Updated hopes in new Alzheimer's research

Content updated from previous publish date.

Health issues like Alzheimer's can seem to be part of life's lottery, as if we can only bring hope and luck. But as I tell my primary care patients here in Naples, there are now other considerations that strengthen the hopes.

            We all would like a new pill to push these shadows away, and plenty of high-dollar  research is underway for that. More than one in 10 Americans over 65 suffer from Alzheimer's. Just this fall, two big pharma companies announced good results from a drug that slowed cognitive decline. Confirmation and approval for use is a ways off.

            And a series of other drugs that also seemed promising have failed in the recent past. Regrettably, the field of Alzheimer's research is under intense investigation just now, regarding possibly falsified test data.

            But there's more you can do to help ward off this and other forms of dementia than just wait. You may be a little weary of hearing the "diet and exercise" mantra, but research has confirmed that those two factors really do help our chances of avoiding, delaying or mitigating the effects of Alzheimer's and other kinds of cognitive decline.

            One set of interviews with two dozen researchers and a review of relevant studies concluded that there's good evidence that some foods and diets offer real benefits to an aging brain. Harvard nutritionist/psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo told a reporter: “Many people think about food in terms of their waistlines, but it also impacts our mental health. It’s a missing part of the conversation.”

            Exercise is easily as important. A recent article in the Journal of Neuroscience about data from hundreds of people -- mostly in their 80s -- found that participants who were more physically active developed Alzheimer's less frequently -- an endorsement that confirms prior studies.

            These results weren't hair's-breadth statistical differences. They were emphatic. And it's not about logging hours of jogging or pickleball. Just an hour a day of modest activity is a good starting point.

Dr. Diana Macian is board certified in Emergency Medicine and has treated a wide range of medical issues, from a bad cough to cardiac arrest and stroke. Before joining WellcomeMD, Dr. Macian worked in the Emergency Department at Naples Community Hospital on the frontline throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

She attended medical school at the Uniformed Services University of Health Science and completed her residency at the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center. While serving throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict, she developed a passion for veterans’ healthcare issues and providing outstanding medical services to those who have served our country.