Sharp Again Naturally’s founders first heard that people had reversed their dementia in late 2011 from a woman who had gone online looking for supplements to help her 72-year-old mother who had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). What she found instead were stories of people who had regained cognitive function after their own diagnoses of AD. She and her husband, who is a videographer, decided to go meet, interview and videotape these people, their doctors, family members, and caregivers.
After reviewing the research and seeing the video footage, Sharp Again’s founders felt the information was compelling enough to bring it to the public’s attention. Sharp Again Naturally was established as a nonprofit organization in 2012.
The early members of SAN began making presentations locally to groups all over Westchester County and the greater NY area. It would be another two years before we learned about the work of Dr. Dale Bredesen at UCLA and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Dr. Bredesen had been researching Alzheimer’s for two decades, and in recent years had conducted a small, privately funded study utilizing a similar multi-causal, multi-therapeutic approach. His groundbreaking results showed a 90% success rate (nine out of ten subjects) in restoring cognitive function in people with mild to moderate cognitive impairment, enabling those forced to quit or cut back on work to resume their jobs.
What continuing research makes clear is that dementia has many causes, and treating them simultaneously often produces the best results. Furthermore, understanding and taking action can often help mitigate these causes before they become a problem. SAN’s focus has shifted from treatment to prevention for this very reason.
