Methods
Eye Screening
The Eye is a powerful diagnostic tool. In 2003 Harvard Medical School demonstrated that the Alzheimer's protein appears in the lens of the eye and matches the amount of protein found in the brains of patients who died from Alzheimer's.
More recently, this same Alzheimer's protein has been found in the back of the eye (the retina). It too, correlates with the degree of Alzheimer's present in a person.
The nerve layer in the back of the eye, referred to as the retinal nerve fiber layer also matches well with Alzheimer's progression. Medical researchers have proven that the atrophy (loss of tissue) in the retinal nerve fiber layer matches the atrophy of the brain as shown by MRI.
"The End of Alzheimer's"
Program
Brain Function
We measure your current cognitive functioning using advanced neurocognitive testing procedures. This establishes your baseline for current performance and allows us to accurately measure your improvement over time.
It is a non-invasive clinical procedure tthat efficiently and objectively assesses a broad spectrum of brain function performance or domains.
This testing is not just for those presumed to have cognitive impairment. Our methods of diagnosis and treatment, that complement this testing, often leads to improvement in brain function in those who are without impairment and even those presumed to be "at the top of their game."
We "look" for Alzheimer's disease.
We determine your baseline.
Our action plans improve your brain.
We "look" for Alzheimer's disease.
Immune Status
Eye screening is able to inform us if disease is present in the body. More importantly, the disease the eye can detect is often not yet impacting the health of the individual with the eye markers. This includes chronic, smoldering, often undetectable disease.
When the eye reveals disease, most often the immune system is activated. The RealHealth Clinics approach is to look at known, but often overlooked, markers that show the immune system is activated and that disease is or may be developing.
Chronic diseases like Alzheimer's seldom, if ever, develop overnight. One way to sense the presence of chronic disease, before it deteriorates health, is to look for low-grade chronic inflammation.
Tissue Health
A growing body of evidence shows an association between cardiovascular health and Alzheimer's disease. All too often, we learn about our cardiovascular health only after we are struck by the disease. Evaluating the health of vascular tissue affords three important results:
1. We are able to determine risk of a future cardiovascular event before it happens.
2. We are able to track the benefits of treatment by following the health status of the vascular tissue.
3. If we improve your vascular health, we reduce your risk of Alzheimer's or slow or arrest the progression of the disease.
RealHealth Clinics uses methods to evaluate vascular health developed by major U.S. medical centers. The methods are similar to those provided as part of "executive health screening" programs.
Homeostasis
Homeostasis is also known as "internal balance." Claude Bernard, a 19th century scientist coined the term and the meaning:
"The fixity of the milieu (internal balance in our bodies) supposes a perfection of the organism such that the external variations are at each instant compensated for and equilibrated.... All of the vital mechanisms, however varied they may be, have always one goal, to maintain the uniformity of the conditions of life in the internal environment.... The stability of the internal environment is the condition for the free and independent life."
Many of us have lost internal stability (balance). Obesity is an example and Alzheimer's is another. We measure your physiology for lost balance that includes excesses and deficiencies. An example is vitamin D that is deficient is 95% of Americans today.
Root Causes
The real root causes of Alzheimer's disease is a loss of homeostasis as a result of the many risk factors presented on the "Services" page. However, that is not the end of the story. When our balance is compromised and our immune system is activated, we become more vulnerable to disease. Consider this quote from the Centers for Disease Control:
"More than 60 million men, women, and children in the U.S. carry the Toxoplasma parasite, but very few have symptoms because the immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness."
Toxoplasmosis is an infectious species that causes disease. What happens to any of the 60 million Americans who carryToxo and also loose internal balance? They become ill. RealHealth Clinics tests for opportunistic disease-causing agents.
Treatment
"Treatment" is our disease managment program. Here we take all the information gathered in Steps 1-5, along with your history that includes both personal and medical information, and amalgamate the information into a personalized management and treatment program. We have two goals:
1. If you don't have symptoms but have signs of incubating disease, provide you with treatments and action items to prevent the disease from developing. Our advanced testing (Steps 1-5) will be performed periodically to evaluate the success of our program.
2. If you do have Alzheimer's, we use the same methods as in 1. above. However, those with the disease will be treated more aggressively and measured more frequently, as determined on a case-by-case basis because those with clinical disease usually need more pharmacological help to improve.