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FIRST ON CNN: Fighting early-stage Alzheimer's with intensive lifestyle changes works, study finds

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13 hours ago

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FIRST ON CNN: Fighting early-stage Alzheimer's with intensive lifestyle changes works, study finds

As her memory faded from Alzheimer's disease in her late 50s, Tammy Maida began to lose track of her life. Car keys, eyeglasses and her purse disappeared multiple times a day. Key characters in novels she was reading were forgotten. Groceries were left in the garage. Keeping the books for the family's businesses became impossible. 'I honestly thought I was losing my mind, and the fear of losing my mind was frightening,' Maida told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in the 2024 CNN documentary 'The Last Alzheimer's Patient.' After 20 weeks in a randomized clinical trial designed to drastically change her diet, exercise, stress levels and social interactions, Maida's cognition improved. She was able to read and recall novels and correctly balance spreadsheets again. A blood test even found levels of amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, were retreating in her brain, according to the study published in June 2024. 'I'm coming back. It was really good — like I was prior to the disease being diagnosed,' Maida, now 68, told a researcher on the study. 'An older but better version of me.' Maida's cognition showed additional improvement, however, after she completed a total of 40 weeks of intensive lifestyle changes, said principal investigator Dr. Dean Ornish, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and creator of the Ornish diet and lifestyle medicine program. Ornish gave a study update on Tuesday at the 2025 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto. While not everyone in the 26-person interventional group benefited, 46% showed improvement in three of four standardized tests, he said, including one that measures changes in memory, judgment and problem-solving as well as the ability to function at home, practice hobbies and practice personal hygiene. 'An additional 37.5% of people showed no decline in cognition during those 40 weeks,' Ornish said. 'Thus, over 83% of patients improved or maintained their cognition during the five-month program.' The new findings mirrored those of other studies on lifestyle interventions, he said, including the recent US POINTER study, the largest clinical trial in the United States to test moderate lifestyle interventions over two years in people who are at risk but do not yet have Alzheimer's disease. 'Our study complements these findings by showing, for the first time, that more intensive lifestyle changes may often stop or even begin to reverse the decline in cognition in many of those who already have Alzheimer's disease, and these improvements often continue over a longer period of time,' Ornish told CNN. And unlike available medications for Alzheimer's, he added, lifestyle changes have no side effects, such as bleeding and swelling in the brain that may occur with the newest class of drugs. EmblemHealth, a New York-based insurance company, announced Tuesday that it will be the first health insurer to cover the Ornish lifestyle medicine program for patients who have early-stage Alzheimer's disease. 'Eat well, move more, stress less and love more' The lifestyle intervention Ornish created — which he calls 'eat well, move more, stress less and love more' — has been tested before. In 1990, Ornish showed for the first time in a randomized clinical trial that coronary artery disease could often be reversed with nothing more than diet, exercise, stress reduction and social support. The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, declared in 2010 that Ornish's program for reversing heart disease was an 'intensive cardiac rehabilitation' and that it would be eligible for reimbursement under Medicare. Additional research has shown the same four-part program can lower blood sugars and heart disease risk in patients with diabetes, reduce prostate cancer cell growth, improve depression and even lengthen telomeres, the protective caps of chromosomes that are worn away by aging. During the Ornish intervention, one group of people consumed a strict vegan diet, did daily aerobic exercise, practiced stress reduction and engaged in online support groups. The rest of the participants were in a control group and were asked to not make any changes in their daily habits. Therapists led hour-long group sessions three times a week in which participants were encouraged to share their feelings and ask for support. Meditation, deep breathing, yoga and other ways to reduce stress took up another hour every day. The program also encouraged participants to prioritize good-quality sleep. Supplements were provided to everyone in the intervention group, including a daily multivitamin, omega-3 fatty acids with curcumin, coenzyme Q10, vitamin C and B12, magnesium, a probiotic, and Lion's mane mushroom. In addition to online strength training led by a physical trainer, people in the intervention attended hour-long video classes on vegan nutrition hosted by a dietitian. Then, to ensure a vegan diet was followed, all meals and snacks for both participants and their partners were delivered to their homes. Complex carbs found in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, tofu, nuts and seeds made up most of the diet. Sugar, alcohol and refined carbs found in processed and ultraprocessed foods were taboo. While calories were unrestricted, protein and total fat made up only some 18% of the daily caloric intake — far less than the typical protein intake by the average American, Ornish said. Working harder pays off People in the intervention group who put the most effort into changing their lifestyle have the most improvement in their cognition, said Ornish, founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and coauthor of 'Undo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases.' 'There was a statistically significant dose-response relationship between the degree of adherence to our lifestyle changes and the degree of improvement we saw on measures of cognition,' Ornish said. The 25 people in the study's original 20-week control group — who did not receive the intervention — had shown further cognitive decline during the program. They were later allowed to join the intervention for 40 weeks and significantly improved their cognitive scores during that time, Ornish said. It all makes sense, said co-senior study author Rudy Tanzi, an Alzheimer's researcher and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. 'If you picture a brain full of damage as a sink full of water, when you just turn off the tap, it takes a long time for that sink to slowly drain, right?' Tanzi told CNN in 2024. 'If you want the amyloid to go down in 20 weeks, as we found on one blood test, you're going to need a Roto-Rooter.' Additional blood testing may offer insights In the 2024 study, a blood test called plasma Aβ42/40 showed a significant improvement in the original intervention group. Aβ42/40 measures the level of amyloid in the blood, a key symptom of Alzheimer's. Tests that measure amyloid in different ways, however, did not show improvement, Dr. Suzanne Schindler, an associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who specializes in blood biomarkers told CNN at the time. There was no significant change in a test for amyloid called p-tau 181, considered to be a superior measure of Alzheimer's risk, said Schindler, who was not involved in the study. Nor was there any change in glial fibrillary acidic protein, or GFAP, another blood biomarker that seems to correlate reasonably well with Alzheimer's disease. 'If one of these markers improves, you typically see all of them improve, so the fact they did not makes me wonder whether this effect is real,' Schindler said. 'If they were to repeat the study with a much larger population for a longer period of time, perhaps more change could be seen.' Over the complete 40-week program, however, a number of people in the intervention group did continue to improve their Aβ42/40 scores, according to the study update. 'Changes in amyloid — as measured as the plasma Aβ42/40 ratio — occur before changes in tau markers such as p-tau 218, so this is not surprising after only 40 weeks,' Ornish said. For Ornish, who has watched members of his family die from Alzheimer's disease, the study's results are important for one key reason — hope. 'So often when people get a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer's, they are told by their doctors that there is no future, 'It's only going to get worse, get your affairs in order.' That's horrible news and is almost self-fulfilling,' Ornish said. 'Our new findings empower patients who have early-stage Alzheimer's disease with the knowledge that if they make and maintain these intensive lifestyle changes, there is a reasonably good chance that they may slow the progression of the disease and often even improve it,' he said. 'Our study needs to be replicated with larger, more diverse groups of patients to make it more generalizable,' Ornish said. 'But the findings we reported today are giving many people new hope and new choices — and the only side effects are good ones.' Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.

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2 days ago

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FIRST ON CNN: Fighting early-stage Alzheimer's with intensive lifestyle changes works, study finds

As her memory faded from Alzheimer's disease in her late 50s, Tammy Maida began to lose track of her life. Car keys, eyeglasses and her purse disappeared multiple times a day. Key characters in novels she was reading were forgotten. Groceries were left in the garage. Keeping the books for the family's businesses became impossible. 'I honestly thought I was losing my mind, and the fear of losing my mind was frightening,' Maida told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in the 2024 CNN documentary 'The Last Alzheimer's Patient.' After 20 weeks in a randomized clinical trial designed to drastically change her diet, exercise, stress levels and social interactions, Maida's cognition improved. She was able to read and recall novels and correctly balance spreadsheets again. A blood test even found levels of amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, were retreating in her brain, according to the study published in June 2024. 'I'm coming back. It was really good — like I was prior to the disease being diagnosed,' Maida, now 68, told a researcher on the study. 'An older but better version of me.' Maida's cognition showed additional improvement, however, after she completed a total of 40 weeks of intensive lifestyle changes, said principal investigator Dr. Dean Ornish, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and creator of the Ornish diet and lifestyle medicine program. Ornish gave a study update on Tuesday at the 2025 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto. While not everyone in the 26-person interventional group benefited, 46% showed improvement in three of four standardized tests, he said, including one that measures changes in memory, judgment and problem-solving as well as the ability to function at home, practice hobbies and practice personal hygiene. 'An additional 37.5% of people showed no decline in cognition during those 40 weeks,' Ornish said. 'Thus, over 83% of patients improved or maintained their cognition during the five-month program.' The new findings mirrored those of other studies on lifestyle interventions, he said, including the recent US POINTER study, the largest clinical trial in the United States to test moderate lifestyle interventions over two years in people who are at risk but do not yet have Alzheimer's disease. 'Our study complements these findings by showing, for the first time, that more intensive lifestyle changes may often stop or even begin to reverse the decline in cognition in many of those who already have Alzheimer's disease, and these improvements often continue over a longer period of time,' Ornish told CNN. And unlike available medications for Alzheimer's, he added, lifestyle changes have no side effects, such as bleeding and swelling in the brain that may occur with the newest class of drugs. EmblemHealth, a New York-based insurance company, announced Tuesday that it will be the first health insurer to cover the Ornish lifestyle medicine program for patients who have early-stage Alzheimer's disease. 'Eat well, move more, stress less and love more' The lifestyle intervention Ornish created — which he calls 'eat well, move more, stress less and love more' — has been tested before. In 1990, Ornish showed for the first time in a randomized clinical trial that coronary artery disease could often be reversed with nothing more than diet, exercise, stress reduction and social support. The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, declared in 2010 that Ornish's program for reversing heart disease was an 'intensive cardiac rehabilitation' and that it would be eligible for reimbursement under Medicare. Additional research has shown the same four-part program can lower blood sugars and heart disease risk in patients with diabetes, reduce prostate cancer cell growth, improve depression and even lengthen telomeres, the protective caps of chromosomes that are worn away by aging. During the Ornish intervention, one group of people consumed a strict vegan diet, did daily aerobic exercise, practiced stress reduction and engaged in online support groups. The rest of the participants were in a control group and were asked to not make any changes in their daily habits. Therapists led hour-long group sessions three times a week in which participants were encouraged to share their feelings and ask for support. Meditation, deep breathing, yoga and other ways to reduce stress took up another hour every day. The program also encouraged participants to prioritize good-quality sleep. Supplements were provided to everyone in the intervention group, including a daily multivitamin, omega-3 fatty acids with curcumin, coenzyme Q10, vitamin C and B12, magnesium, a probiotic, and Lion's mane mushroom. In addition to online strength training led by a physical trainer, people in the intervention attended hour-long video classes on vegan nutrition hosted by a dietitian. Then, to ensure a vegan diet was followed, all meals and snacks for both participants and their partners were delivered to their homes. Complex carbs found in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, tofu, nuts and seeds made up most of the diet. Sugar, alcohol and refined carbs found in processed and ultraprocessed foods were taboo. While calories were unrestricted, protein and total fat made up only some 18% of the daily caloric intake — far less than the typical protein intake by the average American, Ornish said. Working harder pays off People in the intervention group who put the most effort into changing their lifestyle have the most improvement in their cognition, said Ornish, founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and coauthor of 'Undo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases.' 'There was a statistically significant dose-response relationship between the degree of adherence to our lifestyle changes and the degree of improvement we saw on measures of cognition,' Ornish said. The 25 people in the study's original 20-week control group — who did not receive the intervention — had shown further cognitive decline during the program. They were later allowed to join the intervention for 40 weeks and significantly improved their cognitive scores during that time, Ornish said. It all makes sense, said co-senior study author Rudy Tanzi, an Alzheimer's researcher and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. 'If you picture a brain full of damage as a sink full of water, when you just turn off the tap, it takes a long time for that sink to slowly drain, right?' Tanzi told CNN in 2024. 'If you want the amyloid to go down in 20 weeks, as we found on one blood test, you're going to need a Roto-Rooter.' Additional blood testing may offer insights In the 2024 study, a blood test called plasma Aβ42/40 showed a significant improvement in the original intervention group. Aβ42/40 measures the level of amyloid in the blood, a key symptom of Alzheimer's. Tests that measure amyloid in different ways, however, did not show improvement, Dr. Suzanne Schindler, an associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who specializes in blood biomarkers told CNN at the time. There was no significant change in a test for amyloid called p-tau 181, considered to be a superior measure of Alzheimer's risk, said Schindler, who was not involved in the study. Nor was there any change in glial fibrillary acidic protein, or GFAP, another blood biomarker that seems to correlate reasonably well with Alzheimer's disease. 'If one of these markers improves, you typically see all of them improve, so the fact they did not makes me wonder whether this effect is real,' Schindler said. 'If they were to repeat the study with a much larger population for a longer period of time, perhaps more change could be seen.' Over the complete 40-week program, however, a number of people in the intervention group did continue to improve their Aβ42/40 scores, according to the study update. 'Changes in amyloid — as measured as the plasma Aβ42/40 ratio — occur before changes in tau markers such as p-tau 218, so this is not surprising after only 40 weeks,' Ornish said. For Ornish, who has watched members of his family die from Alzheimer's disease, the study's results are important for one key reason — hope. 'So often when people get a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer's, they are told by their doctors that there is no future, 'It's only going to get worse, get your affairs in order.' That's horrible news and is almost self-fulfilling,' Ornish said. 'Our new findings empower patients who have early-stage Alzheimer's disease with the knowledge that if they make and maintain these intensive lifestyle changes, there is a reasonably good chance that they may slow the progression of the disease and often even improve it,' he said. 'Our study needs to be replicated with larger, more diverse groups of patients to make it more generalizable,' Ornish said. 'But the findings we reported today are giving many people new hope and new choices — and the only side effects are good ones.' Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. Solve the daily Crossword

Mosquitoes bite! 5 tips for making yourself less attractive to them

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2 days ago

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Mosquitoes bite! 5 tips for making yourself less attractive to them

EDITOR'S NOTE: The podcast Chasing Life With Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the medical science behind some of life's mysteries big and small. You can listen to episodes here. (CNN) — For summertime beachgoers, the threat of sharks may loom large, but nature's deadliest predator is actually much smaller. The tiny mosquito is not only a warm-weather nuisance but also wears the crown for 'No. 1 killer of humanity across our existence,' according to historian Dr. Timothy C. Winegard. The predatory insect takes more than 1 million lives each year by transmitting lethal diseases. Sharks, meanwhile, are estimated to have a kill streak orders of magnitude smaller, at fewer than 10 people per year. Where humans go, mosquitoes have followed. Their itchy bites and the disease-causing pathogens they carry are infamous, and the insects are also responsible for driving many of humanity's most essential turning points throughout history, said Winegard, author of 'The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator.' 'Malaria and yellow fever (have shaped) our historical journey from our hominid ancestral evolution … right to present day,' Winegard told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently on his podcast, Chasing Life. Winegard, an associate professor of history at Colorado Mesa University, got the initial idea for his best-selling book from his dad's interest in malaria. The wee pest didn't intrigue Winegard too much at first. 'I kind of disparaged him and said, 'Sure, dad, I'll write a book on mosquitoes,'' he recalled. But once Winegard began going down the rabbit hole of mosquito-borne pathogens' impact on humanity — including, but not limited to malaria, Zika virus, dengue fever, yellow fever, chikungunya and West Nile virus — he couldn't stop. The mosquito's impact on history is still deeply felt in the present. More than half a million people die of malaria alone each year, and disease-heavy regions have suffered financially as a result. 'Northern Hemisphere countries don't have endemic malaria, (so) they're able to develop more affluent economies because they're not continuously suffering from malaria,' Winegard said. You can listen to the full episode here. Humans have been battling mosquitoes for millennia, and amid the season's summer peak in the Northern Hemisphere, Winegard offered some insight into how you can keep them away this summer. 'Eighty-five percent of what makes you alluring or less alluring to mosquitoes is prewired in your genetic circuit board,' according to Winegard. However, there are a few ways you can manage mosquitoes. He has these five tips. Steer clear of the booze Booze makes it easier for mosquitoes to see you, Winegard said. Mosquitoes hunt by sight, but they don't see the world like people do. The predatory insects employ thermal, or infrared, vision. 'They see heat signatures,' Winegard noted. 'Consuming alcohol raises your body temperature,' he explained over email, 'which make(s) you an identifiable heat signature for your soon-to-be tormentor.' So, maybe reach for a refreshing glass of water or lemonade instead of that beer. Play it cool In addition to using heat-based vision, mosquitoes hunt down humans primarily through smell. Winegard said mosquitoes 'can smell carbon dioxide from over 200 feet (60 meters) away.' 'So if you're exercising or breathing heavily, they'll smell that and be attracted to it,' Winegard told Gupta. And just like alcohol, high CO2 emissions make detecting heat signatures easier for mosquitoes, so Winegard recommends keeping yourself as cool as possible. This applies to your wardrobe, too. 'Dark clothes retain relatively more heat,' he said, so it's best to opt for lighter-colored, long-sleeved attire to keep mosquitoes at bay. Build a strong suit of armor Applying insect repellent is the gold standard for mosquito management, but if you're not careful when applying it, you can leave yourself vulnerable to bites. 'I know people who lather themselves in it, but they miss this little spot on the back of their calf and she'll find the chink in our armor,' Winegard told Gupta, referring to the female mosquito, who is the bloodsucking hunter. Mosquito repellent isn't like perfume, in which a few spritzes can cover your whole body. If you're spraying, make sure to be thorough. 'DEET (a chemical repellent) is still the gold standard, while oil of lemon eucalyptus is a plant-derived option,' Winegard said. For an added boost of security, he noted some clothes come pretreated with a mosquito-targeted insecticide called permethrin. Watch the water! Pool days and cool drinks outdoors offer a respite from the heat for humans, but they are equally as attractive to mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes lay their eggs in still water — and they don't need much. 'From a pond or stream to a minuscule collection in the bottom of an old container, used tire, or backyard toy — even a bottle cap full — any will suffice,' Winegard said via email. Even waterlogged soil is enough for mom-to-be mosquitoes to lay their eggs in, he added. Winegard recommended eliminating standing water around your home and yard to keep potential mosquito breeding grounds to a minimum. Bring on the bacteria (but consider a foot bath) Another way to fight the swarms this summer is to consider skipping a shower or two. 'It's better to be stinky!' Winegard said. 'Being pungently rancid is a good thing, for it increases bacterial levels on the skin, which makes you less alluring to mosquitoes.' While this may offend others, Winegard says to skip the scented products: Deodorants, soaps and other applied fragrances are all enticing to mosquitoes. The one exception is your feet. 'Clean your feet,' he told Gupta. 'The bacteria on our feet, which is the same one that ripens a lot of cheeses, is an aphrodisiac to mosquitoes.' Winegard noted that this is the reason many of us get bitten around our ankles and feet. 'So, wash your feet!' he urged. Check your blood type Mosquitoes don't care about most personal characteristics you can objectively see. 'There is absolutely no truth to the persistent myths that mosquitoes fancy females over males, that they prefer blondes and redheads over those with darker hair, or that the darker or more leathery your skin, the safer you are from her bite,' Winegard said. But he noted that 'she does play favorites and feasts on some more than others.' What might entice a mosquito? 'Blood type O seems to be the vintage of choice over types A and B or their blend,' he said. 'People with blood type O get bitten twice as often as those with type A, with type B falling somewhere in between.' The creators of the 1998 movie 'A Bug's Life,' he noted, must have 'done their homework when portraying a tipsy mosquito ordering a 'Bloody Mary, O-positive.'' Maybe it's a mosquito's world, Winegard suggests, and people are just living in it. We hope these five tips help you keep mosquitoes at bay. Listen to the full episode here. And join us next week for a new episode of the Chasing Life podcast. 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FIRST ON CNN: Fighting early-stage Alzheimer's with intensive lifestyle changes works, study finds

FIRST ON CNN: Fighting early-stage Alzheimer's with intensive lifestyle changes works, study finds

Mosquitoes bite! 5 tips for making yourself less attractive to them

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FIRST ON CNN: Fighting early-stage Alzheimer's with intensive lifestyle changes works, study finds

FIRST ON CNN: Fighting early-stage Alzheimer's with intensive lifestyle changes works, study finds

Mosquitoes bite! 5 tips for making yourself less attractive to them

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