2023-05-19 02:27:46
Patients who followed the Mediterranean diet or MIND had fewer cerebral plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
Healthy eating habits that favor the consumption of vegetables and fruits have been associated with a lower beta-amyloid protein plaque and tau neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer’s disease, a fact observed in autopsies.
This is according to a recent study in Neurologywhich included 581 participants who were followed until death, and in whom brain studies were performed the postmortem.
The work analyzed the impact of two types of diet: the Mediterranean diet and the MIND diet. MIND is a type of diet devised by nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris, who led a team of researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago to investigate the connection between diet and Alzheimer’s disease.
Both eating patterns are very similar, but while the Mediterranean diet advocates the consumption of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts and three or more servings of fish a week, the MIND gives priority to green leafy vegetables as spinach, kale, and collard greens, along with other greens. It also recommends the intake of berries over other fruits and advises one or more servings of fish per week.
Small amounts of wine are included in both the MIND and Mediterranean diets.
The autopsy study was developed by the team at Rush University Medical Center, under the direction of nutritional epidemiologist Puja Agarwal. The work does not establish a causal relationship between diets and the reduction of plaques and tangles in Alzheimer’s disease, although it does reveal that every aspect of healthy diets is fulfilled – such as eating more than six servings of leafy green vegetables a week. or not eating fried foods – was associated with fewer amyloid plaques in the brain, similar to being about four years younger.
“Although our research does not prove that a healthy diet translates into fewer brain deposits of amyloid plaques, known to be a marker of Alzheimer’s disease, we do know that there is a relationship, and that following the MIND and Mediterranean diets may be a way of that people improve their brain health and protect cognition as they age”, argues Puja Agarwal.
brain donation
The work included people with a mean age of 84, who agreed to donate their brains for research.
Participants died an average of seven years from the start of the study. Just before they died, 39% of the participants had been diagnosed with dementia. When examined after death, 66% met criteria for Alzheimer’s disease.
The Mediterranean diet pattern was classified by scoring the consumption of eleven food categories, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, fish, and potatoes. They scored lower if they ate red meat, poultry, and full-fat dairy products.
The MIND diet consisted of 15 categories: green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil, and wine. They lost one point if they ate more than recommended in five unhealthy food groups, including red meat, butter and margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried and fast food.
After adjusting for age at death, along with factors that may play a role such as gender, education, total calorie intake, and whether people had a gene linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers found that people in the study who followed the Mediterranean diet most faithfully had a mean amount of beta-amyloid plaque and neurofibrillary tangles similar to that of people 18 years younger, compared to those who followed the Mediterranean diet the worst. People who adhered best to the MIND diet had indicators of the neuropathology of someone twelve years younger than those who did not eat according to the MIND.
With imaging tests and biomarkers
In previous investigations, it has been verified, through imaging tests and with biomarkers such as cerebrospinal fluid, that there is a link between a healthy diet and Alzheimer’s, established in its cerebral indicators. This has been done by a study that measured this neuropathology through imaging tests in 44 adults between 40 and 85 years of age with mild changes in memory, but without yet presenting dementia. Or this other one that showed less amyloid and tau pathologies, greater brain volume in regions associated with the disease and better memory functioning among individuals who followed the Mediterranean diet.
green tea compound
It has also been seen in a more recent study, promoted by the University of Barcelona and the Fragility and Aging Cyber (CiberFES), which showed a protective association between metabolites derived from cocoa, coffee, mushrooms and red wine and metabolism. Microbial effects of foods rich in polyphenols (apple, cocoa, green tea, blueberries, oranges or pomegranates) on cognitive impairment in the elderly.
The influence of nutrients on neurodegenerative disease is also the subject of analysis in the studio think. This research evaluates whether the combination of an intensive multimodal intervention program on lifestyle habits and the intake of a nutritional preparation based on a component of green tea, epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC), can stop cognitive deterioration, in phases prior to the onset of dementia. Sonia Moreno
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