Mediterranean-style diet may help ward off dementia

New York, February 10:A new research has revealed that eating a Mediterranean-style diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, fish and cereals, may help ward off mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a boundary stage of memory loss between typical aging and dementia.

The study also suggests that MCI patients who endorse this diet are less likely to evolve from mild cognitive decline to Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

"We know from previous research that a healthy diet like this is protective for cardiovascular risk factors like cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes. Now this current study shows it may help brain function too," says study lead author Nikolaos Scarmeas, who is an assistant professor of clinical neurology at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center.

To find out whether Mediterranean-style diet could cut MCI patients risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, Scarmeas and colleagues interviewed and screened 1,393 individuals with healthy brains and 482 patients with mild cognitive impairment.

The researchers questioned all the participants, average age 77, about their eating habits, and divided them into three groups- those who consumed very little or not at all of the Mediterranean diet, those who adhered moderately to it, and those who ate this diet regularly.

After an average of 4.5 years follow-up, Scarmeas’ team found that 275 of the 1,393 study participants who had healthy brains at the start of the study developed cognitive impairment.

"As compared to the group that ate very little or not at all of the Mediterranean diet, those who ate it to a moderate degree had 17 percent less risk of developing mild cognitive impairment," Scarmeas said. "Those who adhered a lot had a 28 percent less risk of developing mild cognitive impairment."

The diet also helped individuals with mild impairment to reduce their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. "Compared to those who adhered not at all or very little, those who ate the Mediterranean diet to a moderate degree had a 45 percent reduction in risk going from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease. Those who adhered a lot had a 48 percent reduction in risk of going from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's," he said.

Although, it is not known exactly how the Mediterranean-style diet may help keep the brain healthy, but one reason behind this reduced risk could be that this style of diet improves the blood sugar level and reduces inflammation, which plays a role in brain disease, Scarmeas said.

The authors of the study emphasize that further studies are needed to confirm the role of Mediterranean diet or other dietary factors in the development of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease.

The findings were published in this month's Archives of Neurology.