Voices in Health and Wellness

Reversing Cognitive Decline: Lindsey Byrne's Journey from Executive Coach to Brain Health Pioneer

• Dr Andrew Greenland • Season 1 • Episode 30

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What if the narrative around cognitive decline being an inevitable part of aging isn't true? What if conditions like Alzheimer's could be prevented or even reversed? Lindsay Byrne's personal journey challenges everything we thought we knew about brain health.

When Lindsey's mother began showing signs of memory loss, she initially accepted the common belief that nothing could be done. But the pandemic's disruption of her executive coaching career created space for discovery - leading her to the Bredesen Protocol and witnessing her mother's significant improvement despite an Alzheimer's diagnosis.

Now one of only six Bredesen-trained RECODE coaches in the UK, Lindsey helps clients identify and address the root causes of their cognitive issues through personalized, science-backed approaches. The results speak volumes: clients showing dramatic improvements in cognitive testing, regaining memory function, and reclaiming their lives.

Throughout our conversation, Lindsey dismantles myths about cognitive health while offering practical insights into how the protocol works. She shares compelling client stories, including one whose memory score jumped from 32 to 92 after six months, explains why early intervention matters, and reveals the importance of support systems in successful implementation.

Most powerfully, Lindsey emphasizes that cognitive decline isn't a natural part of aging. Research shows even generic lifestyle changes can prevent 45% of dementias - and when those changes are personalized through functional testing and targeted interventions, the results can be transformative.

Whether you're concerned about your own brain health, caring for someone with cognitive issues, or simply interested in prevention, this episode offers hope, practical guidance, and a revolutionary perspective on what's possible. Visit thecognitivehealthcoach.co.uk to learn more and take a free cognitive assessment to establish your baseline.

Guest Biography

Lindsey Byrne is a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach and one of only six RECODE 2.0 Bredesen-trained coaches in the UK, with a mission to help people prevent, halt, or reverse early cognitive decline. Inspired by her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Lindsey transitioned from a successful career in executive coaching to brain health, completing nearly 3,000 hours of study in functional medicine and the Bredesen Protocol. Through her practice, The Cognitive Health Coach, she combines science-backed testing, personalised lifestyle changes, and compassionate support to help clients improve memory, clarity, and quality of life. Lyndsey is also the author of What Did I Come In Here For Again?, a practical guide to enhancing cognitive health. 

 Contact Details and Social Media Handles 

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Welcome to Voices in Health and Wellness, where we speak with practitioners building the future of care. My guest today is Lindsey Byrne, a functional medicine certified health coach, one of only six Bredesen-trained RECODE coaches in the UK and one of the few actively seeing clients Through her platform, the Cognitive Health Coach, Lindsay helps people reduce or reverse early cognitive decline, blending deep science with compassionate, personalised coaching. Her path from executive coaching to functional brain health was sparked by her mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis and her mission is reshaping what's possible in memory and longevity care. So, Lindsay, welcome to the show. Thank you very much for coming on this afternoon.

Lindsey Byrne:

Well, thank you for having me.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

You're very welcome. So can you tell us a little bit about your journey from leadership and executive coaching to becoming the cognitive health coach and what sparked that transformation?

Lindsey Byrne:

Yes, well, I was very much enjoying the executive coaching, leadership development and team coaching as well, corporate work, and that I was doing until the pandemic, when that all fell apart and that coincided with um. Actually, a few years before that we'd noticed mum's memory was getting worse, but I thought there was nothing you could do. I'd googled it but you know you don't find much in the early search terms that come up. So I thought there was nothing we could do and my business fell apart. I had no income, nothing to do, no purpose in life. I didn't respond very well to the pandemic. Lots of people did, didn't they? They stayed home, they got fit. No, I didn't respond well to it, but it coincided with finding the Bredesen Protocol, which gave me a massive new purpose in life.

Lindsey Byrne:

I got my mum on the protocol as best we could. She's not perfect, she doesn't do the whole protocol, but she improved significantly and it just seemed obvious to me that this is what I should be doing with my life helping other people. Because you know, for a couple of years I'd been watching my mum, keeping my eye on her, thinking, well, she's not too bad, she's not too bad yet, but thinking there was nothing you could do, and finding out there was so much you could do actually made me really angry. We could have been doing stuff earlier and how? How do we not know about this stuff in the UK? So yeah, it was. It was pretty obvious, um, and it was quite an easy transition really to do the training. Being already a trained coach, um, I mean, it's a very different style of coaching coaching execs to coaching people with something so personal around their house. But I enjoy the coaching anyway, and learning all the medical stuff was absolutely fascinating. I loved it. So, yeah, really enjoyed the transition and I'm really enjoying what I'm doing.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Amazing. So you really went deep because I think you did nearly 3000 hours of study in functional medicine, the Bredesen protocol. What was that process like and how did it evolve your own health in the process?

Lindsey Byrne:

Well, I love learning. I've always loved learning, which is why I was in a learning related business anyway, and so I absolutely loved it. I'd got nothing else to do because my business was wiped out, so I just threw myself into it, um, so I really enjoyed that. I'd I'd already done all the exploring and before I even managed to get onto the course, obviously I signed up as soon as I could to the functional medicine coaching academy, um, but I was reading everything I could find before that um, and yeah, so just really enjoyed all of that.

Lindsey Byrne:

And my own house, I mean, I think, the stress of having no business, actually no income, and my mum having Alzheimer's and that all coincided, by the way, with trying to move mum and dad into a retirement village and they lost the house sale, the house sale in the pandemic, so I had to resell the house. I mean, my stress levels were through the roof, um, and it wasn't affecting me. Well, I wasn't um looking after myself as well as I should have been, um, given that normally I'm very careful to eat very carefully and I'd always been interested in nutrition, but things went a little bit awry in the pandemic. So all of that um came together and resulted in, um, some very severe menopause symptoms from nothing, one day, overnight, the next day, terrible um menopause symptoms, including some brain fog. And so, of course, all of this learning helped me get my diet back on track and, you know, help me refocus on some of the lifestyle things and help me manage my symptoms.

Lindsey Byrne:

And I took the free cognitive test that Apollo do and I scored really highly for memory and processing speed in the 90s, but my executive function was 55, which is still above average. But it really scared me because I thought the disparity and also, you know, I'm menopause age, who wants to be average compared to a bunch of menopausal ladies with brain fog? So so, um, yeah, it really scared me, um, but now I score in the high 90s across across the board, um, so I know it works and I know my mom got better, so, um, and of course, all the client experience I've had since brilliant.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

I'm very mindful that you and I know exactly what we're talking about when we talk about the Bredesen protocol, but yes, I've also realized there's probably a lot of people listening that may not know much about it. Can you give a very high level kind of summary of what it is and how it helps people?

Lindsey Byrne:

yes. So Dr Dale Bredesen was an Alzheimer's researcher. He has come up with a protocol looking at the root causes of cognitive decline. You can do testing to find out what your personal root causes are, because they can be different for everyone. So it can be from toxins, hormone problems, poor nutrition not necessarily your fault. Maybe genetic issues causing you not to process certain vitamins, causing genetic issues causing you not to process certain vitamins a massive range of different things that can be addressed by lifestyle change and, depending where you are, if it's just prevention, it may only be lifestyle change.

Lindsey Byrne:

But always good to get some blood tests as well to find out if there's any underlying causes, particularly if you've had parents with dementia causes, particularly if you've had parents with dementia and if we find anything in the blood test. This is not my end. This is Andrew's end of the bargain to actually do the testing and recommend some supplements to help and it is usually only supplements rather than drugs and you can prevent completely, you can reverse the symptoms of mild cognitive impairment and Dr Bredesen recently came out with some expectation setting. So if it is actually Alzheimer's, we can probably halt the decline and may even get some benefits as well. I know from my mum's experience. She definitely had Alzheimer's. It was beyond mild cognitive impairment and she improved so. But we need to set expectations. But yes, it's a huge lifestyle change, which is why people quite often might need a health coach to help them with those changes. And, of course, they need a practitioner to do all the testing and find out what's actually going on.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Very helpful, very helpful summary. So how do you typically start working with a client? Can you talk us through your five-step approach and what we call a cognoscopy in our world, but probably nobody else has heard of that term before.

Lindsey Byrne:

Very true, very true. So step one is to do the free cognitive test. So anybody who's listening, who would like to give that a go, it is free and you don't get spammed. You do have to put your email address in to get the results, but you're not going to get spammed and you can actually access that direct off my website as well, which is thecognitivehealthcoachcouk. So we'll start with that and see as a baseline how people are doing.

Lindsey Byrne:

And, by the way, if anybody any listeners do want to try that out, I'm going to recommend that you do it on a really good day, when you've had a good night's sleep and you're feeling fresh and you're not going to be disturbed. So that might include diet, um, exercise, sleep, stress, uh, stimulating activities for the brain, your oral health I mean all manner of things. Um, and at the same time, depending on how you score on your cognitive test, you may want to see a practitioner and get some blood tests done, um, so that you can um deal with any root causes. Um, and then, um, we basically work through all those things and then the last thing is we will do another cognitive test to see how you're getting on now. Obviously, if it's prevention and you have gone through the process with me.

Lindsey Byrne:

Um, I normally recommend people sign up for six months, um, so that we've got plenty of time to make sure all the change is embedded. But if, at the end of that time, the cognitive results on your test are really good and you're happy and you're confident to carry on doing what you've been doing, then you're free to go and enjoy your life and make lovely memories. Um, if there's more to be done, then we will still retest and maybe it's time to come and see Andrew again and find out, you know, how the supplements you've been taking have worked, what else might need doing, what might need tweaking, and then just keep going, keep the process going it's really helpful just for people to understand the kind of the outline of how this all works.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Can you um describe perhaps the biggest breakthrough that you've seen? You've been doing this work for a while. You work with lots of people. What's the biggest thing that sort of stood out in terms of a client's progress that you can remember?

Lindsey Byrne:

what one of my standout I mean, I've got a few standout clients, but one that always comes to mind um was a lovely lady who had found the brederson protocol even before I had, and she'd been working on it herself um, but not with a recode 2.0 practitioner. Um, and I don't think I mean she got some advice from them and she'd done some work and I think she'd improved a little um, but she really hadn't improved very much. Um, and when I first met her, I didn't know if I was going to be able to coach her because, um, the conversation we had she was so scattered it was really hard for me to follow what she was telling me and she was clearly telling me things that she thought she, you know, building on something she thought she'd said to me, and I was trying to have to piece this conversation together. I was just thinking, oh, my god, how am I going to coach this woman? But I really liked her and I really wanted to help her um and she signed up and one of the things that is fundamental really to the Bredesen protocol is a ketogenic diet and, um, her practitioner had advised her that her diet was fine and she didn't need to go on it.

Lindsey Byrne:

Um, that did worry me that a practitioner had said you just she didn't need it. So I did make sure she had an update on her labs and put her with another practitioner and just got the advice of that practitioner to make sure there was no reason why she shouldn't be on keto, and I didn't think there could be. But he said no, you're fine, get on with keto. And within six months she'd improved so much. Her memory score on the free cognitive test had gone from 32 to 92. I mean, she was high scoring across the board. But that was the biggest sort of breakthrough moment and she's gone on to write a book about her experiences. You know she's just going from strength to strength. She's doing really well.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Amazing transformation. That's the kind of thing we want to be hearing about, but I guess many listeners are told that cognitive decline is just aging. What evidence is there to counter that belief from your perspective, and why is early intervention so?

Lindsey Byrne:

important. Take the cognitive test, make some changes, retake the cognitive test I mean all of my clients they will feel better, they will know they're doing better. But when you see it in hard numbers from the cognitive test then I think you can't really argue with it. I think it's a terrible thing that people think there's nothing you can do about it, because even on the nhs website and the alzheimer's research uk website and the alzheimer's society website they do quote a study that was published in the lancet that proves that um 45 of dementias can be um prevented just through 14. And I've got to say very simple lifestyle changes not at all targeted to the individual and what their needs are, not based on any blood tests, very generic stuff. So if you can do that um with very generic changes, imagine what you can do with some really targeted work um. So your other question was the other part of the question was about why early intervention is so early intervention.

Lindsey Byrne:

I mean, prevention is just so much easier than um reversal. So the prevention protocol is easier. There is a little bit less to it. We can be a little bit more flexible with it. Um, the blood panels that you do if you want to do a blood panel um are much um less. There's much less to it um, and I mean it's obvious, isn't it, that prevention is better than cure. I mean, it's no cure to alzheimer's, I know um, but of course, the further you are down the line, the more damage has been done, the harder it's going to be to pull things back.

Lindsey Byrne:

And my clients who are on recode, which is reversal of cognitive decline, have to be really on the ball. They have a lot of work to do. It does take up some, you know, quite some of their time. It is a really big lifestyle change, really Nothing unpleasant, nothing that you can't get used to. It's just a case of um making small changes, one at a time, and then over time you suddenly look back and realize how far you've come. But yeah, if people could do um prevention rather than wait too long, it's just so much easier. I am very flexible with my diet, you know. I do my exercise. I probably could do more, but I do retest my cognitive tests fairly regularly and you know I know from my own personal experience it is a lot easier to do prevention. So I would encourage everyone over 40 or 50 to take the test and just just see how you're doing and make a few changes.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

All right, you must have met some skepticism or even resistance when, even if you know from people inquiring about the Bredesen Protocol when they first hear about it, what do you think contributes to that scepticism, especially in the UK?

Lindsey Byrne:

I think it's. Although the NHS, et cetera do have that study from the Lancet on their websites, it's not obvious. It's not the top of the page, um, what is at the top of the page is there's no cure. Um, I think there's a general feeling that there's nothing to be done. I think the traditional nhs type treatments, the drug treatments, um we know, only slow the decline and they don't actually make any improvements. So I think everyone thinks probably that's the best you can do.

Lindsey Byrne:

I think we have a massive culture here that the nhs is amazing and the nhs is amazing, um, but I think people rely too much on it and are used to going and listening to a doctor and taking a pill and it being free at the point of use and thinking a pill will solve whatever ill, and that's clearly not the case. I mean, all chronic conditions are growing. So many more people ill these days and you know the last few years of people's lives generally spent fairly ill and it's not inevitable. And you know poor cognition is not a part of aging. We all know people in their 90s or even 100 who were sharp as a tack. So it's not a natural part of aging, is it?

Dr Andrew Greenland:

there must be things that we can do all right, um, so let's talk a little about apollo health for a moment. So what? This is the platform, the infrastructure that helps the bredison protocol to be delivered around the world by providing the algorithm and a database of practitioners, and links practitioners with patients. But what patterns have you noticed in terms of the types of clients that are coming through the platform? If anything?

Lindsey Byrne:

Oh, the best clients I have come from Apollo by far, because they've already researched it themselves. They know they want to do it, they've signed up with Apollo, they've put some money in the game, they are trying to make changes, they realise there's a lot to do and they need help, and when Apollo refers a client to me, they are already switched on. There's no convincing required. I don't really try and convince people. I don't think you can possibly convince people. If people don't want to make a change, they won't, and if they don't believe this will work, then they're not even going to inquire.

Lindsey Byrne:

Um. But I do do lots of talks um, you know, for the WI or U3A or you know wellness festivals, and people are all really interested in what I say um. But even when I sign a client up from such an intervention, usually there is quite a time lag. Well, they have to really research it and think about it and come to believe it um. And I think you know there are so many interventions out there that do appear a bit like snake oil. You know, we've all heard of um scams and terrible things on the internet um that have led people astray, and I think everybody lumps um all of this together um without without looking at the evidence behind it.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Got it. I think in a conversation we've had before we've talked about patients with support systems often doing better. Can you speak a little bit to that dynamic and why support people matter and how they factor into the whole protocol?

Lindsey Byrne:

Absolutely. I mean just from my own point of view, I'm very careful with what I eat and I have. I mean, my friends obviously all know what I do. But people will always say, oh, you can have one, you can have a glass, or you can have one slice of cake. Oh, you could just have one, and people think you're a bit weird if you don't join in a cake. Oh, you could just have one, and people think you're a bit weird if you don't join in. And you know, if your friends and family don't understand what you're doing, it can be really hard.

Lindsey Byrne:

Um. So people who come with a bit of a support network and whether that's just their partner. So I do, um, I do coach people singly and particularly if their cognition is still pretty good, um, then I will coach them singly, of course. If their cognition is still pretty good, um, then I will coach them singly, of course, if they're capable of remembering everything and implementing it. But I do coach couples as well, where maybe the client needs a bit more help, will understand what we're talking about in the moment, but may have forgotten it by tomorrow, uh, when they need to make some changes. So I do um help, uh, couples and I've got I've got one client whose whole family are involved and I just feel like the more people who are involved and understand what they're trying to do and provide that support network and probably join in with them, um can really help.

Lindsey Byrne:

Um, and I do find group coaching if you can get a group of people together online, even if it's just once a fortnight that they're getting together and, you know, doing a bit of action, planning together and getting that feeling of support, my, my group coaching. We have a, a facebook group as well so they can ask each other questions and keep in touch in between. I just think it makes such a massive difference. It is hard to make a change on your own. Anybody listening who's tried to just do a simple weight loss diet will recognize what I'm talking about. You know their friends will say, oh, you can have a night off when it comes to brain health. You really can't.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

I totally get with the whole community thing and it is a community and they support each other and they build each other up and they help each other and they answer each other's questions. I completely get that because it can be very isolating in this space for a patient. So you are one of only six recode certified coaches in the uk and for people that I these are people who have gone through the training to become Bredesen certified health coaches what's that journey been like and how have you seen public attitudes evolve?

Lindsey Byrne:

It's funny because I feel like I'm in a little bubble because I talk to practitioners like you and nutritionists and other health coaches, and not just recode, but obviously the functional medicine coaches as well. So I feel like I'm in a little bubble sometimes and obviously all my friends and family know what I'm doing and my brother, for example, is on prevention as well. So you know, there's a lot of people around me who understand this stuff, um, and every now and again you bump up against somebody who really doesn't know what you're talking about. You know, if I talk to uh at a wellness festival, for example, people there are there because they're interested in their wellness, so they've got some idea at least. Um, and usually clients who make inquiries with me have either seen a podcast or seen some of my posts or have seen me at a talk, so they've already got some idea.

Lindsey Byrne:

But every now and again I bump up against somebody who just has no idea that this, this can be done, and sometimes they're really excited wow, really, I didn't know you could do that. Usually the second question is do you work for the NHS? No, I don't. Um, and then ever, so occasionally, I come across people, um who really genuinely think it's snake oil and they get very protective of the people around them and they don't want me to talk to anyone they know in case I'm scamming them, and that's that's really heartbreaking, and I know they're doing it with the best intentions to protect the people they love. But, um, obviously we know this stuff works and the quicker you get on it, the better. So, and this is why I do so many talks and podcasts and things because I really want to get the message out there as widely as possible so that we start raising awareness that there is something that you can do in a previous conversation that we've had and we've talked about the current situation in this space, and particularly the health coaching side, being lumpy.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Can you sort of tell us a bit more about what you mean by that and what you're seeing in the industry at the moment?

Lindsey Byrne:

yes, I mean, it is really lumpy. I've been doing this for um over three years. It was coming up to three and a half years, um, and the first year obviously is difficult because you want to I mean, I don't know whether I was the first or the second two of us qualified at the same time roughly, and you know you're fighting against a void, a complete lack of information. So the first year was really tough and building up a small client base slowly tough and building up a small client base slowly. And then the second year, I really thought I had it cracked and I'm starting to get more clients and I thought this is it. We're on a roll.

Lindsey Byrne:

And this last year has been very slack. I have just signed up two clients in the last couple of weeks, so maybe, maybe that the tide is turning again and I don't know if it's the cost of living crisis and people are just wary of spending any money on anything at the moment. I mean, personally, I can't think of anything more important to spend money on than your brain. But yes, it has been very up and down and even last year, when I think things were going really well, it was still quite lumpy. I might sign up three clients in a week and I think, oh my god, this is amazing, and then not even have a conversation with any potential new client for a month.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

So it is, it's incredibly lumpy and you're one of the few um actually seeing clients. Why do you think so many others are struggling? Do we even get started?

Lindsey Byrne:

Yes, it is. It's getting started. I think there's something in health coaches, inherently, that we want everything to be perfect. So I had already started putting my website together during the last few months before I qualified, so that I could try and hit the ground running, and I did that as best I could. In fact, I took a client before I was qualified my neighbor's dad. My neighbor knew what I was studying and he said you've got to help my dad. And I said, well, okay, on the understanding, I'm not going to be charging him because I'm not qualified and he's got to. You know, learn with me, um, because I'm not qualified and he's got to. You know, learn with me, um. And he did really well actually. So that really gave me a boost. Um, so I really felt like I hit the ground running.

Lindsey Byrne:

Um, but, um, definitely two or three other of the newer coaches, and they're only just starting to see clients now. Um, obviously they're qualified after me. Um, I've been trying to mentor them as best I can, you know, finding tips. We that, all of us we have a call to sort of catch up and support each other. Um, but yeah, that this it's. It's tough to feel that you're ready to start seeing clients. You know you want your website in place, you want all your forms in place, you want, you want to know your entire process, um, but the longer you hold back, I mean the first client is always going to be a little bit of learning together. So, um, for any new clients uh sorry, any new coaches out there training, I'd just say get on as fast as you can. Just just start working with clients and just paddle furiously under the water in between sessions working out what to do next.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Brilliant and you've obviously done lots of different things around marketing public speaking. Obviously you've got your book, which'll come to um, you're launching the or you're doing the group coaching thing. What do you think moves the needle in marketing this process?

Lindsey Byrne:

I find the marketing the hardest thing. You're asking the wrong person here. I swear I find it the hardest thing. Um, so, as you said, I do podcasts, I do public speaking, I've got the book. I post a lot on um facebook and linkedin. Um, I lurk in groups. There are dementia groups on facebook and linkedin and I lurk there and answer people's questions or comment on people's posts and try to make myself as helpful as possible and I've picked up clients from all of these areas.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Um, but it's really hard yeah, first one if you had to double down on one of them, sorry, if you had to double down on one of them what would that be? Out of all the different things that you do and I'm sure they all have value but if you could only do one thing, which do you think is the single thing that moves the needle the most out of all of those things?

Lindsey Byrne:

um, I I think the posting which I am very uncomfortable about, you know, the uh commenting on people's um posts and stuff in in the, in the groups online, um, because you can get a bit of a reputation, people start noticing your name, coming up again and again and wondering who you are. I actually got a podcast booking from just lurking in a group, so that was good. So, yeah, I think that, but that is one of the things that I find the hardest. It's a big drain on your time and all of the marketing activities can feel quite thankless because it's a long time between the activity and actually somebody seeing your name often enough to to actually make an inquiry got it.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Um, if you had to start from scratch tomorrow and build this from scratch, what? How would you do things differently, with all your learning and experience along the way? What would you do differently?

Lindsey Byrne:

that's a really good question. Oh, maybe I should have put a bit more reflection into that because I could be moving, moving the needle more myself as we go. Um, I think I might have put some money behind it earlier. Um, it's difficult because when you first qualify, it's really hard to work out, um, what will appeal to potential clients, what wording to use.

Lindsey Byrne:

Initially I was posting all about Alzheimer's and prevention and dementia and all my keywords were around that. But that is such a massive market and a huge part of that market is people who really don't believe in this stuff and I'm never going to be my client. Um, I changed a lot of my keywords and my marketing to focus around bredison terminology when I recognized that my very best clients had found the bredison protocol first and then came looking for support. Um, so we use a lot of keywords around bredison. Uh, cognosc, recode the words that no one else would be looking for if they hadn't already heard of this, and so I might do that a little bit earlier and I might put a bit of money behind it earlier as well.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

Interesting, good, good advice. You have a book. What did I come in here for again? Just tell us a little bit about the book and what readers or listeners could hope to gain by reading your book.

Lindsey Byrne:

Yes. So I definitely recognised that the protocol is expensive and particularly for prevention, people could make some real strides on their own. So I wanted to make the protocol as accessible to people as possible. So I mean, there are obviously already books out there. Dr Bredesen's done quite a few books and there are lots of other books out there as well.

Lindsey Byrne:

But I felt like my book was different because I was very much coming at it from a health coach's point of view. It tells my story of where I started and how I changed my own cognitive health. There are snippets of my mom's story in there as well and some client stories and things. But basically I go through every element of the Bredesen protocol. Every chapter is a new element for people to work through.

Lindsey Byrne:

So at the very start there is a self-assessment so that you can choose what to prioritize, which chapters to read first and what work to put in first, um, and then you've got all of the stories so you can see how I did things, what I found difficult, what workarounds I found helpful, um. But uh, every chapter, every element has, um, some coaching questions as well, so that you can just sit and reflect and answer the questions. Obviously, I can't come up with every question that I would ask a real client because it's very much in the moment and based on the client's needs and their responses. But I've tried to put down lots of questions that could perhaps help people to look at things a little bit differently and to make some breakthroughs themselves or to find some workarounds themselves brilliant.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

We'll put the details of the book in the bio so people can get hold of a copy if they want to. From having listened to you talking about it, um, where do you see cognitive health coach in three to five years time? I mean, are there any new programs, partnerships or research that interests you, excites you at all? Where are we going? Where are we going?

Lindsey Byrne:

yeah, definitely, uh.

Lindsey Byrne:

So I am currently in discussions with a care home small care home group and I really hope, um that they take the leap.

Lindsey Byrne:

Um, they are growing, they are building, or about to start building, two new care homes, all local to me, and I'm really hoping that they will have one wing dedicated to the Bredesen Protocol so that we could get clients to come in live there for six months to a year, immerse themselves in the protocol, have it done for them, but also be taught how to do it for themselves so that when they improve, they can go home and continue themselves. So I'm really hoping I mean, obviously, this is a model that is already being done in america, so we, we have something to to look at and to um, to aspire to, um, but I would really hope that that that would get the word out there much more. Um, I, I really think, uh, aside from that, it's a case of all of us just, uh, promoting the breesen Protocol as much as possible, getting awareness out there. It would be amazing if we could get some celebrity endorsement or celebrity support, because I think that's the thing that changes things, isn't it?

Lindsey Byrne:

When a celebrity finds something and talks about it, people suddenly sit up and listen, um, so I I think awareness is is the big thing. The more people are talking about it, the more likely people are starting to notice some changes, will have the belief and the hope, um, that they can do something about it I'm really excited to hear about the, the nursing homes that you mentioned.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

I've been talking about this for years as my kind of ideal as to where this goes, the. I think the immersion thing will be so key because they literally, like you said, have it done for you at the highest level, so you're really getting everything as perfect as it can be in a controlled environment and hopefully they can take it away with them and, you know, implement it at home. So I do hope that succeeds, because I think that's a real game changer. If we can?

Lindsey Byrne:

I think it really would be, and you've got the community support there again as well. So we talked about you know, the community um supporting you. You'd be there on a small wing, maybe 14 of you all working on the same thing.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

It really focuses the mind indeed, and on speaking about the future as well, how do you see um the perception of health coaching in the uk over changing over the next few years? I mean, is the tide changing?

Lindsey Byrne:

um, I really hope so. I mean, there aren't many of us recode coaches, but there are a lot of functional medicine health coaches, um, so I really hope the tide changes. I think, um, it is an issue at the moment that people rely on the nhs, um, and and don't realize that you know you can pay, uh, for your own health and to get support. I don't think coaching as a whole is particularly huge in the UK. I mean, obviously, in the executive coaching space it is much better known, but that's quite corporate, isn't it? For consumers, for individuals in the UK, I don't think coaching is particularly big and people very often ask me oh well, what's that then? What do you do? What do you actually do with people? So, again, I think there are lots of coaching bodies and of course, there's the UK and International Health Coaching Association trying to get the word out there as well, and International Health Coaching Association trying to get the word out there as well.

Dr Andrew Greenland:

So I hope that more people find out about it and engage with it. Lindsay, this has been an incredibly rich conversation, thank you. I think a lot of coaches and clients will hear pieces of their own journey and yours. From navigating UK coaching landscape to advancing real changes in brain health. Your work is really shifting the narrative. So thank you very much for spending time with us talking about your work, and this afternoon we'll put all the details of you, you and you, how to connect with you and details of your book in the bio for any listeners that want to um do some further research. But thank you once again for your time this afternoon. It's been really interesting thank you.

Lindsey Byrne:

Thank you, andrew, I've really enjoyed it wonderful.