Dr. Dean Ornish’s study reveals the beneficial impact of diet and lifestyle changes on slowing Alzheimer’s progression. The study involved 49 participants with pre-dementia or mild cognitive impairment who adopted a vegan diet, regular exercise, stress reduction techniques, and supplements. After 20 weeks, they exhibited significant cognitive improvement and positive changes in amyloid levels, emphasizing the importance of prevention and personal responsibility for brain health.
RESPONSE VIDEO: TIME article on Changing Diet & Lifestyle to Slow Alzheimer’s
Transcript
Never underestimate the power of prevention. This article in Time Magazine is a wonderful example. It’s entitled, change Your Diet and Lifestyle May Slow Down Alzheimer’s. And it’s a study by, uh, Dr. Dean Ornish. Many people will have heard of him. He is into a good whole plant food diet, vegan, we’ll talk about that in a minute. And uh, what he did was to take a group of people and to change their diet and their lifestyle. He says, I have a unifying theory that many chronic diseases share the same underlying biological mechanisms. He said, these include inflammation. This is fundamentally behind so many things. So there were 49 people, uh, in the study who had pre dementia or mild cognitive impairment. And for 20 weeks he radically improved their diet. They had three, uh, vegan meals and two snacks. So we’re talking about, uh, a low glycemic, low diet, keeping your blood sugar nice. And even they had 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day, mostly walking and strength training. And by the way, your muscle mass predicts your brain mass. Building muscle is very, very good. And uh, also they had some stress reduction training, meditation, yoga, stretching, relaxation. And the results were excellent. And by the way, he gave them supplements. And this is important because a vegan diet, a plant-based diet can be healthy and it can be unhealthy. It just depends on what you pick. But if you do eat a lot of whole foods, a lot of natural foods, a lot of fresh foods, preferably organic foods, it’s good. But he also gave them supplements of vitamins and mi and minerals, including Omega-3 supplements. So even though the diet was vegan, uh, they’re getting those very, very important fish oils from supplements and some lion’s mane. Interesting, um, fungi that has some cognitive benefits and probiotics. And at the end of 20 weeks, they had made significant improvement in cognitive tests. And also in just 20 weeks, they had positive changes in levels of amyloid equivalent, uh, to what these new anti amyloid medications have been reporting. But they’re not so desirable. They have some pretty terrible side effects. So if you can do it all with diet and lifestyle in 20 weeks, that’s really good news. So remember, you are the architect of your brain’s future health and destiny. So take charge of your life, take charge of your diet, make a few changes. Now the test at Food for the brain.org will show you exactly what to focus on. And as the title says, changing your Diet and Lifestyle may slow down Alzheimer’s. I would say prevent it.