Dr. Dale Bredesen, director of neurodegenerative disease research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, and author of "The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline," has identified a number of molecular mechanisms at work in this disease, and has created a novel program to treat and reverse it.

Originally known as the MEND (Metabolic Enhancement of Neurodegeneration) Protocol, the program is now called ReCODE (Reversal of Cognitive Decline).1

"You hear things that sound like hyperbole when it comes to Alzheimer's disease, but unfortunately, they're not," Bredesen says. "It's currently costing the United States over $220 billion annually. It is a trillion-dollar global health problem. It was the sixth leading cause of death … Now, it has become the third leading cause of death in the United States. This is something that's set to bankrupt Medicare.

It strikes about 15 percent of the population, so it's incredibly common. In fact, you have the pathophysiology of the disease for about 20 years before the diagnosis is made. Many of us are walking around with early Alzheimer's without realizing it. It's a huge problem on the rise, and there hasn't been any sort of a monotherapeutic approach that has worked for this terrible illness."