Before my dad passed away a few years back, he’d suffered for some years with Alzheimer’s Disease.
It was sad to see such a strong, vital man descend into belligerence and confusion, but at the same time it was interesting to see some of the accommodations he made for his condition.
For instance, he eventually had trouble with family members’ names, especially grandkids and great grandkids, so he ended up calling all of his female grands, “Little Blondie.” In fact, he really handled his decline with astounding grace and was into his 90s before many of his acquaintances realized what was happening to him.
These days, scientists think that about 70% of the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease is attributable to genetics.
This means that there are things that we can do for ourselves to reduce our risk substantially. Risk factors like heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol have been shown to increase the risk of developing neurological issues like Alzheimer’s.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news at all recently, one of the first things you’ll recognize is that diet and exercise play important roles in controlling each of those Alzheimer’s risk factors just like they do for heart disease and many other conditions.
There are a few particular foods that doctors think might play some role in maintaining healthy brains as well as healthy hearts, blood pressure, cholesterol, body weight, and blood sugar.
You might consider making things like dark chocolate, unsweetened tea, red wine, berries, nuts, leafy greens, and fatty cold-water fishes regular parts of your diet - in reasonable, moderate portions. Another food component that some doctors claim might have brain benefits is Medium-Chain Triglyceride (MCT) oils like coconut oil.
The other side of the coin is exercise — deliberate, consistent, moderate exercise. You should try to get 30-45 minutes of moderate exercise (like walking hard enough to sweat and breathe hard) most days of the week and you should try to do something like weightlifting or bodyweight calisthenics two to three times per week. If you have an active job, that doesn’t really count toward these activity recommendations —you need to deliberately go out of your way to do a little more than is required by your normal daily routine.
Something that some doctors think might play an even larger role in the progression of mental decline than diet and exercise is Cognitive Reserve. That is a $64 doctor term that refers to a brain that is made strong by a combination of unique lifetime experiences, education, diverse job skills, and varied hobbies or leisure activities. Basically, the more unique work you can make your brain do before you start declining, the better off you’ll be for a longer period of time.
So work puzzles and math problems, take a college class, write a book, join a club, learn a new musical instrument, take up a new hobby or sport, get a new job or side hustle, go out dancing, go on trips to exotic places. All of these types of activities will stimulate your brain and enrich your life but they will also build up your brain muscles which can help to buffer the effects of age-related cognitive decline.
The more that you can do to improve your heart muscle, your arm muscles, and your brain muscle, the better off you’ll be!
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Dr. Patrick Parker is the Director of the Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation program at the Cardiovascular Institute of Mississippi in McComb. Visit RoamingParkers.com to see more of what he does to stay fit, well and healthy.
