To Stave off Alzheimer’s, Stay Hungry?

We have a higher chance of Alzheimers due to our stroke. Ask your doctor if this would reduce that risk. From the Dana Foundation.
http://dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=42806

A strategy summed up by a famous Nietzsche quote – “What does not destroy me makes me stronger”—might provide a drug-free method for delaying Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, and perhaps the aging process itself. The strategy involves stressing the body—by restricting food intake, in this case—to trigger the activation of biological programs in our cells that protect against disease and degeneration.
“Cells and organisms respond adaptively to certain kinds of stress by increasing their ability to cope with more severe stress,” says Mark Mattson, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (NIA). “We now have a lot of data pointing to the activation of mechanisms that help cells cope with oxidative stress, maintain their energy levels, and prevent the abnormal accumulation of protein aggregates.”
This makes-me-stronger stress response is often called the “hormesis” effect. Mattson and his colleagues are about to start one of the first clinical trials of a hormesis-based strategy—the “5:2 diet,” a form of intermittent fasting—aimed at slowing age-related cognitive decline.

Rest at the link.