Cognition means "thinking", or the ability to think. Of course for your brain to think, solve problems and store information, it must be healthy and functioning. Anything that disrupts the health or functioning of your brain will disrupt your ability to think, reason, solve problems, and remember. These diseases have been labeled: Alzheimer's, dementia, depression, and memory loss.

Nearly half of all diagnosed cases of cognitive disorders are Alzheimer's which is a gradual change in the neurons, or nerve cells in the brain as well as deficiencies in neurotransmitters. The other nearly half are "vascular dementia" which is damage to brain from repeated lack of oxygen, such as that caused by stroke .

Cognitive disorders are not the normal process of aging, but the end result of various conditions and diseases involving either lack of healing oxygen (as in stroke) or assault by free radicals, called peroxidation. Some factors facilitating peroxidative damage are smoking, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, viral infections, heavy metal exposure, high blood pressure, fungal or bacterial infections, and nutritional deficiencies especially of antioxidants.

In my opinion, many patients with memory problems are not diagnosed nor treated correctly. In August of 1985 I saw a 76-year-old lady who had become more and more confused and forgetful. Her family doctor had told her daughter that she had Alzheimer's. A nursing home was suggested but instead the daughter brought her mother to my office. My tests included a blood test that is still not widely used by physicians called "fibrinogen". Her level was 400 and at the time, the lab's normal values were 200 to 400. A fibrinogen level higher than 320 is a sign of pending heart attack or stroke due to narrowing of the blood vessels. This along with a few other tests convinced me that what this lady had was not Alzheimer's but brain blood vessel disease. She was treated with a variety of therapies and within three months she was much improved and began living independently until age 91!

At Dr. Steenblock's Clinic we treat the whole person. Diagnostic tests not done by your family doctor are done to pinpoint causative factors, for example, is the patient harboring high levels of mercury or lead? Is your fibrinogen too high? Is it really Alzheimer's or blood vessel disease and lack of oxygen to the brain? Other areas likely not utilized by your doctor are nutrition, I.V. therapies, ECP (see ECP section), and hyperbaric oxygen ( healing oxygen after removing any heavy metals, and ensuring high levels of antioxidant protection via diet and nutritional supplementation).