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Positive News    H4'ed 11/21/22

How healthy is your brain?

Message Robert Adler

Sometimes you come across a simple idea that lets you see things in a new light. That was my experience listening to a recent presentation by Florida-based cognitive neurologist Dr. James Galvin in which he shared some of what he has learned and developed over the course of 25 years treating people with Alzheimer's and other neurological conditions.

Dr. Galvin argues that it's time for doctors and patients to shift their focus from brain disease to brain health. "We as health providers really need to change the topic of our conversation," he says. "We spend way too much time talking about disease and disability and death, we really spend very little time talking about health and vitality and capabilities. We need to stop being reactive and be more proactive."

Can Alzheimer's be slowed or stopped?
Can Alzheimer's be slowed or stopped?
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Galvin and his colleagues have developed a set of interventions to do just that. The result? They can help people with healthy, well-functioning brains stay healthy, stabilize people at risk or with early signs of brain dysfunction, and slow the decline of thinking and memory in people already diagnosed with Alzheimer's or other brain diseases.

"We were very interested in asking some very important questions," he says. "Why do some people develop Alzheimer's disease and other people do not? What are some of the factors that increase the risk of developing the disease - their vulnerability? And what are some of the factors that decrease the risk of developing the disease - their resilience?"

At the core of Galvin's approach is a quick, highly focused assessment of each patient's overall brain health based on indices of brain resilience, vulnerability, and current performance. That produces a three-dimensional map that leads directly to a detailed, personalized prescription to increase resilience, decrease vulnerability and preserve healthy brain functioning.

Galvin and his colleagues estimate that up to 30% of Alzheimer's and related dementias could be headed off through such carefully targeted interventions to support or enhance brain health. If they're right, wide application of their program could spare two million of the estimated 6.5 million Americans projected to develop Alzheimer's in the next three decades.

Honed over 25 years of clinical practice and research, the assessment process is relatively simple; most of it can be carried out by a patient at a computer. The resilience index reflects factors such as social involvement, emotional control, physical and mental activities, diet and nutrition. The vulnerability index reflects risk factors such as depression, cardio-vascular conditions, obesity, diabetes, stroke, high cholesterol and frailty. Current mental functioning is measured through a simple, non-verbal number-symbol coding test of executive functioning - the brain's ability to focus on a task and work efficiently yet flexibly.

As a clinician, Galvin knows the time constraints practicing physcians work under, so he set out to make the assessment and treatment planning as quick and simple as possible:

"The way the doctor would use this is someone could, before they even show up at the office, fill out this platform and give an assessment of how strong their brain is, their resilience, how weak their brain is - their vulnerability, and how their brain is performing," he says. "The doctor will be able to then place them in a three-dimensional space and say, This is a brain that's healthy, and is likely to stay healthy. This is a brain that's currently performing well but is at high risk for changing in the near future. Or this is a brain that's starting to show signs of degeneration, and what could we do about it to make that person the best that they could be?"

That information, in turn, leads to a detailed, person-by-person plan that might address medical risk factors, for example through better control of obesity or diabetes, target lifestyle risks such as inactivity and social isolation, and support cognition, for example through challenging and stimulating leisure activities.

Given that no new drug to treat or slow Alzheimer's has been developed for more than a decade despite massive and costly efforts by Big Pharma, this non-pharmaceutical, lifestyle-focused program already in clinical practice by Galvin and his associates more than merits the attention of other physicians and researchers.

A technical but readable summary of Galvin's approach and research, The Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease: Lessons Learned and Applied, from the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, can be found here.

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Robert Adler Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linked In Page       Instagram Page

I'm a retired psychologist, author and freelance writer focusing on science, technology and fact-based political and social commentary.

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