Key Takeaways
Systemic inflammation has long been linked to conditions that harm the heart and brain.
An 'anti-inflammatory' diet high in plant-based foods appears to help lower the chances of dementia in older people, especially those with diabetes or heart disease.
Experts say it's important to get anti-inflammatory nutrients from food, not supplements
TUESDAY, Aug. 13, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Eating a healthy diet that reduces inflammation in the body may help lower your chances of dementia, especially if you already have heart risk factors, a new Swedish study finds.
The so-called anti-inflammatory diet emphasizes foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish and beans, and also incorporates heart-healthy eating strategies such as the Mediterranean diet.
A study that followed more than 84,000 older adults for over 12 years found that those who adhered to an anti-inflammatory diet were 21% less likely to develop dementia than those who followed an unhealthy pro-inflammatory diet high in red meat, eggs, dairy and processed foods.
Looking specifically at older people with conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, following an anti-inflammatory diet reduced the risk of dementia by 31 percent, reported a research team led by Abigail Dove, a researcher at the Centre for Aging Research at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
MRI brain scans of more than 9,000 of the participants also showed neurological benefits associated with a healthy diet.
“There were positive changes in the brain,” said Dr. Liron Simbani, director of geriatric hospital services at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York.
“People on the anti-inflammatory diet had larger gray matter volume — gray matter is good stuff — and a reduced burden of hyperintensities in their white matter,” said Simbani, who was not involved in the new study.
She explained that white matter hyperintensities in the brain are a precursor to dementia, so it was a good sign that people receiving anti-inflammatory therapy had lower white matter hyperintensities in their brains.
“So not only are we seeing less clinically diagnosed dementia, but we're also seeing[healthy]changes in the brain that we can see on imaging,” she noted.
Dove and her team looked at data from the UK Biobank, which has been tracking the health of British adults for many years. The new study included more than 84,000 people under the age of 60 who were free of dementia when they were added to the database between 2006 and 2010.
Over an average period of 12.4 years, 1,559 participants (1.9%) developed dementia.
Data about each person's food intake was also recorded, and it was found that those who adhered most closely to the anti-inflammatory diet had a significantly reduced risk of dementia.
MRI scans of people who consumed a more inflammatory diet were also more likely to show brain changes that could indicate an increased chance of dementia, the researchers said.
“A potential explanation for our findings is that an anti-inflammatory diet may reduce systemic inflammation, particularly in people with cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and thereby slow the progression of dementia,” Dove and her team wrote.
“I think this study reiterates the importance of a healthy diet for brain health,” Simbani said.
But if your life is too busy to consume enough fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, can an anti-inflammatory supplement help make up for the deficiencies?
“There are a lot of antioxidant supplements out there, but I would be careful with them, because there's not a lot of research that really supports taking supplements,” she says. “You really need to get them through your diet.”
Source: JAMA Network Open, August 12, 2024, Liron Simvani, MD, Director of Geriatric Hospital Services, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York
What this means for you
Switching from a diet high in red meat and processed foods to a plant-based “anti-inflammatory” diet could reduce your chances of developing dementia.
