Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia, a brain disorder negatively affecting one's ability to simply live a peaceful,

coherent daily life. Whatever brought joy, whatever made life worth living is lost as life as one knew it is not recognizable.

It starts slowly, insidiously and gets worse over time. Family members become unrecognizable. Books are unreadable.

Writing is impossible. A simple walk down the block can turn into a nightmare. Eventually, people with Alzheimer's

completely lose the ability to care for themselves in the simplest of ways. It's a cruel disease. As we age our risk for

developing this cruel disease dramatically increases and the current epidemic trend can most simply be explained by the

fact that we are living longer. What should concern us all though, is that it is occurring in younger-than-expected people at

higher-than-expected rates. This should be a major wake up call.

An estimated 5.1 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease in 2007.

The prevalence is expected to quadruple over the next 40 years, affecting about 107 million worldwide by 2050.

Who gets Alzheimer's? Good question. We don't know in advance who gets Alzheimer's. When we forget a word, or

misplace our keys or suddenly find ourselves driving in a familiar area but feeling lost, we wonder if we're getting it. We

even make jokes about it, but it's far from funny. It comes up from behind and surprises a vast range of people. Some we

Robinson, and E.B. White - the author of a book many of us knew well as children called "Charlotte's Web." I can only

imagine what it must be like to forfeit one's creative side, one's competency, one's reason for being. We feel sad for the

famous - but most Alzheimer's patients are people we never know. Even if they're in our circle of friends or acquaintances,

we cease to know them as they cease to know themselves.

Alzheimer's is one of the saddest things that can happen to anyone. It robs people of their dignity and their independence.

It puts tremendous strain on those in care-taking positions - family, nursing homes, and hospitals. Alzheimer's reaches out

like giant octopus arms and embraces everyone because in one way or another, we all pay for it. Unfortunately, there is

no cure for it, however, there is hope in preventing it from happening to you.

Everything occurring in your body depends on everything else. In particular, everything that happens to every single cell,

every single organ is connected to your brain. Brain health reflects overall body health. Alzheimer's begins in the brain.

Even if you are highly genetically predisposed you can make choices that will significantly lower your risk. If you begin to

make excellent choices for yourself and your children now in the areas of nutrition and exercise, and if you provide clean

air, nurturing energies, and nontoxic home environments you will raise children with healthy brains leading to healthy