Tag Archives for dementia

AARP report: 6 Pillars of Brain Health – lifestyle changes and community policies

Published in RINewstoday on April 4, 2022

The Washington, DC-based AARP releases its latest Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH) report citing strong scientific evidence that behavior changes and lifestyle habits can positively impact one’s brain health – yet many adults struggle to implement such simple changes.

In a new report released last month, “How to Sustain Brain Healthy Behaviors: Applying Lessons of Public Health and Science to Drive Change,” GCBH outlines how individuals age 50 and over, communities, and policymakers can all take steps to support brain health.

The World Health Organization predicts that the number of people living with dementia is expected to grow to 82 million by 2030 and skyrocketing to 152 million by 2050. The GCBH report notes to lower this expected trajectory it will take “effective behavior and cultural changes, initiated and driven by all the pertinent actors working in concert at all levels of society.”

The 38-page report and its recommendations are based on a review of the current state of science and the consensus of 20 experts from across the world in an array of disciplines, notes the report. GCBH is an independent collaboration of scientists, health professionals, scholars and policy experts from all over the world who are working in the area of brain health related to human cognition to promote brain health.

GCBH’s 38-page report, released March 15, 2022, provides tips to support brain-healthy behavior. Over the past six years, the GCBH has issued reports on broad topics taking a look at whether adults’ behavior and lifestyle style habits could affect their brain health as they grow older.

“While we encourage people to make good decisions, the GCBH recognizes that an effective strategy to enhance brain health must be framed broadly, and that individual choices are made in a larger social and environmental context… Simply putting research findings forward and expecting people to change their behaviors and sustain healthy lifestyles accordingly is unrealistic,” say the report’s authors. 

Calls for Supporting Positive Brain Health

In the latest GCBH report, the authors share what they have learned about how to persuade and motivate people to maintain brain-healthy lifestyles, and how community policies can be shaped to promote this vital goal. 

“We know what works to support brain health – this report focuses on how to make that happen,” says Sarah Lenz Lock, GCBH’s Executive Director. “Our experts have identified specific, practical tips to help older adults, communities and policymakers support the habits that are good for brain health. We show that change is possible, and why supporting brain health for an aging population makes good health and economic sense for communities and society as well as individuals,” Lock says.

“We describe why implementing programs designed to promote brain health for older adults makes good health and economic sense for communities and societies as well as individuals. GCBH experts advise individuals to set specific goals, be realistic about what they choose, and approach their goals step by step,” says the report’s authors. 

“We encourage community-based organizations to create opportunities for peer-to-peer coaching. And we urge policymakers to raise public awareness that people can take steps to help themselves. These and many other recommendations along with a framework for achieving change for individuals, community organizations and policymakers are provided in the final report approved by the GCBH Governance Committee,” they add. 

The GCBH report also calls for addressing the disparities in health and access to care that undermine the cognitive well-being of underserved communities including many African Americans and Hispanics.

Hearing loss, high blood pressure, obesity, and depression are among the health issues that may be linked to cognitive decline and should be properly managed with access to health care.

The Six Pillars of Brain Health

After a careful analysis of scientific findings, GCBH’s report notes that “evidence continues to mount” that people may be able to lower their risks for cognitive decline by engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors, referred to as the six pillars of brain health.

Specifically put:

“Be social” and continue to maintain and expand your social network.  Keep tabs on family and friends and don’t isolate yourself from others. 

  • Find new interests and hobbies to “engage your brain” and to stimulate your thinking. 
  • Meditate, relax, and maintain a consistent schedule to “manage stress.”
  • Don’t forget the importance of “ongoing” exercise” and schedule at least 2.5 hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week.  
  • Achieve “restorative sleep” by at least getting 7-8 ours of restful sleep daily.
  • Finally, “eat right” by choosing a nutritious, heart healthy diet to limit high blood pressure, of fish, poultry, nuts, low-fat dairy, vegetables, whole grains, fruits, and vegetable oils. 

The GCBH recommendations urge people to avoid smoking and not drink alcohol.  But if you drink, limit alcohol to more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.

The Brain-Heart Connection is examined in GCBH’s report.  Hypertension is a serious risk to brain health that can lead to stroke, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia. With knowledge of this, the report notes that people can lower blood pressure by increasing physical activity and reduce overeating, excess drinking, smoking and even reducing sodium (salt) intake.

The GCBH report provides simple, easily obtainable steps to make successful behavioral changes to improve brain health.  Specifically, people can:

Set a goal, identify a specific action you want to take on.

Be thoughtful and realistic about the goals you choose.

Find something that is fun and choose what is enjoyable for you.

Re-purpose some of your free time.

Rethink your environment to reduce the temptations and encourage better choices.

Celebrate the wins.

Learn from the setbacks.

Involve friends and family with common goals to reinforce healthy choices; and

Pick a good start time. 

While brain health behavior changes can be achieved by individuals, these changes require the support health care providers, employers, and community organizations.  Health care providers can help their patients improve their lifestyle habits and make healthy choices to reduce risks and alleviate the symptoms of disease. Employers can promote healthy behaviors too by creating healthier work environments, offering wellness initiatives, health screenings, immunizations, supporting healthy sleep by minimizing shift work, not requiring employees to respond to emails 24/7 and respecting vacations and breaktimes.  These all can promote better brain and mental health, says the GCBH report.

Mission-driven organizations, like AARP, the Arthritis Foundation, and the Heart Association, can also provide individuals with needed information and tools to access their own wellness and motivate a person to make positive behavior changes.

Finally, policymakers can set goals to improve the public’s brain health with a focus on building equity, fighting the sigma of dementia, and implementing best practice to improve brain health from around the world. They can also become aware of how public policies in other areas, such as the built environment, nutrition, and education, can have a lifelong impact on brain health. Some specific examples of successful public health policies include seat-belt laws and smoking cessation requirements.

“A chasm remains between what researchers are discovering about brain health and how little this knowledge has been applied for the public good. Progress will require the combined actions of individuals and communities, reinforced by public policies that facilitate healthy lifestyles,” says the report’s authors. “By applying lessons of public health and science, we can improve brain health for the benefit of individuals, communities and countries around the world,” they say, noting that this report lays out the steps needed to achieve this goal.

The full report on “How to Sustain Brain Healthy Behaviors” is available by going to https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/health/brain_health/2022-03/gcbh-behavior-change-report-english.doi.10.26419-2Fpia.00106.001.pdf.

To obtain all of the GCBH’s past reports on brain health, go to https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/global-council-on-brain-health/resource-library/.

To see how staying socially active impacts brain health, go to https://thriveglobal.com/stories/spumoni-s-where-everybody-knows-your-name-study-says-being-socially-active-may-improve-cognitive-functioning-2/

AAIC 2019 Concludes, Researchers Share Findings to Combat Alzheimer’s disease

Published in the Woonsocket Call on July 20, 2019

Thousands of the world’s leading professionals, involved in dementia care and neuroscience research, came at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 13 to July 18, 2019, to attend the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference® to learn about the findings of the latest Alzheimer’s disease clinical trial and a government-driven public/private initiative to speed them up.

AAIC® is considered to be the largest and most influential international meeting with a mission to advancing dementia research. Every year, AAIC® brings together the world’s leading basic science and clinical researchers, next-generation investigators, clinicians and the care research community, to share research findings that’ll lead to methods of preventing, treating, and improving the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

“It is clear, and has been for some years that the (Alzheimer’s) field needs to explore other options, and diversify the portfolio of targets. A renewed energy has been brought about by a fivefold increase in Alzheimer’s research funding at the federal level. These gains will propel already-established efforts by the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s Association and others to diversify (therapeutic) targets,” said Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimer’s Association chief science officer, in a July 17 statement publicizing research findings from the international conference.

Hundreds of Findings of Clinical Trials Shared

According to the Chicago-based Alzheimer’s Association, “a record number of scientific abstracts – more than 3,400 – were submitted to AAIC this year, including 229 abstracts with results from or descriptions of Alzheimer’s clinical trials. AAIC 2019 also spotlighted three clinical trials using innovative methods and targets.”

At AAIC 2019, attendees were updated about the activities of the Accelerating Medicine Partnership-Alzheimer’s Disease (AMP-AD), a partnership among government, industry, and nonprofit organizations (including the Alzheimer’s Association) that focuses on discovering, validating and accelerating new drug targets. The Alzheimer’s Association says that this $225 million research initiative is made possible through the highest-ever levels of U.S. federal funding for research on Alzheimer’s and other dementias, approved and allocated in the last five years.

“This is an example of how the government and private entities and researchers can work together [via AMP-AD funded studies] on providing the resources necessary to expand our abilities to test new drugs and find a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, and, hopefully find a cure,” said Donna M. McGowan, Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association, Rhode Island Chapter. “Rhode Island has tremendous researchers, and they are at the forefront of this initiative. they need the tools to increase their scope of work.”

Adds Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimer’s Association chief science officer, “It is clear, and has been for some years that the field needs to explore other options, other avenues, and diversify the portfolio of targets. A renewed energy has been brought about by a fivefold increase in Alzheimer’s research funding at the federal level, achieved largely due to efforts by the Alzheimer’s Association, the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, and our ferocious advocates. These gains will propel already-established efforts by the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s Association and others to diversify the portfolio of drug targets for the scientific community.”

The achievements of the AMP-AD Target Discovery Project were highlighted in a series of presentations by the leading AMP-AD investigators at AAIC 2019.

One study noted for the first time, 18-month results from an open-label extension of inhaled insulin in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s including significant benefits for memory ad thinking, day to day functioning, and biological markers of Alzheimer’s.

Another described a newly-initiated 48-week Phase 2/3 clinical trial of a drug targeting toxic proteins released in the brain by the bacterium, P. gingivalis, generally associated with degenerative gum disease. Previous research findings identified the bacterium in brains of more than 90 percent of people with Alzheimer’s across multiple studies and demonstrated that infection may trigger Alzheimer’s pathology in the brain.

Can lifestyle Interventions Promote Brain Health?

There was also an update on the Alzheimer’s Association U.S. Study to Protect Brain health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER) study, now up and running in multiple locations. The U.S. POINTER is a two-year clinical trial to evaluate whether intensive lifestyle interventions that target many risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia can protect cognitive function in older adults at increased risk for cognitive impairment and dementia. Researchers will compare the effects of two lifestyle interventions on brain health in older adults at risk for memory loss in the future. The U.S. POINTER is the first such study to be conducted in a large group of Americans across the United States.

The researchers say people age 60 to 79 will be randomly assigned to one of two lifestyle interventions. Both groups will be encouraged to include more physical and cognitive activity and a healthier diet into their lives and will receive regular monitoring of blood pressure and other health measurements. Participants in one intervention group will design a lifestyle program that best fits their own needs and schedules. Participants in the other intervention group will follow a specific program that includes weekly healthy lifestyle activities.

Laura Baker, Ph.D., associate professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine, and one of the principal investigators of the U.S. POINTER study, said, “Lifestyle interventions focused on combining healthy diet, physical activity and social and intellectual challenges represent a promising therapeutic strategy to protect brain health.”

“U.S. POINTER provides an unprecedented opportunity to test whether intensive lifestyle modification can protect cognitive function in older Americans who are at increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia,” Baker added.

“We envision a future where we can treat and even prevent Alzheimer’s through a combination of brain-healthy lifestyle and targeted medicines, as we do now with heart disease,” Carrillo said. “We hope to prevent millions from dying with Alzheimer’s and reduce the terrible impact this disease has on families.”

For more details about research findings presented at AAIC 2019, http://www.alz.org/aaic

General Assembly: It’s Time to Endorse State Alzheimer’s Plan

Published in the Woonsocket Call on May 12, 2019

Just days ago, the Alzheimer’s Association-Rhode Island Chapter, along with over 75 volunteers and supporters gathered for the group’s Advocacy Day, in the Governor’s statehouse at the Rhode Island State, warning state lawmakers about the increasing incidence in Alzheimer’s disease and its impending impact on state programs and services. According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2019 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts & Figures report, there are now 23,000 people living with Alzheimer’s and 53,000 Alzheimer’s caregivers in Rhode Island. This number will skyrocket as Rhode Island’s population continues to age; they say.

During the two-hour rally, Alzheimer’s advocates pushed for the passage of H 5569, sponsored by Rep. Mia Ackerman (D-Cumberland), and S 310, Sen. Cynthia A. Coyne (D-Barrington), companion measures that would legislatively endorse the newly released State Alzheimer’s Plan.

House Majority Leader Joseph Shekarchi also joined in, calling for passage of H. 5189, his legislative proposal that would create a program under the Department of Health and an advisory council to oversee implementation of programming, requiring training for medical professionals, and establishing Alzheimer’s plans in medical facilities. the Senate companion measure is S 223.

Improving Supports for Those Afflicted with Alzheimer’s

Once the Rhode Island General Assembly passes the legislative proposals to endorses the State Alzheimer’s Plan, the state’s Long-Term Care Coordinating Council’s executive board would seek legislative and regulatory changes to carry out its bold set of recommendations for improving supports to those afflicted by Alzheimer’s and other dementias. But this legislation is stalled.
Twenty-three town meetings,45 expert interviews, combined with a survey of 200 Rhode Islanders impacted by Alzheimer’s, enabled Columbia, Maryland-based Splaine Consulting, a nationally recognized health policy firm, to pull together the content for the State Alzheimer’s Plan. More than 30 recommendations are detailed in this 35-page plan to combat the devastating mental disorder which calls for the implementation of three main recommendations.

The updated State Plan provides Rhode Island with the framework to cooperatively address the full range of issues surrounding Alzheimer’s and other dementias. It will be the blueprint that allows us to take unified, targeted action against the disease, says Lieutenant Governor Daniel McKee McKee, who serves as chair of the state’s Long-Term Care Coordinating Council (LTCCC).

McKee’s LTCCC served as the organizational umbrella for a workgroup, including the Alzheimer’s Association– Rhode Island Chapter, the state’s Division of Elderly Affairs, researchers, advocates, clinicians and caregivers oversaw the development of the newly released State Plan.

“Our updated plan will also position the state, local small businesses and nonprofits to take advantage of federal and other funding opportunities aimed at fighting Alzheimer’s disease,” says McKee.

“Unless we move quickly to address this crisis and find better treatments for those who have it, these costs will grow swiftly in lock step with the numbers of those affected, and Alzheimer’s will increasingly overwhelm our health care system. We must decisively address this epidemic,” says Donna M. McGowan, Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association–Rhode Island Chapter, who came to the May 7 news conference on Smith Hill to put Alzheimer’s on the General Assembly’s policy radar screen.

Taking Bold Actions to Confront Alzheimer’s Epidemic

“State government must address the challenges the disease poses and take bold action to confront this crisis now. Alzheimer’s is a growing crisis for our families and the economy. That’s why we are unrelenting advocates for public policy that advances research and improves access to care and support services,” says McGowan.

“Alzheimer’s disease and its impact on society is not only a growing public health concern, it very well may be the next biggest public health emergency that we as policymakers need to address,” said Rep. Ackerman. “We’ve already begun crafting legislation that will establish a program in Rhode Island to address the disease,” she says.

Rep. Ackerman used the Alzheimer’s news conference as a bully pulpit, calling on hospitals, researchers, medical professionals, state agencies, and state law makers to act swiftly to address the looming public health crisis.

“There are many factors to be considered in the great work ahead of us,” Rep. Ackerman said. “From early detection and diagnosis, to building a workforce capable of handling the unique health care needs of Alzheimer’s patients. This is something that will take a lot of effort and a lot of time. Now is the time to get to work on this,” she notes.

Like Rep. Ackerman, Sen. Coyne called for the General Assembly to endorse the State Alzheimer’s Plan and also supported Shekarchi’s legislative proposal, too. She also promoted a bill that she put in the legislative hopper that would allow spouses to live with their partners in Alzheimer’s special care units. Allowing couples to live together would help maintain patients’ relationships, connections and personal dignity, she said.

Rose Amoros Jones, Director of the Division of Elderly Affairs(DEA), noted that the power to the Alzheimer’s Association – Rhode Island Chapter’s Advocacy Day creates connections to people that can influence policy and shine light on the supports and information that families need. “Connection is a core value at DEA – as is choice, she said.

Sharing personal stories, Melody Drnach, a caregiver residing in Jamestown, talked about the challenges of taking care of her father with dementia. From her personal caregiving experiences, she agrees with the updated plans assessment that Rhode Island is dramatically under-resourced to address today’s needs.

Marc Archambault of South Kingstown, who has been diagnosed with the disease, came, too, talking about his efforts to cope with the devastating disorder.

At press time, both Rep. Shekarchi and Rep. Ackerman’s Alzheimer’s proposals have been heard at the committee level and have been held for further study, some call legislative purgatory.

Alzheimer’s Impacts Almost Everyone

The devastating impact of Alzheimer’s may well touch everyone in Rhode Island, the nation’s smallest state. Everyone knows someone who either has Alzheimer’s or dementia or is a care giver to these individuals. It’s time for the Rhode Island General Assembly to endorse the State’s Alzheimer’s Plan especially with no fiscal cost. We need a battle plan now more than ever to effectively deploy the state’s resources to provide better programs and services to those in need and to support caregivers.

Call your state representatives and Senators and urge that H 5569 and S 310 are passed and sent to Governor Gina Raimondo to be signed. For contact information, call Eric Creamer, Director of Public Policy and Media Relations, Alzheimer’s Association – Rhode Island Chapter, (401) 859-2334. Or email ercreamer@alz.org.