Category: Dementia

The fruits and vegetables that provide the highest protection against cognitive decline.

Certain fruits and vegetables that contain antioxidant flavonols appear to protect against cognitive decline.

Flavanols, which are a type of flavonoid, are found in nearly all fruits and vegetables, as well as in tea.

Consuming around one cup of dark leafy greens each day is linked to retaining stronger cognitive abilities with age.

Kaempferol and myricetin

A flavanol called kaempferol was linked to the highest level of protection by the research.

Typical foods that contain high levels of kaempferol include beans, tea, kale, spinach and broccoli.

Another flavanol called myricetin was also protective, although not quite to the same extent as kaempferol.

Typical foods that contain high levels of myricetin include wine, tea, kale, oranges and tomatoes.

Quercetin, which is found in tea, apples, kale and tomatoes was also protective, but at a still lower level.

Dr Thomas M. Holland, the study’s first author, said:

“It’s exciting that our study shows making specific diet choices may lead to a slower rate of cognitive decline.

Something as simple as eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking more tea is an easy way for people to take an active role in maintaining their brain health.”

Slowing cognitive decline

For the study, almost 1,000 people were divided into groups based on the amount of flavanols in their diet.

The group consuming the most flavanols got 15 mg a day — the amount that would come from a single cup of dark leafy greens.

Study participants were tracked over an average of 7 years and given regular cognitive tests.

These revealed that people who consumed the highest levels of flavanols experienced the slowest decline in their cognitive abilities.

The study’s authors explained:

“Results suggest dietary intakes of total flavonols and several flavonol constituents may be associated with slower decline in global cognition and multiple cognitive abilities with older age.”

As with any correlational research like this one, the study cannot prove that there is a link, merely that there is an association.

Related

• People who eat more foods containing flavanols have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Holland et al., 2022).

Some signs of the vitamin deficiency include include poor sleep, symptoms of depression, headaches, weak muscles and tiredness.

Vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of dementia, research finds.

Adequate levels of vitamin D could prevent almost one-in-five cases of dementia from occurring, the study estimates.

People with low levels of vitamin D have lower brain volumes and are also at a higher risk of strokes — a condition in which the blood supply is cut off to part of the brain.

Professor Elina Hyppönen, study co-author, said:

“Vitamin D is a hormone precursor that is increasingly recognised for widespread effects, including on brain health, but until now it has been very difficult to examine what would happen if we were able to prevent vitamin D deficiency.”

Researchers examined data from almost 300,000 people in the UK Biobank study.

A genetic analysis of the data suggested that low levels of vitamin D are causing the increase in dementia risk.

Professor Hyppönen said:

“Our study is the first to examine the effect of very low levels of vitamin D on the risks of dementia and stroke, using robust genetic analyses among a large population.

In some contexts, where vitamin D deficiency is relatively common, our findings have important implications for dementia risks.

Indeed, in this UK population we observed that up to 17 per cent of dementia cases might have been avoided by boosting vitamin D levels to be within a normal range.”

Worldwide, vitamin D deficiency is very common.

Changing this could help to reduce the dementia risk for many, explained Professor Hyppönen:

“Dementia is a progressive and debilitating disease that can devastate individuals and families alike.

If we’re able to change this reality through ensuring that none of us is severely vitamin D deficient, it would also have further benefits and we could change the health and wellbeing for thousands.

Most of us are likely to be ok, but for anyone who for whatever reason may not receive enough vitamin D from the sun, modifications to diet may not be enough, and supplementation may well be needed.”

How to correct a vitamin D deficiency

Around one-in-five people are thought to have a vitamin D deficiency.

Some signs of vitamin D deficiency include include poor sleep, symptoms of depression, headaches, weak muscles and tiredness.

A deficiency in this vitamin is particularly prevalent among people with darker skin, who do not leave the house or who are pregnant or have problems with absorption.

Vitamin D supplementation is one option for correcting the problem.

Around 10 mcg per day is the dose often recommended.

A change of diet can also help the problem.

Vitamin D is particularly abundant in foods like milk, liver, fatty fish, and egg yolks.

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Navale et al., 2022).

Brain regions responsible for cognition were 14 percent larger in those who ate fish cooked with this method.

Eating both baked and broiled fish once a week protects the brain from loosing gray matter with age, according to new research.

The findings found no link between eating fried fish and better brain health.

Dr Cyrus Raji, who led the study, explained:

“Baked or broiled fish contains higher levels of omega-3s than fried fish because the fatty acids are destroyed in the high heat of frying, so we took that into consideration…”

The data came from 260 people who had their brains scanned and who also provided information on what they had been eating.

They were all part of a 10-year study starting in 1989 which was originally designed to reveal the lifestyle factors important in cardiovascular health.

The study found that people who ate baked or broiled fish had, on average, 4.3% larger brain volumes in the areas responsible for memory and 14% larger volumes in areas responsible for cognition.

Professor James T. Becker, who co-authored the study, explained the results:

“Our study shows that people who ate a diet that included baked or broiled, but not fried, fish have larger brain volumes in regions associated with memory and cognition.

We did not find a relationship between omega-3 levels and these brain changes, which surprised us a little.

It led us to conclude that we were tapping into a more general set of lifestyle factors that were affecting brain health of which diet is just one part.”

Omega-3 fatty acids, which are also found in seeds, nuts and certain oils, have been repeatedly found to enhance brain health.

However, in this study there was no link between actual omega-3 levels in the body and changes in the brain.

Dr Becker said:

“This suggests that lifestyle factors, in this case eating fish, rather than biological factors contribute to structural changes in the brain.

A confluence of lifestyle factors likely are responsible for better brain health, and this reserve might prevent or delay cognitive problems that can develop later in life.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Raji et al., 2014).