Preventing Cognitive Decline Through Small Lifestyle Changes
by Claudia Bartsch
Cognitive decline and the developement of diseases like Alzheimer’s are often accepted as a natural progress of aging. Many of us fear that it might affect our loved ones. Currently, there are no effective drugs that can stop or prevent progressive diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, yet most mainstream research and medical treatments are currently drug based.
The Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation (ARPF), founded by Dharma Singh Khalsa, has done over twenty years of intense research and shown that lifestyle changes have an enormous impact on the prevention of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease – even if the genetic predisposition, in particular genes called Apoe E2 aand Apoe E4, are present. Our daily choices indeed have the power to turn genes on or off, a fact that, unfortunately, is not widely known yet.
ARPF developed an approach to prevention that is drug-free and has proven to be highly effective. It is based on four pillars.
- Diet (mostly plant based, rich in vitamin, minerals, healthy fats; low in sugar alcohol and red meat.)
- Physical and mental exercise (regular physical exercise can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by 50%.)
- Stress management.
- Spiritual fitness (purpose, meaning, connection.)
Sounds familiar, right? Dr. Dean Ornish’s program for heart health is based on the same four pillars and they are recommended by many others for general health and well being. Our bodies and brains simply function better if we address the four pillars properly. Yet, it often seems incredibly challenging to adhere to what we intuitvely know. Our food choices are too abundant, confusing and tempting, our lives are too busy, filled with too many urgencies, never quite enough time to relax or focus on what is important to us.
Changing our lifestyle seems initially simple, but the problem is that it’s not meant to be for a month or a year but for the rest of our lives. The style in which we live our lives – that can sound daunting and overwhelming.
For me personally, yoga and meditation practice has been the greatest support system. It gave me the structure and discipline to make slow but permanent changes. It taught me to keep promises I had made to myself, not always immediately but step by step, practice by practice, day by day. Over time I realized that the practice wasn’t just helpful to make those daily, healthy choices but that my identity had actually changed. I did not have to force or motivate myself anymore because I had become a person who takes care of herself naturally. Being accountable and proactive in respect to my own health became an expression of self-love and self-appreciation.
Recently, I discovered another quite powerful tool: Behaviorial Science: I learned that motivation and willpower really do not work. Instead, I learned to not work against my minds’ programming and reward system. Accepting my minds’ ingrained mechanisms and following very pragmatic steps allowed me to outsmart these programs. And the biggest secret was to start very SMALL, to be less ambitious, less demanding, less driven. Instead I practiced being steady and consistent – Just like Patanjali suggested in the Yoga Sutras 🙂
If you would like to learn more about this, please join me on October 26th at 11 a.m. for Preventing Cognitive Decline through Small Lifestyle Changes, a workshop full of information, practical approaches and experiential practice.
