Archive for February 21st, 2012

Two Lifestyle Choices To Fight Off Alzheimer’s

With our population aging, health problems for seniors are getting to be a big issue.  One of the most pressing needs is Alzheimer’s disease.  This is a cognitive memory disease which causes a slow deterioration in the ability of the person to recall long term memory.  It starts with forgetting people’s names, even ones they have know for decades, and progresses to a point where the patient can’t remember how to dress themselves.

Alzheimer’s is a very terrible disease that can be quite traumatic for the family as well as the patient.  Some doctors are estimating that 10% of seniors could be living with the problem over the next few decades.

The good news is there are steps a person can take to ward off the effects of this medical condition.  The first one is to eat a diet rich in natural foods and to stay away from sugar and processed foods.  One great lifestyle diet is a low carb diet which substitutes protein and vegetables for processed foods that contain sugar and refined grains.  This seems to help with brain chemistry which can slow down the onset of this terrible malady.  For more information on a low carb diet click here.

The second lifestyle change is to stay active:  both physically and mentally.  Getting exercise everyday can help to improve blood flow to the brain and help with removing toxins from the body.  It doesn’t have to be excessive either.  Just walking every day makes a big difference.

You should also try to keep your brain active by doing mental exercises.  Crosswords and Soduko are both great for this.  These changes won’t cure the disease but it can slow down its onset.  Many people are living quite well with early stage Alzheimer’s by making just a few changes to their lifestyle.  They may still be a little forgetful at times but it is nothing like the worse cases.