we did sleep studies and Tom found out that he needed a CPAP. And now we’re also using the mouth guard, the snore guard kind of approach as well. So there’s just been kind of a parade of things that we’ve discovered that will
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (19:23.596)
I
Tom And Betty Freitag (19:44.898)
do their little part to help in this puzzle. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle and there’s all these pieces. yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (19:54.051)
And it’s really coming together. So I want to understand the timeline. You, you said 2015 was when you did the initial neuropsych evaluation that long all day. Typically people describe it as very stressful. that was around 2015, more than 10 years ago. And a few years before that, Tom, you mentioned that you had retired with cognitive changes already happening. Is that right? So you’ve been on this path for.
Tom And Betty Freitag (20:06.808)
Thank you.
Tom And Betty Freitag (20:10.872)
Thank
Tom And Betty Freitag (20:18.968)
That’s correct.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (20:22.35)
13, 14 years now. And what do you think? It’s worth working. What do you think would have happened had you not sought out all of these care, this integrative care team, your primary care provider, Dr. Merrill at Pacific Neuroscience Institute, the Atlantis for the exercise, your naturopath. What do you think the trajectory might have looked like?
Tom And Betty Freitag (20:24.823)
Yes.
Tom And Betty Freitag (20:48.184)
Well, I’ll give you an example. Many years ago, the doctor that helped me, I was looking at my, what is it? It’s a TH, thyroid stimulating hormone, and it was going up. And here’s the old engineer. I was looking at it, and, well, why is it going up? Well, the doctor isn’t giving me any kind of an answer.
In my work there are three kinds of answers. One is a fairy story, one is a bald-faced lion, one is a rare truth. And I wasn’t getting any rare truth. So I started working, asking this guy, know, I’m not feeling the way that I want to feel. And so then we started going to another doctor to try and address some of that. And so that doctor started talking about testosterone. And so I started taking that hormone.
Yeah, and then he also addressed the Hashimoto’s disease. And so the doctor that I had, so you’re always trying to figure out your own path and the doctor’s not as helpful as you’d like him to be. And so you’re kind of finding your way, it’s like a blind man in a dark room trying to find your way through this.
So you’re not getting the kind of help you want from from the medical folks and then so then then we started looking at Brain health and we started reading Dr. Dr. Bredesen’s books and we saw Pacific neurologic of PNI, right? you know before that back when he had that extensive neurological test We saw a neurologist after that a traditional neurologist if you will who said
Well, there’s really nothing we can do, just socialize, exercise, read books, don’t be in front of the TV too much, and then we’ll see you in another year. And that was it.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (22:53.452)
Well, you know, I’ve got to give them a little bit of credit because a lot of people don’t even get that much, right? It’s sorry, there’s nothing we can do. We’ll see you in a year and we’ll measure the decline. that’s pretty good advice, right? To socialize and read, stay engaged, like exercise. There’s some good advice in there. I know it didn’t feel like enough and it was still disappointing, but man, that’s more than a lot of people get from neurology.
Tom And Betty Freitag (23:03.904)
Yeah, there are a of that too.
Tom And Betty Freitag (23:09.208)
Right.
You know, that’s good.
Tom And Betty Freitag (23:18.344)
Okay, that’s kind of where we started there and then tried to find our path. And Dr. Sanderson’s asking, where would you be without these interventions? Where do you think that path would have taken? Well, as you can see, the best answer I have is a MOCA score and the one that I had
when I started seeing that there was a problem was 23. Normally you want 30. And so I looked at that and I thought this doesn’t feel good. And so there has to be some way to try and remedy this, which would then started the Atlantis, which we did. right. That was our first step. And so we started that and
And then we started doing some research on our own to try and figure out how you handle the cognitive decline. so that’s, were looking, we got Dr. Bredesen’s name, no, no, we you Bredesen. And then we started looking at some of the stuff that he did and then we found PNI. And I don’t remember how we found PNI. Because they were affiliated with Dr. Bredesen. Okay, all right.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (24:44.262)
And maybe also because at Atlantis they knew Ryan Glatt. There are probably a couple different ways and then you linked up with Dr. David Merrill. Great, yeah. And what shifted when you, and maybe surprised you the most when you started getting care at PNI with Dr. Merrill?
Tom And Betty Freitag (24:53.43)
That’s right. That’s right.
Tom And Betty Freitag (25:04.957)
can I talk? Yeah, please do. I was just shocked at all the testing he ordered. mean, the family doctor is great. But he doesn’t go down the path that Dr. Merrill went down. I mean, of course, there was a MRI and he has extensive interpretation of that MRI more so than just a regular neurologist would do. But the testing that he did
He tested for anything and everything you can imagine. I don’t know how many vials you gave that one time, but it was a lot. They drew all they could out of one arm, and then they started on the other arm. And then they had to start on the same arm again. Yeah, I mean, he tested for mold and venereal disease and, just Lyme disease. As Tom said, the heavy metals, just all kinds. What was that Just on and on it went.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (25:45.097)
I’m sorry.
Tom And Betty Freitag (26:04.364)
Then there was that spike. Yeah, part of Tom’s problem is immunity, autoimmune diseases and his immune system. So he’s tested a lot in that area as well. The spike protein and various, who knows? Anyway, yeah, just all that extensive testing. And it was kind of overwhelming. But now we understand what he was doing. He’s trying, it’s like, it’s…
like the problem is covered with stones and you’re having to go and lift up all these stones that it’s not one stone it’s many stones that are the possible possibility and so he was looking for anything and everything and that’s where you know have a sleep study you know let’s make sure you’re addressing the thyroiditis properly I mean it’s yeah the exercise that was all good you know we found out that
that methyl oh yeah mthfr yeah yeah yeah and we did the a po three four yeah he’s a lipo little a or i think that’s what it’s called yeah yeah so yeah yeah so there’s a lot
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (27:08.718)
Yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (27:16.32)
Yeah, LP little a is elevated genetic. Yeah. Yeah. Your plan, from what I understand, chatting briefly with Dr. Mayall about it, is that your plan really was very comprehensive in addressing vascular health so that you can get blood flow to your brain and reducing inflammation so that we’re not triggering that amyloid plaque production, addressing your metabolism, like you said, the thyroid component, and then hormones. You mentioned the testosterone.
Tom And Betty Freitag (27:31.734)
Yes.
Tom And Betty Freitag (27:38.189)
Right.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (27:46.049)
sleep and sleep apnea, and then you already had the great team at Atlantis helping you with exercise. so I think that this, your path really illustrates how comprehensive this can be. And a lot of people want to then ask, well, which is the one that did it? And I’m curious if you have a sense of one thing, one of these interventions being more impactful.
or if you feel like it’s been synergistic, that they’ve really worked together, all of these interventions to help you maintain your cognitive function.
Tom And Betty Freitag (28:20.98)
I had a friend that asked that same question. He wanted to know what the key issue was, as if it was the magic pill. And there is no magic pill. So what you do is you try and again, and I was talking to my, he’s a fraternity brother, and so he was asking me,
you know what the magic pill was for cognitive health. And I told him there isn’t, and I sent him the write-up that Dr. Merrill did for me to try and figure out how to address the cognitive challenges I have. And it’s a remarkable effort on Dr. Merrill’s part to put together this cognitive health.
assessment if you will on how to improve my cognitive health and it’s not just one thing. It’s a spectrum and that’s daunting honestly because it’s a spectrum of all these things that you have to do and now you have an opportunity to choose which one and so what you do is you choose the one that looks like it’s the most reasonable to do at this point.
And so you do that one and then you try and do another one and then you just keep doing it. And so that’s kind of the path is that there is no magic pill. And it’s too bad. You wish there was, but there isn’t. Yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (30:01.358)
course. Yeah. Yeah. And has it been worth it? You mentioned that you started out with a MOCA of 23. I’m curious what you’ve seen. Has that MOCA improved? Has cognition improved? Has it stabilized? And do you feel like the effort’s worth it?
Tom And Betty Freitag (30:15.576)
Yeah, it’s like 27, 28 now.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (30:23.32)
Fantastic. I just want to take a moment to celebrate that. I mean, that’s huge. And it takes work. And Tom and Betty, both of you I know are doing the work. But that must feel so good to see that number reflect your efforts.
Tom And Betty Freitag (30:40.46)
Yeah, you’ve got to measure. And there’s a part of it that you say, well, you know, I understand that the mocha test in it is where you count backwards by sevens. And so when we go for a walk, we count backwards by sevens. So I mean, you can say, you’re kind of gaming the system. But the whole point is to get your mind working.
that way and so if you can walk and count backwards by sevens or threes or twos or whatever that you’re still working your mind and so that’s good. You know you asked is it worth it? I can’t imagine not walking this path for us that we’ll always know we did all that we could and there’s no promise that the decline won’t
happen a little bit at a time, but we’re slowing it down and I will know that I always did everything all that I could as Tom’s wife of 47 years to to facilitate the best outcome and that’s what we’re trying to do is have the best outcome that we can that we have control over. Yeah, I didn’t want Betty’s
life together with me to look forward to me sitting in a chair drooling. I didn’t want to do that. And so I wanted to do everything in my power to try and keep the cognition where it needs to be to be a good spouse and somebody that is a, and that we share the kinds of life together that we’ve enjoyed so far and we can continue to do that.
You know what else Dr. Sandison that’s been a surprise to me is how Tom is willing to share his story with our friends and with others. He’s not, he doesn’t shy away because we’re constantly going out to dinner. Well, we can’t have that. We can’t have that. Well, we’ll just order this, you know, and people, you know, have our friends have to adapt to this changing world that they’re in because of our changing world. But he’s not.
Tom And Betty Freitag (33:05.612)
He’s afraid to speak out about it, to be honest and open about it with friends and family, which was a surprise. We normally want to hide our weaknesses. And I’m calling it a weakness. Yeah, I agree. That’s the way I’d put it. And it’s we grieve, you know, we grieve.
we’re doing the best we can and we know we are so that really helps that really helps.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (33:41.079)
It sounds like it brings a lot of peace in a challenging situation, right? It’s not all unicorns and rainbows as you navigate this, but maintaining that social engagement, right? Going out to dinner, despite the fact that it might be a little annoying that you’ve got to modify what’s on the menu, you’re still putting in the effort to maintain those social engagements and to have fun. sounds like enjoy life. I mean, that’s really the…
Tom And Betty Freitag (33:58.166)
Yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (34:08.686)
point of this reticent approach, right, is not to not be able to enjoy Christmas and Thanksgiving and a trip and a wedding. But if between those special occasions, if you’re working the plan, if you’re getting the exercise and on the diet and doing the mental exercises and all of these components that we’re discussing, then when it comes time to go to dinner with friends or engage in the world, you can. You have the cognitive capacity to do it.
Tom And Betty Freitag (34:27.416)
Thank
Tom And Betty Freitag (34:38.424)
the
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (34:38.486)
And I think you guys are just doing such a great job sharing a real amazing model for how to navigate this. You’ve seen improvements from what I understand, not even in those mocha scores as you’ve kind of learned to take that test. But I’m curious if you’ve seen improvements at home, like in your conversation, was there trouble word finding? You mentioned having trouble finishing sentences and your employees would kind of jump in and help you.
Have you noticed that there’s better verbal fluency or kind some of these day-to-day things that you’ve struggled with? Have they gotten better? Have they gotten worse over time over the last 14, 15 years?
Tom And Betty Freitag (35:15.416)
It takes a while. My processing speed is not what it used to be. And so to come up with a word, I may have to think for a while and Betty will sit patiently while I figure it out. And so that’s just what I have to deal with. mean, you have to search and…
I don’t know that there’s a good way to try and figure out how to search better. There probably is a way. Now I have been figuring out how to remember people’s names in different ways, which has been kind of fun.
There’s a guy up the street whose name is Jose and I think about Jose B and I remember his name. That’s a family joke. And there’s a lady I met, she was a therapist and her name is Sydney and I was thinking about this, I was thinking about the Sydney Opera House in Australia and so that’s how I remembered her name.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (36:05.486)
That’s great.
Tom And Betty Freitag (36:26.444)
So I wish I were better at that, but you make little steps as you go along. Yeah, I’ve had to learn not to jump in. I’ve had to learn to be patient and just sit and wait.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (36:33.07)
Yeah, that’s so simple.
Tom And Betty Freitag (36:45.09)
So, yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (36:46.636)
Yeah, allowing the time and space so you can work that muscle.
Tom And Betty Freitag (36:50.432)
Yes, yes, that’s right. That’s
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (36:53.518)
Yeah. And this associations, like you described, name is Sydney, think of the Sydney Opera House, name is Jose, think of Hoseby. Having these associations that are funny, that are, you know, and maybe you even had a trip to the Sydney Opera House that kind of comes back to mind and it’s something enjoyable. These are great ways to remember names for people even without cognitive decline, right? A lot of people talk about never having been good at remembering names and associations are one of the tricks. I love that you’ve
Tom And Betty Freitag (37:01.784)
Thank
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (37:23.242)
adopted that. You’ve also seen improvements from what I understand from Dr. Merrill in balance and sleep and energy. And can you talk about how that has impacted your health, like general well-being?
Tom And Betty Freitag (37:24.568)
Mm-hmm.
Tom And Betty Freitag (37:38.092)
Well, one of the things that you worry about with balance is falling down. one of the things we do when we walk is we
that we’re walking over different kind of terrain and so you have to make adjustments for how you walk. the gentleman, his name is Lou and Lou is our therapist. Our health coach. yeah. And his desire is to have us have the strength that if we fall down we just get up. So the idea is you have the strength that you’ve done the kinds of exercises.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (38:12.226)
Yes.
Tom And Betty Freitag (38:19.458)
such that if you fall down, you just get up. And so that’s the… He also has a skip. Lou has a skip. you’re looking at… And then one of the things that I will realize is that I used to like to ride my bike here in Manhattan Beach. I’d ride it to Palos Verdes with friends and then ride it back.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (38:27.438)
Thanks, Ben.
Tom And Betty Freitag (38:48.524)
trip was about 30 miles or so. And I got to noticing that when you’re walking, riding on the bike path, that there are these motorbikes and there’s also people that aren’t paying attention. And I had one example where a guy came out in front of me and I was able to steer my bike and get off of it before I hit him and I didn’t hit him and so I avoided it.
I thought about that particular part in the bike path, is right at Hermosa Beach. And so I stopped riding through Hermosa Beach on the bike path because of those kinds of people. So then I got to thinking about it and I talked with Lou, our coach, about falling down off the bike. And so I figured, that’s it, I’m done. I’ll not ride the bike anymore. Betty and I can walk and we can do the kind of…
we can walk up and down hills, can do all the kinds of things necessary to get the kind of air into ourselves and into our brains by just walking faster. And so we can do that. And so rather than ride the bike, we’ll just walk. And that’s a little safer, and that way the chances of falling down are minimized to some degree. So you make these kinds of choices realizing that…
there are consequences associated with falling on the bike and you’d rather not do that. So that’s just a change in the way of life. I have a good friend that rides multiple miles and he can’t think of a life without him being on a bike, but I’m not gonna do that. So we’re just not gonna.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (40:35.328)
Yeah, it’s kind of the risk benefit analysis of getting a traumatic brain injury when you already are at risk for cognitive impairment. just doesn’t, you can’t calculate it the same way. Yeah.
Tom And Betty Freitag (40:43.958)
Right.
Tom And Betty Freitag (40:47.608)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. Thank you for helping me. When Tom started on the CPAP machine, that really helped his energy. He woke up more rested. So that was really helpful. That was a good step. That was good.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (40:51.51)
Okay.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (41:03.106)
That can be a profound intervention. for everyone listening, make sure go back and listen to what Betty just said. And when he started on the CPAP machine, he woke up with more energy and it meant that you were getting oxygen to your brain at night. I just cannot help but take the moment to emphasize how important it is to test for and then aggressively treat obstructive sleep apnea because you’ve got to get oxygen to your brain at night so that you can get deep sleep. You can get restful sleep. You can get REM sleep. They all contribute to cognitive health.
Tom And Betty Freitag (41:14.752)
That’s right.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (41:32.302)
So well done getting that. Was it Dr. Merrill who ended up ordering that for you?
Tom And Betty Freitag (41:38.819)
He suggested it and then family doctor. Yeah, so we went to the family doctor and said we’d like to do this. When Dr. Merrill did his big plan, all his testing and all his results, he laid out all these interventions. And so we went to our team members and we went to our natural path, Dr. Cora, and said, okay, which of these are you going to be doing? And so she said, well, I can do these supplements. I can make sure you’re getting
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (41:41.198)
Great, yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (42:00.335)
I like it.
Tom And Betty Freitag (42:06.328)
you know, we’re addressing these various nutritional supplemental things that Tom might need. And gut health was a big Gut health, yeah. We’re still working on that, yeah. And then we went to our family doctor and he said, okay, I can do the sleep study. We’ll continue with Atlantis. I can’t remember what some of the other things for him was, but yeah, so we kind of broke it up into our team and…
That’s how we’ve kind of approached the solution, if you will. And I’m sorry, Dr. Merrill is kind of the integrator, right? mean, he… Yeah. We come back to him and say, you know, here’s all the things that we’ve done. Yeah. And he kind of, you know, integrates and makes any adjustments that are necessary.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (42:41.294)
How wonderful.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (42:58.018)
That’s fantastic. So he’s kind of got that big picture, Bredesen perspective. Yeah. And then you can have the primary care do the things that they’re good at. Naturopath do the things that she’s good at. That’s fantastic. You know, we tell people often, you know, the risk of engaging with the Bredesen protocol is the effort, right? What are you spending here? It’s a lot of effort and it can take resources.
However, the risk, when we think about this risk benefit analysis, kind like you did with the biking, the risk benefit analysis around the Bredesen Protocol is the health risk is that your blood pressure gets better, your sleep improves, your diabetes resolves, your weight becomes more optimized, your energy improves, right? So the side effects of engaging in this approach are that you become healthier, right?
Tom And Betty Freitag (43:42.136)
hope.
Tom And Betty Freitag (43:50.092)
Yeah, that’s true.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (43:50.733)
And it seems like you guys have both had the benefit of these side effects of the Bredesen protocol. Is that right? Betty, what have you noticed for your personal health and your experience? Have you seen any changes?
Tom And Betty Freitag (43:56.49)
Yeah. That’s correct. That’s right.
Tom And Betty Freitag (44:09.014)
Yeah, some of it, some of this goes back to our trainer whom we were seeing because his approach, all about what you eat. Although he’s a trainer, a physical trainer, but it’s very, it’s the whole body approach. So, you we lost weight going to him. I’m as strong as I’ve ever been, you know, and he makes sure that we travel to Tennessee.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (44:32.673)
Excellent.
Tom And Betty Freitag (44:37.378)
to see our daughters and their children multiple times a year. So we have these exercises we do and one of them is carrying weights. Carrying weights, I carry two 25 pound weights and we go back and forth. Tom carries 40 pound weights, know, so we can carry our suitcases. You know, as I said, we skip for brain health. He’s often recommending things like one thing Tom was…
Cheyenne was B12. His B12 needed, so that’s another thing the family doctors helped with and our natural path. So as far as me though, what else? Losing weight, feeling healthier. I also had a sleep study test. I was not so successful using a CPAP machine, so I’ve gone to the mouth guard, snore guard approach.
And that seems to be working. I’m probably going to have another sleep study test in a few months, but I had no idea that I was deficient in oxygen at night. So, you know, that float over into my health. Yeah. And just the constant, the vigilance, the vigilance of trying, you know, sometimes we get a little off-kilter like around the holidays, but then, okay, we’ve got to start back. We’ve got to get back on the program, you know, and.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (46:02.144)
What do you use? What inspires you to get back on the program?
Tom And Betty Freitag (46:06.776)
Keeping Lou happy. Keeping Lou happy.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (46:08.942)
It’s the accountability, right? It’s the accountability with your coach. I say this all the time. Coaching is one of the, I think is the best bang for your buck in this business is having a health coach who will hold you accountable, who gives good advice, who kind of has an appreciation for this predescent approach, but where you’ve got to show up and you got to tell them what you’ve been eating and they weigh you in, they’re looking at body composition, they’re watching you, whether or not you can increase those weights.
Tom And Betty Freitag (46:12.114)
So, yes.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (46:38.622)
I love it. sounds like that has been a really, really essential part of this journey, is that relationship with Lou.
Tom And Betty Freitag (46:38.914)
Yes.
Yeah, he can tell when we’ve gone up a pound or two. Okay, he’s on a trip right now. Okay, guys, you got to stick with the program while I’m gone. Yeah, yeah. But we also have a lot of support. Our friends have adapted to this. When we get together and have dinner with our friends at their home, they now know what we can eat, what we can’t eat, and they adapt.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (46:54.382)
I love it. I love it. That is great. Good.
Tom And Betty Freitag (47:11.832)
Our family has adapted tremendously. It’s an act of love, isn’t it? It is. is. And our family has adapted. yeah, everybody in our life has been very accommodating. And even at church, you know, they offer donuts at church. And although a lot of fruit isn’t the Bredesen way or ketosis way, if you will.
we bring tangerines to church, we put them out so that people have an option other than donuts. so anyway. And that’s interesting because I remember Brennison liking oranges and oranges are not ketosis friendly. But he still likes oranges and I still like oranges and so you have them occasionally. Yeah, so yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (48:04.525)
Maybe with a little coconut yogurt right before so they don’t spike your blood sugar quite so much. I’m curious, for couples who are listening who might be in the early stages of cognitive changes, either for themselves or a partner, what encouragement would you offer them? And maybe a better way to ask it is, what do you wish you had understood when you, back in 2015?
Tom And Betty Freitag (48:08.633)
That’s cool.
Tom And Betty Freitag (48:33.623)
For me in 2015, I would like to have understood that there’s a plan in place and there’s no… and the path to Alzheimer’s isn’t… it’s a choice. The path to Alzheimer’s is a choice. You can choose not to go down the path. I would have liked to have known that. And I would have liked to have known what the path was, which is what we found out recently through Dr. Bredesen.
It’s the idea that at the time when as my, I’m the oldest of four siblings. And so when I’m looking at my dad and thinking about that as being what’s ahead for me, that’s depressing. And so what I needed to know is that there’s a different path. And I think that’s what Bredesen has done.
is he’s been able to show that you can decide whether you want to be on that path or not. It’s not a foregone conclusion. At the time that I was looking at my father, I didn’t have a solution. All we had was a book that told them how to try and figure out how to accommodate the problems associated. A 36-hour day. A 36-hour day, yeah. That’s what I read. I asked him.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (49:57.537)
that’s still the best seller in Alzheimer’s. Yeah, and it’s depressing. It’s really sad. And there’s so much more empowerment in the Bredesen approach. Betty, do you have any thoughts if you’re, for listeners who are the partner of someone starting to struggle, are there things that you wish you knew earlier?
Tom And Betty Freitag (50:08.684)
Yes. That’s right. That’s right.
Tom And Betty Freitag (50:21.91)
Well, what’s interesting is I didn’t know Thomas experiencing the cognitive issues at work. And that’s why he retired until a few years after he retired. You know, I wasn’t aware of that. And so then it became known and you know, you can see little things, little changes. I think.
There’s a balance you walk between being supportive and being on that plan and working it with the spouse and not being a nagger and a, it’s a boundary thing. I’m not responsible for his health, he is, but I can come alongside him and help. Sometimes I maybe ask too many questions.
There’s a program called LudoFit, which we subscribe to, which we’re not using to the fullest extent as we could, but we go play ping pong at the city once a week as often as we can, you know, and so there’s, so, you know, offering suggestions, being available to partner, because you don’t, you know, you don’t, it’s not fun doing things by yourself. So trying to be available to partner with Tom.
And like you said earlier, some spouses will say, well, that’s fine for you, but I’m not going to do that. And I can’t imagine that approach. can’t imagine not wanting to do everything I can to make things successful for our brain health, for Tom specifically, but my brain health as well.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (52:11.884)
And we see it’s not very effective, right? If that plan is for you, not me, then it really is a lot harder for people to get benefits.
Tom And Betty Freitag (52:21.44)
Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. One of the things that we learned recently is that I need to get out of the sun in the morning. I tend to just like to sit and read. so, but then you realize one of the ways that you use your body clock right is that you get up in the morning and you look at the sun and you just enjoy the sun. Yeah, we’ve just started doing that. Yeah. We noticed that Tom’s deep sleep wasn’t long as it needs to be.
So what would facilitate that? So we did some reading and we found out that sunlight getting the circadian rhythm going. So getting out in the sun.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (52:59.054)
Have you seen more deep sleep? Has your deep sleep increased since doing that?
Tom And Betty Freitag (53:02.626)
It just started. We just started it. Yeah, just a few days. Yeah, yeah, we don’t know yet.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (53:05.681)
I was very curious.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (53:10.952)
That’s fantastic. it sounds like this is part of the pattern in your household, right? Is you identify a problem and then you identify a solution and you put it into action. And over and over and over again, what I see as a provider is that people who have to take that approach, they are the ones who get the benefits of the program.
Tom And Betty Freitag (53:19.352)
I like that.
That’s it.
Tom And Betty Freitag (53:30.168)
We also got Fitbit watches, know, to make your own traps and analyze our sleep and yeah, it’s good. is like the sleep content, know, deep sleep. that’s how we know that. Yeah.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (53:34.702)
Great. Simple measure.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (53:45.007)
Yeah, we’re big fans. wear my Oura ring all the time. The Fitbits and the Apple Watches and the Whoop straps, all these things can be really helpful in getting that objective data so that you know, okay, is this effort of getting up and out and instead of kicking back and reading a little bit in the morning and getting in the sun instead, is that going to help my sleep? And you’ll get that data, you’ll get that feedback. And I can’t wait to hear what you learn. But it’s that curiosity.
Tom And Betty Freitag (53:48.982)
Yes. Yes.
Tom And Betty Freitag (54:04.098)
Right.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (54:12.918)
And that openness and the humility that we don’t have it all figured out. It’s a journey. We’re on the path and we’re going to keep figuring it out. That really stands out to me as a big part of why you guys have been as successful as you have. And it’s not just the science or the protocols. It’s your intention. And then also your collaboration, right? That there’s this real partnership that you guys have. And this decision that you made, Tom, to…
Tom And Betty Freitag (54:25.304)
Thank you.
Tom And Betty Freitag (54:31.916)
Right. That’s right.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (54:36.44)
pay attention early to ask better questions, ask more questions, and then to build this team around yourself so that you could be addressing all of these components. It takes effort, man. And I just want to give you both so much credit for taking this on. And also, just thank you deeply. This conversation is a reminder to everyone here listening that cognitive health isn’t something that we suddenly address in a moment of crisis at some end stage.
It’s something that we can tend to. We can do this consistently through movement and connection and purpose and faith. didn’t even get to talk about your faith, but curiosity and care and, and, and, and relationship and that aging is that we don’t have to, this doesn’t mean pretending that change isn’t happening and being in that state of denial. It means that we’re responding to it with wisdom and agency and grace. And you guys are just this beautiful, beautiful, inspiring example of that.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for modeling. But it looks like to age with awareness and hope and partnership and grace and cognition.
Tom And Betty Freitag (55:41.496)
Well, I can’t tell you how grateful we are for the positive feedback that you’re giving us. These are things in a one of the as an engineer one of the things I always did is I was always looking for problems and so you have this mindset that’s that way but the problem with having a mindset like that is you don’t accept the kind of praise and
validation that you’re providing. It’s just helpful to have that kind of input from you because we can think about that and try and incorporate it deeply into us that there’s this good thing that’s going on in our life and you’re helping by acknowledging it. So thank you. and gratitude is a big thing for us is to rehearse gratitude and yes.
Yes, to go through our grandchildren and things that are going on in our lives. We are constantly trying to grow spiritually as well. mean, it’s yes, health, but it’s also growing, as you mentioned, in our faith and learning more about how we incorporate that into our everyday as well.
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (57:08.302)
Wow, it really is a journey. Thank you so much for being here, for being this inspiration, this model to others. You’re really among the pioneers. As Dr. Betteson’s book is titled, The First Survivors of Alzheimer’s, you’re charting a very different path than your father did. And that is a huge inspiration to others. So thank you again for being here. To our listeners, until next time, keep thinking well.
Tom And Betty Freitag (57:09.09)
Thank you.
Tom And Betty Freitag (57:25.949)
Yes.
Tom And Betty Freitag (57:32.877)
Thank
Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (57:36.12)
Follow the model that Tom and Betty have laid out so that you can age well with grace and connection. It’s such a privilege to be here with you. Until next time, be well.
Tom And Betty Freitag (57:46.306)
Thank you.
