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Defying the Odds: How Lucy Reclaimed Her Memory and Her Life

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (00:01.775)
So Judy, I’m really curious as you navigated the Bredesen Protocol, which specific parts of the protocol was it detox, nutrition, the lifestyle pieces, the supplements? What made the biggest difference for you personally?

Lucy Waletzky (00:18.402)
me, it was brain HQ because the feedback was instant when I did it. I started very, very low in the 20s and then after maybe six months I got up to 50s and then Dr. Bredesen said, he says, good work but keep optimizing. Then eventually I got up to 90 % for all ages, which is where I am now.

which I’m very proud of that because I do it every single day for about a half hour. And then I also do Elevate and the New York Times Wordle and Spelling Bee because they stimulate different parts of the brain. And then so when you see what percent you’re at, no matter how low it is, you can actually get it higher.

So that’s very rewarding. I felt the supplements were very helpful too because I saw from the blood test that these things were off vitamin D and zinc and inflammation and the inflammation pointed it to the toxicity. So then the first of the toxic things that I was tackling was mercury because I had.

silver fillings removed as a child, many, many of them before they protected the patient and the doctor. So now if you get them removed, you won’t get the same exposure, fortunately. So it’s not that you feel better, because it’s just that you’re doing the right thing. The number’s coming down and you know mercury’s toxic to the brain. And so that toxin’s gone and that’s good. And that’s the same with lead from.

having a house that had lead pipes and lead paint living there. That was a bad idea. So again, it comes down eventually. In Lyme disease, I was lucky I got a second tick-borne disease, Oricleosis, and went to the hospital with that. And then I had IVs in the hospital for the Oricleosis, Zosin and Doxycycline.

Lucy Waletzky (02:43.694)
Then it got rid of the Lyme as well as the Erychleosis. So that was really lucky. Yeah, and then Dr. Bredesen said, well, maybe you have sleep apnea because your hippocampus is very small. My MRI showed that my hippocampus was about 20 % of what it should have been. So he said that may be because it’s not getting enough oxygen at night. So he says, even though you’re…

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (02:49.007)
That’s helpful.

Lucy Waletzky (03:13.33)
and you don’t snore, you take the sleep apnea test, and I didn’t have sleep apnea. And just thinking of, I can tell on days, because you get scores from the CPAP machine, and if you’re having a lot of episodes of not breathing right at night, I’m worse in my thinking in the day, so I know that it helps, and it makes sense that it would help.

It’s a nuisance, but you just have to do it. The nutrition was, it took a long time to get into ketosis. Some people get into it very quickly and they’re lucky, but I didn’t. I think in retrospect, was just not.

strict enough. One thing I found out that really surprised me was that gummies, that’s another thing I want to talk about is sleep. Sleep is so important to getting better and I monitor it by the aura ring. so I wake up a lot and then I was taking melatonin gummies. But then I learned way after the fact when I found out I had

10 cavities, which I haven’t had any since I was a child, that they have sugar in them. you’re all night after you brush your teeth, you have the sugar on your teeth. So, dear, dear. That was…

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (04:56.141)
And it’s also keeping you from getting into ketosis.

Lucy Waletzky (04:59.022)
Right, right, exactly, because you’re right, I never thought about that. All that sugar from the gummies. I, know, more thoroughly got rid of the sugar and then kept up the, I do, I walk for about two miles every day except the two days where I do strength training because given my age, I’m 84, it’s very important.

to keep your strength up. And I like to play golf, so I have to keep my strength up to do that. And I’m the oldest one on the course playing golf. yeah, and in the, not in any form, but I play on the 18 hole course with the, in the club level tournaments, so.

That was, did, my biggest challenge came when I was hit by a dog. It was at a friend’s house. was a 70 pound dog running full speed into me and I broke my leg in four places and the ligaments were out and I was knocked unconscious and four teeth were loosened and that was.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (06:25.315)
idea.

Lucy Waletzky (06:26.806)
a long way back because it was head trauma combined with the other things and that’s why also the golf took more effort to get back to. But it’s really, it’s worth it because when you think what Alzheimer’s is really like, this protocol works. For some people it’s simple. If they just simply.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (06:28.804)
Whoa.

Lucy Waletzky (06:55.212)
and you can correct me with much more experience Heather there, but if the person is simply overweight and insulin resistant, they can maybe get better much quicker than those of us who are toxic type three Alzheimer’s, is that right?

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (07:16.463)
You know, it’s interesting, I rarely see a patient who is that simple, right? Who’s just overweight and has diabetes. Most, vast majority of my patients, once they’ve lived past 65, they’ve accumulated toxicity that’s significant. And we live in a world where you cannot avoid it.

Lucy Waletzky (07:22.018)
in.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (07:38.714)
So I think that toxicity is usually, now there are some exceptions, but usually I think toxicity is a player for Alzheimer’s patients. think any neurodegenerative patient, I would even say. I think, yeah, my experience has been that no one is simple. Everyone has this degree of complexity. Now there’s varying degrees, but.

It’s when we start to say, the detox isn’t that important. Now we have people that aren’t getting better. It’s really about taking this comprehensive approach and saying, okay, for this individual, which ones are most important? And let’s start there. But I don’t know that many people get out of this protocol without doing some detox.

Lucy Waletzky (08:23.906)
That’s very interesting. I didn’t know that. Yeah.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (08:26.573)
Yeah. In our clinical trial that we did at my office, 100 % of our 23 participants, all 23 of them had significant toxicity. Yeah.

Lucy Waletzky (08:36.45)
Really? And did they notice when they felt better related to the toxicity or more just the accumulation of doing everything, which is what I feel over time. You know, it’s the supplements, the detox, the brain HQ, the sleep, everything. Or do they tend to see something?

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (08:58.326)
The exercise, yeah.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (09:04.333)
That’s a good question. We don’t, I just sort of refuse to do things one at a time anymore because by the time someone is suffering with cognitive impairment, we want to throw everything at it. We’re asking for a miracle. And so I just lose so much confidence if we start to pick and choose. But I will say for the younger patients, I have many younger patients that I’ve seen over the years.

clinical practice is now almost 100 % dementia and people over 65, but previously there would be people who really just did need to detox. They were in their 20s or 30s and had been exposed to something and you take care of it. And yes, their brain fog goes away and their focus and cognition returns. Now they don’t have Alzheimer’s, right? They’re not at that stage, but there are cognitive symptoms that resolve with just detox, certainly.

Lucy Waletzky (09:55.927)
Yeah, and that’s interesting, the line between Alzheimer’s and cognitive impairment.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (10:05.647)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, there are so many things that affect people. I heard at one stage, was like one in three Americans would check a box that say that they have suboptimal cognitive function. So that’s, you know, that’s a hundred million people more. That’s a huge chunk of our population. I’m so curious about how you built your team, right? Was there, I know Dr. Bredesen, you were communicating directly with him.

Lucy Waletzky (10:18.51)
Hmm.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (10:33.795)
because you were an early and an enthusiastic adopter. And then who else was on your team to support you on this path?

Lucy Waletzky (10:42.978)
Well, right from the beginning, Mary Kay Ross, who was at that time, you know, working with Dr. Reddison on the town hall and everything.

see her first in Seattle, or was it first in Savannah? Maybe first in Savannah, then in Seattle, and then I’ve seen her in New York, and now she’s back in Savannah and seeing people by Zoom. And when I was out in Seattle…

Lucy Waletzky (11:20.558)
as a health coach out there, but she wasn’t back here. So I didn’t have a health coach per se, but I think that’s essential, the health coach, you know, for people making the changes. And it just happened that I didn’t.

But now I’m friends with Judy Benjamin. She’s a health coach. But I think that the whole team is so important, the nutritional coach and the health coach and the physician. I guess maybe I could understand it better being a physician.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (12:18.083)
Yeah. You know, I can tell, you know, just having this conversation with you, seeing you in the documentary Memories for Life, you are just one of those people who’s going to figure it out and make it happen. I’m also curious, though, if there are tricks or tips or tools that you found that allowed you or helped you to stay consistent with the protocol. Because as you mentioned, it’s a long-term commitment. It’s a lifestyle. It’s an identity that I do this. I live this way.

Lucy Waletzky (12:28.504)
Bye.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (12:46.893)
And so what keeps you coming back and doing it day to day, even when it gets harder, even if there’s travel, or even if there’s a wedding, or even if something pops up or you have an injury like you experienced, what keeps you on track?

Lucy Waletzky (13:00.95)
It’s they’re keeping a firm picture of what I’m trying to do, which is not get Alzheimer’s. My mother had Alzheimer’s and I see so many people who get them, get it, and then their life isn’t their own anymore. They can’t do what they want to do with other people or anything. become.

Lucy Waletzky (13:30.146)
Just keeping that idea in my head, I’m kind of like that. Set my mind to something. But you see, I guess, and it was fun being one of the pioneers, and it was very exciting when the film came out. And then,

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (13:41.68)
I can tell.

Lucy Waletzky (13:57.679)
interesting issue that people have is who do you tell that you have Alzheimer’s? Yeah, it’s because when the book came out, The First Survivors of Alzheimer’s, I only used the name Marcy because I didn’t even want to disclose my first name. So only just the people around me knew. And then

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (14:05.197)
If you navigate that.

Lucy Waletzky (14:25.906)
came out, of course, I memories for life, which is on Amazon Prime to this day. There I am, so you’re sort of forced to come out and I did Q &As after the screenings of that, but then that was the challenge because then I couldn’t remember who knew and who didn’t know and I make mistakes because it was the best number of people and I said well…

you don’t know about my memory problem, they’d say, yes, I was at the screening and I said that, I said, dear. So that’s a challenge to this day, I’m not sure, because now lots of people in my community know, but I don’t know who knows. And I’ve reached a stage where I’m beyond that self-consciousness because it’s just another.

problem, medical problem that people have is just that people didn’t know that people could reverse the cognitive changes of Alzheimer’s. So it was harder to come out then.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (15:45.572)
Yeah, there was certainly a bias against anyone who might have that diagnosis. People would treat you differently, I’m sure. Maybe stop inviting you to lunch or to play golf or it changes or to take on projects that you might be totally capable of. And then now that’s really shifted into almost an ambassador role, right? You’re here, you’ve been in the movie, you’ve been in the book, and you are one of these pioneers sharing your story to show what’s possible. And with

Lucy Waletzky (15:55.726)
All right.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (16:14.795)
With this, I want you to describe your day-to-day life. This is a great example of that. It’s like, who knows that you have this diagnosis? And how does that impact your day-to-day life? maybe some people, they delay telling their loved ones, or they delay mentioning to their doctor, because they don’t want their day-to-day life to be affected. They don’t want to lose their driver’s license. They don’t want to lose their friend group.

How has this process affected your day-to-day life? And if you can think back to 2018 or 2017 when maybe your memory loss was at its peak, what are the improvements in that day-to-day experience today versus then?

Lucy Waletzky (17:01.592)
Well, I guess there’s less notes because at time I had a high level of position with New York State Parks and it was responsible for parks all over the state. I had so many notes to keep track of and I would be very anxious about…

not knowing something about that park or historic site or those people or everything. I don’t have that as much. My memory is still not what I would want it to be. My cognition is, but my memory after a few weeks have gone by, I may forget some things about the conversation or something like that. And I’m hoping I’m still struggling with mold.

in my house and in me and I know you’re supposed to get all five of the molds negative and then continuing detox and I’ve only got three negative and I’m really hoping that when all of mine are negative and the house is negative, the house is negative now, this is years, that it’s going to help my memory and I’ll need less prompting, know, keeping.

No, it’s to keep straight. Look up something. I play golf and so on. mean, look up. What did we talk about last time?

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (18:38.393)
Having improved your symptoms, what would you share with someone who is at the beginning stages of looking down the barrel of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis? What would you want them to know?

Lucy Waletzky (18:53.528)
Well, that they’re very lucky that the Bredesen program is like magic. We are so lucky it exists. And Dr. Bredesen is a brilliant scientist and physician and a kind man, a homeboy.

endlessly curious and caring about his patients. he’s making advances, continues to make advances and he hopes that in the future for some people who come late into the,

If you’re early, you’re really lucky because it’s likely going to be quicker that you’re going to get better. So it’s good to get started when it’s easier. That’s what I would say, easier to reverse things than when it’s long. Yeah.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (19:46.765)
Yeah, don’t wait.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (19:51.152)
In your background, you’ve been a leader in environmental and conservation causes. What do you have you ever drawn that connected the dots between caring for the planet, caring for our environment and caring for our brain?

Lucy Waletzky (20:07.66)
No, I never did. How do you connect them? That’s very interesting.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (20:14.217)
my gosh, there’s so many ways. I personally have this experience of if I’m in a big city or if I’m trapped inside for too long, my nervous system kind of gets ramped up and I don’t think as clearly and I’m not as creative. And then if I go for a walk on the beach or if I go to a park or if I go for a walk in the woods, my whole nervous system, it’s almost visible, it calms down and I’m able to think more clearly.

I think, you know, a, I guess maybe a more political, societal level, just pesticides and herbicides and the link between glyphosate and neurodegenerative diseases, glyphosate found in Roundup, and the food that’s available when we’re disconnected from the environment. So yeah, I think that there’s a lot of ways. And I suspect that your work in the Parks Department in New York,

and in your philanthropy has benefited the brains of others.

Lucy Waletzky (21:13.676)
Yeah, getting away from the EMFs, that’s been one of the things, reducing EMF exposure and leaving, if you have an apple, you can leave the phone behind when you’re out and yeah, all that. And definitely that’s one of the troubles about golf, they have pesticides on the course. And I’ve noticed that almost all the golfers, the applicators and

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (21:16.591)
Yeah.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (21:37.155)
Yeah.

Lucy Waletzky (21:43.098)
people who have pesticides in their home, all have their memory affected. It’s really one of the pest management committee for our county and it’s a big job trying to get less.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (21:59.812)
Yeah…

that balance of making sure that nature is not taking over, that there aren’t ants in the kitchen and there aren’t cockroaches and the grass looks lovely as people want it to, but also at what cost.

Lucy Waletzky (22:18.368)
at all cost. Yeah, my grass does not look lovely, but there’s no pesticides there. yeah, that’s definitely true. And when I’m out walking, I don’t really want to talk on my watch or talk. I don’t even want to go with other people. I go by myself. So I can think.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (22:23.331)
Mine either, I just have sex with it.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (22:43.991)
You and me both. Just nice time to decompress, right?

Lucy Waletzky (22:48.174)
Right, it is, it is, yeah, because you have a busy practice and writing and everything you’re doing a lot, I know. Remember that stage. yeah, yeah, it’s.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (22:57.589)
Yeah, you’ve been there. I was excited to talk to you because I feel like you can relate to have you had a lot on your plate. mean, you’ve been through and excuse me if you don’t want to talk about this, but I understand you lost a child, right? I mean, you’ve been through one of the most stressful experiences that can happen to a mother or a parent and

Lucy Waletzky (23:13.922)
Yes. Yeah.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (23:23.983)
your resilience and the amount that I can imagine that trauma and you’ve just continued to transform it into service and supporting others. And it’s really, your story is so inspiring, Lucy. I’m curious, do you want to share anything about that, about navigating?

Lucy Waletzky (23:42.159)
Yeah, yeah, I do. Well, the day he was born, he was my first child. It was the happiest day of my life. And the day he died was the saddest for sure. But even that night, he kind of came to me in my sight as a purplish color. And there’s something called the violet flame. And he’s been there.

I mean, it’s awful, two years, five years, 10 years, you know, but I do feel that I have some contact with him and that it’s helpful and that he guides me, helps me sometimes when I do the wrong thing, makes it clear, clear too. the day he died, we played golf.

together and he knew something was off and because he could do the New York Times puzzle, crossword puzzle just by memory. says, I can’t do it at all. So something’s wrong with my brain. And he had done so well recovering from cocaine addiction. And then when he played golf, he couldn’t play golf. He says, something’s happening and I’m never going to play golf again. I said, well.

Do you want me to come with you? No. And then that night he just took cocaine and had a heart attack. It was so hard for someone to recover from addiction and he had done so well because you can’t slip. know, people who are just trying to lose weight, they can slip and nothing like that happens. But it’s just such a high cost when you…

People make errors in what they do in every way, in every part of their life, and he just was unlucky. He was a wonderful boy, very, very talented. I have a really fabulous daughter, she has three grandchildren, and she named the eldest one Lucy, so that was a really a gift from God, beautiful, beautiful child of that ring.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (25:49.325)
I’m so sorry for you, Mom.

Lucy Waletzky (26:08.502)
mains and now these three grandchildren.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (26:13.091)
What fun.

Lucy Waletzky (26:14.723)
Yeah.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (26:16.463)
How has this journey, particularly the Alzheimer’s chapter of your journey, changed your perspective on growing older and resilience and what matters most?

Lucy Waletzky (26:30.638)
doing the prednisant protocol and inspiring other people. Yeah, it’s got challenges, but if you have things to do that are rewarding and helpful to others, whatever it is in your community, in your family, whatever, then you’re the same person and it’s a little more leisurely.

And if you’re blessed not to have something that gets in the way of your life and the Alzheimer’s is not in the way of my life. I mean, it is because it takes time, but it’s…

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (27:13.951)
Yeah, you used the word leisurely and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention the words leisurely and Bredesen protocol in the same sentence. maybe, will you expand on that? Like, Alzheimer’s itself doesn’t interfere with your day-to-day.

Lucy Waletzky (27:21.614)
you

Lucy Waletzky (27:26.536)
Well, yeah, yeah, well, it’s very, very unleasurably the protocol, but I guess the rest of my life used to be so, so busy. So now it’s just the Bredesen protocol that’s, I mean, I’m still busy in other ways with philanthropy and boards and things like that, but which, but it’s different because it’s not going to the office and being

Seeing people all day and writing it up and having the children at home, that’s a much higher level of busyness. It’d be hard to the Bredesen Protocol on top of that.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (28:11.727)
You’re telling me. Yes, I know all about it. My practice is the Bredesen Protocol, so I have to practice what I preach, and so we make it work. As you look ahead, what gives you the most hope in terms of brain health and humanity and neurodegenerative disease? I think I know what you might say here, but I’m curious if you have anything else.

Lucy Waletzky (28:27.33)
Yeah.

Lucy Waletzky (28:37.612)
Well, one thing that I…

I, you know, every day I pray for President Trump that the side of him is going to manifest himself that’s going to lead to world peace, help for the environment and the immigrants. And that same with all the other people there. And that helps me. I feel like the prayers I…

ask that they join the prayers of the Pope and praying people all over the world. And maybe we’re going to get to world peace if enough people pray for this. Because it’s a hard time now for the environment and so forth. But when I discovered that prayer helps so much, I feel good.

Because when you dwell on something that you feel like you can’t change, like you’re being abused by it or something.

health. At least it didn’t help me.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (29:50.447)
Yeah. What brings you the most joy at this stage of life?

Lucy Waletzky (29:57.417)
maybe…

I have a significant other of 20 years. We live together and I have a young dog and two cats. And of course my daughter is very, very high in golf. And I think all of the projects that I still have, when we complete something, whether it’s building a new…

access to one of the parks and it gets done. It’s, you know, so probably the same thing that most people and it brings me a lot of joy to get rid of the mold.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (30:49.999)
I can imagine you looking at your test results and every time they go up, whether it’s brain HQ or the mold goes down or the P-Tow comes down, I can see you doing a little happy dance and that bringing you some joy.

Lucy Waletzky (30:58.99)
I know. Yeah, right, exactly. All of those, celebrating them. And now there is Judy Benjamin, who’s gonna be on your program. Another time she started a foundation for the Alzheimer’s Survivors Foundation so that people will know that we exist and that it’s real. And of course, her walking across the United States.

amazing. Yeah.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (31:29.027)
So impressive. She is really impressive. Yes. So yes, please stay tuned and look for the podcast with Judy Benjamin, a dear friend of Lucy’s that will be also popping up here at Think Well, Age Well. Lucy, it is such a privilege to have you here and just has been a wonderful, wonderful conversation that I know will inspire so many people. Whoever will take the time to listen will get…

some nuggets of inspiration and clarity and things to help them navigate the Bredesen Protocol. I’m so grateful to you for spending the time of being here with me today.

Lucy Waletzky (32:07.8)
Well, you’re an inspiration, your work and how you are as a person and this podcast. So I’m very grateful to have gotten to know you. Thank you for thinking to invite me.

Dr. Heather Sandison, ND (32:20.812)
Absolutely, thanks Lucy. Okay, so don’t hang up.