The Doctor Working to Reverse the Effects of Alzheimer's and Dementia Alzheimer's disease is an epidemic. More than 5 Million Americans are living with the disease today. By 2050, that number is projected to rise to nearly 14 million.
By Mike Koenigs Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Alzheimer's disease is an epidemic. More than 5 million Americans are living with the disease today. By 2050, that number is projected to rise to nearly 14 million. According to the Alzheimer's Association, one in three seniors die with Alzheimer's or dementia — it kills more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
Scary numbers. Statistically speaking, someone you know or love has been affected by Alzheimer's or dementia.
It's directly affected my family (and many of my mentors). My dad has late-stage 5 dementia. I've watched him go from a strong, smart, capable guy to a shell in two years. He can't talk, walk or recognize any of us. My mom has mid-stage Alzheimer's.
Watching someone I love turn into a vegetable is my most painful life experience, and I've survived cancer.
A wise man once said; "A healthy man has many wishes, a sick man, only one."
As a cancer survivor… I know what dying slowly and painfully feels like and it's not pleasant. I'm more afraid of getting old than I am of dying.
If you look at my genetic profile, I'll get Alzheimer's, Dementia or both. It runs in my family so I'm on a search to stop it. At 83, my dad went from a vibrant, funny, working barber and entertainer into not recognizing my mom, me or my 3 siblings in less than two years. When I speak with my mom, she repeats herself every 15 minutes. It sucks. I break down into tears when I see them.
What if there was a cure or prevention for Dementia or Alzheimer's?
Seven years ago I met a remarkable researcher and physician who has become a friend, Dr. David Haase. He's a double board-certified expert in regenerative medicine. His work is based on cutting-edge research in plasma exchange, and in the last 20 years, he's taught over 10,000 physicians his protocols.
The work he's doing to prevent and reverse Alzheimer's and Dementia is based on research conducted by the Alzheimer's Association which shows that with the use of plasma exchange, Alzheimer's patients performed significantly better than with placebos and it could slow cognitive and functional decline. Because of what is happening with my parents, I recently reached out to him to see if I could be a part of his preventative work.
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You might think that Alzheimer's and Dementia are diseases of aging but according to Dr. Haase, after the age of 28, all of us are "Dementing and Alzheimering." It just depends on the rate you're doing it at and if your brain will degenerate faster than your body can maintain the rest of you.
Dr. Haase believes we are entering a time where it doesn't need to be this way. He says that most pharmaceuticals (usually prescribed for these diseases) are well-dosed poisons that block, inhibit, or stimulate by force. On the contrary, with Regenerative Plasma Exchange, you're creating an environment where the body is better enabled to do its natural job of healing, regenerating, and repairing in a way it used to when it was young, with less much inhibition. The promise is a combination of age reversal and neuroregeneration.
Regenerative Plasma Exchange is a technology-based in science that has shown remarkable success in Alzheimer's patients. It provides a longer, higher quality of life, improves mental acuity, and even increases sex drive and performance.
It's a modification of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, which has been used for many years in treating severe autoimmune disease. It's a standard medical procedure often only done in hospitals that generally costs over $10,000.
There's even more life-changing information in the recent podcast interview I did with Dr. Haase. You can listen or watch here.
A very interesting study done on mice at the University of California at Berkeley proved the validity of this technology. They took cloned mice, one old and one young, and did a surgical procedure to connect their skin side by side. In a week, a remarkable thing happened. The old mouse started to turn young again. Everything from hair regrowth to better muscle injury recovery, liver regeneration, osteoporosis reversal, and most remarkably neurogenesis (new brain cells started to sprout).
If you can get body-wide stem cells to function better, you're going to age slower and are more likely to live longer. Humans do the same thing. If you're hanging around young people, you start to act younger. It's no different for your stem cells.
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Naturally, I am excited to get these treatments myself. I plan on traveling to Dr. Haase's clinic in Nashville, TN this year and as soon as I begin, I'll share my results. The process is simple and quick. Have some blood tests done, get hooked up to a machine, and two and a half hours later, the treatment is done.
As an entrepreneur and business owner, if you're looking for a higher quality of life, longevity, slower aging, or some form of age reversal, or if someone you know has Alzheimer's or Dementia in your family, it's 1000% worth checking out.
