Study finds diet may contribute to cognitive resilience in older people – sciencedaily

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found that older people can benefit from a specific diet called the MIND diet even when they develop these protein deposits, called amyloid plaques and tangles. Plaques and tangles are a condition found in the brain that builds up between nerve cells and usually interferes with thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Developed by the late Martha Clare Morris, ScD, who was a Rush nutritional epidemiologist, and colleagues, the MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets. Previous research studies have shown that the MIND diet can reduce the risk of developing dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Now, a study has shown that study participants who followed the MIND diet moderately later in life did not have cognition problems, according to a September 14 article published in the Alzheimer’s Disease Journal.

“Some people have enough plaques and tangles in the brain to have a postmortem diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, but they do not develop clinical dementia in their lifetime,” said Klodian Dhana, MD, PhD , lead author of the article and assistant professor in the division of geriatrics and palliative medicine in the department of internal medicine at Rush Medical College.

“Some have the ability to maintain cognitive functions despite the accumulation of these pathologies in the brain, and our study suggests that the MIND diet is associated with better cognitive functions independent of brain pathologies linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

In this study, researchers examined associations between diet – from study initiation until death – brain pathologies and cognitive functioning in older adults who participated in the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Memory and Aging project. Center, which began in 1997 and includes people living in greater Chicago. The participants were mostly white with no known dementia, and all agreed to undergo annual clinical assessments while alive and a brain autopsy after death.

The researchers followed 569 participants, who were asked to take annual assessments and cognitive tests to see if they had developed memory and thinking problems. Beginning in 2004, participants received an annual food frequency questionnaire about how often they ate 144 foods in the previous year.

Using the questionnaire responses, the researchers assigned each participant a MIND diet score based on how often the participants ate specific foods. The MIND diet has 15 dietary components, including 10 “brain healthy food groups” and five unhealthy groups: red meat, butter and margarine sticks, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food foods.

To adhere to and benefit from the MIND diet, a person should eat at least three servings of whole grains, one green leafy vegetable, and one other vegetable every day – with a glass of wine – almost daily munch on nuts, eat beans every other day or so, eat poultry and berries at least twice a week, and fish at least once a week. A person should also limit their intake of designated unhealthy foods, limiting butter to less than 1 1/2 teaspoons per day and eating less than one serving per week of sweets and pastries, whole cheese, and deep-frying or fast food.

Based on the frequency of consumption reported for the healthy and unhealthy food groups, the researchers calculated the MIND diet score for each participant during the study period. An average of the MIND diet score from the start of the study until the participant’s death was used in the analysis to limit measurement error. Seven sensitivity measures were calculated to confirm the accuracy of the results.

“We found that a higher MIND diet score was associated with better memory and thinking skills regardless of Alzheimer’s disease pathology and other common age-related brain conditions. have protective capacity and can contribute to cognitive resilience in the elderly. ”says Dhana.

“Diet changes can impact cognitive functioning and the risk of dementia, for better or for worse,” he continued. “There are some fairly simple diet and lifestyle changes that a person can make that can help slow cognitive decline with aging and contribute to brain health.”