Sneak peek: AAIC 2026

Hello, dear Ask Mia, Dr. Mia podcast listeners. This is Dr. Mia coming to you from London. I have just finished attending this year's Alzheimer's Association International Conference, also known as AAIC in London. And just wanted to share some initial thoughts and excitement based on what is covered at this conference. The majority of conference attendees are likely more researchers than clinicians like myself, but it is my role and my goal with this podcast to translate information to you that you could use in your daily life, primarily for folks who are in the sandwich generation. So one of the one of the top insights that I think has been really exciting this year in terms of the research happening at AAIC this year is that there's a lot more research into the gender-based differences between men and women in Alzheimer's disease and more basic science data showing why there are more women with Alzheimer's disease than men. It's not obviously just that women tend to live longer, although certainly with age the risk of dementia increases. But there are actually hormonal-based differences, oftentimes happening in midlife, that really influence the inflammation and the immune responses happening in the brain. One particular study that caught my eye is the study of looking at resistance training. They looked at women who are peramenopausal in my age group, as well as those who are postmenopausal in terms of how exercise and specifically resistance exercise improved brain function and memory. And interestingly, the benefit for paramenopausal women for resistance training is a is bigger than for women who are already in the postmenopausal state. So I think this suggests and is an example of studies that show that not all exercise is the same and that not all women are obviously the same. There are different hormonal changes that happen earlier in the hormonal change associated with menopause than later. So I wanted to leave you with that tip to go lift some weights and work on your exercise very consistently across not just policy recommendations, epidemiologic or population-based studies, as well as clinical trials. You know, exercise is really foundational and an intervention that has a tremendous amount of benefit. We just need to actually do it in terms of adherence. Related to the theme of exercise, the Latin American finger study results were also published this year and actually yesterday or today in the Lancet Journal. And this is a replication of the worldwide finger study. For those of you who do not already know about finger, finger has five interventions. There is a Mediterranean diet and a Latin American finger study that was adapted to each country in terms of culturally relevant foods. Some landlocked countries do not have fish available. There is exercise in terms of at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week that gets you moderately effort. So you have to, you know, not be able to have an easy conversation like I am doing right now. There is cognitive stimulation. In the studies, they used a program called Brain HQ, which is available as a subscription online. However, my caveat is that this was the aspect of the five-finger intervention that probably had very little adherence because not everyone enjoyed the brain. What is more important is to do something that you find intellectually stimulating and enjoyable. There is a social interaction, social component. So a lot of recommendations in the finger study that things like salsa dancing, and then of course, monitoring and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors. So your blood pressure, your weight, your blood sugar, and cholesterol. The short answer is that the finger, Latin American finger study replicated the results seen in Finland, in the US, and that in a more structured group where people had greater connection with coaches and with peers who were participating, that showed a greater improvement than just folks who were given the information. But even those who were just given the information, like I have been doing in this recording, also showed improvement in their memory among people who don't have any memory impairment at baseline. So notably, this is not a study looking at people who already have dementia or cognitive impairment. It's really a prevention trial. So with that, I will share more as uh as I get settled and wait to hang out for a couple days in London with my family who are joining very soon. You guys take care and have a great summer.