Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of dementia, helps in keeping the brain sharp:

News Topical, Digital Desk : The Mediterranean diet is rich in fiber and antioxidants, which are beneficial for health. The Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of dementia and affect blood metabolites associated with cognitive health.

What is a Mediterranean-style diet

The Mediterranean-style diet includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and olive oil. This diet includes a high intake of fish and seafood, moderate consumption of chicken and limited consumption of red meat.

What does the study say?

For this, data of 4,215 women were analyzed in the Nurses Health Study, in which participants with an average age of 57 years were followed up from 1989 to 2023. The researchers analyzed similar data of 1,490 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, who were followed up from 1993 to 2023.

The study suggested that the Mediterranean diet may help reduce the risk of dementia. The study, published in Nature Medicine, found that people with a high genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease benefited more from following the Mediterranean diet than those with a low genetic risk, which reduced the risk of dementia.

"One of the reasons we studied the Mediterranean was that it is the only dietary pattern that has been causally linked to cognitive benefits in a randomized trial," said study author Yuxi Liu. Over the past few decades, researchers have learned more about the genetic and metabolic basis of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, which are among the most common causes of cognitive decline in the elderly.

Who is at higher risk of Alzheimer's?

Alzheimer's disease has a strong genetic component, with inheritance rates estimated at up to 80%. One gene in particular, apolipoprotein E (APOE), has emerged as the strongest genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's disease. This more common type develops later in life and is not inherited directly in a predictable pattern. People who carry one copy of the APOE4 variant have a 3 to 4 times higher risk of developing Alzheimer's. People who have two copies of the APOE4 variant (called APOE4 homozygous) have a 12 times higher risk of Alzheimer's than those without the variant.

The researchers found that those who were more likely to follow a Mediterranean-style diet had a lower risk of developing dementia and a slower cognitive decline. The protective effect of the diet was strongest in the high-risk group with two copies of the APOE4 gene variant.

This suggested that the Mediterranean diet may help balance genetic risk. Liu said that these findings suggest that the Mediterranean diet may help reduce the risk of cognitive decline and prevent dementia because it broadly affects key metabolic pathways.