Safekeeping Your Mind

New strategies for keeping your mind healthy and staving off dementia

Do you ever worry about Alzheimer’s Disease?

Maybe you’re concerned because you have or had a parent or close relative with Alzheimer’s.

Maybe you’ve had your genome tested—and you’ve learned you’re at risk for Alzheimer’s because you have one or two copies of APOE4, sometimes called the Alzheimer’s gene.

Maybe you’ve heard that 40% of Baby Boomers are predicted to get Alzheimer’s.

Maybe you’re not feeling as mentally sharp as you used to and you’re just plain scared.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, there are currently over 5 and a half million Americans with Alzheimer’s Disease. By 2050 that number is projected to increase by more than 200%.

Is there anything you can do about this?

The answer may surprise you.

It’s yes.

There has been an explosion of evidence, supported by rigorous scientific studies, in the last 10 years that suggest that Alzheimer’s Disease may be largely a preventable disease—even if you are at greater genetic risk.

How could this be possible?

Much of it involves a simple, healthy approach to life. There are 5 pillars of a brain-healthy lifestyle, all based in recent science and research, that have been shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.

Each one is important, but even making changes in one area can have a positive impact.

The 5 pillars of a brain-healthy lifestyle:

Nourish: Feed your brain the healthy food it needs, like whole, unprocessed foods and healthy fats, while avoiding refined carbohydrates and fried foods

Move: Build lots of movement into your life to protect brain health over time

Spark: Keep your mind active, engaged, and challenged

Calm: Reduce the stress that can damage and shrink the brain

Protect: Protect your brain from injury and harm

I will write about all of these in more detail in separate posts. But for now, the important message is that there is indeed hope.

YES, YOU CAN DO SOMETHING TO LOWER YOUR RISK FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE.

References:

Barnes DE1, Yaffe K. Lancet Neurol. 2011 Sep;10(9):819-28. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(11)70072-2. Epub 2011 Jul 19. The projected effect of risk factor reduction on Alzheimer’s disease prevalence.

Bredesen, DE. The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline. New York, NY: Avery; 2017.

de la Torre JC. Alzheimer’s disease is incurable but preventable. J Alzheimers Dis.  2010;20(3):861-70. doi: 10.3233/JAD-2010-091579.

Isaacson RS et al. The clinical practice of risk reduction for Alzheimer’s disease: A precision medicine approach. Alzheimers Dement. 2018 Dec;14(12):1663-1673. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2018.08.004. Epub 2018 Nov 13.

Isaacson, RS, Ochner, CN. The Alzheimer’s Prevention & Treatment Diet. Garden City Park, NY: Square One Publishers; 2016.

Livingston, G et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care. The Lancet, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31363-6

Middleton LE, Yaffe K. Promising strategies for the prevention of dementia. Arch Neurol. 2009; 66:1210–1215. [PubMed: 19822776]

Shah R. The role of nutrition and diet in Alzheimer disease: a systematic review. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2013; 14:398–402. [PubMed: 23419980]