As we wrote back in May, Dr. Dean Ornish has been completing some extensive research on lifestyle and Alzheimer's disease. He is supplying something that has been relatively lacking in this area -- "randomized clinical controlled trials" where lifestyle is changed, and the results with respect to dementia are measured. (And, of course, compare that to a similar population where you didn't change lifestyle.) In other words, if members of a group are shown to have Alzheimer's disease, and you change their lifestyle, will the trajectory of the disease change in a meaningful way compared to others?
At the time we published Beating the Dementia Monster, we relied on longitudinal studies to make our case from research. A longitudinal study would evaluate a population and compare the incidence of the disease with the lifestyles of the people. This produced interesting results strongly supporting my claim regarding why I had improved, but these studies did not provide the more conclusive evidence of a randomized clinical controlled trial -- change the lifestyle and measure the results.
So Dr. Ornish and his team just published the results of their study in the journal, Alzheimer's Research and Therapy. It is "Effects of intensive lifestyle changes on the progression of mild cognitive impairment or early dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease: a randomized, controlled clinical trial," dated June 7, 2024. (Click here for an easier read.) It concluded, "Comprehensive lifestyle changes may significantly improve cognition and function after 20 weeks in many patients with MCI or early dementia due to AD." This is exactly what we expected to find, but there was another gem in it that was important to me.
Seven or so years after I implemented the Dementia Toolkit, I finally had a chance to get a PET scan of my brain to measure the metabolism of glucose and a spinal tap to measure amyloids in my spinal fluid. The only biomarker I had to this point were my MRIs showing brain atrophy beyond what was normal for my age. These additional tests would be more conclusive. But the PET scan showed normal metabolism of glucose in my brain, and the spinal tap results were ambiguous with respect to Alzheimer's disease. That could suggest that I don't have Alzheimer's disease.
I asked my neurologist whether the lifestyle changes could actually influence my brain chemistry and the results of these tests, but she didn't know. My logic regarding the PET scan is that, if the lifestyle changes resulted in normal brain function, they must be forcing normal metabolism of glucose in the brain. That's what the PET scan would then show. But I'm not a doctor.
The gem I found in the research is that lifestyle changes resulted in movement of the spinal tap results of test subjects to near normal values. This strongly suggests that the brain chemistry of the test subjects moved close to normal. They didn't say anything about PET scans, apparently because covid restrictions affected their ability to conduct some tests. Nevertheless, this tells me that my PET scan and spinal tap were not valid tools for establishing whether or not I have Alzheimer's disease. My MRIs are the best evidence, and they strongly support the Alzheimer's diagnosis.
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