Is Alzheimer's Actually Reversible?
What you need to know about a new study on improving memory with lifestyle
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Today we are talking about an important study published last month by lifestyle medicine physician Dean Ornish. The results of this study have been highly anticipated in the dementia field. Ornish had already proven that his lifestyle intervention program could reverse coronary artery disease. Could it do the same for those living with dementia?
Whenever a newsworthy study is released about Alzheimer’s, the media tends to blow the results out of proportion to the findings. In the case of the recent study of ApoE4 carriers, for example, the negative findings were greatly exaggerated in the news. On the flip side, the positivity of this new Ornish study has been reported with overly hopeful headlines. You’ve probably seen clips on the news that threw around the term “reversal” to make it sound like he has found the cure for Alzheimer’s. That isn’t true, sadly, but the study is very promising and definitely deserves our attention.
I’ll get into that, below, along with an update on the other lifestyle intervention trials you need to know about. I’ve put the takeaways from the Ornish lifestyle intervention trial in early dementia up top. To dig into the details, read on.