Mindfulness Meditation in Healthy Aging Adults and Alzheimer's Disease Patients 65+ Year-Olds

Mindfulness meditation is a form of mental training that helps in managing thoughts and guiding individuals to redirect them to be more positive. In the past years, its popularity has grown immensely. Its main appeal is the broad and versatile ways it can be used especially in a healthcare setting. For instance, research on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia has recently been focused on whether chronic stress has a role in inducing these diseases. Since Alzheimer’s disease has no treatment at this point in time, incorporating mindfulness meditation into Alzheimer’s patients’ care/treatment may have a drastic effect on their quality of life by reducing stress. Ideally, practicing mindfulness meditation at a young age would help reduce the probability of chronic stress causing Alzheimer’s disease. However, many people who have already been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease do not have that option. The goal of this research is to find at what stage would the implementation of meditation best help to reduce current symptoms and slow the development of current symptoms and development of Alzheimer’s disease in already diagnosed patients.