Attention: Your memory may be fading and the drug pushing conservative medical establishment wants you to wait for them to develop the next “magic bullet drug.”

This in the face of the fact that Alzheimer’s is a terribly complex disease and in my opinion no one drug will ever be able to prevent or reverse this mind-robbing illness.

I was recently on a conference call with a very important organization and their Capital liaison shared with us that in this time of health care reform, representatives of the major drug companies are going around speaking to senators and congress people telling them that:

“The cure for Alzheimer’s is right around the corner.”¹

Another leading organization is not only promulgating this same exaggerated story but is pursuing drug development almost to the complete exclusion of other methods.

Why This is Important
When I first started my work in Brain Longevity™ 17 years ago by founding the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation in Tucson, Arizona (www.alzheimersprevention.org), the number of Americans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was 2.1 million. Now, according to the latest statistics, there are 5.3 million Americans suffering with it — more than twice the number.

Here are a few more dire statistics about this illness that highlight its now epidemic proportions: ²

1. Number of people with AD: 5.3 million
2. Dollars in annual costs: 148 Billion
3. Number of unpaid caregivers: 9.9 Million
4. Leading cause of death: 6th
5. Frequency of new cases diagnosed: every 70 seconds

That means that in the time it has taken you to read this article so far, approximately 5 people have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

So what do the leading mainstream doctors want us to do?

Wait for the development of a drug, vaccine, or procedure that will save us.

Follow the Money
I have before me the March 2009 issue of the medical journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of The Alzheimer’s Association. In this edition the lead article is called Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease by 2020: A National Strategic Goal.

By the way, when you open the journal to begin reading, the first two pages are filled with an advertisement for Aricept, the same drug you see promoted in expensive television ads. As a clinician I can tell you that although the drug may have a modest effect in some patients for a short period of time, its efficacy is highly exaggerated.

Indeed the medical literature states:

“Four commercially available, FDA-approved treatments are intended specifically for Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, they are marginally effective for only a minority of patients, with effects at best lasting not much longer than 1 year, and they do not improve most patients’ illnesses or quality of life.”³

I recently heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Then why is it that the supposedly best and brightest in the field of Alzheimer’s research continue down the same path of searching for the ever elusive drug that’s going to do the job?

In fact one of the priorities established in the editorial of the journal is:

“Sustained investment of resources and funds to support the mission: one billion dollars a year in additional funds per year for ten years.”

Well I think that quote answers the question of why these folks are so into pushing drugs onto an unsuspecting public. Apparently that’s where the money is.

Drugs Are Not the Answer
At the same time the medical establishment is pushing its drug agenda, it has now been reasonably well-established that lifestyle choices are a clear risk factor for the development of cognitive decline, including:

1. Age- related loss of memory
2. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a probable early form of Alzheimer’s
3. Alzheimer’s disease itself

It really is a continuum; one leads to the other.

Moreover, it is also well known that issues such as heart disease, depression, and diabetes, all lifestyle-related illnesses, are also risk factors for the development of AD.

Beyond that, we now know that cognitive decline may begin at least 20 years before a diagnosis is made and if you were to look at brain scans, perhaps memory loss begins 40 years ahead of time.⁴

Maria Shriver’s HBO Special
Drug discussion made up a large portion of the focus in the recent HBO special on Alzheimer’s disease produced by Maria Shriver, the first lady of California. Yet there were 2 interviews that were largely swept over by the media.

The first was with Carl Cotman, Ph.D., of the University of California-Irvine, who shared his research on the amazing regenerative power of regular physical exercise. To quote Dr. Cotman:

“No drug can do what exercise does.”

In another discussion, a professor from the University of Washington-Puget Sound discussed her very elegant work. She revealed that AD may be a form of diabetes and hence controlled by diet and exercise.

My own investigation and research have revealed that chronic stress is a very likely direct cause of brain cell death and, beyond that, the regular practice of a 12-minute mind/body meditation exercise can absolutely strengthen your brain and reverse symptoms of memory loss.^5,6

So here’s my question: In a time of financial crisis and need for some type of health care reform (please put your politics aside), why is it so hard to get the conventional medical establishment committed to low cost and side-effect free lifestyle interventions to prevent and treat memory loss?

I’d love to hear from you with your opinion.

Go to www.drdharma.com/opinion and share your views.

I can tell you one thing: If the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation had a sliver of that allocated $10 Billion research money, we could cure Alzheimer’s disease.

But for now, while we’re waiting for that magic bullet drug, make sure you’re eating well; supplementing your diet with B vitamins, fish oil and antioxidants; exercising daily; and using your brain in novel ways.

And perhaps most importantly, manage your stress, especially with daily mind/body exercises such as meditation.

Don’t let your memory fade away.

Dharma Singh Khalsa, MD

References

1. Confidential conference call. July 2009.
2. 2009 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures: Alzheimer’s Association, Chicago, Ill.
3. Schneider, L. A Roadmap For The Prevention of Dementia. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 5 (2009): 172-179.
4. Snowden, D. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. May 7, 2001.
5. Khalsa, DS et al. Cerebral Blood Flow Changes During Meditation. Nuclear Medicine Communications. In Press. July 2009
6. Newberg, A, Khalsa, DS. Reversal of Memory Loss After 8 Weeks of Meditation Training. Submitted for publication July 2009.

[Ed. Note: Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. is the original creator of the Brain Longevity™ program and author of 7 best-selling books including the L.A. Times Best Seller, Meditation as Medicine.  Dr. Dharma’s groundbreaking mind/body medical research reveals that meditation reverses memory loss in only 12 minutes a day. To claim your free newsletter, go to www.drdharma.com.]

For more great articles like this delivered to your inbox, subscribe to our free natural health newsletter!