Health
‘Reversing’ Alzheimer’s: Here are exercises to make the brain more resilient
Can Alzheimer’s disease be reversed?
Dr. Heather Sandison, a renowned expert in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia care, believes that reversal isn’t just possible — but that it’s already happening in multiple patients.
In her new book “Reversing Alzheimer’s: The New Tool Kit to Improve Cognition and Protect Brain Health,” which was published by HarperCollins on June 11, Sandison — who is based in California — offers a step-by-step guide to helping Alzheimer’s patients improve their overall brain health.
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One of the core elements of Sandison’s program is a focus on exercise as one of the most important lifestyle factors in preventing and controlling dementia.
Research has shown that physical activity can reduce the likelihood and progression of Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Heather Sandison, at left, is a naturopathic doctor specializing in neurocognitive medicine and the founder of Solcere Health Clinic, San Diego’s premier brain optimization clinic, and Marama, the first residential memory care facility to have the goal of returning cognitively declined residents to independent living. (Dr. Heather Sandison/iStock)
In the excerpt below, Sandison offers some specific recommendations for the types of exercise that can benefit patients living with the disease.
Read an excerpt from ‘Reversing Alzheimer’s’
Dr. Heather Sandison: Need a new motivation to be active? Exercise is medicine for the brain and provides an amazing array of benefits.
Most obviously, exercise increases blood flow throughout the body, including to the brain. That means getting your body moving will deliver more oxygen and nutrients to your brain while also flushing away more waste products.
Exercise also strengthens the heart and cardiovascular system, which helps improve blood flow even when you’re not working out; it also reduces the risk of arterial plaques that might disrupt blood flow to the brain and contribute to dementia.
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The overarching reason that exercise is such a powerful health protector is that it is what’s known as a hormetic, or a beneficial stressor.
Basically, when you put your body through its paces, the body is forced to use up resources, and your tissues can even be broken down a bit. (That’s what happens when you lift weights: Your muscles tear a tiny bit.)
Dr. Heather Sandison, an expert in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia care, believes that reversal isn’t just possible but that it’s already happening in multiple patients. (Dr. Heather Sandison)
In that sense, you’re introducing stress to your system, but that stress is a force for good, because it triggers your body to get more efficient at using its resources and your tissues to grow back even stronger. In other words, exercise makes your body — including your brain — more resilient.
Exercise benefits several of the root causes of neurological disease.
It improves structure by increasing your cardiovascular capacity and boosting circulation, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to the brain.
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It reduces stress in multiple ways — by giving you an outlet to blow off steam, by producing feel-good hormones such as endorphins and lowering the stress hormone cortisol, and, depending on what kind of exercise you choose, getting you outside and into nature, which is a well-known stress reliever.
It can also be social, and a great way to spend time with friends or even meet new people, which helps address the loneliness and social isolation that The Lancet lists as one of the modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.
In her new book “Reversing Alzheimer’s: The New Tool Kit to Improve Cognition and Protect Brain Health,” published by HarperCollins on June 11, Sandison — based in California — offers a step-by-step guide to helping Alzheimer’s patients improve their overall brain health. (HarperCollins)
It improves sleep by tiring you out.
It strengthens immune function, which reduces the risk and effects of infection — all those muscular contractions and moving against gravity improves the flow of lymphatic fluid, which delivers immune cells and flushes away invader cells.
“Exercise benefits several of the root causes of neurological disease.”
It promotes detox, both through increased circulation and through sweating.
It improves signaling, as challenging and strengthening your muscles triggers the release of multiple signaling molecules, known as exerkines, that have demonstrated neuroprotective functions.
“The overarching reason that exercise is such a powerful health protector is that it is what’s known as a hormetic, or a beneficial stressor,” Sandison writes in her new book. (Dr. Heather Sandison)
If you do only one thing: Change up your current exercise routine in a way that challenges your brain and amps up the intensity.
If you are a devoted walker, find a new route that includes hills or stairs. If you’re open to trying something different, check out a new exercise class that you’ve been meaning to try.
Categories of exercise: some familiar, some cutting-edge
There are four types of exercise that you want to prioritize. Four may sound like a lot, but they are not mutually exclusive.
You can combine at least two types of exercise in one session — you can turn strength training into cardio by performing your strength moves in high-intensity intervals, or you can make your cardio dual task by doing something that requires your mental focus while you move.
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise is what we think of as “cardio” — it gets your heart and blood pumping and includes forms of exercise such as walking, jogging, biking, dancing and swimming.
Aerobic exercise strengthens your heart, and what’s good for your heart is also good for your brain, because your heart sends the brain the blood, oxygen, and nutrients that your brain relies on to function.
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Your first goal with adding more exercise to your life is to get 150 to 200 minutes of aerobic exercise each week so that you get your heart rate into the vigorous zone of 70-85% of maximum heart rate.
Listening to your body and adjusting your intensity level based on your perceived exertion is one of the best ways to know if you are pushing yourself hard enough.
Strength training
Strength training — also known as resistance training — is just what it sounds like: using weights or other forms of resistance to build muscle tissue.
Building muscle — particularly in the big muscle groups of the legs, hips, and torso — is directly related to brain health, because these muscles generate brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a “fertilizer” for the brain, cueing it to create new neuronal connections and promoting neuroplasticity.
Alzheimer’s patients should aim for at least two strength-training sessions per week, notes the author of a new book. (iStock)
You want to aim for at least two strength-training sessions per week. Strength training doesn’t have to involve your standard barbells and bench pressing your body weight.
You can use resistance bands, light dumbbells, or even the weight of your own body in exercises like squats, lunges and planks.
Even climbing stairs or hills counts as strength training and cardio in one activity, because they get your heart rate up as they also keep the muscles of the legs and hips strong.
Dual-task training
This next-level form of exercise combines physical movement with a cognitive challenge. The simplest form of this is walking and talking.
What is a cognitive challenge will vary from person to person, but if you’re in prevention mode, listening to a foreign language lesson or a nonfiction book while you walk outside or ride the stationary bike, and then pausing the recording to recap what you’ve just learned every few minutes, is a good option.
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For some people, going to a Pilates or yoga class or other class where you really have to pay attention to the teacher’s cues constitutes dual-task training — but not if it’s something you’ve been doing for long enough that you can zone out.
“Exercise is such a powerful health intervention that if we could just bottle it, we could probably get rid of chronic disease.”
And if you have already started experiencing measurable cognitive decline, dual-task training may look like going on a walk while pointing out the names of the plants that you pass along the way, or having someone quiz you on the names of family members, or recalling family stories or important dates.
Wherever you are, you want to be working right on your edge — you can almost feel the wheels of your brain turning in order to stay focused.
Contrast oxygen therapy
This relatively unique form of training alternates the amount of oxygen in the air you breathe as you exercise — an approach that encourages the tiniest blood vessels (known as your microvasculature) throughout your body, including your brain, to open up, resulting in greatly enhanced blood flow.
It’s similar to going to altitude to train and build your aerobic capacity, and it is incredibly valuable for cognitive function.
“Exercise does take time and effort, but making this one activity a regular part of your life addresses so many causal factors of dementia that it can profoundly reduce your risk,” Sandison says in her book. (iStock)
This type of exercise does require specialized gear. You can buy the device, or go find a clinic near you where you can try it out. It does require you to wear a mask that is hooked up to a machine while you exercise, and when the oxygen saturation is low, it can be intense because you have to work harder to bring in enough air.
In other words, contrast oxygen therapy is not for everyone. But if you are willing and able, it can be dramatically helpful.
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Honestly, exercise is such a powerful health intervention that if we could just bottle it, we could probably get rid of chronic disease.
Exercise does take time and effort, but making this one activity a regular part of your life addresses so many causal factors of dementia that it can profoundly reduce your risk.
Excerpted with permission from the new book, “Reversing Alzheimer’s: The New Tool Kit to Improve Cognition and Protect Brain Health” (HarperCollins) by Dr. Heather Sandison, copyright © 2024 by Dr. Heather Sandison. All rights reserved.
Welcome to the Brain Health Challenge! I’m Dana Smith, a reporter at The New York Times, and I’ll be your guide.
To live a healthy life, it’s crucial to have a healthy brain. In the short term, it keeps you sharp and firing on all cylinders. In the long term, it can reduce your risk of cognitive decline, dementia and stroke.
Practicing basic healthy behaviors, like eating nutritious food and getting regular exercise, is the best way to enhance your brain power and protect the longevity of your neurons. These types of lifestyle habits can benefit the brain at any age. And while they won’t guarantee that you’ll never develop dementia or another brain disease, several clinical trials have shown that they can improve cognition or slow decline.
Every day this week, you’ll do an activity that’s good for your brain, and we’ll dig into the science behind why it works. Some of these activities can provide a small immediate cognitive benefit, but the bigger reward comes from engaging in them consistently over time. So along with the neuroscience lessons, we’ll include a few tips to help you turn these actions into lasting habits.
To keep you accountable, we’re encouraging you to complete this challenge with a friend. If you don’t have a challenge buddy, no problem: We’re also turning the comments section into one big support group.
There are so many fascinating ways your daily behaviors affect your brain. Take sleep, for example.
Lots of studies have shown that getting a good night’s rest (seven to eight hours) is associated with better memory and other cognitive abilities. That’s because sleep, especially REM sleep, is when your brain transfers short-term memories — things you learned or experienced during the day — into long-term storage.
Sleep is also when your brain does its daily housekeeping. While you rest, the brain’s glymphatic system kicks into high gear, clearing out abnormal proteins and other molecular garbage, including the protein amyloid, which is a major contributor to Alzheimer’s disease. A buildup of amyloid is one reason experts think that people who routinely get less sleep have a higher risk of dementia.
What other behaviors play a big role in brain health? For today’s activity, we’re going to test your knowledge with a quiz. Share your score with your accountability partner and in the comments below — I’ll be in there too, cheering you on.
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An often-overlooked part of the body may reveal important clues about overall health.
Researchers from the University of Westminster in the U.K. discovered that the shape of the gluteus maximus muscle in the buttocks changes with age, gender, lifestyle and frailty, as well as certain conditions like osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes.
Using advanced MRI scans that create 3D images, researchers revealed “distinct” patterns in the gluteus maximus associated with type 2 diabetes.
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This suggested that the shape of the muscle, rather than the size, may “reflect underlying metabolic differences,” a press release stated.
The findings were presented in December at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago.
Butt shape may indicate underlying health conditions, according to new research. (iStock)
Unlike previous studies looking at muscle size or fat, the 3D imaging identified exactly where the muscle changes occur, according to the researchers.
As one of the largest muscles in the human body, the gluteus maximus “plays a key role” in metabolic health, according to lead study author E. Louise Thomas, Ph.D., professor of metabolic imaging at the University of Westminster’s School of Life Sciences.
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The researchers analyzed more than 61,000 MRI scans from a large UK health database to better understand the muscle’s structure.
The data also included the participants’ physical measurements, demographics, disease biomarkers, medical history and lifestyle habits. The researchers studied how these variables were linked to muscle shape over time.
An infographic from the Radiological Society of North America presentation displays research findings on the shape of the gluteus maximus. (RSNA)
“People with higher fitness, as measured by vigorous physical activity and hand grip strength, had a greater gluteus maximus shape, while aging, frailty and long sitting times were linked to muscle thinning,” study co-author Marjola Thanaj, Ph.D., a senior research fellow at the University of Westminster’s Research Centre for Optimal Health, said in the release.
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The researchers concluded that butt shape changes may indicate an “early functional decline” and “metabolic compromise” in type 2 diabetes patients.
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Men with type 2 diabetes showed muscle shrinkage, while women displayed enlarged muscle, likely due to “infiltration of fat” within it, according to the researchers.
These results suggest that men and women have “very different biological responses to the same disease,” Thanaj suggested.
Butt shape changes may indicate an “early functional decline” and “metabolic compromise” in type 2 diabetes patients. (iStock)
Men who were categorized as “frail” were recognized as having more “general shrinkage” across the gluteus maximus, but women experienced a “limited” frailty effect.
Building strong glutes for better health
Strengthening the glutes is an “investment in long-term health,” according to Tanya Becker, co-founder of Physique 57 in New York City.
“While full-body strength training is essential, focusing on your glutes — the largest muscle group in your body — deserves special attention,” she told Fox News Digital.
“While full-body strength training is essential, focusing on your glutes — the largest muscle group in your body — deserves special attention.” (iStock)
Becker refers to the glutes as the body’s “shock absorbers,” because they protect the lower back, knees and hips from taking on stress they weren’t designed to handle.
Larger muscle groups also burn more calories and help regulate blood sugar, the expert added, noting that muscles are often referred to as the “organ of longevity.”
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Strengthening the glutes also helps to protect the lower back, hips and knees, and also improves posture and balance, reducing the risk of falls and improving mobility.
“People with higher fitness, as measured by vigorous physical activity and hand grip strength, had a greater gluteus maximus shape.”
Becker recommends traditional weighted exercises like squats, lunges and bridges, although they are not suited for everyone, especially older adults with injuries and joint pain.
“Pilates and barre classes offer bodyweight exercises that are ideal for beginners or individuals with physical limitations,” she suggested. “They can be done anytime, anywhere, making them accessible for beginners before progressing to weighted versions.”
Glute bridges (demonstrated above) are a recommended exercise for strengthening those muscles. (iStock)
Becker shared the following three glute exercises that improve hip mobility, stability and overall strength.
No. 1: Quadruped leg lifts (strengthens entire core and glutes)
Start on the hands and knees, engage your core, and lift one leg off the floor (bent or straight). Pulse up and down a few inches for 30 to 60 seconds, then repeat on the other leg.
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No. 2: Clamshells (strengthens gluteus medius)
Lie on your side with knees bent at 90 degrees in front of you. Lift your top knee away from your bottom knee, then lower slowly.
For an increased challenge, lift both feet off the ground while keeping the heels together. Repeat for 30 to 60 seconds per side.
Strong muscles are responsible for maintaining metabolic health, according to Becker. (iStock)
No. 3: Glute bridges (strengthens lower back and glutes)
Lie on your back with knees bent and feet parallel, a few inches from your hips. Engage your abs, and squeeze your glutes to lift your hips toward knee height, then lower.
If you feel pressure in your neck, you’ve lifted too high. Perform for 30 to 60 seconds. Complete three sets with 30-second rests between them.
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Those looking to start a new fitness routine should first consult with a doctor.
Fox News Digital reached out to the study authors for comment.
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What if your New Year’s resolution could fit inside a tote bag? Social media users are trying the “analog bag” trend, replacing phones with offline activities.
The trend is widely credited to TikTok creator Sierra Campbell, who posted about her own analog bag — containing a crossword book, portable watercolor set, Polaroid camera, planner and knitting supplies — and encouraged followers to make their own.
Her video prompted many others to share their own versions, with items like magazines, decks of cards, paints, needlepoint and puzzle books.
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“I made a bag of non-digital activities to occupy my hands instead of the phone,” said Campbell, adding that the practice has significantly cut her screen time and filled her life with “creative and communal pursuits that don’t include doom-scrolling.”
“I created the analog bag after learning the only way to change a habit is to replace it with another,” she told Fox News Digital.
Social media users are trying the “analog bag” trend, replacing phones with offline activities like cameras, notebooks and magazines. (Fox News Digital)
The science of healthier habits
Research on habit formation supports the idea of the analog bag, according to Dr. Daniel Amen, a California-based psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics.
“Your brain is a creature of habit,” Amen said during an interview with Fox News Digital. “Neurons that fire together wire together, meaning that every time you repeat a behavior, whether it’s good or bad, you strengthen the neural pathways that make it easier to do it again.”
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Studies show that habits are automatic responses to specific cues — such as boredom, stress or idle time — that typically deliver some kind of reward, according to the doctor. When no alternative behavior is available, people tend to fall back on the same routine, often without realizing it.
Research suggests that replacing an old habit with a new one tied to the same cue is more effective than trying to suppress the behavior altogether.
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“[When] cutting out coffee — you need to have another drink to grab for, not just quit cold turkey. It’s how the pathways in our brains work,” Campbell said.
By substituting a different routine that still provides stimulation and engagement, people can gradually weaken the original habit and build a new automatic response.
Substituting another activity instead of scrolling on your phone can help quell the impulse to reach for it. (iStock)
“Simply stopping a behavior is very challenging,” Amen said. “Replacing one habit with something that is better for your brain is much easier. That’s how lasting change happens, one step at a time.”
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If alternatives are within arm’s reach, people will be more likely to use them, the doctor said. “Your brain does much better with small, simple actions than big, vague intentions.”
Instead of saying, “I’ll stop scrolling today,” the doctor recommends choosing a small habit you can do in a few moments in specific situations, like knitting 10 rows of a scarf on your commute or reading a few pages of a book while waiting at the doctor’s office.
“If alternatives are within arm’s reach, you’re more likely to use them,” a brain doctor said. “Your brain does much better with small, simple actions than big, vague intentions.” (iStock)
Campbell shared her own examples of how to use an analog bag. At a coffee shop with friends, she said, she might pull out a crossword puzzle and ask others to help with answers when the conversation lulls.
Instead of taking dozens of photos on her phone, she uses an instant camera, which limits shots and encourages more intentional moments.
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In casual outdoor settings, such as a park or winery, she brings a small watercolor set for a quick creative outlet.
“It’s brought so much joy,” Campbell said of the analog bag trend, “seeing how it resonates with so many.”
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