Alzheimer’s Disease Can Be Prevented By Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean diet might protect against memory loss as seen in dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Regular Mediterranean-like dietary pattern with relatively more intake of vegetables, legumes, fruit, cereals, fish, and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as from olive oil, may protect against protein deposits in the brain and brain atrophy as per a nutrition study (part of DELCODE study) at the DZNE - German Center For Neurodegenerative Diseases. The diet has a low intake of dairy products, red meat, and saturated fatty acids.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that leads to gradual memory loss and behavioral changes. It is characterized by the formation of beta-amyloid plaques and the tau proteins in the brain tissues, years before the actual symptoms occur.

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‘Mediterranean diet might protect the brain from protein deposits and brain atrophy thereby acting against memory loss as seen in dementia and Alzheimer's disease. However, the underlying biological mechanism remains to be clarified in the future. ’

Mediterranean-like Dietary Pattern

To explore the pathology, the study enrolled a total of 512 subjects with an average age of around 70 years. Among them, 169 were cognitively healthy, while 343 were identified to have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, due to subjective memory impairment, mild cognitive impairment (precursor to dementia), or first-degree relationship with patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

The participants were asked to first fill out a questionnaire in which they indicated which portions of 148 different foods they had eaten in the past months. The participants who frequently ate healthy foods typical of the Mediterranean diet, such as fish, vegetables, and fruit, and only occasionally consumed foods such as red meat, had scored highly on a scale.

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Brain Changes based on Dietary Pattern

The brain scans – magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was then performed to determine brain volume. Moreover, all subjects underwent various neuropsychological tests, in which cognitive abilities such as memory functions were examined and biomarker levels (measured values) for amyloid beta proteins and tau proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 226 participants.

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Cognitively normal adults exhibiting atrophy of their temporal lobe or damage to blood vessels in the brain are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

It was found that those who ate an unhealthy diet had more pathological levels of these biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid than those who regularly ate a Mediterranean-like diet. In the memory tests, the participants who did not adhere to the Mediterranean diet also performed worse than those who regularly ate fish and vegetables.

"There was also a significant positive correlation between a closer adherence to a Mediterranean-like diet and a higher volume of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is an area of the brain that is considered the control center of memory. It shrinks early and severely in Alzheimer's disease. It is possible that the Mediterranean diet protects the brain from protein deposits and brain atrophy that can cause memory loss and dementia. Our study hints at this. But the biological mechanism underlying this will have to be clarified in future studies," says Tommaso Ballarini, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Michael Wagner's research group and lead author of the study.

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The team is further set to analyze the study participants in four to five years to explore the effects of their nutrition as the brain ages over time.

Source-Medindia