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Help End Alzheimer's disease -
- Adopt Dr. Ashford's recommended lifestyle treatments which include keeping memory fitness test scores as a vital sign.
- Regularly test your memory fitness - mental exercise is an effective Alzheimer's prevention treatment.
- Work with your doctor to develop a realistic disease prevention lifestyle of good nutrition, rest, exercise, supplements.
- Join with others or even host your own Alzheimer's Lifeplan Community workshops.
- Work with your doctors to develop and early memory disorder - and Ealry Alzheimer's Onset detection program.
Attend the 24/7 Workshop One
You will be given valuable news and information about memory fitness testing, prevention treatments you can easily adopt in your day-to-day living, and learn about the dramatic advances made in detection and Alzheimer's treatment - it is over of Alzheimer's if the healthy population decide to practice prevention!
Below - A Summary of the Alzheimer's LifePlan Programs
Consulting with your doctor
Have you ever done this regarding Alzheimer's disease? You should.
Each day, hundreds of thousands of people progress through the signature pathways of the Alzheimer's disease process undetected.
If you feel your doctor isn't as up to date on the progresses made in Alzheimer's disease, refer him to the Alzheimer's LifePlan's Lead Physician, Dr. J. Wesson Ashford, PhD, MD at www.medafile.com.
If your doctor is aware of the new memory fitness and early onset Alzheimer's detection diagnostic tools, you are on the right track. The Alzheimer's disease process has absolute characteristics - and the patterns of short-term memory and learning perfomance capacity loss - are the most visible signatures if early onset. It is essential to diagnose Alzheimer's disease as early as possible.
If your doctor doesn't have some awareness of the progress made in the FDA approved early stage treatments alone - you should inform them that there are treatments that slow short-term memory and learning process decay - if they are administered in the early stages of the disease onset. You may also wish to introduce your dodctor to the Alzheimer's LifePlan Clinical Support Services where they can affiliate their clinics into the Alzheimer's LifePlan.
Why is early detection critical?
Because it is in the early stages of disease onset that the body and brain still have reasonable immune system health and overall strength. It is unknown how effective the adoption of anti-Alzheimer's disease lifestyle habits can be in slowing or arresting the disease progress. But the value of adopting an anti-Alzheimer's disease process lifestyle would be in supporting their body's chemistry and brain's health - so the disease never shows up. Well, that would mean that the healthy lifestyle habits actually arrest and reverse the disease process. Until recently, researchers thought the disease lay dorment in the brain until triggered by something.
Today, our doctors and scientists can show you that the amyloidial plaques which pollute the brain's memory centers - are present in a healthy brain too. So, the plaque material itself isn't the villian. It is the process of how an excessive amount of the plaque affects the brain.
 
This Is Healthy This Is Late Stage Alzheimer's
The above images represent a normal adult brain and the brain of an Alzheimer's victim. The image on the left is at the beginning of an animated film that documents comprehensive damage to the brain as the Alzheimer's disease process progresses. The image on the right, is near the end of the movie and the disease process. If you have Windows Media Player installed in your computer, you can see the movie by clicking here.
Remember that early detection finds your brain in the healthy condition - or near to it. And that aggressive implementation of prevention treatments as well as FDA approved treatments will reduce the chances that this disease process will ever progress towards damage to the short-term memory and learning performance capacities of the brain.
The movie was produced from the brain images from a number of Alzheimer's patient's as there disease onset moved from early to autopsy conditions.
Getting back to your prevention planning.
Knowing that the amyloid plaques that for so long have been the suspect of causing the disease - are really a mechanism of the body's inability to process or regulate brain chemistry - gives new light on the half of the American population over 80 years of age - that do not develop Alzheimer's.
The pictures above offer you a choice.
Which condition appeals to you? Of course, you will want to be in the healthy group, and being there is largely up to how you live the rest of your life.
Listen To Our Doctor Before You Consult With Yours
So what are these "Healthy Lifestyle Habits" that reduce the risks of Alzheimer's disease?
Glad you asked, because they are really practical treatments that most people should be able to live with. In a non-medical sense - you can do things that reduce the chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and any degenerative disease. In a medical sense will will call upon Dr. J. Wesson Ashford, PhD, MD of www.medafile.com - who for many years has been promoting A Top Ten Treatments for Alzheimer's prevention.
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THE TOP TEN TREATMENTS
(under development)
FOR PREVENTING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
J. Wesson Ashford, M.D., Ph.D. (April, 2005)
- Take your blood pressure regularly and be sure that the systolic pressure is always less than 130.
- Watch your cholesterol; if your cholesterol is elevated (above 200), talk to your clinician about appropriate treatment. Consider “statin” medications and be sure your cholesterol is fully controlled. Increase your dietary intake of omega-3-fatty acids (eat deep-sea finned fish at least 3 times per week) and nuts (especially almonds).
- Exercise your body, mind, and spirit regularly. Physical exercise best 10-30 mins after each meal for 10-30 minutes, 3 times per day. Do aerobic and strengthening exercises. Maximize your education. If you have spare time, do mental puzzles (like crossword puzzles). Stay active with your friends and in your community.
- Physically protect your brain. Wear your car seat-belt. Wear a helmet when you are riding a bicycle or participating in any activity where you might hit your head. Work to decrease your fall risk through physical exercise, making your environment safe.
- Decrease your risk of type II diabetes. Monitor your fasting blood sugar yearly. Keep your BMI (Basal Metabolic Index) in the optimal range (19-25):
-------- BMI = 703 * weight (pounds) / height (inches) squared --------
To optimize your BMI, control your food intake and exercise. If you have diabetes, make sure that your blood sugar is optimally controlled.
- Consult your clinician about your pains (treat arthritis with ibuprofen, sulindac, or indomethacin).
- Take your vitamins daily (folate - 400mcg, B12 - 25mcg, C - 250 mg, and E - 200iu's). Check with your clinician yearly to be sure your homocysteine levels are not high and you have no signs of B12 deficiency
- Discuss sex-hormone replacement therapy with your clinician (such therapy is not currently recommended for Alzheimer prevention, but may be used depending on circumstances).
- If you have difficulty getting to sleep, consider trying 3 - 6 milligrams of melatonin at bedtime.
- Monitor your memory regularly. Be sure the people around you are not concerned about your memory. If you think that you have significant difficulty with your memory, talk to your clinician about further evaluation. Consider therapy with cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL DISCUSSION
Recommendation of Vitamin Supplements
for discussion, see: Willet WC, Stampfer MJ, What vitamins should I be taking, Doctor, NEJM, 345, 1819 (2001)
Take at the morning meals:
Vitamin E 200 iu's
Vitamin C 250 mg
Multi-vitamin (with folate 400 mcg and no iron)
If approved by your clinician: 1 enteric coated baby aspirin each day.
DIETARY RECOMMENDATIONS
OPTIMIZE:
Fruits - citrus, blue berries
Vegetables - green, leafy
Fish - deep sea, finned, oily, at least 3x/week
Nuts - especially almonds, chocolate
MINIMIZE:
Animal products - Red meat (more than once per week), Dairy. |
Learn as much as you can about Alzheimer's disease, consult with your doctor and decide if you want to reduce your chances of developing the disease.
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Frequently Test Your Memory Fitness
    
In 1906, Dr. Alzheimer was tending a group of patients which evidenced accelerated aging - among other oddities. One of the oddities was that these patients would appear healthy in every way - often alert and polite - but unable to form recent memories.
In his rounds the good doctor developed a series of questions - an interview which he would regularly conduct with each patient. He took notes on their responses and over time recognized a pattern of memory disorder.
At autopsy, Dr. Alzheimer saw the physical damage he called "plaques and tangles" that he discribed at nueron tombstones. He was right. He had made the first accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. And he had used the first memory fitness testing platform as a clinical record which paralleled the physical decay of the diseased brain's memory forming centers.
Why has the testing of an individual's ability to form recent memories been ignored? The relationship between memory disorders and diseases that get more attention than Alzheimer's just hasn't been in the spotlight.
It turns out that many things can cause significant reduction in our ability to form memory. Working laong hours, fatique, stress, recovery from surgury, and even reactions drugs can reduce the hort-term memory and learning performance by 30%. This fact has long been known in operating rooms, long shift task management, and a long list of activities that require "alertness".
A dedicated group of doctors and cognitive researchers have followed in Dr. Alzheimer's footsteps. The doctors have made clinical rounds for years, many developing memory fitness tests that assist them in making as accurate diagnosis possible. Today, there are several memory accessment test platforms used at medical examination. The generic problem with these is that they require the doctors or nurses to interview/administer/score the tests, and even then aren't considered to be reliable to diagnose Alzheimer's disease.
Now there is another important factor that has faulted the efforts of those trying for early detection - stated simply, until recently the doctors thought it was futile to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's because there was no effective treatment. Secondarily, many doctors thought it was better to let the patient's drift into the process and not raise hopes, fears, or concerns.
The doctors aren't to blame, no one is.
But Alzheimer's doesn't have to be like it has been and memory fitness testing as a vital sign is one pillar of the battle against the disease.
Now You Can Test Your Memory Fitness!
You can get all the details of how we did it within thise web page - but the "personal" part of the Alzheimer's LifePlan membership gives the members unlimited access to a personal memory fitness testing platform. Individuals can access the testing control console, design and take a test, and within seconds review over 250,000 pieces of information - along with detailed scoring - a snapshot of their memory fitness.
  
Today, everything has changed regarding memory testing, early detection and treatment. If you read the above section about consulting with your doctors, you'll recall that prevention might put off the early onset of the disease. If early onset is detected there are FDA approved treatments that slow the short-term memory and learning performance decay. Logic says that effective memory fitness testing, and monitoring of an individual's baseline (normal) memory fitness - could be an effective way to screen for memory performance reduction.
If prevention in this manner is effective in healthy people, it would stand to reason they could do some good to a person in the very early onset stages. Please note that the FDA approved treatments available now, specifically slow the short-term memory and learning performance decay. What tips the importance scale here- is that early Alzheimer's onset is ulmost impossible to detect without memory fitness testing or clinical early Alzheimer's screening procedures. Sad truth - until the Alzheimer's LifePlan began its public focus group activity in 2002, no one was promoting memory fitness monitoring for members of the population.
Even today, with legions of researchers and doctors developing better memory fitness tests and diagnostic tools - the vast majority of patients regularly visiting their doctors are not taking any form of memory fitness tests. Furhtermore, there is no record of the individual's memory fitness baseline - or normal short-term memory fitness and learning performance capacity.
Put those realities together and you can explain why the individuals drift from healthy (normal) into the early Alzheimer's stages of the disease - undetected. With over four million Americans presently diagnoses and being treated for Alzheimer's - and an estimated 500,000 being diagnosed each year - we are loosing millions of years of healthy lifespan right now. Project forward and you will realize that this lack of early detection is the foundation of the Alzheimer's Association's prediction that by the year 2020, there will be over 12 million people in America with Alzheimer's. That is tragic when you consider prevention, memory fitness testing and early detection spurring aggressive treatment (more prevention and FDA approved treatments) could potentially end Alzheimer's as we know it.
What's the value of a memory fitness test?
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Establish Your Baseline Memory Fitness Rating
One test - not much. A test that you don't take seriously or just mess up - even less.
But take it seriously, take it when you are calm and well rested - and compare your scores - you'll see that you have an average. That average score is a good indicator of your brain's ability to form recent memories. We call that your memory fitness. When you show it to your doctor, they will see it as you brain's memory fitness vital sign record - or, baseline information.
Now if you continue to take the test and monitor your scores for any test result that is lower than average - you might have a memory disorder. The test could be inaccurate too. You should wait an hour or so, take the test again. If it is still low, take a nap then retake the test. If it is low again - print out your Alzheimer's LifePlan reports, including the graphic report of your test history and visit with your doctor.
It doesn't mean you have Alzheimer's. You could be suffering from fatigue, having stress or a reaction to drugs or allergies, let your doctor in on the situation and allow them to investigate it further.
Form a Strategic Plan for Prevention, Early Detection, Treatment, and Estate Planning
You probably have a number of strategic plans in your life - and that's wise.
Alzheimer's or concerns about it hasn't driven too many healthy people in the formation of their life plans - and that's too bad. As the disease process takes charge of the later phases of life, it has long been considered the disease that robs people of their identity and dignity at death. Well, it 's worse than that, it also robs the families of love, recognition, and any inheritance. In America, Alzheimer's is a $125,000,000,000 a year industry. The money spent first comes from the estates of the victims. The money that follows after that comes from society.
Forget about the money. You are healthy now. You are building your estate. Why not build a strategic plan that will reduce your chances of developing the disease - and improve your health in general? Why not include the testing of your memory fitness as a vital sign as a foundation of your long-term Alzheimer's prevention plan?
If you and your doctor develop an aggressive early detection and treatment plan that you have ready to implement, and a living trust or some organized will (estate planning), you will be doing your family and loved ones a great favor.
Visit a Workshop Orientation Class or Create An Affiliated Workshop Center
For the past 100 years there has been little "good news" about Alzheimer's disease. Today, there not only good news but there is a need for training individuals to take memory fitness tests. The population versions of the Alzheimer's LifePlan's Memory Fitness Tests (not clinical or medical) are processes through online computers. The entire Alzheimer's prevention movement is organized within this web page - and the older members of the population (the highest risk group for developing Alzheimer's) are the least familiar with computers and interactive online service projects.
The End Alzheimer's 2012 Task Force, through a Focus Group project - developed a Workshop Program that uses all the content and resources of the online community - while supporting in person the presentation of videos, reading materials, and interactive memory fitness testing through online computers.
Affiliation is free, we only ask that you help us promote regular meetings (Workshops) and that you follow our program as it is presented through your Workshop's web page (part of the Alzheimer's LifePlan Network). We encourage any community, senior group, business, clinic, or individual (who has the facility) to create an affiliated Alzheimer's LifePlan Workshop Center.
Getting Back To Your Personal Alzheimer's Prevention Program - As It Leads To Treatment Strategy
We hope you never develop early Alzheimer's. We hope that you can hold the hands of ffamily members and loved ones while they are healthy - and lead them towards an anti-Alzheimer's lifestyle and regular memory fitness testing.
We know that there are no absolutes in this race against the disease - so let's be prepared should the disease process start to take hold of our memory fitness. Let's develop a treatment strategy that will position you, your family, and your doctors at the ready for immediate and aggressive treatment - making every effort to slow the disease process. As this message is being written (9/2006) new treatments like the Alzheimer's Vaccine are racing (by normal standards) their way through the FDA clinical trial process. In the case of the vaccine type compounds - the first reversal of the plaque building process has been documented. This and other developments change the value of prevention and memory fitness monitoring programs.
Assume for the moment that you are reading this and you are healthy. Assume you consult with your doctor and agree to adopt some of the healthy lifestyle treatments that Dr. J. Wesson Ashford promotes earlier in this article. Assume that you regularly record you vital signs and results of frequent memory fitness tests. Statistically, by living the healthy lifestyle - you could reduce your chances of developing the disease 60%-80%. Practically, watching for any reduction in your memory fitness should give your doctor early alert that there may be a memory disorder - or early Alzheimer's onset. The memory fitness test available through the Alzhiemer's LifePlan is not medical - and does not screen for early Alzheimer's - but it does give you and your doctor a valid snapshop - moments in time - of your short-term memory and learning capacities.
Reduction in memory performance does not indicate you have early Alzheimer's - but it is a serious thing and you need your doctor's assistance to clarify if there is an actual memory disorder or early Alzheimer's.
As all available Alzheimer's treatments are most effective if administered in the earliest of possible stages. The watchful eye of your doctor, friends and family is the best form of early warning system you could put in place.
Every day, researchers are making progress in brain imaging, memory fitness testing, blood chemistry analysis technologies - and we are getting closer to using these tools in effective early Alzheimer's detection - but they are still a ways off (2006).
However, there are valid memory testing platforms (like the clinical versions of Dr. J. Wesson Ashfords) that yield high probability of early Alzheimer's detection five to eight years before superficial memory fitness testing reduction would occur.
The fact that you are reading about diagnosis and treatment tools that are in the near future, should motivate you to start your prevention and memory fitness testing now, right now. Doing so, will not only bring you peace of mind about Alzheimer's, it will also position you at the ready to detect it, deal with it and hopefully live with it. Meaning when effective treatments are available, you are healthy enough to benefit from them.
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Swift Treatment Could Extend Your Years of Independent Living
Logic drives this conclusion. If you detect the earliest onset of the disease, enter an as aggressive a lifestyle and drug treatment program as you can - you will slow the mild cognitive impairment process and specifically the recent memory formation center's decay process - allowing you to remember recent events. As you decelerate the disease process, you will be able to function - living independently longer than you would have if you had not launched early stage treatments.
In the Alzheimer's disease industry, this equates to you living outside of a nursing home - and that saves you money. In the human sense, it means you preserve your idenity longer, and that is priceless.
Using the free Alzheimer's LifePlan Services
All of the news, information, Workshop Programs, memory testing, clinical support services are offered freely here at the Alzheimer's LifePlan web page.
Membership In The Alzheimer's LifePlan Online Community
Membership in the Alzheimer's LifePlan costs $50.00. This is a one time expense and gives the member their personal account in the Alzheimer's LifePlan Vital Sign and Memory Fitness Record Service plan. There are also a number of research projects, special reports, television programs and clinical support activities which the members can participate.
The Online Community and Member Community
Individuals are encouraged to roam all through the Alzheimer's LifePlan online spaces. Like the family above, they can review news and information and even go into the memory fitness testing center. Below we see visitors who are about to start a memory fitness test.
The tests are fun to take, and they make an excellent "parlor game" out of group Alzheimer's education - it was designed that way.
The other feature designed into the testing platform is the reporting of over 250,000 bits of information that become your results and scores for taking a test. These are presented in data form and a graphic bar line of your test result history.
When you are a guest visitor to the site, you are always in the "public" areas, in the testing center that means your tests and test results are stored with all the tests taken. Unless you keep a record of the test, and that record is still in the particular database being stored in the program - you have no way of building a record of your personal memory fitness results.
 
Members log into the system as they enter the Alzheimer's LifePlan and maintain their personal vital sign, memory fitness testing account, as well as grow web pages and posted materials throughout the online community areas. So the members have activities that the visiting population can monitor, but, there are also secure private account areas that where the member's can manage their prevention and memory fitness monitoring programs.
The greatest value in being a member, is that the program allows you to keep detailed records of your vital signs, your memory fitness test results, your prevention program goals and progress - all in an online format you can print out and share with your doctors or family.
Since you entered the Alzheimer's LifePlan project- you have learned new things about Alzheimer's disease, the importance of early onset detection, the methods of testing your memory fitness - and the importance of developing a strategic plan of Alzheimer's prevention and early onset detection.
You can access the free public Guest member account as often as you like- and support your personal Alzheimer's prevention program -
Or, you can join the online community and have your personal account - which stores all of your vital sign readins, your memory fitness test scores - your goals and progress notes - in an online and printable format you can easily share with your doctors.
Create you personal Alzheimer's LifePlan Vital Sign and Memory Fitness Baseline Record Management account here by making a one time payment of $50 through PayPal.
Yes, I want my personal Alzheimer's LifePlan Membership Account
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Your $10/year Alzheimer's LifePlan membership will:
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Give you a personal Memory Fitness Testing Account
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Allow you to exercise/stengthen your memory fitness
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Provide your doctors with early detection of any memory disorder or short term memory/learning capacity
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Provide a comfortable way to educate family members about Alzheimer's prevention and early detection
Join the Alzheimer's LifePlan HERE!
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