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Diet, Activity May Help Prevent Alzheimer's
July 19, 2004 (Philadelphia) -- Staying fit and eating right may be a key ingredient in preventing Alzheimer's disease -- even more so than once thought.
New research at a meeting of Alzheimer's experts shows that eating vegetables (especially broccoli or spinach), staying active mentally and socially, and keeping a trim waistline can all help prevent or delay Alzheimer's disease.
This "eat well, stay active, be fit" message was driven home by the results of three studies presented at the 9th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.
William Thies, PhD, vice president for medical and scientific affairs at the Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association tells WebMD, "On the whole it is a good idea not to get too big or too inactive, and that pretty much makes sense."
The new studies, says Thies, add to a growing list of studies that link a sedentary lifestyle to increased risk for a number of diseases including heart disease and diabetes -- and now Alzheimer's disease.
Keep Elderly Minds Active
Two of the new studies come from investigators at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. In one study, Laura Fratiglioni, MD, PhD, professor of geriatric epidemiology at the Institute, studied 776 men and women aged 75 or older. She followed the participants for more than six years, collecting data on daily activities both mental, such as reading or doing crossword puzzles, and social, such as visiting a summer home or visiting with friends.
She says those who kept their minds active while also maintaining an active social life reduced their risk of Alzheimer's disease by about 30%, compared with socially isolated, inactive elders.
While Fratiglioni says her study demonstrates the need for lifelong activity, a second Karolinska Institute researcher, Miia Kivipelto, MD, PhD, says her study suggests that lifestyle at midlife has a big impact on brain health in later life. She collected data collected from an observational study of almost 1,500 residents of Finland and Sweden aged 65 to 77.
Lose Weight at Midlife
Kivipelto found that being overweight or obese in one's 50s increases the risk for Alzheimer's disease. Obesity in middle age, she says, roughly doubled the risk for Alzheimer's at the end of life. Just as dangerous, she says, is high blood pressure or high cholesterol, especially elevated levels of the LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol.
Moreover, she says people who were overweight and had high blood pressure and high cholesterol while in their 50s increased the risk of Alzheimer's disease by about six-fold, which is more than the increased risk in people who are genetically predisposed to Alzheimer's disease.
Eat Green Veggies
In a third lifestyle study, Jae Hee Kang, ScD, a researcher at Harvard Medical School found that women who eat more green leafy vegetables or cruciferous vegetables -- cauliflower and broccoli -- push back the onset of Alzheimer's by one to two years. She says women who ate the most vegetables -- several servings a day -- had the greatest benefit.
Marilyn Albert, PhD, director of the division of cognitive neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore tells WebMD that Alzheimer's researchers have only recently begun to recognize the influence of lifestyle on disease risk. She says that before the meeting, the Alzheimer's Association conducted an informal poll of researchers to find out "what risk factors were considered most important. Many of them said that lifestyle and environmental factors were not that important, but I think these studies will change that opinion."
SOURCES: Laura Fratiglioni, MD, PhD, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Jae Hee Kang, ScD, Harvard Medical School, Miia Kivipelto, MD, PhD, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Marilyn Albert, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and William Theis, PhD, Alzheimer's Association, Chicago.
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