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David H. Brown

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https://dementia-monster.blogspot.com

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March 2018

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Dave Brown is a retired engineer and high school science teacher (physics, biology -- y en español) living in Washington state. He has been married to the same wonderful woman for many years. They have three sons, one daughter-in-law, and one granddaughter.

Dave has a keen interest in photography. You can see some of his work at www.dave-brown-photography.com.

When he was 65 years old, Dave was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and was told this was almost certainly the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Notably, an MRI found that his hippocampus had shrunk to the point that its volume was less than the 1 (lowest) percentile of men his age. The hippocampus is the part of the brain most key to short-term memory, and his had shrivele Dave Brown is a retired engineer and high school science teacher (physics, biology -- y en español) living in Washington state. He has been married to the same wonderful woman for many years. They have three sons, one daughter-in-law, and one granddaughter.

Dave has a keen interest in photography. You can see some of his work at www.dave-brown-photography.com.

When he was 65 years old, Dave was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and was told this was almost certainly the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Notably, an MRI found that his hippocampus had shrunk to the point that its volume was less than the 1 (lowest) percentile of men his age. The hippocampus is the part of the brain most key to short-term memory, and his had shriveled dramatically. At the same time the lateral ventricles in his brain had grown such that they were larger than the 99 percentile for men his age. The ventricles are void spaces in the brain that grow as the brain loses mass. In a room of 100 men his age, he would have the smallest hippocampus and the largest lateral ventricles.

As time progressed, his symptoms increased, his work became more challenging, and he found it necessary to stop driving.

Stunned, but not willing to be overcome by the disease, he investigated it and learned what science was saying about how to treat it. The first thing he learned was that there were no drugs available to reverse, stop, or even slow the progress of the disease. There were drugs to treat the symptoms, but people on these drugs ended up in the same place at the same time -- dead in a few years. But there was plenty of research showing the effectiveness of other strategies to stop and even reverse the progress of the disease. He tried a mix of these strategies and found that they actually worked! Atrophy of his brain was halted, and his cognitive test scores not only stopped their decline but even began to reverse. Most notably, the powerful depression of mood was reversed, and his joy of life returned.

Dave is eager to share his story, because he is certain that others will benefit. In "Beating the Dementia Monster," he tells the story of the progress of the disease and how he stopped it. It provides a lively account of his experience, what he did, and discussions of the scientific research that explains why he has been so successful. ...more

	Beating the Dementia Monster: How I stopped the advance of cognitive impairment from Alzheimer's disease by David H. Brown (Goodreads Author), Vaishali Phatak 4.30 avg rating — 137 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How I Got Here: A Memoir of 68 Years it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Spanish Novels: Comedia de locos (Short Stories for Intermediates B1)

by Paco Ardit (Goodreads Author)

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Jul 02, 2020 07:18PM

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The Screwtape Letters

by C.S. Lewis

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Jan 12, 2020 08:45PM

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David’s Recent Updates

David H. Brown wrote a new blog post What's Going on with Me It's been a month since I last posted. Is something going wrong with me? No, I'm fine. I guess that, after more than seven years and more than 550 Read more of this blog post »
Nov 22, 2025 05:10AM · like