Dr Lexi Watson of OAKLEY Wellness On The Book That Changed Her Life

An Interview With Sara Connell

Books have the power to shape, influence, and change our lives. Why is that so? What goes into a book that can shape lives? To address this we are interviewing people who can share a story about a book that changed their life, and why. As a part of our series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Lexi Watson.

Dr. Lexi Watson is the founder and CEO of OAKLEY Wellness. As a pharmacist, Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner, and Apollo Health PreCODE/ReCODE 2.0 Certified Practitioner, her focus is optimal aging wellness for her clients, her family, and herself. Her practice is a partnership: she equips her clients with Optimal Aging Knowledge and provides testing, tools, mentorship, and encouragement for lifelong sustainable self-care — Longevity Empowered by You (OAKLEY).

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory” and how you grew up?

Sure! My family has always encouraged me to dream big, make the most of the talents I’ve been blessed with, to face life’s challenges with confidence, and, most of all, to embrace my uniqueness. These encouragements came not only from my parents, but my aunts, uncles, and grandparents as well — something I’ve realized is not the norm.

My childhood wasn’t all sunshine and roses though. I grew up seeing firsthand what life looks like as the “have’s” as well as the “have not’s.” Before I started high school, my parents went through four different layoffs, we lost our small business, and even though we had little debt and paid cash for most things, we were forced into bankruptcy. We gave up the home my parents built as well as our vehicles. Needless to say, this time in my life was very educational. I learned that there are blessings in both giving and receiving, what it means to be a good steward of our blessings, and that true friends don’t care what neighborhood you live in. Now I try to count my blessings every day and make sure I express my gratitude for them.

Let’s talk about what you are doing now, and how you achieved the success that you currently enjoy. Can you tell our readers a bit about the work you are doing?

Absolutely. At OAKLEY Wellness, I help men and women struggling with declining memory and the fear of dying from Alzheimer’s to take control of their future and reverse cognitive decline through my OAKLEY Method and mentorship program. The OAKELY Method is rooted in the Bredesen ReCODE 2.0 Protocol and largely focuses on restoring balance and harmony to the brain and its biochemical processes by taking away what is causing harm and providing what is missing so the brain and body can heal itself. Additionally, since the lifestyle changes necessary to restore the balance can be difficult, my mentorship program also includes one-on-one coaching to guide my clients through the entire process of optimizing their cognition and reclaiming their life.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

There are many traits I believe led me to where I am today, but perhaps the most instrumental would be honesty, dedication, and compassion.

What’s the WHY behind the work that you do? Please share a story about this if you can.

As an independent community pharmacist, I loved building relationships with my clients, but as they confided their fears of living with chronic medical conditions, my heart was broken. I filled their medications and made sure they were on the best and safest drug therapy available, but I realized I wasn’t truly helping them get better. I was helping them mask and manage the symptoms of unidentified underlying conditions. They were still dying of horrible diseases that robbed them of their lifestyles, their relationships, and even their dignity. The conversations that left me feeling the most helpless were those with patients suffering from the spectrum of memory related diseases typically summarized as dementia or Alzheimer’s. I came to the conclusion that our current way of practicing medicine doesn’t make patients well. It is sick care, not health care.

While integrating my functional medicine (root cause) practitioner training, I ended my nearly 30-year denial of my long family history of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and obesity. I changed my high stress, fast food, burn the midnight oil ways to the lifestyle I recommend to my clients. I eliminated the inflammatory bloating I didn’t know I had and no longer needed my ADHD medication for mental clarity. I was confident I could be the change in my family’s health lineage… with the exception of Alzheimer’s. I used every tool in my toolbox but continued to watch my grandmother succumb to this vicious condition as her mother did before her. She has always cared for everyone in our family but herself. She ate the Standard American Diet, was a stress eater and yo-yo dieter, got little to no exercise, and never quite slept well. Throughout the years she’d battled anxiety, depression, gastrointestinal issues, ulcers, high blood pressure, breast cancer, a heart blockage, and now she was disappearing right before my eyes despite being on the best drug therapy available. What hit me like a brick wall was that what she was suffering was my fate as well. I knew there had to be something more to it.

That’s when I found Dr. Dale Bredesen and his team. Their research showed they could not only halt the progression of Alzhiermer’s disease, but could also reverse it using tools, tests, and protocols that are an extension of my functional medicine practice. The spectrum of memory-related conditions became my passion. I became a brain health root cause expert because Alzheimer’s is no longer a death sentence. I have a choice. You have a choice.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I am very grateful for a man named Dr. Charles Woosley. He was the man who recruited me to Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy while I was still in high school. He saw my potential before I did, and I might not have begun my journey here if it weren’t for his insistence that I belonged in the Auburn Pharmacy Family. Because of Dr. Woosley, I now have an entire family network of love and support of what I do for my clients.

Awesome! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Can you please tell our readers about “The Book That Changed Your Life”? Can you share a story about how it impacted you?

Sure! The End of Alzheimer’s by Dr. Dale Bredesen is the book that has changed my life. As you now know, I have a strong family history of Alzheimer’s and had accepted the slow memory decline as my destiny, dreading the day I couldn’t even recognize my husband. Then I found Dr. Bredesen’s book where he explains his work that found 36 factors that contribute to cognitive decline as well as how to modulate and optimize those factors. From his research, he developed the ReCODE and PreCODE protocols and has sense demonstrated that cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s can not only be halted, but reversed. Dr. Bredesen’s book has given me hope for my future, allowing myself to dream of growing old with my husband, and has guided my personal lifestyle transformation as well as my career path. Now I’m the founder and CEO of my own business, OAKLEY Wellness, established through my journey from pharmacist, to Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner, to Brain Health Specialist and Wholistic Wellness Coach, and I get to help men and women struggling with declining memory and the fear of dying from Alzheimer’s (the same fear I had) to take control of their future and reverse cognitive decline.

What was the moment or series of events that made you decide that you wanted to take a specific course of action based on the inspiration from the book? Can you share a story about that?

I read The End of Alzheimer’s around the time my grandmother made her first big decline into dementia. She started asking the same questions multiple times on the phone and even going to the thermostat to turn off the lights. As you can probably imagine, having just learned that her fate didn’t have to be mine was elating. Even if she wasn’t willing to give up the very things that were making her Alzheimer’s worse, I could optimize my own lifestyle and avoid the heartache my entire family has suffered since. I would say that’s when I got serious about taking care of the life and body I was given and The End of Alzheimer’s has been my road map.

Can you articulate why you think books in particular have the power to create movements, revolutions, and true change?

Books are like people, no two the same. I enjoy reading a wide range of books from historical fiction and fantasy to faith-based and self-improvement, and have a different relationship with each. Books can help us learn and grow, tell us things people don’t have the heart or guts to, can soothe an ache when spoken words aren’t enough, can give us strength, and help us understand things we’ve never been exposed to. Words are powerful, especially the kind you can read over and over. The feelings and passions books can create are very real, not passive, but elicit a physiological response from your body. When words and thoughts are backed by emotion, anything is possible. You draw from your past, evaluate your present, and envision your future — this becomes your “why.” That is why books have the power to create true change — they help you find your “why.”

A book has many aspects, of course. For example, you have the writing style, the narrative tense, the topic, the genre, the design, the cover, the size, etc. In your opinion, what are the main, essential ingredients needed to create a book that can change lives?

Books that change lives and can create a “why” speak to the soul or the spirit of who a person is on an individual basis. No two people read the same book and come away with exactly the same ideas, feelings, or motivation. Each receives the text and interprets it based on their individual experiences, beliefs, and goals.

That being said, I believe The End of Alzheimer’s is a book that can change lives as it has changed mine. It is motivational to the masses and speaks both to the logical and the emotional brain. The vast majority of adult readers in the United States have a family member or friend who has been diagnosed with this horrid disease that takes away their memory, their independence, their dignity, and eventually their lives. Whether you read the science details of the book or the personal testimonies, it is life changing to discover that Alzheimer’s is not a death sentence. It is optional and you have the knowledge and power to change your future.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Career” and why?

Before I started my career, I really wish someone had told me:

The world, of course, needs progress in many areas. What movement do you hope someone (or you!) starts next? Can you explain why that is so important?

The world needs to know that illness and disease are not simply a consequence of getting older, but are the direct result of lifestyle choices we make every day. The body is designed to heal itself. Everything it does, it does for a reason. Therefore, chronic disease is a protective mechanism that the body has induced for so long that it has caused damage not only at the cell level, but now the tissue and even organ level. This is true of Alzheimer’s as well. We currently treat the symptoms of what is really going on upstream from chronic disease symptoms. It’s time we took a root cause approach to our bodies. Chronic disease is optional. Alzheimer’s disease is optional and people don’t have to live in fear of it anymore. This is what I’m trying to do along with Dr. Dale Bredesen and his team at Apollo Health.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us and our readers. We know that it will make a tremendous difference and impact thousands of lives. We are excited to connect further and we wish you so much joy in your next success.

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