U.S.News & World Report has ranked Cleveland Clinic #1 in America for heart care, 13 years in a row.

Cover Story
14 Revealing Alzheimer’s
New research offers glimpses into the brain deterioration underlying Alzheimer’s — and hope for treatment, even prevention, of this memory-robbing disease

By the year Thomas DeBaggio, a gardener and journalist living in Arlington, Va., wrote of his bleak showdown with Alzheimer’s disease, scientists had accumulated some structural understanding of what must have been happening within the author’s self-described “brain turned wild, drunk with death and destruction.”

Clumps of a protein called amyloid beta, or Aß, were probably building up into large plaques outside his brain’s nerve cells. Inside the same nerve cells, or neurons, twisted protein fi bers called neurofi brillary tangles were doubtless taking root.

Plaques and tangles have long been the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, but scientists are murky on the role of these formations in the disease. Are they to blame for mercilessly snatching a patient’s ability to think and remember? ...

Features:
20 Aftershocks of Children’s Cancer
Treatments have come so far that most kids beat cancer, but aggressive therapies can take a toll on young bodies, sometimes years later.

28 Awake on the Table
Though rare, anesthesia awareness has potentially devastating, long-term effects. New technology is helping empower healthcare providers to do something about it.

CC Profile
9 Mastermind
We pick the brain of Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon Ali Rezai, M.D., whose work treating everything from depression to severe brain damage is grabbing headlines and changing the way we think about brain surgery

Download Cleveland Clinic Magazine, Winter 2008

PDF format, 4MB, 48Pages.

I love old adages, particularly ones related to health. Remember “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”? Or “You are what you eat”? These pithy words seem to have been forgotten, which is a shame considering how true they actually are. I say it is time to bring them to the fore again.

American dietary habits have changed considerably over the past quartercentury. What this means is that we are eating emptier calories, and more of them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American obesity rates doubled between 1971 and 2000, and two-thirds of Americans are now considered overweight. This study was corroborated by a more recent study by the World Health Organization, which found that the United States ranks ninth in the world in the number of overweight people. This high rate of obesity puts Americans at greater risk for diseases, particularly diabetes, where America ranks third in the world with more than 19 million adults afflicted.

Diabetes, however, is just one health concern we need to worry about. Cardiac and respiratory failure, cancer and stroke are the top causes of death in the United States. While new treatments will continue to be developed for these diseases, the greatest impact will come from a grassroots approach in the form of wellness and prevention programs.

What do I mean by wellness and prevention? Healthy eating is certainly one aspect, but so are exercise, health promotion (such as smoking cessation programs) and wellness plans of care. All of these will play a significant role in improving survival rates. As an example, a National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute study found that you can reduce your risk of heart disease by up to 82 percent by making healthy lifestyle choices.

In other words, it won’t be that red pill that helps keep the doctor away, but that red apple.

All of us need to change how we think about medical care. What we call our “healthcare” system is a misnomer, for our current system of care has little to do with health and more to do with sickness. Today, the treatment of chronic medical conditions comprises more than 75 percent of the nation’s $1.4 trillion in medical expenditures.

As a nation, we cannot afford spiraling healthcare costs and remain competitive at the same time.

Cleveland Clinic is well-known as a medical innovator, and we will continue to lead in the discovery of new treatments and cures. But we will also do more to help keep people healthier — and keep them out of the sick care system for as long as possible.

This is good for our patients, our economy and our nation as a whole.

Wellness and prevention will be the keys to a future that is healthy, wealthy and wise.

Visit Cleveland Clinic Official Website

Cleveland Clinic, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a not-for-profit, multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation.

Today, Cleveland Clinic is one of the largest and most respected hospitals in the country.

At Cleveland Clinic, we provide our patients with cutting-edge advancements in coronary medicine, an impeccable surgical record and a world-renowned research team.

Let us care for your heart. Find the confidence to face any condition at clevelandclinic.org/heart or call 1-866-544-9616.

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