Promising Study: Lifestyle Changes Show Improvement in Alzheimer’s Symptoms
Reflecting on the past, Tammy Maida, a 67-year-old resident of San Jose, California, noticed significant changes in her late 40s.
Initially, she found herself losing her belongings: keys, a ring, glasses, and even her purse.
Trips to the grocery store became problematic as she forgot where she parked. In her own home, groceries were left in odd places, and her husband, Paul, sometimes found them in the garage.
Maida, a lifelong avid reader, gave up books because she couldn’t remember the final chapter or the main characters.
“I truly believed I was losing my mind, and the terror of losing my sanity was overwhelming,” she confided to CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, during the CNN documentary “The Last Patient of Alzheimer’s.”
Today, however, Maida has returned to reading short stories and managing the family’s finances once again.
Similarly, another individual, Mike Carver, 71, received an early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis at age 64 while working as a business executive.
He was told to get his affairs in order, with little hope for the future.
Carver later discovered he carried both copies of the APOE4 gene, known for its significant genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Yet today, Carver manages the family finances and monitors investments once more.
Regaining these activities brought back a sense of self-worth that seemed lost.
So, how did Maida and Carver reclaim what dementia seemingly took from them?
The answer lies in their participation in what researchers called the first randomized controlled clinical trial using lifestyle interventions to show cognitive improvement in individuals with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.
‘A study to give us hope’
The study, published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy, was limited, involving only two dozen participants who received treatment and a comparable number serving as controls over a brief five-month period.
Although not all participants showed improvements, notable changes were observed in some individuals and their families.
Cognitive abilities for most in the intervention group remained stable, contrasting with the decline seen in the control group.
Ten participants showed cognitive improvements, with a blood test revealing reduced levels of amyloid, a key indicator of Alzheimer’s disease, reported Dr. Dean Ornish, clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead author of the study.
“This study offers hope,” noted Maria Shriver, journalist and founder of the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement at Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, which initially funded the research.
Shriver emphasized that the study provides scientific validation for what many in the field intuitively believe: lifestyle interventions can significantly influence the trajectory of Alzheimer’s disease.
Despite its short duration, the study’s results were significant, said study co-author Rudy Tanzi, Alzheimer’s researcher and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
He likened the situation to a sink full of water: “If you want amyloid to go down in 20 weeks, as we found in a blood test, you’ll need a Roto-Rooter.”
The study provided participants with an intensive, multifaceted lifestyle intervention, with the highest levels of commitment yielding the most substantial results.
This intervention was based on Ornish’s well-known program, which encouraged individuals to “eat well, move more, stress less, and love more.”
Lifestyle interventions and their impact
Ornish’s program has shown benefits in various randomized clinical trials since 1990, demonstrating that coronary artery disease could often be reversed with a combination of diet, exercise, stress reduction, and social support.
Subsequent studies indicated that these four elements could also reduce blood sugar and heart disease risk, slow the growth of prostate cancer cells, improve depression, and lower “bad cholesterol.”
This raised the question: if these lifestyle changes benefit heart health, could they also positively affect the brain, especially regarding Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias?
“If we found that patients showed no improvement, that would be disappointing but crucial information—people deserve to know,” said Ornish.
“However, if we discovered that we could potentially slow down, stop, or even reverse the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, it would be a significant breakthrough.”
Study parameters and methods
Ornish, along with colleagues from other reputable academic institutions, began enrolling patients in this groundbreaking study.
Despite initial delays due to COVID-19, the team adapted by offering the intervention via videoconferences, thus increasing accessibility.
A total of 51 participants were randomized into two groups.
One group followed a vegan diet, engaged in daily aerobic exercise, practiced stress-reduction techniques, and participated in online support groups for 20 weeks.
The control group did not follow these protocols.
Nutritional guidance, exercise routines, stress management techniques, and community support formed the core of the intervention.
Participants assigned to the intervention group received daily supplements consisting of a multivitamin, omega-3 fatty acids containing curcumin, coenzyme Q10, vitamin C, vitamin B12, magnesium, a probiotic, and lion’s mane mushroom.
To ensure adherence to the vegan diet, meals and snacks were delivered to participants’ homes.
Their diet consisted primarily of complex carbohydrates from whole grains, vegetables, fruits, tofu, nuts, and seeds, with strict limitations on protein and total fat intake.
Sugar, alcohol, and refined carbohydrates were discouraged.
Observing the results
After five months in the program, the results revealed improvements, though varied, among participants.
Mike Carver and his wife observed health benefits beyond cognitive improvements, such as weight loss and better cardiovascular markers.
Tammy Maida experienced improvements in daily tasks and better sleep quality.
However, not all participants noticed improvements. The dropout rate reminded researchers of the challenges in maintaining strict lifestyle changes.
Experts like John Morris and Suzanne Schindler highlighted the promising, though preliminary, results of the study, calling for longer and larger studies to solidify these findings.
Conclusion: the hope of lifestyle interventions
One of the study’s early patients, Cici Zerbe, highlighted the long-term resilience such interventions can offer.
Nearly five years after starting the Ornish program, Zerbe and her husband noted significant benefits, potentially slowing cognitive decline.
Ultimately, while clinical biomarkers produced mixed results, the study emphasized the crucial aspect of daily functional improvement for Alzheimer’s patients and their families.
Ornish summed up the essence of the study: “I’m here to empower people with the knowledge that if you change, there is a reasonably good chance to slow the progression of the disease and often improve it.”
This research serves as a beacon of hope, suggesting that incorporating lifestyle interventions could help mitigate the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, thus offering affected individuals a chance for a better quality of life.
