As Alzheimer’s Disease continues to be a major health issue in the UK, scientists are looking at ways to remedy the situation. Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behaviour and symptoms eventually grow severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. It is the most common form of the disease in the country, affecting two out of three people diagnosed with dementia.
Studies have found that diet could potentially play a huge role when it comes to preventing the condition, discovering that what we eat may affect the aging brain’s ability to think and remember. These findings have led to research on general eating patterns and whether a person’s diet might make a difference on whether or not they develop Alzheimer’s Disease.
One possible game-changer is the hybrid Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative delay diet, more commonly known as the MIND diet. While similar to the Mediterranean diet – which takes a holistic approach to health – the MIND diet menu features other food items and limits intake on other products. It is a mixture of the Mediterranean and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet.
The study on the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) and its association with a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease was conducted by Dr. Martha Clare Morris and her colleagues at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Their research, published in 2015 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, found that adherence to the MIND diet was linked to a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, even when followed moderately.
An analysis of diet and other factors found that, after an average of 4.5 years, people who adhered most closely to the MIND diet had a 53% reduced rate of Alzheimer’s compared to those who did not follow the diet closely.
What do you eat on the MIND diet?
Similar to the Mediterranean diet, the MIND diet also features vegetables, especially leafy greens. Berries over other fruit is emphasised, while eating whole grains, beans, nuts are also encouraged.
One or more weekly servings of fish and olive oil are also on the menu for consumption. This diet limits servings of red meat, sweets, cheese, butter/margarine, and fast/fried food – that people following it consume.
The Mediterranean diet is more flexible when it comes to consumption of cheese – it also has a more broader focus on vegetables outside of MIND’s emphasis on leafy varieties and berries.
In a similar study, following the MIND diet was associated with a substantial slowing of cognitive decline during an average of almost five years. While these findings are promising, more research is necessary. More studies are being conducted by scientists as they continue to make inroads into preventing the debilitating disease.
Healthy eating patterns have been associated with cognitive benefits in studies but more research is being undertaken to discover if what we eat can prevent or delay Alzheimer’s or age-related cognitive decline. It is believed that eating a certain diet might increase specific nutrients that could protect the brain through anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
While it is early days for this research, findings so far are cause for cautious optimism as further investigation is undertaken by the scientific community.