Category: Dementia

People eating this berry showed a remarkable improvement in their neural functioning, memory for everyday events and increased blood flow in the brain.

As well as lowering levels of “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein), cranberries could prevent dementia by improving memory and enhancing brain function.

According to a study, one cup of cranberries a day will reduce the risk of neurodegenerative disorders in people aged 50 and older.

The berry is rich in polyphenols including proanthocyanidins, anthocyanins, hydroxycinnamic acids, and flavonols.

Polyphenols are powerful antioxidants known for their anti-inflammatory and blood pressure lowering effects.

A previous study on rats suggests that polyphenols have the ability to improve nervous system function and brain responses to stress.

This study examined the effects of cranberries on human cognitive function.

It involved adults aged 50 and older who were tracked for 12 weeks.

Dr David Vauzour, the study’s senior author, said:

“Dementia is expected to affect around 152 million people by 2050.

There is no known cure, so it is crucial that we seek modifiable lifestyle interventions, such as diet, that could help lessen disease risk and burden.

Past studies have shown that higher dietary flavonoid intake is associated with slower rates of cognitive decline and dementia.

And foods rich in anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins, which give berries their red, blue, or purple colour, have been found to improve cognition.

Cranberries are rich in these micronutrients and have been recognized for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

We wanted to find out more about how cranberries could help reduce age-related neurodegeneration.”

Th study divided people into two groups; one received two sachets (each 4.5 g) of freeze-dried cranberry powder a day, an equivalent to 100 g or one cup of fresh cranberries, and the other group took a placebo.

Participants who were on cranberry supplementation showed a remarkable improvement in their neural functioning, visual episodic memory (memory for everyday events), and increased blood flow in the brain as well as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol reduction.

Dr Vauzour said:

“We found that the participants who consumed the cranberry powder showed significantly improved episodic memory performance in combination with improved circulation of essential nutrients such as oxygen and glucose to important parts of the brain that support cognition — specifically memory consolidation and retrieval.

The cranberry group also exhibited a significant decrease in LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol levels, known to contribute to atherosclerosis — the thickening or hardening of the arteries caused by a build-up of plaque in the inner lining of an artery.

This supports the idea that cranberries can improve vascular health and may in part contribute to the improvement in brain perfusion and cognition.

Demonstrating in humans that cranberry supplementation can improve cognitive performance and identifying some of the mechanisms responsible is an important step for this research field.

The findings of this study are very encouraging, especially considering that a relatively short 12-week cranberry intervention was able to produce significant improvements in memory and neural function.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition (Flanagan et al., 2022).

Memory problems are one of the key symptoms of dementia.

A folate deficiency is linked to a tripling in the chance of developing dementia in older people, research finds.

Folates include vitamin B9, folacin and folic acid.

Healthy adults should get around 400mcg per day to prevent a deficiency.

Foods that are high in folates include leafy greens, beets, citrus fruits, broccoli, eggs and asparagus.

Folates are also usually contained in multivitamin supplements.

Low levels of vitamin B12 and folate have both been linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease by multiple studies.

This link has been observed by researchers for more than three decades.

A deficiency in B12 or folate can cause higher levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the body.

Homocysteine has a neurotoxic effect and could lead to neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer’s.

For the current study, 518 people over the age of 65 were tracked for two years.

They were given blood tests for levels of folate, vitamin B12 and the protein homosysteine, along with cognitive tests.

The results showed that 45 people had developed dementia by the end of the study.

People who were deficient in folates were 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia, the researchers found.

Dementia was also more likely in people whose folate levels dropped over the two years of the study.

The study’s authors write:

“In this prospective study of a community population, lower
folate concentrations predicted incident dementia and AD over
a 2.4 year follow-up period…

Over the follow-up period, dementia occurred more commonly in those with a relative decline in folate and vitamin B12 concentrations or a relative increase in homocysteine concentrations.”

A good diet is repeatedly linked by research to a reduced risk of dementia.

One study has found that people who eat more nuts, fish, poultry and certain fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s, research finds.

Set against this, those who eat more red meats, organ meats, butter and high-fat dairy products have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s.

The study was published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (Kim et al., 2019).

It takes 20-30 years for the brain changes leading to Alzheimer’s to occur.

The very best lifestyle change a person can make in midlife to protect against cognitive decline later is taking more exercise.

The results come from a study of 387 women in Australia who were followed from 1992 when they were between 45 and 55-years-old.

They were followed for over 20 years.

The researchers recorded all sorts of lifestyle factors including:

• mood,
• smoking,
• marital and employment status,
• education,
• and diet.

Each person was given simple tests of memory, such as the ability to remember a list of ten unrelated items.

Dr Cassandra Szoeke, who led the study, said:

“We now know that brain changes associated with dementia take 20 to 30 years to develop.

The evolution of cognitive decline is slow and steady, so we needed to study people over a long time period.

We used a verbal memory test because that’s one of the first things to decline when you develop Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Out of all the lifestyle changes, the number one protective factor was exercise.

It didn’t matter what type — from walking the dog to climbing a mountain — exercise was the lifestyle factor that provided the greatest protective effect against memory loss.

Dr Szoeke said:

“The message from our study is very simple.

Do more physical activity, it doesn’t matter what, just move more and more often.

It helps your heart, your body and prevents obesity and diabetes and now we know it can help your brain.

It could even be something as simple as going for a walk, we weren’t restrictive in our study about what type.”

You should start as early as possible, Dr Szoeke said:

“We expected it was the healthy habits later in life that would make a difference but we were surprised to find that the effect of exercise was cumulative.

So every one of those 20 years mattered.

If you don’t start at 40, you could miss one or two decades of improvement to your cognition because every bit helps.

That said, even once you’re 50 you can make up for lost time.”

Related

• 12 Brain-Boosting Strategies That Protect Against Mild Cognitive Impairment (P)

The study was published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (Szoeke et al., 2016).

Participants who took the supplements for three years had brains that were almost two years younger.

Taking a daily multivitamin slows cognitive decline by 60 percent.

Participants who took the multivitamin for three years had brains that were almost two years younger.

The multivitamin was particularly useful for those suffering from cardiovascular disease.

People with cardiovascular disease are at a higher risk of cognitive impairment.

Professor Laura D. Baker, the study’s first author, said:

“There’s an urgent need for safe and affordable interventions to protect cognition against decline in older adults.”

The conclusions come from a study of over 2,000 people aged over 65.

The study tested the effects of a multivitamin versus a control group, as well as cocoa extract.

Professor Baker explained the results:

“Our study showed that although cocoa extract did not affect cognition, daily multivitamin-mineral supplementation resulted in statistically significant cognitive improvement.

This is the first evidence of cognitive benefit in a large longer-term study of multivitamin supplementation in older adults.”

There are several micronutrients that are required for healthy body and brain function that may be deficient in older adults.

This might explain the study’s findings.

Professor Baker, though, was cautious:

“It’s too early to recommend daily multivitamin supplementation to prevent cognitive decline.

While these preliminary findings are promising, additional research is needed in a larger and more diverse group of people.

Also, we still have work to do to better understand why the multivitamin might benefit cognition in older adults.”

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The study was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia (Baker et al., 2022).

This ingredient is linked to double the rate of memory decline and problems with thinking.

Eating a diet spiced with chillies is linked to an increased risk of dementia.

People who eat more than 50 g of chillies per day suffer double the rate of memory decline and problems with thinking.

The decline is even greater for chilli eaters who are slim.

The findings come on the back of some positive coverage for spicy foods, including linking them to longer life, lower blood pressure and other benefits.

Dr Zumin Shi, the study’s first author, said:

“Chili consumption was found to be beneficial for body weight and blood pressure in our previous studies.

However, in this study, we found adverse effects on cognition among older adults,”

The study included over 4,000 Chinese adults who were tracked over 15 years.

The spicy foods tracked included both fresh and dried chilli peppers, but not black pepper or capsicum (often known as sweet peppers or bell peppers).

Dr Shi said:

“Chili is one of the most commonly used spices in the world and particularly popular in Asia compared to European countries.

In certain regions of China, such as Sichuan and Hunan, almost one in three adults consume spicy food every day.”

The active ingredient in chillies is capsaicin, which is what produces the burning sensation when consumed, or when coming into contact with any tissue.

Capsaicin has been linked to weight loss as it is thought to speed up the metabolism and increase fat loss.

The study was published in the journal Nutrients (Shi et al., 2019).

Normally people’s brains shrink by about 5% every decade after the age of 40 but this could be prevented.

Exercise increases brain size and so may help stop brain shrinkage with age.

In some of the best evidence to date, exercise was shown to increase the size of the hippocampus, a brain structure critical for memory and other functions.

So far, studies have mostly shown the connection between exercise and brain size in rodents.

Shrinking brain size

Researchers followed people aged 24 to 76 for up to two years in a range of separate studies.

They looked at the effects of walking, cycling, treadmill running and general aerobic exercise.

Most people did around 2-5 sessions per week.

The results showed that left hippocampul volume was increased in people who exercised.

Dr Joseph Firth, the study’s first author, said:

“When you exercise you produce a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which may help to prevent age-related decline by reducing the deterioration of the brain.

Our data showed that, rather than actually increasing the size of the hippocampus per se, the main ‘brain benefits’ are due to aerobic exercise slowing down the deterioration in brain size.

In other words, exercise can be seen as a maintenance program for the brain.”

Preventing brain shrinking with age is possible

The study reviewed 14 separate clinical trials, including brain scans from 737 people.

This is some of the most definitive evidence yet published of the beneficial effects of exercise on brain health.

Normally people’s brains shrink by about 5% every decade after the age of 40.

Exercise is one of the few interventions proven to slow this process down.

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The study was published in the journal NeuroImage (Firth et al., 2018).