Healthy eating and time with friends: Smart ideas if you want to lower your Alzheimer's risk.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—First, the cold, hard science: A well-respected National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel recently found that there's no proof that you can lower your risk of Alzheimer's disease by making behavioral changes. But that’s not the whole story. Many experts believe—and some studies strongly hint at this—that healthy-lifestyle changes do in fact have a positive effect. So…which is it?

THE DETAILS: The NIH State of the Science Conference Statement on Preventing Alzheimer's Disease states that there’s no solid scientific evidence that supplements, drugs, diet, exercise, or robust social interaction will help prevent Alzheimer's disease or other forms of cognitive decline. Panelists found that while some studies showed a weak link between lifestyle improvements and Alzheimer's, others did not. In some cases, inconsistent definitions of the disease are the problem. And since most studies are observational rather than clinical, it's hard to tell, for example, whether active adults lowered their risk of Alzheimer’s because of their activity, or whether they’re more active simply because they didn’t get Alzheimer's disease.

To clarify the Alzheimer’s picture, the NIH panel recommends large-scale, randomized-controlled clinical trials to identify risk factors for Alzheimer's and cognitive decline. But panelists are also hopeful that several key studies already in progress—including three that are looking at the effects of omega-3 fatty acids, exercise, and being social—could prove highly illuminating.

WHAT IT MEANS: In responding to the panel’s findings, Alzheimer's expert Abhilash K. Desai, MD, director of the Center for Healthy Brain Aging in St. Louis, MO, says you should in no way give up on healthy-lifestyle changes that may lower your Alzheimer’s risk. "Realize that when a report says there is insufficient evidence, this doesn’t mean that nothing will work," says Dr. Desai. "It simply means it can’t be established with certainty that it works. That’s why prudence and clinical experience guided by observational studies, case series, and case reports are important."

Dr. Desai and colleagues recently did their own review of Alzheimer’s literature and came to a more hopeful conclusion. Published in February in the journal Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, their report included a checklist of lifestyle changes that may well promote healthy brain aging. "We feel strongly that even if there is no firm clinical-trial evidence proving that lifestyle modifications and control of cardiovascular risk factors reduce Alzheimer’s risk and cognitive impairment, there is growing data—based on observational studies, case reports, and clinical experience—that these actions promote brain health.”

"Thus, we feel it is not only appropriate but necessary that healthcare providers educate patients and the public about the potential brain-health-promoting effects of a healthy lifestyle," Dr. Desai adds. "Physicians can also educate that these same lifestyle changes have been proven to promote longevity, reduce heart attacks and strokes, and reduce cancer risk."