As an active board member of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute (PMRI), Lee has backed Dr. Dean Ornish’s lifestyle-medicine research from heart disease to the newly published Alzheimer’s trial. The study’s gains in early dementia quickly drew a Wall Street Journal feature and propelled Ornish onto the TIME100 Health list—proof that food, movement, stress-relief, and community can still change the hardest problems in medicine.
About the Ornish Study
Published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy (June 7 2024), this randomized phase-II trial is the first to show that comprehensive lifestyle changes can improve cognition in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early Alzheimer’s disease.
Study snapshot
- Design: 1:1 multicenter RCT, ages 45-90, MoCA ≥ 18
- Cohorts: 25 lifestyle-intervention vs 26 usual-care controls
- Duration: 20 weeks
- Primary endpoints: CGIC, ADAS-Cog, CDR-SB, CDR-Global
Study abstract
Background
Evidence links lifestyle factors with Alzheimer’s disease. We report the first randomized, controlled clinical trial to determine if intensive lifestyle changes may beneficially affect the progression of MCI or early dementia due to AD.
Methods
1:1 multicenter RCT in adults 45–90. Primary outcomes: CGIC, ADAS-Cog, CDR-SB, CDR-G after 20 weeks of an intensive multidomain lifestyle intervention versus wait-list control…
(full abstract as provided)
Conclusions
Comprehensive lifestyle changes may significantly improve cognition and function after 20 weeks in many patients with MCI or early dementia due to AD.
Dean Ornish on TIME 100 Health
TIME honors Dr. Ornish among the 100 most influential people in health for proving that “what’s good for the heart is good for the brain”—spotlighting the same trial Lee helped advance at PMRI.
