Ten years ago a pioneering leadership team known as The Living Well Group launched an innovative holistic model of residential elder care in a small rural community of Vermont; knowing that sometime in the future their model of elder care would prove it's muster. That time has come.

Living Well's hallmark approach to elder care provides seniors a cozy home in residential community, that offers nutritious, organic, heart healthy farm to table food delivered weekly from local farmers; therapeutic  painting and interactive music programs;  movement through walking, tai chi, and bone strengthening exercises, engagement in social activities through involvement in the local community and other events; and cognitive stimulation through brain -benders/teasers and mental exercises.

Ten years later, a team of researchers from the Karolinska Institutet of Sweden and the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki Finland, present data in Copenhagen that would highlight the very strengths and benefits of a similar multidimensional model of healthy living in an elder population.

In July of this year, researchers from the FINGER Study (Kivipelto, 2014), presented the results of a two-year randomized controlled clinical trial  of 1,260 seniors at risk of Alzheimer's disease, to the attendees of the 2014 Alzheimer's Association International Neuroscience Conference held in Copenhagen Denmark.  Their results made immediate international headlines, "Study Finds Possible 'Recipe" for Preventing Alzheimer's". (Fox, 2014).  Their stunning research documents that these similar lifestyle factors-as those offered at Living Well- defined as "multi-component lifestyle therapies": including physical activity, nutritional guidance cognitive training, social activities, and management of heart health risk factors; were found to improve overall cognitive performance in seniors with risk of Alzheimer's disease.  In other words, the combination of these lifestyle factors  when offered together, prevented the cognitive decline found in Alzheimer's disease; specifically loss of memory, loss of  complex thought processing, and reduction in cognitive processing. This is the first large randomized clinical trial to demonstrate the ability to prevent cognitive decline using a combination of lifestyle factors.

The Living Well Group has seen marked improvement in the health of their elder residents over the course of the last ten  years since the holistic, multidimensional model of care was initiated. While their outcomes are only anecdotal (due to small sample size), their overall survival rate (longevity) is X years, exceeding the average survival rate for seniors in residential care in the region. Not only are Living Well's residents living longer, they require less medication, are more active, and more socially engaged.  In fact, the entire group are quite social, they've all taken up drumming.

References:

Kivipelto, M. et al., and National Institute for Health and Welfare. 2014. Randomized Controlled Trial to Prevent Cognitive Impairment-the FINGER study. Research Advances From 2014 Alzheimer's Association International Conference. AAIC 2014, July 13-17.

Fox, Maggie. 2014. Study Finds Possible Recipe' for Preventing Alzheimer's. NBC Nightly News, July 14th, 4:30pm, Maggie Fox, Senior health writer for NBS News.

Paul@VitalLivingVT.com