URI group investigates impacts of diet, exercise on development of dementia

THE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND’S Lifestyle Interventions Group, which includes subject-matter experts from a wide variety of academic disciplines, is working on several projects exploring how exercise and diet can play a part in delaying or preventing dementia. /COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND/MICHAEL SALERNO
THE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND’S Lifestyle Interventions Group, which includes subject-matter experts from a wide variety of academic disciplines, is working on several projects exploring how exercise and diet can play a part in delaying or preventing dementia. /COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND/MICHAEL SALERNO

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – University of Rhode Island faculty, staff and graduate students working across a broad range of disciplines hope to conquer one of the nation’s most troubling health challenges: how to prevent or slow dementia’s onset through exercise and nutrition changes.

This cohort, called the Lifestyle Interventions Group, includes disciplines beyond the typical confines of brain science, and engages with organizations, communities and individuals from across Rhode Island, according to a URI statement. This holistic perspective expands and enriches avenues of investigation, with an objective of providing the scientific underpinnings to support practical changes in behavior that can improve people’s lives, William Renehan, associate director of the George and Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at URI and a founder of the group, said in the statement.

Separate studies from the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer’s Association examined the role of exercise and diet in dementia’s context and reached markedly different conclusions; nevertheless, Renehan is intrigued by the idea that simple behavioral changes could reduce the risk of developing dementia. Then, Renehan learned of a small study by a Wake Forest University researcher that delivered promising results. “If this were a drug trial and the results were this impressive, it would be on the front page of the paper. But it got very little attention. Simple things don’t seem to resonate,” he said.

So Renehan conducted his own literature review and discovered that studies on diet and exercise were conducted without input from kinesiologists, physical therapists, psychologists, nutritionists, gerontologists and others. “There was an incredible variability in the measures and methods,” he said. “I thought: ‘We have people at URI who have the skills and knowledge to do this research.’ ”

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In December 2016, he and Catherine Taylor, a senior adviser for policy, partnerships and community engagement at the Ryan Institute, announced the group’s formation to the URI community, and some 60 people from diverse disciplines within URI’s Academic Health Collaborative and beyond expressed interest.

“Everyone is deeply curious about what everyone else knows,” Taylor said, noting that academic practicalities often make it difficult to collaborate outside one’s discipline. “Given this opportunity, people have embraced it.”

Experts from various disciplines reviewed the existing research and shared their unique perspectives. “That was incredibly valuable,” Renehan said. “We used those initial meetings to identify gaps in the literature and what we can do to address them.”

One gap is the lack of proven, specific diet and exercise regimens that a health practitioner can offer to a patient. “We are working toward a time when a doctor can write a prescription for diet and exercise to slow progression or prevent dementia,” Renehan said.

The group gained early momentum from URI’s Institute for Integrated Health and Innovation, part of the Academic Health Collaborative, when it offered small grants for proposals presented at a Big Ideas in Health forum. The Ryan Institute added some funding as well.

One proposal by faculty from several departments within the College of Health Sciences seeks to examine changes in gait as a cognitive decline biomarker. These researchers are also accessing resources at the Providence VA Medical Center and Lifespan’s Rhode Island Hospital. The university’s Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences and the College of Business Administration are evaluating ways to offer older adults incentives for healthy food purchases. And the colleges of Nursing, Health Sciences, Pharmacy and Engineering, as well as the Ryan Institute, are exploring the construction of a community for older adults adjacent to URI that would foster healthy living.

The group also is creating an online tool to assess public knowledge and perceptions about brain health, which, Taylor said, will help guide education and outreach efforts.

“We want to equip families and physicians with a message of hope and an action plan,” Renehan said. “There should be hope. There are things people can do to reduce their risk of developing dementia.”

Nancy Kirsch is a PBN contributing writer.

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