2 Diets Fight Dementia at AAIC

[alice]

July 23
2 Diets Fight Dementia at AAIC


NUTRITION: In the fight against Alzheimer's, a duo of diets rose to the top of the list in a report from the Alzheimer's Association International Conference.



LONDON — In the fight against Alzheimer's, three diets rose to the top of the list in a report from the Alzheimer's Association International Conference.

The diets are:
The Nordic Prudent Dietary Pattern (NPDP), considered to be a healthy Nordic diet.
The MIND Diet, a new diet growing in popularity that combines the best brain-healthy components of the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH Diet.

The results from four large population-based studies support a connection between good dietary practices and better cognition in old age.

A group of U.S. scientists found that, among nearly 6,000 older adults in the Health and Retirement Study, those who consistently followed diets long known to contribute to cardiovascular health were also more likely to maintain strong cognitive function in old age. They found that sticking to the specially designed MIND diet and Mediterranean diet was associated with 30 to 35 percent lower risk of cognitive impairment in healthy older adults. In fact, the investigators discovered that those with healthier diets exhibited meaningful preservation of cognitive function.
The Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets were originally developed or codified to help improve cardiovascular health.
A hybrid of these diets, called the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, or MIND diet, is gaining attention for its potential positive effects on preserving cognitive function and reducing dementia risk in older individuals. A 2015 study found that individuals adhering to this diet exhibited less cognitive decline as they aged (Morris et al. Alzheimer’s Dement. 2015; 11:1015-22).

Other diet-related studies reported at AAIC 2017 included:
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that - in a group of more than 2,200 older adults - people sticking to a healthy Nordic diet (including non-root vegetables, certain fruits, fish and poultry) enjoyed better cognitive status than individuals who ate a less healthy diet.
From more than 7,000 participants in the U.S.-based Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study, researchers found that older women who ate diets traditionally thought of as heart-healthy, in particular the MIND Diet, were less likely to develop dementia.
A team of researchers at Columbia University presented data suggesting that poor diet may promote premature signs of brain aging through inflammatory mechanisms, which were also associated with smaller brain volume.

“Although the idea that a healthy diet can help protect against cognitive decline as we age is not new, the size and length of these four studies demonstrate how powerful good dietary practices may be in maintaining brain health and function,” said Keith Fargo, PhD, Alzheimer’s Association Director of Scientific Programs and Outreach. “That said, we must understand that what we eat is just one part of the puzzle. Adapting our lifestyles as we get older – for example by exercising regularly, watching what we eat and engaging in lifelong learning – is important in order to maximize the potential to reduce risk of cognitive decline and dementia.”

The Alzheimer’s Association offers 10 Ways to Love Your Brain, including broad dietary guidance, based on the latest research.

Heart Healthy is Brain Healthy
Claire McEvoy, Ph.D. at the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues examined the association between adherence to the Mediterranean and MIND diets and cognitive performance in a large, nationally representative population of 5,907 older, community-dwelling adults in the Health and Retirement Study. The researchers found that the more healthfully people ate, the better they functioned cognitively.

After controlling for demographic, lifestyle and health variables, participants who were highly adherent to these diets were 30 to 35 percent less likely to exhibit poor performance on a measure of cognitive function. Study participants who were moderately adherent to either diet were 18 percent less likely to exhibit signs of cognitive impairment.

Benefits of a Healthy Nordic Diet
Weili Xu, M.D., Ph.D., at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and colleagues sought to identify dietary habits associated with preserved cognitive function in 2,223 community-dwelling, dementia-free adults in Sweden. The investigators found during six years of follow-up that even moderate adherence to a healthy diet known as the Nordic Prudent Dietary Pattern (NPDP) resulted in better cognitive status than individuals who ate a less healthy diet that included fatty foods, sweets and processed foods. In this population, NPDP was found to be a better predictor of preserved cognitive function than the MIND diet, Mediterranean diet, DASH diet and Baltic Sea Diet.

The NPDP included:
More frequent consumption of non-root vegetables, apple/pears/peaches, pasta/rice, poultry, fish, vegetable oils, tea and water, and light to moderate wine intake.
Less frequent intake of root vegetables, refined grains/cereals, butter/margarine, sugar/sweets/pastries, and fruit juice.

Women Who Eat Well Less Likely to Develop Dementia
Research published in 2015 found that the MIND diet was associated with a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in a sample of 923 older individuals (Morris et al. Alzheimer’s Dement. 2015; 11:1007-1014). Kathleen Hayden, Ph.D., Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and colleagues sought to replicate these findings in 7,057 women participating in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS). Using data from WHIMS, they categorized the participants (mean age 71) into quartiles based on level of adherence to the MIND diet, with the 1st quartile being least adherent and the 4th being the most adherent. There were 615 incident cases of Alzheimer’s during a mean follow-up of 9.7 years.

Compared with women in the first (lowest) quartile of MIND adherence, WHIMS participants in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quartiles had 24 percent, 21 percent, and 34 percent reductions in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. It is noteworthy that the largest share of the risk reduction occurred from the poorest dietary habits to the modestly adherent diet. These results corroborate results from previous research in smaller populations, and suggest that it may not require wholesale diet changes to help preserve the aging brain.

Poor Diet Linked to Inflammation
Building on solid evidence that eating well is brain healthy, researchers are beginning to explore mechanisms through which dietary mechanisms may influence cognitive status and dementia risk. Yian Gu, Ph.D., at Columbia University, New York, and colleagues examined whether an inflammation-related nutrient pattern (INP) was associated with cognitive function and structural MRI findings in the brain.

Using data on 330 community-dwelling, non-demented elderly individuals (mean age 79.7), the investigators found that an INP characterized by high intake of cholesterol, beta-carotene and lutein, and low intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, calcium, folate and vitamins (B1, B2, B5, B6, D, E), was positively associated with levels of inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein and interleukin-6). In addition, closer adherence to this INP was associated with smaller total brain gray matter volume and worse performance in executive function. Additional research in larger populations is needed to confirm the role of inflammation-related dietary components in brain and cognitive health, and help elucidate inflammatory or other mechanisms through which eating habits may alter brain function and structure.
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( I HAVE POSTED THE MIND DIET FOLLOWING THIS POST..ALICE)

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REFERENCES:
Claire McEvoy, Ph.D., et al. Neuroprotective Dietary Patterns Are Associated with Better Cognitive Performance in Older US Adults: The Health and Retirement Study. (Funder(s): The Wellcome Trust)
Weili Xu, MD, Ph.D., et al. Which Dietary Index May Predict Preserved Cognitive Function in Nordic Older Adults? (Funder(s): CoSTREAM project; EU's Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation Programme)
Kathleen Hayden, Ph.D., et al. The Mind Diet and Incident Dementia, Findings from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study. (Funder(s): National Institutes on Aging)
Yian Gu, Ph.D., et al. An Inflammatory Nutrient Pattern Is Associated Both Structural and Cognitive Measures of Brain Aging in the Elderly. (Funder(s): U.S. National Institute on Aging)
SOURCE:
Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC)
The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world's largest gathering of researchers from around the world focused on Alzheimer's and other dementias. As a part of the Alzheimer's Association's research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.
AAIC 2017 home page: www.alz.org/aaic/
About the Alzheimer's Association® 
The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research, to provide and enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's

[alice]

Public Release: 19-Mar-2015
New MIND diet may significantly protect against Alzheimer's disease
Even moderate adherence shows reduction in incidence of devastating brain disease
Rush University Medical Center
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IMAGE: THis is Rush nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris, Ph.D. view more
Credit: Rush Photo Group
(CHICAGO) -- A new diet, appropriately known by the acronym MIND, could significantly lower a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, even if the diet is not meticulously followed, according to a paper published online for subscribers in March in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.
Rush nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris, PhD, and colleagues developed the "Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay" (MIND) diet. The study shows that the MIND diet lowered the risk of AD by as much as 53 percent in participants who adhered to the diet rigorously, and by about 35 percent in those who followed it moderately well.
"One of the more exciting things about this is that people who adhered even moderately to the MIND diet had a reduction in their risk for AD," said Morris, a Rush professor, assistant provost for Community Research, and director of Nutrition and Nutritional Epidemiology. "I think that will motivate people."
Morris and her colleagues developed the MIND diet based on information that has accrued from years' worth of past research about what foods and nutrients have good, and bad, effects on the functioning of the brain over time. This is the first study to relate the MIND diet to Alzheimer's disease.
"I was so very pleased to see the outcome we got from the new diet," she said.
The MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets, both of which have been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions, like hypertension, heart attack and stroke. Some researchers have found that the two older diets provide protection against dementia as well.
In the latest study, the MIND diet was compared with the two other diets. People with high adherence to the DASH and Mediterranean diets also had reductions in AD -- 39 percent with the DASH diet and 54 percent with the Mediterranean diet -- but got negligible benefits from moderate adherence to either of the two other diets.
The MIND diet is also easier to follow than, say, the Mediterranean diet, which calls for daily consumption of fish and 3-4 daily servings of each of fruits and vegetables, Morris said.
The MIND diet has 15 dietary components, including 10 "brain-healthy food groups" -- green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil and wine -- and five unhealthy groups that comprise red meats, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food.
With the MIND diet, a person who eats at least three servings of whole grains, a salad and one other vegetable every day -- along with a glass of wine -- snacks most days on nuts, has beans every other day or so, eats poultry and berries at least twice a week and fish at least once a week and benefit. However, he or she must limits intake of the designated unhealthy foods, especially butter (less than 1 tablespoon a day), cheese, and fried or fast food (less than a serving a week for any of the three), to have a real shot at avoiding the devastating effects of AD, according to the study.
Berries are the only fruit specifically to make the MIND diet. "Blueberries are one of the more potent foods in terms of protecting the brain," Morris said, and strawberries have also performed well in past studies of the effect of food on cognitive function.
The MIND diet was not an intervention in this study, however; researchers looked at what people were already eating. Participants earned points if they ate brain-healthy foods frequently and avoided unhealthy foods. The one exception was that participants got one point if they said olive oil was the primary oil used in their homes.
The study enlisted volunteers already participating in the ongoing Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP), which began in 1997 among residents of Chicago-area retirement communities and senior public housing complexes. An optional "food frequency questionnaire" was added from 2004 to February 2013, and the MIND diet study looked at results for 923 volunteers. A total of 144 cases of AD developed in this cohort.
AD, which takes a devastating toll on cognitive function, is not unlike heart disease in that there appear to be "many factors that play into who gets the disease," including behavioral, environmental and genetic components, Dr. Morris said.
"With late-onset AD, with that older group of people, genetic risk factors are a small piece of the picture," she said. Past studies have yielded evidence that suggests that what we eat may play a significant role in determining who gets AD and who doesn't, Morris said.
When the researchers in the new study left out of the analyses those participants who changed their diets somewhere along the line -- say, on a doctor's orders after a stroke -- they found that "the association became stronger between the MIND diet and [favorable] outcomes" in terms of AD, Morris said. "That probably means that people who eat this diet consistently over the years get the best protection."
In other words, it looks like the longer a person eats the MIND diet, the less risk that person will have of developing AD, Morris said. As is the case with many health-related habits, including physical exercise, she said, "You'll be healthier if you've been doing the right thing for a long time."
Morris said, "We devised a diet and it worked in this Chicago study. The results need to be confirmed by other investigators in different populations and also through randomized trials." That is the best way to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the MIND diet and reductions in the incidence of Alzheimer's disease, she said.
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The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging. All the researchers on this study were from Rush except for Frank M. Sacks MD, professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Department of Nutrition, at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Sacks chaired the committee that developed the DASH diet.

[alice]

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[ashleyjohn]

That's really helpful info. Thanks for sharing Alice.