Am I Destined to Get Alzheimer’s? An Expert Q&A With Dr. Dean Ornish
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Maybe you have a family member with dementia, or you’ve had your DNA tested and found you carry the Alzheimer’s gene, as Dean Ornish, MD, found with his own results. The founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and UCSF clinical professor of medicine is considered the “father” of lifestyle medicine. He pioneered research showing how diet and exercise can reverse heart disease, and Medicare even covers his Ornish Lifestyle Medicine heart disease program now. Recently, Dr. Ornish spoke at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Conference in Denver and sat down with Everyday Health to share how changing our lifestyle can also help prevent Alzheimer’s.
Everyday Health: How strong is the evidence that just by what you eat and how much you move, you can change your genetic destiny?
Dean Ornish, MD: The studies that Dr. Miia Kivipelto has done at the Karolinska Institutet (the FINGER study and others) have shown that people who have dementia who make changes can significantly slow the rate of dementia. We know from Alzheimer’s, the earlier you can get involved in it, the better the outcome is going to be. So the answer is yes, there’s a lot you can do!
Fortunately, the same changes that can help prevent and even reverse Alzheimer’s are the same ones that can help reverse and prevent some of the other chronic diseases. And unlike some of the drugs, which can have really horrible side effects, the only side effects of lifestyle changes are really good ones.
EH: What are three things you do personally to prevent Alzheimer’s?
DO: Eat well, move more, stress less, and love more. That’s four things! (laughs)
[Editor’s note: Ornish and his colleagues have been conducting the first randomized, controlled trial to determine if a whole foods, low-fat, low-sugar, plant-based diet, moderate exercise, stress management such as meditation, and psychosocial support can slow, stop, or even reverse early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.]
EH: Chris Hemsworth, the Thor actor, is working to reverse his risk after finding he has two copies of the APOE4 gene, putting him at 8 to 10 times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. He’s already in great shape: What more can somebody like that possibly do?
DO: I don’t know his lifestyle, so it’s hard to say, but in general most people are not following a whole foods, plant-based diet that’s low in fat and low in sugar. He’s certainly exercising. I don’t know what sort of meditation or yoga and stress techniques he does, and I don’t know what kind of social support he has. But to whatever degree he can improve those things, he’ll be reducing his risk, and more importantly, he’ll be enhancing the quality of his life.
EH: What are your thoughts on the MIND diet for Alzheimer’s prevention?
DO: The MIND diet is a variation of the Mediterranean diet, which when you compare it to the average American diet is way better. But it may not go far enough to reverse most diseases like heart disease, for example, or many other chronic diseases. It may help to prevent Alzheimer’s, but it doesn’t seem to go far enough to stop or reverse its progression.
EH: There are so many supplements being marketed for “brain health.” Are any of them worth trying?
DO: I think some supplements can be useful. Lion’s mane is one that shows some evidence of being beneficial. A good multivitamin; any of the anti-inflammatories like fish oil (or algae-based omega-3s if you’re vegan); curcumin.
EH: You’ve said it’s better not to hide from finding out you have the gene for Alzheimer’s, or a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, because there’s hope if we change our lifestyle. But how do we stay motivated?
DO: After someone has had a scare like a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s they’ll do pretty much anything for maybe a month or two, and then they stop. Fear is a great motivator in the short run, but it’s not sustainable for most people. What’s sustainable is joy and pleasure and love and feeling good.
When you make big changes all at once, the paradox is that most people feel so much better so quickly, it reframes the reason for making those changes. When you make small changes, you have the hassle of not being able to eat and do everything that you want, and you’re not really making changes big enough to feel that much better. So you kind of get the worst of both worlds.
But because our biological mechanisms are so dynamic, when you make big changes all at once, you really do feel better in all the ways that matter to people. Your brain gets more blood, so you think more clearly, you have more energy, you need less sleep, your face gets more blood so you look younger (I just turned 70, but I think I look younger than that). Your sexual organs get more blood flow in the same way that Viagra works.
What you gain is much more than what you give up, and quickly. That’s really the bottom line.
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