Some recent medical discoveries are pointing toward possible treatments like that described above; safe, non-invasive, etc. Research suggests that our body’s immune system can fight the effects of Alzheimer’s disease if they are working properly. Unfortunately, AD causes damage to many parts of the immune system. In fact, amyloid is now thought to be part of the ancient immune system; the amyloid plaques that build up in the Alzheimer’s brain result from a breakdown of that system.

There is a research-based treatment (not a cure) available for testing now that uses light to invigorate our natural immune system. Preliminary trials are encouraging; test subjects have demonstrated a 70% improvement in standardized cognitive assessments in just seven days. And there is evidence that treatment slows or even stops disease progression.

This is not bright light therapy

We have recommended and sold a different type of therapy light for many years. Bright light therapy employs a strong, full spectrum light to influence the circadian rhythms that control our wake-sleep cycle and can alleviate sleep disorders caused by dementia. This new therapy uses a flashing light to initiate a very different mechanism in the brain and produce a much more dramatic result.

People I talk to are generally skeptical by this point in a conversation, and I understand. I expect you to be as well; but before you dismiss this treatment as charlatanism, please read the scientific foundation on which it is based. It is a lot to ask of you to believe that a light can effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease, especially after the failures of so many drugs that have taken billions of dollars to develop. I won’t ask that of you. Not until I have provided some background.

Research teams at the brain and cognitive laboratories at MIT recently found a 50% reduction in amyloid plaques after just one hour of exposure to flashing light. The test subjects were transgenic mice∗ that were in early stage Alzheimer’s. Even though the subjects were mice†, these results are impressive.

On my desk now is a device that is designed around the principle used in the mouse experiments, but it is being tested to determine if human brains will react the same as do mouse brains. So far the human brain appears to react similarly to the way the mouse brain responded to the flashing light therapy.