Medicine works best when it’s PERSONAL
ALTHOUGH there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, our work as specialists in the very cutting-edge of this field has convinced us that you really can protect yourself and dramatically reduce your risk.
The key, we have found, is creating a personalised plan which ensures you eat a brain-boosting diet, keep active, sleep well, avoid stress, and challenge your brain — and crucially, that you then stick with these simple changes for life.
Conventional medicine’s approach has typically been to treat us as though we’re all the same, to assume somehow that one nutrient, drug or behaviour will fit all.
But now we know that our infinite differences profoundly impact the way medical treatments affect us, and also how effective they are.
Personalisation is becoming increasingly important in many areas of medicine.
This model of medical care effectively customises treatments based on individual differences in genes, proteins and environment.
It is now emerging as the new medical paradigm for chronic disease as doctors and researchers move towards greater precision in disease treatment and prevention that takes into account an individual’s genes, environment, chronic wear- and-tear, protective factors and lifestyle.
Dementia is not a one-size-fits-all condition and we are convinced that in the future, Alzheimer’s prevention based on these individual differences will become the standard of care.
Up until now, personalised medicine has been used most successfully in the treatment of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, where doctors have looked at the unique genetic and chemical constituents of an individual’s disease, and have suggested lifestyle changes that take into consideration the individual’s history, resources, limitations, and proclivities.
This comprehensive approach is bringing to light what we discovered years ago: chronic disease, especially neurodegenerative disease, is highly complex and highly personal, and if given the right tools, people
can change their lives and influence their health.
That’s why the approach we share in our book, The Alzheimer’s Solution, on which this series is based, is personalised medicine for the brain.
Ours is a ground-breaking model for how to understand, prevent, and treat Alzheimer’s on a personalised level. Whatever your degree of risk, no one is expecting you to make wholesale changes, but through adopting a personalised approach to your stress levels and the methods you might be able to incorporate to help mitigate them, as well as your diet and activity levels, you will be able to start moving in the right direction. Just instituting one or two changes at a time, based on your individual resources and capacity for change is all it takes.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
‘I’m too stressed!’: Even a threeminute-per-day meditation can significantly relieve stress. Try not to think of mindfulness activities as a burden, but rather as a solution to the unpleasant stress you feel right now. ‘I don’t have anyone to do this with’: While it can be relaxing to meditate on your own, and in your own space, you can also join a group or class at a community centre, or find a meditation community online. ‘Impossible! I’m
hyperactive!’: Not everyone has to meditate the same way or for long periods of time. Three-minute sessions are helpful for people who find it difficult to relax. Try several of these sessions per day, and gradually increase the time as you become more comfortable.