Health News Update: Intensive Lifestyle Intervention Slows Alzheimer’s

Mark Smith • August 19, 2024

Hey there everyone:

 

Here is a new study that reveals the ability to slow the progress of dementia with lifestyle upgrades. Here are the essentials:


Conclusions


“In summary, in persons with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, comprehensive lifestyle changes may improve cognition and function in several standard measures after 20 weeks. In contrast, patients in the randomized control group showed overall worsening in all four measures of cognition and function during this time.


The validity of these findings was supported by the observed changes in plasma biomarkers and microbiome; the dose-response correlation of the degree of lifestyle changes with the degree of improvement in all four measures of cognition and function; and the correlation between the degree of lifestyle change and the degree of changes in the Amyloid Beta 42/40 ratio and the changes in some other relevant biomarkers in a beneficial direction.

 

The point of sharing this information is summarized in the highlighted section below.

 

Our findings also have implications for helping to prevent AD. Newer technologies, some aided by artificial intelligence, enable the probable diagnosis of AD years before it becomes clinically apparent. However, many people do not want to know if they are likely to get AD if they do not believe they can do anything about it. If intensive lifestyle changes may cause improvement in cognition and function in MCI or early dementia due to AD, then it is reasonable to think that these lifestyle changes may also help to prevent MCI or early dementia due to AD. Also, it may take less-extensive lifestyle changes to help prevent AD than to treat it. Other studies cited earlier on the effects of these lifestyle changes on diseases such as coronary heart disease support this conclusion. Clearly, intensive lifestyle changes rather than moderate ones seem to be required to improve cognition and function in those suffering from early-stage AD.”


https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-024-01482-z

 

So, what exactly were these intensive lifestyle interventions?


“The intervention program had four components: a whole-food, minimally processed, plant-based diet of predominantly fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and selected supplements; moderate aerobic exercise (such as walking) and strength training for at least 30 minutes a day; stress management including meditation, stretching, breathing, and imagery for 1 hour a day; and online support groups for participants and spouses or study partners for 1-hour sessions three times a week. The diet had approximately 14% to 18% of its calories as total fat, 16% to 18% as protein, and 63% to 68% as mostly complex carbohydrates. Calories were unrestricted. All meals were sent to each participant's home twice a week.”


https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/alzheimersdisease/110596?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2024-06-15&eun=g1207968d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Review%202024-06-15&utm_term=NL_DHE_Weekly_Active


Bottom Line:

 

Why not start right now to upgrade your lifestyle to avoid dementia in the first place. Today, dementia/Alzheimer’s is the 5th leading cause of death in those over 65. Personally, I do not want to be part of those statistics and I have easily and gradually implemented all of those lifestyle upgrade strategies outlined above. I hope you will join up with this worthwhile cause. Think and plan ahead, while you still can. 

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By Mark Smith • June 29, 2026
Health News Update: Pesticides, Cancer & Why Go Organic 6.29.26 Hello everyone: Slowly but surely, despite the health and food industries downplaying the risks, evidence is emerging that the long-term consumption of trace amounts of toxic chemicals can add up to some serious health consequences. “Our process-based model, encompassing 31 key pesticide active ingredients, together with an innovative stratification of cancer cases by developmental lineage, reveals a robust spatial association between environmental pesticide exposure risk and cancer incidence. In pesticide-associated cancer hotspots, exposomic profiling of liver tissue—a primary target of chemical carcinogens—uncovers a distinct transcriptomic signature of pesticide exposure, implicating a non-genotoxic mode of action that disrupts core regulatory circuitries sustaining cell identity. Collectively, these findings strongly support a mechanistic link between pesticide exposure and cancer, challenging assumptions of human non-carcinogenicity derived from reductionist experimental models. This study redefines the exposome as a lineage-conditioned, mechanistically tractable framework and shows how complex pesticide mixtures can contribute to carcinogenic trajectories, with profound and far-reaching implications for global health policy and socio-ecological equity.” https://www.nature.com/articles/s44360-026-00087-0 pesticide exposure & cancer risks Bottom Line: Whenever possible, purchase your food from organic sources including local farmers that use regenerative and organic practices. Not all foods need to be organic, and to decide which ones absolutely need to be, you can access the Environmental Working Group’s yearly list of the Dirty Dozen foods that are the highest in pesticide residues. This will also include the Clean 15 foods that do not need to be organic as they are usually grown without or with very low pesticide levels. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php dirty dozen food guide Additionally, high quality nutrients support the natural detox processes our bodies use to get rid of any and all toxins. When we consume the Standard American Diet or Westernized Diet, we are low in the nutrients and co-factors needed to support optimal detox cleansing. So always start with food upgrades as they will carry your upgrade the farthest. Remember that most chronic health conditions start 20 years before you even notice them creeping up or becoming diagnosed. What you do now is creating your future. It used to be said that you are what you eat. Another way to say that is we become what we eat…so please take good care and make sure you always put high grade fuel into your Temple.

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By Mark Smith • June 22, 2026
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By Mark Smith • June 8, 2026
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