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Wall Street Journal writer Amy Dockser Marcus highlights Alzheimer’s prevention — and the methods used at Dr. Kenneth Kosik’s CFIT clinic in Santa Barbara — in this week’s Personal Journal. You can read the story and try the brainteasers here. Dr. Kosik, co-director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, launched CFIT in 2009 to provide information on lifestyle changes that may promote cognitive fitness and delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. In fact, that’s what CFIT stands for: Cognitive Fitness and Innovative Therapies.
Dr. Kosik’s new book (I’m a co-author), “The Alzheimer’s Solution,” is due out in mid-May, and provides an in-depth look at the strategies he recommends for preventive measures. But Dockser Marcus sums up this stream of research well — and interviews Dr. Kosik at length. “By the time someone walks in my door with symptoms of the disease, it’s too late” to stop it, Dr. Kosik told Dockser Marcus. Participants at CFIT (50 people are currently enrolled) range in age from their 50s to their 80s. Each person receives a physical and cognitive evaluation, and then gets a personalized “prescription” for exercise, diet, music therapy, cognitive challenges, and socializing. All these steps are designed to maintain brain fitness and stave off cognitive decline.
Dockser Marcus cites research, including the well-known Nun Study, that found that a rich cognitive life can help prevent or delay the onset of dementia. CFIT is working to set up a control group of elders at another local assisted-living facility who aren’t participating in the program. A controlled study, common in scientific research, could compare the cognitive health of the two groups in the future.
Read more about CFIT here.
