Malcolm Cowley once stated:
"They tell you that you'll lose your mind when you grow older.
What they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very much."

In looking at patients with Alzheimer's Disease one might be strongly inclined to disagree with Cowley's observation.

For centuries philosophers have debated the mind-body aspect of our existence. At present science marshals an immense body of evidence to show that we - our minds, our personalities, our identities - all tend to derive from the existence, structure, and biochemistry of the brain. If we lose an arm or a leg, of course we become changed. But the root core of our identity generally remains intact. But if it is the brain that is seriously damaged, very often this root core of our identity does becomes altered.

As people age, we frequently see changes in them. Often, the thought processes appear to slow down at some point. Farther along still, and memory, too, is affected, becoming fuzzy, patchy. In some extreme cases a point is reached where there is little or nothing left of an individual's identity.

We have seen how HGH brings about marvelous effects on other parts of the body - promoting repair, stopping or reversing shrinkage in organs, and so on. Because it works at the cellular level, HGH is also able to confer beneficial effects on the brain and nerve tissue. However, where HGH can promote healing and regrowth in other tissues and cells, it is not able to bring about regrowth in nerve cells. Nothing, so far, has been able to, although there is promising research in this area. But because HGH has been shown to increase nerve growth factors, it appears at least possible that by raising HGH levels to an optimal point, we can bring about a rebuilding of brain cells.