Mediterranean Diet May Repel Alzheimer's
By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer
9 minutes agoUPDATED 0 MINUTES AGO

NEW YORK - A Mediterranean-style diet that appears to cut the risk of heart
disease also may help protect against Alzheimer's disease, a new study
suggests.

People who followed the diet were up to 40 percent less likely than those
who largely avoided it to develop Alzheimer's during the course of the
research, scientists reported.

Still, more research must be done before the diet can be recommended to ward
off Alzheimer's, said Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas of the Columbia University
Medical Center in New York, lead author of the research. The work was
recently published online by the Annals of Neurology.

The diet he tested includes eating lots of vegetables, legumes, fruits,
cereals and fish, while limiting intake of meat and dairy products, drinking
moderate amounts of alcohol and emphasizing monounsaturated fats, such as in
olive oil, over saturated fats. Previous research has suggested that such an
approach can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Prior research has also suggested that certain components of the
Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's, Scarmeas
said. But he said the previous work has tended to focus on individual
nutrients like vitamin C or foods like fish. By studying a comprehensive
diet instead, the new research could take possible interactions between
specific foods and nutrients into account, he said.

The idea that a heart-healthy diet could also help fight Alzheimer's fits in
with growing evidence that "the kinds of things we associate with being bad
for our heart turn out to be bad for our brain," said Dr. Marilyn Albert, a
Johns Hopkins neurology professor and spokeswoman for the Alzheimer's
Association. The list includes high cholesterol, high blood pressure,
obesity, smoking and uncontrolled diabetes, she said.

So it makes sense that a diet low in saturated fats and cholesterol would
reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, said Albert, who was not involved in the new
study.

The new work is among the most convincing so far to show an effect of diet
on Alzheimer's risk, she said. Such large studies are important, she said,
"to add to the body of evidence to help persuade people they really can do
something in their daily lives to reduce risk."

Scarmeas and colleagues followed 2,258 elderly residents of northern
Manhattan for an average of four years. The participants were asked in
detail about their dietary habits and evaluated every 18 months or so for
signs of dementia. None showed any dementia at the start of the study, but
by the end, 262 had developed Alzheimer's.

To look for an effect of diet, the researchers gave each participant a score
of 0 to 9 to nine on a scale that measured how closely they followed the
Mediterranean diet. Compared to those showing the lowest adherence, those
who scored 4 or 5 showed 15 percent to 25 percent less risk of developing
Alzheimer's during the study, while those with higher scores had about 40
percent less risk.

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