-

 Mediterranean Diet: Supports Brain Health





A new study offers hope for people worried about their risk of dementia: what you eat might help protect your brain, even if you have genes that put you in the highest risk category for Alzheimer’s.

Researchers from Mass General Brigham, Harvard, and the Broad Institute tracked thousands of adults for decades. They found that people who stuck to a Mediterranean-style diet—a way of eating rich in fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, fish, and olive oil—were less likely to develop dementia and experienced slower memory decline. The effect was powerful in those with two copies of the APOE4 gene, the variant most closely linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

The science here is striking. People with one copy of APOE4 have a three-to-four times greater risk for Alzheimer’s; two copies raise the risk to twelve times higher than average. This study suggests that a healthy diet can actually help offset some of that genetic risk. Researchers believe that what we eat influences our metabolism in ways that support memory and cognitive function, even at the molecular level.

The team analyzed blood samples and long-term eating habits from over 4,000 women and validated their findings in nearly 1,500 men. Across the board, those who followed a Mediterranean diet fared better on cognitive tests and were less likely to develop dementia, even when their genetic cards were stacked against them.

Of course, most people are unaware of their APOE status, and there’s still work to be done to make this research relevant to everyone. The study primarily focused on a well-educated, predominantly white population, and the science of personalized risk prediction is still in its early stages of development. But one message is clear: eating well matters, and it might matter most for those at the highest risk.

So, if you’re looking to protect your brain for the long haul, now’s the time to start eating healthier. Do you need some support making changes or sticking to new habits? A health coach at ProTime-Fitness.org can help you build a diet that works for you and keeps your mind sharp for years to come.

Start today—your future self will thank you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Diabetes drugs may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.

-
Image
    Diabetes drugs may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. The study finds people taking the drugs have fewer biomarkers, slower cognitive decline. People taking certain drugs to lower blood sugar for type 2 diabetes had less amyloid in the brain, a biomarker of Alzheimer's disease compared to people with type 2 diabetes who are not taking the drugs and those without diabetes. The new study, published in the August 11, 2021, online issue of  Neurology , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, also found people taking these drugs, called dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, showed slower cognitive decline than people in the other two groups. In people with type 2 diabetes, the body no longer efficiently uses insulin to control blood sugar. Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, also known as gliptins, can be prescribed when other diabetes drugs do not work. They help control blood sugar when combined with diet and exercise. "People with diabetes have been shown to ...
Read more

EXTREME HEAT MAY NEGATIVELY IMPACT COGNITIVE HEALTH

-
Image
  EXTREME HEAT MAY NEGATIVELY IMPACT COGNITIVE HEALTH          July 2023 was the hottest month, with cities like Phoenix experiencing record-breaking heat waves for weeks. A new study finds that ongoing extreme heat can worsen cognitive decline among vulnerable groups -- particularly Black older adults and those living in poor neighborhoods. "Our research finds that cumulative exposure to extreme heat can undermine cognitive health, but it does so unequally across the population," said Eunyoung Choi, a postdoctoral associate at the NYU School of Global Public Health and the first author of the study, published in the  Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health . Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S., claiming more lives each year than hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning combined. Young children and older adults are particularly vulnerable to heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Recent stud...
Read more

B12 MAY HELP PREVENT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.

-
Image
  B12 MAY HELP PREVENT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. Worms don't wiggle when they have Alzheimer's disease. Yet something helped worms with the disease hold onto their wiggle in Professor Jessica Tanis's lab at the University of Delaware. In solving the mystery, Tanis and her team have yielded new clues into the potential impact of diet on Alzheimer's, the dreaded degenerative brain disease afflicting more than 6 million Americans. A few years ago, Tanis and her team began investigating factors affecting the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. They were doing genetic research with  C. elegans , a tiny soil-dwelling worm subject of numerous studies. Expression of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease, paralyzes worms within 36 hours of reaching adulthood. While the worms in one petri dish in Tanis's lab were rendered completely immobile, the worms of the same age in the adjacent petri dish still had their wiggle, documented as ...
Read more