Introduction If you could protect yourself from the illness you fear most, what would it be? Cancer? Heart disease? When I ask my patients this question, I almost always get the same answer: memory loss. The brain is the very essence of your being. Every day it fires up all your senses, brings you pleasure (and yes, pain), catalogues a lifetime of memories, solves an array of problems, and connects you to the world around you. It makes you human. You can live with a mechanical joint, without kidneys on dialysis, with a transplanted heart, liver, or other organ, but nothing can substitute for a healthy brain. Without memory, we require constant care from family, friends, or total strangers, and we become a burden on the people we love the most. Like many other physicians, I put memory loss at the top of the list of conditions I wish we could permanently vanquish. Despite billions of dollars of research, we''ve had no significant cures for medical problems such as dementia and Alzheimer''s disease (the most common form of memory loss).

In the United States, we now have nearly 6 million people diagnosed with Alzheimer''s disease, and the annual bill for dementia care now tops $215 billion, more than is spent on cancer or heart disease. The number of victims is predicted to increase 200 percent by 2030, and to increase 400 percent by 2050--that''s 24 million Americans with this disease--when the cost of Alzheimer''s care will exceed $1.5 trillion yearly. On a global level, the numbers are even more staggering. In 2010 there were 36 million people with Alzheimer''s; in 2015, at its current rate, there will be 115 million men and women worldwide with disabling memory loss--a 320 percent increase. On a more personal level, if you have experienced a loved one struggling with dementia, you will undoubtedly agree it''s a disease that unravels the life of the sufferer and upends the lives of family and friends as well. Its costs are far more than financial, and it can last for years. With Alzheimer''s disease, which accounts for up to 70 percent of all dementias, the end result is the same.

It is always fatal, as we do not have any effective treatments or cures. In fact, we''re facing two urgent epidemics right now: escalating rates of disabling memory loss, and rapidly increasing rates of diabetes and pre-diabetes. As research has now proven, these conditions are intimately connected. But here is a life-changing fact: Diabetes and memory loss are largely preventable. Before I tell you more, let me explain how my work as a heart guy led me to the brain. I don''t think of myself that way, but because I''m known for my work in preventing and reversing heart disease, some people do. (I''m the author of The 30-Day Heart Tune-Up and created the PBS special 30 Days to a Younger Heart. ) It''s true that as a physician and a nutritionist, I''ve dedicated much of my professional life to showing people how to stop heart disease.

Now I want to help prevent another looming health crisis. Thirty years ago as a medical resident, I focused on cardiovascular research, though I ultimately chose to become a family physician. I wanted to help heal the whole person , not just the heart, and I was more interested in preventing people from developing heart disease than in treating heart disease itself. Decades later, when I designed my medical clinic, the Masley Optimal Health Center, to assess and optimize aging, I knew that cardiovascular disease was--and still is--the #1 killer of Americans. I wanted to create treatments that would help with its prevention, and in some cases, its complete reversal. We''ve come a long way in our fight against heart disease, and it''s possible to prevent 90 percent of all heart attacks and strokes, if people follow a simple plan like mine. If someone comes to me with existing heart disease, I''ve also been able to help shrink their arterial plaque, the dangerous inflammatory substance that builds up in the arteries as a result of diet and other lifestyle factors--and in the process prevent memory loss. I''ve studied arterial plaque growth and its connection to various lifestyle factors that accelerate or reverse this deadly condition.

I''ve presented my data to the American Heart Association, the American College of Nutrition, and the American Academy of Family Physicians, and my book and PBS program are based on my findings. Simply put, arterial plaque growth leads to heart attacks, strokes, and sudden death. We know it causes heart disease, but it belongs in this discussion about the brain because it has emerged as one of the most powerful predictors of memory loss and cognitive dysfunction, including Alzheimer''s disease. Longitudinal data collected in my clinic powerfully illustrates this link between arterial plaque growth and the loss of cognitive function and brain speed. Here''s another key connection between arterial plaque growth and brain health decline: both are closely linked to poor blood sugar control, which is triggered not only by diet but by a variety of lifestyle choices. Uncontrolled blood sugar isn''t just an issue for those with diagnosed diabetes. Many people with abnormal blood sugar levels, including those who are insulin resistant and pre-diabetic, seek a doctor''s care only when they''re in crisis. (Insulin resistance is the body''s inability to respond to insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels.

) But tens of millions of Americans are utterly unaware of their elevated blood sugar levels, caused by diet and lifestyle, and they are at much greater risk for advanced memory loss. The risk of dementia is escalating at epidemic proportions precisely because of the insulin resistance, prediabetes, and diabetes that results from out-of-control blood sugar, brought on by the Standard American Diet (known as SAD, high in sugar and bad fats, making it sad indeed). Nearly 30 million Americans have diabetes (1.2 million have type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disorder); another whopping 86 million have prediabetes, meaning they are at risk for full-blown diabetes (plus accelerated memory loss and heart disease) unless they adapt healthier diets and lifestyles. On top of that, likely one-third of the U.S. adult population has undiagnosed insulin resistance, and if you are a baby boomer, there is a 50 percent chance that you are afflicted. Our brain function hinges on normal insulin activity, but when we make diet and lifestyle choices that impede insulin from regulating our blood sugar, we seriously damage our cognitive function and starve our brain''s nerve cells.

We actually kill off a part of our brain as these cells shrink and die. That is how poor blood sugar control can lead to memory loss and dementia. The connection between these conditions is now irrefutable. The evidence is overwhelming that if we want to prevent memory loss and disability, we need to achieve better blood sugar control. Having insulin resistance or pre-diabetes can make you up to 60 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer''s--the most common cause of dementia--than someone with normal blood sugar and insulin levels. And our current health care system is set up to intervene and "help" only those who suffer from advanced dementia; those treatments, for the most part, are limited to drug therapies that have shown no meaningful success. Unfortunately, none of the current drugs used to treat advanced memory loss actually stop the progression of the disease. (As of this writing, about 200 drugs have received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for fighting memory loss, but none seem to do so effectively.

) The only solution, therefore, is to focus on methods that can enhance our cognitive performance now and to either stop or slow early cognitive decline before it''s too late. That is precisely why my results with my clinic patients are very good news for anyone with a brain. For over a decade, I have been measuring brain function and more than one hundred aspects of aging in my clinic, plus I have watched thousands of patients who follow my program become mentally sharper and quicker and turn back the clock on aging. I have the published results to prove it: the men and women who follow my Better Brain Solution--the same plan I''m going to share with you--experience a 25 percent improvement in executive brain function, improve their heart health, shrink arterial plaque, get their blood sugar under control, and have much more energy than before. In many cases, weight loss is a beneficial side effect. And these improvements aren''t fleeting. In patients I''ve tracked over the years, the changes are lasting. The key is identifying memory loss ten, twenty, or even thirty years in advance, well before you even notice that you forgot why you walked into the dining room, what your neighbor''s name is, or where you parked the car.

With my early intervention to slowing and preventing memory loss and cognitive decline, you too can experience a major boost in brain function, heart health, and energy and a whole host of other benefits. What to Expect, Brain and Body My Better Brain Solution provides all the tools you will need to protect your brain, but it''s up to you to use them. If you do, you can expect some fantastic results--including being mentally sharper and more physically fit and drastically reducing your risks for memory loss and heart disease. I will be asking you to move your body a little more and say goodbye to SAD, the Standard American Diet (filled with everyday foods like juice, cereal, and toast for breakfast; sandwiches and chips or fast food for lunch; candy or soda for a pick-me-up;.