Mind Alive Blog

Test could detect mind-destroying disease up to years before symptoms appear.

A simple blood test that could predict Alzheimer’s Disease up to 10 years before the onset of symptoms could in time be on the market. This breakthrough follows the discovery that a key protein called “clusterin” rises in the human body several years before the symptoms of Alzheimer’s actually appear.

Scientists at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College in London made the discovery that high levels of clusterin were associated with more rapid and severe memory loss than with normal age-related cognitive decline.

Comments from Rebecca Wood, the chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, viewed a simple Alzheimer’s blood test as a “Holy Grail” for dementia research. The Alzheimer Society of Canada website states that 280,000 Canadians over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease. The 2009 Alzheimer Report claims that over 35 million individuals worldwide are inflicted with either Alzheimer’s or another type (ischemic) dementia and that the number is increasing.

"The information in the 2009 World Alzheimer Report makes it clear that the crisis of dementia cannot be ignored," says Debbie Benczkowski, Interim CEO of the Alzheimer Society of Canada. "Unchecked, dementia will impose enormous burdens on individuals, families, health care infrastructures, and global economy."

The up-side to knowing that one is on the way to developing dementia is that the inflicted person has time to get his/her life in order. The down-side is that the person could instead, become inflicted with psychosomatic cognitive decline. In relation to the fear of knowing, a 1996 study by Levy revealed that when seniors were given subconscious cues which activated positive stereotypes of aging, their memory and self-reliance in remembering improved and when they were given negative subconscious cues, their memory and self-reliance in remembering worsened.

Audio-visual Entrainment (AVE) Research

To date Mind Alive Inc., has completed two studies on seniors with cognitive decline. The first study by Budzynski & Budzynski in 2000 showed that the DAVID systems effectively reduced cognitive decline in seniors from two seniors’ homes. Within that study was a senior woman with rapidly progressing Alzheimer’s. QEEG data was collected from her before and following AVE treatment and was analyzed by Leslie Sherlin, PhD., and presented at the AAPB Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

What they found was that the progression of her dementia was halted following the first AVE session and reversed slightly throughout the entire study. Unfortunately, they didn’t continue with long term follow-up, but at least found that the improvements persisted throughout the entire 2-month study. AVE intervention could have huge implications; firstly as a prophylactic against dementia and secondly as a means to at least slow the progression, thus buying time to get one’s life in order.

The second study by Mind Alive Inc involved 80 seniors with depression plus a high risk of falling. The group was given the “Depression protocol” (#C4 on the DAVID Pal) and at 1-month, the entire group was depression free and no longer at risk of falling as assessed with the Tinelli Falling Index. Throughout the second month, as confidence in walking improved, gait also improved.

To read the full article on using AVE to treat dementia, go to: www.mindalive.com/1_0/article%206.pdf.