Resource Roundup: Integrative Interventions for Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease

Photo Cred: Burdun Iliya/Shutterstock

By Avery St. Onge

An estimated 6.9 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. That’s about one in nine people over the age of 65. And disease rates are only growing, projected to nearly double by 2050.  

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, characterized by a progressive decline in cognition that interferes with a person’s ability to complete everyday tasks. It’s said to be a result of several factors, including environmental exposures, lifestyle choices, and genetics. In fact, new research reveals that duplication of the APOE3 gene may predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Still, the precise causes of the disease remain unclear. What we do know is that Alzheimer’s begins up to 20 years before the onset of symptoms, making prevention key. In this article, we’ve rounded up our top resources on Alzheimer’s prevention.

Read more to explore topics like the impact of hormone replacement therapy on Alzheimer’s risk, the cognitive effects of multivitamins, environmental interventions for neuroinflammation, and key nutrient deficiencies linked to the disease.

Key Nutrient Deficiencies Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease Development

The burden of Alzheimer’s disease is staggering. From an economic perspective, healthcare costs are estimated at more than $170 billion per year just in the United States. Worldwide dementia is as high as 24 million, and it’s expected to grow four times higher by the year 2050.

While various models of pathogenesis exist, indicating a multifactorial process, the present theories associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease link oxidative damage to disease progression. Because of this, a recent study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease looked at antioxidant levels, specifically carotenoids and tocopherols. The study featured samples of donor brains with confirmed Alzheimer’s disease and compared them to healthy elderly donor brains. The researchers found that there were substantially lower concentration levels of lutein, zeaxanthin, retinol, lycopene, and alpha-tocopherol compared to healthy brain tissue. The two most deficient antioxidants were lycopene and zeaxanthin.

To read more, click here.

Dr. David Perlmutter on the Key to Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease

Recently, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expedited the approval of two types of drugs aimed at addressing β-amyloid, the sticky protein widely recognized as the cause of Alzheimer’s. However, research suggests that decreasing β-amyloids is not the solution to preventing cognitive decline, said David Perlmutter, MD, FACN, ABIHM, at the Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

“We’re bombarded with the idea that the amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease is rock solid,” said Dr. Perlmutter, board-certified neurologist and author of Grain Brain, “despite the fact that some of the seminal work in 2006 was found to be fabricated and that the images used for some of the displays of the proteins were actually Photoshopped.”

To read more, click here.

Does Hormone Therapy Increase or Decrease Alzheimer’s Dementia Risk?

The data regarding the risk of Alzheimer’s dementia for women taking hormones is nuanced and sometimes contradictory. Fortunately, there are emerging, useful data and important considerations to help guide clinicians when working with menopausal patients.

In 2023, there were several studies published in prestigious medical journals describing a potential increased risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in women who received menopausal hormone therapy (MHT). This included a Danish nested case-control study in BMJ and a cross-sectional study from Wisconsin published in JAMA Neurology.

To read more, click here.

Q&A: Environmental Interventions for Neuroinflammation with Dr. Austin Perlmutter

In his 2024 Integrative Healthcare Symposium presentation, Austin Perlmutter, MD, discussed the role of environmental factors in neuroinflammation and how lifestyle interventions can reduce the risk of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and depression.

We interviewed Dr. Perlmutter in a podcast episode leading up to the symposium about the relationship between the brain and the immune system and how everyday choices impact cognition in the long-term.

To read more, click here.

New Information About Multivitamin Supplements and Cognition

Specific to cancer, in 2022 the well-known COSMOS trial published data showing there was no significant effect of a daily multivitamin in the prevention of breast and colon cancer; however, there was a protective effect with lung cancer. While more research is needed regarding chronic conditions, new research demonstrates that taking a multivitamin supplement has cognitive benefits.

To read more, click here.

New Research Indicates Cumulative Use of PPIs is Associated with Dementia Development

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are among the most frequently prescribed drugs in the United States and Europe, especially among people over age 65. What’s more, a 2022 analysis reports that PPIs are inappropriately used about 50 percent of the time in both hospital and outpatient settings, with misuse especially prevalent among the elderly. This is troublesome, given that mounting evidence demonstrates that the use of PPIs can contribute to dementia.

To read more, click here.

How to Approach Alzheimer’s Disease with Functional Medicine

Efrat LaMandre, PhD, FNP-C, joins Integrative Practitioner associate editor, Avery St. Onge, to discuss the functional medicine approach to Alzheimer’s disease. LaMandre breaks down the root causes of Alzheimer’s and explains integrative interventions that can help treat and prevent the disease.

To listen, click here.