Plant-based and traditional diets found in countries such as China, Japan and India may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, especially when compared to the Western diet, according to a study.
Researchers from the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center, US, found that Alzheimer’s disease rates rise in these countries as they make the nutrition transition to the Western diet.
The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, discusses in detail the role of diet in modifying the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. It identifies dementia risk factors, including higher consumption of saturated fats, meat, especially red meat such as hamburgers and barbeque, as well as processed meats such as hot dogs, and ultra-processed foods high in sugar and refined grains.
This review also analyses why certain foods increase or reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
For example, meat raises the risk of dementia the most by increasing risk factors such as inflammation, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, saturated fat, advanced glycation end products, and trimethylamine N-oxide.
This study also outlines several foods that are protective against Alzheimer’s disease, such as green leafy vegetables, colourful fruits and vegetables, legumes (like beans), nuts, omega-3 fatty acids, and whole grains.
Ultra-processed foods can increase the risk of obesity and diabetes, themselves risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers said.
Ultra-processed foods often lack the very ingredients found in whole plant foods that keep dementia away, such as anti-inflammatory components and antioxidants, they said.
“Evidence from diverse perspectives support that a diet that emphasises fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and de-emphasises meat, especially red meat, saturated fats, and ultra-processed foods is associated with lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Edward Giovannucci, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard University. Source: ANI
Tag: Alzheimer
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Plant-based diet may reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease
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Midlife loneliness may up dementia, Alzheimer’s risk
Being persistently lonely during midlife appears to make people more likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) later in life, a new study finds.
The study, published in the journal ‘Alzheimer’s & Dementia’, also indicated that people who recover from loneliness appear to be less likely to suffer from dementia.
“Whereas persistent loneliness is a threat to brain health, psychological resilience following adverse life experiences may explain why transient loneliness is protective in the context of dementia onset,” said researcher Wendy Qiu from the Boston University School of Medicine.
Loneliness is a subjective feeling resulting from a perceived discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships. Although loneliness does not itself have the status of a clinical disease, it is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, including sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and stroke.
For the study, the team examined data involving cognitively normal adults. Specifically, they investigated whether persistent loneliness more strongly predicted the future development of dementia and AD than transient loneliness.
They also wanted to see whether this relationship was independent of depression and established genetic risk factors for AD, such as the Apolipoprotein e4 (APOE e4) allele.
After taking effects of age, sex, education, social network, living alone, physical health and genetic risk into account, persistent loneliness was associated with higher risk, whereas transient loneliness was linked to lower risk of dementia and AD onset after 18 years, compared with no loneliness.