Chimps Loves Trends as Much as We Do - CNN 5 Good Things - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
00:00:00
Hey there, how we doing? It's a good day to look at the bright side, if you ask me.
Karina Gunadi
00:00:05
We have seen what fires can do, and we're really hoping to reduce that distraction.
Krista Bo
00:00:10
Fighting fire with pinecones? A startup is betting on it. Plus "monkey see, monkey do," might be the saying, but turns out apes follow trends like we do. From CNN, I'm Krista Bo, and this is Five Good Things.
Krista Bo
00:00:28
'We all know that being a frequent flyer comes with perks. But for one man in Birmingham, Alabama, the benefits were life-saving.
Bruce Gamble
00:00:36
There's a reason God gave you two kidneys. He wants you to share one.
Krista Bo
00:00:39
'For nearly four decades, Bruce Gamble has been flying in and out of Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport because of his career as a car dealership consultant. A few years ago, the 74-year-old learned that he needed a new kidney because he has type 2 diabetes and his kidneys were failing as a result.
Krista Bo
00:00:56
The National Kidney Foundation says the average wait time to get a donated kidney is three to five years. That's why doctors told him finding a living donor was his best bet. So he told just about anyone who would listen, including airport employees.
Bruce Gamble
00:01:11
Somebody would say, how are you doing today, Bruce? I said, I'm doing fine, except I just need to find a kidney donor. And that opened the whole conversation up.
Krista Bo
00:01:19
A little over a year into his donor search, Bruce opened up to a Delta Airlines customer service agent he was friendly with at the airport. They started discussing the testing required to actually donate a kidney. That's when a second agent named Jill Hickey joined the conversation.
Jill Hickey
00:01:34
I jokingly said, you know, what are we getting tested for? And that conversation kind of took off.
Krista Bo
00:01:40
Up until that point, Bruce says 10 people had volunteered to get tested to see if they'd be a match. Jill and other agents offered to do so too.
Jill Hickey
00:01:48
My husband was like, you're gonna do what? How do you know this person?
Bruce Gamble
00:01:52
Are you sure this is what you want to do? I was stunned, beside myself.
Krista Bo
00:01:57
Jill ended up being a match. And about a year later, on December 9, 2024, they underwent transplant surgery. Bruce says he's now recovering at home, and it's going well.
Bruce Gamble
00:02:07
God blessed me with Jill at this point in my life. She's extended my life and I've told her that many times.
Jill Hickey
00:02:14
We were strangers at first, but we're more like family now.
Krista Bo
00:02:21
Pinecones might make you think of Christmas and snow, but for a group of graduate students, they were their inspiration to fight fire.
Karina Gunadi
00:02:29
We were looking at nature and how nature responds to fire. And one of nature's adaptations is pinecones. They have seeds that are only released after the presence of fire.
Krista Bo
00:02:41
'These national adaptations to fire are a phenomenon called pyrosense. And it's what inspired Karina Gunati to co-found Pyri, a device that looks like a pine cone that aims to help fight wildfires by detecting them faster.
Karina Gunadi
00:02:55
The earlier you can detect a fire, the less manpower you need and the less destruction it can cause.
Krista Bo
00:03:01
'The 28-year-old met her co-founders in graduate school at Imperial College London and the Royal College for Art for a dual-degree program. When the designers came together for a group project in 2023, Pyri was born.
Karina Gunadi
00:03:15
There is a special trigger inside of every Pyri device. And when fire approaches that trigger melts and that creates a signal send. That signal is received by either existing communication towers or dedicated receivers that take that information, they compare it against weather and satellite data, and then they send an alert out to the relevant authority.
Krista Bo
00:03:40
'Extreme wildfires are growing more intense and widespread because of climate change. A UN group predicts a 30% increase in extreme fires by the end of 2050. So having lived through wildfires in California and Brazil, Karina and our co-founders aren't the only ones thinking about this.
Krista Bo
00:03:58
'Catching wildfires is a multi-billion dollar fight. Satellites, lookout towers, and drones are all tools used to alert first responders to burning blazes. But in remote, under-resourced areas, tech like that is hard to come by.
Karina Gunadi
00:04:13
The gap we're trying to fill is those remote areas that are really important to protect, but are not realistic for cameras for drones because cameras and drones need power. They need maintenance. They need a skilled worker to be operating or repairing them. And what we hope Pyri is, is a passive solution that can just be installed, air deployed, and then left alone until you need it.
Krista Bo
00:04:38
Pyri plans to run more tests later this year and have a commercial launch in 2027.
Karina Gunadi
00:04:43
We have seen what fires can do, and we're really hoping to reduce that distraction.
Krista Bo
00:04:51
So while adults work to rebuild what's lost after natural disasters, one group is making sure kids get back items nearing dear to their hearts, their beloved stuffed animals.
Ashley Reckdenwald
00:05:02
People know that stuffed animals hold memories, they hold emotions. They play such an integral role in a child's life, and we really want to give that back to them.
Krista Bo
00:05:14
As a mother of three, Ashley Recktenwald started the nonprofit Land of Lovies after the wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Ashley Reckdenwald
00:05:22
Land of Lovies replaces stuffed animals after catastrophic events for children who have faced flooding, who have face wildfires, anything that has happened. So by helping out their children, I hope to be helping out the parents as well during these difficult times.
Krista Bo
00:05:41
After devastating floods hit Central Texas earlier this month, people started pulling soaked teddy bears and plush animals out of the Guadalupe River, posting pictures online, hoping to find their owners. Volunteers are helping clean and catalog every stuffed animal found in the floodwater. And land of lovies could either send back the original if they can get it in good enough shape or track down an exact match. Ashley's favorite part? Watching the kids light up when they open the box.
Ashley Reckdenwald
00:06:09
Many of them believe it's the same stuffed animal, and parents will come up with these beautiful stories around what that means. So they say, oh, we lost Bella in the flood and she was swimming along and she swam back to us. And it's stories like that that I think really make such a tragic event that could be a lot worse in the mind of a child so much better.
"Mean Girls" movie clip
00:06:39
'I saw Caty Heron wearing army pants and flip-flops, so I bought army pants and flip flops.
Krista Bo
00:06:44
Just like in the Paramount Pictures film, "Mean Girls," it only takes one trendsetter to start a movement. And turns out, new research suggests our closest animal relatives love a trend as much as we do. At a chimpanzee sanctuary in Zambia in 2023, researchers spotted something strange. The chimps were sticking blades of grass or sticks in their ears and their rears.
Jake Brooker
00:07:09
And we thought, you know, this might seem a little bit weird and a bit random, but it reminded us of something that had happened about 15 years before. And it had become this social trend, like an arbitrary social custom.
Krista Bo
00:07:22
'Jake Brooker is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Durham in England. He co-authored a study published this month in the journal, Brill that found this grass-in-the-ear habit wasn't random, it was a full-blown fashion fad.
Jake Brooker
00:07:36
It's almost like flat jeans. There was a period where they were older age and then it really died down and then they had this kind of resurgence.
Krista Bo
00:07:45
A female chimp named Julie was the first to start the look back in 2010. She passed away just a few years later. But now, fast forward 15 years, the behavior is back, thanks to her son, Jewel, who never even met her.
Jake Brooker
00:07:59
It shows that these behaviors can outlive generations. It really, I think, mimics like a lot of things that we pass on to other generations.
Krista Bo
00:08:07
And how did Julie start this whole trend? Caregivers at the sanctuary were seen cleaning their own ears with matchsticks.
Jake Brooker
00:08:13
We think that they copied it because they like to just do what someone else is doing and they do it because almost expressing that they like them.
Krista Bo
00:08:21
Jake says these seemingly silly behaviors actually say a lot. Chimps, like us, use trends to connect, communicate, and find their place.
Jake Brooker
00:08:30
That really speaks to how deeply complex actually the chimpanzee social world that is perhaps a lot more similar to human lives than they may have thought before.
Krista Bo
00:08:44
Up next, one man, two continents, and 518 days of running with a powerful message that couldn't wait. Stick with us, we'll be right back.
Krista Bo
00:08:55
'Imagine running 8,262 miles. That's basically the equivalent of running the width of the U.S. about three times. But it's the distance that a 37-year-old British Ugandan runner recently completed, all in the name of challenging racism and highlighting the story of human migration.
Deo Kato
00:09:16
You know, running has the power to change the world.
Krista Bo
00:09:19
Deo Kato is an activist and running coach. On December 22nd, 2024, he became the first man to run from Cape Town, South Africa to London, where he was raised. The epic journey took him through 21 countries and lasted 518 days.
Deo Kato
00:09:35
Having experienced racial issues living in the UK, I, along the lines of being told to go back where you come from, I wanted to do a campaign around that and say that if you're going to say go back to where you came from, I want to highlight for people that we all come from Africa.
Krista Bo
00:09:52
Deo says Cape Town is home to some of the earliest human fossils and marks where humans then migrated to Northern Africa, Europe, and beyond. From there, he ran roughly one marathon a day, with the help of a logistics team in both cities and a driver who was there with him for moral support and carried vital supplies. And he kept friends, family, and fans updated with Instagram posts.
Deo Kato Instagram Posts
00:10:15
So it's day 41 today, day 173, 291 of running from Cape Town to London to tell the history of human migration.
Deo Kato
00:10:26
I was joined by young people, kids that were running with me, and I got a lot of joy out of that. And I had a kid that asked me, how does running help to end racism? And I think that running is just a vehicle for what I'm doing as an activist. It's very difficult to bring up a very difficult topic with very different people. But when you put it in the setting of sport, it breaks down those, you know, those barriers.
Krista Bo
00:10:57
But there were also some low points. About 315 days into the run, Deo was arrested in South Sudan and detained for about three weeks. Then in Europe, he said police frequently stopped him, all over paperwork. He says he considered quitting briefly, but his supporters kept him going.
Deo Kato
00:11:15
It felt nice because people are taking their time out and be able to assist me with everything else that I needed. So all I could focus on is just moving forward.
Krista Bo
00:11:25
When he finally reached London in December, he was met by around 300 runners, friends, and family.
Deo Kato
00:11:37
The finish line was way beyond what I expected. It was overwhelming and joyful, yeah, the perfect finish.
Krista Bo
00:11:53
'All right, that's all for now. Join us tomorrow for the next edition of One Thing. Hear part one of a two-part series exploring the role psychedelics can play in therapeutic settings. With the Trump administration signaling interest and some experts concerned about safety, host David Rind speaks to a U.S. Army veteran who says a powerful hallucinogen helped her break free from addiction.
Krista Bo
00:12:15
Five Good Things is a production of CNN Podcasts. This episode was produced by Eryn Mathewson, Lauren Kim, and me, Krista Bo. Our senior producers are Faiz Jamil and Felicia Patinkin. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan Dzula is our technical director, and Steve Lickteig is the executive producer of CNN Podcasts.
Krista Bo
00:12:34
'We get support from Joey Salvia, Alex Manasseri, Robert Mathers, Jon Dianora, Leni Steinhardt, Jamus Andrest, Nichole Pesaru, and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Alexandra Skores, Samantha Lindell, and Li-lian Ahlscog Hou. And thank you especially for listening. Take care, till next time.
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Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Shane Devon Tamura Highlights NFL's Head Trauma Problem
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The NFL's problem with head injuries is in the spotlight after a gunman killed four people before turning the firearm on himself at the league's headquarters in New York on Monday. The shooter, 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura from Las Vegas, was found with a suicide note, alleging that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive brain disorder related to head injuries, which has been associated with football. It is not yet clear if Tamura actually had CTE. "Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze. You can't go against the NFL, they'll squash you," the note allegedly read, according to sources that spoke to CNN. The note reportedly continued that Tamura wanted his brain studied. Terry Long was a former football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who died by suicide in 2005 after drinking antifreeze. An autopsy revealed he had CTE. Multiple sources also allegedly told CNN that Tamura had played competitive football when he was younger. A file photo shows an NFL player. A file photo shows an NFL player. Lindsey Wasson/AP What Is CTE? "CTE is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that develops as a result of repeated impacts over time, leading to the buildup of abnormal tau protein and progressive brain degeneration," Damian Bailey, a professor of physiology and biochemistry and director of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of South Wales, told Newsweek. Cumulative exposure to repeated sub-concussive or concussive impacts "significantly increases the risk" of developing the disease, he said. Other factors may influence susceptibility, he said, such as genetic factors and substance abuse, but "repetitive head trauma is currently the only confirmed environmental cause," meaning military personnel and athletes engaged with contact sports are most at risk. Bailey said it's important to note that contact doesn't have to be directly to the head in order to pose a problem, and could be a shoulder impact, for example. Also, 90 percent of concussions don't involve a loss of consciousness, he added, "so the damage is cumulative and often goes undetected." CTE can have wide-ranging effects on a person's life, potentially leading to severe mood instability including paranoia, suicidal or homicidal ideation, emotional dysregulation, aggression, impulsivity, and impaired judgement, Bailey said. The disease, "in rare but tragic cases, may contribute to violent behavior when combined with other stressors and access to weapons," he added. As diagnosis of the condition requires thorough examination of brain tissue, it can only be done after death, but experts have developed a clinical criteria for a group of symptoms associated with CTE, known as traumatic encephalopathy syndrome, to help inform patient care. It is crucial to note that, in light of the shooting on Monday evening, even if Tamura had CTE, "that would not justify these heinous actions," Dr. Daniel H. Daneshvar, co-director of the Mass General Brigham Sport Concussion Clinic, and professor at Harvard Medical School, told Newsweek. "While understanding brain health is vital, linking a single act of violence directly to CTE without evidence risks misunderstanding both the disease and the tragedy," he added. He said that there is "no direct, one-to-one connection between CTE pathology and a specific action," meaning that "many people with CTE never engage in violence, and most violent acts are not caused by CTE." Findings of CTE Among NFL Players Football is a contact sport that "involves frequent, repetitive head impacts, including many that do not cause acute symptoms, leading to cumulative brain trauma over time," Bailey said. "The combination of high-speed collisions in very powerful players, repeated sub-concussive hits, and a culture that historically downplays concussions increases the risk of long-term brain injury and corresponding CTE," he added. CTE typically develops following "thousands of head impacts over years," Daneshvar said. "As a result, the number of years and intensity of exposure matter—research has shown a dose-response relationship, where the risk and severity of CTE increase with more years of experiencing repeated head impacts," he said. This means that someone who only played through high school typically has a much lower level of exposure than a professional athlete, he added. In a 2024 study of almost 2,000 former players, researchers found that 34 percent believed they had CTE—although, given it cannot yet be diagnosed in a living person, they did not know for certain. Those that believed they had the condition were found to have higher rates of cognitive problems, mental health disorders, chronic pain, head injury and low testosterone. Around 25 percent of those who believed they had CTE also reported suicidality, while 5 percent of those who did not believe they had CTE reported the same. In a 2023 study, Boston University CTE Center found that 345 out of 376 former NFL players who donated their brains to the center for investigation had CTE—equating to 90 percent of them having the disease. However, the researchers noted that this does not suggest 90 percent of NFL players have the condition, as it can only be diagnosed after death, and prevalence remains unknown. Comparatively, a 2018 Boston University study conducted on 164 men and women from the general population found only one person had CTE—and the lone case was a former college football player. The findings suggest that, while cases of CTE seem to be extremely low in the general population, cases appear to be significant among former NFL players—tying the disease to the sport in a strong association. Other sports have also been associated with the condition, with documented cases of CTE in hockey, boxing, rugby union, wrestling, soccer, horse racing and mixed martial arts, Bailey said. What Has NFL Said About CTE? An NFL official first acknowledged the link between CTE and football in 2016, during a roundtable organized by the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy & Commerce. In the meeting, Jeff Miller, the league's senior vice president for health and safety, was asked if there was a link between the two, and, according to ESPN, Miller confirmed that there was. While previous officials had referred to the risk of concussions leading to long-term problems, it marked the first time the NFL addressed that frequent head trauma could lead to CTE. An NFL memo released that same year also reported that the league had "recognized for years that studies, including those done at Boston University, have identified retired players who were diagnosed with CTE following their deaths," and that the league has helped to fund the university's research, according to NBC Sports. However, while the NFL had spent millions on concussion research, it has spent comparatively very little on CTE studies, ABC News reported. Per the outlet, in 2017, $100 million was invested in concussion research by the NFL, while they had only funded one study on CTE—and that focused on jockeys rather than football players. The 2016 memo added that research is still in its "infancy" and said that the studies completed have been based on "a largely self-selected population," raising an issue of "selection bias," according to NBC Sports. Per the outlet, the NFL memo then stated "there is no reliable evidence on the incidence or prevalence of CTE," meaning the league could not provide any "reliable statement" on the risk of CTE in the sport. Newsweek has contacted the NFL via email for comment. What Needs To Be Done? Some focus has been placed on reducing concussions in the sport—with the NFL allowing players to wear Guardian Caps, extra head protection intended to reduce head injuries, during play as well as in practice. Reports have also indicated a drop in concussions in the sport. Yet, little has been done about tackling the broader risk of CTE in football. This could be down to multiple factors, such as "financial interests, cultural resistance to changing traditional gameplay, lack of immediate visible consequences, limited awareness or denial of the risks, and the complexity of fully understanding and diagnosing the condition which currently takes place at autopsy," Bailey said. However, he said that sports organizations and governing bodies "should implement stricter safety protocols, improve concussion detection and management, enforce rule changes to reduce head impacts, invest in education for players and coaches, and support ongoing research to better understand and prevent CTE." "We are currently running to stand still given the prevalence of contact in sport and I anticipate seeing an explosion of clinical cases," he added. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "988" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
US to burn $9.7 million worth of USAID-purchased contraceptives rather than deliver them to women overseas
The Trump administration is set to destroy $9.7 million worth of US-purchased contraceptives rather than deliver them to women overseas, following the dismantling of foreign assistance programs carried out by the US Agency for International Development, or USAID. The 'preliminary decision' to destroy the USAID-procured birth control was confirmed by a State Department spokesperson, who said the cost of incinerating them would be $167,000. The contraceptives have been housed in a warehouse in Geel, Belgium. The Belgian foreign ministry said it was engaged in diplomatic talks with the US embassy to work to find alternative solutions for the supplies. The contraceptives are mostly long-lasting types of birth control, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and injectables, a US congressional aide told CNN. It is not clear exactly when the supplies will be destroyed, according to the aide. 'They have to double incinerate the products because they contain high levels of hormones and they don't want to risk leaking the byproducts out in the environment, which likely adds to the cost,' the congressional aide said. 'The Trump administration is quite literally burning taxpayer money.' A list of the supplies, shared with CNN by another source with knowledge of the warehouse stock, shows that the contraceptives include copper IUDs, rod implants, birth control injections, and levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol tablets. Some have USAID branding but the majority do not, according to the source's list. Most of the products expire in 2028 or 2029, with the earliest expiration date among the products in April 2027, according to the list detailing the nearly 5 million items. The US State Department spokesperson referred to the contraceptives to be destroyed as 'certain abortifacient birth control commodities from terminated Biden-era USAID contracts.' There is controversy about whether to describe certain contraceptives as abortifacient, or causing abortion, due to the debate over whether life begins at the moment an egg is fertilized or at a later stage. Some birth control methods, including IUDs, may work by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg. However, IUDs primarily work by suppressing the release of eggs, or by preventing sperm from reaching an egg. CNN has approached the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for comment. 'Only a limited number of commodities have been approved for disposal. No HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed,' the spokesperson added. 'USAID avoided an additional $34.1 million in taxpayer costs by negotiating no-cost cancellations of pending orders placed under the Biden Administration.' Responding to media reports that the contraceptives were set to be transferred to a French medical waste facility to be destroyed by the end of July, a diplomatic source in France told CNN that the contraceptives were being handled by private entities and they had 'no information concerning any transfers,' as of Thursday last week. 'We firmly support the Belgian authorities' commitment to find a solution in order to prevent the destruction of these contraceptives, so that they may reach women and men around the world who need them and are waiting for them,' the diplomatic source added. 'Access to quality sexual and reproductive health services and products is both a human rights and a public health issue.' US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) sent a staff member to the warehouse in Belgium as part of her effort to introduce legislation prohibiting 'the destruction of any such commodities unless all efforts to sell or donate them have been exhausted.' The staffer also found that the earliest expiration date for the contraceptives was 2027, with some of the supplies not expiring until 2031, meaning they could still be used for years to come. 'At a moment when the Trump administration has made devastating cuts to foreign assistance it is disappointing that the State Department would sign off on spending money to actually destroy paid-for commodities that would save lives and are waiting to be deployed,' Shaheen said in a statement. 'Food and family planning commodities are desperately needed in conflict affected countries, like Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo where famine is taking hold.' Belgian foreign ministry spokeswoman Florinda Baleci told CNN the country was 'exploring all possible avenues to prevent the destruction of these stocks, including their temporary relocation.' An organization called MSI Reproductive Choices said it and other funding partners had offered to pay for the shipping and repackaging of the USAID-branded supplies, but that the US government turned down the offer. 'We were not given a reason for why this offer was not accepted, but it became clear in conversations that it wouldn't be and that our efforts would be better spent finding alternative solutions to the contraception supplies gap,' said Grace Dunne, a spokeswoman for MSI, which works in 36 countries to provide reproductive healthcare, including abortion services, contraception and maternity care. In response to questions about the offer from CNN, the State Department highlighted the so-called 'Mexico City policy,' which 'prohibits providing certain assistance – directly or indirectly – to foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.' That policy, which opponents call the 'global gag rule,' prevents non-governmental organizations that provide abortions, give counseling about abortions or advocate for safe access to abortion from receiving US funding. The planned destruction of the contraceptives has sparked an outcry from other organizations, like Doctors Without Border (MSF), which raised concerns about contraceptive shortages in nations that were once reliant on supplies donated by USAID. 'In the communities served by MSF – whether impacted by conflict, disease outbreaks, natural and human-made disasters, or exclusion from health care – access to contraceptives is already constrained,' the organization said in a statement. 'Contexts that previously relied upon USAID funded contraceptive supplies are at a heightened risk of supply chain disruptions and stockouts.' 'MSF has seen firsthand the positive health benefits when women and girls can freely make their own health decisions by choosing to prevent or delay pregnancy – and the dangerous consequences when they cannot,' the chief executive of MSF USA, Avril Benoît, added. MSF also cited reports saying that more USAID-branded contraceptives are being housed in a warehouse in the United Arab Emirates, but the organization said the US government's plan for those supplies is unknown. A State Department spokesperson did not address a question about contraceptives warehoused in the UAE. CNN has reached out to the UAE government for comment. At the beginning of July, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the end of USAID, saying that future foreign assistance programs would align with administration policies and be administered by the State Department. The rapid dismantling of USAID, led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has seen thousands of foreign assistance programs slashed, including many that focused on lifesaving work. A study published earlier this month by a leading medical journal, The Lancet, estimated that the USAID funding cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030. USAID funding was most likely to reduce mortality related to HIV/AIDS, followed by malaria, according to the study.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
FIRST ON CNN: Fighting early-stage Alzheimer's with intensive lifestyles changes works, study finds
As her memory faded from Alzheimer's disease in her late 50s, Tammy Maida began to lose track of her life. Car keys, eyeglasses and her purse disappeared multiple times a day. Key characters in novels she was reading were forgotten. Groceries were left in the garage. Keeping the books for the family's businesses became impossible. 'I honestly thought I was losing my mind, and the fear of losing my mind was frightening,' Maida told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in the 2024 CNN documentary 'The Last Alzheimer's Patient.' After 20 weeks in a randomized clinical trial designed to drastically change her diet, exercise, stress levels and social interactions, Maida's cognition improved. She was able to read and recall novels and correctly balance spreadsheets again. A blood test even found levels of amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, were retreating in her brain, according to the study published in June 2024. 'I'm coming back. It was really good — like I was prior to the disease being diagnosed,' Maida, now 68, told a researcher on the study. 'An older but better version of me.' Maida's cognition showed additional improvement, however, after she completed a total of 40 weeks of intensive lifestyle changes, said principal investigator Dr. Dean Ornish, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and creator of the Ornish diet and lifestyle medicine program. Ornish gave a study update on Tuesday at the 2025 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto. While not everyone in the 26-person interventional group benefited, 46% showed improvement in three of four standardized tests, he said, including one that measures changes in memory, judgment and problem-solving as well as the ability to function at home, practice hobbies and practice personal hygiene. 'An additional 37.5% of people showed no decline in cognition during those 40 weeks,' Ornish said. 'Thus, over 83% of patients improved or maintained their cognition during the five-month program.' The new findings mirrored those of other studies on lifestyle interventions, he said, including the recent US POINTER study, the largest clinical trial in the United States to test moderate lifestyle interventions over two years in people who are at risk but do not yet have Alzheimer's disease. 'Our study complements these findings by showing, for the first time, that more intensive lifestyle changes may often stop or even begin to reverse the decline in cognition in many of those who already have Alzheimer's disease, and these improvements often continue over a longer period of time,' Ornish told CNN. And unlike available medications for Alzheimer's, he added, lifestyle changes have no side effects, such as bleeding and swelling in the brain that may occur with the newest class of drugs. EmblemHealth, a New York-based insurance company, announced Tuesday that it will be the first health insurer to cover the Ornish lifestyle medicine program for patients who have early-stage Alzheimer's disease. 'Eat well, move more, stress less and love more' The lifestyle intervention Ornish created — which he calls 'eat well, move more, stress less and love more' — has been tested before. In 1990, Ornish showed for the first time in a randomized clinical trial that coronary artery disease could often be reversed with nothing more than diet, exercise, stress reduction and social support. The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, declared in 2010 that Ornish's program for reversing heart disease was an 'intensive cardiac rehabilitation' and that it would be eligible for reimbursement under Medicare. Additional research has shown the same four-part program can lower blood sugars and heart disease risk in patients with diabetes, reduce prostate cancer cell growth, improve depression and even lengthen telomeres, the protective caps of chromosomes that are worn away by aging. During the Ornish intervention, one group of people consumed a strict vegan diet, did daily aerobic exercise, practiced stress reduction and engaged in online support groups. The rest of the participants were in a control group and were asked to not make any changes in their daily habits. Therapists led hour-long group sessions three times a week in which participants were encouraged to share their feelings and ask for support. Meditation, deep breathing, yoga and other ways to reduce stress took up another hour every day. The program also encouraged participants to prioritize good-quality sleep. Supplements were provided to everyone in the intervention group, including a daily multivitamin, omega-3 fatty acids with curcumin, coenzyme Q10, vitamin C and B12, magnesium, a probiotic, and Lion's mane mushroom. In addition to online strength training led by a physical trainer, people in the intervention attended hour-long video classes on vegan nutrition hosted by a dietitian. Then, to ensure a vegan diet was followed, all meals and snacks for both participants and their partners were delivered to their homes. Complex carbs found in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, tofu, nuts and seeds made up most of the diet. Sugar, alcohol and refined carbs found in processed and ultraprocessed foods were taboo. While calories were unrestricted, protein and total fat made up only some 18% of the daily caloric intake — far less than the typical protein intake by the average American, Ornish said. Working harder pays off People in the intervention group who put the most effort into changing their lifestyle have the most improvement in their cognition, said Ornish, founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and coauthor of 'Undo It! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases.' 'There was a statistically significant dose-response relationship between the degree of adherence to our lifestyle changes and the degree of improvement we saw on measures of cognition,' Ornish said. The 25 people in the study's original 20-week control group — who did not receive the intervention — had shown further cognitive decline during the program. They were later allowed to join the intervention for 40 weeks and significantly improved their cognitive scores during that time, Ornish said. It all makes sense, said co-senior study author Rudy Tanzi, an Alzheimer's researcher and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. 'If you picture a brain full of damage as a sink full of water, when you just turn off the tap, it takes a long time for that sink to slowly drain, right?' Tanzi told CNN in 2024. 'If you want the amyloid to go down in 20 weeks, as we found on one blood test, you're going to need a Roto-Rooter.' Additional blood testing may offer insights In the 2024 study, a blood test called plasma Aβ42/40 showed a significant improvement in the original intervention group. Aβ42/40 measures the level of amyloid in the blood, a key symptom of Alzheimer's. Tests that measure amyloid in different ways, however, did not show improvement, Dr. Suzanne Schindler, an associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who specializes in blood biomarkers told CNN at the time. There was no significant change in a test for amyloid called p-tau 181, considered to be a superior measure of Alzheimer's risk, said Schindler, who was not involved in the study. Nor was there any change in glial fibrillary acidic protein, or GFAP, another blood biomarker that seems to correlate reasonably well with Alzheimer's disease. 'If one of these markers improves, you typically see all of them improve, so the fact they did not makes me wonder whether this effect is real,' Schindler said. 'If they were to repeat the study with a much larger population for a longer period of time, perhaps more change could be seen.' Over the complete 40-week program, however, a number of people in the intervention group did continue to improve their Aβ42/40 scores, according to the study update. 'Changes in amyloid — as measured as the plasma Aβ42/40 ratio — occur before changes in tau markers such as p-tau 218, so this is not surprising after only 40 weeks,' Ornish said. For Ornish, who has watched members of his family die from Alzheimer's disease, the study's results are important for one key reason — hope. 'So often when people get a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer's, they are told by their doctors that there is no future, 'It's only going to get worse, get your affairs in order.' That's horrible news and is almost self-fulfilling,' Ornish said. 'Our new findings empower patients who have early-stage Alzheimer's disease with the knowledge that if they make and maintain these intensive lifestyle changes, there is a reasonably good chance that they may slow the progression of the disease and often even improve it,' he said. 'Our study needs to be replicated with larger, more diverse groups of patients to make it more generalizable,' Ornish said. 'But the findings we reported today are giving many people new hope and new choices — and the only side effects are good ones.' Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.
