Why Diet and Lifestyle can play a role in Alzheimer's disease progression and prevention?
Alzheimer’s Disease has caused an epidemic of Dementia and mental handicap of raging proportions and its incidence is steadily increasing. It affects individuals in the later years of life and is caused by various pathogenetic processes. The processes include Neuroinflammation, Amyloid etiology, Mitochondrial abnormalities, Oxidative stress, and Gut dysbiosis. There is growing consensus that diet may have a role in the prevention of onset and progression of Alzheimer's and other dementias. In this section we will review some diets that have been found to be helpful and scientific details broken down to make sense to the everyday person.
Dementia Prevention and Treatment Diets:
The Mediterranean diet: This diet is mainly composed of the high consumption of cereals, legumes, olive oil, nuts, fruits, vegetables, moderate consumption of fish, moderate to low consumption of low-fat dairy, wine, and low consumption of red and processed meats. This diet is rich in both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids and is also loaded with nutrients and antioxidants like allium, sulfur-containing compounds, beta carotenes, lutein, anthocyanin and essential vitamins like A,B,D,E, and nutrients like zinc, selenium, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
This diet is associated with the following benefits:
Lower incidence of Alzheimer's among individuals with higher adherence to this diet
Mediterranean diet and exercise were also associated with reduced risk of AD
This diet was also associated with better learning and memory function and increased thickness in MRI studies in ‘Regions of interest’ that would be affected by Alzheimer’s, this was viewed positively. Conversely, lower adherence to this diet was associated with a negative effect on affected brain regions.
This diet is already known for its beneficial effects on Blood pressure, lipids, adiposity, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress. Adherence helps lower the harmful effects and worsening of these factors.
This diet also has beneficial effects on the functional and metabolic modifications in the brain that involve amyloid deposition and glucose metabolism.
The DASH Diet: This stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension and is mainly composed of vegetables, nuts, fruits, cereals, fish, poultry and low-fat dairy, and decreased or very low intake of full fat dairy, red meats, processed meats, tropical oils, sugary drinks, sweets, and the low intake of sodium, saturated fat and cholesterol laden foods. This diet is rich in calcium, minerals, fiber, and lean proteins that are favorable in the controlling and decreasing of vascular risk factors like high blood pressure and lipids.
The DASH diet helps decrease cardiovascular risk factors and contributes to the decreased development of dementia and AD.
High adherence to the DASH diet was shown to help decrease cognitive decline and the incidence of Alzheimer's
The MIND diet: This is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH diet which includes the consumption of green leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, beans, whole grains, other vegetables, fish, poultry, and olive oil and wine. This diet also included 5 unhealthy foods like red meats, butter, cheese, etc. We will not be delving into the details of this diet in this section.
Intermittent Fasting: This form of Fasting (as I have already mentioned in ‘Dr. Priya's Kitchen') involves fasting for 10-16 hours to longer periods, and may play a beneficial role in the prevention and progression of Alzheimer's disease. Glucose is usually the energy source when supplies are abundant, but during the fasting there is a metabolic switch that causes the body to use Ketones as an energy source. This may help prevent aging, oxidative stress, and neurodegenerative disorders that happen with the development of Alzheimer's and other dementias. I must stress that intermittent fasting is not a mode of starvation which leads to depletion of vital nutrients, so please read into my topic on intermittent fasting that has been posted on the site. Click here to read the post. I recommend that everyone have a conversation with their doctors before implementing changes in health care routine and diets.
In the above discussion, we are stressing on the fact that diet and lifestyle have a key role to play in our physical and mental well-being. Food is a form of medicine when consumed in a health-conscious manner. As always, I wish that you keep your health in center focus and live long and strong!
