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Tucson integrative medicine physician says “brain-healthy living”
slows cognitive decline — and political and health leaders are
beginning to take note.
“You are not a prisoner to your genes,” says Dr.Dharma Singh Khalsa, who is president and medical director of the Tucson-based Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation. “There are things a person can do to make sure you bring out the best in your genes. Genes are part of the story, but not the whole story.”
Khalsa, a clinical associate professor of integrative medicine at the University of New Mexico Medical School, was one of about 200 invited guests at the once-a-decade White House Conference on Aging held in mid-July. The following week, he was a presenter on mind-body interventions at the Alzheimer’s Association’s international Conference, also in Washington D.C. And in August, an article he wrote about how meditation improves memory was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Khalsa’s foundation is developing a study on how long-term meditation affects protein deposits called amyloids in the brain, which are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Many health experts predict a tsunami of Americans with dementia in 20 to 30 years, but Khalsa says there’s possibility for a brighter future.
Do you think that by staying healthy you can prevent Alzheimer’s disease?
The evidence suggests that you may be able to postpone or delay the onset of cognitive decline by living a brain-healthy life. There are many studies that say this, it’s not just me.
The most prominent one is called the FINGER (Finnish Interventional Geriatric Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) Study. It is the largest study ever done on cognitive disability. Frankly, the European countries are further ahead of us on this.
This study was 1,200 people over two years and the intervention was diet, exercise, socialization and treating cardiovascular risk factors. It was a very conservative study. It showed that after two years, the people who took part in the intervention had much less cognitive decline and actually improved their cognitive ability.
But isn’t it true that even healthy living won’t help someone who has a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease?
There are still things that they can and should do to try to limit the damage to their genes.
For the most part, people who follow a bad health plan will wear out, get sick and die younger than those who take care of themselves. You can bring out the best in your genes.
With our study at UCLA, with doing Kirtan Kriya meditation for 12 minutes a day, what we found is that we had positive gene expression. The genes that cause inflammation in the body (inflammation is found in Alzheimer’s Disease), were down-regulated — made less expressive. The genes responsible for positive immune system function were up-regulated by doing Kirtan Kriya for 12 minutes a day for eight weeks.
So it is possible to influence the genes, there’s no doubt about it. It’s called epigenetics. What you eat and even what you think can influence that.
It’s been found that people who have a feeling that they somehow have a mission or purpose in life have less incidence of Alzheimer’s.
Do you have anything to say about sugar?
A diet high in sugars and carbs jacks around your blood sugar. Many scientists think that Alzheimer’s disease or developing cognitive decline is related to a diabetes-like picture in your brain. So you want to keep your blood sugar stable.
High sugar foods increase triglycerides — blood fats. And this is a risk factor also and leads to heart disease and heart disease is a risk factor.
There’s a lot of controversy about grains right now. It depends on the person. I’d rather see a person eat more protein and less carbs, especially less grains.
If you don’t have the exact right metabolism for eating grains and you are not exercising well, you are going to get a big belly. And that is really bad for memory. The belly and the brain are connected.
No matter what age a person is, I like them to train like an athlete, and eat a good diet that is high in protein but low in red meat. I want people to get out there and exercise. You sit on the couch, you are going to lose your brain.
Are these ideas becoming more mainstream?
There are still two camps. You have the drug camp, who are well-funded, of course. They are looking for this magic bullet drug and are very enthusiastic about it, but it’s been elusive, shall we say.
Then you have the lifestyle camp. This year it has a new name. It’s non-Pharma.
Can’t you have Pharma and non-Pharma treatments together?
I think the ultimate would be if you combine them both. You get the best results when you take some of the medications that do have some effect and you combine it with non-Pharma.
Doctors don’t have all the answers. The prevention of Alzheimer’s disease starts with you.
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