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Cognitive decline can be slowed down with lifestyle changes
- luckydata 1y agoHow many times do we need to hear "exercise and healthy eating" prolong life and improve cognitive function?
- oldpersonintx2 1y ago[dead]
- Cerium 1y agoBeatings will continue until morale improves.
- kashunstva 1y agoThis was a large multi centre prospective RCT; so I would say that it adds to evidence from other sources acquired in less rigorous ways. This was also a structured multidisciplinary intervention; so this study may add to what can be done in terms of implementation, because there is still work to be done on that front. But yes, at face value, it sounds like what we already know! (But which many/most are not implementing…)
- pkaler 1y agoI'm actually working on an app for myself to remind me of that. For example, there is a full glass of water sitting on my desk from 9am. It's noon. I haven't taken a sip. Until now. Constant reminders do work.
- deberon 1y agoOh shit I missed my water break. Thanks for the reminder friend.
- apsurd 1y agoHow come it's so hard for people to drink water? Honest question. Like why don't you just wake up in the morning, take a whiz, brush your teeth, and drink a glass of water? What gets in between? Because the first two are 99% success rate I'd bet.
- icelancer 1y agoBecause most people drink to thirst, not out of habit.
- SketchySeaBeast 1y agoBut is that bad? Do people actually need to drink more than they are thirsty for? Why is it that our hunger sense is over-tuned, but conventional wisdom says that our hydration sense is under-tuned? Honestly, I feel like "always be drinking" only appeared once bottled water did.
- nemomarx 1y agoHonestly I forget brushing more than I should too, and I skip breakfast most days even though I'm hungry. The friction required to pour the glass or set things up can be a lot early in the morning. It helped me to get a water cooler or something to fill a bottle?
- jsbisviewtiful 1y agoApparently a lot. Between 2021 and 2023 the US obesity rate was 40%+.
- sunshowers 1y agoInstead of berating people or repeating messages over and over, let's focus on getting GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonists into as many people's hands as possible.
- oldpersonintx2 1y ago[dead]
- jsbisviewtiful 1y agolol yeah let’s fund more pharma bull shit and kick the can for actually solving the problem. More CEOs need yachts. Diet education and curbing the corps poisoning us is far more effective.
- sunshowers 1y agoYou believe in your approach and I believe in mine.
- pessimizer 1y agoIt's the signal that they have no idea what they're talking about. Always remember everything doctors said people should do to cure their stomach ulcers: the "why not?" list. "Your medical team has carefully gone over the results of your tests, and we've finally come to the careful consensus that you should keep active, drink more water, get enough sleep but not too much, and eat your vegetables." "But..." "Why not? Do you think vegetables are bad for you?" "But doctor, I have a broken leg!"
- skirmish 1y ago"Research says hopping on one foot can burn 600 calories in 30 minutes! Why the look, get going already!"
- spidersenses 1y agoThe more important question appears to be why it seems to difficult to follow the advice? Personally, I'm well aware of the positive effects of drinking plenty of water, eating vegetables, exercising daily, and going to bed early. However, I buy myself a chocolate bar every day, love pizza, just want to unwind after a hard day at work, and still read Reddit late into the night. All the healthy stuff has friction: a workout takes time out of the day, the veggies need preparation, while going to bed early means I'm missing out on fun or intriguing things that I would learn about otherwise.
- hn_acc1 1y agoIt's probably easier to monetize chocolate bars, pizza and reddit (ads). Easier to slip into "junk" mode and harder to stop. My exercise equipment is long paid for (10+ years ago), I watch sports while exercising (subscription paid whether I exercise or not) and going to bed early means less need for caffeine / painkillers to get through the day. Veggies are somewhat more expensive, not sure if the margins are as high on them as on ultra-processed food. And yet, I'm right there with you - I struggle daily with doing the right thing.
- jerlam 1y agoFor the elderly, participating on Reddit would probably be a step up. Cable news and Tiktok are far worse.
- bamboozled 1y agoBecause it takes effort, but once it becomes a habit, it's fine.
- cnst 1y agoMediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) Study: Rationale, Design and Baseline Characteristics of a Randomized Control Trial of the MIND Diet on Cognitive Decline - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8042655/#T3 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8042655/#T3 - Table 3. Intervention targets of the MIND Diet Basically, the description for a healthy pescetarian diet that these studies are using.
- doppelgunner 1y agoGreat, so my brain isn't a doomed potato after all. Just need to sleep, exercise, eat well, socialize, reduce stress, stop doomscrolling, learn a language, play chess, meditate, avoid sugar, limit screen time, and reverse the entropy of the universe. Easy.
- nemomarx 1y agopick one intervention and work on just that one to start. less anxious decision paralysis I say sleep is the best one to open with
- moravak1984 1y agoYep. Good sleep makes many other decisions easy. Anecdata, but while I normally have a healthy Mediterranean diet (after many years of binge eating), if I don't sleep properly, hell unleashes. If I eat well and I am well rested, I feel energized and positive, so I can go for exercise and then, why not, a meditative walk. If not, I die on my couch binge eating and watching nonsense. Do whatever it takes to get your sleep done.
- Anonyneko 1y agoIf only I could actually do something about my awful sleep, even sleep medicine has no effect other than completely ruining my next day.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y agoDon't forget to journal
- boguscoder 1y agoI could have told you that for a lot less than 50 mil!
- mvieira38 1y agoIf you stop using your phone for anything other than communicating (yes, not just the loose "stop doomscrolling" advice) a lot of these will come naturally. It will lead you to using a real alarm clock and not using your phone after going to bed, which will make your sleep schedule that much more consistent, and also improve quality of sleep. These will probably give you more motivation, which you'll need because the time you used to waste on the phone now needs to be occupied by a real hobby, and here comes language learning, chess, music, etc. (not saying you specifically are a phone addict)
- stefap2 1y agoStructured lifestyle intervention. Participants attended 38 facilitated peer team meetings over two years and were provided with a prescribed activity program with measurable goals for: - aerobic, resistance and stretching exercise - adherence to the MIND diet, a combination of the Mediterranean diet with the salt restrictions of the DASH diet - cognitive challenge through BrainHQ training and other intellectual and social activities - regular review of health metrics and goal-setting with a study clinician
- Mars008 1y agoJust BrainHQ training alone would likely increase the scores. The rest is general health management.
- drjasonharrison 1y ago"General health" has been shown to affect cognitive performance. Especially when you are including sleep and diet in "general health"
- Mars008 1y agoIt sure does. I just recently had to switch to 'healthy' diet. Positive effect in many ways. Including clear thinking, focus and performance. But, there is nothing new here.
- joduplessis 1y agoDon't try to be healthy, try to be strong or try to do an ultra - or even crossfit. Community & nutrition usually follow IMO.
- SketchySeaBeast 1y agoMaybe start with a 5k rather than an ultra? I think that setting goals like "do an ultra" is more likely to have people stop entirely rather than downgrading their goal to something more doable when they hit that first roadblock. Better to start small and catch the running bug than try to do something that the vast majority of the population will never even aspire to.
- reducesuffering 1y agoAgreed. And running actually gets a lot better if you start at an easy conversational pace (light jog) and get over the initial month or two. Huge cardiovascular and longevity benefits.
- joduplessis 1y agoI was of course generalizing, but the point I'm making is that you need to get some (very) long term fitness goals. This usually drives you to find like minded people and action long term nutritional changes. You can get to a 5km within 5 weeks.
- SketchySeaBeast 1y ago> You can get to a 5km within 5 weeks. You have to remember that something like 40% of Americans are obese. You're right, a 5k is pretty doable, but if you get to 5k and you don't find yourself enjoying it, you're never going to get to an ultra, but if you do find yourself enjoying it, it's much easier to work your way up to a 10k. And there's a lot of points between 5k and ultra where the game changes - a 10k feels different and has a different challenge than a half which feels different than a full (I can't speak for an ultra), and many of those points are perfectly healthy to stall at. Long term goals are great, but only once you've set yourself on that path. The goal of running for a month and a half is enough if you've never run before.
- amelius 1y agoI bet relying on AI isn't one of them.
- klipt 1y agoNonsense, my AI therapist says that relying on AI makes me smrt!
- moravak1984 1y ago"Smrt" means "death" in Czech, so...
- klipt 1y agoAlso a Simpsons reference: https://youtu.be/ls5BFzuxGw4 https://youtu.be/ls5BFzuxGw4
- MaxPock 1y agoI had a successful exit two years ago ,thinking retirement would be bliss,traveling here, exploring hobbies there. But it all became routine and surprisingly boring, faster than I expected. Over time, I started forgetting things, which really unsettled me. I became increasingly lazy and unmotivated. Earlier this year,I began volunteering as a systems administrator and network engineer for an NGO and I couldn’t be happier. The daily interaction with staff has significantly improved my cognition,which had been rapidly declining.
- szundi 1y ago[dead]
- sunshowers 1y agoYeah it's real. I spent a few months recovering from PTSD and burnout a few years ago, and noticed myself starting to slip in various ways. As soon as I could, I picked up a coding project as part of my recovery plan — it was really helpful. Even if I retire, I hope to be able to do some cognitively-challenging thing for as long as I can.
- bloodyplonker22 1y agoI don't mean to be negative, but things become boring fast when you have no hobbies and interests outside of work. You were likely programmed to do work -- so much that it became your only hobby.
- hn_acc1 1y agoThe sad thing is - especially in software/tech - it's so competitive these days, if you don't "live to work", you won't work enough to live.. As a 30+ year software dev, the expectations / requirements are definitely more challenging than when I started. Mind you, the tools are also somewhat better, but there's this feeling of needing to be always-on that's hard to shake. And the whole "take as many days as you need" fake-unlimited-vacation thing, where people end up taking less vacation days than before because it feels "wrong" to actually take 4-5 weeks vacation in a year when others aren't taking as much. At my previous employer, when I joined, it was start at 18 vacation days per year, add one for every year at the company up to 28 - and you could bank up to ~35 before you lost days. At least you felt "entitled" to take those days. Then, they switched to "flexible PTO" and I'm sure overall, people took less days vacation. My current employer is "flexible" and I feel anxious taking 4 weeks throughout the year.
- sys32768 1y agoMy mother had Alzheimer's for 20 years. I would not recommend it for more than 10 years no matter how healthy you are. I have one copy of the APOE4 gene and am ~40lbs overweight and probably drink too much, and will definitely double my weight and triple my alcohol consumption if I get it. I have always said the heathier you are when you begin to die, the longer it takes to die.
- UltraSane 1y agoWeight loss is much easier if you eat foods with low calories per gram.
- SketchySeaBeast 1y agoI believe GP is saying they'd rather participate in self destructive weight gain and alcohol abuse than delay the decline.
- idontwantthis 1y agoAre you a bot? Why did you say that?
- zebez 1y agoYou begin to die when you are born.
- wooque 1y agoI had 2 grandparents die from Parkinson's and I would definitely pick up heroin addiction if I get diagnosed.
- Gud 1y agoShould give weed a try first. For some it really helps
- theshrike79 1y agoI've said this before, but I think that people over 80 should be allowed to legally purchase use any substance. BUT to get immunity from prosecution they'd have to sign a notarised and confirmed Do Not Resuscitate order. Call it the Blaze of Glory act or something =)
- robinhouston 1y ago> Schott also notes that the clinical trial didn’t include a control group of participants who got no guidance and made no lifestyle changes. This makes it hard for researchers to pinpoint which aspect of the program might have been responsible for the positive effect. However, Heather M. Snyder, senior vice president for medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer’s Association, tells the New York Times that the organization thought neglecting to offer an intervention to one group would be unethical. One might counter that it’s unethical to hinder our ability to understand which interventions are effective by prejudging the outcome in this way?
- ekianjo 1y ago> neglecting to offer an intervention to one group would be unethical. i read that as "doing Science would be unethical"
- dillydogg 1y agoGood luck ever doing a clinical trial with this approach. Think about cancer treatment. If we have an intervention we know is better than the natural course of the cancer, then we ought to compare the experimental treatment with the default treatment instead of letting people die from cancer in the name of "science".
- ocschwar 1y agoThere are many contexts where doing an experiment with proper controls is literally a crime against humanity. Which means, yes, that there are many studies where the control isn't quite proper. And that does slow down progress in medical science.
- ocschwar 1y agoIf you have access to statistics for the general population, you can forego the control group, I would think. But that requires doing the study in a country with a well run health care system and properly regulated medical records so that you can get these stats without privacy issues. (Glances in Denmark's general direction.. )
- pengaru 1y agoI'm pretty sure every age-correlated decline can be slowed down with lifestyle changes, it seems like stating the obvious.
- thefz 1y agoIt's incredible to read all the nuanced deniers of the benefits of diet and exercise. You all just rather inject yourselves with a medicine. Amazing.