Of all the lifestyle and hard-core medical practices known to have a positive effect on the debilitating disease, a healthy diet has emerged as the most important factor in heading off and ultimately controlling Alzheimer’s…
Dementia often follows a depression diagnosis in older folks…
New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) (Australia) has conclusively shown that healthy eating habits have a greater positive effect, over the long term, than other lifestyle or clinical treat-ments, on Alzheimer’s Disease…
What they did
The ECU team conducted short-term studies seeking a link between Alzheimer’ and depression. They wanted to see, specifically, whether a healthy diet could slow the progression of clinical depres-sion to Alzheimer’s – a common pattern in older adults.
“Nutritional factors can impact brain health through inflammation, oxidative stress, vascular func-tion, neuroplasticity, and via the gut-brain axis,” ECU Researcher Dr. Samantha Gardener notes. “These biological pathways may influence neurotransmitter systems and neuronal function, ulti-mately affecting mood and cognition.”
The Team conducted 27-month observational studies of older adults who has been diagnosed with depression, comparing a group which followed the Mediterranean Diet and another that followed the average Western Diet.
What they found
“Research identified 14 modifiable risk factors that are proposed to account for around 45 percent of dementia cases, worldwide. Of these 14 modifiable risk factors, five can be positively impacted by a healthy diet, including hypertension, obesity, alcohol intake and depression,” Gardener explained.
The takeaway
To date, there are no known specific curative measures for AD, but Dr Gardener said that delaying onset may reduce disease prevalence and its public health burden.
“Other modifiable risk factors include physical activity and sufficient sleep. If we can address all these things, nearly 45 percent of dementia cases can theoretically be prevented.”
My take
If the new findings are as solid as Gardener and her team assert, that’s certainly great news for those with Alzheimer’s and a high risk of developing it.
Alzheimer’s Disesae in particular and dementia in general are among the fasted-growing and hardest to treat afflictions on our collective plate today. A simple diet-and-exercise-based approach to con-trolling it could potentially save health care systems around the world hundreds of billions of dollars a year in treatment costs. Not to mention improving quality of life for millions across the globe…
~ Maggie J.