Steps to Reverse Cognitive Decline

When we think about chronic disease, it’s not uncommon to focus on heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. These illnesses affect the lives of so many families and duly get a lot of attention in the health and medical world. But there’s another chronic condition that is growing at a rapid pace and it would behoove us all to begin taking preventative steps now to make sure it doesn’t become part of our life story. This condition is neurodegeneration and it shows up in the form of illnesses such as dementia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to name a few.

Neurodegenerative illnesses are very much linked to diet and lifestyle. For example, they are finding that a high dietary intake of sugar is a big driver of neurodegeneration and, in fact, health experts are beginning to refer to Alzheimer’s as type 3 diabetes because of its close link with metabolic health. There was a study published in the medical journal “Medscape” that showed out of six lifestyle factors that were part of the study, healthy diet had the strongest protective effect on memory. You can find the study here.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder involving brain cells that produce dopamine. With this disease, the alpha-synuclein brain cells that are responsible for releasing dopamine are abnormally shaped and form masses known as Lewy bodies. These Lewy bodies end up destroying dopamine neurons, which are the neurons that regulate movement.

Alzheimer’s disease, like Lewy bodies in Parkinson’s, also has a mass that forms in the brain called amyloid plaque. Amyloid itself is actually a protective response to a variety of insults to our brain, including insulin resistance, inflammation, toxins, infections, and inadequate levels of nutrients. Therefore keeping our bodies clean by feeding it the nutrients it needs, starving it of toxic foods, thereby reducing inflammation and insulin resistance, is the best thing we could do for ourselves. Neurodegeneration, like many diseases, begins decades before symptoms ever show up, so prevention is key.

In functional medicine, we understand that food is foundational and the foods you eat on a daily basis can either fuel disease or optimize health. So I want to dive into the lifestyle factors that are scientifically proven to help decrease your risk of neurodegenerative disease — they are something we should all be aware of.

What you can do

1. REDUCE SUGAR

One of the greatest and most potent things you can do to prevent neurodegenerative diseases is to cut out (or at a minimum, cut down) on sugar. I write about the dangers of sugar all the time, and brain health is just one of the many parts of the body that can be damaged by it. There’s a known link between insulin resistance and dementia and insulin resistance and Parkinson’s disease. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that even in people without diabetes, an above normal blood sugar is associated with an increased risk of developing dementia. A similar study regarding Parkinson’s was published in the Parkinson’s Foundation journal.  You can read the article here.

The fastest way to lower blood sugar is by cutting back your intake of highly refined grains and carbohydrates, especially foods with added sugars such as sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, cane sugar, corn sweetener, raw sugar, syrup, honey or fruit juice concentrates. Shifting to a healthier diet with more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains and cutting back on highly refined grains (‘whole’ wheat bread, cookies, cakes, cereals) can also greatly help.

2. MEDITERRANEAN DIET 

The Mediterranean diet is an easy and extremely effective way to maintain heart health, prevent diabetes, and boost brain health due to its nutrient density and low sugar impact. For example, one study on 116 people showed that those eating a Mediterranean diet had thicker cortical brain regions, which are regions in the brain that shrinks in people with Alzheimer’s disease. The Mediterranean diet consists of foods rich in polyphenols such as fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy fats with a high omega 3 content from sources like fatty fish and extra virgin olive oil.

Extra virgin olive oil contains approximately 36 phenolic compounds which enter the brain and produce neuroprotective effects through their antioxidant, antiapoptotic, and antiinflammatory activities. Taking 20mls a day of extra virgin olive oil has been shown to reduce amyloid plaque in Alzheimer’s patients because it contains a polyphenol called oleocanthal, which is shown in many ongoing studies to enhance amyloid clearance from the brain. The publication is availble here.

3. AVOID HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE 

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for dementia and it’s common for people with Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain to also show vascular damage. Long-term research studies have demonstrated that high blood pressure in mid-life is a key factor that can increase your risk of developing dementia in later life, particularly vascular dementia. These findings highlight a lifelong approach to good health as the best way to lower your risk of dementia. There are plenty of lifestyle factors that can help you reduce blood pressure, including cutting down on caffeine, reducing sodium in your diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing stress.

4. MIND DIET

Speaking of the Mediterranean diet and blood pressure, there’s actually a diet that’s specifically designed to combine the two to help slow neurological decline and prevent neurodegenerative diseases like dementia. It’s called the MIND (Mediterranean Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay). The diet limits foods like red meat, sweets, cheese, dairy, trans fats, and fast food and encourages:

• Leafy green vegetables, at least 6 servings/week
• Other vegetables, at least 5 servings/day
• Berries, at least 3 servings/week
• Whole (not refined) grains, 3 servings/week
• Fish, 2-3 servings/week
• Poultry, 2 servings/week
• Beans, 3 servings/week
• Nuts, 5 servings/week
• Extra Virgin Olive oil, 20mls a day

This diet is extremely effective at preventing dementia. For example, one analysis found that after an average of 4.5 years, people who adhered closely to the diet had a MIND 53% reduced rate of Alzheimer’s disease compared to those who did not follow the diet closely.

5. KETO DIET FOR PARKINSON’S

Multiple studies have shown the ketogenic diet – a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet – to create a significant improvement in Parkinson’s. This is likely due to the fact that certain ketones produced by your body when in ketosis have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and act as fuel for neurotransmitters, which can protect against further neurodegeneration. One study in particular found that Parkinson’s symptoms improved by 43% after just one month of eating a ketogenic diet!

6. MOVE YOUR BODY

A review of existing research showed that regular exercise can reduce the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s by 30 to 40 percent. You can also help to lower your blood sugar by exercising and, if needed, losing weight. Try to get 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity, such as brisk walking. If that’s daunting, know that even a little activity can make a big difference in lowering blood sugar levels. Short but frequent walking breaks—as brief as a minute and forty seconds every half hour—can lower blood sugar, as can taking a walk after a meal.

It can be really overwhelming and even scary to talk about neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinsons, but knowledge is power. Just being aware of the lifestyle links to these diseases can inspire us to eat less sugar, get out and walk a little more often, and choose that fatty fish instead of the hamburger and fries.