Maintaining Memory and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease
Sleep: 7-8 hours per night
- Avoid alcohol before bedtime
- Establish a bedtime routine
- Exercise regularly
- Get plenty of sunlight during the day
- Maintain a fixed sleep schedule
Nutrition - "Let food by thy medicine" (Hippocrates)
Exercise - helps maintain memory
- Aerobic exercise: 30 min per day/three times a week
- Resistance exercise (lifting weights) two times a week
- Mental enrichment: crossword puzzles, learn to dance, etc
Optimal Hormone Levels
- Pregnanolone
- (The mother hormone)—Memory Hormone
- Estrogen
- helps maintain memory and preserves bone in Women
- Helps preserve bone in Men
- Testosterone
- maintains memory in Men
- Women—sense of wellbeing
- DHEA
- balances the stress hormone cortisol
- Cortisol
- Primary stress hormone
- Without cortisol we cannot live past 7 days
- In normal amounts helps maintain memory
- Only hormone in the body which increases with age.
- Excess: Increased blood glucose/insulin
-Insomnia
-Increased susceptibility to infections
- Insulin
- Regulates blood glucose in your blood
- Insulin receptors found throughout the brain
- Abnormal elevated levels result in memory loss and cognitive decline.
- Thyroid Hormones
- Hypothyroid can lead to memory deficit and cognitive deficits.
- Melatonin
- Main function is to regulate your 24 hr sleep-wake cycle
- Low melatonin can lead to Insomnia and compromised immune system.