LIFESTYLE CHANGES ARE KEY TO EASING ALZHEIMER'S RISK

While medications have consistently failed to prevent Alzheimer's or significantly slow its progression, commonsense health activities can make a profound difference, a growing body of research shows.

"Health doesn't always come in the form of a pill," said Alan Lerner, Director of the Brain Health and Memory Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, and a Neurologist at Case Western Reserve University.

The combination of eating well, exercising, keeping mentally and socially engaged, and managing obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes can reduce someone's risk of memory decline, according to a new study from Finland. The study, presented Sunday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Denmark, is the first to examine the impact of all four factors together; other studies have looked at pieces of healthy lifestyles, but not the combination.

"The routine things, the things that are simple, have turned out to be protective," said Yonas Geda, a Professor of Neurology and psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., who was not involved in the Finnish study. "It keeps going back to the old advice from grandma."

In that study, 1,260 Finnish volunteers, ages 60-77, were divided into two groups – one that was encouraged to follow the four healthy lifestyle factors and the other that was given standard care.

At the end of the two-year study period, the group that paid extra attention to healthy eating, exercising, engagement and management of heart-health risk factors performed significantly better on tests of memory and other cognitive abilities than the control group. Researchers will follow both groups an additional seven years to see if the improvement continues.

Geda presented his own research at the conference, showing that exercise in midlife appears to be protective against dementia decades later. People who simply took an after-dinner stroll three times a week in their 50s and 60s were less likely to suffer memory problems in their 80s, according to the study.

He and his colleagues have also shown in past research that mental and social activities, such as reading books, going to Bible study, playing the piano and knitting can reduce the risk of memory loss, as can eating in moderation.

"This is really good news to society," said Geda, who has added an occasional after-dinner stroll to his own schedule. "Physical activity and mental activities are accessible to all people."

Another study, which Lerner led and presented at the conference, was the first to explore whether it is worthwhile to put dementia patients through the discomfort and expense of cataract surgery.

A group of 28 patients who had the surgery declined much more slowly than 14 people with similar vision problems who did not, the study found. The improvement was at least as large as the benefits seen with medication, he said.

"You don't stop being a person just because you have a dementia," Lerner said. "We find that really taking care of the whole person is very important, especially when it comes to sensory deprivation — if you don't perceive it, it's very difficult to remember it."

(Source:  USA Today, 14 July 2014)