- According to AARP1, the infusion of federal dollars will establish so-called centers of excellence around the country dedicated to finding the best strategies to deal with Alzheimer’s, cognitive decline and overall brain health.
- It will also help in agencies’ efforts to promote early detection and diagnosis. This in turn may reduce risk and prevent avoidable hospitalizations.
- With this funding, the CDC will work with state health departments to help promote brain health, reduce the risk of cognitive decline and possibly improve the care of Alzheimer’s sufferers.
Promoting Brain Health
Sarah Lock, AARP senior vice president of policy and brain health, explained the importance of the new law:1 “This legislation embeds prevention and promoting brain health as opposed to only fighting the disease once you get it,” Lock said. I don’t have a great deal of confidence that BOLD will achieve its worthy mission. For six years here at Brain Health Breakthroughs we’ve identified healthy lifestyle choices that help prevent memory loss and dementia. We cull the latest scientific journals and report on pertinent brain health findings that can make a real difference. The way to prevent, slow down or even reverse dementia is well established at this point. While, yes, there is a genetic component in some patients, for most people the problem is lack of exercise, unhealthy eating habits, lack of restorative sleep, an overload of prescription drugs, lack of social interaction, lack of mental exercise (reading, playing music, learning a new language, etc.) and all the other causes we write about here. A growing number of enlightened doctors are adopting our approach, but most doctors have not. I suspect the new money and attention will be thrown at the same old ineffective nostrums. If the administrators of the BOLD money really want to look for “centers of excellence” in dementia treatment, our publications have pointed toward a couple of dozen they can check out.Meet
The Expert:
The Expert:
Susan Clark is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated journalist and author who has written about nutrition, health, and wellness for 27 years. She has developed content for articles, reports, books, videos, and television news segments featuring some of today’s top alternative and integrative doctors. She earned a bachelor of science in broadcast journalism from Texas Christian University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two sons, and numerous pets.
