|
July 21, 2004:
Keeping
Your Memory Sharp
Interview
with Dr. Gary Small author of the book, The
Memory Prescription.
Mike
Carruthers:
If you want to reduce your chances of ever getting Alzheimer's
disease, there are some things you can do.
Dr. Gary
Small:
Four areas of our life where we can have an affect
on our risk for Alzheimer's disease, mental activity, physical
conditioning, stress reduction and healthy diet.
Dr. Gary
Small, director of the UCLA Center On Aging and author of the
book,
The Memory Prescription says we're seeing more cases of
Alzheimer's disease because people are living longer and the
longer you live, the more likely you are to get it.
And so,
with medical technology we are living longer we're just not
necessarily living better because we haven't conquered all these
age related diseases and Alzheimer's is one of the biggest ones.
The other reason is that now we've recognized it as a disease,
it used to be people thought it was a normal part of aging,
they become senile and to loose your marbles so to speak. And
now we know there's nothing we can do about it.
About one
third of your risk of getting Alzheimer's or some sort of dementia
is genetic, says Dr. Small, the other two thirds is life-style.
We know
that we want to keep towards our target weight, we want to eat
anti-oxidant foods, you can get anti-oxidants from supplements.
We want to eat the Mediterranean diet, with olive oil, fish
and nuts and minimize the animal fats and think about the kinds
of carbohydrates we eat, those instant foods that tend to spike
your blood sugar are a no-no when it comes to brain health.
Tomorrow
other ways to keep your brain and memory sharp. I'm Mike Carruthers
and that's Something You Should Know.
|
