Dementia - Page 4 of 39

This Beverage Reversed Normal Age-Related Memory Loss In Three Months

Drinking this could reduce your brain age twenty years in just three months.

Cocoa flavonoids — like those contained in a cup of cocoa — can reverse age-related memory loss in older adults.

This is the first direct evidence that an important component of memory decline that comes with age can be improved with a simple dietary change.

Typically, normal age-related memory declines are noticeable to people in their fifties and sixties: things like forgetting where the keys are or having trouble recalling a name or word.

These changes are much less severe than those which typically occur as a result of devastating dementias like Alzheimer’s disease.

The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, found a high-flavanol diet could restore aspects of older people’s memory back to that of a typical 30- or 40-year-old (Brickman et al., 2014).

The changes were clearly visible in brain scans, as Dr Adam M. Brickman, the study’s lead author explained:

“When we imaged our research subjects’ brains, we found noticeable improvements in the function of the dentate gyrus in those who consumed the high-cocoa-flavanol drink.”

The image below shows the dentate gyrus in green (this is part of the hippocampus).

Previous research has shown that it is changes in this area of the brain that are associated with normal age-related memory loss.

Image credit: Lab of Scott A. Small, M.D.

Participants in the study were 37 healthy people aged between 50 and 69.

They were randomised into two groups, one of which was given a high-flavanol diet (900mg of flavanols per day) and the other given a low-flavanol diet (10mg per day).

At the end of the three-month period of the study, participants on the high-flavonoid diet showed improvements on memory tests.

Professor Scott A. Small, one of the study’s authors, explained the results:

“If a participant had the memory of a typical 60-year-old at the beginning of the study, after three months that person on average had the memory of a typical 30- or 40-year-old.”

Flavanols are also found in tea leaves, and certain fruits and vegetables, although the exact amounts and forms vary widely.

The researchers cautioned that people should not eat more chocolate as the critical flavonoids are not present at the required levels — the dietary supplement used in the study was specially formulated.

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The Familiar Pill That Reduces Dementia Risk By 13%

Treating this condition in mid- or later life can halt dementia.

Medication to lower blood pressure reduces the risk of dementia by around 13 percent, the strongest evidence yet finds.

Currently, there are very few dementia treatments on the market, therefore finding that lowering blood pressure can significantly reduce the disease or stop its progression is of practical benefit.

Dr Ruth Peters, the study’s first author, said:

“Given population ageing and the substantial costs of caring for people with dementia, even a small reduction could have considerable global impact.
Our study suggests that using readily available treatments to lower blood pressure is currently one of our ‘best bets’ to tackle this insidious disease.”

About 60 million people live with dementia and the condition is rapidly increasing amongst older population at such a rate that it will have tripled by 2050.

According to Dr Peters, while numerous clinical trials have shown the beneficial effects of lowering blood pressure on heart disease and stroke risk, its effect on dementia has not been identified.

Dr Peters said:

“Most trials were stopped early because of the significant impact of blood pressure lowering on cardiovascular events, which tend to occur earlier than signs of dementia.”

The team analysed five trials, each using a different treatment to lower blood pressure of 28,000 older adults across 20 countries.

The participants were followed over four years.

Dr Peters said:

“We found there was a significant effect of treatment in lowering the odds of dementia associated with a sustained reduction in blood pressure in this older population.
Our results imply a broadly linear relationship between blood pressure reduction and lower risk of dementia, regardless of which type of treatment was used.”

The authors believe this finding can help improve public health strategies in decreasing the risk of dementia and its progression.

Dr Peters said:

“Our study provides the highest grade of available evidence to show that blood pressure lowering treatment over several years reduces the risk of dementia, and we did not see any evidence of harm.
But what we still don’t know is whether additional blood pressure lowering in people who already have it well-controlled or starting treatment earlier in life would reduce the long-term risk of dementia.”

The study was published in the European Heart Journal (Peters et al., 2022).

The Vitamin Deficiency In The Brain Linked To Dementia

The study looked directly at levels of this vitamin in the brain, about which little is known.

Higher levels of vitamin D in the brain are linked to better cognitive function and less decline with age.

Indeed, adequate vitamin D levels have repeatedly been linked to lower dementia risk (1, 2, 3) by research.

One study has even suggested that adequate levels of vitamin D could prevent almost one-in-five cases of dementia (Navale et al., 2022).

However, the link remains somewhat controversial, with other studies finding no connection (also: Owusu et al., 2018).

This research, though, looked directly at vitamin D levels in the brain, about which little is known.

Professor Sarah Booth, study co-author, said:

“This research reinforces the importance of studying how food and nutrients create resilience to protect the aging brain against diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias.”

Vitamin D markers

The study, which tracked the cognitive health of 290 seniors, analysed their brain tissue for vitamin D after they died.

Dr Kyla Shea, the study’s first author, said:

“Many studies have implicated dietary or nutritional factors in cognitive performance or function in older adults, including many studies of vitamin D, but all of them are based on either dietary intakes or blood measures of vitamin D.
We wanted to know if vitamin D is even present in the brain, and if it is, how those concentrations are linked to cognitive decline.”

The researchers found that people with higher levels of vitamin D in their brains had better cognitive function.

However, they found no link between vitamin D markers and other physiological signs of Alzheimer’s.

This means it is difficult to pinpoint the mechanism by which vitamin D might be beneficial.

Dr Shea said:

“Dementia is multifactorial, and lots of the pathological mechanisms underlying it have not been well characterized.
Vitamin D could be related to outcomes that we didn’t look at yet, but plan to study in the future.”

How much vitamin D?

Despite these findings, it is not recommended to take high levels of vitamin D as a preventative measure.

Recommended doses are 600 IU per day for people under 70 and 800 IU for those over 70.

Dr Shea said:

“We now know that vitamin D is present in reasonable amounts in human brains, and it seems to be correlated with less decline in cognitive function.
But we need to do more research to identify the neuropathology that vitamin D is linked to in the brain before we start designing future interventions.”

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

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The Foods That May Stop Your Brain From Shrinking (M)

The number of people diagnosed with dementia is expected to almost triple over the next three decades.

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This Common Food Shrinks Your Brain Over The Years — Even At ‘Normal’ Levels

You don’t need diabetes for this everyday factor to cause brain damage.

The average person eats the equivalent of an extra burger meal every day compared with 50 years ago.

A burger, fries and soft drink works out to an extra 650 calories per day.

That is around 30 percent more calories than people need.

The consequences for people’s waistlines and their brains is devastating.

Brain health declines dramatically as a result of poor nutrition, especially early in life.

One of the main culprits is sugar, which accelerates neurodegeneration and impairs cognitive function.

Even ‘high-normal’ levels of blood sugar contribute to neurodegenerative processes.

People need to eat well and exercise early in life to avoid brain shrinkage and dementia later on.

Professor Nicolas Cherbuin, the study’s first author, said:

“People are eating away at their brain with a really bad fast-food diet and little-to-no exercise.
We’ve found strong evidence that people’s unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise for sustained periods of time puts them at serious risk of developing type 2 diabetes and significant declines in brain function, such as dementia and brain shrinkage.”

The conclusions come from a review of around 200 studies carried out around the world.

Fully 30 percent of the world’s population is obese now, and 10 percent will have type 2 diabetes by 2030.

Professor Cherbuin said:

“The link between type 2 diabetes and the rapid deterioration of brain function is already well established.
But our work shows that neurodegeneration, or the loss and function of neurons, sets in much, much earlier—we’ve found a clear association between this brain deterioration and unhealthy lifestyle choices.
The damage done is pretty much irreversible once a person reaches midlife, so we urge everyone to eat healthy and get in shape as early as possible—preferably in childhood but certainly by early adulthood.”

The effort to improve diet is coming too late for many, said Professor Cherbuin:

“What has become really apparent in our investigation is that advice for people to reduce their risk of brain problems, including their risk of getting dementia, is most commonly given in their 60s or later, when the ‘timely prevention’ horse has already bolted.
Many people who have dementia and other signs of cognitive dysfunction, including shrinking brains, have increased their risk throughout life by eating too much bad food and not exercising enough.
One of the best chances people have of avoiding preventable brain problems down the track is to eat well and exercise from a young age.
The message is simple, but bringing about positive change will be a big challenge.
Individuals, parents, medical professionals and governments all have an important role to play.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology (Cherbuin & Walsh, 2019).

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10 Science-Backed Ways To Slash Your Dementia Risk Today (P)

From 5-minute habits to vitamin levels, researchers uncover powerful ways to keep your mind sharp as you age.

Cognitive health is not beyond our control, just a matter of genetics and luck; it is something that can be actively influenced.

Subtle shifts in how we live, move, think and connect with others may dramatically shape our brain’s future.

In this article, we explore 10 studies that reveal how everyday choices could make all the difference.

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The Surprising Way Sleep Is Connected To Dementia

Changes in sleep quality are linked to dementia.

People who sleep more than 9 hours a night have double the risk of developing dementia.Those sleeping longer also have lower brain volumes.The exception was well-educated people, Professor Sudha Seshadri, a study author, explained:

“Participants without a high school degree who sleep for more than 9 hours each night had six times the risk of developing dementia in 10 years as compared to participants who slept for less.These results suggest that being highly educated may protect against dementia in the presence of long sleep duration.”

The conclusions come from a study that followed people over 10 years to see who developed dementia.People who slept 9 hours or more were at double the risk of developing dementia as those who slept less than 9 hours a night.Dr Matthew Pase, study co-author, said:

“Self-reported sleep duration may be a useful clinical tool to help predict persons at risk of progressing to clinical dementia within 10 years.Persons reporting long sleep time may warrant assessment and monitoring for problems with thinking and memory.”

However, it is probably not excessive sleep that is a cause of dementia.Rather, excessive sleep is a symptom of dementia.Dr Rosa Sancho, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said:

“While unusual sleep patterns are common for people with dementia, this study adds to existing research suggesting that changes in sleep could be apparent long before symptoms like memory loss start to show.Other studies have indicated a link between changes in sleep quality and the onset of dementia, and while this wasn’t measured in this study, it could be an important factor affecting sleep duration.”

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The study was published in the journal Neurology (Westwood et al., 2017).