16th release date. more top stories at the top of the hour, but, first, slowing down the progression of alzheimer's disease. more as sanjay gupta m.d. starts right now. good morning. thanks for being with us. i'm dr. sanjay gupta. this morning, i want to share a story with you that i latched on to when a producer showed me films of a medical experiment. astonishing. the story got stranger and stranger. then i met the men involved and i saw what those experiments did to them. i'm going to show you as well. i'm going to introduce you to a model and actress who thought she was invincible. like was great, then she got hit by a car and everything was turned upside down. how did she recover? she'll teach us. then, the crisis in america. we call it that.

it's alzheimers disease. the numbers are alarming and on the rise. this year, there will be an estimated 5.4 million americans living with the disease. a lot of people asking about the numbers all the time. there's a new report out from the alzheimers association saying an ageing baby boomer generation will cause that number to rapidly escalate. you could guess that. they say the number of cases will increase from 5.4 million to 16 million by the year 2050. it's devastating. it's a devastating brain disease that erases your ability to remember moments, experiences and people in your life. it destroys nerve cells that allow you to think clearly. it can wipe away your ability to function like walking and swallowing. the news isn't all grim. that's what we want to talk about. what's remarbleable is while there's no cure, we learned some brain changes begin 20 years before symptoms appear. therefore, there are things you

can do to slow down the progression. i'm not talking about by months by potentially by years. joining me to talk about this from los angeles, dr. gary small. he's the director of uclas longevity center. good to see you. we have had a chance to talk about this before and you know how fascinated i am with this. you, yourself, spent 20 years researching how to preserve memory as we age. you say it is possible to stave off alzheimers disease. you say simple lifestyle changes make a difference, like exercise, for example. how so? >> genetics only accounts for part of the risk of developing alzheimers. choices we make every day have a major impact on how our brains age. physical exercise is the most compelling evidence that it can

lower the risk for alzheimers. we are not saying we can prevent it in everyone but the goal is to stave off the symptoms, sometimes for years. for many people, that may mean never getting the symptoms during their lifetime. >> that's music to lots of people's ears, i imagine. i think you and i talked last time about puzzles and word games and stuff like that. there's research that's been conflicting on this. do they improve your memory or are they actually helping to delay the progression of alzheimers? >> brain games or any mental stimulation is associated with a lower rate of developing the disease. most experts recommend that people remain mentally engaged and cross train their brain, train but not strain their brain. there's not definitive evidence that doing cross word puzzles will protect your brain from

alzheimer's disease. on the other hand, memory exercises are shown to help people with their memory. it can be sustained for many year ifs you learn the techniques. >> one of the things i started doing since we last spoke was acknowledging the stress i'm under in my life and knowing it's a challenge. i spend ten to 20 minutes a day to meditate. do you think i'm helping my brain? how does stress contribute to memory as we age? >> studies show that chronic stress can actually shrink the memory centers of the brain. experiments with humans injected with stress hormones show there's temporary impairment in learning and recall. chronic stress leads to depression that can increase a

person's risk. anything we can do to manage stress better, to do simple exercises, breathing exercises, yoga, meditation and getting back to physical exercise is a wonderful way to manage stress. i recommend people take a brisk walk every day with a friend to get the cardiovascular conditioning, pumping oxygen and nutrients to the day. they are lowering the stress level every day. >> everyone thinks about this for themselves and parents. potentially optimistic news out there. dr. gary small, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> one country with the lowest incidents of alzheimers is india. there's a notion that certain spices could prevent it. here is what i discovered while visiting one of the world's largest spice markets.

this may be one of the largest spice markets in asia. all the carts and stalls piled high with spices. just being here reminds me very much of my mother. our house was always filled with the smell of spices everywhere. she cooked these tasty delicious foods served with a healthy dose of, it's good for you. she may be right. science is starting to catch up with my mom. spices with health benefits, cumin. it wards off prostate cancer and asthma as well. the star of the spice world, that title is tumerick. it's thought to boost brain power by warding off the plaques that cause alzheimers. a chili pepper is very, very hot. i have had them. if they are too hot for you, you

can get the beneficial effects of the peppers without eating them. they put them into a body cream and use the active ingredient to help with arthritis. ginger, it can help reduce motion sickness. a health benefit of the spices we see here. i think i'm going to buy some. >> a blast from the past there in old delhi. lots of spices. a story that quite honestly was disturbing and disgraceful. u.s. soldiers intimidated, forced, coerced at the hands of the u.s. army. we'll explain. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --

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under the micro scope this morning, a story that is inexcusable. private tim joseph signed up for the army fresh out of high school. that was back in 1968 at the height of the vietnam war. he said it was the right thing to do. when the army offered him a chance to volunteer at a base near his home many pittsburgh, he took it. what he didn't realize was he was becoming a hunl test subject in a top secret program that was testing chemical weapons. the decision he made changed his life forever.

when 1-year-old private tim josephs heard about the chance to volunteer at the base in maryland, he jumped at it. >> it was like a plum assignment. the idea was they would test new army field jackets, clothing, weapons, things of that nature, but no mention of any drugs or chemicals. when i went there, it did not look like a military base, more like a hospital. >> describe it. what was it that you saw? >> everyone is in lab coats, some military doctors and some were civilian doctors. you were well aware you were a private and they were a captain and up. i expressed my concern right from the beginning. they took me aside and said you volunteered for this. if you don't do it, there's most likely prison and a dishonorable discharge. >> you were intimidated? >> yes. >> coerced? >> yes.

>> forced? >> forced. >> you didn't sign up for this? >> no, not at all. >> the tests began almost as soon as he arrived at edgewood. >> sometimes it was an injection. other times a pill. >> they tell you what it is? >> the drugs or chemicals were referred to as agent one or agent two. one test i was involve with, i was out of it all day and that afternoon, i woke up with parkinson's symptoms immediately. >> you had tremor? >> aching in the limbs and arms. numbness. >> over here in the corner. lying down and looking at the wall. >> dr. james ketchum ran many of the experiments. that's him in this 1963 army film. he's one of the few still living. he declined to speak to us on camera, but he described his

work in this videotape deposition. >> in general we were looking for intelligent, healthy, well behaved, patriotic volunteers. >> in all some 7,000 military volunteers or more were part of chemical tests at edgewood from 1955 to 1975, like the one shown here in this army film taken at edgewood. the military tested at least 250 chemical and biological agents during the cold war, including potentially lethal nerve agents like vx, incapacitating drugs like bz, tear gas, barbituates, tranquilizers, narcotics, and hallucinogens. >> lsd. >> this army film shows soldiers performing drills under the influence of lsd. >> the volunteers have several times.

five minutes later severe dpee mregs prevented them from taking part in the tets. >> swroerz were told to not tell anyone who happened at edgewood. >> the whole thing stinks. >> this attorney is suing the department of defense and the department of veteran affairs on behalf of edgewood veterans. what do you hope to get for them? >> nothing for themselves out of this case other than perhaps medical care. they are not going to get money. they were mistreated and they don't want to let it be swept under the rug and have everyone die and never see the light of day. it's why they are doing it. >> tim josephs says he has had parkinson's-like symptoms on and off throughout his life. >> do you think his parkinson's is related to the tez he underwecht at edgewood? >> those substances affect the same region of the brain. tim clearly had adverse -- they gave him such high doses that he ranged from overdose with one

substance to the an dote back and forth, and he actually had to get a very powerful antipsychotic drug because he flipped out. >> at what point does an 18-year-old kid think this is for life? what they are doing to me is going to affect my health for the rest of my life? >> things were different then. you believed in your government and wouldn't believe they would give you something to harm you intentionally. >> i tell you, we wanted to talk about the lawsuit with the v.a. and defense department. citing pending litigation, they declined to be interviewed on camera, but did offer this written statement instead. the department of defense said it has made it a priority to identify all service members exposed to chemical and biological substances. the v.a. says they have offered free medical evaluations to thousands of veterans. tim joseph's case and the case of other edgewood volunteers is now expected to go to trial next

year. coming up, a former model, former actress, young and healthy, then suddenly, she got hit by a car. if you don't think it can happen to you, neither did she. she tells the story with a sense of humor and brutal honesty as well. that's next. a good strategy. the same goes for my retirement. with the plan my financial advisor and i put together, a quick check and i know my retirement is on course. [ male announcer ] with wells fargo advisor's envision plan, you always know where you stand. in fact, 93 percent of envision plan holders say they will retire on their own terms. get started on the plan you need today -- wells fargo advisors. together we'll go far. and then treats day after day... well, shoot, that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt! [ male announcer ] treat your frequent heartburn by blocking the acid with prilosec otc. and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

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honey nut cheerios. you know, we all know people in their 20s or 30s who think they are invincible. hogan did as well, once upon a time. eight years ago, she was chasing a dream in new york city. a former model, auditioning for acting roles and by night working in some of the city's hottest clubs. one day crossing the street she was hit by a car. she almost died, but it's funny how things turn out sometimes. it launched her on this entirely new career as a writer. she has this book called "hot cripple." you have to receipted this book. hogan now joins me from new york.

i really enjoyed the book. i really appreciate you talking to >> the car was doing the wrong way down the one-way street going about 40 miles per hour. my head took out the entire windshield and then they slammed on the brakes and i went flying about ten feet. >> you had injuries to your neck, your back, your knee, a severe concussion, long-term effects. you were unable to work. i know at the time you were trying to do various jobs. how did -- what happened next? someone who's so injured, what did you do to try and just live? >> well, i ended up on food stamps, medicaid, social security disability. i had to borrow money from these loan shark-type people that loan people money against their settlements because i couldn't work and i had to survive and

try to get better. >> and think i remember reading it was your lawyer who suggest you sign up for food stamps and medicaid. why didn't you think of that? was that something that had ever crossed your mind? >> it had never crossed your -- my mind. i remember saying to my lawyer, isn't that for -- isn't medicaid for old people? no. medicare is for seniors, medicaid is for poor people. it was just not something i knew a lot about. >> you're an actress, you're a writer. eventually you turned this whole experience of yours into a play. i'm just warning from a human sort of resilience substantiate point, you were really beaten down by what happened to you. how did you decide, you know what? let's shift directions here and turn this misery into something else. >> i had to figure out how to turn the lemons life had given me into lemon margaritas, so to

speak. and the only way i knew how to do that, being an actress, was to, you know, perform it. and so i wrote a one-woman show. i had never written anything before. and i decided that, you know, i'd play 25 different characters, which is kind of schizophrenia and narcissism all wrapped into one. and i put it up at the new york fringe festival. i didn't know how it would go over. i didn't know if people would find my story boring. i had no idea. but it turned out to be a big hit. people would come up to me after the show talking about their health care, welfare nightmares. i ended up winning the fringe festival, best actress award there. that was pretty nice. >> that's coming full circle. >> that's the only way i knew how to process. >> it's a great book. called "hot cripple." i don't know how long it took you to come up with that. i appreciate you joining us.

i'm glad you're doing much better. good luck. let's talk again sometime. >> okay. thank you so much. you have a good day. >> you, too. and up next, a doctor who's offering his patients a taste of his own medicine. remember dr. scott zahn? last year, he took part in our fit challenge. this year, he decided to organize his own challenge. he'll tell us about it. that's next. helps lock in scalp moisture for hair that's up to 100% flake-free. head & shoulders active sport for men. wash confidence in. i care about my car because... i think it's a cool car. i think it's stylish and it makes a statement at the same time. and i've never had a car like that. people don't totally understand how the volt works. when the battery runs down the gas engine operates. i don't ever worry about running out of battery power... because it just switches over to my gas engine. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i love my chevy volt and i've never loved a car. ♪

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for a day free of pain. [ female announcer ] try aleve d for strong all day sinus and headache relief. you might remember dr. scott zahn from last year's fit nation challenge. he joined our team in part to become a role model for his own patients. he shed 50 pounds in the process. he also dropped three medications. and he's doing something else. he's inspiring those around him to try, too. scott joins me now via skype from green bay, wisconsin. you've got your own challenge, which i love. where did you get the idea for that? >> well, we kind of stole it from you guys.

which we did and bring it back home. >> i think it's great. and how hard was this? this idea, again, of trying to get other people to join you to do a triathlon. what was the reaction from your colleagues, your friends, your employees that are doing this with you? >> well, it actually wasn't that hard when they saw what had happened to me, the transformation i had made. so a lot of people were very excited about trying it themselves. we had about 50 employees that had applied. it was hard to pick just sock of them to be part of our six-pack. >> it's interesting because we try and get people, obviously, from around the country to sign up for this and we have people submit videos. why did you hear from your co-workers that they were signing up for this? what seemed to be the overarching goal? >> the stories that i heard locally were a lot of the same ones that you guys saw at the national, the lucky seven for this year, you know, wanted to change their lives, wanted to kind of restart things. they used to be healthy but

weren't anymore, wanteding to get off medications, lose weight, lead a healthier lifestyle. >> one of the things we talk about quite a bit is using this lifestyle as medicine. you got off medications yourself and i think a few of your triathletes have a history of heart disease or have heart disease. how does that work out for them? what are they doing and what do you tell them as a doctor? >> as a doctor, i tell them that it's something that they can certainly do. look at me as an example, getting off of three medications and still able to stay off of them. the people in the six-pack here, they're also having that same goal, to get off of medications, get off cholesterol medicine and blood pressure medicine. so far with the weight loss they've seen, it looks like they're going to be able to do that as well. >> i appreciate you playing it forward, so to speak, so the people that are watching can think about starting their own teams. nothing better to keep you mote

v vated than to have a people pushing you along a little bit. >> and it's always better as a team. if you have people going forward as a team, you achieve your goals much better. >> i'm proud of you, dr. scott zahn. you're a role model for a lot of people out there. good luck. we'll see you soon. >> sounds good. have a great day, sanjay. stress, you know, we all have it. but internalizing it, that's a problem. that can have a negative impact on your body. this has been studied. you get headaches, heartburn, even high blood pressure. so do you want to live life to 100? find some time today to laugh, a big belly laugh. it will be the most memorable part of your day and also laughter is a great way to relieve some of that stress. studies show that even faking laughter has a positive impact on your stress level and overall happiness. hope that helps. that's going to wrap things up for us this morning. next week is a really big week for me. my first novel "monday mornings" is being published on tuesday. in it i fwet a chance to pull back the