Mediterranean Diet May Help Alzheimer's

September 2007 - Research led by Dr Nikos Scarmeas of Columbia University Medical Center published in Neurology has found that a Mediterranean diet may help people with Alzheimer's disease live longer than those relying on a more traditional Western diet.

The study followed 192 people with Alzheimer's disease in New York for an average of four and a half years during which 85 participants died. However, the study found that those most closely following a Mediterranean diet were 76 per cent less likely to die.

Researchers explain that a Mediterranean diet includes a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals, fish, and monounsaturated fatty acids combined with a low intake of saturated fatty acids, dairy products, meat and poultry and a mild to moderate amount of alcohol.

Nikos Scarmeas commented:

"The more closely people followed the Mediterranean diet the more they reduced their mortality. For example, Alzheimer's patients who adhered to the diet to a moderate degree lived an average 1.3 years longer than those people who least adhered to the diet. And those Alzheimer's patients who followed the diet very religiously lived an average four years longer."

Previous research by this group demonstrated that healthy people eating a Mediterranean diet reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Studies have also shown that such individuals tend to live longer than those eating a Western diet.

Nikos Scarmeas added:

"New benefits of this diet keep coming out. We need to do more research to determine whether eating a Mediterranean diet also helps Alzheimer's patients have slower rates of cognitive decline, maintain their daily living skills, and have a better quality of life."

Related Articles

• More Than 3 Million Americans Have Dementia
  About 3.4 million Americans over the age of 70 (13.9 per cent) suffer from some form of dementia of whom about 2.4 million (9.7 per cent) have Alzheimer's disease.
• How Antioxidants May Work
  Very high doses of antioxidant polyphenols (commonly found in red wine, fruits, vegetables, and green tea) shut down and prevented cancerous tumors by inhibiting new blood vessel formation. Conversely, at relatively low doses they play a beneficial role in cardiac and circulatory diseases by facilitating blood vessel growth.
• Tomato Antioxidant Does Not Prevent Cancer
  A recent study concludes that lycopene, an antioxidant predominately found in tomatoes, is not effective in preventing prostate cancer.
• Health Benefits of Olive Oil
  New research suggests that significant differences in cancer rates between northern and southern Europeans may be explained by the anti-cancer effects of olive oil in the diet.
• Loneliness Affects Health
  Pointing out that loneliness is not the same as solitude which can be highly valued they nevertheless conclude that social isolation and physical aging may have a deleterious effect on health.
• Fruity Vegetables Reduce Childhood Asthma
  A diet rich in fish and "fruity vegetables" such as tomatoes, aubergines, cucumber, green beans and courgettes can reduce childhood asthma and allergies.