Florida seniors are lining up for costly Alzheimer’s treatments, but families face a tough question: Is the unproven benefit worth $3,300 a month?

The market for a cure — and hope — is enormous. This year alone, Americans will spend $409 billion on care for 7.4 million Alzheimer’s patients nationwide.

No wonder many are investing in the hope that Dr. Dale Bredesen is selling with his ReCODE (Reversal of Cognitive Decline) protocol. While the California neurologist does not advertise it as a cure, he does say it is a way to reverse dementia.

He promotes it through his company Apollo Health as well as in research papers, best-selling books, video and film.

Floridian Judy Benjamin is a devoted follower, describing herself as Breseden’s “Patient Zero” in the Palm Beach Post. She consulted with Dr. Bredesen 15 years ago at the age of 67 when she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Now she’s 82, traveling the world to promote the treatment.

“I have eliminated my symptoms of Alzheimer’s, so I don’t forget names,” she told the Post. “I don’t forget my phone number, I don’t get lost when I go out driving.”

Turns out many of Bredesen’s biggest fans are in Florida, which has one of the highest incidences of the disease in the U.S. An estimated 580,000 Alzheimer’s patients live there, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Here’s a closer look at the treatment and concerns around the pricey protocol.

A healthy lifestyle mixed with IV drips and hyperbaric chambers

ReCODE patients receive an initial evaluation involving blood work, genetic and cognitive testing as well as sleep tests. Prices vary, but one clinic — Colorado Concierge Functional Medicine — charges upwards of nearly $2,000 for that initial testing with add ons.

Based on results, patients get a computer-generated report recommending a range of lifestyle changes including things like a healthy diet (e.g., the Mediterranean diet), nutritional supplements, regular exercise and proper sleep.

Then there are the detox regimens. Oral health is a big part of the ReCODE protocol, as research points to a link between oral bacteria and Alzheimer’s.

Most of this is straightforward stuff a person might be able to do on their own — with support. But there’s more to ReCODE than that.

The protocol includes IV drips and oxygen therapy sessions in a hyperbaric chamber. An oxygen therapy session in a hyperbaric chamber can cost between $150 and $600.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions are not covered by Medicare as a dementia treatment because they’re considered an experimental approach for the disease.

In fact, ReCODE itself is still considered experimental, even though Dr. Bredesen published a paper on it in the National Library of Medicine 12 years ago, involving a clinical trial of 10 patients.

Now he has another paper awaiting peer review involving a nine-month clinical trial with 73 patients.

One of the patients in the latest trial estimated she received $30,000 worth of ReCODE treatments (including hyperbaric chamber sessions) over nine months. That works out to a little over $3,300 a month, though as a clinical trial volunteer, it was free to her.

As it stands, not everyone is convinced it is ready to be approved as a treatment.

Jury’s out on whether an unproven protocol is worth it

In a Substack post commenting on Bredesen’s latest clinical trial, neuroscientist Dr. Christin Glorioso noted that ReCODE appeared to improve “some aspects of cognition” for patients, but not their performance on Alzheimer’s cognitive tests — nor their brain volume.

She said issues with the trial, including the “inability to attribute effects to specific components” mean it’s hard to determine whether ReCODE works.