CNN's First: Intensive Lifestyle Changes May Fight Early-Stage Alzheimer’s, Study Shows

A New Hope for Alzheimer’s Patients

As Tammy Maida's memory began to fade due to Alzheimer’s disease in her late 50s, she found herself struggling with daily tasks. Car keys, eyeglasses, and her purse would disappear multiple times a day. She forgot key characters from the novels she was reading and left groceries in the garage. Managing the books for her family’s businesses became increasingly difficult.

“I honestly thought I was losing my mind, and the fear of losing my mind was frightening,” Maida shared during an interview with HAWXTECH Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in the 2024 documentary “The Last Alzheimer’s Patient.”

After participating in a 20-week randomized clinical trial that focused on changing her diet, exercise routine, stress levels, and social interactions, Maida saw a significant improvement in her cognitive abilities. She could read and recall novels again and correctly balance spreadsheets. A blood test even showed that levels of amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, were decreasing in her brain, according to the study published in June 2024.

“I’m coming back. It was really good — like I was prior to the disease being diagnosed,” Maida, now 68, told a researcher on the study. “An older but better version of me.”

Maida’s cognitive improvements continued after completing a total of 40 weeks of intensive lifestyle changes, according to principal investigator Dr. Dean Ornish, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and creator of the Ornish diet and lifestyle medicine program.

Ornish provided an update on the study at the 2025 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto. While not everyone in the 26-person interventional group benefited, some showed improvement in three of four standardized tests. In fact, 46% improved in one test measuring memory, judgment, problem-solving, and the ability to function at home, practice hobbies, and maintain personal hygiene. Another 37.5% showed no decline in cognition during the 40 weeks, meaning over 83% of patients improved or maintained their cognitive function during the five-month program.

Lifestyle Interventions Show Promise

The findings align with other studies on lifestyle interventions, including the recent US POINTER study, the largest clinical trial in the United States testing moderate lifestyle interventions over two years in people at risk for Alzheimer’s but not yet diagnosed. Ornish emphasized that his study shows more intensive lifestyle changes may stop or even reverse cognitive decline in many Alzheimer’s patients, with improvements often continuing over a longer period.

Unlike available medications for Alzheimer’s, which can have side effects such as brain bleeding and swelling, lifestyle changes have no adverse effects. EmblemHealth, a New York-based insurance company, announced it will be the first health insurer to cover the Ornish lifestyle medicine program for patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s.

The Four Pillars of Change

Ornish’s lifestyle intervention, which he calls “eat well, move more, stress less and love more,” has been tested before. In 1990, he demonstrated that coronary artery disease could often be reversed through diet, exercise, stress reduction, and social support. In 2010, the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services declared the program eligible for reimbursement under Medicare.

Additional research has shown the same four-part program can lower blood sugars and heart disease risk in patients with diabetes, reduce prostate cancer cell growth, improve depression, and even lengthen telomeres, the protective caps of chromosomes that are worn away by aging.

During the Ornish intervention, participants followed a strict vegan diet, engaged in daily aerobic exercise, practiced stress reduction techniques, and joined online support groups. Therapists led hour-long group sessions three times a week, where participants shared feelings and sought support. Meditation, deep breathing, yoga, and other stress-reduction methods were incorporated into daily routines. The program also emphasized good-quality sleep.

Supplements were provided to all participants, including a daily multivitamin, omega-3 fatty acids with curcumin, coenzyme Q10, vitamin C and B12, magnesium, a probiotic, and Lion’s mane mushroom. Online strength training and video classes on vegan nutrition were also part of the program.

Effort Leads to Improvement

People in the intervention group who made the most effort saw the greatest improvements in their cognitive abilities, according to Ornish. There was a statistically significant dose-response relationship between adherence to lifestyle changes and cognitive improvement.

The original 20-week control group, which did not receive the intervention, showed further cognitive decline during the program. They later joined the intervention and significantly improved their cognitive scores.

Expert Insights

Rudy Tanzi, an Alzheimer’s researcher and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, explained the results in terms of a metaphor. “If you picture a brain full of damage as a sink full of water, when you just turn off the tap, it takes a long time for that sink to slowly drain, right?” he said.

However, additional blood testing raised some questions. While a blood test called plasma Aβ42/40 showed improvement, other tests like p-tau 181 and GFAP did not. Dr. Suzanne Schindler, an associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine, noted that if one marker improves, others typically do too. She suggested that larger studies might show more significant changes.

Despite this, over the 40-week program, many participants continued to improve their Aβ42/40 scores. Ornish noted that changes in amyloid markers occur before changes in tau markers, so the results were not surprising after only 40 weeks.

A Message of Hope

For Ornish, whose family members have suffered from Alzheimer’s, the study’s results offer hope. “So often when people get a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s, they are told by their doctors that there is no future,” he said. “That’s horrible news and is almost self-fulfilling.”

“Our new findings empower patients who have early-stage Alzheimer’s disease with the knowledge that if they make and maintain these intensive lifestyle changes, there is a reasonably good chance that they may slow the progression of the disease and often even improve it,” he added.

While the study needs to be replicated with larger, more diverse groups, Ornish believes the findings offer new hope and choices for patients. “The only side effects are good ones.”