Founded in 2012, Sharp Again Naturally is a Larchmont-headquartered nonprofit that spreads awareness about dementia and shares findings made by researchers on memory loss, its causes and ways of preventing it.
“Watching somebody with dementia slowly ebb away, it”™s heart wrenching for families,” said Lisa Feiner, co-founder and chairwoman of Sharp Again Naturally.
Feiner was a volunteer at the Sarah R. Neuman Center helping elderly individuals approximately 20 years ago when she began to notice a spike in diagnoses of Alzheimer”™s disease happening throughout the country. Beginning in 2011, findings by doctors and their patients were being distributed that described methods for reversing cognitive decline, which seemed to both explain the abnormal increase of Alzheimer”™s disease and offer solutions.
“To hear that some of these causes had actually been identified, it just made sense.” Feiner said.
The steady stream of information was compelling enough to prompt Feiner and holistic practitioners Debra Drelich, Robert Grabel and Vibhu Nagral to found Sharp Again Naturally one year later.
UCLA professor Dr. Dale Bredesen, author of “The End of Alzheimer”™s” and chief science officer of Apollo Health, created a stir in 2014 when his study, “Reversal of cognitive decline: a novel therapeutic program,” revealed that nine out of 10 patients suffering from mild to moderate cognitive impairment saw improvement in cognition within three to six months after following a multitherapeutic approach, similar to what Sharp Again Naturally utilizes today.
Bredesen”™s and other medical doctors”™ research validated Sharp Again Naturally”™s mission and flew against the medical community”™s consensus at the time, which held that dementia was not treatable.
“I think all neurologists would probably, at that point, give a prescription for Aricept or Namenda or one of the drugs that was available at that time and just say to the spouse or the adult child or whomever, ”˜You need to go home and get your affairs in order,”™” Feiner recalled.
There has since been a shift in thinking on how to approach dementia patients, with even a decades-old nonprofit organization like the Alzheimer”™s Association in Chicago acknowledging that lifestyle factors can indeed impact memory.
Sharp Again Naturally”™s stance that dementia is treatable and preventable is in line with epigenetics, the study of how environmental and external factors affects how one”™s genes work or are expressed. According to epigenetics, factors such as dietary habits or stress levels can affect one”™s genes. However, such factors do not alter one”™s DNA sequence and the effect on genes can be reversed, making epigenetics a “very powerful concept because it empowers the individual to have more control over their health,” according to Feiner.
The organization spreads awareness and provides the latest findings on dementia, its causes and prevention methods through its website and social media accounts as well as through in-person presentations at libraries and community groups like Rotary Clubs.
Sharp Again Naturally also offers “Stay Sharp Coaching” programs that help individuals implement prevention practices. Feiner explained, however, that Sharp Again Naturally is “not treating people ”” we”™re not doctors. Our organization actually has a lot of health coaches working with us (who) are in a very unique position to work on the lifestyle issues that can often contribute to dementia.”
The program”™s basic coaching group focuses on four lifestyle areas one may improve: nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress. Other groups are more specialized, such as the “Awaken & Energize” meditation group which thoroughly addresses stress and shares stress management tools.
“This is where we, I think, have been most impactful,” Feiner said, “going directly to people and helping them put these practices in place.”
“Sharp Again really is here to give people hope,” Feiner added. “We”™re here to educate and empower, partner with other organizations, but we”™re really here to give people hope and to let them know that there is another path, another approach.” “It”™s particularly striking when you know that you”™ve impacted a family, because it”™s never just the individual. It”™s all of those people who love them, who love that person, whose lives are fundamentally altered because that person is more engaged.”
