Written by Michael Moore, PT
Anyone who reads our FPT newsletter regularly will remember in our last edition around Thanksgiving, I wrote an article on exactly that Thanksgiving topic. When our team was meeting early in January to ask for volunteers for our January newsletter, I had recently been made aware of a recent 2024 study on reversal of early dementia. I was familiar with the author, Dean Ornish, of UC San Francisco Medical School and his career dedicated to lifestyle medicine. I therefore decided to write this newsletter and report on that very study. Volunteering to write the newsletter meant I would be forced to do a deeper dive into specifics of the Ornish study. I must admit that seeing the pain and suffering of my father having dementia and not only his struggles but how stressful it was on my mother and all of his children like myself, gave me personal interest. More on those personal notes later.
Overview of the 2024 Ornish Dementia Study
Regarding the Ornish study of 2024 basically he had two groups of 50 people, 25 early dementia medically diagnosed per group ages 70 to 90-years-old. They were selected into Group A that had lifestyle intervention and Group B that had no intervention. They were given four different psychiatry tests at the onset of the study and 20 weeks later. The lifestyle intervention included regular cardio workouts, strength training workouts, meditation, and prepared whole food plant-based meals for themselves and their significant other/partners.
Study Results and Functional Outcomes
In the control group 70% got lower scores at the 20 week mark. The remaining 30% had no change. All of the intervention group improved all of their scores.
Real-Life Reversals: What the Outcomes Looked Like
If you look up the study, which I would encourage you to do, the personal stories of those who had reversal are astounding. A significant number of participants cited the ability of being able to read a book again because their prior inability to read was based on their loss of short term memory and forgetting what they had just read. Two people were able to return to work in the accounting field and one of these people had given up the accounting field five years previously due to costly mistakes.
Genes, Risk, and the Role of Lifestyle
Dean Ornish was in an interview I listened to and he described that only 3% of the population have a specific gene that will lead to dementia. There is a significant percentage of people that carry genes that lend themselves to possible dementia if their lifestyle choices are not consistent with what Ornish has laid out in his recent study. Ornish also said in the interview that with present AI tools, one can find out if they have these susceptible genes that make them at risk. The AI tools can predict as early as 10 years before the onset of any kind of dementia symptoms. This scary prediction seems frightful on one hand, but if one took the Ornish lifestyle recommendations seriously, they could head off a very significant health problem for themselves and their loved ones.
Why This Matters at Folsom Physical Therapy
As you know at Folsom PT in our training sessions at all levels we try to incorporate not only cardio and strength training, but also balance/fall prevention and flexibility. In addition to physical training, for over 14 years FPT has also been a strong advocate of whole food plant-based eating for cardio health, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and G.I. cancer prevention, reversal of unnecessary body weight, and now brain health. That is why we as a business host quarterly whole food/plant based potluck dinners. There is great news for everyone and that is that the exercise formula and the food formula we preach is the same formula for improving one’s health for all of these listed conditions.
A Personal Reflection on Dementia and Family
Now to the personal part. In my young adult life I felt it would be nice to be able to help my parents as they aged with the tools associated with my PT career. To be able to open a private practice in my home town fulfilled part of that story. When my father was in his 80’s there were signs that my sister, my brother and I knew were mental lapses because we all lived close by and were active in my parents’ lives. Eventually there were personality changes that were quite hard to take because my sister, Anne, and I were heavily involved in the medical side while my brother, Tommy was on the business/financial side, and we could draw his wrath if what we were trying to get him to do went against his plan. But for my mother, it was the hardest because she was with him 24/7 except when she went to daily Mass. On the one hand, I am very proud to have been a main player involved in my father’s end of life years, but I am the first to admit that it was not easy. I have felt very fulfilled that my brother, sister, mother, and I got to be the ones taking care of my father so that he could die in his own bed.
Looking Forward: Prevention, Choice, and Hope
Fast forward to the present 2026. What if we could avoid that kind of dementia for ourselves and our families with the lifestyle choices we make throughout every hour of every day of our lives moving forward? I know we all have to die, but if lifestyle choices could prevent dementia for 97% of us, what a wonderful alternative to dying due to dementia.
References & Further Listening
Ornish, D., et al. (2024). Effects of intensive lifestyle changes on cognition and function in mild cognitive impairment or early dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy.
Full study (open access):
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11157928/
Journal website version:
https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-024-01482-z
Ornish, D. (Interview). Hope for Alzheimer’s: Lifestyle medicine and cognitive health. Plantstrong Podcast (Episode 283).
Episode link (video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqBu4O4_ERA
Podcast page (with audio + show notes):
https://www.plantstrongpodcast.com/blog/dean-ornish-alzheimers-study
