Episode 143 | Aug 14, 2025

How ReCODE Helps Prevent Cognitive Decline, With Julie Luby and Chris Coward

Can cognitive decline be prevented or even reversed with the right approach? This week on Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi speaks with FMCA graduate and ReCODE 2.0 health coach Julie Luby and Apollo Health’s VP of Coaching Services, Chris Coward, about the groundbreaking work being done in brain health coaching. Together, they explore the ReCODE program developed from Dr. Dale Bredesen’s research, share inspiring client success stories, and discuss how health coaches can specialize in supporting clients facing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of cognitive decline.

“A lot of the coaching is very basic about helping people find their motivation, understanding their why. Believe it or not, even when people have cognitive decline, it is important to connect to their why because it can help you when they are trying to make more difficult changes to their lifestyle.”

Julie Luby

Julie’s journey into brain health coaching began during her early days at FMCA, when she attended a patient immersion event with Dr. Bredesen while her father was living with Alzheimer’s. That experience opened her eyes to the possibility of slowing or even reversing cognitive decline. Drawing from her background in nutrition, she transitioned her coaching practice to focus on brain health and now works with clients worldwide. Chris, a clinical social worker turned health coach, also has a family history of dementia, which fuels her passion for helping others maintain cognitive function. At Apollo Health, she supports ReCODE-trained coaches, ensuring they have the training, tools, and ongoing guidance needed to make a meaningful difference in their clients’ lives.

In their conversation with Dr. Sandi, Julie and Chris explain how ReCODE offers a science-based, individualized approach to addressing the root causes of cognitive decline, whether through diet changes, toxin removal, improved insulin sensitivity, or other lifestyle adjustments. They outline the various ways coaches can work in this space, from one-on-one sessions to group programs, prevention-focused coaching, and collaborations with medical practices. Their stories illustrate the real-world impact of this work, including clients who have regained abilities, improved cognitive test scores, and re-engaged with hobbies they thought they had lost forever.

For health coaches, this episode highlights the profound value of specialization in a field where the need is great and the opportunities are growing. Working with clients facing cognitive decline often involves supporting both the individual and their care partner, navigating complex protocols, and serving as a trusted ally during emotionally challenging times. Julie and Chris emphasize that beyond the science, it is the relationship and consistent support a coach provides that can transform quality of life for clients and their families.

Watch The Interview

Listen Now

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6OOzSgyDGAYvyGUPuhAMwz?si=xD_Rw36gTWOQmuShlTuaHA

Transcript

Dr. Sandi: We often talk to prospective students wanting to become health coaches and those who are students about to graduate about the importance of specializing. And there are many areas that a health coach can specialize in. And one that is particularly significant because these people are really making a difference has to do with preventing cognitive decline, even reversing Alzheimer’s disease. We’re talking about coaches who go on to train in ReCODE. And my guests today are going to tell you about ReCODE, about working on the discoveries that Dr. Dale Bredesen initiated and the works that they are doing is so, so critical.

So, let me tell you about my special guests today. Julie Luby is a National Board Certified and ReCODE 2.0 Health Coach trained at the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. Julie holds BS and MS degrees in food science and nutrition, and her first career was in food product development. She’s had a global coaching practice for seven years and is passionate about working with people to prevent and reverse chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cognitive decline. Julie also leads virtual support groups through Apollo Health for care partners who have loved ones with dementia and for people who’ve been exposed to toxic mold, chemical or heavy metals. With a history of Alzheimer’s disease on both sides of her family, Julie is passionate about preventing cognitive decline. In her own journey, she has tackled challenges such as gut health, SIBO and mycotoxin illness from mold exposure. She’s also managed a challenging home mold remediation project. Julie is working hard to optimize the health of her brain and body and finds it a privilege to help others do the same.

Christine “Chris” Coward has a background in clinical social work and has been coaching since 2004. This is currently the vice president of coaching services for Apollo Health supporting the ReCODE at 2.0 trained coaches who work with Apollo Health members in optimizing their brain health. Chris has a family history of dementia which makes her even more passionate about helping others slow down or reverse their cognitive decline. She lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband and dog. I know that you will enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed the interview.

Welcome to “Health Coach Talk.”

Julie: Thanks so much.

Chris: Yeah, thank you. Excited to be here.

Dr. Sandi: So, before we begin, I just wanted to comment on an article I saw that had to do with health coaching as a side gig, and people are attracted to coaching because, oh, I can just go to a weekend course and I can become a certified health coach and then I can go out and I can make tons of money while still wearing my pajamas. And the article was saying, no, this is a profession and that this is something to be taken very seriously. And so I thought about the works that you do and how critical it is and how absolutely this is a profession. And you are making a big difference. This is very different than somebody who just trains in a matter of weeks and now is out there calling themselves a health coach. So, just thoughts on that as we get started with our conversation today.

Julie: Well, it is very serious. I mean, it’s a very serious field. I certainly have done more general coaching, and this is maybe more technical and more specific, and targeted. Honestly, it’s life or death for some of the families we work with. So, I feel like it is really important work that we’re doing. But it is really health coaching applied to this field of cognitive decline. So, all of the basics of health coaching apply here. And to your point, I think it’s a lot different. Lots of people like to talk about health to their friends and tell people what to do and all that. That’s not what health coaching is, and certainly what we do is very different.

Chris: Yeah. And I’ll just add, coming from the non-health coaching world initially and getting my training and that path to mastery, and then adding in the health coaching piece around National Health and Wellness Board certification, that credential is there for a reason. It’s to ensure some rigor in what we’re doing. And as Julie was saying, boy, you could mess up our members in ReCODE that have cognitive decline if you aren’t professional and have the training under your belt and doing this well.

Dr. Sandi: Sure. So, let’s get into how you got into this field, Julie. How did you decide that you were going to specialize in brain health and cognitive decline?

Julie: Yeah, it’s an interesting story. I was in my first couple of months at FMCA, and my father had Alzheimer’s, and we were invited to a patient immersion with Dr. Bredesen. So, 30 families and their caregivers went out to California. And I learned about this protocol just really as a caregiver to my mom, who was a caregiver to my dad. And I was blown away. I didn’t even know that Alzheimer’s was reversible. My dad was pretty far down the path of Alzheimer’s by the time we found Dr. Bredesen, but I had no idea that there was hope and that there were things you could do to both prevent it and stop it in its tracks and even reverse some of the symptoms if you catch it early enough.

So, I vowed that weekend—I think I was in month two of FMCA—that I was going to find a way to work in this area. And so I built my practice toward that. I started very slow. I was still working in another job at the time, and I was working three days a week somewhere else. So, I started my practice slowly. I took FMCA’s first Reversing Cognitive Decline sort of special class that you all offered. And then I helped Apollo Health take that even one step further and design the training course that we now have for ReCODE coaches. So, I’ve just stayed in touch and started practicing, and I eventually gave up my other job, and now I just do this.

Dr. Sandi: It is so needed, and like so many others, your personal story played into this, where you saw your dad’s decline, and the impact that you had on your mom and caregivers is really critical. So, how would you say this is different from other areas that coaches specialize in?

Julie: You know, a lot of it is similar. A lot of the coaching is very basic—about helping people find their motivation, understanding their why. Believe it or not, even when people have cognitive decline, it’s important to connect to their why because it can help you when they’re trying to make more difficult changes to their lifestyle. It’s a little bit different in that sometimes we’re coaching a care partner instead of the person who actually has the illness or the disease. Sometimes we’re coaching both. There’s definitely more of an education component. We’re really taught that coaches are not educators, but I will say with this, it’s partly the complexity of the material and partly the clients that we’re working with who have some cognitive decline, that we may spend a little bit more time helping them understand the protocol because it’s complicated. And when your mind isn’t working quite right at the beginning anyway, they might need a little bit more help with that.

Dr. Sandi: You mentioned hope, and study after study has shown the power of hope, giving somebody hope. And yet we also hear, well, it’s false hope, and there’s something wrong with helping somebody to have hope. And I wonder if you could comment on that, Chris, and any thoughts on that because you’ve seen as you’ve worked with Apollo…? Any thoughts about that? And Dr. Bredesen’s critics.

Chris: Yeah, that’s right. We are under fire sometimes, for sure. And the most beautiful saying I heard back was from Julie G., who’s a member of our leadership team, who said, “Don’t be guilty of using false hopelessness because this program absolutely works.” And I always have that running through my head as a counter to some of the criticism. But you just can’t deny it. I mean, there’s clinical trials published with this work with health coaches supporting the trial patients and getting better. And it’s a big part of everything. And where we just see all the folks that step forward to talk about the changes they’ve made and what they’ve seen in their loved ones, it’s just undeniable. And I don’t think people want to know that, yeah, actually, we’re doing this separate from Big Pharma and their interventions. And it’s human nature, right? We all want to take a pill. But if you can make some of those lifestyle changes, and get assessed for your specific challenges and address those as an N-of-one, this can really work for you.

Dr. Sandi: What drew you to this field, Chris?

Chris: Well, like every other person in our ecosystem, I have, on my maternal side, a history of Alzheimer’s. The one closest to me was my mom, who passed in 2022 while I was in the middle of this work, but she had progressed pretty far along before I really knew about the work of Dr. Bredesen. So, it wasn’t an intervention that was in time really for her and so on. So, it’s near and dear to my heart. I want to keep myself healthy because we’re not our genes. I don’t have to turn it on. And also I know that it’s absolutely… I don’t have to get it myself. So, that’s part of it. And the other thing is I really love to help coaches get work and work meaningfully in this admirable profession that it is. And so now I’m in a position where I can help facilitate coaches getting trained in this specific work and then support them in any way needed to be out there and helping our members get better.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah, that’s so beautiful. Generally, we often hear from our prospective students coming to FMCA doubts about whether they’ll have work when they graduate. Will I be able to make a living? So, can you talk about the opportunities if someone wanted to specialize in this work and helping people with cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s?

Julie: There’s actually a lot of different ways that you can apply coaching to this challenge. You can coach people one-on-one, and you can coach in groups. So, a lot of people do coach groups. I actually lead a couple of support groups for Apollo. So, it’s one for care partners and one for people who have what we call type 3, which is toxic risk factors, so mold, Lyme, heavy metals, environmental toxins.

So, you can do one-on-one, you can do groups. We have several coaches who work within a doctor’s practice, actually hired by the doctor’s practice. We have many who contract with doctors and many who just have relationships with doctors who send their patients over to them. So, it’s certainly good to be connected and to find your way in as a coach.

Some coaches prefer to just coach for prevention. So, they work with what I call next-gen people like Chris and me who have family histories of Alzheimer’s and want to prevent going down that same path. We’ve both witnessed parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles go down this path, and we want to stay healthy ourselves. So, there’s people out there coaching. There are care partners that need coaching. It’s really interesting. I work with a lot of care partners, and sometimes the loved one is with them, sometimes not, because when there’s cognitive decline, it’s often the care partner who actually implements a lot of this. We certainly still like to talk to the loved one if we can, but the care partners need support, as you can imagine.

And sometimes it’s just wonderful to be able to talk to these people who really don’t have a lot of people to talk to about what they’re trying to do. Maybe all their friends are taking Alzheimer’s medications or IV treatments or something like that, and they don’t have a lot of support in what they’re trying to do with lifestyle. So, they themselves need support in addition to what they’re trying to do with their loved ones. I even coached in a clinical trial, so there’s those opportunities too. So, there’s many different ways that you can apply this coaching background to the work that you want to do.

Dr. Sandi: Have you seen it grow since you got started?

Julie: In terms of my own practice?

Dr. Sandi: Yeah, opportunities for coaching.

Julie: Oh, I think so. I mean, I think as Apollo Health gets better known, as functional medicine gets better known, and as people realize that there’s other things out there. Honestly, I think a lot of people come out… I don’t know if you’re familiar with Daniel Amen’s program, but a lot of people have gone through that program and then find Dr. Bredesen. So, I think their program is pretty expensive, and sometimes people want to do the lifestyle changes and they need to find a coach.

So, it depends on how you put yourself out there. Certainly, we do get some referrals from Apollo Health because Apollo does help match people to coaches. I always tell new coaches, don’t rely on it. You need to figure out what else you want to do. But I find that giving talks to groups in the area especially… I belong to a women’s group, and they tend to be fairly elderly. I’ve done four or five talks to them. That got me into a retirement home to do a talk to the men’s group.

So, all of these opportunities spread the word that there is something else to do besides decline and wait another year to go to your neurologist to have them tell you, “Okay, you’re worse.” And that’s news to a lot of people. So, I feel like by spreading the word, we’re really raising awareness. And then you often get somebody who calls you later and says, “Hey, could you talk to my mom?” or “Could you talk to me about this?”

Dr. Sandi: Yes, I’m glad you brought up community talks because I really recommend that so strongly. And there are so many groups, organizations, and communities that are hungry for this, particularly senior centers, retirement communities, libraries. And it’s great to put yourself out there, and people will want to hear about this. So, let’s turn to ReCODE. Chris, I was involved from the very beginning…

Chris: Yes, you were.

Dr. Sandi: …when you were still talking about ReCODE for coaches, preventing cognitive decline. And so, can you talk about the ReCODE for coaches, what it takes to get certified, if somebody is listening and is interested in becoming a ReCODE coach?

Chris: I will address all of that. And I’m grateful for you for getting the whole thing started, like bringing functional health coaching into this work. So, for those who don’t know, ReCODE stands for Reversal of Cognitive Decline. And Julie was alluding to prevention path, and we have a PreCODE program, Prevention of Cognitive Decline. Our training for coaches is we consider it an advanced coach certification program. So, we’re looking for people that are already trained as health coaches. We love our partnership with your program, FMCA, because it brings the right people to us who we know have had a very robust training and foundational skills of health coaching. And we make exceptions too, but it’s based on really looking at people’s experience and things like that.

So, the program is about, oh, gosh, it might even be a little more than 36 hours. So, if you’re National Board Certified in Health and Wellness Coaching, which we prefer, you’re able to get all of your CCEs for your three years in one program. And it’s robust in terms of, at the request of Julie and some of the initial folks that took the first training, we imported the practitioner modules. So, it’s pretty sciencey. It goes pretty deep. It can be technical, as Julie is referring to. And some of those things are optional because, as a coach, we want to stay in scope of practice. We don’t want anyone taking this heavily scientific knowledge and just dropping it on clients. It’s not for that. It’s just to boost the awareness and knowledge base of the coach.

And then the other requirement, in addition to the self-paced online hours, is that we have a community meeting of coaches each month, and we feature a specialized topic. Sometimes it’s just an open best practices call, and sometimes we go deep in an area that impacts coaching ReCODE members. So, something like… I mean, some examples are like what do you want to know about exogenous ketones, or using a continuous glucose monitor, the ins and outs of that, how to put it on, and how to instruct around it. Things that go a little bit into some things that a coach might run into in their practice.

And so the students are required to either listen to a combination of recordings or attend live, a total of four of those calls. But we find that, like Julie, people stay in the community because it’s fun, and you’re hearing updated things, and you’re being with coaches who have gone through it. So, there’s some support there, and Q&A, and things like that to help each other with some tips.

And that’s it. And then you finish the program, you get onboarded with Apollo Health. That’s a 90-minute onboarding, and that’s all virtual. And then you are ready to go. And we always recommend, as Julie was referring to, you get out there. Do those community talks. Market for yourself because it will help you get clients and get some practice under your belt so you get better and better. And in tandem, we will look to match you, too, with our members that are looking for coaching.

Dr. Sandi: So, I had Dr. Bredesen on the podcast and talked about of course his groundbreaking book, “The End of Alzheimer’s,” but also his new book about “The Ageless Brain.” And it sounds like this is just a field where there are so many new discoveries. The further you’re doing this work, you are seeing some dramatic changes. Any case studies or any examples come to mind that you would care to share where somebody really made some wonderful progress in this area, something for the naysayers who think, oh, this is not possible?

Chris: So, I’ll just give two things because these are so easy to find publicly. And one is patient zero of Dr. Bredesen. She is amazing. She’s in her early 80s, is walking across America. So, anyone that wants to find out about her journey, she has reversed her cognitive decline, has become a health coach, and does this work in ReCOD. It’s judywalks.com. And you can follow her journey and listen to her story because it’s really impressive. And then, Julie, I’ll let you add anything you want here.

Julie: Sure. I mean, there are so many different situations. And because everybody starts at a different point, success can look different. Certainly, if somebody has what we call subjective cognitive decline, where they just feel like they’re not as sharp as they used to be, but it wouldn’t really show up on a cognitive assessment yet, those are probably our best PreCODE. And certainly we’ve seen people get better, but even in the early stages of Alzheimer’s or MCI, which is a little bit further down the pike than SCI, we’ve seen reversal.

I know when I was coaching in the clinical trial, we had one woman who had been… She was a knitter, and she used to knit very complicated patterns. She was declining. She had just had to give up knitting. She just couldn’t follow the instructions anymore, couldn’t follow the rules. If you’re familiar with the MoCA test, it’s a 30-point blunt instrument for cognitive assessment, but I think she was about a 23. So, clearly some things were changing, but within six months, she brought her MoCA score back to 30. She was back to knitting again.

And it was really through changing her diet, improving her insulin sensitivity. I believe she had some toxins that she had to remove from her body. So many of these toxins are neurotoxins, and when we get rid of them, the brain fog lifts. So, she was very dedicated to the protocol. Really the great thing about this program is it targets what the risk factors are for you. So, you have to work on your risk factors. You don’t have to work on everything, because not everybody has all the risk factors.

So, that was great. And then we had another woman who she was… She probably had more cognitive decline, but she was really worried about being… She was single, no heirs, no children. And she really was trying to prepare for her future and wanted to be able to get into… She was still living alone but wanted to be able to get into a continuing care retirement community where you had to pass a cognitive exam to be let into the community, especially in independent living. And I think her sister lived there, and she would not have passed this test. But through working with her doctor, and coaching, and everything else, by the end she was doing great. She wasn’t even looking to go into the retirement community yet. She was cleaning everything up and being much more social. I think she might have even started dating. So, these are transformations we see pretty frequently.

Dr. Sandi: Wow, this just really warms my heart to hear these stories. And we know—and I know personally from talking to so many health coaches—that this is a career that brings people joy. You get to see this transformation, and it seems like that this is a population… They’re coming to you already motivated and wanting to make these changes. And you are their support, their guide, their ally, and it really makes this work so rewarding. And I know, to hear you talk about this, Julie, just the joy you get from waking up and having a mission and purpose in doing this work, the changes you’ve seen in people.

Julie: Yeah, and honestly part of the really joyful part is I can feel how important it is for people to have someone to talk to about all of this. And sometimes they just don’t have other people to talk to. So, a coach can be an ally in that way too, where they can just have a good functional medicine-type conversation about what they’re dealing with without their friends or neighbors thinking they’re crazy. So, it’s really important.

Dr. Sandi: Oh, absolutely. And I know when I was working on my last book, I was looking at all the research showing the efficacy of health coaching. And there are studies out there and even clinical trials showing how effective this process is. And one study was looking at quality of life, so they weren’t measuring cognitive changes necessarily but just quality of life. And according to positive psychology, it is possible to live well despite Alzheimer’s or cognitive decline, that people can still have some joy in their lives. And it is from the relationships and being part of the community. So, I wanted to hear if you would care to comment on that.

Julie: Yeah, and I think stress is such an important factor in cognitive decline and in caregiving, certainly. So, anytime you can relieve somebody’s stress by being there for them and being able to guide them and be that constant in their life, I think that’s really important too, because they can actually think better when they’re not as stressed. And this applies to both a caregiver and somebody with Alzheimer’s. So, I think that’s really important because I think… And sometimes I feel like I’m not doing enough. Oh, my gosh, I wish I could do more. But then I hear what they say to me and I realize like, “Oh, this is impactful as it is. And just this relationship is important.” And this is maybe keeping them sane.

Chris: I always tell new coaches that I’m mentoring that do not underestimate the value that you’re providing as a new coach, because of exactly what Julie’s talking about—the relationship, the ability to have an objective thought partner, and support, and sounding board that we just don’t get sometimes in our life naturally. And yeah, your skills are going to get better the more you do it and the more you pursue mastery, but you have something important and of value to offer right now, even with whatever 60 or 100 hours of coaching under your belt.

Dr. Sandi: So, Chris, what support do you provide, or could you provide, to coaches who are working as ReCODE coaches? You mentioned you have meetings where they receive support. Can you talk about any other ways that you would support coaches?

Chris: Sure, and I would say it’s a team effort. There’s opportunities to get mentored by some of our seasoned ReCODE coaches like Julie and some of our other colleagues. And so we like to be able to offer that for folks that just want that little bit of real-life support and getting traction with their work. Our support team is outstanding, and they will help you with everything from your listing to your pricing packages to who is in your geographic area if you’re interested in partnering with a ReCODE practitioner like who’s around and things like that. And so, that is huge. They will spend time with you to make that happen.

I always recommend to our ReCODE coaches: have those conversations with support so they can get to know you, and know what your sweet spot is, and any particular deeper niche you might have like a sub-niche within your ReCODE practice. And we’re always seeking feedback from our coaches. What’s working? What’s not working? How can we support you? What are your clients saying? And how can we make something that’s difficult a little bit easier, as much as we can?

So, there is a lot of support. I will address everything, and I’ll turn it over if I’m not the right person. I can be reached at chris@ahnphealth.com if anyone’s listening to this and has any questions about the program, or what’s involved, or the cost, all those kinds of things. And I should add we have a partnership with FMCA for a 15% discount on the training. So, it’s a secret code, but I would give it to you if you reach out to me.

Dr. Sandi: That’s wonderful. And Julie?

Julie: I was going to say there’s also a lot of ongoing support in terms of Dr. Bredesen does a town hall every month. So, any new things that are coming up in the field, anything they’re hearing, he will address it. He, and usually one other doctor who’s actually treating ReCODE and PreCODE patients, will share the town hall meeting. We can submit questions. We can submit questions in particular about our clients. Our clients can submit questions. So, we have all of that.

And then we also have access to all of the materials on the Apollo website. So, all of the materials that our clients have and the members of Apollo have, we have that access. And then we connect to each of them so we can see their account, we can see their reports, and all of that. So, we get a lot of material support and continuing educational support through Apollo. Because, like you said, it’s a changing field. And I think one of the modules in the coach training is actually all the things that had changed in the three years prior to the coach training being put together in terms of Dr. Bredesen’s thinking about treating Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Sandi: Great support. And we are really just thrilled and honored to remember when Dr. Bredesen first came to us to say we need health coaches, and that started to develop the program and had meetings about how we could partner. Julie, how can people find you?

Julie: My email is julie@cogwellcoaching.com, so Cognitive Wellness. They can find me there. And I also have a website, www.cogwellcoaching.com.

Dr. Sandi: Wonderful. Well, Julie and Chris, thank you so much for being with us today. You are doing such important work, and we are again honored to be part of it. So, thank you so much.

Chris: Yeah, thank you. It was a great discussion.

Julie: Thank you.