Protective diet for prevention of Alzheimer disease

January 01, 0001

Protective diet for prevention of Alzheimer disease

These US authors assessed the association between food combination and Alzheimer disease (AD) risk in a prospective cohort study. Because foods are not consumed in isolation, dietary pattern (DP) analysis of food combination, taking into account the interactions among food components, may offer methodological advantages. Participants were 2148 community-based elderly subjects (aged 65 years) without dementia who provided dietary information and were prospectively evaluated with the same standardized neurological and neuropsychological measures approximately every 1.5 years.

They found: "Two hundred fifty-three subjects developed AD during a follow-up of 3.9 years. We identified a DP strongly associated with lower AD risk: compared with subjects in the lowest tertile of adherence to this pattern, the AD hazard ratio for subjects in the highest DP tertile was 0.62 after multivariable adjustment. This DP was characterized by higher intakes of salad dressing, nuts, fish, tomatoes, poultry, cruciferous vegetables, fruits, and dark and green leafy vegetables and a lower intake of high-fat dairy products, red meat, organ meat, and butter."

The authors concluded: "Simultaneous consideration of previous knowledge regarding potentially AD-related nutrients and multiple food groups can aid in identifying food combinations that are associated with AD risk."

This dietary pattern is also associated with less risk for diabetes and heart disease.

For the full abstract, click here.

Arch Neurol 67(6):699-706, June 2010 © 2010 to the American Medical Association
Food Combination and Alzheimer Disease Risk-A Protective Diet. Yian Gu, Jeri W. Nieves, Yaakov Stern, Jose A. Luchsinger, Nikolaos Scarmeas. Correspondence to Dr. Scarmeas: [email protected]

Category: N. Neurological. Keywords: diet, Alzheimer disease, elderly, risk, prospective cohort study, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Linda French, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 29 June 2010

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.