What is it about?
We are learning more about potential protective factors that reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. One such factor may be mindfulness, the practice of living in the moment.
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Why is it important?
We found that patients who had higher levels of mindfulness at their initial evaluation had better cognitive and functional performance. If their family caregivers also had high levels of mindfulness, their outcomes were further improved. This sets up the possibility that promoting mindfulness may offer ways to improve brain health and reduce our risk of Alzheimer's disease. It further suggests that mindfulness-based interventions (yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, breathing) may offer symptomatic benefits to individuals already affected by Alzheimer's disease and related disorders
Perspectives
We initially sought to investigate how patient mindfulness affected their performance. We were pleasantly surprised that the mindfulness practices of their caregivers had a significant influence on patient performance. This offers new avenues of research in patient-caregiver interactions to improve quality of life.
James Galvin
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Effect of Baseline Patient and Caregiver Mindfulness on Dementia Outcomes, Journal of Alzheimer s Disease, February 2021, IOS Press,
DOI: 10.3233/jad-201292.
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