Worried About Alzheimer’s? Meditate and Mingle, Study Says

Senior woman in yoga pants and a tank top sitting in the lotus pose
Article Summary
  • A Miller School of Medicine study found mindfulness and social engagement are two factors that offer protection for those who carry a gene that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Researchers at the Comprehensive Center for Brain Health found that carriers of the APOE4 gene who practiced mindfulness and engaged in social activities had greater cognitive reserve than those who did not.
  • The researchers did not find a similar protective benefit from mindfulness and social engagement for those without the APOE4 variant.

Mindfulness and social engagement are the two lifestyle factors that offer protection for those who carry the gene with the greatest risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

The researchers at the Comprehensive Center for Brain Health found that carriers of the APOE4 gene who practiced mindfulness and engaged in social activities had greater cognitive reserve than those who did not.

“The implications of this study are that it supports integrating APOE4 screening into personalized cognitive health strategies as specific lifestyle interventions that might offer particular benefits for individuals at risk due to having this allele,” said lead author Deirdre O’Shea, Ph.D., assistant professor and clinical neuropsychologist at the Miller School.

Dr. O’Shea’s research focuses on understanding risk and resilience factors in cognitive dementia, especially by looking at cognitive reserve.

Mindfulness and Inflammation

The researchers did not find a similar protective benefit from mindfulness and social engagement for those without the APOE4 variant. They theorized that people with the APOE4 variant are known to have more inflammation and so perhaps mindfulness and social engagement offset the effects of additional inflammation. They also theorize that, because many elderly people already engage in mindfulness and social engagement, the detrimental effect of APOE4 on cognitive health increases as people age.

Dr. Deidre O'Shea
Dr. Deidre O’Shea supports APOE4 screening and lifestyle interventions for those genetically at risk for Alzheimer’s.

The team also did not find a protective benefit from other lifestyle factors like educational or occupational attainment, regardless of genetic status.

“Unlike with mindfulness or social engagement, which are activities people can practice throughout their lives, education and occupational attainment tend to be static,” Dr. O’Shea said.

Dementia Prevention and Precision Medicine

The study was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia in October. It was based on data from the Healthy Brain Initiative, an ongoing longitudinal study in South Florida that aims to develop dementia prevention programs using a precision medicine approach.

The next step, said Dr. O’Shea, is to gather more data and conduct a longitudinal analysis to see whether these beneficial effects are maintained over time.

“We can look more closely at their cognitive trajectories to see whether they decline more slowly than people who are APOE4 carriers but are not engaged in these activities,” she said.

The study’s coauthors were:

• Medical students Andrea Zhang (M.D., M.P.H., ‘25) and Rebecca Shakour (M.D., M.P.H., ‘25)

• Miller School research associate Katana Rader

Lilah Besser, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., research assistant professor of neurology at the Miller School and Comprehensive Center for Brain Health

James Galvin, M.D., M.P.H., professor of neurology, chief of the Division of Cognitive Aging, director of the Comprehensive Center for Brain Health and director of the Lewy Body Dementia Research Center of Excellence


Tags: Alzheimer's disease, Comprehensive Center for Brain Health, Division of Neuropsychology, Dr. Deidre O'Shea, mindfulness, neurology