David H. Brown

Dave Brown is a retired engineer and high school science teacher. When he was 65 years old, he was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and was told this was almost certainly the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Notably, an MRI found that his hippocampus had shrunk to the point that it was less than the one (lowest) percentile of men his age. The hippocampus is the part of the brain most key to processing memory, and his had shriveled dramatically. Also, his ventricles had expanded such that they were larger than the 99 percentile for men his age. The ventricles are void spaces in the brain that expand as the brain atrophies. In other words, in a room of 100 men, his brain would have experienced the most atrophy and tissue loss. As time progressed, his symptoms increased, his work became more challenging, and he found it necessary to stop driving.

Stunned, but not willing to be overcome by the disease, he investigated it and learned what science was saying about how to treat it. The first thing he learned was that there were no drugs available to reverse, stop, or even slow the progress of the disease. There were drugs to treat the symptoms, but people on these drugs ended up in the same place at the same time -- dead after a few difficult years. But there was plenty of research showing the effectiveness of other strategies to stop and even reverse the progress of the disease. He tried a mix of these strategies and found that they actually worked! He calls these "The Dementia Toolkit." MRIs showed that atrophy of his brain was halted, and his cognitive test scores not only stopped their decline but even began to improve. Most notably, the powerful depression of mood was reversed, and his joy of life returned.

Dave is eager to share his story, because he is certain that others will benefit. In the updated and expanded second edition of "Beating the Dementia Monster," he tells the story of the advance of the disease and how he stopped it. It provides a lively account of his experience, what he did, and discussions of the scientific research that explains why he has been so successful.