Prevent Alzheimer's Disease with a Healthy Diet

Prevent Alzheimer's Disease with a Healthy Diet
New research finds protection from Alzheimer's comes from choosing healthy food combinations, rather than isolated nutrients. By Adam Bean Abridged; link to full article below

To help lower your Alzheimer's risk, eat plenty of foods that are high in polyunsaturated fat, folate, and vitamin E, and low in saturated fat.


RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Can eating the right foods prevent Alzheimer's disease? A diet high in fruits, nuts, vegetables, and fish, and low in red meat and butter, has been shown to lower your risk of obesity, diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease, and stroke, among many other physical maladies. Now there’s increasing evidence that eating right can keep you mentally healthy, as well. A new study on diet and Alzheimer's risk finds that a healthy diet may lower your risk of this debilitating disease by nearly 40 percent.

THE DETAILS: As reported in the journal Archives of Neurology, researchers analyzed the dietary patterns of 2,148 people aged 65 and older, none of whom had Alzheimer's disease at the beginning of the study. Nearly four years later, subjects were analyzed again, at which point 253 of them had developed the disease. When the researchers compared subjects’ dietary habits, they found that a high intake of polyunsaturated fats, vitamin E, and folate, along with a low intake of saturated fat, seemed to coincide with a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Please read the full article: http://www.rodale.com/prevent-alzheimers?cm_mmc=DailyNewsNL-_-2010_04_16-_-Top5-_-NA


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Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease: Avoid This Brain-Killing Toxin

Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease: Avoid This Brain-Killing Toxin
New study suggests lead exposure is bad for our brains.
Remove lead paint and find alternatives for PVC products
By Emily Main RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA 07-01-09
Link to Full article below

While we tend to think of lead poisoning as a threat to children, it turns out the toxic metal affects adults as well. A new study published in the journal Neurology finds that adults with high lead levels are at higher risk for developing dementia, and provides more reasons than ever why we should limit lead exposure throughout life to protect our brains when we get older.

THE DETAILS: Lead accumulates in your bones throughout your life. And as those bones deteriorate with age, the metal gets released into your bloodstream, where it travels to your heart and brain.

To read the full article: http://www.rodale.com

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Meat may increase Alzheimer's risk

Scientist worries that meat may increase Alzheimer's risk
by Meg Marquardt, Science News Examiner
February 10, 2009

http://www.examiner.com/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m2d10-Scientist-worries-that-meat-may-increase-Alzheimers-risk

A scientist in DC has made a startling claim: there is a chance that humans are increasing their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Type II diabetes by eating certain meats.

Misfolded (and thus improperly working) protein fragments known as amyloid fibrils are present in some animals. This fact is not new; misfolded proteins like amyloid fibrils have long been blamed for prion diseases such as mad cow. Michael Greger of The Humane Society of the United States in Washington, DC explained “that a biochemical mechanism akin to the replication of similar protein fragments in the brain diseases Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), scrapie, and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, might occur when amyloid fibrils enter brain tissue or the pancreas.” [EurekAlert]

If it is true that humans are assimilating amyloid fibrils that target the brain and pancreas, then we may be inadvertently increasing the risk of AD or diabetes as well. In humans, a hallmark of AD is the accumulation (or amyloidosis) of the amyloid protein Aβ in the brain. Type II diabetes is discernible by the amyloidosis of a different amyloid protein, Amylin, in the pancreas. If something is wrong in the body, humans will naturally produce these proteins without the help of tainted meats. But there is always the chance that such meat is helping the process along.

However, at the moment, there is no need to panic or radically change your diet. This is merely a tale of cautionary intuition. Though research shows that “mice fed amyloid-affected beef, for instance, succumb to amyloidosis within weeks,” [EurekAlert] there has been no research done to show similar effects in higher-level animals, let alone humans. It should also be noted that the only food that is absolutely known to contain such amyloid fibrils is pâté de foie gras, a fatty liver pate which is produced by force-feeding chickens and other poultry.

But Greger raises a very important concern. As scientists strongly suspect that other diseases can be transmitted from animals via misfolded proteins, investigating the link between meat and AD and diabetes may prove essential. “Given that amyloidosis can occur in a wide variety of wild as well as domesticated animals, including chickens, cattle, dogs, goats, horses, sheep and, rarely, cats and pigs, Greger suggests that urgent research is now needed to ensure we are not eating food that might one day lead to amyloidosis in people.”

Coffee Drinking May Reduce Risk of Alzheimer's

Coffee Drinking May Reduce Risk of Alzheimer's
January 19, 2009

http://www.supermarketguru.com/index.cfm/go/sg.viewArticle/articleId/240

Drinking between three and five cups of coffee per day during your middle years may lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease as much as 60 to 65% later in life, according to a study recently released in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

The study, based in Scandinavia, surveyed participants in several studies over more than two decades. Some 1,409 individuals ages 65 to 79 were part of the follow-up studies and only 61 had dementia and only 48 had developed Alzheimer's disease. The participants were queried about their coffee drinking habits and memory function when younger and in a similar way some 20 years later. As other studies have concluded, researchers believe it is the naturally-occurring antioxidants in coffee that diminish the development of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in coffee-drinking people.

The aim of this study was to study the long-term impact of caffeine on the central nervous system and the pathologic processes leading to Alzheimer's disease, said lead researcher Miia Kivipelto. We now believe the pathologic processes leading to forms of dementia may begin decades before clinical manifestation. Because of the ubiquitous presence of coffee drinking throughout the world, she surmised, the study results might have important implications for the prevention of, or delaying of, the onset of dementia/AD, she added. New therapies for these conditions could be developed if we fully understand the mechanisms by which coffee protects again these diseases, she said. Ms. Kivipelto is an associate professor at the University of Kuopio and the Karolinska Intitutet.

For the study, coffee drinking fell into three groups: zero to two cups per day; three to five cups per day, and more than five cups per day. The lowest risk (65%) was found among those drinking three to five cups of coffee per day.

The conclusions were initially published in the Finnish Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) Study conducted by researchers at the University of Kuopio in Kuopio, Finland, the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland.

The 1,409 participants were survivors from the North Karelia Project and the FINMONICA Study in 1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987 and the final follow up was in 1998.

Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2009, "Midlife Coffee and Tea Drinking and the Risk of Late-Life Dementia: A Population-based CAIDE Study" by Marjo H. Eskelinen, Tiia Ngandu, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Hikka Soinen, and Miia Kivipelto.

Fruit Rich in Polyphenols Protects Against Alzheimer's Disease, Cognitive Decline

Fruit Rich in Polyphenols Protects Against Alzheimer's Disease, Cognitive Decline


(NaturalNews) Fruits rich in polyphenols may help protect against the oxidative stress that has been linked to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study conducted by researchers from three Korean universities and published in the Journal of Food Science.

"Our study demonstrated that antioxidants in the major fresh fruits consumed in the United States and Korea protected neuronal cells from oxidative stress," the researchers wrote. "Therefore, additional consumption of fresh fruits such as apples, bananas, and oranges may be beneficial to ameliorate chemopreventive effects in neurodegenerative disease."

Researchers took a cancer cell line derived from the forebrains of rats, intended to simulate human neurons. These cells were exposed to hydrogen peroxide after being treated with varying concentrations of fruit extracts.

Treatment with fruit extracts led to a significant increase in cell viability and decreased oxidative damage compared with the control group. The most effective extract was from apples, but the orange and banana extracts also functioned well. At the highest concentration, the orange and banana extracts provided 103 and 118 percent more cell protection than the control treatment.

Researchers believe that Alzheimer's disease might be caused by the build-up of amyloid plaque deposits in the brain, due to increased cell death from oxidative damage. Because the fruit extracts in the current study protected nerve cells against oxidative stress, the researchers believe they might provide a protective benefit against Alzheimer's as well.

A prior study found that when mice with Alzheimer's disease were given apple juice with naturally occurring antioxidants, they exhibited improved cognitive performance and their brain tissue appeared to be protected from oxidative damage. More recently, a different study found that the flavones hesperidin, hesperetin, and neohesperidin - naturally occurring chemicals found in citrus fruits - protected against DNA and cell damage, including from hydrogen peroxide.

An estimated 13 million people around the world suffer from Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia.