4 ms·

The Link Between Diet, Exercise and Alzheimer’s

34 points by smn1234 7y ago

nickgrosvenor 7y ago
Id love the summary of this article as I don’t have a subscription to the WSJ anymore
- elahieh 7y ago
  The study the article is based on is at https://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(19)35368-3/fulltext https://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(19)...
neonate 7y ago
http://archive.is/SCW7h http://archive.is/SCW7h
joe_the_user 7y ago
"Most surprising, says Dr. Isaacson, is that the MCI patients who followed at least 60% of their recommendations showed cognitive improvement. However, MCI patients who followed less than 60% of the recommendations experienced cognitive declines similar to the control groups, he notes." -- Another explanation: those able to follow these directions might have been in the best cognitive shape. What I'd wonder is if the less-than-60% cohort could have done worse than the control? Was this sorting masquerading as treatment? When they were in their early 80s, my mother and my Stepfather each started doing Sudoku puzzles to fight dementia. My mother lost interest and developed non-Alzheimer dementia six years later. My stepfather kept at it and did not develop dementia though he had cognitive issues. Where is the cause and where is the effect here, however? Edit: another thing that makes the study seem rather problematic is the "customized advice" part. Maybe some of the advice is better than others. How do you generalize? etc. For a more object study, you'd need to have people just meriting one kind of treatment in both control and treated groups. I understand how hard that could be - this stuff is just filled with quandaries. Customized treatment would logical at final patient level but very hard to objectively analyze.
- sitkack 7y ago
  Experimental design is easy to get wrong and not something we focus strongly enough on. The scientific method is the single most powerful discovery we have made in all of humanity. I would place it above above the three Rs.
RickJWagner 7y ago
Diet and Exercise make a lot of things better. But they're not easy. I find exercise easy, but not diet. I know others who are the opposite.

34 points by smn1234 7y ago

nickgrosvenor 7y ago

Id love the summary of this article as I don’t have a subscription to the WSJ anymore

elahieh 7y ago
The study the article is based on is at https://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(19)35368-3/fulltext https://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(19)...

neonate 7y ago

http://archive.is/SCW7h http://archive.is/SCW7h

joe_the_user 7y ago

"Most surprising, says Dr. Isaacson, is that the MCI patients who followed at least 60% of their recommendations showed cognitive improvement. However, MCI patients who followed less than 60% of the recommendations experienced cognitive declines similar to the control groups, he notes." -- Another explanation: those able to follow these directions might have been in the best cognitive shape. What I'd wonder is if the less-than-60% cohort could have done worse than the control? Was this sorting masquerading as treatment? When they were in their early 80s, my mother and my Stepfather each started doing Sudoku puzzles to fight dementia. My mother lost interest and developed non-Alzheimer dementia six years later. My stepfather kept at it and did not develop dementia though he had cognitive issues. Where is the cause and where is the effect here, however? Edit: another thing that makes the study seem rather problematic is the "customized advice" part. Maybe some of the advice is better than others. How do you generalize? etc. For a more object study, you'd need to have people just meriting one kind of treatment in both control and treated groups. I understand how hard that could be - this stuff is just filled with quandaries. Customized treatment would logical at final patient level but very hard to objectively analyze.

sitkack 7y ago
Experimental design is easy to get wrong and not something we focus strongly enough on. The scientific method is the single most powerful discovery we have made in all of humanity. I would place it above above the three Rs.

RickJWagner 7y ago

Diet and Exercise make a lot of things better. But they're not easy. I find exercise easy, but not diet. I know others who are the opposite.