Looking for tips to avoid Alzheimer’s Disease? Dr. Andrew Weil (www.drweil.com) has daily tips on his website that are interesting, healthy, quality of life related and overall helpful. But of course, these are only tips and done in a brief fashion because they are so frequent.
To paraphrase his tips on reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s and add a few others is my blog, please keep reading!
Tips to Avoid Alzheimer’s Disease
1). Challenge your brain: Lifelong stimulation, curiosity and learning helps maintain brain cells, staving off memory loss and maybe even preventing Alzheimer’s Disease. I especially like Dr. Weil’s suggestion to continue to do interesting work (paid or volunteer), pursue hobbies and stay socially active. Take lessons on anything from piano to Italian – always be learning. This is one of the best tips to avoid Alzheimer’s disease.
2). Dr. Weil suggests taking a low-dose aspirin because some studies show that using aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs will reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. Caution on this tip – do not do this without the advice of your primary care doctor because of the risk it might pose to your current health status.
3). Use healing spices in your cooking. Turmeric, ginger and red pepper can add zing to meals and are natural anti-inflammatories. Also, check with your primary care physician on this because they may conflict with other medications you are taking. These spices do add that zing that makes food appealing to many. (Of all the tips to avoid Alzheimer’s disease, this one is certainly the most delicious!)
4). Eat a diet rich in Omega-3’s, including wild Alaskan salmon, sardines, freshly ground flaxseed and walnuts. Again – these are great foods but if you don’t currently eat these foods – check with your physician before making major changes to your diet.
5). Reduce your intake of polyunsaturated vegetable oils (such as sunflower, corn and safflower oils), replacing them instead with extra virgin olive oil. Avocados are another way to get those good healthy fats in your diet.
6). Exercise (Dr. Weil didn’t have this on his daily tips) – but recent research is showing that daily exercise of 30 minutes a day will help with the prevention of many chronic illnesses, but it has a great impact on brain health as well.
7). Mindfulness (not on Dr. Weil’s daily tips – but something he greatly supports). That means doing 30 minutes a day of meditation, prayer, yoga, breathing exercises. Again, recent research coming out of UCSF and Stanford shows that doing this along with physical exercise, healthy diets and brain activities can repair the damage that stress has done to chromosomes effecting brain health.
There are no guaranteed magic tips to avoid Alzheimer’s Disease and many individuals that have led very healthy stimulating lives are still burdened by this illness. But, what we know now is better information is coming from research that can help us keep our cognition high, independence and zest for life by making just a few changes in our daily routines.
With these tips to avoid Alzheimer’s disease, you may be able to lower your risk and preserve your health long into your golden years.
