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As a health reporter, I've not only built a career on the idea that knowledge is power, I also apply it to my own life. Knowing the science behind the best healthy foods not only informs what I write about, but also what I eat. And if there's a way to do a crunch that's most effective, I want to know that, too. But, for me, this way of thinking has long stopped when it came to Alzheimer's disease, a progressive mental deterioration that can occur in middle or old age, due to generalized degeneration of the brain, and affects an estimated 5.8 million Americans. In my mind, Alzheimer's was a chronic, progressive disease with no cure.