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This online book outlines the public service project
dedicated to ending Alzheimer’s by the end of 2012
The Trustees of the Internet Broadcasting Association – iBA – www.ibaglobal.com
Offer the population information and a call to action regarding:
- The new understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease can be prevented.
- Easy population memory fitness testing at The Memory Fitness Testing Center - the population can establish their normal memory fitness, and monitor for decrement (reduction) in their ability to form short term memories.
- The FDA approved treatments that slow the disease process if administered properly and in the earliest possible stages of memory loss detection.
- The technologies that allow doctors and researchers to image the living brain and detect any disease progress or treatment response.
- The clinical documented reversal/alteration of the disease process – the first in a 100 year research and treatment development effort – recorded from the autopsy of a participant from the Alzheimer’s Vaccine Treatment development effort.
About the Author and the Alzheimer’s LifePlan
Whatever your concerns regarding the Alzheimer’s disease process, I congratulate you on reading this book and pursuing a personal Alzheimer’s prevention program. I’m about to introduce you to my family, dating back to my earliest collection of memories – captured on 8mm movie film – the movie will show you are farm, my grandparents living on their farm, and America as I first experienced it. The Alzheimer’s disease process ravaged through my mother's and father's families. We were just individuals amongst the millions of people being affected by it, and there wasn’t one effective treatment or an understanding of what the disease really is.
Through a series of career and personal life adventures, I was called upon to head up a new industry, Internet Broadcasting and one of the first networks of operation, was an electronic medical record management service for Psychiatrists clinics and neurological research projects. While building a custom studio for the 2000 WYSIWYG Film Festival in San Francisco, I met Dr. Ted Langley, PhD. Ted has become an icon role model of mine, as he is the picture of physical mental and spiritual health. One of his many achievements was to co-develop an alertness testing platform - which he mentioned could be programmed to function as a short-term memory performance test and/or a mild cognitive impairment screening test. "What is mild cognitive impairment?", I asked. It wasn't too long, and Ted introduced me to his partner, Henry Bowles and a brilliant research Psychiatrist Wesson Ashford - the team that produced clinical short term memory and learning performance test systems. I forged a relationship with Bowles-Langley technologies and had another brilliant cognitive scientist - Tim Galigan - develop the online short term memory and learning performance testing platform currently used at the Alzheimer's LifePlan memory fitness testing center.
The testing platform allows individuals and/or a doctor to administer a short, video game like test and establish an individual’s memory fitness. The same test could be used to monitor and track an individual’s recovery from stroke, head trauma or ailment development. In the clinical environment, it provides an effective mild cognitive impairment (MCI) screening platform – the early signature of the Alzheimer’s disease process. Dr. Ashford has also expanded the controls and features of the test to a degree, that he is now able to detect the pre-mild cognitive impairment stage of the disease - years before the patient (or their family) may notice memory fitness reduction. This whole memory testing platform fascinated me, both because the Internet Broadcasting aspect of it promised to give the population access to an easy way to monitor this vital health sign – but also because it looked like the first method of helping the population monitor for Alzheimer’s in it’s early stages.
I petitioned the Internet Broadcasting Board of Trustees to fund a population and mental health Internet Broadcasting network channel – and operate a population testing center for ten years – as a part of a task force project to end Alzheimer’s. Upon their approval, the End Alzheimer’s 2012 Task Force was organized and to this day operates as the steering committee's online resource center for the Alzheimer’s LifePlan public service project.
This book is an overview collection of recollections, interviews and introduction to the resulting public service project that is now in position to usher in new understanding and the eventual ending of Alzheimer’s as we know it. All of the individual’s involved in this project now truly believe that the human brain and body can be nurtured to the extent that most of Alzheimer’s can be prevented.
That alone is reason to promote personal Alzheimer’s lifestyle programs to the populations. The Alzheimer’s LifePlan, as an online service, can assist the millions of senior citizens who are uncomfortable with surfing the Internet – but have access to care centers, community centers, or family members who are affiliated into the iBHealth Network’s Alzheimer’s LifePlan web page spaces. And that education, access and service delivery - in a nutshell is the driving force behind the Alzheimer’s LifePlan.
You, and your family members are welcome here, and I know I am speaking on behalf of all the dedicated doctors, researchers and care givers who work daily on ending the Alzheimer’s disease phenomena – we face a disease of the mind, and the mind has enough intelligence to win the confrontation. Read on in good health.
Paul D. Costa
Executive Director
Alzheimer’s LifePlan
Chairman, Internet Broadcasting Association
Before The Alzheimer’s LifePlan
Youth is usually a collection of memories. These memories are formed by our brains in a seamless manner – meaning we don’t “think” about it – it just happens. Throughout our lives, our brain matures and continues the memory forming process. When we get old, we assume that forgetting memories or it being more difficult to form memories is “normal”.
Such was the case in my family’s background. Our family lived on an 18 acre farm, on the outskirts of Roseville California. My father was a Veterinarian and there was never a shortage of things, animals, fantasy activity going around my sister, mother and father.
In the day-to-day living, we were quite content and self-contained. Dad’s veterinary hospital was along side the main highway that ran between Roseville and Sacramento – also on the edge of our property – so all he had for a commute was a quarter mile walk up or down the hill.
I felt like a prince, living with my King Tony, my Queen Edith and my sister the necessary princess, Carmela.
My first memories of leaving the farm are of summer time trips to Wisconsin aboard the California Zephyr, what a ride! On one very special trip, my mother, sister and I rode the Zephyr to Detroit and watched a brand new Plymouth Cranbrook four door sedan roll of the assembly line – I learned to drive a stick shift and have my first accident in that car years later. We drove the car to Whitehall Wisconsin to visit my mom’s parents, brothers and sisters.
Visiting the farm that my mother grew up on, was an adventure into the past. The massive farm house never had running water, electricity was added in the late 1930’s, and everywhere I would go, I would see remains of a past dynasty. The family land at one time was a whole valley, a thriving dairy, and agriculture and farm equipment maintenance center – now falling into ruin and completely obsolete.
Another stark difference was the crowd. My mother’s family was large and had grown bigger over the years. There were layers of cousins and networks of aunts and uncles that were exciting just to come in contact with.
Grandma and Grandpa had a rich life, raising a large family of wonderful people and running the family enterprise successfully. They lived on the family’s farm until they were in their eighties, then sold the farm and bought a duplex in town, closer to their children.
Grandma Ann died when she was eight two. She had lost most of her ability to form recent memories. They didn’t call it Alzheimer’s in those days, and there is no way of knowing if Alzheimer’s was the cause of her dementia. When she died, she could not recall the day this picture was taken or who the people were in the picture were. She had even forgotten taking a drive in a 1953 Plymouth with a grandson on her lap.
The drives home would take us to Dad’s side of the family. This brought a whole new set of experiences, as some of Dad’s brothers and sisters lived in metropolitan areas like Denver, others lived very close to the land in Colorado, New Mexico and Southern California.
Dad’s mother had passed away when he was a boy. But, I did get to see my Dad’s father on these trips. Unfortunately I didn’t get to know him very well. My earliest childhood memory of my father’s father visiting us includes his wandering off; going to sleep in the back seat of a car he thought was ours. No one called it Alzheimer’s in those days, but, I’m sure it was. Grandpa passed when he was eight-two, leaving a large family of wonderful people.
Mom and Dad always made sure my sister and I were aware of the world around us. Even when we lived in those years of isolation on the farm, we would drive to the mountains or San Francisco and experiences everything from wildlife to night life.
When I was a boy, this was my family and we didn’t worry about Alzheimer’s disease.
We left the farm and moved to the city, each of us growing to maturity. The family changed as we kids went to school, the military, then into careers and growing families of our own. The years were kind to mom and dad; they are still in love and spend their mornings, noons and nights together.
The Family 2002
Mom and Dad have both outlived all of their brothers and sisters, and both lived longer than any of their parents. They are in their mid eighties and in relatively good health. As their age group has a fifty per cent chance of developing the Alzheimer’s disease process, and those odds increase each year they live – they are obviously concerned that they could be developing the early signs of Alzheimer’s – each time one of them forgets a name or misplaces their keys.
Mom starts everyday with Bible study and inspirational reading. She still does the household chores and cooking. She exercises everyday, takes multi-vitamins and a blood pressure control drug. Her diet is low-fat, high fiber and moderate carbohydrate. Her weight has been stable for the past five years and overall she is in good health. Mom is 84 and still very active. She drives, shops, walks, exercises, prays and meditates her days away, also taking care of Dad.
Dad is also in overall good health. He gets a lot of exercise gardening, walking, shopping, and maintains a busy schedule of meetings and social functions. Dad’s diet is low-fat, high fiber, lots of fruits and vegetables and an occasional chunk of filet minion. Dad used to do daily exercises, but has stopped that in the past few years. His blood pressure was high several years ago, and he has been on a regulatory program which seems to be working. Dad also takes multi-vitamins, some supplements and feels that they are essential.
My sister now lives within a mile of where our original farm was in a retirement community. Mom and Dad enjoy having them nearby.
While my family was aging and collecting back in the Roseville area, I was working around the world in the television, motion picture and finally the Internet Broadcasting Network industries.
In 2000, I became the Chairman of the Internet Broadcasting Association and was determined to use Internet Broadcasting anyway I could to assist the population in ending Alzheimer's.
I never suspected then, that any of my family’s concerns about Alzheimer’s disease would play a part in my career – certainly not to the degree and manner to which it has.
Enter the Internet Broadcasting Health Network 
One of the sub network operations I manage, iBHealth.net, is an online service platform – a system that clinics, doctor’s offices, hospitals and research projects all utilize for a number of functions. The overall operation is managed by Mr. Ron C. Peck, who has an extensive career history in Nuclear Medicine. Ron does not hold back his enthusiasm for integrating powerful iBusiness like platforms in the service of clinics, hospitals, research projects or mass communications.
One group utilizes an online business administration service where each of their employees has their personal Personnel payroll and employee records, another uses online scheduling, marketing and sales force automation/selling – basically iBusiness. Another group uses computers and hand held devices to gather medical information about patients and/or participants in from clinics or medical research projects. The group that specifically services psychiatrists, mental health clinics and neurological disease research projects would introduce me to the leading alertness and short-term memory testing group – Bowles-Langley technologies (www.bowles-langley.com) of Alameda California.
The first time Dr. Ted Langley and Henry Bowles presented their short-term memory testing platform to the Cognitive Engineers at the Internet Broadcasting Network – it was presented as a clinical tool that doctors were using in Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment development research projects. The test was designed in part by Dr. J. Wesson Ashford, MD, PhD. who also manages a popular Alzheimer’s resource center www.Medafile.com.
I remember questioning the accuracy and value of testing the short term memory and Dr. Ashford convincing me that the clinical version of the test was not only an effective screening test for mild cognitive impairment (MCI – the early signature of the Alzheimer’s Disease process), he had evidence that if administered in advance of any MCI symptoms, he could with high probability now project the likelihood of the disease developing in the tested individual’s future.
Then I took my first test. I put the cursor over the “Take the Test” text, depressed the left tab on the mouse, to tell the computer to load in 26 images into a pre-programmed presentation. The presentation would present 26 images, some repeating within the presentation. If I had not seen the image in this test, I was to do nothing. If the image was a repeat – I was to depress the space bar.
After the test is loaded into the computer, the system displays an “OK”, and all I have to do is depress the spacebar to start the test.
The computer based test has specifically been designed so a nurse, family member or friend who is comfortable with online environments or Internet browsers. As most of the baby boomer and over 70 generation are not yet connected to the Internet (although as of 2002, they are the fastest growing group of Internet Browsers new-users).
As soon as I depressed the spacebar, the first image popped unto the screen.
As 26 images appeared, I did the best I could to identify if I had seen each of them after the first time the image would have appeared. After the past image fades, a few moments later, a screen with my score and data fields appears.
What just happened here?
My interaction with the testing system, allowed the machines to document my time of reaction, my ability to remember a sequence of recent events, and accurately access if my brain was functioning on a “normal” level of memory fitness. All and all, somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 pieces of information – specifically evaluating the memory portions of my brain – were recorded.
The individual test results are indeed a form of “snapshot” of my brain’s memory fitness at the precise moments I was taking the test.
Not bad for the first test. 100% is a great score. It means that whenever an image appeared on the screen - I could determine if the image had been shown before within the test I was taking - if it was I successfully depressed the space bar. A single score has little clinical value. So it is recommended that I take the test a half a dozen times over the next month or so.
In order to document the history of an individual’s test scores, an area of the Internet Broadcasting Network that would keep the data and present it in a graphic form was designed presenting a bar graph that displays the most resent test taken at the end of a row of results. The intention being that an individual would take the test a number of times, establishing their baseline memory fitness, then return regularly to re-test. Each time they re-tested themselves, they could complete the test and return to their historical record and see how the test they just completed compared to their normal rating. If there was a reduction, or lower score, they should take the test a gain. If scoring was consistently lower than the baseline, they should consult with Dr. Ashford, or their care giver (doctor).
Looking at the test results from “guests” who have taken the test in its public area, one can see that results can and will vary. Because these are quite often the first efforts, individuals can easily make a mistake or be getting used to the actual conducting of the test. These are additional reasons why the test should be taken several times, usually disregarding the first few tests, before the results can be considered part of the individual’s “normal”.
The test was completed in its online formats and made available to a number of clinics, care centers and individuals through the networks memory fitness, psychiatric clinic and neurological research support center. Since 2001, the system has proven itself to be consistent and reliable, giving those who use if a most affordable means to establish a baseline rating of their memory fitness and monitor memory fitness going forward.
The Population Needed To Think of Memory Fitness Like A Vital Sign
Millions of people are monitoring their vital signs - like blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, weight, cardio-vascular capacities and others. In an ideal situation they create a record over a period of time. When one looks at the longitudinal baseline vital sign records of an individual - the normal healthy ratings provide historic information. When a doctor has access to this, swift identification can be made if something changes, improving the chances of early detection and rapid treatment.
Well, I was determined to produce an online service which made it easy for the population to record their vital signs, fitness program results, and their memory fitness testing results in one easy to manage personal record keeping system.
It made sense to organize an online personal data record center, that also served as an individual's personal memory fitness testing center. Today, visitors to the Alzheimer's LifePlan can create their personal memory fitness and vital sign record keeping account and become members of the Alzheimer's LifePlan online community. Individuals can open an account where their personal testing records are stored in a secure online account. Younger family members can "throttle" a version of the test for older family members and assist the elders in maintaining their data and testing. Printing our the vital sign/memory testing records and presenting them to your doctor at examination could prove invaluable. What started out as an experiment in Internet Broadcasting evolved into a unique and highly valued medical examination toolbox, in this case allowing the patient and the care giver to interactively monitor a patient’s memory fitness.
Work is now being done that will open the world’s first interactive memory gym. That’s right! The Alzheimer's LifePlan online community members will have access to a variety of memory tests - eventually competing in global online memory fitness Olympics as well as operating a 24 hour 7 day a week memory building and exercising programs. There is all ready a growing competitive activity called "Mind Sports", where the world champion can recall the order of 18 shuffled decks of playing cards - without error – now that is memory fitness!
Dr. Ashford and Alzheimer's Prevention
Dr. Ashford continued to refine the testing with an eye towards the clinical usages and the potential values the memory testing would have in Alzheimer’s treatment development monitoring – where actual Alzheimer’s patients (some who could have had brain scans) would take throttled tests (adjusted in image number, time of image exposure, and assistance level if needed).
Turns Out Dr. Ashford Wrote the Book on Alzheimer’s Prevention
I also found that Dr. Ashford was professing Alzheimer’s disease prevention – even publishing papers which outlined his “Top Ten Alzheimer’s Prevention Treatments”, to hundreds of thousands of people who visited his web page – www.medafile.com. So, almost by accident, I became associated with the leading short-term memory and learning performance testing specialists, one of the leading researchers and medical doctors (J.Wesson Ashford is an MD and a Ph.D.) who stands firmly behind his treatment programs of healthy lifestyle habits. Dr. Ashford professes that following his top ten treatment programs can reduce an individual’s chances of developing the Alzheimer’s disease process between 60-90%. To my ears, anything that will cut 10% of this disease out is worth pursuing – so I did.
I interrogated Dr. Ashford at great length, regarding each point of his “Top Ten Treatment” program. He readily gave me substantial scientific research which supported his summary claims. While we were talking, we mutually arrived at the conclusion that an aggressive mass communication program, aimed at informing the population about these simple lifestyle habit treatments, accompanied by an equally aggressive program to introduce individuals to the values of memory fitness testing – could be the foundation of a public service project – that ultimately supported the end of Alzheimer’s disease.
There is a complete and detailed description of Dr. Ashford’s treatment program at his online Alzheimer’s resource center, www.medafile.com but here, I will include the unedited condensed discussion that Dr. Ashford presents at medafile.com.
From www.medafile.com
Top10alz.doc 2/13/02
THE TOP TEN TREATMENTS
(under development)
FOR PREVENTING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
J. Wesson Ashford, M.D., Ph.D.
DISCUSSION
The field of Alzheimer’s disease is rapidly uncovering information for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. While much discussion about cause is still speculative, there is mounting evidence to support several ideas about how Alzheimer’s disease develops. Though there is never enough evidence to prove any scientific theory, there is frequently enough evidence to discuss a particular idea with patients and to make practical recommendations. In the field of Alzheimer’s disease, there are several such issues that can now be brought to the clinic setting. There are some recommendations based on current experience with treating Alzheimer patients or the associations between Alzheimer’s disease and other dementing disorders. Other suggestions are based on scientific hypotheses with only preliminary evidence.
1) Take your blood pressure regularly and be sure that the systolic pressure is always less than 130. This recommendation is based on the association between stroke and Alzheimer’s disease and several articles relating high blood pressure to poor memory and a higher incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, particularly in association with certain genes. There is also some evidence that patients taking diuretics for their elevated blood pressure get less Alzheimer’s disease. So keep track of your blood pressure and, if necessary, make sure that it is well treated.
2) Watch your cholesterol; if your cholesterol is elevated, get treated with “statin” drugs and be sure your cholesterol is fully controlled. First, cholesterol levels are related to arteriosclerotic vascular disease, which is in turn related to heart disease and stroke. So, this is a good idea in any case. There is recent evidence that that cholesterol plays an important role in memory in the brain and is controlled by Apolipoprotein E, which may be associated with 50% of the Alzheimer risk. Two recent studies have suggested that individuals taking “statin” drugs are less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease. While these findings cannot be considered to warrant prescription without cholesterol elevation, clearly these data give individuals with elevated cholesterol have another reason to take their prescribed medications. There has been one epidemiological study associating animal fat intake with Alzheimer risk across many different countries, but this study is not convincing enough to ask everyone to take all animal fat out of their diet. But, if the fatty chemicals in your blood are not good, you should discuss modification of your diet with your physician.
3) Exercise your body and mind regularly. There are many studies extolling the virtues of exercise. While there are no specific links between exercise and Alzheimer’s disease, there are links between exercise and health and cognition. People can get smarter by exercising. So, there is a logical recommendation to exercise to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. But, beyond this, there are recent theories linking insulin to Alzheimer’s disease. The blood insulin level peaks about an hour after you eat. If you exercise about 30 minutes after you eat, even if just walking for about 15 minutes (that’s after each meal), you might reduce your peak insulin level and leave the insulin-degrading enzyme to do its other task of breaking down the harmful beta-amyloid that forms fibrils in the brains of Alzheimer patients. There are also several studies linking education to delayed onset of Alzheimer’s disease and some recent evidence suggesting that keeping your mind active can also delay onset. Though all of these studies can be criticized in various ways, it makes sense to stay in school as long as possible and continue seeking intellectual stimulation throughout your life.
4) Wear your seat belt; wear a helmet when you are riding a bicycle or participating in any activity where you might hit your head. There have been many reports of a relationship between head injury and Alzheimer’s disease. While head trauma probably accounts for less than 5% of the cases of Alzheimer’s disease, safety can help to reduce this factor.
5) If you have diabetes, make sure that your blood sugar is optimally controlled. One of the greatest advances in medicine has been the ability to control diabetes. Patients with diabetes have a tendency to get vascular disease, and this disease can injure the brain. While there is not clear relation between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, patients who have had blood sugars that have gone too high or too low may lose memory and be at greater risk for suffering from dementia.
6) Consult your doctor about treatment for your arthritis pain. There have been several studies indicating that arthritis patients who take NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) have a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. A recent study (t’Veldt et al., 2001, New England Journal of Medicine) suggested that arthritis patients who had taken NSAIDs for over 3 years had an 80% reduction in their risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease. Because the risks of these drugs (especially internal bleeding) are so great, they cannot be recommended for routine prevention. However, if you have arthritis, you should seek the advice of your doctor for treatment. Of additional great interest is another suggestion (from the lab of E. Koo), that only certain NSAIDs may prevent the development of a toxic protein in the brain that may be a specific cause of Alzheimer’s disease (beta-amyloid-1-42). The particular NSAIDs identified with this benefit so far are ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), sulindac (Clinoril), and indomethacin (Indocin). Indomethacin may be the most potent, and one study suggested that this drug does slow down the course of Alzheimer’s disease. Ibuprofen is most readily available. However, a good recommendation for pain patients at this time is for sulindac because it is the most easily administered and has the least side effects.
7) Take your vitamins. There is little reason not to take supplemental vitamins after you turn 50 years of age, and they might even help if you have some transient deficiency in your diet (see Willett & Stampfer, 2001, New England Journal of Medicine). There is general support to take extra supplements of Vitamin E (400 international units) and Vitamin C (500 milligrams) together (once per day for prevention, twice per day if memory problems are present, and three times per day if Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed). These recommendations are based on the oxidation/free-radical theory of aging and Alzheimer’s disease and one large study which suggested that Vitamin E delayed specific end-points for Alzheimer patients by as much as 6 months. Though the free-radical theory of Alzheimer’s disease has not been shown to be causal and the Vitamin E study has not been replicated, this “neuroprotective regimen” has become a common treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and taken by many as a preventive.
B12 and folate have also been advocated as brain protective agents. B12 recommendations are complicated by the issue of intestinal uptake by intrinsic factor. The RDA for folate is 400 mcg per day, but this dose can be increased to 1 mg per day if memory difficulty is a concern and B12 levels are not low. Recent correlation between elevated homocysteine levels and Alzheimer’s disease (Sheshadri et al., 2002, New England Journal of Medicine) brings a focus on this substance and the associated intake of B12 (which is inadequate with a “vegan” diet) and folate. B12 and folate supplementation can keep homocysteine levels in check. Alcohol and caffeine intake and tobacco use increase homocysteine.
8) Discuss sex-hormone replacement therapy with your physician. There are general recommendations to post-menopausal women to take hormone replacement therapy to reduce the risk of heart disease and improve life in a variety of ways. There is also some evidence that these hormones might reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. However, one study has suggested that the treatment of female Alzheimer patients with hormone replacement therapy may have more risk than benefit. The issue of sex-hormones is of interest because these chemicals seem to enhance the function of many brain cells. This leads to another question, which is, would sex-hormone replacement help elderly males as well?
9) If you have difficulty getting to sleep, consider trying 6 milligrams of melatonin at bedtime. Melatonin is a natural substance produced by the pineal gland in the brain. This substance is produced only in the dark and may help to initiate and sustain sleep. As you get older, the brain produces less melatonin, and older people sleep less. Sleep is good for the body and brain in any case and may help to keep Alzheimer pathology from developing. There is only scant scientific evidence that melatonin helps sleep, but there are many patients and their family members that claim that it helps a great deal. A big problem is that melatonin is a health food, not regulated by the FDA, so potency is not monitored. Also, it may help sleep only in those individuals with a significant melatonin deficiency. However, melatonin is an excellent anti-oxidant and some recent laboratory evidence has suggested that melatonin may prevent the formation of toxic amyloid fibrils in the brain, and these fibrils may be the primary cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
10) If you have significant difficulty with your memory, talk to your doctor about cholinesterase inhibitors. Several drugs from this class, including tacrine (Cognex), donepezil (Aricept), rivastigmine (Exelon), and galantamine (Reminyl), have been approved by the FDA for treating Alzheimer patients with mild dementia. While the primary evidence suggests that these drugs have only a modest benefit on cognition, there have been several studies that have suggested that these drugs may slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Note that these studies are only suggestive, not conclusive, but many physicians agree with this suggestion based on their own observations. Importantly, if these drugs can slow Alzheimer progression, then they may have their biggest advantage very early in the disease course. While doctors are not prescribing these drugs for preventing Alzheimer’s disease, many physicians are prescribing these drugs beneficially for patients with mild memory problems. It is possible that these drugs may become a central part of preventive therapy for Alzheimer’s disease in the future.
There are several treatments in addition to those listed above that have been recommended for Alzheimer’s disease as treatment or preventive agents. At this point, there is not enough data to make more explicit recommendations. For example, a recent review of Ginkgo Biloba suggested that the recommendations for this substance “remain ambiguous” (Sommer & shatzberg, 2002, Psychiatric Annals). Co-enzyme Q-10 has also been recommended without wide support. There is not enough evidence that aluminum is associated with Alzheimer’s disease to recommend throwing out your aluminum pots, but you probably shouldn’t cook tomato sauce in them. Tobacco was shown in some studies to protect against Alzheimer’s disease, but later analyses have suggested that it is not preventive. Alcohol in very low quantities may protect against heart disease and has been suggested to protect against Alzheimer’s disease as well, but anything more than minimal use is not wise.
Several studies are exploring potential new preventions and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The “amyloid vaccine” is one of the most interesting, but the development of this treatment has suffered a recent setback because some of the volunteers trying the treatment developed brain inflammation. Also, there may be specific drugs now available that might slow Alzheimer pathology. For example, lithium and valproic acid, two drugs used to treat manic-depression, may inhibit a brain enzyme (glycogen-synthase-kinase-3-beta), which could prevent the development of neurofibrillary tangles, a late Alzheimer pathology.
Many patients with Alzheimer’s disease, including those in very early phases, have problems with depression and paranoid ideas. These symptoms can and should be treated.
Another critical question in Alzheimer’s disease, especially if early treatment can slow progression and delay dementia, is early recognition. Screening tests to be used routinely in doctors’ offices for patients over 60 years of age are now being developed and may help many patients to get help sooner.
At this time, there are many genes being uncovered that appear to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease. In the future, it is likely that specific individuals will be told not only what their risk is for developing Alzheimer’s disease, but also how they can modify their life to prevent it completely. There are so many indications that Alzheimer’s disease might be prevented that there is hope mounting that we may be able to end this disease in the near future.
At first glance, these “treatments” seemed to echo many of the basic lifestyle habits suggested by doctors and anti-disease programs. None of them seem to be difficult to assimilate into a normal lifestyle routine. Dr. Ashford is adamant that there is enough evidence in each area to merit adopting these lifestyle habits. In the near future, he is certain, researchers will complete reviewing the substantial data being accumulated and issue treatment bulletins which qualify the amount of good these treatments do. But, there isn’t much argument against adopting the healthy lifestyle habits right now.
Continuing with the Alzheimer's LifePlan Book
Dr. Ashford’s Treatment Program Matched My Parent’s Lifestyle Habits
As there had been dementia and I suspected Alzheimer’s in my family lines, I spoke with my parents and asked what their thoughts and concerns were regarding their personal Alzheimer’s or dementia conditions. I spoke with them individually first. Both had serious concerns about the other’s memory fitness, and suspected that there had all ready been memory loss – perhaps the beginning of Alzheimer’s.
As individuals they both worried a little about themselves, but each believed they had lived a live of general disease prevention. Mutually, they felt their lifestyles were nurturing their body’s health, not a disease process. That made sense to me, as I have many memories of my mother reading articles on health and nutrition as the family would drive in the car. I remembered mom and dad doing exercises – even remembering them doing exercises with Jack LaLanne’s television program.
I asked my parents if they would mind volunteering in a public service project, one that would track people in their age group, who lived by the lifestyle recommendations of Dr. Ashford. They were not interested at first, but agreed to meet with Dr. Ashford and hear what he had to say. I knew they would at least be interested in that.
My parents are quite used to being involved in my professional work. They have appeared in countless of my amateur movies, commercials and corporate films. As a Producer, I live in fear that my family will all join the Screen Actor’s Guild and charge me for back wages!
After the interview, Dr. Ashford and my parents agreed that they were both doing a good job of self-administering their personal anti-Alzheimer’s prevention programs and they would consider enrolling in the BrainLane/BLT memory fitness testing program. So, by default, my parents became the first members of the Alzheimer’s LifePlan Public Service Project – only we weren’t calling it that at the time.
Moving From the Clinical Memory Fitness Testing To My Sister’s House
Both of my parents are well educated and proficient in the technologies of their times, dad a Veterinarian and mom a school teacher. But their times did not include the computer or online connections. Our goal was to assist people like my parents who lived without computers and/or connection to online services, and the solution was closer to home than we could have imagined.
My sister and brother-in-law are both very competent computer and online browser users. They also have mom and dad over regularly. So, the stage was set for younger, online family members to assist older, non-computer literate family members into the online memory fitness testing center.
We programmed the memory fitness testing center to work like an online club. We took a section of the Memory Fitness Testing Center online short term memory and learning performance electronic medical record platform – the one used in research projects and mental health clinics – and made it function as an individual’s personal testing account. The plan was to create personal accounts where an individual could access the test through any online browser, opening access to millions of people who are visiting public libraries or Internet Cafes.
A short and easy to follow tutorial was programmed into a lobby area of the Alzheimer's LifePlan online workshop programs. My brother-in-law has had a career of working for IBM in the area of system integration; he was very helpful in “smoothing” the tutorial’s flow and understanding. In the end, the tutorial became an online documentary video and web page channel, showing him “train” my mother and father to take their own memory tests and establish their personal testing accounts – empowering them to monitor their memory fitness going forward.
It worked! Both mom and dad were situated in front of the computer that had a test loaded into it. There was the “OK” on the screen, and my brother-in-law instructed them to depress the spacebar when they wanted to start the test. He repeated the instructions, “When you want to start, depress the space bar. An image will appear, don’t do anything. If you see an image repeat – show again – depress the space bar. If the image is not a repeat, don’t do anything and a new image will appear in three seconds.”
They understood the first time through, both scoring 96.15%, meaning they missed one image, on their first tests. They each took three more tests in their first session and that introduced them to the concept of establishing their personal baseline or test result history.
It was incredible to watch my parents learn something that was so technical. The mere fact that they were successful in working with a computer gave them a certain exuberance that I hadn’t seen in them for years. Another interesting thing to note was that they had fun taking the test and challenged each other. And the thing I can’t put a value on was the look of relief they had after scoring 100% three times in a row – a clear indication that they have strong cognitive reasoning and short term memory functions.
So, in their mid-eighties, my parents finally had a new peace of mind regarding their personal health. They had really been testing their lifestyle habits against the statistical odds that face them. Their age group is developing Alzheimer’s at a rate of 50% a year. Doctors like J Wesson Ashford, are telling them that their group – the group living an anti-disease lifestyle, are developing Alzheimer’s at a much lower rate. The question is immediately raised – are my parents the living and scientific proof that Alzheimer’s can be prevented through healthy lifestyle habits? And that takes us to the Alzheimer’s LifePlan.
The Concept of Ending Alzheimer’s
After this first round of Alzheimer’s research and development of the memory testing services, it seemed possible to organize a mass communication campaign that would educate people while introducing them to tools they could use to develop their personal Alzheimer’s management programs.
Doctors and researchers have evidence that simple treatments and healthy lifestyle habits will greatly reduce the incident of Alzheimer’s in our society. We also know that memory fitness testing is an effective way to establish an individual’s normal ability to form short term memories. How hard would it be to develop a population based public service project that would promote prevention and memory testing?
Next to impossible.
Why?
Because the project would be starting at ground zero. There would be no access to the population and no archive of historical evidence/promotion to attract credibility or attention to the new findings or memory testing services.
That realization prompted me to approach those organizations providing the most support and information regarding Alzheimer’s disease. I was amazed to see they had no comfort in mentioning that healthy lifestyles could prevent the disease from developing, or, that they could even prolong the health of the individuals. The reasons they gave for this was that the research community had not posted conclusive evidence that healthy diet, nutritional, physical and mental exercise would be effective as an Alzheimer’s prevention platform. They agreed there was mounting evidence, but were hesitant to even mention the research that was going on.
The medical doctors in their clinics were even more doubtful regarding any “natural” treatment being effective against Alzheimer’s. This was sad but understandable. For over 100 years, the doctors have had to deal with the patients of this disease – and they have not had one drug or “cure” to assist them that altered the pathology of the disease in any way. Instead, they have had to fend off a thousand “hopes” or “cures” that proved to be false, and that has made them suspicious of all promise.
In fact, there are now three or four FDA drugs that do slow the disease process – prolonging the victim’s memory fitness for a time. These drugs are not universally understood by the medical doctors, and the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are very hard to diagnose (especially if the patient has no memory fitness testing record). Another cold truth about these drugs is that they are most effective if they are administered in the earliest stages of the disease – the precise time that usually goes undetected by doctors.
So, we became a small band of renegade crusaders. Our investigation disclosed valuable information that was not well circulated within the Alzheimer’s family. We wanted to make a difference and decided our efforts would at least bring new hope and enthusiasm to the very individuals who need to know about Alzheimer’s – you.
The members of the original End Alzheimer’s 2012 Task Force convened in late 2001 and reviewed all of what was known about the disease process, the medical and care giving industries, the research and treatment development efforts, and the estimated amounts of money that would be needed to end Alzheimer’s; developing what is now the Alzheimer’s LifePlan Public Service Project.
The Alzheimer’s LifePlan Public Service Project is really a mass communication campaign. Information about the disease process, the technologies used to diagnoses or analyze and treat, as well as the development of treatment platforms must all be presentable to the population. I promoted that if prevention was the best and most valid of treatment platforms for the disease process – the best “cure” would be well a well informed population. Of equal importance was that the population will not adopt something into their personal lifestyle habits if it doesn’t make sense to them or they don’t understand the alternatives of not adopting healthy lifestyles. And lastly, the research and effective treatments being developed need funding as well as promotion. The populations and doctors need to move in harmony towards applying the best treatments to the patient in the best of timing.
The three pillars of the Alzheimer’s LifePlan were formulated to be:
- Prevention – Healthy lifestyle habits are the most effective treatment an individual can self-administer to reduce their chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
- Memory Fitness Monitoring – Establishing the normal memory fitness of an individual can be an effective way to monitor for any decrement of short term memory formation.
- Treatment – Effective detection and aggressive adoption of lifestyle habits and the FDA approved drugs will slow the disease process. As more effective treatments are developed they must be rushed to those who show the early s
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