Prevention is on the Menu: Recipes to Reduce Dementia Risk

On the Menu this Week: The Sherzais make Portobello Pizza with Cashew Mozzarella (recipe from their new book) Annie makes an easy appetizer for the holidays: Lemony Cashew Ricotta Annie Fenn, M.D., is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist who initially specialized in menopausal health. After practicing medicine for more than 20 years, she realized that helping people change what they eat was a more powerful health intervention than prescribing pills or doing procedures. She traded her stethoscope for an apron and returned to school to study culinary arts in Mexico, Italy, and at the Culinary Institute of America. In 2015, Dr. Fenn founded the Brain Health Kitchen, an evidence-based online resource about how and what to eat to resist cognitive decline. The Brain Health Kitchen Cooking School, founded in 2017, is the only school focused specifically on resisting Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Students learn which foods are most neuroprotective, which accelerate cognitive decline, and how to prepare foods using brain-friendly cooking techniques. Dr. Fenn takes her cooking school on the road to provide classes throughout the country and abroad. She lectures frequently about the impact of lifestyle and diet on Alzheimer’s as part of the Sempre Sano Wellness Retreat in Tuscany, Italy, as a frequent Visiting Chef at Rancho La Puerta, and at other diverse venues throughout the country. Dr. Fenn serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Seth and Lauren Rogen’s HFC (Hilarity For Charity) where she also creates content to assist caregivers eating for their own brain health. She partners with Maria Shriver and the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement to host events to fund grants for dementia research in women. She also serves on the Scientific Advisory Council for the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation. Ayesha Sherzai, M.D. has a culinary and nutrition background, and teaches people about the most important environmental exposure there is: food. Dr. Sherzai finished her medical residency at Loma Linda University and holds a Masters in advanced sciences from UCSD. She subsequently completed a residency in preventive medicine and neurology and thereafter received a fellowship in vascular neurology from Columbia University, and is currently finalizing her PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology at Loma Linda University. Ayesha also has a culinary RX, giving her a unique understanding of nutrition as a natural form of medicine. Dean Sherzai, M.D., Ph.D. has a leadership background and uses business models to create short and long-term success. He finished his medical and neurology residencies at Georgetown University with a subsequent fellowship in neurodegenerative diseases at the National Institutes of Health, followed by a second fellowship in Dementia and Geriatrics at the University of California, San Diego. He also holds two Masters Degrees; in advanced sciences at UCSD and a Masters in public health from Loma Linda University. Finally he has received a PhD in Healthcare leadership at Loma Linda/Andrews University. Their book "The Alzheimer's Solution: A Breakthrough Program to Prevent and Reverse the Symptoms of Cognitive Decline at Every Age" details how the brain is like a living universe, directly influenced by nutrition, exercise, stress, sleep and engagement.