The Secret Method for Growing Younger

“I’m afraid it’s not good news, Ellen,” Dr. Terry Grossman told me. “You have the Alzheimer’s gene. It’s called APO-e4.”

The year was 2010, but my mind raced back to the 1990s. That’s when I watched feebly as my mother slowly wasted away with Alzheimer’s. This vibrant, smart, loving woman became progressively more confused and eventually spiraled into a person who would ask, “Who are you?” when I walked into her room in the nursing home.

It was five years after Mom died of that person-snatching disease that my own mind starting deteriorating. My short-term memory became very fragile, and my tongue kept tripping on words–if I could even find the words. I tried sneaking around it, not asking a question because I couldn’t remember if I had just asked it, and using bumper crops of sticky notes as reminders. It scared my kids and terrified me.

Then, one day, at 67 years old, I had a wake-up call and became aware that my beliefs and programming about aging, as well as my lifestyle, were creating a debilitating life for me–and I needed to take some action. Sure, the sagging skin, painful joints, and bouts of depression added to my motivation to want to reverse the aging process, but more than anything, I wanted to keep from losing my mind entirely.

Because I had successfully used mind/spirit techniques for my career and relationships earlier in my life, I decided to adapt them to the process of growing younger. Then I added some body techniques, especially the ancient physical movements known as the Five Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation—and soon, a whole program evolved.

Strong determination and a daily checklist helped me stick to my program. And it worked! I was able to thumb my nose at the APO-e4 Alzheimer’s gene I had inherited and reverse that mental decline. Besides that, my fingers don’t hurt anymore, I’ve kept breast cancer from recurring since 1992, I’m happy, and I have the energy of a much younger woman. A facelift helped with the sagging skin. My self-help anti-aging transformation program was so successful, I couldn’t keep it all to myself, so I began giving talks and writing books.

I feel it is my purpose to help society change its views of what life can be in our later years. We’re living longer, and I found a way to make the extended life a more dynamic and joyful experience–and I reversed early Alzheimer’s, to boot. How could I not share it?