Another magic bullet from from our dysfunctional disease care “system.”

It was one of the lead stories in the May 15 New York Times (See link below), on the NBC Evening News on 5-15-12, on the CBS Morning News and most every other news agency in the United States. Yet, I have yet to see or hear a single mention of what it takes to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease in the first place. The New York Times article led off:

In a clinical trial that could lead to treatments that prevent Alzheimer’s, people who are genetically guaranteed to develop the disease — but who do not yet have any symptoms — will for the first time be given a drug intended to stop it, federal officials announced Tuesday.

Even though the study is probably five years from completion and lots of questions are still unanswered—it’s as if this is the savior for this terrible disease that we’ve all been wanting to see. It’s just like the magic bullets for obesity that the public wants. These kinds of stories always make big news, yet progress in preventing diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s seems to be forever out of reach. From the Times article:

The $100 million study will last five years, but sophisticated tests may indicate in two years whether the drug helps delay memory decline or brain changes, said Dr. Eric M. Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix and a study leader.

Alzheimer’s Action Plan. Read Chapter 10, start eating whole plant foods, share your story with people that you care about.

Powerful treatment available now. Meanwhile, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and other scientists have been talking about another solution for Alzheimer’s for a long time. And just a few months ago, Dr. Michael Greger published one of his highly-informative video blogs on this topic. As for Dr. Campbell, he mentioned it frequently in The China Study (January 2005), shedding a great deal of light on this mysterious subject—near the end of Chapter 10, entitled Wide-Ranging Effects: Bone, Kidney, Eye and Brain Diseases

A study of more than 5,000 people found that greater dietary fat and cholesterol intake tended to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease specifically, and all dementia in general.

In another study on Alzheimer’s, the risk of getting the disease was 3.3 times greater among people whose blood folic acid levels were in the lowest one-third range and 4.5 times greater when blood homocysteine levels were in the highest one-third. What are folic acid and homocysteine?

Folic acid is a compound derived exclusively from plant-based foods such as green and leafy vegetables. Homocysteine is an amino acid that is derived primarily from animal protein. This study found that it was desirable to maintain low blood homocysteine and high blood folic acid. In other words, the combination of a diet high in animal-based foods and low in plant-based foods raises the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Why is the above info not on the big news programs? This information was shared with the public in Dr. Campbell’s book over seven years ago. It has since been read by over a million people—and one of them was President Bill Clinton. And he discovered that the same treatment (eating whole plants) that cured his heart disease could also play a big role in preventing him from ever having dementia.

Why is that story not in the news every day? It’s because the pharmaceutical and food companies are paying for the ads and bringing you the news. And we all know, there’s just not much money to be made by everyone getting healthy.

Meet Dr. Michael Greger. On his site at nutritionfacts.org, Dr. Greger reported on the prevention of Alzheimer’s, now the sixth leading cause of death in the USA. Who is Dr. Greger?

Michael Greger, M.D., posted Alzheimer’s video on his new website yesterday 9-6-11.

Michael Greger, M.D., is a physician, author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues.  A founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Dr. Greger is licensed as a general practitioner specializing in clinical nutrition. Currently he serves as the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. Dr. Greger is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine.

In an article that he posted on VegSource.com back in September of 2011, Dr. Greger states:

We’ve known for almost 20 years that compared to long-time vegetarians, those eating meat (including poultry and fish) appear to have three times the risk of developing dementia. Since studies show “even moderately elevated cholesterol increased dementia risk,” the cognitive impairment more often seen in those eating meat may be due to atherosclerotic plaque building in the brain’s blood vessels, which can cause micro-infarctions or “ministrokes” that can kill off little parts of the brain the way clogged coronary arteries can kill off parts of the heart during a heart attack.

Leveraging the simple, yet powerful concept of maximizing the percent of your calories from whole plant foods — still in nature’s package. Click on image for more information.

Later in the VegSource article, he made a point that sounded almost like he was talking about our 4Leaf Program, saying that “New evidence suggests that simply avoiding animal products may be only part of the puzzle. Maybe it’s not just what vegetarians don’t eat, but what they do eat, including the phytonutrients found in plant-based diets have been shown to have a wide range of beneficial effects.”

We’ve been eating the wrong food for so long, we’ve lost sight of the magic of nature that can occur when we simply eat the natural diet for our species — the diet that Nature intended for us to eat. We now know that heart disease and type 2 diabetes can be reversed in over 90% of the cases; maybe there’s great hope for the victims of cancer and Alzheimer’s as well.

Now for Dr. Greger’s 90-second Video on Alzheimer’s

Meanwhile back to the New York Times article and all the excitement over a “magic bullet” solution that won’t be available for at least another five years.

Alzheimer’s experts not involved in the study said that though only a small percentage of people with Alzheimer’s have the genetic early-onset form that affects the Colombian family, the trial was expected to yield information that could apply to millions of people worldwide who will develop more conventional Alzheimer’s.

Ask your doctor if waiting five years for a possible wonder drug is right for you? Then ask if she/he has read The China Study. If not, get a new doctor.

Conventional Alzheimers? You mean, like the kind that Dr. Campbell and Dr. Greger are talking about? I have a few questions for the medical doctors who are counseling the millions of people worldwide:

1. Have you read The China Study?
2. Have you ever counseled a dementia patient to move as rapidly as possible to a diet of whole plants with zero animal products?
3. For families at risk, have you counseled your patients about the miraculous benefits of eating whole plant foods when it comes to dementia?
4. Are you more excited about the new drug trial than you are about the proven power of plant-based nutrition to minimize the risk of Alzheimer’s?
5. What kind of diet are you eating?

Links for your convenience

• 5-15-12 New York Times article. Alzheimer’s Prevention Is Aim of Drug Trial
• My blog about Dr. Greger’s video Alzheimer’s may need never exist.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

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J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation