The Scientific Community is Starting to Come Around

“Nothing you can do. Get your affairs in order.”

That’s what the neurologist or other doctor tells patients when there is a dementia diagnosis. It’s what I hear from so many of the families with loved ones in my assisted living home. I’ve also heard it referred to as ‘diagnose and adios’.

How frustrating. People can live with Alzheimer’s or dementia for decades. And the doctors say you just have to watch it happen.

Of course they will be happy to prescribe some medications that have a very small chance of slowing the disease down. Or other drugs for some of the effects of dementia such as poor sleep.

They just take away the will to fight. Throw your Mom or Dad into memory care and go visit them from time to time. That’s pretty much it.

Or that’s the way it used to be.

I have been blessed with seeing so many families not accept this paradigm. I see many people determined to fight, even if they lose the battle.

Some actually make progress. Some even win and reverse the disease.

Now the scientific community is starting to take notice. A recent (2024) study out of Harvard suggests lifestyle changes may help mitigate or even improve the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Of course the usual caveats are thrown in. More research is needed. It was not a large sample size (26 participants changed their lifestyle, 25 were the control group who didn’t change anything). Also all the participants had to have a MoCA test score of 18 or higher. For those not familiar, MoCA stands for Montreal Cognitive Assessment test. A score of 18 is pretty good. It means you have more mild dementia.

Yet the results were exciting.

The group that changed their lifestyles for 20 weeks saw significant improvement in 3 of the 4 tests used at the end of the study to measure cognition. One test did not show a significant improvement. All of the control group showed a decline in performance consistent with traditional ways of treating cognitive decline.

So what were those lifestyle changes the study used?

• A vegan diet (yeah I know. More on this later)

• Walking 30 minutes a day and strength training 3x/week

• Stress management including yoga and meditation. Also flashing glasses such as we use in our homes

• Support groups with a mental health professional

• Supplements including Omega-3, Curcumin, multivitamins, CoQ10, Vitamin C & B12, Magnesium L-Threonate, Lion’s Mane and a probiotic

The authors say they don’t know which intervention had the largest effect (‘more research is needed’). They kind of threw the kitchen sink at the problem to show general lifestyle changes can make a difference.

The study’s primary author looks like it’s Dean Ornish - a huge fan of vegan diets. His wife collaborated on the study as well. They don’t say what the control group ate other then saying they didn’t change their diet.

My guess is the standard American diet. Probably not a carnivore diet.

Regardless about bickering what diet is best, it is exciting that minds (no pun intended) are changing about dementia and Alzheimer’s. This is one of the largest battles a family will face. It’s really sad that up until this point most people thought you just had to surrender.