Wellness programmes could positively affect memory in Alzheimer’s patients

Tailored, wellness lifestyle programmes have been found to have a positive impact on memory in Alzheimer’s patients, in a pilot study conducted by University of California and the Buck Institute of Ageing.

The research studied 10 patients suffering with Alzheimer’s symptoms, and found an improvement in memory quality in nine cases. The programme was developed by the study’s lead author, Dr Dale Bredesen, a professor of neurology at UCLA.

Elements include yoga and meditation, a diet regime, increasing sleep to eight hours a night, supplementations to include fish oil and peptides. “In the past decade alone, hundred of clinical trials have been conducted for Alzheimer’s, without success,” said Bredesen. “That suggested that a broader-based therapeutic approach, rather than a single drug that aims at a single target, may be potentially more effective.”

Wellness retreats a growing channel of spa business, and spas such as Grayshott Spa in Surrey, UK, are developing packages to help cancer sufferers recuperate from treatment. Bredesen’s findings suggest that spas could now use their expertise to offer effective treatment in a different area of chronic illness.

Bredesen added that further research was needed into these findings.