The NEURO Plan: Loma Linda’s Answer to Alzheimer’s Disease I Dementia Care

The recent update in memory careliving and dementia care is that alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias can be prevented and even reversed! That is the underlying belief and guiding principle of the NEURO Plan, created by the husband-and-wife team Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, co-directors of the Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center. The NEURO Plan is laid out in detail in the Sherzais’ book, The Alzheimer’s Solution, published in 2017. The Sherzais are neurologists and neuroscientists who have both research and clinical experience in brain health, memory loss, and neurodegenerative diseases in general.

NEURO is an acronym for the five components of the Sherzais’ Alzheimer’s prevention and reversal strategy: Nutrition, Exercise, Unwinding, Restorative sleep, and Optimization of mental and social activities. As is obvious from these five components, the NUERO Plan focuses on lifestyle choices and interventions rather than on the use of pharmaceutical drugs. NEURO also seeks to counteract two popular misconceptions. First, since Alzheimer’s is genetic, there is nothing that can be done to prevent its onset and slow or reverse its progression. The second, Alzheimer’s begins late in life, when people are in their 60s or 70s. According to the Sherzais, the seeds of Alzheimer’s are sown when we are in our 20s and 30s by the early lifestyle choices we make then. So, Alzheimer’s prevention through lifestyle interventions should begin—for everyone—as early in life as possible.

There are several widely acknowledged risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s. They include: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, stress, alcohol abuse, smoking, poor diet (high in sugar and saturated fats), and inadequate sleep. People with these risk factors eventually develop inflammation (discussed in previous newsletters), glucose and lipid imbalances, and oxidative stress, all of which contribute to the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s. The NEURO Plan’s strategy is to identify the risk factors for each individual person and then address them one at a time. Overcoming the problems created by the risk factors can be achieved through regular exercise, stress management, adoption of a whole-food, plant-based diet, purpose-driven activities, continued learning, an active social life, and 7-8 hours of restorative sleep.

The role that sleep plays in Alzheimer’s is often ignored in conventional approaches to treating the disease. Research shows that people suffering from sleep apnea are more likely to experience the buildup of amyloid plaques in their brain. It is during sleep that toxic proteins (such as beta-amyloid) and waste products are flushed out of the brain. Without adequate sleep, these toxins remain in the brain, accumulate, and interfere with the proper functioning of brain cells associated with memory and other cognitive functions. According to the Sherazis, the risk for Alzheimer’s increases by 70 percent for those suffering from sleep apnea. Research suggests that a high percentage of elderly people suffer from sleep apnea, and this may contribute significantly to the progression of Alzheimer’s among those who already have it. NEURO addresses the problem of sleep apnea with interventions involving exercise, weight loss, and nutrition.

Another component that is often ignored is mental stimulation. NEURO believes that the brain stimulation caused by complex activities that challenge the mind can reverse the cognitive decline experienced by Alzheimer’s patients. Such activities include learning a new language, dancing, and playing a musical instrument.