Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
Interesting study of the week I: diet and Alzheimer’s
This seems to be a slow news week so I’m going to get caught up on research papers I think worth reading.
I first heard about this study from this video, from Dr. Greger’s newsletter announcement (I subscribe).
Here’s the study: Ornish D, et al. Effects of intensive lifestyle changes on the progression of mild cognitive impairment or early dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease: a randomized, controlled clinical trial. Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy volume 16, Article number: 122 (2024). https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-024-01482-z.
It put 50 or so people in their 70s or older on “an intensive multidomain lifestyle intervention compared to a wait-list usual care control group” for 20 weeks.
People on the lifestyle intervention—diet, exercise, stress management, group support—did better.
The first author, Dean Ornish, runs a lifestyle modification program.
Comment: Wouldn’t this be terrific! At the very least it is further evidence for the health benefits of a largely (not necessarily exclusively) plant-based diet. Eating plant foods is strongly associated with prevention of any number of undesirable conditions. The Alzheimer’s Association already recommends the DASH or Mediterranean diet patterns; both are plant based.
Eat your veggies. Do so cannot hurt and might help—a lot.
