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HUGE AMOUNTS OF TIME and money are spent planning for retirement. The focus is almost entirely financial—running the numbers, so to speak. How much do I need to save to retire by age 65? Can I retire with my current nest egg? What are the chances I’ll run out of money?
No doubt these are the sorts of questions that keep HumbleDollar readers up at night. And, yes, the numbers are important. In essence, it all boils down to two key questions: How many years will I live and how long will my money last? We have little control over the former, so we focus intensely on the latter.
But dare I suggest that one issue too few of us consider is the quality, rather than the quantity, of years we have left? Do I really want to live to 100 if I’m saddled with chronic, debilitating illnesses for the final two decades of my life?
One of my greatest fears about aging is developing dementia. Today, over 55 million people live with dementia globally, and that number is expected to reach 78 million by 2030. The economic cost of dementia may reach $2.8 trillion by 2030. And this doesn’t include the enormous emotional toll on loved ones.
But what scares me most about dementia is that it robs us of our very identity—what makes us human. If we lose our minds and our memories, what’s left?
There’s some good news on this depressing front. Whether or not we develop Alzheimer’s disease—the most common form of dementia by far—is to a large extent under our control. A recently published randomized, controlled clinical trial showed that lifestyle changes can lead to improvement in those with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. This offers hope that Alzheimer’s disease, at least early on, may be reversible through simple lifestyle changes. What’s even more amazing is that the beneficial effects were seen after just 20 weeks of intensive lifestyle intervention.
And since an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, these same lifestyle changes may prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease in the first place. What are these lifestyle changes? They’re fourfold: a whole foods, plant-based diet; moderate exercise; stress management techniques; and support groups. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant “dose-response correlation” between the degree of lifestyle change and measures of cognition and function. In other words, the more intensely patients modified their lifestyle, the greater was their cognitive improvement.
The medical evidence is mounting that Alzheimer’s disease has much in common with chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. As the saying goes, what’s good for the heart and blood vessels is good for the brain. This makes perfect sense when one considers that the brain receives 15% to 20% of the body’s blood supply.
While exercise, lower stress and social support are all important, I believe that what we eat may be the single most important determinant of our health, including whether or not we develop dementia. In short, we are what we eat. In another study, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease was 38% lower in those eating high vs. low amounts of vegetables, whereas consuming saturated fat and trans fats—so prevalent in the typical American diet—doubled the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
As with other interventions, particularly medical drugs, there are side effects to the lifestyle changes we’re talking about. In two earlier studies, the authors showed that these same lifestyle changes caused regression of coronary artery disease and improved heart function. Implement these lifestyle changes, and your heart will heal alongside your brain. I’ll take that side effect any day.
One of the authors of the new Alzheimer’s study, Dr. Dean Ornish, wrote the book, Undo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases. If you want to understand why the four lifestyle changes are so important in preventing chronic diseases that lead to so much morbidity and mortality in modern life, this is your book. Ornish shows you how to implement the lifestyle changes of eating well, moving more, stressing less and loving more.
Nor are your genes your destiny. Eating the right foods can increase the expression of “good” genes and lower the expression of “bad” genes. But don’t expect too much advice along these lines from your doctor. Truth be told, modern medicine focuses mostly on treating the symptoms of disease, not the root causes. I was taught very little about the importance of diet in medical school and things haven’t changed much since.
Let’s face it: A long retirement is not really the end goal. What we ultimately desire is a long, healthy and active retirement. And more than anything else, this depends on having a healthy brain. Dementia is not an inevitable consequence of aging. You have far more control than you ever imagined.
John Lim is a physician and author of “How to Raise Your Child’s Financial IQ,” which is available as both a free PDF and a Kindle edition. Check out John’s earlier articles.
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With no disrespect to Dr.Lim, any research and any diet recommendation that diminishes the value of meat in one’s diet is automatically suspect.
With Medicine today, in the pocket of “Big Pharmaceutical,” and the fact that the US Government’s Food Pryamid was created by practitioners of the Seventh Day Adventist faith, decades ago, I will continue eating a highfat , low carbohydrate diet, with few if any plants included in my diet.
In the past year, since changing my diet away from the tradition AMA/US Government recommended food pyramid, I have lost 60 pounds, lowered my A1c from 6.4 to 5.6, have all “normal” range numbers in my blood work.
I realize one person’s results are one person’s results, but this one person learned long ago, after serving in Viet Nam, and again, as recently as 2020-2022, and COVID, the US Government, the AMA, and Big Pharmaceutical can not be trusted.
Your health is your responsibility so as the young folks say, “You do you!”
Thank you so much for sharing this. Another book by Drs. Sherzai is The Alzheimer’s Solution, which highlights research articles and their personal decades of experience working with communities around Loma Linda, CA. Highly recommended, and they mention the same lifestyle changes you take about.
If you’re interested in this subject, another good book to read is Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Dr. Peter Attia.
The author distinguishes “lifespan” (the number of years you live) from “healthspan” (the number of healthy and active years you live).
In addition to the importance of diet and exercise, the author also describes how restful sleep and emotional health contribute to increased longevity.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing.
I’m not totally buying the diet effects. Mainly, I’d love to see a test where those specified items are isolated and are compared.
Specifically, the “eat more vegetables!” bit sounds a bit too pat and too consistent with “pop” lifestyle recommendations.
My views are based on what I learned years ago from a Nutrition 211 course in the School of Nursing during my college career, plus a second ingredient that years of experience has indicated:
First, eat a healthy, sensible well-rounded diet that includes approximately the “right” balance of carbs, protein and lipids, obtained through a sensible mix of meat/dairy, vegetables, and grains. (I also take a daily multivitamin pill to avoid going short on any important micro-nutrients.)
Second, personal experience and other studies strongly suggest one more critical component: At least every other day, cardio-vascular exercise that gets you breathing reasonably hard for 30-60 minutes. In my case, that means jogging at a steady but not too rigorous pace, with some modest increased-pace intervals (ie., hills).
I am always aware of what and how much I am eating and in what proportions, and avoid under- or overdoing any category, ie. carbs/fats/protein and animal/vegetable/grain products.
So I just don’t find it credible or supported by evidence that greatly increasing the proportion of vegetables in an already well-rounded diet with regular cardio exercise makes a significant difference.
It used to be thought that the brain’s neurons stopped proliferating in early adulthood, but it is fascinating that many activities stimulate neurogenesis in the aging brain in both the hippocampus and deep frontal lobes. Exercise, antidepressants, Viagra can stimulate neurogenesis. Several studies have shown that exercise like bicycling can stabilize hippocampal atrophy and memory in the aging brain compared to sham exercise like stretching. It is fascinating that exercise might help delay or prevent Alzheimer’s symptoms.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1934590923000024#:~:text=Adult%20hippocampal%20neurogenesis%20(AHN)%20drops,cognitive%20status%20in%20AD%20patients.
Have you seen the studies showing sildenafil (viagra) correlated with a dramatic (30%-50% reduction) compared to non-users?
Greg Spears wrote about that last week:
https://humbledollar.com/2024/09/avoiding-alzheimers/
Oh yes indeed! Thanks!
And yet it seems the Paleo and Keto diets are all the rage these days. Though their proponents claim to lose weight and have lower cholesterol numbers, I have a hard time believing these anecdotal results. These meat and fat centric diets can’t be good in the long run. I’ll stick with the Mediterranean diet.
I did keto. I lost weight, lowered cholesterol, eliminated acid reflux within days. But I was never comfortable with the idea of pigging out on red meat and butter, so I still ate lots of chicken and fish. I still eat lots of hummus and vegetables . At the end of the day I would agree that the Med diet is a better alternative.
Now if I could only curb my cheese burger addiction.
Excellent article John. Thanks for the information and references. I’ve seen dementia up close and it is very sad and challenging for families to deal with.
John,
Please don’t make me have to THINK before my second cup of coffee.
Excellent Post! I hope you continue writing.
At least the latest studies show how beneficial coffee is to our health!
I was raised in a meat and potatoes family but I’ve recognized the importance of tilting towards plant-based as I’ve gotten older. I’ve found smoothies are a painless way to get your fruits and veggies.
I haven’t eliminated meat from my diet but I limit red meat and incorporate meat alternatives like tofu and nuts. If you press out the water, cube it up, season, fry in healthy oil, and toss in a light sauce, tofu is a pretty tasty protein option.
“Dementia is not an inevitable consequence of aging.”
102 1/2 year old mother in law is proof.
However, her mother lived into her late 90s, and her aunt to 103 1/2.
Also my mother in law never exercised. She did however eat mostly what she canned and froze from her garden as they did not have much money.
Giving up animal fat is easy. I’ve done it hundreds of times.
Seriously, I’ve done well with finances and exercise, but those damn cheese burgers….
Great article, John. You’re writing of responsible health behavior—making choices by current self to benefit future self. That’s a parallel to responsible money habits. Are the two related? I find my conversations with patients about improving their health to go a little easier with those who seem to have their financial life in order.