Can a combination of physical exercise, a Mediterrainean diet, music therapy, social interaction and cognitive challenges stave off Alzheimer's disease?
A new project--the Cognitive Fitness and Innovative Therapies--is trying to determine if the onset of the disease can be delayed, perhaps indefinitely. It focuses on dementia as preventable, which is so much nicer than thinking of dementia as inevitable.
"By the time someone walks in my door with symptoms of the disease, it's too late," Dr. Kenneth S. Kosik told the Wall Street Journal. He is co-director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He says people should start efforts to prevent the disease in their 50s.
Alzheimer's, a progressive brain disorder that accounts for the majority of dementia cases, affects some 5.3 million Americans. Doctors don't know for sure what causes it, but genetics and age likely play a role.
Lots of research has connected exercise to an improvement in cognition, some showing a protective effect and some showing that cognitive declines can be slowed.
Read the Wall Street Journal article.
Read the abstract from Archives of Internal Medicine about "Resistance Training and Executive Function" from January 2010.
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