Neurological Disease Foundation The NDF drives research into diseases of the mind and educates the populations regarding the findings and new treatment development successes
Here you will find materials, eBooks, forms, and content that you can use in your workshops
The materials available here will regularly be updated and support you helping your friends and neighbors:
Learn How To Reduce Your Risks
Learn How To Test Your Memory Fitness
Learn About FDA Approved Treatments
Develop An Offensive Prevention Program
Develop A Defensive Early Detection Plan
Learn About The Alzheimer's Vaccine
Connect With Leading Research Projects
Begin Living Your LifePlan
All Audio and Video Presentations are in Windows Media Player - Get Your Player Here
Introduction
Helping individuals develop a personal Anti-Alzheimer's lifestyle program - adopting Dr. J. Wesson Ashford's Top 10 Alzheimer's Prevention Treatments - can easily be done through your local Alzheimer's LifePlan Workshops.
In the online workshops, you experienced using the project's membership vital sign and memory fitness test baseline record management accounts. You were using the GUEST/GUEST account and all of your activity was mixed in with whoever else had visited the account or added information to it.
The congestion of all visitor's information makes it difficult to use the GUEST/GUEST account as a personal record system - so we give you a form that you can print out and use for each visitor who comes to a workshop.
The members of the Alzheimer's LifePlan have personal accounts that keep their recordsd through 2012 - that is what the one time membership fee of $50 buys a member.
The goal of the Alzheimer's LifePlan and the main reason for your hosting the Community Workshops is to assist those people in your neighborhood who would not have access to the programs or services that help them prevent Alzheimer's disease onset.
Ideally, individuals will attend a workshop and come bake monthly for at least a year. If they do that, they will be well on their way to developing baseline information for their vital signs and memory fitness - actually making memory fitness one of their recorded vital signs - and setting goals for mental and physical fitness.
Your family, friends and neighbors are currently confused about the cases, diagnosis, and treatments available for Alzheimer's disease. That just doesn't have to be like that. By finding the Alzheimer's LifePlan and attending your first workshop - you should now know that the advances made in early diagnosis, FDA approved treatments, memory fitness testing, and the new approach to treatments in development since the vaccine has come along - make everything different regarding Alzheimer's in general. The fact that most Alzheimer's cases in the future could be prevented - really is exciting!
We will condense the 100 years of Alzheimer's medical research and show you what we do know is effective in prevention, early detection, and aggressive treatment.
Encourage the visitors to your workshop to begin their personal Alzheimer's LifePlan programs.
Your workshop connects a visitor to a pinpoint on the Internet that promotes methods individuals can adopt into their day-to-day living - that could reduce their risks/chances of developing the Alzheimer's disease process. By inviting people into your workshop, you can give them print outs of the articles, forms, and reference material freely given here.
Your workshop should introduce them to the Alzheimer's LifePlan Memory Fitness Testing Center's public access memory fitness testing console - where they can test your memory fitness online. If people aren't familiar with online computers, and navigating around web pages - you can co-pilot their experiences. If you grow a group of "regulars", your role can be moved to hosting the workshops as others assist others. It is always easier to adopt a new lifestyle habit - when you do it as a group.
The Alzheimer's LifePlan workshops will serve as a portal for you and your visitors to meet leading doctors, who have developed the prevention treatments and memory fitness testing platforms to work as clinical early Alzheimer's detection programs.
All will learn that there is no cure or effective enough treatment to arrest or reverse the disease process once it is past early onset. There are FDA approved drug that slow the early onset process - but they are not effective if administered after disease erodes the patient's short-term memory and learning centers of their brain. Clearly, if the most effective treatments work best in the pre-symptom/early onset period - early detection can speed aggressive treatment and potentially add years to the patient's memory fitness (their ability to function and live independently).
You can introduce your visitors to the leading doctor in brain imaging and see the movie he has produced. This movie clearly identifies the physical damage caused to a diseased brain - tragic as the presentation is - this kind of documentation is essential in early detection as well as treatment response monitoring.
We will meet the scientist who developed the Alzheimer's Vaccine and hear first hand how his breakthrough will forever change Alzheimer's disease research - in clinical trials, the Vaccine reversed the disease process in a diseased brain. A breakthrough and just the beginning.
Through any online computer's browser the free Windows Media Player can be downloaded and installed in your online computer.
No one should attempt to prevent a disease or alter their physical/mental fitness programs without consultation and assistance from their doctors.
The entire Alzheimer's LifePLan project is an interactive/online public service project. The reasons for growing the project online were three fold.
Firstly, the online population of 240,000,000 can individually experience personal Alzheimer's prevention programs - and that's the number of people we want to reach. Most Alzheimer's disease cases could be prevented if the population adopted healthy lifestyle habits. Our doctors need to tell the population what these habits are, and we need to help people plan them into their lifest - hence - LifePlan.
Secondly, seniors and individuals at the greatest risk of developing the Alzheimer's disease process are generally unaware that the disease process is detectable years before the memory loss symptoms that usually alert family members there is a memory problem. It is essential that an early detection team is monitoring for early Alzheimer's - because there are FDA approved drugs that are most effective at slowing the disease process when they are administered properly (by your doctor) and as early in the disease onset stage as possible. We have the best online memory fitness testing platform, which the population has free access to here at the Alzheimer's LifePlan.
Thirdly, the Alzheimer's Vaccine has cleared the plaques from the short-term memory and learning centers of a diseased brain. There is so much activity in treatment development that we have opened an interactive online community for the research community. Our partner in this resource center is the Neurological Disease Foundation and we have the latest interviews and public information regarding researchers using Immunetherapy as treatment for Alzheimer's.
Whether you are attending this workshop at home in front of your desktop computer, at a public access computer or in your community or clinic, we thank you for visiting the Alzheimer's LifePlan and wish you a long and healthy - disease free life.
• • • •
When you host a Workshop - Here Is What You Say - - -
Welcome - Here Is A Little Background
A First Visit Workshop - the one you are entering - has been distilled from the Alzheimer's LifePlan focus group workshop program. From the very beginning it was our goal to reach over 12 million online citizens a year with news, information, free memory testing, and promotion of the Alzheimer's LifePlan Online Community Membership's programs.
One note about money. My wife and I have funded the Alzheimer's LifePlan since 2000, and we are committed to giving the population free access to the news, information, free memory fitness testing, Community Workshop Affiliation programs, and interactive Forums that visitors to the project wish to maintain - through the year 2012. At that point we intend to freeze the web page and online community as an historic archive for the Nuerological Disease Foundation.
Please invite your friends, families and communities to be part of this history - you all ready are.
However - Membership in the Alzheimer's LifePlan Online Community is not free. Members are allocated personal web pages with vital sign and memory fitness testing accounts. Once a member has joined, paying a one time $50 fee, they are automatically enrolled in the largest early Alzheimer's detection project ever attempted - the Neurological Disease Foundation's Memory Accessment Project (MAP).
Please understand, we want you to pay that $50 and join the online community - as we feel that the personal vital sign and memory fitness testing accounts are valuable tools in your anti-disease and early Alzheimer's detection programs.
But, you learning about prevention and using the free memory fitness tests where you keep your records on the available forms (free here) - is worth more than your $50 membership fee.
Help us end Alzheimer's by the end of 2012!
We can do it! Let us show you how.
Paul and Janet Costa
Founders, Alzheimer's LifePlan
• • • •
Alzheimer's: The Movie
Regardless of how many times you've heard about Alzheimer's disease - I doubt if you have ever seen it. Military training promotes that if you are going to conquer an enemy, you first have to identify it and know how to recognize it.
Consider when you are watching the movie below that Dr. Alzheimer first diagnosed the disease process in 1906 - and the conclusive evidence of his diagnosis was a set of microscope slides he could share with other doctors. The microscope slides clearly revealed the "plaques and tangles" of destruction left in the disease process.
What few lay people understand is that Doctor Alzheimer developed a series of memory questions that he regularly asked his patients on his rounds. He noted that certain patients displayed a consistent pattern in short-term memory and recent memory formation (learning) reductions. Until autopsy, with the aid of the microscope, there had been no documentation that this memory loss pattern had associated physical damages to the memory centers in the brain.
I want to start our workshop with complete exposure of the enemy - the physical destruction that occurs as the disease process runs its course. This movie is made up of brain scan images - taken of diseased brains over a period of time. The movie is narrated by Dr. Paul Thompson of UCLA. We will visit with Dr, Thompson and learn how his work has positioned the army of treatment developers with effective monitoring tools, now able to detect the earlies fingerprints of physical damage as well as document any alteration of the disease process when treatments are administered - documented treatment response.
Today, with the power of electronic microscopes and SGI super graphic computers, researchers like Dr. Thompson can see exquisite images of healthy and diseased brains - in real time!
Alzheimer's: The Movie
Dr. Alzheimer would have been amazed if he could see this short animated film - created from brain images of living/diseased Alzheimer's patients - all participating in a study that imaged the group's brains over a two year period.
The animated film shows the path of destruction the disease from mild cognitive impairment to complete withering of the brain - documenting the complete process.
This kind of physical monitoring of living brains - is proving itself invaluable - as researchers now have methods to accurately diagnosis the disease process, identify the precise condition of the diseased brain, monitor for response to treatments and/or track recovery. The days of speculation or waiting until autopsy to confirm theories is over - today feedback is vivid and accurate.
Having the ability to visually identify, monitor and track the disease process in a living brain is an essential toolset in developing accurate diagnosis, and guaging the effectiveness of treatment in clinical trials.
Now That You've Seen The Enemy
We can put Alzheimer's disease into our personal points of views. I'll introduce you to my family, and I'm sure there will be some similarity between our histories. One thing is certain, Alzheimer's disease was there or close by, and the loss of health, love, and happiness can not even be measured.
• • • •
The Motive: My Family 1953-2000
As both of my parents approached their 80's, they would regularly pull me aside and report that the other was showing signs of memory loss. I love my parents more than anyone else, and took their concerns very seriously. Eventually I became fearful that they were right and that they were at high risk of developing the disease.
Both sides of my family has been ravaged by dementia and Alzheimer's. In the early days of my Alzheimer's research and continuing to this day, senior members of both sides of the family are institutionalized with the disease. This short film contains 8mm footage that I shot in my boyhood, many of these ancestors fell with Alzheimer's.
The Alzheimer's disease process is still not completely understood, and diagnosis of the disease is tragically difficult - often inaccurate, and worse; usually missing. Meaning the onset of the disease usually goes undetected. As you will soon learn - it is in the earliest stages of onset that known treatments are most effective.
In 2000, the End Alzheimer's 2012 Task Force Took Shape
In 2000, I boldly approached those who were making progress and invited them to join the End Alzheimer's 2012 Task Force. Each of those I approached accepted the invitation and to this day supports and contributes to the Alzheimer's LifePlan in immeasurable portion.
In regards to medical expertise, I was blessed to meet Dr. J. Wesson Ashford M.D., PhD. I can't say enough about this man's dedication to ending Alzheimer's and his brilliant work as a doctor, scientist, Clinical Psychiatrist, and marvelous human being. You will be hearing and seeing a lot of Dr. Ashford throughout the Alzheimer's LifePlan - as he is our official medical advisor. It is my hope that Dr. Ashford's work is recognized in 2012 as the groundbreaking research for Alzheimer's prevention and the development of valid early Alzheimer's screening and pre-memory loss symptom onset detection.
If I have anything to say about it - he'll be center stage at the 2012 End Alzheimer's Bash - with a few other special people you are about to meet.
This early video press release...marked the beginning of the Alzheimer's LifePlan program
Everyone involved in the Alzheimer's LifePlan, were first introduced to one another in an online community - the End Alzheimer's 2012 Task Force.
Through a series of weekly meetings membership grew as did the plan to distribute up-to-the-minute Alzheimer's news/information to the population, promote free memory fitness testing, organize an online research project that could validate the effectiveness of prevention treatments and frequent memory fitness testing from a population base. In short, The Alzheimer's LifePlan.
By 2002, The End Alzheimer's 2012 Task Force had finished construction on what is now the Alzheimer's LifePlan online community. Most of the "story" parts that follow in this workshop tell of how my parents were introduced to the prevention programs, the memory fitness testing platform, and the collaborating with their doctor should occur.
There is a lot to tell, and in the Alzheimer's LifePlan Prevention Resource section of this web page - you will find the largest collection of current research and treatment development videos there is. And you can watch that archive grow right up to the time we close the lid on this hideous disease.
The Alzheimer's Association - The Largest Source of Support and Funding
Since the mid 1970's The Alzheimer's Association has been a beacon of support, reference and comfort to the millions who nursed older family members. The association is also the largest source of funding for Alzheimer's related research projects. The association is actually seventeen different groups, covering most of America with a variety of support group like programs. I don't think they have kept track of the numbers, regarding people they have assisted in their times of need - but I know the amount of comfort and support is immeasurable.
The executives and doctors who work with the Alzheimer's Association, would love to pronouce a patient well again, or even that the disease process which decays a patient's memory had been arrested/halted. But no, the doctors advising the Alzheimer's Association - working in research labs or walking the halls of nursing homes - haven't been able to make that statement - and they have been obligated to protect the population from false hopes and dashed dreams. Many of them spent their entire career in pursuit of knowledge about the disease, and spent countless hours in treatment development - always to little or no avail.
In 2003, the Alzheimer's Association started speaking of "effective treatments" and new values of prevention. The medical advisors of the Alzheimer's Association were doctors who witnessed breakthrough diciveries about the disease chemistry, body chemisty, the immune and anti-body systems effectiveness in the crainial cavity (until the late 1990's the medical community thought the body's blood/brain barriers isolated the brain from the body's normal regeneration or anti-body scavenger mechanisms).
I met with Mr. Bill Fisher, CEO of the Northern California/Nevada Alzheimer's Association, early in my quest for news and information regarding Alzheimer's in America.
I'll let Bill give you the association's point of view - 2003. If you have family members who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, you should certainly check in with your local Alzheimer's Assosciation group - they are situated in your community to connect you up with local resources.
Traditionally, the association has provided support groups, information, some organized community and patient/care giving programs - when there was nothing else.
The Family 2002
Getting back to 2000-2002 as the Alzheimer's LifePlan programs were taking shape - and my parents.
Whenever I would visit with my parents or talk with them individually - they consistently warned me that the other was "forgetful", and they were concerned that "something was going on". These regular reminders were verbal concerns about Alzheimer's and evidence they were living in fear.
The video below documents how my parents are living their '80's. They were very active and starting to slow down these days, but they are still living well and taking care of themselves.
By 2002, all of the online portions of the Alzheimer's LifePlan were in place and ready for testing. My parents didn't know I was drafting them as the "poster kids" in the Alzheimer's LifePlan project.
Here we visit my parents while they are well and into their eighties, living comfortably - but centered in the danger zone that had trapped previous family members.
That leads us to the Alzheimer's LifePlan......
How Dr. Ashford's Treatments Work With His Memory Testing Platforms
Dr. Ashford Uses
What kind of program was needed to reach the largest number of people? An online workshop!
By the time I produced this 2002 report I had gotten to know Dr. Ashford pretty well. I felt he was really on to something that many had overlooked. Perhaps because my approach to Alzheimer's was from an aerial view - I saw fits and finishes to the parts of the puzzle that others missed.
For instance, Dr. Ashford had published research papers that showed high probability of accuracy detection of early Alzheimer's onset - five to eight years - before his standard memory fitness test (one similiar to the free test you'll be taking soon), would detect any reduction in memory performance. Dr. Ashford is well aware of the value of early detection because he has been part of the development of the FDA approved treatments that slow the early stage memory decay. When you put the healthy lifestyle treatments into a personal program - and an individual really dive into them - the prevention effects should greatly reduce the individual's risks of ever developing the early onset. If the individual is screening for the early onset and it is detected - swift application of FDA approved treatments could add as much as 5-8 years of normal memory function to that individual's life.
You see, early Alzheimer's onset has no visible symptoms. That's right - and even the apparent memory loss/lapses associated with mild cognitive impairment (when this condition is actually a symptom of Alzheimer's) means that the disease process has been building for years (perhaps 10-15) undetected. Dr. Ashford had spent most of his career developing memory accessment platforms (memory fitness tests) - and was reporting that his clinical tests were getting better at detecting the earliest stage of Alzheimer's disease onset. He felt confident that testing platforms could be developed that would detect the early onset five to eight years in advance of any memory loss symptom being detectable to the traditional cognitive reasoning/function tests. He made that prediction in 2001 while we were talking - in 2004 he published a research paper that documented his work on that very test.
So, in 2002 I understood that when individuals like my parents go to their doctor's regularly for examination, they are interviewed and their vital signs are recorded. Generally, time has lapsed since their last examination - meaning it would be very difficult for the attending nurse of doctor to notice a memory disorder. What usually happens is the doctor will ask, "Everything okay with your memory, are you having spells of forgetfullness"? Well, the truth is that people who think they are entering into Alzheimer's more than likely aren't - because they still remember they are forgetting things. It is black irony.
I promoted the concept of building a public access Alzheimer's prevention center were we could educate, introduce, and connect the visitors to a single web page - giving each visistor free access to a personal experience. We built the present Alzheimer's LifePlan online community at www.endalzheimers.com. Then we went to the Burlingame Recreation Center and promoted monthly Alzheimer's LifePlan workshops. The workshops were two hours long and promised news and information about Alzheimer's prevention, free memolry fitness testing, and a semi-social gathering where people could speak and interact with one another.
We sent a news release to local papers and some of those resulted in newspaper articles and publishing of the dates of workshops. We also posted the workshops as "events" and "classes" in the San Francisco Bay Area www.craigslist.org network.
The outline for the early workshops has been refined and updated as news comes out about breakthroughs or better treatments - but the format has remained similar to the program you are now in the middle of.
The encouraging things are too many to list here, but the focus group members have been fantastic. They range in ages from 42 to 92, and often it is hard to tell which of them is either of those ages. They are dynamic people who have an interest in living life to its fullest.
The focus group experiences proved to us that our population based online Alzheimer's prevention program would work. So the news and information (content) archives were built as was the public access memory fitness testing consoles. The reference network pages - where visitors can link to other organizations offering information, services, or research projects - where built. Dr. Ashford and the Neurological Disease Foundation have adopted the Alzheimer's LifePlan as a public awareness project - hoping to grow a membership body of 10,000. With 10,000 people developing personal Alzheimer's prevention programs that include frequent memory fitness testing, and participation in Dr. Ashford's clinical memory accessment testing - the validity of prevention treatments and clinical early Alzheimer's screening platforms can be established.
Between 2000 and 2002, the task force would hold weekly online conferences and many of these were no holds barred brainstorming sessions. Dr. Ashford was the first doctor to speak to the group in terms of developing a complete prevention and early detection program. He knew of FDA approved drug treatments - revolutionary drugs - that were designed to stop the plaque forming process behind those early memory loss symptoms. Everyone had hopes these drugs would be more effective.
When the "inhibitors" were first introduced, it was to patients who were diagnosed as having Alzheimer's. In early treatment cycles, researchers soon realized there was a point in the diseae process where the "slowing" process of the drug was not effective. They also came to see that the earlier the drugs were administered, the more effective they where at prolonging the patient's short-term memory and learning performance.
Dr. Ashford found himself at the head of the class in early detection - making his research in memory testing extremely valuable. Guess what? When you look at Alzheimer's (the disease process) from Dr. Ashford's point of view - the benefits of adopting healthy lifestyle treatments when you are young and healthy provide a very stable "average" of memory fitness (when tested frequently over a period of time) and an individual's vital sign baseline record. The system members of the Alzheimer's LifePLan Online Community is a vital sign and memory fitness baseline record management system - the first I know of that gives the individual a program of recording their vital signs and the results of frequent memory fitness testing - all in a report form they can share with their doctor - and Dr. Ashford.
We needed to test the concept and online services we had constructed in controlled focus group settings - because we were really in unchartered waters. So we reviewed all of the information and online services that were available and developed a demographic profile of who needed prevention and memory fitness training the most.
The Statistics Against My Parents
Let's see. Over 85, American, says each of them have an over 50% chance of all ready being in early Alzheimer's. Here is a few more I deducted. They have never had a memory fitness test. They have never reviewed the potentials of adopting Anti-Alzheimer's disease process lifestyle treatments with their doctors. They live in fear and confusion - not just about Alzheimer's, they are also concerned that I'll waste ten years of my life trying to get you to join our online community - Just testing to see if you are reading!-)
I also understood that each year that passed, the chances that Alzheimer's symptoms would appear in my parents increased. This was accompanied with the knowledge that if those early onset symptoms went unnoticed and my parents passed thru eraly onset and into mild cognitive impairment - it could cost them years of "normal" independent living.
So I had a creative flash and thought, "What if I looked at my parent's health from the disease process point of view?" So I did. I saw my parents as healthy people. I saw their brains as healthy brains. Then I projected what their brains would be like if they developed Alzheimer's disease. Then I restated the obvious - they aren't displaying any symptoms and they have lived longer than any others in their immediate families (making them 85 year old orphans). There was no reason to think they are in the 50% group that was or would be developing the Alzheimer's disease process.
So I looked at my parent's Alzheimer's statistics a little differently than others. I saw that they had outlived their family and peer groups, and continued to live in overall good health beyond the lifespans of those family members who had passed with Alzheimer's or dementia.
I interviewed my parents about how they lived, what their diet and exercise habits were, how were their average vital sign readings compared to health and fitness standards? I then asked them the same questions about their parents brothers and sisters.
When I compared the results of all the surveys - I could easily see that my parents were living a different lifestyle than any of their immediate family members had lived. It was at this point in our journey that I realized (statistally) 50% of the population over 85 will never develop Alzheimer's disease - and that's the group I wanted to study because they held the answers to ending the disease - prevention.
The New (unofficial) Statistic
"50% percent of the American population over 85, will not develop Alzheimer's"
The numbers aren't the important part. What is important is that half of the 85 year old population is living their lives in a manner that supports their health (at least their brain's health) to a higher degree than those living lifestyles that allow the degenerative Alzheimer's disease process to take hold!
• • • •
My Parent's Have Lived Dr. Ashford's Alsheimer's Prevention LifeStyles
Remember me mentioning I interviewed my parent regarding their personal viewpoints about Alzheimer's and dementia - also including questions about the other family member's lifestyles who had had memory loss at the end of their lives?
Well, it turned out that my parents were living closely in line with Dr. Ashford's recommendations - and although it isn't scientific - my the other family members who had dementia, Alzheimer's or memory loss problems at end of life - had not lived by Dr. Ashford's recommendations on several points.
It became clear that my parent's lifesyle and Dr. Ashford's top ten treatment suggestions would be something of value to promote to the population - regardless of their ages.
I'd like to show you Dr. Ashford's Top Ten Treatments that greatly reduce an individual's risks of developing the Alzheimer's disease all together.
Below you will see Dr. Ashford's program as it is presented at www.medafile.com.
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.
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.
This ends the section reproduced from Dr. Ashford's Medafile.com
• • • •
Dr. Ashford Gives You Medical Advice - And It Is Up To You To Accept or Reject His Suggestions
On the surface, Dr. Ashford's top ten treatment program - probably looks like a lot of fitness and health programs you've all ready had a tough time living up to. Why should you take these seriously? We;;, I'll ask you to reveiw them again with this in mind.
Dr. Ashford's treatments are really easy to live with. And ikf
When I reviewed the interviews I conducted with my parents, and compared their historical lifestyle habits to those of their now deceased family members - I saw they were living very closely to Dr. Ashford's Top Ten Treatments.
This was very comforting to me, but hard to explain to my parents.
We were like inventors who had just realized value in something we were working on - and that feeling was great. I shortly saw a vision of a system that could extend the clinical memory accessment tools that Dr. Ashford had developed directly to my parents - though and online computer.
I reasoned that individuals could access memory fitness testing sessions, take tests, and compile a record of scores taken over a period of time - and gave a detailed (data) report as well as graphic presentations of their normal basline memory fitness.
It wasn't medical diganosis, it was personal memory fitness management. What's that worth? A lot.
No One Saw Alzheimer's Awareness Workshops Coming
One of Dr. Ashford's prevention treatments is memory fitness training. He has several memory fitness test platforms - all of which give the test taking brain a work-out. Learning equates to the brain forming new memory - and like a muscle - the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
We built the first interactive short-term memory and learning performance testing platform and started crash testing the system. It was fun to take a test and it was a good, valid snap shot of +250,000 peices of information about the memory fitness of the brain taking the test.
I was blown away when I really understood the significance of this memory fitness testing tool. This next video will give you some background on the development team, how we designed the platform to fit into a personal memory fitness training program, and what you will experiences as you approach your first memory fitness test.
Memory Fitness Testing Moves From Development Into Population Access
While all of the mainstream research towards Alzheimer's disease was focused on drug treatment development - and clinical trials with patients who had the disease, our task force launched a memory fitness testing platform for the healthy population.
We basically were getting ready for a masive public awareness effort, and also needed to crash test the online systems.
Over two million visitors to the www.endalzheimers.com web page read our materials, took memory fitness tests and monitored our progress.
Things were starting to roll at the task force level. Dr. Ashford's clinical work was building validity as a early detection and Alzheimer's screening platform, the top ten treatments were being supported and added to as new findings emerged, and then we became aware of related developments in the art and science of brain imaging.
• • • •
Brain Imaging - It Really Is Beyond Rocket Science
We are going to leave the topics of prevention, memory accessment and early detection - and review the recent advances made in brain imaging. You will see shortly, how Dr. Ashford's work in memory accessment, and the researchers working on treatment development will all require detailed evidence their treatments are effective. Brain Imaging is the science that is ready to provide that documentation.
As promised earlier, we are going to visit Dr. Paul Thompson, PhD at the UCLA Nueroimaging Center. Dr. Thompson is one of a few specialists who provide detailed images of brains. By collecting thousands of images of healthy, diseased, and brains in various stages of treatment - Dr. Thompson can readily supply documentation of a diseased brain's medical condition.
This power to observe the brain moves the traditional clinical observations practices into immediate confirmation of the patient's condition. Having this ability makes diagnosis absolute. Until this science was perfected, doctors and treatment developers would have to wait until autopsy to document treatment response (effectiveness), and these findings were compromised to say the least.
I think this whole area is beyond fantastic - you'll have an opportunity to view all of Dr. Thompson's work from several areas of the Alzheimer's LifePlan - if you can't wait:
For a complete transcript of my visit with Dr. Thompson, click here.
The Launch of The Alzheimer's LifePlan Focus Group Workshops
By the time I produced this 2002 report I had gotten to know Dr. Ashford pretty well. I felt he was really on to something that many had overlooked. Perhaps because my approach to Alzheimer's was from an aerial view - I saw fits and finishes to the parts of the puzzle that others missed.
For instance, Dr. Ashford had published research papers that showed high probability of accuracy detection of early Alzheimer's onset - five to eight years - before his standard memory fitness test (one similiar to the free test you'll be taking soon), would detect any reduction in memory performance. Dr. Ashford is well aware of the value of early detection because he has been part of the development of the FDA approved treatments that slow the early stage memory decay. When you put the healthy lifestyle treatments into a personal program - and an individual really dive into them - the prevention effects should greatly reduce the individual's risks of ever developing the early onset. If the individual is screening for the early onset and it is detected - swift application of FDA approved treatments could add as much as 5-8 years of normal memory function to that individual's life.
You see, early Alzheimer's onset has no visible symptoms. That's right - and even the apparent memory loss/lapses associated with mild cognitive impairment (when this condition is actually a symptom of Alzheimer's) means that the disease process has been building for years (perhaps 10-15) undetected. Dr. Ashford had spent most of his career developing memory accessment platforms (memory fitness tests) - and was reporting that his clinical tests were getting better at detecting the earliest stage of Alzheimer's disease onset. He felt confident that testing platforms could be developed that would detect the early onset five to eight years in advance of any memory loss symptom being detectable to the traditional cognitive reasoning/function tests. He made that prediction in 2001 while we were talking - in 2004 he published a research paper that documented his work on that very test.
So, in 2002 I understood that when individuals like my parents go to their doctor's regularly for examination, they are interviewed and their vital signs are recorded. Generally, time has lapsed since their last examination - meaning it would be very difficult for the attending nurse of doctor to notice a memory disorder. What usually happens is the doctor will ask, "Everything okay with your memory, are you having spells of forgetfullness"? Well, the truth is that people who think they are entering into Alzheimer's more than likely aren't - because they still remember they are forgetting things. It is black irony.
I promoted the concept of building a public access Alzheimer's prevention center were we could educate, introduce, and connect the visitors to a single web page - giving each visistor free access to a personal experience. We built the present Alzheimer's LifePlan online community at www.endalzheimers.com. Then we went to the Burlingame Recreation Center and promoted monthly Alzheimer's LifePlan workshops. The workshops were two hours long and promised news and information about Alzheimer's prevention, free memolry fitness testing, and a semi-social gathering where people could speak and interact with one another.
We sent a news release to local papers and some of those resulted in newspaper articles and publishing of the dates of workshops. We also posted the workshops as "events" and "classes" in the San Francisco Bay Area www.craigslist.org network.
The outline for the early workshops has been refined and updated as news comes out about breakthroughs or better treatments - but the format has remained similar to the program you are now in the middle of.
The encouraging things are too many to list here, but the focus group members have been fantastic. They range in ages from 42 to 92, and often it is hard to tell which of them is either of those ages. They are dynamic people who have an interest in living life to its fullest.
The focus group experiences proved to us that our population based online Alzheimer's prevention program would work. So the news and information (content) archives were built as was the public access memory fitness testing consoles. The reference network pages - where visitors can link to other organizations offering information, services, or research projects - where built. Dr. Ashford and the Neurological Disease Foundation have adopted the Alzheimer's LifePlan as a public awareness project - hoping to grow a membership body of 10,000. With 10,000 people developing personal Alzheimer's prevention programs that include frequent memory fitness testing, and participation in Dr. Ashford's clinical memory accessment testing - the validity of prevention treatments and clinical early Alzheimer's screening platforms can be established.
Between 2000 and 2002, the task force would hold weekly online conferences and many of these were no holds barred brainstorming sessions. Dr. Ashford was the first doctor to speak to the group in terms of developing a complete prevention and early detection program. He knew of FDA approved drug treatments - revolutionary drugs - that were designed to stop the plaque forming process behind those early memory loss symptoms. Everyone had hopes these drugs would be more effective.
When the "inhibitors" were first introduced, it was to patients who were diagnosed as having Alzheimer's. In early treatment cycles, researchers soon realized there was a point in the diseae process where the "slowing" process of the drug was not effective. They also came to see that the earlier the drugs were administered, the more effective they where at prolonging the patient's short-term memory and learning performance.
Dr. Ashford found himself at the head of the class in early detection - making his research in memory testing extremely valuable. Guess what? When you look at Alzheimer's (the disease process) from Dr. Ashford's point of view - the benefits of adopting healthy lifestyle treatments when you are young and healthy provide a very stable "average" of memory fitness (when tested frequently over a period of time) and an individual's vital sign baseline record. The system members of the Alzheimer's LifePLan Online Community is a vital sign and memory fitness baseline record management system - the first I know of that gives the individual a program of recording their vital signs and the results of frequent memory fitness testing - all in a report form they can share with their doctor - and Dr. Ashford.
We needed to test the concept and online services we had constructed in controlled focus group settings - because we were really in unchartered waters.
The Statistics Against My Parents
Let's see. Over 85, American, says each of them have an over 50% chance of all ready being in early Alzheimer's.
I also understood that each year that passed, the chances that Alzheimer's symptoms would appear increased. So I had a creative flash and thought, "What if I looked at my parent's health from the disease process point of view?" So I did. I saw my parents as healthy people. I saw their brains as healthy brains. Then I projected what their brains would be like if they developed Alzheimer's disease. Then I restated the obvious - they aren't displaying any symptoms and they have lived longer than any others in their immediate families (making them 85 year old orphans). There was no reason to think they in the 50% group that was or would be were developing the Alzheimer's disease process.
So I looked at my parent's Alzheimer's statistics a little differently than others. I saw that they had outlived their family and peer groups, and continued to live in overall good health beyond those family members who had passed with Alzheimer's or dementia.
I interviewed my parents about how they lived, what their diet and exercise habits were, how were their average vital sign readings compared to health and fitness standards? I then asked them the same questions about their parents brothers and sisters.
When I compared the results of all the surveys - I could easily see that my parents were living a different lifestyle than any of their immediate family members had lived. It was at this point in our journey that I realized (statistally) 50% of the population over 85 will never develop Alzheimer's disease - and that's the group I wanted to study because they held the answers to ending the disease - prevention.
The New (unofficial) Statistic
"50% percent of the American population over 85, will not develop Alzheimer's"
The numbers aren't the important part. What is important is that half of the 85 year old population is living their lives in a manner that supports their health (at least their brain's health) to a higher degree than the degenerative Alzheimer's disease process!
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My Parent's Have Lived Dr. Ashford's Alsheimer's Prevention LifeStyles
I'd like to show you Dr. Ashford's Top Ten Treatments that greatly reduce an individual's risks of developing the Alzheimer's disease all together.
Below you will see Dr. Ashford's program as it is presented at www.medafile.com.
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.
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.
This ends the section reproduced from Dr. Ashford's Medafile.com
When I reviewed the interviews I condicted with my parents, and compared their historical lifestyle habits to those of their now deceased family members - I saw they were living very closely to Dr. Ashford's Top Ten Treatments.
This was very comforting to me, but hard to explain to my parents.
We were like inventors who had just realized value in something we were working on - and that feeling was great. I shortly saw a vision of a system that could extend the clinical memory accessment tools that Dr. Ashford had developed directly to my parents - though and online computer.
I reasoned that individuals could access memory fitness testing sessions, take tests, and compile a record of scores taken over a period of time - and gave a detailed (data) report as well as graphic presentations of their normal basline memory fitness.
It wasn't medical diganosis, it was personal memory fitness management. What's that worth? A lot.
No One Saw Us Coming
One of Dr. Ashford's prevention treatments is memory fitness training. He has several memory fitness test platforms - all of which give the test taking brain a work-out. Learning equates to the brain forming new memory - and like a muscle - the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
We built the first interactive short-term memory and learning performance testing platform and started crash testing the system. It was fun to take a test and it was a good, valid snap shot of +250,000 peices of information about the memory fitness of the brain taking the test.
I was blown away when I really understood the significance of this memory fitness testing tool. This next video will give you some background on the development team, how we designed the platform to fit into a personal memory fitness training program, and what you will experiences as you approach your first memory fitness test.
Memory Fitness Testing Moves From Development Into Population Access
While all of the mainstream research towards Alzheimer's disease was focused on drug treatment development - our task force launched a memory fitness testing platform.
We basically were getting ready for a masive public awareness effort, and also needed to crash test the online systems.
Over two million visitors to the www.endalzheimers.com web page read our materials, took memory fitness tests and monitored our progress.
Things were starting to roll at the task force level. Dr. Ashford's clinical work was building validity as a early detection and Alzheimer's screening platform, the top ten treatments were being supported and added to as new findings emerged, and then we became aware of related developments in the art of brain imaging.
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Brain Imaging - It Really Is Beyond Rocket Science
We are going to leave the topics of prevention, memroy accessment and early detection - and review the recent advances made in brain imaging. You will see shortly, how Dr. Ashford's work in memory accessment, and the researchers working on treatment development will all require detailed evidence their treatments are effective. Brain Imaging is the science that is ready to provide that documentation.
As promised earlier, we are going to visit Dr. Paul Thompson, PhD at the UCLA Nueroimaging Center. Dr. Thompson is one of a few specialists who provide detailed images of brains. By collecting thousands of images of healthy, diseased, and brains in various stages of treatment - Dr. Thompson can readily supply documentation of a diseased brain's medical condition.
This power to observe the brain moves the traditional clinical observations practices into immediate confirmation of the patient's condition. Having this ability makes diagnosis absolute. Until this science was perfected, doctors and treatment developers would have to wait until autopsy to document treatment response (effectiveness), and these findings were compromised to say the least.
I think this whole area is beyond fantastic - you'll have an opportunity to view all of Dr. Thompson's work from several areas of the Alzheimer's LifePlan - if you can't wait:
For a complete transcript of my visit with Dr. Thompson, click here.
Just as Dr. Alzheimer's used the microscope in 1906 to document the damages caused by the disease process- today's scientists and doctors can use powerful imaging technology to view three dimensional living brains - making it possible to monitor the disease process as well as identify treatment response in "real" time.
At the task force level we realized that brain imaging is fantastic - but it is too expensive to serve as a diagnostic tool for the population.
That being said, there have been an adequate number of brain images taken of brains in specific conditions. The clinical versions of Dr. Ashford's memory accessment platforms are so precise, they can establish test results (data) accurate enough to extrpolate graphic representation of the physical brain that took a specific test. We are working on building a bridge between the body of brain images we have and the physical (diagnostic imaging) of a tested brain. This is in the clinical level - but dream with me for a moment about you establishing your normal memory fitness through a series of memory fitness tests - and at the end of the testing sessions - you are presented with relatively accurate statistical scoring and a relatively accurate image of your brain. Something very similar to this is in the very near future.
FDA Approved Alzheimer's Drug Treatments - Now And In The Future
Dr. J. Wesson Ashford's works within the laboratory and the clinical environments. He has seen the development of FDA approved drugs come into practice while he was developing his memory testing and mild cognitive impairment screening programs.
Since the 1980's doctors like Dr. Ashford, have helped make the first significant clinical and research lab breakthroughs towards effective treatments of the Alzheimer's disease condition. But they cannot forget that the Alzheimer's disease process is as complex as it is evasive.
Dr. Ashford reflects on the scale of personal, financial and social damages caused by Alzheimer's. All of this adds value to the tremendous effort being managed by the medical research and care giving industries. Now, with better understanding of the disease process, the brain's memory fitness functions, and effective treatment strategy, the hope that Alzheimer's can be prevented arises.
Reference page for FDA approved Treatments, click here.
Medical Doctorshave traditionally (for the past 100 years) been the front line of Alzheimer's detection and treatment strategy development. Unfortunately, the doctors have had little of no access to effective Alzheimer's screening tests - and less awareness of treatments - even the FDA approved treatments.
The FDA process (clinical trials) that bring treatments from the laboratory to the doctors), are conducted under strict confidence - to protect the patients and the research/treatment development group's liability. As recently as 1999, I conducted online searches for doctors, treatments, clinics and cures for Alzheimer's - and I found several posted articles, testimonies, and clinical "treatment" centers offering more than hope to the online reader.
I tried to investigate or visit each of these promoters and only found a few that were sincere. In some cases, the promoters were little more than health and fitness zealots - promoting the truth that the right diet matched to the right physical/mental regimes - promotes health. Others were out and out misinformed promoters. I wasn't the only one checking around for an effective Alzheimer's treatment platform.
As the 2000 Stockholm Alzheimer's conference, the research and medical communities agreed to agree that the Alzheimer's disease process was accurately diagnosed by Dr. Alzheimer in 1906, and that all of the research that followed his diagnosis led to the overwhelming conclusion that Alzheimer's was a degenerative process - meaning caused by environmental and individual lifestyle elements; and that changing an at risk individual's lifestyle habits towards those that reduced that individual's chances of developing the disease (PREVENTION), was the best treatment yet developed.
Short of press releases and an occasional story leaked by the leading doctor's or their PR firms, little information trickled to the to Medical Doctors who examine individuals at risk of developing Alzheimer's.
I asked Dr. Ashford to comment on the FDA approved Alzheimer's disease treatments, and how he felt they could help end Alzheimer's.
Dr. Ashford recalls his early observations about Alzheimer's and drug treatment development...
In the past, senior family members have developed memory disorders - forgetting how they got to a room, forgetting what they had for breakfast, or what the person's name is that they just met. Eventually, family members are forced to take these individuals to a doctor for diagnosis. Before the FDA inhibitor treatments were developed, it realld didn't matter much, Alzheimer's victims were trapped in the disease process - what did it matter if it was diagnosed five years before symptoms showed?
Dr. Ashford will explain how these drugs were developed, how they are most effective, and you will begin to realize how important it is to monitor your memory fitness.
So, regular testing of your brain's ability to form recent memories should be as common as taking your blood pressure, or weighing in at the scales, or stress treadmill testing.
How can it be? How can so many people be robbed of their memory, dignity, worth and independence, and not have adequate advocacy to merit serious funding and a concentrated research effort?
There is probably a million answers to that question. From my point of view, it seemed to be a matter of awareness and money. Awareness in a global sense that Alzheimer's costs Americans $125 Billion a year - and it could be prevented if self administered treatments are promoted between the doctors and the populations.
The pharmaceutical industryuses a set of rules/guidelines and business practice disciplines - basically a handbook - when developing drugs with high financial values.
Part of these guidelines - the part that moves a drug from the clinical trials into clinics - presently constitutes a massive marketing effort on the half of the drug companies. I'm not making any judgment here -I'm simply the messenger. And, I'm reporting that companies spending/investing $200-700,000 on the developing of a new drug/treatment - have to generate their return on investment by any means available.
The FDA strictly monitors and prescribes (which is kind of ironic - the FDA prescribing practice policies to the doctors)
The Alzheimer's Vaccine and Immunetherapy
The research effort to develop any form of effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease spans long before Dr. Alzheimer's accurately diagnosed the condition in 1906.
In all that time and in all that effort, there hasn't been evidence that any treatment altered the disease process wave of brain destruction - until the Vaccine compound developed by Dr. Dale Schenk first prevented the disease from developing in laboratory mice - and then cleared the plaque deposites in a disease human brain.
Everything is different now in treatment development and I want you to meet the man behind the Vaccine.
How Dr. Ashford's Treatments Work With His Memory Testing Platforms 
